Disclaimer: All stories are individuals of themselves and are unrelated to each other.
Gale sat in the living room of the Undersee mansion with his jaw clenched and his eyes on the carpet. He had never been angrier in his entire life. Not when his father was crushed to death in the mine collapse, not when Prim's name was called for the Games. He had never been this livid.
"We just need your signature here," Mayor Undersee said to Gale, gesturing to the contract on the table.
Hazelle, beside him, rested her hand on Gale's shoulder. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to," she whispered. Gale swallowed thickly and leaned forward to the tiny coffee table, taking the pen that was being offered to him.
One little scribble later and it was over. There was no going back.
It was something that had been arranged because of his family. After Katniss had rejected him, multiple times, Gale had decided he didn't want to get married. He didn't have the time (or energy) to keep chasing after girls for one night at the slagheap and in the end it wasn't even worth it. He'd mostly given up.
Posy had fallen sick for the third time that winter and Vick had holes in his shoes that the snow could seep through and Gale was stubborn and didn't want to have to take money from Katniss. There was a growing unrest in the people of the Seam because of the Games and Gale was nearing his tipping point, what with everything his family was experiencing and the mistreatment they'd been going through because of the Capitol.
If the mayor hadn't approached him, Gale probably would've started a rebellion all on his own.
"If you agree to this marriage," Mayor Undersee had said, "your family will be taken care of fully and completely. They'll never need to worry about going hungry or falling ill. Never have to skip meals to pay for new clothes." Gale sucked his teeth. He didn't know why he'd stopped to listen to the man anyway.
"What do you get out of it?" Gale asked. "This marriage."
"I get the knowledge that my daughter is with a brave, strong man who will stay faithful to her," he had responded.
Gale took one look toward his dingy home in the Seam and caved. He didn't plan on pursing anyone anyway, and this way his family would benefit from the deal. "I'll do it," he said.
Gale didn't any real problems with Madge Undersee, not really. He hated her family because of their position, not because they were horrible people. He hated that she was curvy and tall while the rest of the people in the district struggled to fill their stomachs, leaving them malnourished. He hated that he didn't hate the soft features on her face, the golden color of her hair. He hated that she didn't say anything when she had all the power in the world.
The day of their marriage was the first time he'd seen her in months. Gale had stopped selling berries to the Undersee's when Katniss won, mostly because Madge was Katniss's friend and not his and he didn't like feeling like a charity case. This is the biggest case of charity there is,Gale thought to himself as he saw her. It was all he could think about as he signed the agreement forms the night before in the Undersee mansion.
She looked pretty in her white dress, the one she normally wore for reapings, but her eyes were wide and sad. He didn't question it, he didn't say anything. They were wed in the courthouse with their family outside. They didn't kiss. They didn't have a Toasting. They went straight to their newly assigned home in town without discussing it at all.
At night when the sun had set Gale lowered himself onto the couch in the living room while Madge unpacked boxes in the kitchen. She brought him a mug of cocoa and he frowned as she settled into a chair nearby.
"Is this what you wanted?" he asked. His first words to her as her husband. "Me?"
Her eyes found his, cold and unforgiving. "Why would I want this?" she asked. Her voice was quiet but full of bite. It startled him. "I didn't chose you either, Gale." He narrowed his eyes at her as she looked away, blowing on her drink to cool it down. "Papa knew of the unrest in the Seam. Suitors from the Capitol were making bids. With this… arrangement… it's a double win for him." Madge's eyebrows furrowed, a little u forming between them. "The unrest will settle now, and I get to stay in the district." She shakes her head a little. "He's not a bad man, Papa."
"Why'd you agree?" Gale asked. There was no doubt that Madge's father wouldn't have forced this on her. The Capitol may be cruel, but Mayor Undersee truly isn't.
"I'd rather be in a loveless marriage with you, than with anyone from the Capitol. Any day." She took her first sip of hot chocolate and sighed. "It's not awful," she said, gesturing to the cup. "You might even like it."
Madge lifted her eyes to his as she took another sip, and then she stood from her spot. She tipped her head in Gale's direction before leaving the living room once again.
He came home late after work and found her still awake. Madge usually retired by the time Gale got back from the mines, it was late by that point and she had her own life to attend to. But she was awake, and she was crying.
They'd been married for a little under a month. It'd been awkward at first, it was still awkward now. But they were slowly warming to one another. He knew her favorite type of tea and she knew when he needed his space. He knew the way her eyes lit up when he told her something new, and she knew the worry lines on his forehead.
But this… this crying. This was new.
He unlaced his shoes in the hallway and kicked them off by the door like he knew she liked, and then hung his coat on the hook. His footsteps were silent as he crept toward the living room, and when he got there he found her curled into a ball sniffling. Madge's body shook as tears streamed down her cheeks and he felt an unfamiliar tug on his heart. Gale knocked on the doorframe lightly and she startled, sitting up quickly and wiping her eyes.
Madge looked at him and waited for him to say something, but he didn't. He just stared at her for a few moments before shuffling away.
Her lungs felt like they were filled with salt water. Tears pushed on her eyes once again and she returned to her ball, trying to swallow her cries but doing a horrible job at it. Of course he wouldn't ask her what was wrong, they weren't the type of people to do so. Over their almost month together they shared few actual conversations. Mostly kept to themselves. As long as he didn't come home smelling like another girl she didn't mind it much.
But she would've loved a conversation. She craved intimacy, physical and emotional. Gale gave her neither of those things and it ached. Madge knew it was because she wasn't the wife he would've wanted. She couldn't cook very well, she wasn't skilled in any sort of weaponry. Madge could barely sew a button back onto a shirt without it falling off the next day. She was kind, sure, but she wasn't wife material. And Gale, he'd always seemed like the type to want kids. He'd never have them with her, they hadn't even kissed yet.
What felt like hours later, Gale returned to the living room with two mugs in his hands. Madge looked up as he extended one to her and she felt her chin quivering. The mug was warm and the smell of cocoa filled her senses. Gale lowered himself onto the couch beside her, still not having said a thing.
She looked down at the drink but couldn't bring herself to blow on it to cool it down. Her whole body was exhausted. Finally, she whispered, "Thank you."
Gale took a sip of his drink. "It's not as good as yours," he said. After a pause, "Want to talk about it?" Her chin began to quiver again and Gale reached forward to set his mug on the coffee table, and then he grabbed hers from her as well. "Hey," he shook his head and pulled her toward him. "It's okay, c'mere." Madge hesitated but his hands were warm and she had just admitted to herself that she wanted this, the intimacy. Gale pulled her onto her lap and dropped his chin to her shoulder, wrapping his arms around her waist.
"I'm sorry," she rasped, but she felt him shake his head. "I'm such a wreck."
"It's okay," he murmured. She felt his voice rumbling in her chest. "What's going on?"
How could she explain to him that it wasn't just one thing, it was many? She started at the beginning, how she had been visiting her mother at home when a highly paying suitor from the Capitol showed up to cart Madge away. He was forceful and she struggled against him, and the mayor wasn't home to intervene. Thankfully Peacekeepers noticed the struggle and separated them, explaining to the suitor that Madge had been recently wed and he couldn't take her anywhere. The man's grip wasn't like Gale's, it was hard and cold.
"I was so scared," she admitted softly, her body still gasping for air. "And then I…" she trailed off as her eyes fill with tears again. "I…" she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to will them away but it didn't work. "I'm sorry."
Gale'd never been so gentle with her, "No, no. Don't apologize." As she tried to gather herself he added, "I should've been there, someone should've told me."
Her chest feels so tight. "You didn't want this. Me," she croaked. "I'm so sorry, Gale. You should've, you could've—"
"Could've married someone else?" he finished for her. Gale tugged her closer. "Yeah. I could've. But I didn't." She knew why he was with her, because it helped his family. That's no way to live, that's not a marriage. They're barely even friends. "And this is where we are now," he murmured. "You're my wife," he told her. "I care about you."
She didn't know how to respond. She let him hold him for just a bit longer before she climbed off of his lap and they retrieved their drinks, drinking them in silence.
He likes to think he fell in love with her day by day.
He would come home to Madge in the living room, trying to sew patches on his work shirts. "Your mom taught me," she'd say. "Well, tried to." He would help her until she got the stitching right and she would reward him with a smile that made his chest warm.
Gale would smile when she came out of the shower with her hair wrapped up in a towel. The smell of her shampoo made him absolutely mad.
And when he saw her with Posy for the first time he nearly exploded. She was so patient with his little sister, so utterly sweet that he felt his knees shake as he stood. His mother gave him a knowing look but he tried to push it away. Hazelle had followed him into the kitchen and stood close to him.
"I know this isn't what you wanted," his mother said quietly. "But Madge is…" More than he could've asked for. Gale hadn't wanted to marry after everything went south with Katniss so ending up with Madge was chance. A blessing in a way. If this arrangement hadn't brought them together Gale knows they wouldn't have found one another. "Tell her," Hazelle said. "How you feel."
Could he tell Madge of the fury that bubbled inside of him when she told him about the Capitol man trying to take her away? Would she understand the way his hands tingled when they sat close? This arrangement was just as much of a deal for her as it was for him, unfair in ways of love and the works. But maybe, just maybe, she'd feel the same.
They'd been sharing a bed since they got married but often stuck to separate sides. Some nights they'd wake up tangled together and Gale would pull her closer and Madge would mew in her sleep, a sound that made him weak. Most mornings one of them would sneak out before the other awoke to avoid an awkward conversation.
But not this morning.
Madge was sleeping on his chest, her arm lying across his stomach and his across hers. Madge stirred before he did and took a few moments to herself to listen to his heartbeat. It was such a small comfort but she drowned herself in it, cherishing moments like this. Gale was not the husband she expected to have but he'd been lovely in all ways possible. His touch made her feel alive again, reminded her she had a future and a reason to carry on. His smile, though rare, gave her butterflies.
She took a deep breath and prepared to slink out of his grasp when he suddenly pulled her closer. "Wait," Gale murmured. His voice was sleepy and made her stomach flip in ways he couldn't possibly understand. His eyes cracked open, a soft gray met her gaze and his lips tugged upwards slightly. "Morning."
"Good morning," she whispered back. His hand across her back shifted up her shirt until he was touching skin, his thumb rubbing across her skin. "I should start a pot of coffee for you," she said, tearing her gaze.
Gale shook his head, again tugging her closer. "Stay in bed with me." Madge craned her neck to look up at him again and found a soft smile on his face. "I want to talk to you." Before Madge could question him he started rambling, something she'd never heard him do before. "We both knew coming into this that it… it wasn't what either of us wanted."
"Gale—"
"Just lemme," he sighed, looking away from her. "Let me talk, okay?" She nods slightly and shifts again so her neck isn't at an awkward position. "I'd given up on any hope of being with anyone. I hadn't been on a date… ever. And marriage, I'd always wanted to be married but it didn't look like an option for me. I settled with you because of the deal your dad gave me, that he'd keep my family healthy and alive. I never thought…" he took a deep breath. "I never thought I'd feel the way I do about you."
Her heart flipped inside her chest as she moved to sit up. "And how's that?"
Gale had rehearsed what he wanted to say to her a thousand times and a thousand times more, but his brain went to absolute mush when he looked down at her. So instead he sat up as well, and cupped her cheeks, and kissed her. Madge melted into him, her hands flying to his shoulders to steady herself. Her senses went into overdrive and he pulled away after a moment, pressing his forehead to hers.
"Like that," he whispered. She nodded and smiled, sliding her hands from his shoulders to cup his cheeks. Madge pulled him down for another kiss and fell apart as he smiled against her mouth.
It took them a very long time to get out of bed that morning.
A/N: Written for swishywillow aka my love aka it was her birthday and she is supreme. Hope you liked it! Happy birthday bby