Disclaimer: Most stories are individuals of themselves and are unrelated to each other.
"What are you doing next Friday?" Gale asks from across the table.
Madge looks up from her phone where she's browsing her Twitter feed and shrugs a little. She swallows the bite of pancake she's already placed in her mouth before answers, "Dunno. Why?"
Gale looks nervous, which is strange for a Saturday before ten in the morning. "Date night?" he asks, and Madge nods in response. She smiles before taking another bite of pancake and Gale grins back. They've been together for a few months now and Madge can't help but think that it can't get better than this. Being with Gale is easy and makes her happy, and the way he looks at her makes her feel warm. Like now, from across the table at her apartment, as though there are stars in his eyes. "I'll make reservations," he says.
Her feet find his under the table and she rubs his ankle gently. "Sounds great," she says with a smile.
"What's your favorite flavor?" Gale asks.
Madge blinks a few times, pulling her attention away from the soda machine. "Of… drink?" she asks. They're getting lunch at Panera considering Gale has a rare hour lunch instead of half-hour today.
Gale laughs slightly. "No, babe. Of cake."
"What does soda have to do with cake?" she asks.
"Nothing. I was just wondering." Madge arches a curious eyebrow at him but Gale's face returns to impassive. He fills his cup with water before placing it on the tray they gave him. "I'll grab a table," he says. Then pauses. "Strawberry, right?"
Madge blinks again. "Vanilla," she answers. "Strawberry ice cream is my favorite."
Gale nods, "Right, right, right."
"Do loud noises make you nervous?"
Madge and Gale are nestled on his couch, his arm around her shoulder and his thumb rubbing gently across her skin. She looks up at him, confused as to what he means. They're currently watching some sort of action movie that he picked out, full of loud noises and explosions. She's not nervous about it.
"No, I'm fine," she answers.
"I meant in general," Gale says carelessly. He's been asking a lot of questions like this lately, and Madge thinks maybe… maybe they're for something else. But she always answers them. It makes her curious, but of course she still answers them. "They don't bother you."
"I mean, no," Madge answers with a little laugh. "Not unless I'm like, trying to sleep or something." Gale nods a couple of times and Madge can't fight the little smile that's forming on her face. "Why, Gale?"
"Just wondering," he answers. "The 4th of July is coming up, I couldn't remember if you liked fireworks or not."
Madge has to stop herself from laughing. "Gale, it's February." Part of her is swimming in happiness at this ridiculousness though. He expects them to be together until at least July. That makes her incredibly happy. "I like fireworks," she says, nestling into his side. "I likeyou."
"Mm." Gale smiles, pleased, and turns to kiss her forehead. "I like you, too."
After a long day at work Madge wants nothing but to crawl into bed and collapse. But when she arrives to her apartment and finds Gale there she decides she wants to crawl into bed and doother things.
There's barely a moment of greeting before she kicks her door shut, striding to him and sliding her hands up under his shirt. Gale grins against her mouth, meeting her in push and pinning her to her wall. His hips rock against her and she gasps, breaking apart from his mouth. Gale immediately moves to her throat, suckling across her skin as she tips her head backwards against the wall.
"Gale," she pants.
"Long day?" he murmurs against her neck. She nods, lost in the feeling of him against her. "I can fix that."
Gale tugs her into his arms and carries her to her bedroom, laying her out on her bed before slowly and deliberately peeling each article of clothing from her as he kisses his way across her body.
Later, boneless and tired but completely content, Madge rolls to Gale's side. She kisses his bare chest and he hums, the sound as bright as she feels. "I love you," she breathes.
"Good." Madge scoffs a little but Gale's smile stretches into a grin. "I love you," he echoes gently.
He's never been one for big, showy, public things, but Madge hasn't needed it. In these quiet moments when they're alone Madge knows Gale loves her. It took him a while to say it, for Madge to believe he really meant it, but now she knows it's true. The way he looks at her, the moments he squeezes her hand in silent support, it's the small things that make it real for her.
"I want to stay here forever," Madge says with a sigh. "Cancel the weekend, we're staying in."
Gale sits up in a rush. "What?"
Madge is thrown off of him by how quickly he's moved. "What?" she echoes.
He stammers for a minute, something that Gale Hawthorne doesn't ever do, before regaining his sense of self. "Date night," he reminds her.
"Right," she says with a nod. But she does kind of want to stay in. A weekend of the two of them tangled together, never leaving the bed, ordering takeout instead. "We could cancel, maybe?"
Gale sits up completely now and Madge is surprised to see how… panicked he looks. "No we can't," he blurts. "We have–we–I really want to go." Madge forces herself to sit up too, wrapping her sheet around her as she nods. "It's important to me."
For a minute Madge thinks that maybe he's planning to propose. But Gale's rational and they haven't been dating that long, and Madge is still finishing her degree. He wouldn't propose until they were both finished with all of that, both ready. But there's a sort of look on his face that she can't exactly figure out, wondering why it's so important to him to go on date night.
"Okay," Madge says, nodding. "Sure, yeah, of course. That would've been rude anyway, to cancel a reservation last minute."
Relief floods Gale's face and a weary smile joins. "Great," he says. "Great."
Madge isn't entirely sure why she has to dress up for date night, but Gale insists it's a fancy restaurant. She's halfway down the hallway to his apartment when she runs into Gale, surprised that he's out here. He looks nice, wearing a dark green shirt and some slacks, and her heart does something funny. She'd love to just stay in instead. Maybe she can still convince him.
"What are you doing?" Madge asks. "I thought I was meeting you up here?"
"I thought I was meeting you downstairs," Gale returns. He looks suspicious. Madge's eyes flicker past him to his apartment door and Gale whirls around to look at it too. "What?" he asks.
"Nothing." She reaches for his hand. "Let's go."
They take a few steps down the hallway and just as Madge had expected, Gale stops. "Wait," he makes a big show of reaching into his back pocket. "My wallet. I think it's still in my work pants."
Madge arches an eyebrow. "I can pay," she says. They take turns paying to make it fair.
"We'll split it," Gale responds. "I need my–just come on." He tangles their fingers back together. "It'll just take a minute," he says, pulling her back toward his apartment. They stop outside the door while Gale fumbles with his keys. "Are you hungry?" he asks, a little too loudly.
Madge's eyes flicker to his apartment door again. She presses her lips together to keep from smiling. "A little, sure," she says. He turns to look at her as he moves to put the key in the lock and suddenly, his face falls. "What?" she asks at once.
Gale drops his hand from the door. "You know, don't you?"
Madge fakes her confusion very well. "Know what?"
"Dammit," Gale exhales, dragging his hand through his hair with a frown. "You've known this whole time." Madge reaches out for him immediately trying to save this because he looks soupset that she can't stand it. "Haven't you?" he asks.
"Not the whole time," she says softly.
Gale sighs again. "Fuck."
"Gale, it's…" Madge trails off with a smile, squeezing his hands to convey the things she can't put into words. "It's a surprise party?" she asks for confirmation, and he sighs another time. "Gale," Madge says again. Her smile is infinite. "Thank you."
"It wasn't supposed to be like this," he mutters.
If he hadn't been dropping little hints, he might've been able to pull it off. Madge's birthday isn't for another couple of weeks, she hasn't even been in birthday mode. But the small questions, asking about cake, clearing her schedule.
"It didn't click until right now," Madge says. He sighs another time. "Gale, it's okay," she insists, her smile still bright.
"It's not," he grumbles. "It's just…" he drags his hands through his hair and shakes his head, looking distressed as he glances toward the door that's separating Madge from the surprise party. "You are incredible," Gale says softly. "You have always been incredible to me, no matter the shit I give you. And I wanted to do something for you that let you know how incredible you are."
She lets out a soft breath, her smile fading slightly. "I put on big shows of affection," she says, "because that's how I am. I know you aren't that kind of person."
"I want to be," he murmurs. "For you."
"Why?" she asks. "I love the you that you are. I love the little things you do for me that no one else can see. Because I know they're for me." She lifts his heavy hands and kisses Gale's knuckles. "I love this," she says. "And I'm going to act surprised. But you don't have to do things like this for me, Gale."
He looks less upset but his eyes are still a degree too dark. "I just wanted you to know how I feel."
"I know how you feel," she says. "I know you think I'm incredible." Madge steps toward him and presses herself on her toes so she's closer to his lips. "You make me feel incredible." Gale sighs another time, but this one sounds a lot happier than the others. Like a sigh of relief. "I love you," she says. "No one's ever thrown me a surprise party." Gale bends down to kiss her another time, this one a little longer than the one before.
"There're those noise popper things," Gale tells her. "Delly's idea. You sure you're good with loud noises?"
Madge grins. "I'm good," she confirms.
Gale kisses her one last time before shoving his key into the door. Before he pushes the door open he turns to her. "I love you," Gale says. His mouth pulls into a dopey smile and it's so adorable that Madge could literally melt. "Happy birthday," he adds.
Gale pushes the door open before she can respond and pulls Madge into his apartment. The two of them are overcome with loud noise, screaming, cheering, and confetti.SURPRISE! Madge's chest rumbles with laughter and she grins, honestly surprised at the amount of people that are in Gale's tiny apartment.
He strides behind her and wraps his arm around her waist as everyone's cheers die down. Madge does her show of wow, I had no idea! and everyone seems to go for it. Gale bends down then to press a kiss to her temple.
"We're staying in the rest of the weekend," he murmurs.
"You know me so well," she murmurs back.
Because while she loves her friends, this surprise, this gift of love and affection, she also loves Gale. And she has plans to show it, privately, like he normally does.