Chapter three.
After the feast at the Everdeen house, there is little to do but sleep. The Hawthorne clan goes home, except Gale. He lingers even after Prim and Mrs. Everdeen succumb to the powers of sleep. He holds her, sitting together on the couch. He smothers her with kisses, so happy that he is finally out of the woods, so to speak.
Once again, he begs her to go with him. He desperately wants to leave and start a family with her. She just smiles in response. She doesn't understand how Gale can just want to drop everything for her, and she can't do it. Maybe if she had her own child to think of, but she doesn't, she has Prim.
They watch the games in the days to come. Peeta surprises everyone by winning. District 12 finally has its second victor. Katniss is oddly relieved, she didn't want Peeta to die, he was such a sweet boy. Peeta was welcomed home by the district, but quickly swept up in matters of the Capitol. They followed his stories on TV until one night, Gale couldn't hide his disgust. "Matters of the Capitol," Gale scoffed. "What a joke."
"What do you mean?" She asked. He looked down at her wondering how she could possibly be that naïve.
"Same thing they're doing with Finnick Odair. He's now a sex symbol." She had quickly averted her eyes, not wanting to think about it anymore.
As time goes on, Katniss becomes more and more unafraid of her relationship with Gale. She decides he is what she wants, and lets whatever happens, happen.
As the dog days of summer wear on, she takes him to the lake, with the concrete house beside it. The weather suddenly turns ugly, a summer thunderstorm rolling up, as they often do, and the two of them have to take shelter in the house. Gale starts a fire and Katniss begins to prepare one of the squirrels they took down that day.
As Katniss eats, she becomes increasingly aware of Gale's proximity. As Gale eats, he begins to think of how easy it could be if they did this every day, in their own house.
When they finish, they see the storm has no desire of letting up. They curl together on the floor, talking about the future and the things to come. Breaking the conversation, Gale kisses her, and she kisses back. She surrenders to him, letting each kiss and each touch go deeper, giving her body, and his, what it wants.
They mesh together. For a moment, the world doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that their families are starving, that the government just killed 23 teenagers for fun, or even that she is sixteen and he is eighteen. For a moment, all that matters is a man and a woman in love. All that matters is the physical statement of this love that Gale gives to her.
Gale finds his release soon after she finds hers. Now that the act is over, her thoughts become clearer, unaffected by the muddy vision of lust. She smiles at him darkly and asks the question that had been on her lips from the moment they started: "Where did you learn to do that?"
He runs his hands through his hair and answers automatically, "They didn't call me 'King of the Slag Heap' for nothing, Catnip." He immediately looks down, embarrassed and ashamed for finally admitting the dark and dirty truth to her.
She knowingly smiles, not caring about his past. "I was just wondering. Did anything ever mean as much to you?"
"No. You were the first that I ever really felt something emotional."
They smile and fall asleep in each other's arms. Unaffected by the pressing matters of the future, unaffected by the thought of moving too fast. For once, everything in their lives makes perfect sense.
When they wake, the storm has passed and they hurry back to town with their kills, stopping to get a few unlucky animals here and there along the way. They go to the Hob, hand in hand. Many whispers follow, but instead of the normal speculation, there is congratulations and the awarding of wagers. Gale smiles to himself, wondering now how anyone could have bet against this outcome.
They sit for a bowl of Greasy Sae's soup although it's really too hot for anything. Darius, a peacekeeper, comes to sit beside Katniss. He begins to play with her braid, asking to trade a rabbit for a kiss. Katniss wonders how Darius hadn't heard the rumors of her and Gale, or saw the scene in the square that day. If he had, he wouldn't be tempting Gale like this. He doesn't listen to her telling him no and finally just goes in for the kiss himself.
Gale only sees Darius kiss Katniss and starts to see red. He pulls Darius off his girl and decks him square in the mouth, once, twice, so many times he loses count. People try to pull him off the peacekeeper, but there is only one voice that manages to bring him back from his red haze.
He comes away, ashamed at what he has done. But Darius is more ashamed than Gale, for flirting with someone clearly taken by another man. He apologizes and quickly leaves the warehouse, leaving Gale and Katniss at the center of attention. Greasy Sae winks at Katniss before coughing and yelling at everyone to go back to business.
They trade their kills for coins and things they need before heading back home. Being a Sunday, they really have the choice to do whatever they want before school starts back for Katniss in the morning. She frowns, knowing Gale will have to go into the mines.
He seems to read her mind and grabs her hand, "Did I tell you about the job opportunity I got?"
She frowns even more, "No, you didn't. What job opportunity?"
He runs his hands through his hair and decides to play with her for a bit before telling her. "Well, Catnip, if you're just going to be angry about me not having to go in the mines, I just don't think I'll tell you where I'll be working."
He winks and she fights a smile. "Damn you, Gale. Tell me or so help me, I'll walk to every merchant in town till I find you!"
"Fine, fine. The baker offered me a job. Since Peeta is victor now and doesn't have time, he needs someone to work. I told him I wasn't very good with cakes and baking, but I could do most of the heavy lifting and things of that nature." He lightly punched Katniss on her shoulder, "but he did say if we stopped providing him squirrels, he'd fire me."
She laughs, happy that everything is starting to go her way. The fall passes without any event, save for the weight she's put on. She can't really figure it out, and doesn't spend much time trying, attributing it to overeating the abundant game that's been in the woods lately, and the happiness she's been feeling falling in love with Gale.
But one day after most of the leaves have fallen from the trees, and snow threatens on the horizon, little Prim comes crying from the bathroom to her mother, who quietly explains that Prim has become a woman.
Katniss freezes in the doorway of their small house. She counts, once, twice, again. The numbers don't add up. She thinks back to the summer and fall she and Gale passed in a passionate bliss. She can feel the color drain from her face as she puts her hand on her stomach, remembering each and every time they succumbed to the powers of lust and love. Now that she thinks about it, she's been really moody to Gale lately, she's been sleeping an abnormal amount, and she's gained weight, all to her breasts and stomach…
But there really isn't any way she could be… no, of course not, she thinks. She pushes the thought from her mind and eats her supper and gets ready for her bath. But now that she's thought about it, the thoughts can't stop from entering her mind. She quickly dries off, throws on her coat and shoes, yells to her mother that she'll be back in the morning, and bolts for the Hawthorne residence.