This took longer to write than expected, I actually started writing right after I posted the last one. Hopefully it doesn't turn out bad either. Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter with encouragements and for believing in me!
Madge wakes up to find herself still wrapped snugly in Gale's embrace. She lifts his arms softly, trying as hard as she can not to disturb him. He just looked so peaceful in his sleep, the worry and sadness missing from their usual presence in the lines of his face. She doesn't stop herself from leaning closer and kissing him on the cheeks ever so gently. Despite her effort though, it was enough to wake him, and a moan escapes from his throat as he shifts on the bed, eyes slowly fluttering open.
"Morning," he greets her, his voice low from slumber.
"Morning to you too," she replies leaning in again to kiss him on the edge of his mouth.
He places a hand around her neck, holding her close so that he could give her a proper kiss, "I can get use to waking up like this," he tells her as he pulls away slightly, and she thinks to herself that she couldn't agree more.
They settle on gettiing up after just a few more kisses, but both make the effort to drag the moment longer.
"We gotta get up Gale!" Madge cries between kisses, "We still got a long day ahead of us."
Gale hides his face under the pillow, "let's just stay here, just one more day."
"No," Madge grins, "you need to go find your family, I've let you drag it out long enough, this was the whole reason we even came back."
"I thought we came back so that both of us can get a bit of closure and tie up loose ends."
"Yes," she agrees "but reuniting the Hawthorne family is high on the list."
"You're right, you're right. Fine, let's do this then." Gale gets up and stretches, turning him head over to look at his girlfriend again, "Did I tell you that I can really get use to waking up like this?" he asks with a smirk.
"Yes, and you know I feel the same way, now go, I'm letting you use the shower first." Madge replies, slightly blushing.
With a few more complaints Madge watches as Gale staggers to the small bathroom beside the entrance of their room, still smiling because last night and this morning has really let her envision what life with Gale can actually be like everyday. And she realizes that's just really all she wanted in that moment, getting to wake up next to his face, bicker over little things, making up over fights, she wanted all of it. And it scared her a little that all of that can actually happen someday, someday in the near future.
Those thoughts make her mind drift to the day that they have in store today, and suddenly the thought of being introduced to his family terrified her. Well, she's been introduced to them before, of course, in fact she use to spend quite a lot of time inside the Hawthorne household back in the days, even when Gale wasn't there. She had always found comfort there, it having shown her so much of what home meant, something that's always been missing in her life despite the gigantic mayor's mansion. She would talk to Hazelle, read to Posy, joke around with the boys, it had been fun. But if Gale introduces her officially today as his girlfriend? Would his family be as welcoming then to actually accepting her into their family in that kind of way? Maybe deep down they still cared about who she was, maybe they too still see her as a mayor's daughter. Even if they're accepting of this new relationship, how would they even handle so much information, it would surely be big enough of a surprise just for Gale to show up at the front door.
They more she thinks about it, the more her mind is made up that she had to make Gale go do this alone. He needs to fix things within his family first, telling them about their relationship can come later, when everything settles. And then they really can get their forever.
She hears the water of the shower turn off, and moments later Gale's emerging from the door, steam spilling out from the door behind him. He's not wearing a shirt and Madge finds herself having to make an effort to keep her eyes on his face. She catches the smirk on Gale's face but doesn't bring it up since her cheeks don't need to heat up even more.
"Come'on Undersee, stop staring and get ready." She hears the excitement in his voice hidden between his obvious attempts of hiding it, most likely to spare himself of the chances of disappointment. It only makes her hold firmer to her decision of having him go alone, she just couldn't go along, not when there's that chance of ruining all this for him.
"Actually Gale, I was thinking that I'll stay here. I think you should go do this by yourself," the content quickly disappears from his face and gets replaced with something like anger.
"What? I thought you said that we were gonna do this together," he says, "You know I need you."
"I know, I know. But this is your family Gale, there's gonna be enough going on I honestly don't think it's the time to be introducing the old mayor's daughter to them as your girlfriend. Think about it Gale, they need to spend time with you and hear you explain your life to them for the past two years. You need that family time Gale, and I'll be here whenever you need me."
She sees the comprehension on Gale face, and she knows that deep down it's what he would want. He'll probably feel guilty for leaving her despite their promise of going through this together, but she knows that it's the reasonable decision.
"I dont wanna leave you though," he says finally, hint of defeat in his voice as he understood Madge's argument. "You sure you gonna be okay?"
"Gale you forget that I've lived in this place my whole life, I don't think you need to worry." Madge jokes.
"I know I know, but this trip was supposed to be about us too, and I know it's hard for you to be here after everything," he argues, "I just want you to be happy more than anything ok? You deserve that much."
"I'll be fine, seriously. I'll probably just try and get more sleep actually, and then go walk around maybe. See if I will bump into any old friends."
"Okay then." he says finally, smile on his face, "Did I mention I love you yet?"
It takes Gale another twenty minutes to get ready before finally kissing her goodbye and walking out of the hotel. Madge helps him pick out a shirt from the few that he had packed in a moment of rush. A plain beige button-up, not too fancy, but not yet casual. Gale was all smiles when he watches her go through his stuff, and it grew wider as she helped him button up the top-most button. He wants these little things to go on, in a future that he desperately wants. With Madge, and hopefully his family, and a family that him and Madge can later create. He wants for them to be able to share small moments like these.
Gale knows the way to his house like the back of his hand, but it has been almost 2 years, and somehow the path just felt so foreign. His footsteps grow heavy once he crosses the imaginary border between the town and the seam. There was technically no seam or town now in district 12, after the rebellion the rebels had made sure that equality was promoted and made the effort to integrate everyone into one solid community. It was still evident though, the conditions in the seam has indeed improved, but you can still feel the clear difference between the two worlds.
It was still quite early in the morning, so not a lot of people where on the streets, in some way he's relieved because he didn't want to have to make explanations to all these people who believed in the worst. He tried to keep to himself as much as possible, and hoped that the few people he passes would not recognize him.
He's almost at his destination when a voice behind him called his name.
He knew that voice from anywhere.
Vick.
"Gale?" the voice calls out again, and slowly he turns around.
And sure it is, his baby brother who's not so much of a baby was running towards him. He doesn't have time to react before Vick reaches him, wrapping his arms around him in a tight embrace. It takes a few more moments for Gale to hug him back and for the first time in a long time, Gale felt tears burning from his eyes.
"It's really you, you're back Gale!" Vick cries, and Gale swears he hears sobs being held back. "We've missed you so much."
"It's me Vick, it's me."
Finally the younger Hawthorne is pulling back, and Gale finally gets a chance to get a closer look at him. He's grown taller for sure, not more than a couple inches shorter than Gale himself, his features were more defined, and he's grown his hair a little longer. In the past two years, Vick's grown into a shocking replica of their father, and his eyes showed the same amount of courage and determination.
Out of Gale's three siblings, Vick was has perhaps always been the closest to him. He shared Gale's thirst for adventure, and a love for the forest and the outdoors. Although Gale has always been against him running around outside the district borders, he just wasn't able to say no to taking him on his hunting trips every once in a while.
"What are you doing here Gale, why didn't you tell us we were coming. Ma would have prepared for it and stuff." That the thing though, he didn't want them to worry about anything, he just wanted them to treat him the way they would have three years ago.
"I wanted it to be a surprise, I just missed you guys and thought that it's time I came home."
"Well, come'on let's go!" Vick hurried, "Aw man, I can just imagine the look on Ma's face when you walk through that door. She's gonna be so happy. She's missed you a lot y'know, I know she tries to seem calm when she calls you and stuff but she missed you everyday." Vick rambles on for the rest of the way, and Gale's heart aches a little with every little detail he recalls to him. Vick also doesn't question his return any further, and Gale is grateful for the innocence that Vick still has in him. He expected him to question why he abandoned their family, or why he waited two years to visit, but no, Vick just accepted him without question, just acted as if the past 2 years didn't affect their close relationship in the slightest way.
At last they reach the place where the Hawthorne household use to stand. They had had to rebuilt it, obviously since the seam was burned down by the bombing, and in its place stood a house that's not much smaller than Katniss' mansion in the victors village. He knew that they'd built the Hawthorne's a decent house because of his contribution to the war and everything, but he didn't expect it to be this. The other houses were a lot nicer compared to the original seam huts, but the Hawthorne on definitely stood out. He's glad that is well off now, but it startles him because they've never mentioned this even before in their conversations and he wonders how many more surprised he's about to get.
"Yeah, I know it's a pretty sweet place, they had it built especially for us, you know, with you being a war hero and all that," Vick tells him nudging him forward. "Ma didn't want it at first, she told them we didn't need such a big place for just the four of us, but they insisted. So we took it, but ma decided to open up a section of it to people who need it. The capitol's still working on redevelopment and so they didn't have time to make houses for everyone yet, there's still people on the streets at the seam, and ma told them they were welcome to stay in the extra rooms if they had no where else to stay."
"Yeah, that sounds like her" Gale laughed, Hazelle Hawthorne, always so kind and willing to help others the best way she could. "Do a lot of people come?"
"Yeah, theres always a couple families in there at a time, but they never stay for more than a month or two. Just enough time to set their feet on the ground again. But it's great being able to help people and stuff, Ma loves it." Gale notices that Vick was staring at him at this point, with a grin on his face.
"What?" he asks.
"Nothing," Vick replies, "you just seem happy y'know. And you keep smiling at everything I'm telling you. You've changed since our times at 13."
"Thing have changed Vick, they have," and then his smile fades a little because they've reached the door, and Gale takes a deep breathe.
"Aw, don't worry Gale. Everyone will be so happy to see you, even Rory I promise." Vick encourages, seeing the hesitation.
"I doubt that Vick."
"I know he's refused to talk to you since the war but he misses you. He's told me that. He just needed time to get over what happened to Prim, but I know he'll be happy to see you." The whole speech gave a sense of deja vu, sounding exactly like what Peeta had told them the previous day about Katniss, and look how that turned out. Gale doesn't let Vick know that though, and instead lets Vick slip the keys in and open the door.
"I'm home ma!" Vick calls into the house as Gale slowly follows close behind him.
"What took you so long Vick?" Gale's insides twist when he hears his mother's voice. "Are you with someone Vick? I hear more than one pair of footsteps."
"Sure am! Come see who I found strolling in the seam this early in the morning!"
Gale hears footsteps approaching, and a shadow emerging from down the hall. He can feel his heartbeat pounding in his rib cage as Hazelle appears around the corner. Her head is down, wiping her hands on the edge of her shirt, murmuring something to Vick that Gale can't focus on.
And then she raises her head with a smile on her face as if ready to greet a guest, and her eyes meets his.
It's one of those moments that Gale can't really describe, a bitter sweet feeling.
"Gale," she says like its a question, and then there's tears in her eyes as she reaches for him much like Vick had. "Oh baby I've missed you so much. What are you doing here? You should have gave me a call, oh Gale."
So many things are happening all at the same time. Hazelle is rushing Gale into the house, asking him all kinds of questions. Gale tries to take in the surrounding as much as possible, wanting to accustom himself to what should be home. Hazelle's aged alot in the past two years, Gale noticed that too. A few silver strands in her hair, and few more lines lining her forehead, things he couldn't have noticed through video chats.
"Are you hungry Gale?" she's asking him now, "Actually just finished making breakfast, let me grab you a plate."
He hesitantly sits himself down at the table, his whole body feeling numb. God, he feels so guilty right now, guilty to have left them in the first place, guilty to have avoided visiting them for two whole years. And yet his family doesn't seem to be mad at all, he almost wishes that they could hate him, so that he can feel just a little better.
Sure enough though, right when he was thinking that, another pair of footsteps sounded in the house. "Ma? Vick? What's going on. I hear so many voices do we have a visitor-"
The voice stops because the person who it came from has reached the kitchen where they sat and seen who the visitor was.
Gale forced himself to lift his eyes, and glare into a pair that resembled his own, the grey eyes of Rory Hawthorne.
Cliffhanger! ok hopefully that wasn't too bad. Thanks so much to those who answered my question/poll thing on tumblr because that was super helpful! And fortunately you guys went along with the direction I had wanted so that worked out.
Pretty excited to write Rory and there will most likely be more Madge solo adventures too next chapter. (I wanted to write her in this one but it seemed to ruin the mood so yea)
I did have to write this over a while, and didn't have time to go over it alot. there might be mistakes, let me know so I can fix them.
Review so I know what you thought of this!