Disclaimer: All stories are individuals of themselves and are unrelated to each other.
Gale stares down at the book in his hands, the pages thick and worn. After all this time, it's finally complete. Peeta has spent day and night getting the pictures just right. Katniss has used most of her time making sure to write down every single detail.
I want you to see it, Katniss had said. Gale still beat himself up over everything that happened with Prim that he couldn't deny her this request.
The book is heavy. It holds more than just pictures, more than just words. It carries people. It stores memories.
Prim is the first section. Gale pages through all the little things about her with a heavy heart. Little Duck. Everything about Lady. He swallows back the bile that burns in his throat and the reminder that her loss is his fault. Katniss doesn't blame him but he blames himself. The sweet innocent field medic that lost her life too early.
After that are people from the Games. Rue and Thresh. His heart is still heavy then, but it's not as painful to look at these people he didn't know.
Finnick hits him hard, though. The bronze haired Victor. A friend from Star Squad who always smelled a bit like the sea, despite not having been near one in a very long time. Gale turns the page quickly and forces himself to swallow.
The next page is of her. Madge Undersee.
Gale stares at the painting of the blonde for a very long time, marveling at how every little detail is exact. The wispy golden curls that hang around her ears and frame her face. The twinkle in her electric blue eyes. The light dusting of freckles across her nose.
He blinks, hoping that when the darkness is gone her picture will be too. But it's not.
The first image beside her is the pin. The whole reason Katniss has her namesake of mockingjay.
"Don't act as though I don't know what a mockingjay is, Gale," she had scolded him. "They're rebels by nature. They aren't even meant to exist." She paced the grass in front of him. "It makes me so mad that you think so little of me. You don't even try to understand me any better."
"The first time I asked you what a mockingjay was you told me it was a songbird," Gale grunted.
"There was a camera nearby," Madge had responded. It was the first time Gale really thought the girl was more than just the mayor's daughter. "I know that Katniss knew there was more to the mockingjay. And I know other people know too." She ran her fingers through her hair and shook her head. "Maybe she can make a difference."
Gale forced his eyes away from the painting of the golden pin and moved onto the next. A basket of strawberries.
He wiped the red juice from her chin with his thumb before putting it in his mouth and sucking. Madge laughed and nudged him away with her elbow, her cheeks were the same color as the fruit in her hand.
"You can't do that!" she giggled. The noise was magic to his ears. It lifted a weight from his shoulders. It restored his faith in humanity. "Tease."
"Flirt," he called back.
"Perv," Madge pressed.
He coiled a finger through one of her curls and smiled. "Princess," he joked.
"Too far," she scolded him, jabbing her finger into his chest. Gale grinned and dropped his hand before reaching for another strawberry. "Those are mine," she warned him.
Gale's grin widened. "May I have one, your majesty?"
"Only if you never call me that again," Madge frowned. He had agreed then, but broke his promise later. Gale broke a lot of promises to her.
He brushes his hand over the images hoping they will fade. That he's made all of this up and she's here, she's still alive. The piano is next, it's black and white keys bright against the paper.
"I don't really play for anyone," she whispered. Her fingers hovered over each and every key as she nervously looked over at him. "I freeze up. Get nervous."
"Do I make you nervous?" he had asked.
"Yes," she admitted weakly. Gale slid his hand around her hip as they sat on her piano stool. She glanced up at him through her golden bangs and bit down on her bottom lip. He wanted, more than anything, to kiss her. "What if I mess up?"
"Like I would know," Gale scoffed. It was meant to encourage her, but she only frowned again. "Madge," he whispered. "You're an amazing pianist."
"How would you know?" she asked. Her voice was shaking. He had never seen her so pale before.
"Sometimes I hear you through the door," Gale told her. He would stop and listen to every single note until the song was over. Everything she ever played was beautiful. Every melody was harmonious. "You're lovely."
"My physical state has nothing to do with my piano playing abilities," she said seriously.
Gale chuckled without meaning to. "Yes, you're lovely, and so are your piano playing abilities." She continued to chew down on her bottom lip. "You don't have to play for me if you don't want to," he told her.
"I want to," she whispered. "I… I just…" Madge's face contorted into a scowl. "What if you don't like it?"
"Trying to impress me, Undersee?"
"Yes."
He swallowed once. "I'm sure I'll love it," he told her sincerely. "Please. Play for me."
And she did. And it was the most awe-inspiring thing he had ever heard.
The last image on the page drives his heart into his stomach. Gale tries to close the book at once but his eyes linger. A vial of morphling.
"I know that you brought it," he growled. She had denied it again and again, shaking her head and letting her golden curls whip back and forth over her face. "Stop it, Madge," he barked. "Admit that you brought me the morphling!"
"I didn't," she lied. But her eyes were filled with tears and her face was entirely too pale. "I didn't."
"You're lying to me!" Gale marched across the grass and pulled her face into his hands. "Tell me the truth!" Her breath caught in her throat. He was close to her. Very close. Had nowhere to go. "Prim already told me," he whispered. Madge still shook her head, blinking as quickly as she could to stop herself from crying. "Why won't you admit it?"
"Because it won't change anything," she choked. "You'll still love her and you'll still look at me like I'm this pathetic little girl and I can't have that anymore, I can't do that anymore!"
"Say it," he ordered.
"I can't."
Gale stooped even lower, his nose brushing against hers. "Please."
A tear streamed down her cheek and he quickly wiped it away. "I brought you the morphling," she whispered. He could feel her hot breath on his lips. "I ran through the snow to save your life."
"Why?"
"Why?" she repeated sadly. "Because I love you, Gale."
So he kissed her fiercely and without restriction. His hands tangled in her golden hair and his lips melted against hers. Madge moaned into his mouth and gripped at the front of his shirt so tightly he was scared she'd rip a hole. They stumbled backwards tangled in each other and only parted when they ran out of air.
"You idiot," he murmured. His lips were on hers again in seconds. "If they had caught you they would've killed you." He kissed her upper lip and her bottom lip. Her nose and her chin. Her cheeks and her throat and her neck. "Don't you ever risk your life for me again. Ever!"
"I couldn't lose you," she panted. "I know you love her, I know you—"
"You don't know," Gale scolded her. "So stop acting like you do." Madge dropped her forehead down to his shoulder and he pulled her as close as he could, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist and squeezing her against him. "I love you, Madge," he murmured. She sniffled into his shirt. "You didn't have to do that."
"But I did," she whimpered. "And I'd do it again. Anything to save you."
"Gale?" Katniss's voice comes from the kitchen. He snaps the book shut as quickly as he can and drops it on the coffee table, reaching up and wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. Katniss paces into the room, her braid trailing behind her. She diverts her gaze when she sees him in this state. "Sorry. I didn't know you were still looking."
"It's okay," he mutters. Madge would've done anything to save him. Why didn't he do anything to save her? "I'm fine."
She reaches over and rests her hand on his knee. "Is there anything you want to add?" she asks. "To the book."
Gale wants to say yes. He wants to add the time in which he showed Madge the mockingjays. Or the time he took her to the lake. Gale wants to add how he taught her to sew buttons back onto his shirts when they fell off, or that time she ready Posy a bedtime story. Gale wants to put in the night she fell asleep against him in the meadow when they looked at the stars. He wants to record the taste of her lips and the feel of her skin and the intensity of her eyes.
But instead he says, "No. You've got it all."