Welcome to the first laptop produced fanfic I have ever posted. You probably didn't know this, but I managed to type this out quicker than normal.

Huzzah! Now I should try to convince myself to go to sleep.

Nope, not going to happen.

~o~O~o~

"My brother wants to take you on a picnic," Clover said without prelude as she waltzed into the kitchen where I was intently eating my Cheerios for breakfast.

I couldn't help it; I cringed when I heard her mention her brother. It wasn't every day that someone randomly knocks you out. Ii mean, sure, it's happened, but having a picnic with that person a day or two after words, no thank you.

Clover smiled as soon as she knew that I acknowledged her. "Yup, he wants you to go on a forgiveness picnic."

Thankfully, my mouth was full and I didn't have to respond, though I'm sure she didn't care either way. Still, I had to wonder what the catch was.

"Well, actually," Clover continued, see I didn't have to wait long for that reason not to go. Oh wait, I already had one, her brother hated me. "It's really a cousin's only picnic, but since I have to be with Peeta, it will just be you, Katniss, Ceil, and Sebastian. Doesn't that sound fun?"

Wow, that sounds about as fun as swallowing acid as I was stabbed by hot pokers. Super fun!

"Um… Clover," I tried to explain to the blonde, who of course didn't care enough to use the brain power to process what I was saying. "I'm not actually one of Katniss's cousins."

She turned and looked at me like I was the one without a brain here. "Yes you are," she told me like I was a clueless three-year-old, "The television said so when I was watching a flashback."

A flashback? "Clover, that was a lie," I told her. I guess she would actually know that though.

She smiled at me and laughed, "No, Silly, the TV never lies. Only you."

Only me?

Either way, in a half an hour, I was one my way to the Hell picnic from… Hell?

~o~O~o~

I felt like a walking stick, and considering how tense I was, I probably looked like one two.

Gale the Walking Twig: that's what I should be called from now on.

But you couldn't exactly blame me; I was standing between a sadist and a scary guy. Not to mention the person who blamed me for the death of her sister was right behind us. She was glaring at me so hard from behind; it felt like she had burned a hole in my back.

Was it wrong that I still loved her?

Wait, I can answer that for you. Yes, it is. And of course she is married on top of all that hating stuff.

For some reason, I started to feel like I was forgetting something. It probably was the extra hate that Katniss was putting into every glance and every scant word that she had to say to me.

I walked with this feeling latched onto me for about twenty more minutes when I came across a proper little rose bush growing on the side of the path that we were walking up. I was thinking about how Rose would have liked to see that when it hit me.

It was the anniversary of Prim's death.

Crap, today was going to worse than I had planned. Maybe I should ask for Sebastian to punch me again.

"Gale!" Katniss suddenly shouted, "Apologize to that worm you almost murdered. You killer!"

I'm glad to see that we were on speaking terms again, but seriously, I don't even think there was a worm there because the second that I turned around, it had magically disappeared.

"Take it," Ceil ordered me the second that he came to his turn to carry the picnic basket. I took the basket from the brat, I didn't want to cause a scene and give Katniss another reason to scold me. But she sure found a reason like her sole purpose was to criticize every little thing that I did.

"IDIOT!" she screamed, "'The basket is tilted. You'll spill the food."

I put up with it by blocking all conversation out for the next fifteen minutes. I went back to listing as soon as I reached the picnic point, but all I got out of that was Ceil saying, "You fool, I am the weasel."

Strange child.

As Sebastian set out the food and Katniss went back to ignoring me, I had to wonder, was this Sebastian guy a good cook. Sure, there were lots of more important things to worry about like world hunger and the aliens attacking us and Katniss hating me, but if I didn't like the food I would probably get my brains bashed in.

When I asked Sebastian what the strange patty things were, he told me that they were hamburgers, the staple of the ancient American picnic.

I'm not sure if I wanted to try Ancient American food, it was probably filled with poison and other unhealthy things. But since this was made by a guy who seemed to take care of his figure, I wouldn't have to worry about the food being unhealthy. I just had to worry about poison.

When everything was properly "grilled" we all sat down to eat in relative silence. I had to say, the hamburgers weren't too bad. I would have expected more poison and dying from food made by my new enemy, but really it was just a good lunch.

Then the bombed dropped on our peaceful picnic. "If only Rose were here," mumbled Ceil like a love-struck fool. Great, he just had to go and mention her.

"You moron!" Katniss shouted, once again going into a fit of rage. "How could you just let her die, like that? I HATE YOU!"

Ceil jumped, as if he was the one under fire and Sebastian went to protect him. Glad to see that they had my back in case something went wrong.

Did I mention that I haven't really seen Katniss much after the death? I guess you could have guessed from all the pent up anger.

"I didn't kill her and you know it," I yelled back as I pulled Katniss into a hug. But since she was struggling so much it probably looked like I was trying to strangle her… not that anyone was trying to stop me. "She died doing what she loved and helping people."

"You're lying," she shouted back. I could tell that she had never really forgotten, she had just buried the memory, which was pretty stupid on her part. She needed to let go.

"Ssh, Katniss, I said stroking her brown hair, "Just let Prim go. Let her spirit move on to a world of sweets and joy… and joyness."

When she calmed down, I noticed that everything was packed up and ready to go; maybe Ceil and Sebastian weren't such bad people after all.

And maybe, just maybe, my love had forgiven me.

~o~O~o~

Do you thing that I would be able to incorporate this into my lit and writing class? I should probably just write a new fanficton if it ever gets to that point.

Oh well, two weeks of work and then school, yippee!