Chapter Three

A Tale of Two Boys

The two friends trudged through the woods. The tall one was carrying a bow and stepping lightly through the underbrush. The stocky blonde armed only with knives and canteens, moved just as easily though not quite as stealthily as his companion.

In the years since Gale had started bringing Peeta with him to hunt, the baker's son had improved in his movements through the forest. He was still a terrible shot with a bow or a gun. So, he came along for company and to help field dress and haul back any large game Gale couldn't manage himself.

Peeta was home for his older brother Rye's wedding. Something his mother called too little too late, considering his niece was only a month away from making her grand entrance into the world. When Gale had asked him to come, Peeta had just about wept with gratitude. The fighting was at an all time high, and he thought he was afraid that someone would choke him with white tulle by mistake. So, he'd gladly accepted a sweaty day in the woods with Gale to another fight over the seating arrangements.

Rye was insisting that some friends he had from the Seam sit at the table closest to the family table. Their mother was objecting. Loudly.

There were many in tiny Panem that thought his and Gale's friendship was odd. Not Rye, obviously. But some of the older, more traditional thinking people of the town and the Seam. And at first, it had purely selfish on Peeta's part.

The two boys had played football together. Gale was quarterback and Peeta protected his blind side. So, Peeta had used every opportunity he could to be friendly. Gale had resisted at first. His dislike of townies was well known. But Peeta was hard to hate.

They finally started hanging around each other more. Mostly at Gales house or at Katniss' since nobody wanted to be around Peeta's mother. They never brought up the rumors around town or talked about it when the evidence of the truth of the rumors showed up on his cheek. Or to Gale's horror once in he locker room, Peeta's entire back. They never acknowledged the screaming hate that his mother would unleash as he escaped out the door when they came to pick him up. Gale and Katniss knew a little bit about not wanting to be pitied, so they didn't show that to Peeta.

Their parents let him come and go almost as if he was theirs. That alone was enough for Peeta to want to be friends with Gale and Katniss. Never mind the huge crush he'd had on Katniss since kindergarten.

Before Gale, he hadn't had any real friends, and it made his guilt over his feelings for Katniss almost unbearable, even though getting close to her was the whole reason he'd pursued the friendship to begin with.

So, to try to cure himself of it, he dated. A lot. Gale would laugh every time a new girl joined their group and Katniss would glare at them until the next one replaced the last. And so on and so on. But none of the girls stuck. By the time Gale and Katniss got married, Peeta just accepted he would be alone forever, because his best friend deserved to have the best girl.

Finally, the mismatched duo came to a large flat top rock. They hunkered down together to wait, sipping water from the canteen and eating trail mix. The silence was comfortable, the day pleasant, the air sweet. Peeta liked these times. No one yelling, no pressure. It was nice being around some one who didn't need to fill the air with useless, usually painful words.

It was mid morning before Gale's dead aim dropped a buck. The pair shared wide grins and slaps on the back before making their way over to the dead animal.

Peeta knelt next to the deer, pulling out the knives and getting ready to start the gruesome process of dressing the carcass. It took him a few minutes to realize Gale was still standing, the arrow he'd pulled out of the hide still clutched in his tight fist.

"Gale?"

He watched his friend clench his fist impossibly tighter, close his eyes and seem to have a silent argument with himself. Just as he was starting to get a bad feeling, Peeta found a steely pair of grey eyes locked with his. Something about the look in them made Peeta's stomach clench.

"I know." Gale rasped. And somehow, Peeta didn't need to ask what he was talking about.

"Gale, I…" he didn't know what he was going to say, but it didn't matter since Gale's fist connected solidly with his nose.

Blood, pain and all the long ignored resentment unleashed the anger inside. He tackled Gale to the ground, ignoring the blood pouring from his nose and proving why their team had gone to the state championship two years in a row.

The battle was short, but bloody. By the time it was over, Peeta's nose was broken and Gale had a gash on his cheek gushing blood. Knuckles bruised, ribs sore and both covered in blood and dirt. There had been no winner. Just the release of pent up frustration for the both of them.

They sat, huffing on the ground next to the buck, using one of the canteens to splash water on their wounds. A trip to the hospital was necessary, but no one was in danger of dying, so it would wait for now.

Gale looked at Peeta, the friend he hadn't know he'd needed until he was just there. The friend he knew was in love with his wife and had been forever. And what kind of man did it make him that he married Katniss, suspecting that she felt the same way about Peeta? She was just too stubborn to admit it to herself and certainly would never act on it even if she did.

Gale could be a selfish man and he'd convinced himself that his love for her was enough. But the more they fought, the more he was realizing that it just wasn't. No matter how bad it got, however, he knew he wouldn't be the one to walk away.

Regardless of any of that, Peeta was the one person he could trust with her and their baby. And Gale was the guy to play on that.

"What the fuck, Gale?" Peeta asked after a few minutes. He was wiping the blood off his face to no avail. The geyser had slowed but it was still steadily leaking over his mouth, leaving a heavy coppery taste in its wake. Gale felt the trickle of blood down his own cheek and new they'd have to get it together soon.

"I have something I need to talk to you about and I wanted to clear the air first."

"Seriously?" Peeta's incredulous look, paired with his horribly swollen nose, which would blossom into two beautiful black eyes made Gale chuckle. Peeta stared at him for a beat before his own laugh joined in. "You're an asshole."

Gale conceded with a nod and a grin, but he sobered quickly.

"Look, I can't really explain it, but I've got a feeling that something bad is going to happen."

"What do you mean?"

"You know, all the little accidents that have been happening? I've just played them off with Katniss, but I don't know. Just something seems weird about them. Planned, almost? Snow came by last week, with that dickhead of his, Thread."

"What did he want?" Peeta didn't ask the obvious question of whether Gale thought Snow was responsible for their problems. He knew his friend would understand it was inferred.

"To buy the place. Told him no. He took it well. But you've seen that smug bastard. Talks real soft and calm, then has someone plunge the knife in your back. Because of course, he can't get his own hands dirty.

"Maybe you should call Cray?"

"And say what? Come on, Peet. If he is causing the trouble, there will be no proof.'

"What does Katniss think?"

"I don't think she thinks anything. She hasn't said anything to me about it. Things happen far enough apart to not rouse any suspicion." Gale rubbed a hand through his dark hair and sighed. "I'm probably just being paranoid."

Snow was the most powerful man in their town. He owned a lot of the land and he always wanted more. The Seam could practically be named after him he owned so many of the houses there. Cheap construction, high rent. Gale's and Katniss' houses were luckily owned outright by their parents and in great condition compared to most of their neighbors.

"We just finished the damn house and he expects us to just sell? He's a crazy old fuck. He just thanked us for listening to his offer, but he just creeps me out. Always smells like copper and roses. It's strange." Peeta nodded in agreement. His father had bought the building the bakery and his house was in from Snow, and he remembered the one time his father was late with a payment. Snow had said it was fine, but there was just something about the way he said it that made sure Peeta's father was never late again.

"But, what really bothers me…his muscle Thread. He was staring at Katniss like he could eat her up. She was holding Posy, Peeta." Something about his wife holding their daughter while Thread ogled her made Gale's gut twist. The look on Peeta's face told him his friend agreed.

"What do you need from me, Gale?" Just like that, Peeta would do anything for either of them. There was never a question of that. Gale felt a wave of gratitude for the man sitting next to him.

"You love her." Gale stated, meeting Peeta's eyes once more. "If anything happens to me, take care of her."

When Gale had died a year later, Peeta had just opened his own bakery in the Capital. When he'd gotten the phone call from Hazelle, he'd walked into the nearest bar and drank until he was sober again. Then he'd cried for two hours straight, and then slept for twelve.

By the time he'd stumbled back to Panem, he was a walking zombie, barely going through the motions. He managed to help Katniss as much as he could, including sending Snow and his crony packing. The arrangements hadn't been hard. Gale had wanted to be cremated and his ashes spread out in the woods he'd loved so much.

Katniss had been stunning in her grief and he felt like an asshole for noticing. She asked for nothing, but accepted help given to her from himself, her sister and Gale's family with no fuss. She'd held up so strong, crying only in the dead of the night. He only knew that because Prim had told him.

It was his longing to hold her, to comfort her, to love her that sent him back to the Capital as soon as he could.

With a sigh, Peeta looked around his childhood room, shaking himself out of old memories. His mother hadn't felt sentimental about anything having to do with him, and it had been turned into a guest room almost as soon as he'd moved out. He guessed he was lucky she'd bothered to put his old stuff into storage. She could have thrown it all out. He took everything of any value to him with him.

"Hey, Peeta." A soft, blonde woman walked into the room, her smile wide.

"Hey, Delly." Delly Cartwright had been his friend in elementary school. Once they had both fully discovered that the other was an opposite gender from themselves, and cooties was something neither of them wanted, they grew apart. Not completely, but they weren't as close as they had been in their early years.

She'd gone away to college when he did, but he found out later that she'd only lasted one semester before getting so homesick she came back. Delly had then gone to Panem community college to get a degree in business to help her parents run their shoe store. Rye had gone in there for a new pair of sneakers and apparently the rest was history.

"You don't have much here." Delly looked at box sitting on the bed and looked at the pitiful amount of clothes in there.

"Nah. I travel light."

"I see that. Do you want some of your father's clothes? I mean they're just going to go to Goodwill after Rye goes through them. But you're closer to his size than Rye. He's too tall."

"No thanks, Dell. I don't think I could wear anything of his." He thought he'd known pain when Gale died. That loss had done nothing to prepare him for losing his father. The man might not have been very strong when it came to dealing with his wife, but his love for his sons was never in question. He'd passed on his love for baking and his capacity to love to all three of them. Unfortunately, the stubbornness and temper they all also had come straight from their mother.

Delly gave him a sympathetic smile and wrapped her arm around his waist. "Are you sure you can do this, Peeta?"

"Do what?"

"Be around her? It's been a long time." Peeta took a deep breath and listened to the excited voices of the two girls down the hall. Their happy chatter made him smile.

"I'll be ok. I need to do this."

"For Gale?" He looked down into her large dark eyes and gave her a squeeze.

"Yes. And for her. I failed them once. I won't do it again." He remembered how he'd felt earlier, standing in her kitchen and seeing the anger and hurt in her eyes. It made him feel like the coward he knew he was.

"What about the way you feel about her, Peet? Are you going to ignore it? Or maybe finally do something about it?" He looked back at her, mildly surprised that she'd be so bold.

"I can't do that, Delly. She doesn't want me, and even if she did…" The ghost of Gale would always be there, he finished in his head.

Delly looked at him, a golden brow arched and her lips pursed like she wanted to say something. Instead she just leaned up and bussed a kiss on his cheek.

"When you're done, come down and get some lunch."

"All right Delly. Thanks."

"Anytime." She pulled from the curve of his arm and walked to the door. She almost made it all the way out before her need to say what was on her mind had her turning around. "Gale is gone, Peeta. And as much as that sucks you can't live your life based on the guilt you feel. He's gone, you're here and so is she. At least…see. Ok?"

Peeta waited a beat as her words sunk in. Then, because there was nothing he could really say he nodded. When she was gone, Peeta looked around one more time before shoving the rest of his belongings into the box. He didn't know if he'd be able to do what Delly asked. But he knew living with Keaniss would be more than enough temptation to try. He only hoped that Gale could forgive him that as well.

A/n- so, I completely rewrote the end of this chapter. It got to be a little too much back-story and not enough story. So I added the bit with Delly. Who was actually going to be Maddy (OC) when I was like, HEY just make Rye's wife Delly. And there you have it. I'm going to intersperse the rest of their back-story more evenly through the story so there's not so much in big blocks. Anyway, read, review. Show me some love. Thanks for all the faves and reviews so far. Love you hear from you guys. Lisa/Jypz