Disclaimer: All stories are individuals of themselves and are unrelated to each other.
When Haymitch recruited Gale to find Madge before the drill he didn't think it would be that hard of a job. District 13 was pretty restrictive, there weren't too many places she could've gone without a keycard or a communicuff, but Haymitch was busy and didn't have the time to look for her himself.
Madge had been staying with Haymitch since they got to District 13, something about the old man being her godfather and considering she had no family left they let her live with him. He had some sort of security thing to do and Katniss some Mockingjay script to read over and Gale was essentially the only one free that Haymitch trusted.
"I don't want her getting stuck by herself during the drill," Haymitch had said. "So you find her and you get her with the cafeteria crowd."
There were twenty minutes until the alarms went off to clear the halls and he had yet to find her. With a groan Gale paced down the hallway a bit faster and only stopped when he heard faint piano music. You've got to be kidding me, he thought. Gale backtracked the few steps past the door with the music and knocked once before pushing it open.
Madge was too lost in the music to even notice him come in, but when he cleared his throat she startled away from the piano at once. Her eyes flew open and her cheeks flushed pink.
"Gale!" she stood abruptly and smoothed down her gray shirt as though it was one of those pretty dresses she used to wear. "Um," she cleared her throat. "What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" he echoed. "What are you doing here? Haymitch has been looking for you all morning." Until he got distracted and passed on the job to Gale, that is. "They're having a drill. Wants you in the cafeteria with most everyone else."
Madge nodded and was still pink, quickly excusing herself from the piano and quickly following him from the room. She fiddled with the tips of her golden hair as they quickly took to the hallway in silence. Being around Madge Undersee never required many words, she was quiet by nature and he never really had much to say to her. They were hardly halfway to the cafeteria when the bells started ringing.
"For fucks sake," Gale groaned.
"Code 8. Code 8. Biological substance leak. Clear the halls. I repeat, Code 8…"
Gale grabbed Madge's wrist and shoved her into a nearby closet, pulling the door shut behind him. These things were just drills, he knew that and so did everyone else, but District 13 was crazy enough to actually release something. They send out this mist that will give whoever's caught in the hallways a pretty bad rash to teach them a lesson. It was pretty screwed up.
Madge stumbled in and fell and Gale secured the door, making sure nothing could seep through the bottom. Only after he heard her groan did he spin around. She was holding her hand to her head with a frown.
"Sorry," he murmured. Her frown deepened.
"You could've left me in the piano room," she returned, still scowling. "It'd be a lot better than a janitor's closet." She situated herself on the ground and Gale suddenly realized how much room they didn't have. He sat down too and they were shoulder to shoulder. He couldn't even extend his legs all the way. "Good pick."
"Sorry," he said, snapping this time. She looked away from him and sighed. Code 8. Code 8. It echoed outside the door and would for another few minutes. "What were you doing all the way back here anyway? Shouldn't you be in class or something?"
The tattoo on her arm might've been able to be read if there was a little bit more light in the closet he could've read it, but there wasn't.
"Yeah," she finally answered.
Gale waited for her to continue. "Well?"
"Well," she echoed, "I don't like going to class." Gale snorted and she elbowed him. "Don't laugh at me. I don't like it here." Me neither, Gale thought. He hated being underground. It reminded him of the mines. He wanted sunlight, he needed fresh air. He missed the woods. "I snuck away. It makes Haymitch angry, but…" she shrugged again. "I found a piano. I hadn't played in so long." Madge looked at her fingers as though she could feel the music singing through her fingertips. "Sorry for getting us stuck here."
"It's fine," Gale murmured.
He hated to admit it but Madge Undersee was one of the only colorful things in his life. Everything in District 13 was gray. Since they got there it was suffocating. He couldn't breathe because of it. Madge had hair that reminded him of the sun and eyes that reminded him of the sky. She always smelled like wildflowers, even now. His interest in her peaked when his mother told him about the morphling that saved his life. Since then he'd been trying to work up to a thank you. Mostly he just watched her.
Fuck, that sounded creepy.
The Code 8 voice died off and the silence between the two of them settled.
"Do you miss it?" he asked. She turned her head and her hair brushed his arm. It was long. He was tempted to play with the ends. "The piano?"
"Incredibly," she admitted with a sigh. "It was the only thing I was good at."
He cocked an eyebrow. "So you're not good at it anymore?" he asked. Madge elbowed him again and he laughed. "You sounded alright when I interrupted you."
"Only alright?" she questioned. He shrugged and she felt it, and then she elbowed him once more. "Come on, I'm just a little rusty. I haven't played since before."
"And you still remember some of the songs?" Gale wondered. Again she nodded, her hair continuing to brush his arm. "Alright, I'll give it to you." It was nice that his eyes were starting to adjust to the light because her smile was the first thing he saw in the dark room. It suited the situation. "You always played back in 12. I'd hear it."
Madge looked to him. "You never interrupted me while I was playing, though, how did…" she trails off and looks toward the ground. Her smile began to lift again, brighter than the first. "You waited until I was done? Before you'd knock on the door?"
"Life is full of simple pleasures," Gale returned.
Madge laughed lightly and then bit down on her bottom lip. "If I had known you were listening maybe I would've invited you in. I always thought you hated me because of things like that—the piano."
The relationship between Gale and Madge has blossomed in 13, but only slightly. They have conversations here and there, sometimes she'll even laugh at his jokes. It's almost as though all of that misplaced anger from living in 12 had disappeared. When she said this, though, Gale's heart sunk a little.
"I never hated you," he said.
"No?"
"No. And you know that."
Madge tugged on the tips of her hair. "It's nice to hear you say it, though."
"I hated what your family stood for. I hated that you had money while my family was broke even though I worked six days a week. I hated that you always had food and my younger siblings were going hungry. I hated how you had those people in your house like they were guests." Madge was still beside him, so Gale finishes with, "But I never hated you."
How could he? Gale wasn't an idiot. Anger blocked his common sense every now and then but it wouldn't be fair to hate someone for something they couldn't control – even he knew that. It was misdirected, his hatred, and she was the easiest target.
"You know," Madge picks up in his silence, "I always admired you back in 12."
"Admired?" he repeated. "That's questionable, Undersee."
"Not like that!" she said. He could practically feel the warmth from her cheeks radiating outward. "I mean, you and Katniss, you were always so brave going into the woods like you did. And you took care of your family. You were always so strong in everything you did, Gale. I just sort of… drifted in the background." Madge was a ghost. She hardly made an impression. She did what she was told and that was that. No ifs ands or buts. "You're the kind of person that makes a difference. You did make a difference, saving everyone like you did."
Gale let out a huff of air. "I didn't save everyone."
Madge reaches over, her hand gently resting on his knee. "You saved me," she told him, shrugging a bit. He looked back toward Madge who'd been staring at him. "You led so many people out of District 12. Went back to get more. You did everything you could."
He sighed again. "I didn't save your parents."
Madge winced at his words but nodded her head in agreement. "You're right," she said eventually. Madge removed her hand but Gale quickly lifted his own, grabbing her fingertips.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. His thumb grazed her knuckles. She stopped pulling her hand away. "I should've tried harder."
"Gale," Madge shook her head. "You can't blame yourself for my parents. You tried to get them out." Mrs. Undersee was too weak to move. At first Mayor Undersee and Madge were going to leave her behind, it was her final wish, but the mayor turned back at the last minute because he thought he could carry her. Gale grabbed Madge's arm and pulled her forward despite her screams and cries. Later she collapsed in the meadow, curling into a ball and sobbing into her knees. They never made it out. "They made their choice," she added a bit later, her voice so soft it was as though if she spoke any louder it would crack.
Again Gale wondered how anyone could ever hate Madge Undersee. She was so sweet it makes his body ache. Her voice was a lullaby, as soft as a summer breeze. Madge would never hurt a soul.
Suddenly she sat a little straighter. "Can we talk about something else?" she asked. Neither of them had planned for this conversation to get so dark so quickly.
"Sure," he nodded. "Maybe more about that admiring you did." Madge huffed and Gale chuckled. "Have you ever been to the slag heap, Undersee?"
"Have I ever—no! Of course not!"
"Mm. Behind the school, then? Under the bleachers?"
"Gale!" Madge snatched her hand from him so she could swat his shoulder. "I've never even been kissed of course I would never go to any of those places!" Quickly she placed her hand over her mouth. "Wait, I didn't—"
"You've never been kissed?" Gale asked. She pressed her lips tightly together behind her hand. "I thought you were seeing that one kid, the jeweler's boy."
Her head tilted to the side. "He didn't, um, he didn't like girls," she said. "We hung out so his parents wouldn't get suspicious." Gale was floored. Not because the jeweler's son was gay, that didn't matter much to him, but Madge Undersee had never been kissed? He found it hard to believe. "Please stop looking at me like that," she frowned, finally lowering her hand. "Like I'm some sort of freak. It's not like I've never wanted to kiss anyone boys just never really talked to me because well I don't know I always just assumed it was because I was the mayor's daughter because it was too painful to really assume anything else and now I'm babbling and—" she pressed her lips together, tightly this time. "Sorry."
Gale dragged one of his hands through his hair. "Christ," he muttered. "That's just weird to me."
"Well I'm sure it is," Madge said, frowning again. "You've always had girls throwing themselves at you."
"Not that," Gale scowled. "Guys always talked about you in school." Again he felt the heat coming from Madge's cheeks.
"Really?"
"News flash," he knocked her with his elbow, "you're nice to look at." Madge lifted her hands and pressed them to her cheeks. "Is that so hard to believe?"
"No one's ever… ever even asked me on a date," she shook her head. "So yes, it's a little hard to believe. Boys never even talked to me. Besides Peeta, but he was in love with Katniss even then so…" still, she shook her head. "I don't know."
"Maybe that's part of the reason I stayed away from you," Gale said. "I always figured there was someone else."
Madge straightened up beside him. "What?"
"What?" he echoed.
"What do you mean 'stayed away from me'?" she asked. Gale licked his lips and opened his mouth to speak but no words came. "Were you the one admiring me?" she asked.
Gale made some noise low in his throat and shrugged. "Maybe."
"No. I don't believe that."
He huffed. "Why not?"
"Because, you were rude to me."
"Well maybe it's a more recent realization, then," Gale said. "Maybe there was always something getting in the way of things." Like money. Like status. Like other people, Katniss being the top perpetrator and the gay jeweler's boy who Gale thought of as quiet competition.
She shuffled next to him. They were still very close. Not much room in a janitor's closet.
"And now?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
She hesitated, "Are there still things getting in the way?" Again Gale's mouth opened for an answer but nothing came. Instead he licked his lips and reached forward, cupping her cheek and tilting her chin upwards. Their mouths were so close he could feel her breath, was exchanging hers with his own. Just a bit closer…
"Drill Complete. Drill Complete. Drill complete. Hallways are safe to enter. Drill complete."
The two startled away from each other and Madge let out a gasp for air. Gale leapt to his feet and pushed open the janitor door, spilling in harsh artificial light. He reached down, extended his hand, and helped her up. Once she was steady they left the closet.
Gale and Madge walked silently beside one another for a bit before Madge slowed. "Haymitch is probably looking for me," she said.
"And I've got, uh," he gestured to his communicuff. "Things to do."
Madge smiled shyly. "Just more stuff in the way, I guess." Gale froze completely and turned to her. She jerked her head over her shoulder. "I should—"
"Tonight," he cut her off, grabbing her hands. "I'll come by Haymitch's. Pick you up. Maybe you could play the piano for me?"
Her head tipped forward, her cheeks bright pink. "Okay," she exhaled. "Yes. Sure. When?"
"Seven?"
"Sure," she said again. "Great. Yes."
Gale smiled and tugged her toward him. "See you then," he said. And then he dipped down and kissed her on her cheek. She walked away, biting down a smile, with the most wonderful look in her eyes.