Disclaimer: All stories are individuals of themselves and are unrelated to each other.
Thom had told Gale numerous times that the girls from town were off limits. "Never trust blondes," he had said, thumping Gale on the back, "because they will always disappear on you." For a while, Gale assumed this to be true. Thom was his best friend, a man of wisdom.
But then there was Madge Undersee.
The first time Gale dropped off strawberries at the Undersee household without Katniss, it took Madge a bit to answer the door. Gale thought at that moment he might have lost her already.
"Sorry it took me so long," Madge said, thrusting coins into his hand without meeting his gaze. "I was playing the piano, it was so loud."
And then there was that time in which he invited her to dinner. She showed up late with a basket of bread. "Where the hell've you been?" Gale asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"I got lost," she choked out. Panic flashed in her big blue eyes. Continuously nervous. "I had to ask someone for directions." Gale forgave her when she apologized again and again.
Madge Undersee was peculiar. For some reason Gale had been drawn to her ever since the start. She was so gentle, so cautious. Madge had a heart that was big enough for anyone and everyone. She would listen to anything anyone had to say. Even Gale.
And he trusted her.
He knew he shouldn't. Not just because of Thom's warning ("She'll leave you, they always do.") but because she was too good for someone like him. Nonjudgmental and forgiving and entirely too sweet. But dammit, he trusted her.
When she slipped away after his whipping he cursed himself. A few hideous scars were enough to drive her away. To vanish. He almost admitted that Thom was right. But Madge showed up eventually with a tiny smile and deep red cheeks.
"I wanted to give you time," she told him.
"For what?"
"To heal," Madge shrugged. "To think." Gale had spent plenty of time thinking. Mostly about her, but he never would've told her that then.
"Don't disappear on me," Gale had nearly growled. She wasn't allowed to enter his life and then fade away like that. Not her.
Again she smiled, the red cheeks making their way to her face again. "I won't."
For a while, Madge was true to her word. She would come over for dinner with the Hawthorne's almost once a week. She would squeeze his hand whenever he was stressed, reassuring Gale that she was still there. Madge would sit with Gale in the meadow and let him rant about anything and everything.
And he trusted that she would always be there.
In a way Thom was right. Madge disappeared on him. Just not the way Gale thought she would. She didn't fade away. She didn't sink into the shadows. Madge was stolen in a storm of fire and ash without even a goodbye.
He never trusted a blonde again.