Disclaimer: All stories are individuals of themselves and are unrelated to each other.

Thursday night while Madge is looking through her biology textbook she gets a text message that reads:Due to the impending winter storm, classes will be cancelled tomorrow. Madge smiles to herself and puts her phone down, returning to her textbook. There might not be classes tomorrow but finals are next week and she hardly thinks she's prepared.

She hasn't even turned the page when her phone buzzes again. She pulls it up and her heart stutters at the name Gale Hawthorne.

The message itself reads: On my way to pick you up.

Quickly she responds: What?

I'm coming to get you, the next message reads, because you would rather be stuck at my apartment in the storm than your dorm. Especially when you don't have power.

Again her heart stutters. She sends back: Don't text and drive, and is pleased when he doesn't text back.

Madge and Gale grew up in the same hometown but never really talked. One day she bumped into him on campus and spilled her coffee all over his clean military uniform, and that was when they realized they ended up at the same college. It was a slow friendship, that's for sure. For a while they would only pass each other at the coffee shop and he would be sure not to get too close as he said hello, but from then it evolved to getting lunch and studying together.

He's a junior in college and she's only a freshman, and living on dorms is probably the worst part of her college experience. Her roommate is some girl who was very well off in high school and goes partying every night, usually returning with some boy so they can have loud and disgusting sex. Gale, though, has his own apartment. He's got a roommate but Thom is usually always gone, off with his girlfriend who lives about an hour away.

Gale invites Madge over usually when she has a test so she can get in some decent studying. He gives her his room and lets her sit at the desk while he makes dinner, and then they break so they can watch dumb reality TV shows while they eat. If it isn't obvious enough, Madge likes him. She likes seeing him in his uniform and she likes that crease between his eyebrows when he gets annoyed and she likes that their friendship is so easy.

I'm here, his next text message reads. And I'm parked, so don't yell at me for texting. Quickly she gathers her books and some pajamas and clothes for the next few days and leaves a note for her roommate before pulling on her winter boots and jacket and heading downstairs.

Gale sits in his truck with the windows rolled down and his hand drumming on the side to his favorite band that plays from the speakers. He doesn't even notice as she makes her way to him and pulls open her own door, sliding inside and pulling the door shut with a thud. He turns to face her and she smiles sheepishly.

"Thanks," she says.

"I figured you'd prefer it," is all he says. Gale shifts his truck into drive and rolls his window up so the wind isn't blowing in. The drive to Gale's off campus apartment is only a few minutes and they sit in comfortable silence as they go. Well, mostly silent. The Slag Heap, a popular band in the area, is quietly playing from his radio. "Thom went shopping before he left," Gale says, "so we're stocked up on popcorn and pizza for the next year."

"Hot chocolate?" she asks. Gale smirks and nods his head, knowing how much she likes it. "You're the greatest."

"Very true," Gale agrees.

He carries her bag inside even though she doesn't ask him too and refuses to hand it over when she tries to snatch it. Madge says something about how she can carry her own bag and Gale mimics her in a voice that is too high pitched to be her and laughs and she hits him with her elbow, causing his smirk to widen into a grin. They make it up the four flights of stairs to his apartment and she waits as he unlocks it, and she is immediately greeted by warmth.

"Oh sweet God," she sighs, kicking off her shoes by the door. The heater in her dorm is broken, thanks to her roommate cranking it up as high as it could go and having it explode the very first day it snowed. "I had almost forgotten what it was like to not wear my comforter to keep warm!"

"Enjoy it," Gale says as he shuts the door behind her. "Thom likes it cold. I only turned it up because you were coming over." If he notices her blushing, he doesn't say anything.

Madge and Gale easily fall into the same routine they always do when she comes over. She pulls out her books and he goes straight to the bars that hang over his bedroom door to do pull ups. It's worth mentioning that part of this routine includes Madge studying the way his back muscles flex beneath his shirt while he's lifting himself up and down and up and down.

When he drops to the ground she quickly drops her gaze. He turns to face her, wiping his face with the towel that he's had on his shoulder.

"What are you studying?" he asks as he pats his forehead dry.

"Biology," she answers.

He frowns, "You're always studying biology. Don't you need to study anything else?"

"No. Biology is my hardest subject." He snatches the book from her hands and she shrinks back in the chair at his desk. "You're always doing pull ups," she says as he scans the book. Gale looks up, his gray eyes meeting hers, before smirking. "Don't you need to exercise any other body parts?"

"Well I could go running," Gale says, "but it's going to snow so I don't think I want to do that. Besides, then I'd be leaving you here by yourself."

"Mm," Madge glances down at her hands. He hands the book back. "You're always training," she says.

"It's part of the gig," he murmurs, glancing over at the military uniform that hangs on the door of his closet.

Gale's part of a program that pays students tuition for college as long as they do a few years of military service in return. Madge supposes it was the best he could do, Gale's family was never very well off and she doesn't think they could afford sending him to school without the money the program provides. He's a good sport about all of it, once he told Madge he wanted to join the army anyway. One of the only things Gale doesn't enjoy about the program is that every day is a day for training. There are usually 5AM runs and 9PM exercise clinics. The snow day for the school has given him the day off from class and training.

Suddenly Madge asks, "Do you ever hate it?" Gale lowers himself to the edge of his bed and cocks an eyebrow. "The training and the workouts," she says. "Wearing a uniform to class every Wednesday."

"That's not the bad part."

"Then what's the bad part?" she asks. Gale wrinkles his nose and turns his head to the side. "Never mind," she blurts.

At that his lips curl upward, only slightly. "Come on," he says, looking back toward Madge and pushing himself off of his mattress. "You've got all weekend to study. Let's go watch a movie or something."

"Finals are next week and—"

"And you're going to ace them," he cuts her off gently, "so let's go watch a movie and I'll make hot chocolate, alright?"

His hand extends and she accepts it before pulling her to stand. She leaves her books on his desk and settles onto the couch as he disappears into the kitchen. She watches him through the doorway as he darts back and forth, pulling out mugs and the gallon of milk and the packets of hot chocolate.

Madge remembers when he used to be so angry. Back in high school Gale was always busy with his three younger siblings and balancing school with sports and his afterschool job. He never even looked her way and she hadn't really paid much attention to him other than when her friend Katniss (who was very good friends with Gale) would mention how worried about him she was. Gale always had a scowl on his face and never smiled.

Even at the beginning of their awkward friendship Gale was always angry about something. He would find some reason to mutter about this or growl about that and she would remind him that he's a college student and didn't have to have his life figured out. Tonight he's being especially sweet, which is strange, but she's not objecting.

Gale returns with two warm mugs of hot chocolate and warns her not to drink it too fast because he left them in a little longer than usual. She stares at him through her hair as he blows on his drink and when he looks up his mouth curls into a smile.

"What?" he laughs.

Madge brushes her hair behind her ear. "Nothing."

Gale lowers his mug to the table and offers to take hers as well, to let them cool down for a bit, and then turns to her.

"You're doing it again," he says.

"Doing what?"

"Staring at me." Her cheeks run hot. "Did I do something?"

"No," Madge shakes her head. "No, I just… no." Gale reaches for the remotes, probably to pick out a movie, when the words just slip from her mouth. "I like you." The plastic remote falls from his hand and lands on the couch, he jerks his head over so quickly that she can feel ice spider in her veins.

"Shit," he sighs, dragging his hand through his hair. "Madge—"

Of course he doesn't like her, though. This is just what friends do. They sit at each other's houses and watch TV and talk about life, there are no emotional attachments here, just friendship.

"I'm sorry," she murmurs, pulling her gaze from him. "I shouldn't have—I never, I shouldn't have said anything, I—" he cuts her off, reaching over and pulling her cheeks toward him and quickly pressing his lips to hers. She gasps into his mouth and stretches forward as well tangling her hands in his hair and pulling him as he pulls her. Gale tugs her toward him so forcefully she ends up in his lap and the coffee table next to them shakes and their hot chocolate sloshes over the edges of their mugs.

When they part he rests his forehead on hers, his hands still on her cheeks and his thumbs caressing her skin. "Goddammit why'd you say that?" he sighs before kissing her again. "Couldn't have waited a few months?"

"What?"

Again his mouth is on hers, his tongue tracing along her bottom lip until she lets him in, and then his hands slide down her hips and into her golden curls and up her shirt and she doesn't even care what he's said anymore, straddling him and locking her legs around him and reveling in the groan that crawls up his throat when she squeezes forward.

"Christ," he breaks the kiss. "Madge, I'm leaving," he breathes. Her hands are on his cheeks and she furrows her eyebrows.

"What?" she pants.

"I'm leaving," he says again, his voice low and his face pained. "I was going to tell you tonight."

"Leaving?" she echoes. "Where?"

"They're sending me South," he whispers. "To real training."

"No."

"Yes," Gale says. "Guns and jumping out of airplanes and throwing grenades and—"

"No," Madge says again. "They can't do that!" Her hands fall from his face and she looks away but instantly Gale pulls her chin back to face him. His other hand rests on her hip, carefully stroking the skin where her shirt has ridden up.

"I like you too," he says quietly, "but I didn't… I didn't want to say anything until I got back."

"And when are you getting back?" she asks with a shaking voice. His face is pained again and she feels her eyes welling with tears. "April? May?"

"July."

Madge shakes her head angrily. "No!" He dips down and kisses her again quickly, leaving her breathless from the warmth of his lips. "I don't want you to," she murmurs against his mouth.

"I'm not leaving until January," he murmurs. "After break. I'll be home for break but I leave in the new semester." Madge frowns but again he pulls her up. "I was going to write you, I don't know." He kisses her frown away ever so sweetly. "I've been wanting to join the army ever since my dad died fighting but then I met you and I just, I don't know," again he leans down to kiss her. "You were there and you spilled coffee on me that burned my chest and you laughed at me when I was being annoying and Goddammit you are so beautiful, Madge."

"When did you know?" she asks. "That you were leaving."

"I found out yesterday," he tells her. "The letter is on the table if you want to read it." Her head tips to the side, of course she doesn't want to read it. Why would she? They're taking him from her. "I'll write you every day," he whispers. "Call you every night." She finds her heart stuttering in her chest as she nods her head. "I'll miss you more than anyone," he says. "It's not fair. I was going to tell you and then they send me that damned letter."

She presses forward to kiss him again, if there is a limited amount of kisses left she might as well take them. "Is this the bad stuff?" she asks. "That you were talking about?"

"Mmm," he nods, leaning down to capture her lips again. "We don't need to talk about it. We've got the whole weekend to ourselves, yeah? Can't we just enjoy it?" She's nodding forward immediately and his lips are on her again and Madge is lost in thought, scared for the future and torn about wanting him to stay with her forever. But he's right, they've got the weekend as their own. She grinds against his hips and smiles when he groans. Madge is going to make sure their winter break is perfect.

A/N: It's gadge week! Today was "pants or exercise/training" and I chose exercise/training. c: