Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine.
The Talk, pt 9, or Endings and Beginnings
Gale comes home the next day for an unexpected lunch. The mines are closed for a few hours due to one of the elevators stalling out. He takes the opportunity to go home and grab the magazines so he can get them to Thom and then the Victors Village directly after work.
He nearly trips when he crosses the threshold into his family's home.
"What the-"
He picks up one of the articles and nearly falls back into the door.
Baby clothes.
His mother comes from her room, rubbing her eyes.
"Posy, you can't-" She catches sight of Gale, looking horrified, holding up the baby dress. "Oh, Gale…"
He covers his eyes, "What is all this?"
His mother grimaces, "Well…"
"I told the neighbor you put twins in Madge!" Posy bounds from behind her mother, her baby doll in a too big dress dragging behind her. "She broughtall her old baby stuff for you."
She delightedly begins plucking up tiny, faded dresses, holding them up for Gale's inspection.
Rory and Vick, who'd both been hiding on the couch, peeked over. Rory's eyes twinkling with mischief.
"All those condoms and you couldn't wrap it up for even one hole?" Rory shakes his head. "Or were you just a little quick on the draw?"
Gale picks up one of the cloth diapers and attempts to hurl it at his brother's head, but it only unfurls and falls harmlessly to the ground.
"I told her Madge wasn't pregnant, that the two of you weren't together, but she said she'd heard rumors of marriage," his mother shoots and irritated glare at Rory and Vick, "and she just didn't believe me."
Vick looked appropriately ashamed, but Rory snickered.
"I told her Madge wouldn't even let you see anything, let alone put 'little Gale' inher."
Gale starts to stomp over, but Posy's little voice stops him.
"I don't want 'little Gale' in Madge," she stomps her foot. "I want a girl!"
Rory grins, "Well 'little Gale' has to go in if you want any-"
"RORY!" His mother shouts, probably the whole block hears her. She narrows her eyes at him, points her finger, "Don't tell your sister that stuff."
Rory actually cringes, nods, sinks down into the couch.
Vick, walks over to a tearful Posy, pats her head. "You don't get to pick if you get a girl or a boy, Posy."
She doesn't like that answer. "But he has the boy candy! Madge just needs to eat one of the pink ones and she'll have a girl!"
Their mother shakes her head, "Posy, no…"
Vick, feeling it's his duty to inform his sister of just how wrong she was, while still realizing she was too little to grasp it as well as he did, smiled. "Posy, you don't eat those."
Sighing dramatically, as only a five year old could do, Posy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, 'cause the baby goes in her pee-pee hole. So use the pink boy candy to put the baby in." Of course. It was so simple, why hadn't Gale through of that? "Then you can put another in her-"
His mother covers Posy's mouth, she just can't handle hearing it again. She glares out at her sons. This is all their fault.
There's a knock at the door, Gale isn't sure who could possibly be coming by, but they'd put a stop to the nonsense, so they were welcome.
His coworker, Sanderson, is standing there with his skinny bird faced wife. She gives Gale a sympathetic smile.
"Neil and I just heard from Mrs. Colins you were having twins, and I just had to bring you some of our old things. It's so hard starting out with a baby, and having two! Goodness! My sister and her husband did it and it was terrible, just terrible." She hands him a bag, filled with cloth diapers and dusty receiving blankets.
Gale shakes his head, "Thanks, but, I'm not having a baby."
Not one. Not two. Not with Madge or anyone else.
Sanderson's wife's eyes widen. "They aren't yours?"
Shit. Shit. Shit. That isn't what he meant.
She turns to her husband shaking her head, a knowing looking in her eyes, "Those Town girls, you just can't trust them to keep their legs together."
Oh god.Now Gale was ruining Madge's reputation.
"No, Mrs. Sanderson, Madge doesn't have a problem keeping her legs together." Why do people always jump to the worst conclusion? "She isn't pregnant. At all."
"Are you sure?" She asks, looking as though she won't believe him no matter what he says.
"I'm positive."
Mrs. Sanderson frowns, "Then why are you marrying her?"
"She wouldn't have to be preg-" He presses his fingers to his eyes. "I'm not marrying her, alright?"
He isn't marrying her, not for the endorphins, not for babies, not for the surely blissful sight of her panties, he isn't marrying her or having sex with her and he wishes people would stop reminding him of it.
Not that he needed reminding, he knew it, no matter how much his body refused to accept that knowledge.
She looks around, a little sheepishly, then whispers, "Is it because of the parvo?"
"I don't have the parvo!" For the love of all things…why won't that die?
"My son is very clean," his mother comes to his side, giving the Sandersons a hard look. "I don't know what you've heard, but he doesn't have any diseases."
Well at least his mother believes in him.
"He has a reputation-"
"Oh, and the people of this District have never gotten the facts wrong?" His mother sweeps her hands down to the pile of baby items littering their living room floor. "The fact that a bunch of children have convinced everyone that my son has gotten a girl pregnant proves people are more interested in a scandal than the truth."
The color is high on her cheeks as she points to the door.
"Thank you for your concern for Gale, but please leave."
Looking as though they don't know what's just happened, the Sandersons leave and Gale's mother shuts the door firmly behind them.
She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes. "Gale…"
He grabs her and pulls her into a hug, he's never been so grateful for her in his life.
"Thank you."
Gale had nearly shoves the girlie magazine down a bewildered looking Thom's throat after work, not even stopping to acknowledge his friend's laughing question of if he needed another.
"You still seem tense!" He shouted at his back.
"Undersee holding out on you?" One of the men asked, "My wife did that when she was pregnant. Don't worry, son, soon enough she won't want to crawl off you."
Gale groaned, covering his face. He didn't even want to respond to the insanity anymore.
He took off for the Victor's Village, praying he didn't run into Katniss or Mellark. He didn't want to explain to them why he had a bag filled with nudie magazines in his possession.
He was just a few steps from Haymitch's back door when he spotted the sources of his misery, hiding in the overgrown bushes by the porch.
"What are you doing here?"
Shit, please tell him his mother hadn't come over for work. Normally she didn't, it wasn't one of her days, surely she would've told him earlier when he'd gone home for lunch. He hoped she didn't, he really didn't want to explain his bag to her.
"I came to talk some sense into you." Rory crosses his arms over his chest. "I don't think you realize how important those magazines are to me."
Gale groans. He's perfectly aware of how important Rory thinks those magazines are to him. He'd been that age once. He still felt that age more and more frequently. After listening to Rory's painfully detailed descriptions of Madge's undergarments, though, the night before, having horribly vivid dreams, he was less than sympathetic.
"They're stolen. I'm returning them to their disgusting owner."
He stomps past his brothers, up the step, then banging on the door.
There's some cursing from inside, something falls over, then the door swings open.
Haymitch, bleary eyed and frowning, glares out at him. His expression morphs into amusement, though, when he realizes who it is.
"If you're looking for your darling cousin and her fiancé, they went to the school to climb ropes or some crap like that."
Gale shoves the bag into the old drunk's chest. "I'm not here for Katniss."
He turns to leave without an explanation, talking to Haymitch is a futile effort at best, but stops when he hears chuckling behind him.
"Dogs and trees not cutting it for you? Had to borrowed some reading material?"
Vick's hand shoot up to his mouth and Rory lets out a snort of laughter. Gale growls.
He has had it with his innuendos and rumors of disease. Turning, he shoves Haymitch roughly back through the door. When they're both in the kitchen he slams it behind him, to the protests of his brothers.
"My brothers found those filthy things when they were helping my mother." He jabs a finger into Haymitch's chest. "It could have just as easily been my mother to find them. I would appreciate it if you'd take your pervy pastimes and put them somewhere they won't all stumble across them again."
To Gale's increasing irritation, Haymitch's smirk widens, "You think your poor mother can't guess what a single man does for entertainment."
I'm going to throw up.
He slaps the magazines against his palm, "And you can't tell me you and those boys didn't enjoy these photographic endeavors."
That wasn't the point.
Gale knew Haymitch was goading him, it seemed to be in his list of favorite things to do, irritate Gale with suggestive comments and implications about anything he knew would get a rise out of him.
He'd been dealing with this crap for too long, in a fit of irritation he grabs Haymitch around the neck. They begin a sad little scuffle, Gale knocking Haymitch into the counter then Haymitch pushing Gale headlong into an open cabinet. His hand shoots to his lip, he tastes metal, but he doesn't have time to process it before Haymitch is on him again.
It's stupid, but Gale is actually enjoying the fight. At least it's giving him something to focus on other than his dirty dreams.
His brother's and their recent exploits had sent him spiraling back to when he'd first noticed girls and it had resulted in many a frustratingly long nights and more than a few times he'd had to pour frigid rainwater over his head to banish less than pure thoughts from his mind.
It took a great amount of effort not to have those dreams crop up on the occasions he saw Madge.
God he was a pervert.
Maybe if he was battered and bruised, he'd sleep restfully.
And, honestly, he felt he might've deserved to have his butt handed to him. He shouldn't have been having those dreams, he shouldn't have been imagining Madge doing thosethings to him, he shouldn't have been having such visceral reactions to those things. It wasn't fair to her. She deserved better than to be a distraction.
Yeah, he needed to have some sense beat into him, and Haymitch Abernathy was just the one to do it.
Still, he needed to fight back just a little, the dirty bastard had made everyone believe he had Dutch elm disease.
They trip over a chair, the source of the crashing earlier, and somehow Gale comes out on top, pushing Haymitch's face into the floor beside the table.
"What are you doing?"
Both men, pause, look over to see a pair of blondes standing in the doorframe, Gale's brothers, looking shocked and excited, behind them.
Gale rolls off Haymitch and pushes himself up while Madge's mother flitters over, drops to her knees and examines the damage he's done to the old man.
She lets out one of her airy sighs as she runs one of her pale fingers over a cut above his eye, he flinches. "I'll go find the first aid kit." She stands and starts out, toward the front room and the stairs. "Is it in the bathroom, Haymitch?"
Gale is pleased to see the color drain from Haymitch's face as he scrambles to his feet, still panting from the fight, "Don't know, 'Tilda. Let me help you."
He chases after her and Gale snorts. It would serve him right if she found whatever nasty things he had hidden in his toilet. Though why Madge's mother would be any different than Gale's own he doesn't know.
Before he turns back to his brothers something cold and wet comes into contact with his lip and he nearly jumps away before realizing it's Madge with a washrag.
She shakes her head. "You're a mess, Gale."
Gently she dabs at this injury, her cool little fingers turn his chin, inspecting him for further scrapes. He watches her face as she concentrates on cleaning him. She has her lower lip between her teeth and her nose scrunched, a crease forms between her eyes. He becomes acutely aware of how close she's standing, her breath ghosting across his skin, the scent of her shampoo…
Gale's mind flickers. He has some much better parts for her to be so studiously cleaning.
Stop that!
Her face is too much, too close, so he looks down, which is worse idea. She's wearing his favorite lacey bra, he's sure the strap has fallen down her shoulder under her sweater. He can see it doing its good work, her bust line peaking perfectly at him from under her shirt.
He puts his hands on her shoulders and gently makes her take a step back. "I can take it from here."
She looks a little disappointed as she hands him the rag. "Do you need an ice pack?"
I need an ice shower.
"Watch out, Madge, you rub up on him like that he won't be able to walk home."
Gale's neck nearly snaps, he turns to Rory so fast. The little shit is smirking, then shrugs mouth gaping, as if to say 'what?'
When he turns back to Madge to apologize he catches her eyes jumping back up. She takes a step back, pink rising on her pale cheeks.
"Though maybe you should," Rory continues. Gale considers sewing his mouth shut, he'd be doing the world a favor. "He hasn't seen any action that isn't paper based in quite a while, and you know what they say: Use it or lose it."
Vick's eyes widen in concern, his mouth drops a fraction, "What?"
Rory nods sagely. "Yep. Once you start, if you stop, it just shrivels up and falls off."
Dear god. Was there a book out there that said middle brothers were duty bound to drive their older brothers to drinking and give horribly inaccurate information to their younger ones? There had to be, it was the only explanation for all the nonsense that came out of Rory's mouth lately.
Vick shakes his head, "Uh-uh. I didn't read anything about that."
"Because it isn't true," Gale quickly tells him. Rory is a menace. How does he come up with this stuff? He needs to get him into some kind of hobby, something that will let him focus on anything other than his and girls' bodies.
"Sure it is. Same thing with boobs. Haven't you noticed how saggy the women's get when they stop feeding." Rory's eyebrows rise, emphasizing the supposed brilliance of his stupid theory.
For a millisecond, Vick's eyes flicker to Madge then back to Rory. His nose wrinkles a little, "Uh-Uh."
"Uh-huh." Rory smirks, looking to Madge, "I'm sorry, but the only way to save your magnificent boobs is to milk them regularly after you stop having kids." He just barely keeps from laughing, "Gale's probably really good at milking. Like I said, it's been a while." He makes a crude gesture with his hand, "He's been having to resuscitating the little guy."
He isn't little!
Gale wonders how upset their mother will really be if they show up at home a brother short. He looks to Madge, who seems baffled for a moment before her mouth drops a hair, as if suddenly realizing what Rory had said. Her lips press into a thin line and her eyes widen. She crosses her arms over her chest protectively, opens her mouth to say something, which Gale dearly hopes is to tell him to ensure Rory never reproduces, but she's cut off by the return of her mother and Haymitch.
"See, Haymitch," her mother smiles serenely at the scene. "I told you they weren't doing anything."
Haymitch gives him a little sneer, and Gale has the sudden urge to tell him he and Madge had just finished doing filthy things on his kitchen table, but then he remembers his dirty minded brothers are standing right there and thinks better of it.
"Of course we aren't," Madge shakes her head, looking a little annoyed at the implication.
Gale feels a flare of irritation. Why not? Then he comes to his senses and squelches it out.
"Madge doesn't even know if he's circumcised," her mother tells him, as though that will settle the matter.
Gale feels his face burst into flames. Why would they be discussing his penis? Not that he minds. There are worse parts of his body for them to be discussing.
"Mother!" Madge is redder than he'd yet seen her. The crimson on her cheeks is spreading across her neck, down her chest, across the tops of her breasts…
Gale quickly looks away.
He and his brothers all stare, slack jawed at her mother. Clearly, dinner table conversation at the Undersee household was every bit as bizarre as the Hawthorne family's had been recently.
"Mother!"
"Of course she hasn't," Haymitch narrows his eyes at Gale, as though he's the one wanting to discuss his private parts in public. "She's too smart to let his crab infested pubs near her."
"Hey!" He started those rumors, damn it!
Madge's mother just pats Haymitch's stubble covered cheek. "He would be scratching more if he had crabs, dear." She smiles at Gale, "I'm sure you're very clean."
It was one of the oddest compliments he'd ever received. Gale isn't sure, is he supposed to say thank you?
She isn't finished though. "I warned Madge about the white stuff that gets under the fores-"
Haymitch grabs her and covers her mouth, "No, 'Tilda."
For the first time, and probably the last time, Gale is grateful for Haymitch.
Madge seems mute with horror for a few seconds before she finds her voice, "Mom, I'm sure Gale is perfectly aware of his own anatomy."
Her mother pulls the hand from her face, smiling softly, "I'm sure he is, love, but you weren't."
Madge's blush intensifies. She crosses her arms and looks from the scene.
Gale grimaces, he may have to deal with his brother's inappropriateness, Posy's insistence on him providing her with a new baby, in new and impossible ways, but at least his mother wasn't giving him unsolicited information on the hygiene habits of the opposite sex.
Rory opens his mouth, no doubt to inform Madge of the more delicate details of male anatomy her mother may have missed, but Gale shoots him a look, letting him know if he so much as uttered the word 'penis' Gale would remove his.
Madge's mother thinks for a second, "And I warned her about pulling out." She looks at Gale, the picture of calm, but with a firmer tone than he'd ever heard from her, "You have condoms, dear. You should use them. Though if I had, I wouldn't have my little Madge."
Wow. Gale needed to know about Madge's parents' sex life about as much as he needed to know about his own.
He tries not to look at Madge, but he does. She's pale, wide eyed and petrified.
"'Tilda!" Haymitch's eyes are scrunched shut. "You don't tell kids stuff like that."
Her mother looks baffled. "Why not?"
"You just don't."
She wrinkles her nose, "It isn't bad. If-"
Haymitch covers her mouth again, "You've done enough damage."
Her mother shakes her head, makes a slight face from behind his hand. She pulls it down and beams out at them all. "Madge and I brought fudge. Would anyone like some?"
Gale quickly shakes his head, "I need to…go."
He needs to go home, get Vick and Rory away from Madge's mother and her strange advice. And dunk his head in the rainwater barrel. And possibly strangle Rory…no,definitelystrangle Rory.
He moves toward the door, but not fast enough.
Vick, who'd tilted his head, looked a little confused, "What's pulling out?"
Gale really can't catch a break.
Rory, smiling smugly, decides to offer some more of his less than helpful knowledge.
"When their doing it, when they finish, well, right before the guy does, he-"
Before he can finish, Gale has him in headlock. Vick, though, seems to have gotten the idea. His eyes widen in understanding and he nods.
Madge has covered her face with her hands and her mother is nodding thoughtfully, clearly impressed with Rory's unfortunate knowledge of archaic birth control practices.
"We're leaving." Gale needs to get Rory and Vick out of there. Between them and Madge's mother, he isn't sure who is the more embarrassing.
Dragging a struggling Rory, Gale gets out the door.
"What is wrongwith you?" Gale asks through gritted teeth. Rory and Haymitch could form a club, 'People who love slowly driving Gale Hawthorne insane'.
"Helping," Rory rasps, laughing with Gale's arm still firmly around his neck.
The door behind them opens, Vick pops out, followed by a flushed Madge.
Rory slams his heel into Gale's toe, catching him off guard, and escaping. He gasps and wheezes for a second while Gale curses and hops away.
"Hey, Madge," Rory giggles for a second. He obviously hasn't had his fill of being an enormous pain in the ass for the day. "Did you know twins come from buttsex?"
Vick rolls his eyes, not really catching on to what his brother is trying to do, "It does not. Posy doesn't know any better, Rory."
"Maybe she's onto something." Rory grins, "After Gale makes sure your ovulating you two can test it out."
Madge, who is apparently trying not to feed into Rory's attempts at annoying Gale by ignoring the suggestion concerning their nonexistent sex life, asks a foolish question, one that will only lead to bad places.
"And how exactly is he going to see if I'm ovulating?"
She seems to sense she's made a mistake the moment the question passes her lips, because she covers her mouth, looks a little horrified.
Rory, on the other hand, looks delighted. He lifts his hands and wiggles his fingers, "Don't you remember? He's going to help you find your cervix. If it feels like lips, you're fertile, Myrtle."
Madge goes scarlet.
"Rory!"
Why can't he just shut his mouth and think things instead of saying them out loud?
Gale lunges for his brother. This is it, he's done with him and his unsubtle innuendo. He misses catching Rory's collar by a fingertip, letting him slip by.
"If Madge turns up carrying a couple of melons that aren't in her bra, I'll know you took my advice!"
Rory runs off, giggling.
Gale thinks about chasing him, but doesn't. He shares a room with the little bastard, he can run, but he can't hide. He'll pay for all this sooner or later.
When he turns back, Vick is shaking his head.
"I wouldn't test it out." He gives Madge an incredibly serious look. "The butt isn't connected to the vagina. It wouldn't work."
Madge looks like she might say something, like 'yeah, I'm aware of that Vick' but she just grimaces and nods. As much as Gale appreciates how patient she is with his brother, sometimes he wishes she would just tell him he needs to be quiet. It would've saved them all some embarrassment.
Vick makes a face, "And why would people want to stick anything in there? Wouldn't that hurt?" He looks at Gale, "I don't think that would release the en-dor-phins like the other way."
Gale presses his fingers to his eyes. Both his brothers need new things to focus on.
"Vick," he tries to smile, but he just can't. "Why don't we head home?"
With a nod, Vick turns to Madge, who quickly shifts, keeping his brother from burying his face in her chest when he goes in for his hug. "Bye, Madge."
He races off, not even waiting for Gale.
Madge turns to Gale and grimaces slightly, "Sorry about my mother."
He rolls his eyes, "Sorry about my brothers."
She shrugs, "They're kids, she's just…"
Her hands wave vaguely. There are no words for what her mother is.
She looks back at the house. "What were you two fighting about?"
My dirty, dirty mind.
Gale shrugs, "Him being a dick."
It was true enough.
She snorts, "I can see that." Her mouth turns up. "You shouldn't let him egg you on, about anything."
He feels a little guilty that she assumes it's Haymitch who started the fight, but also a little happy with her faith in him. She doesn't just accept that he's as big an asshole as he is, despite how he's been to her in the past.
He feels a glimmer of mischief bubble up in him. "So why were you and your mother discussing my penis and its foreskin?"
Her face flushes, "You've met her, what do you think?" She makes a face, "She asked me if you were, you know, and I didn't even know what that was, and, well, that's where that all started."
Gale thinks about his recent long nights, Rory and his painfully detailed descriptions of Madge's underwear, her foolishness in letting him in her room unsupervised, and decides she deserves a little realism in her dreams.
"Do you want to know?"
Madge frowns, not seeming to understand what he's talking about.
"If I'm circumc-"
She covers his mouth, much like Haymitch had done to her mother.
"Don't even think about finishing that sentence."
He smiles under her hand before reaching up and pulling it down.
"Would you rather just see it?"
Her eyes close and she sighs, "Believe it or not, Gale, not every girl is as eager to see your thing as you are to show it off."
"You're just a prude. Look, I can describe it for you. I have this little mole-"
She covers his mouth again. Her lips twitch as she tries to glare at him, "If you don't stop I'll get Mr. Abernathy out here and let him castrate you."
He gives her a small glare as he pulls her hand down once more, "If he cuts off my testicles you're explaining to Posy why I can't put anymore babies in you."
Madge cringes, "That was so embarrassing."
"Yeah, she wants twins you know?" She looks up, a little confused, and Gale smirks, "I told her if you'd stop swallowing the babies she'd get triplets."
Her mouth drops, but she quickly closes it, narrowing her eyes, "Not even in your dreams, Gale Hawthorne."
Well, notalways, he thinks.
Gale can't stop himself, she's so pretty in her humiliation. He leans in to her ear, "You never know. I have a very vivid imagination."
Madge pulls back, her eyes are a little dark, shadowed in the yellow of Haymitch's porch light. "I bet you do."
He can smell her shampoo again, feel the heat from her breath on his skin. It wouldn't take much to just lean a bit more in kiss her, pull her to him and carry her off. He really shouldn't be this close to her, shouldn't be letting his eyes memorize the curve of her lips and the swell of her breasts for more torture during the night.
He's lusting after her and he shouldn't. She's his friend, something he never thought he'd say, and he doesn't want to hurt her. As pretty as he thinks she is, as infinitely patient as she is with his brothers, as much as she clearly likes him, he doesn't feel the same way.
He's certain of it.
He's positive.
She deserves better.
It takes him a second to realize he's been staring at her lips for too long. He leans back, swaying his back and looking out at the darkening sky.
"Guess I should get home, catch up with Vick."
"Yeah," she nods, a little too vigorously, her eyes shining with slight disappointment.
The silence that follows isn't uncomfortable, but thick. He wishes she were the type of girl he could take to the slag heap and break the tension between them, but then, if she were, he knows he wouldn't like her half as much.
She was a challenge, she was complicated, theywere complicated, and he hated and loved it.
Madge's smile flickers, "Weren't you going?"
Gale nods, he should leave, but the shine of her hair has him mesmerized. Without thinking, he reaches out, tucks a loose strand behind her ear. "Yeah."
His fingertips, much too large and much too coarse to be touching someone like her, trace absently along her jaw, to her chin, tipping it up. His thumb brushes against her lips, soft and pink and moist.
His body is moving of its own accord, he's lost control, but in that moment he doesn't care. He just wants to feel the pressure of her lips on his, the crush of her body against his…
"I can see you!"
Haymitch is banging on the window, glaring out at them, jabbing his index and middle finger toward his eyes then to Gale.
Gale's hand drops from Madge's face like he'd been shocked, he jumps from the porch, concentrating on the ground at his feet.
He should thank Haymitch, really he should, he'd almost made a hormone fueled mistake and it would've been Madge that paid.
Her face is inscrutable, but there's a tiny crease between her eyes and her lips are in a pout.
"I'll, uh, see you around."
He takes off at a brisk pace, he needs to get away from her, she's too tempting and he's too weak. If he stays much longer all the rumors of pregnancy will have basis in reality if she's willing.
"Gale?" Madge's soft voice drifts through the air to him. He starts to ignore it, but he just doesn't have it in him.
When he turns she's behind him, she must've run and caught him. She bites her lip.
"If-do you think, maybe, in another life, we could be something? That it could be more than flirting and stupid family conversations?"
He wishes they could be something more now, but he knows that's impractical. There's Katniss, whatever was going on between them, and he can't put Madge in that mess. It's not fair.
Madge looks so hopeful, for something as silly as a hypothetical life that has no chance of happening. Gale can't break that look though. He just can't.
"Yeah, in another life." He swallows thickly. "See you around, Madge."
Her smile is small, a little sad. "See you around, Gale."
#############################################
Gale wakes and nuzzles deeper into his human pillow. It giggles, begins running its fingers through his hair.
"We need to get up," a soft voice tells him.
He groans. Getting out of this bed isn't on his itinerary for the day, maybe for the entire weekend. His face buries deeper into his pillow.
Despite his reluctance, a high wailing erupts from the room next door, and he knows he's going to have to get up. Damn.
Madge squirms out from under him, stealing all her warmth as she goes, softly padding across the wood floor and out the door. The wailing stops after a few minutes and Gale rolls out of bed, following Madge's path out the door and down the hall.
When Gale peeks around the corner he finds her standing with a bundle in her arms. She's cooing at it, bobbing up and down, gently lulling it back to sleep.
"He sick?"
That would be Gale's luck, the baby being sick during his weekend.
"No, just wanted his mommy," Madge rubs her nose against the baby's cheek, gives him a kiss.
That was something Gale and his son had in common at the moment, wanting Madge. It was a battle Gale routinely lost to the little rugrat.
He puts his arms around her waist, rests his chin on her shoulder and glares down at the runt, now sleepily chewing on his hand.
"He's a manipulative little shit, isn't he?" Gale reaches his hand around and pokes the baby's chubby little cheek. "You are cutting into my mommy time."
Madge snorts, "You can go see your mommy anytime you want."
He huffs, "Very funny."
She goes back to humming, swaying with Gale's arms around her.
"He's asleep. Put him down and run," Gale whispers.
Madge nods, pulls away and starts to put the baby back in the crib, but as soon as he senses his mother about to make an escape, he lets a creaky little noise out, threatening to wail again. She quickly snatches him back to her chest, begins rocking again.
The little punk was taking after its Uncle Rory already, plotting against Gale. Shit.
Gale watches as Madge sinks into the rocking chair and begins talking nonsense to their son.
He walks over and scoops the baby from her. "Gale!"
"Listen, if you ever want siblings, you better let mommy and daddy have some alone time, kiddo."
Madge snorts, "Gale, this one is going to be out of diapers before we have another, and that's not happening anytime soon. He's just five months old."
If that's a milestone for having another, or more accurately, practicingfor trying for another one, Gale will have him potty trained by a year, a year and a half tops.
"Plus, if he sees how you and your siblings act, he may want to stay an only child."
Bullshit. He and his siblings were amazing. Except Rory. And occasionally Vick. Posy was a little suspect at times too…
Gale gives the baby a hard look as it gurgles, smiling up at him. He dips down and kisses his son's head, whispering, "Please, be good. You get her all week, I just get weekends."
They seem to come to an agreement, the baby's eyes drift close, so Gale gently puts him back in the crib before grabbing Madge and hauling her out of the room.
As soon as their out the door, he has her against the wall, kissing her breathless. He presses a line of kisses down her neck and back up, blowing a hot breath into her ear and making her giggle.
"So…about that next one," he grins, "can we try for twins?"
She pulls back and gives him a glare, "No."
He lifts her up, carrying her bridal style, "You just aren't any fun, you know?"
Madge tangles her hands in his hair, pulls him closer, "No?" She gives him a wicked grin, "Do you still want to release a few endorphins? I mean, even if there's no procreation happening?"
Gale growls, tightens his grip on her.
Someday, he'd thank Vick for his meddling and research on female anatomy.
It was coming in very handy these days.
Even if it had taken a Rebellion, a change of Districts, and building another life to put it to use.
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A/N: That's it! This story is over! Hope it wasn't too disappointing an ending for everyone. It was a real pain to write this last part, and so hopefully it was still funny and the end was satisfying, though I've warned everyone to keep expectations low with me. Thanks a million times over to everyone that has messaged me about/reviewed this story, there's quite a few of you, and you know who you are. This tale of sibling humiliation would've ended at the first story if not for all y'all. Please review or message me, I love hearing from people and if I'm not out attempting to be a productive member of society I'm not usually too slow about responding to PMs. Again, thanks everyone!