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

He wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of crying. Gale's first thought is of Posy, she's been having nightmares a lot since war ended, and then Vick because he's always been a little softer. All the kids are sleeping on Gale's living room floor in District 2 so it doesn't take long to find who's missing from their sleeping bag. When he realizes that Rory's the one who is absent Gale rubs the sleep from his eyes and pushes himself off the couch.

Gale follows the sound of crying until he reaches the bathroom. He knocks twice before pushing the door open, finding his younger brother curled into a ball in the shower tub. He only curls further when Gale steps inside, closing the door behind him.

"Go away," Rory forces out. 14 years old and he looks like such a child now. Gale lowers himself onto the edge of the tub and Rory slinks away. "I said go away," Rory forces out.

"What happened?" Gale asks. His voice is rough, filled with sleep, so he clears his throat. "Another dream?"

"Leave it," Rory insists. He sniffles loudly and wipes his eyes with the back of his hands. "It's none of your business." Gale stares at his younger brother who's cornered in the bathtub and sighs. He swings his legs over the edge and joins him. The tub is cold and Rory glares at him as Gale sticks to his end of the bathtub. His legs are too long to stretch out so he's hunched as well. "What do you want, Gale?"

"Talk to me," he says. "You never talk to me anymore."

They used to talk all the time back in 12, back when Rory was still a kid who hadn't gone through a war. They would play catch in the field or sit out on the porch on summer nights just talking. It was something Rory never got to do with their dad so Gale was trying to be there for him as often as he could. Not necessarily as a father, just someone Rory had if he needed him. They are brothers after all. But now Rory hardly looks at anyone, talks to anyone. He's always so quiet, closed off. Gale doesn't remember the last time he saw him smile.

Rory lifts his head and jerks it to the side so his bangs are out of his face. "Don't laugh at me," he grits out.

"Swear," Gale says, holding up his hand.

Rory's eyes fill with tears again and he tilts his head away. "It was about…" he sniffles. "About Prim. My dream." He wipes at his eyes again. "It wasn't even a bad dream, it was really good, Gale."

"Then why're you upset?"

Rory scowls at him. "Because she's gone." Dead. Buried in the ground, what they could find of her. Primrose Everdeen exploded into God knows how many pieces and ceased to see the light of day. "I woke up and I—I felt like my lungs had been ripped from my chest." Gale reaches up to scratch his forehead. He's finding it hard to look at his brother. "You weren't there. In 13. Toward the end." Rory shakes his head and sniffles another time. "We were always together, Gale. She was my best friend. My only friend there, really."

A weight settles in Gale's chest. Rory doesn't know Gale had a hand in the creation of the bombs. Even after going to therapy a few times Gale still feels an incredible amount of guilt for the death of Primrose Everdeen.

"I'm sorry," Gale finally says. "I am, Rory."

He shakes his head and lowers his head into his knees. Rory's voice is muffled as he says, "You don't know what it's like."

"To lose someone?" Gale asks. He snorts. "Yes I do."

"Not a girlfriend," Rory mutters. Again he sniffles. His voice cracks, "She kissed me. She said she'd be back for me." He lifts his head and blinks away his tears. "I was so jealous that she got to go fight when I couldn't and then when they told me what happened… Gale you don't know what that feels like!"

"Yes I do," Gale says again, this time a lot more sternly. "I've lost someone."

"Katniss doesn't count," Rory snaps. "Just because she didn't choose you—"

"It's not Katniss," Gale cuts him off with a frown. It was never Katniss. Gale knew that. Everyone knew that, deep down. He was there for her but she wasn't there for him. She was over Gale before they even had a chance at anything. And that hurt but not in the way that Rory is explaining, because there was someone who was there for him. "You remember…" Gale clears his throat and looks up toward the ceiling. "You remember the mayor's daughter?"

Rory stares at his brother, his gray eyes narrowed, before nodding. "You mean Madge?" Gale tips his head forward. "You… you loved her?"

Gale hesitates. He continues to stare at the ceiling. Did he love her then? When he took her to the meadow and they watched the fireflies lighting up the fields? Or when he pressed her against the side of her house and lost himself in the taste of her tongue? Did he love her when she brought him the morphling that saved his life? Or that one night she held his hand just as tightly as he needed her to? Did he love her when Katniss left him? When Katniss didn't love him? When Katniss was no longer part of the equation?

He doesn't know.

Does he love her now?

"Yeah," Gale croaks. He reaches up and rubs at his face, scratching the scruff on his chin. "Yeah. She's gone, too."

Rory looks at his brother in a new light. Gale doesn't even look like the same person anymore, not now that Rory knows this. He looks older, more tired, more broken than Rory thought he was. Gale coughs to clear his closing throat but it doesn't work very well.

"I didn't know," Rory says quietly. "Sorry."

"Don't be sorry." Again Gale coughs. The bathtub feels a lot smaller now. "She, uh," another cough. "Just, don't be sorry." Rory timidly tips his head forward. "Prim, though," Gale clears his throat another time and finally looks toward his brother. "Did she… did she know how you felt about her?"

"Yeah," Rory nods. "I told her."

"Then you didn't lose it all," Gale murmurs softly. Rory finds tears in his brother's eyes and Gale coughs again. "She knew that you loved her. That's good. There was no doubt there because you told her. Remember that. Okay?"

Rory blinks a few times. "You never told Madge. Did you?" Gale's eyes fall shut and he gives up trying to clear his throat. It isn't helping anyway. "Gale… I… I'm so sorry." His eyes squeeze tightly together and he jerks his head to the side. Rory doesn't know what to say to him, to his older brother. "I…"

"Rory," Gale whispers sadly. "It's okay." Finally his eyes open. "It's okay to… to not know what to do. To feel like your lungs have been ripped out of your chest." He blinks a few more times. "And it might not ever go away. But we can't forget them." That's something his father told him when he was young, when he sat on the porch with Gale. You can't forget the people who are gone, even if it hurts to think about it. "We can't pretend like it didn't happen. We can't," Gale gestures to them, "hide in the bathroom at night and pretend like we're okay during the day."

The younger of the two sniffles loudly and nods his head. "I just miss her."

"Me too," Gale says. "And that's okay." The two brothers stare at each other for a long time, filled with sadness and longing, regret, heartache, the list is endless. But there's nothing either of them can say to fix the situation, to bring the air back to their lungs, to fill the hole in their hearts. Gale pushes himself to stand and extends his hand down to his brother. "Come on, let's get some sleep."

Once Rory's standing alongside Gale he throws his arms around his brother's chest. It knocks the breath out of him in a different way. Rory squeezes as tightly as he can and then Gale's arms swing around too, holding his brother just as strong.

"I love you," Rory mumbles into Gale's chest. Gale squeezes his brother closer. "I'm sorry."

"Shhh," Gale whispers. He blinks his tears from his eyes. "I love you too, kid," he chokes. "We'll be okay."

They stand in the shower holding each other for a very long time. After a while they break apart and step from the tub. Gale leads Rory back into the living room and Rory crawls into his sleeping bag while Gale resumes his bed on the couch. In the moonlight Gale sees Rory give him a sad smile, and Gale gives one back.

They both fall asleep dreaming of the blonde's that they lost.