Hey again. Updates are slow, but then again, so are the reviews ;)

Summer work is the unfairest of unfair (this is also keeping me from updating, sorry).

Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games or any of its characters.

Chapter 21

I feel myself gradually drifting into consciousness, waking slowly. I keep my eyes shut, but I am aware of the light that penetrates my eyelids. The light is dimmer than it should be; I realise that at some point, Gale must have shut the curtains.

Gale.

I am suddenly acutely aware of him. He's not sitting beside my bed anymore, he's in it – my back is to his chest, and I can feel the warmth radiating from his body, so close to mine. One of his arms is wrapped around my waist, holding me against him. His steady, even breaths tell me that he's still sleeping.

I make sure that I don't move, so that I don't disturb him. I notice how relaxed I am, how effortless it feels to be like this with him, to be so close. A small smile crosses my lips, and I allow myself to drift back into a light sleep.

The next time I open my eyes, I wake up properly. The light has increased in brightness, although the curtains have not been opened yet. Instead of turning to see if Gale is awake, I listen to his breathing, and notice that it is different from before.

I turn slowly, shuffling awkwardly under the covers so that his hand doesn't move from my waist. My eyes flicker up to his Seam grey ones, and we both smile at each other.

Gale has propped himself up on one elbow, and I realise that he must have been watching me while I slept. This annoys me, but at the same time, makes me feel happy. It is a very odd feeling.

"Hey," I say softly.

"Hey." He replies, equally as softly. We lie there for a while, just watching each other, not talking. It should be awkward, but it isn't; it's peaceful.

Eventually I rest my head on the pillow, and Gale does the same, our gaze never moving from each other. I move my hand so that it rests on his waist. It feels nice, warm, comfortable.

I look away from him a second, thinking of what to say. Should I say anything? Would it ruin… This, whatever it was?

"Thank you for last night," I eventually manage to say. "Thank you for helping me." Gale doesn't say anything for a second, then moves his hand from my waist to my chin, and gently tilts my face upwards so that my eyes meet his once again.

"I'm sorry for leaving, for breaking my promise." He says quietly. I can see in his eyes that he really means it, and I let out a small sigh.

"It's fine, Gale. I overreacted. I should have realised where you had gone, and I shouldn't have been angry with you for doing it. I just wasn't thinking straight." I say quietly.

"It's perfectly okay for you to not think straight every now and then, Madge. Especially now, after what happened…" His voice trails off, and his eyes flicker across my face, wondering if mentioning what happened would upset me. I shake my head slowly, not breaking eye contact with him.

"So are we okay now?" I ask, with a small smile. Gale answers with a grin,

"We're more than okay, Madge." And with that he leans in and lightly presses his lips to mine, a small, gentle kiss. It comforts me, and when he pulls away, I snuggle closer, my head tucked under my chin, against his chest. Gale moves so both his arms are around me tightly, and we lie there peacefully for a while.

When it becomes lunch time, we emerge from the covers slowly. I sit next to Gale on the edge of the bed, one of my hands entwined in his. I rest my head on his shoulder and shut my eyes for a brief moment.

"How is it-" I pause to yawn, "-possible that even after sleeping for so long, I'm still tired?" Gale chuckles and slips his hand from mine so that he can put it round my shoulders.

"It's called being a teenager, Madge." He says, smiling. I smile too, and stand up. I stretch slowly, groaning slightly as I feel my joints protest at the movement.

"I'm gonna have a shower," I say, walking towards the door. I cast a glance over my shoulder at Gale, who is still sitting on the bed.

"I'll be waiting right here for you." He replies softly.

I shut the door behind me and walk across the landing to the bathroom. Once I've stripped off my clothes and looked at them I realise how disgusting they are – there's blood on the neck of my shirt from where I hit my head, they're dirty, and even worse, the sleeve of my shirt is ripped. I sigh and push the offending clothes into a corner, not bothering to care too much about them.

I try and be quick in the shower so that Gale doesn't have to wait long, but I can't help but stand there for a few extra seconds, letting the hot water wash over me. When I come out the shower I feel relaxed, my muscles no longer sore. I look at my crumpled clothes, and realise that I didn't bring any spares.

When I walk into my room with a towel wrapped tightly around my body, I try not to blush when I see Gale raise his eyebrows and grin at me. He's sitting exactly where he was when I left the room, and I wonder if he moved at all.

Now, he gets up and comes and hugs me, burying his face in my shoulder.

"You look hot." He whispers in my ear. If I wasn't blushing before, I sure was now. My face felt unbelievably hot and I didn't trust myself to look at him, in case I blushed even more.

I giggle nervously, and Gale chuckles. His arms are tight around me, and show no sign of letting go.

"Gale," I begin to protest, struggling against his grip. "I need to get dressed."

"Fine," he sighs, sitting back down on the bed. I stare at him for a few seconds, and he stares back.

"Aren't you going to leave?" I say, raising my eyebrows. Now it's Gale's turn to be embarrassed. He ducks his head down and walks out the door quickly, muttering a few hasty apologies as he goes. I smile, and begin to pick out some clothes.

When I open my bedroom door, I find that Gale is not there. I can't imagine why he would go into any of the other bedrooms, so I walk downstairs. I can hear people talking in the kitchen, and I assume it's Toby and Gale.

I go in and find them by the cooker, creating something which smells like bacon and eggs. I can't help but hope it is for me; I hadn't eaten anything since yesterday morning.

Gale smiles at me as I come in, and resumes talking with Toby. Their tone is light and cheerful, almost… friendly.

"Gale," I say quietly. He turns around and smiles at me questioningly. "Do you and Toby know each other?"

They both start to laugh, and I'm taken aback. I didn't ask something stupid, did I?

I wait for their laughter to die down, and then I speak again.

"Well, do you?"

"We actually grew up together," Toby explains, grinning at Gale. "I'm a bit older than Gale, but I left school early and managed to get a job here through various… arrangements." His tone makes me wonder what these 'arrangements' were, but I ignore it for now.

"I see." I say, smiling at the pair of them. Gale chuckles and they continue with their cooking and talking. I see no reason for me to be there, so I go and sit on the sofa in the TV room.

The interviews are being shown; I must have missed them from yesterday. Katniss is in a yellow dress, and Peeta in a blue suit. They look good together, like a couple. I smile to myself and watch them answer Caesar's questions. Their answers seem honest enough, but I can tell they're doing it for the crowd. They talk about how they couldn't imagine a world without each other, how they couldn't bear to be without one another. I watch Katniss closely, and she shows all the right emotions. She gazes lovingly at Peeta, and talks about all of her feelings towards him. Some of the lines are far too cheesy for my taste. But I refuse to believe it. This is Katniss pretending for the Capitol; I do not think she has changed in her time there. I can still see my friend up there, the girl from District Twelve.

I hear a sharp intake of breath from behind me, which startles me. My head whips round to see Gale standing in the doorway, stony-faced.

"It's for the cameras, Gale." I say quickly, standing to face him.

"How do you know that?" He asks, not looking at me. His eyes are fixed to the TV screen. "How do you know that the Capitol hasn't changed her? That's not the Katniss I grew up with. The real Katniss wouldn't do that."

"She's just trying to get the crowds to like her, Gale." I sigh. I can't believe that the Capitol has changed Katniss. I won't believe that they changed her into one of them. "If she didn't do this, then they would all know that what they did in the arena… They'd suspect something."

"Suspect what?" Gale retorts angrily. "Their little act? Pouting and kissing for the crowd? Being the lovesick girl that everyone there seems to want her to be? That's not Katniss, Madge! Katniss wouldn't do that, she wouldn't change for them!"

I've never seen Gale this angry, and it only fuels my own anger. He might be Katniss's best friend, but I was her friend too. How could he talk about her like that?!

"She put on an 'act' to survive, Gale!" I cry, throwing my hands up into the air as I speak. "If she hadn't done that, she would have been killed in the Games, she wouldn't have got sponsors, and Peeta would have died too. Can't you understand that?!"

Gale stays quiet for a while, breathing heavily, staring at the TV screen, ignoring my presence.

"Look at me!" I yell, feeling unbelievably frustrated.

"I wouldn't change for them!" Gale suddenly yells. His eyes move to mine, and I can see the anger there. "I would rather die than change for them!"

"Then you're a coward." I say quietly. I walk out of the room quickly, making sure my shoulder hits into his as I walk past him. Gale doesn't say anything as I leave, but I can tell that he stares after me as I walk down the hallway and then up the stairs to my room. I slam the door behind me and throw myself onto my unmade bed, and realise that the house has gone silent. I curse myself for making so much noise – I might have woken my mother up.

I decide to check on her, just to make sure. Anything to distract me from what just happened. I turn the handle of my door carefully, so that I make as little noise as possible. If Gale heard me coming out of my room, he might come up to see me, but I didn't want to talk to him right now.

I tiptoe out into the hallway, and cross to the other side. The door to my mother's bedroom is slightly down the hall from my own room, and I find myself thankful for the soft carpet that muffles my footsteps. I open the door slowly as I peek my head around it.

The bed is opposite me, and my mother's still form can be clearly seen underneath the covers. The room is dark but I can make out the rise and fall of her chest, which moves steadily enough. I relax, and am just about to turn and leave when I hear my name being called.

"Madge?" My mother asks quietly. She starts to sit up and I move quickly to the side of her bed to stop her.

Once she has lied down again, I ask if I woke her up. She shakes her head and tells me that she's been awake for a while now.

"I'm still sorry for making so much noise," I say quietly. My mother suffered from a rare illness that forced her to stay in bed and to rely on Capitol medicine, mainly morphling, used to drown the pain. I wanted to be as quiet as possible so as not to disturb her – I was already breaking the rules by being in the room with her. My father didn't allow me to come in; I wasn't entirely sure why, but I knew that I shouldn't disturb her, so I never went in. This was the first time I had seen my mother in months.

I realise in that moment that I have distanced myself from both of my parents greatly. My father's job keeps him away from me, and my mother's illness stops me from seeing her. It surprised me how much I didn't mind this; I suppose it was because it had always been this way, and I assumed that it always would be.

"Madge?" My mother asks. I realise that I have been daydreaming, and quickly focus my eyes on her. She's pale, and incredibly thin. Her hand stretches out from under the covers and grasps mine, which had been resting on the edge of the bed.

"Sorry," I say again, not meeting her gaze.

"Stop apologising." She says, smiling at me. "I haven't seen you in a while; how are… things?"

I wasn't exactly sure what she meant by 'things'. Did she mean my school life, or my personal life?

I decide to talk about the easier option.

"Well, school's going fine. My grades are good, and we've been given some time off recently because of the Games." I say.

"Ah yes, the Games… Your father filled me in." My mother examines me as she says this, and I know that she wanted to talk to me about my personal life. What else had my father 'filled her in' on? Did she know about Gale?

I can tell she's about to ask about him, and I find myself holding my breath. However, suddenly the door opens, and I turn my head to see Toby standing in the hallway. I expect him to tell me off for being in here, but he doesn't say anything. He goes to the other side of the bed and explains to my mother that it's time for her next morphling shot.

I get up and head towards the door, not wanting to see the needle. I pause in the doorway as my mother calls out to me,

"I love you, Madge."

"I love you too," I reply, glancing back at her. She's sitting up so that she can take her injection, and I can see that she's smiling at me. I manage a brief smile in reply, and shut the door behind me, not bothering to wait for Toby.

I have no idea why I included Madge's mother in this, but I felt like I should put her in somewhere. I felt like his chapter was a bit of a mess, but it took ages to write, so that might be why.

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