A/N: I think this chapter is one of my favorites ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games.

Chapter 24: Balloon Toss~

Gale took a deep breath as he stared intently at Johanna, calming himself in preparation for what they were about to do.

After the pinata incident, Enobaria had insisted that everyone take a good long break – 'long' being about twenty minutes. He had spent the majority of said break lying on the ground recovering from the wounds inflicted upon him by the tiny fists of an angry mob of five-year olds while he watched Johanna eat all his candy.

Which in retrospect seemed only fair, considering the wrath she could have brought down on him for everything else he had pulled earlier. After break was over (and after Enobaria had calmed all the children down) they all trudged out into the open field yet again. He was still determined to make sure that Cato walked away with little more than his dignity, but he had to admit, after what had just happened his zeal was greatly strained. Still, he marched along like a weary soldier, Johanna close behind.

Which brings us back to what was happening now.

Balloon toss.

Gale shifted the water-filled balloon in his hands, unsure if this was such a good idea. It wasn't that he doubted Johanna's competence as a partner – she was captain of the baseball team, after all – but more that he doubted himself. He had a pretty good throwing arm, he was sure. But aiming was an entirely different matter. He had always relied on Katniss for that department.

And the last thing he wanted was an angry, wet Johanna Mason coming after him for his said incompetence. But, he figured, at the same time, it wouldn't matter as long as he was able to outdo Cato.

Gale could see Johanna's restless, always-in-motion form blurred in his focus as he stared at the balloon with uncertainty, and she was quick to voice her thoughts.

"Come ON, are you ready yet?"

He sighed. Right. All or nothing. Go hard or go home.

This was it.

"Uh...yeah. I was just...making sure there weren't any holes in it." He called back, realizing too late how lame his excuse sounded.

She rolled her eyes underneath her baseball cap, not buying it for a minute. "Yeah, sure. Let's go, Sport, I don't have all day."

Sighing once more, he walked towards her until they were only a couple of feet away from each other. Enobaria called the rules for the game.

"Okay, we're gonna be playing balloon toss. Each time you throw the balloon and your partner catches it, take one step back. If you drop the balloon it's okay as long as it doesn't burst. Now please, PLEASE no water fights. We all know what happened last year." Everyone but Gale chuckled. "Last team standing wins. Go!"

Gale tossed the balloon to Johanna, who caught it with ease. They took a step back. She tossed it back. He caught it. They took a step back. He tossed again. She caught it. They stepped back. He tossed again. Caught it. Stepped back. Tossed. Caught. Stepped...

Hey.

This wasn't so bad. Maybe they could win this thing. I mean it wasn't like they were being asked to play that one game with the spoons and the eggs, he sucked at balance (and patience, but he wasn't about to admit to that).

A couple more tosses, and Gale was sure they had this in the bag. Most of the little kid's teams had already dropped out, and aside from Katniss and Cato and Rory and Prim, he and Johanna were by far in the lead.

Everything was going great.

And then Johanna aimed too low when tossing the balloon back.

Gale bent down to catch it, but he was too slow and cumbersome. The balloon hit him just below the belt, with far more force than he thought possible for something made of rubber (thanks to Johanna's pitching arm, no doubt) and it exploded on impact.

He fell over, dropping to the ground as the air was all but knocked out of him. Johanna gasped, eyes wide and disbelieving as she witnessed what she had just done. He curled into a fetal position, wishing nothing more than for his manhood to stop hurting. Johanna ran over to him, arms spread in front of her and knees bent in a half-crouch, as though unsure if trying to help would only make things worse.

"I'm so sorry! I-"

"I'm gonna kill you..." Gale groaned through gritted teeth, still very much in pain.

Johanna crouched down, then shot right back up again, obviously unsure what to do. "Uh...h-hold on. I'll go get Sae!"

She ran off, and Gale could only lay there in pain as Katniss and Cato (and everyone else for that matter) came rushing up to him to see what was wrong.

"Gale? Gale, are you okay?!" Katniss called, clearly concerned as Cato draped his arm around her waist, no doubt trying to stop her from going to him.

Gale only groaned in response, and Katniss tore herself away from Cato and crouched down at his side.

"What happened?" She asked, hands hovering above him as though scared that she would hurt him with her touch.

"Johanna hit him with a water balloon," Prim said simply, and everyone, including Gale, turned to look back at her.

How the hell was she able to notice the stuff that went on in everyone else's lives? Katniss turned back to Gale, running a comforting hand through his hair.

"It's okay, Gale. You're gonna be okay."

He wanted to laugh; she made it sound like he was dying. But that didn't mean he wouldn't accept the help she was offering, even if it was only emotional. Cracking an eye open, Gale spared a glance at Cato. His expression was one of faux concern and sympathy, but Gale could tell by his set jaw and hard eyes that he was uncomfortable with Katniss being so close to him, and obviously jealous that he now had her undivided attention.

Johanna returned a few moments later with Sae, and as embarrassed as he was, Gale knew that his pain was soon to be over. Old people seemed to know all the nifty little health and pain tricks. Sae grabbed him by the arm and helped him up, and at the last second, Gale got an idea.

Just before reaching his full height, he recoiled to a half-crouch and hunched himself over, making himself look much like an old man, and moaned in exaggerated pain. Sae gave his arm a comforting squeeze, and Katniss was at his side in an instant.

"Gale, are you okay?" She asked, panic rising in her voice.

Without him needing say very much of anything, she took his arm and hooked it around her shoulder, trying to give him unneeded (though not unwanted) support. Gale cast a smug look at Cato as he fake-hobbled away with the girl of his dreams.

A/N: And I'm back with another chapter! :D I know it probably seems like it, but this is NOT the end. We've still got another 6 or 7 chapters to go, people.

Okay, I'm not gonna lie. I loved hurting Gale in this chapter. I giggled and laughed and laughed and giggled while writing it, and it's still making me chuckle even as I write this Author's Note, probably in much the same way as I will be chuckling about it for days to come.

Anyway, I've written down a list of major plot points and sections for this story before it's complete, and it seems as though I estimated right when I said before that it would be about 7 or 8 more chapters until it's finished. If you don't mind spoilers for this story, you can read this list below:

tug-of-war, Baseball, Peetniss kiss, Raffle, Dancing, Ending, Epilogue and What-happened-to-everyone-else-section

These are listed in order of appearance in the story (assuming I don't cut any of them) so you can know what to expect (in a nutshell) for each chapter :3

This will probably be the last chapter I post for a while (about a week) but you never know. I may surprise you with another update in a day or so ;)

'Til next time!