Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine.

Little Pitchers

Gale knows the instant he walks into the kitchen he should turn and walk back out. Anytime his brothers are around and watching the children it's usually a sign of a bad evening for Gale.

Vick has Savanna on his lap. She's chewing her hand, drooling down the front of her blue dress while her uncle studiously reads through his medical book, probably readying himself for yet another test.

Rory is cracking open pecans with Glen. Gale watches for a second or two from the doorway as his son shows his brother how to use the nutcracker Gale had bought at the market a few months back.

They don't notice Gale lurking in the doorway, are all too absorbed in their activities, so he clears his throat.

"Dad! You're home." Glen holds up one of the pecans, "Look how many pecans Uncle Rory and me've cracked!"

Excitedly he waves to a small mountain of mutilated pecan meat on the counter to his left.

Gale smiles, ruffles his already wild hair, before sliding past him to scoop up his daughter.

"Come here, beautiful."

She squeals happily, murmurs 'Da! Da!' before smearing her spit covered hand down the front of Gale's shirt. He gives her a kiss on the last patch of skin on her cheek not covered in slobber before giving his brothers an annoyed look.

Much as he liked seeing them, he liked seeing his wife more.

"Why are you two here?"

Vick rolls his eyes, "Missed you too, big brother."

Gale thinks about swatting the back of his head, but Madge has told him that's teaching Glen a bad habit so he just glares at him instead.

"I meant, where's Madge?"

Rory tosses a chunk of pecan up and catches it in his mouth, "She went with mom and Posy. They wanted her advice for a dress or something, since she's a proper lady and all."

Fighting a groan, Posy is obnoxious about buying dresses for her dates, Gale takes the seat beside Glen, between he and Vick. Savanna shifts, dives for one of the pecans and he quickly flicks it away.

"Hey Glen," Rory grins. "You better give your dad that note from your teacher."

Oh shit.

There's something about Rory's smirk that tells Gale this isn't one of their irritating notes reminding the parents about conferences. Those were the week prior.

He can't imagine what kind of note it could be though. Glen is brilliant, has some of the best grades in his class, though Madge has pointed out pre-school isn't going to determine much of anything. He's a good kid, is friends with everyone, has never been in a fight, and from what Gale can tell, he's too laid-back to even get goaded into it like Gale would.

For a second Glen thinks, as though he has no idea what his Uncle is talking about, then a little color rises in his cheeks and he gives Gale a sheepish look.

Without saying anything, he flips around in his seat and yanks open his backpack, pulls out a note with swirly, cursive handwriting on it that Gale can barely make out.

Glen holds it out, "She wan'sa talk to you and momma."

Great. Judging by the look on Glen's face she isn't going to be thanking them for their obviously amazing procreation skills.

Staring at the note, Gale slowly deciphers the stupid teacher's words.

Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne,

I would like to meet with you as soon as possible regarding Glen. Today at recess he was caught behind the bushes with one of the girls, kissing her. Normally I would simply tell you to tell your son kissing at school is not allowed and warn him another offense would result in suspension, but the…dramatics, I can't think of another word for it, of his actions makes me think perhaps we should meet and discuss this matter a little further.

Regards, Devra Wranks

It takes almost two full readings before he absorbs what the note really says.

Glen was caught kissing a girl behind the bushes. Okay, there are worse thinks he could've been doing. Apparently his son had skipped the 'cooties' phase and got into the 'liking' phase with girls, which seemed to be a repeating occurrence with the men in his family. While he's starting a little earlier than the others, Gale still doesn't see how it's such a terrible thing.

"So, uh, did she not want you to kiss her?" Glen was normally pretty perceptive, but maybe he'd gotten caught up in the moment. Gale could see that needing further intervention. That would be dramatic, wouldn't it?

"Why would I kiss her if she didn't want me to?"

Okay…

Gale sees Rory and Vick exchange a look, an identical pair of smirks. Clearly, since they'd been the ones to pick Glen up, they knew the whole story.

"Well," Gale pushes down the feeling of impending doom in his stomach, "why did the teacher call it, uh, dramatic?"

Glen stares at him for a minute. He's thinking, Gale can see the wheels turning in his little head, the same as when Madge is planning out how to break something to Gale she thinks he'll find unpleasant.

Finally, he sighs.

"I kissed her like you kiss momma."

That…really doesn't explain much.

Rory catches on to the confusion.

"How does your dad kiss momma?" Rory asks, the smirk on his face letting Gale see he already knows how this conversation is going to end. He leans on the counter, elbows to the granite, face resting in the palms of his hands in anticipation.

Glen squints, not really understanding, then turns to Gale.

"Like you kiss momma." He frowns, plainly annoyed Gale doesn't know how he kisses his own wife.

A little hand comes up, swats at Gale's face and covers it in slobber while he thinks.

How does he kiss Madge that's…oh. Oh.

Glen starts to elaborate.

"I kiss-ed her on the lips, then on the cheek, then on her neck, and hugged her and put-ted my-my hands in her hair…" He stops thinking about his kiss and deciding if he's said everything. His eyes widen, apparently not.

"And I squeezed her on the butt." He frowns, "She thought that was funny."

It's now abundantly clear why Mrs. Wranks wants to talk to Gale and Madge. Their son is a pre-school harassment case waiting to happen.

Vick has put his face in his book, nose down in what looks suspiciously like breasts, almost wheezing with laughter. Rory is beaming, glowing with joy. He turns his mirthful gaze to Gale.

"He really is your son."

Not even caring if he's setting a bad example for Glen, clearly even his good examples lead to bad things, he reaches across the counter and slaps the back of Rory's head.

"I don't know why I'm in trouble." Glen huffs, not even noticing his uncles' stupid giggling around him. "Ariel said she liked me and I like her, and I said 'can I kiss you?' and she said 'uh-huh' and I said 'like my daddy kisses my momma' and she-she said 'how's that?' and I told her and she said 'okay' so I did." He looks thoroughly annoyed now, "I really like Ariel and I just kiss-ed her like you kiss someone you really like, how you kiss momma, and Mrs. Wranks got all mad and made me go sit in the office."

Gale has a vision of his future, Glen and his public displays of affection getting him in trouble with the fathers of plenty of girls. He can already imagine how upset this poor Ariel's parents must be, knowing some little brat had been groping their daughter.

He knows he'd be furious if it were Savanna.

Granted if she never gets this whole teething thing finished, gets the drooling under control, that may never be an issue.

"Glen," Gale ignores his brothers, both beside themselves in silent laughter now, "you can't kiss a girl like I kiss momma."

His son rolls his eyes, "Why not?"

Because you're in pre-school. "Because only married people kiss like that."

There that settles it.

"Really?" Rory, unhelpful as ever, raises his eyebrows, "I seem to remember you being quite handsy with Madge before you two were even dating."

Vick nods, "Yeah, and didn't you two sleep in the same bed for ages before you got together?"

They are being deliberately unhelpful and they know it.

They both smirk, shit-eating grins, as they watch and wait for Gale to try and explain away his pre-married life activities.

"That's not kissing," he says quickly, hoping Glen doesn't think about it too much. He's an unfortunately smart kid.

"So Glen could have this Ariel over for a sleepover and that would be okay?" Rory asks.

"And the butt squeeze is fine too then?" Vick ads, "'Cause that's not kissing."

Why did these assholes have to pick up his son on this of all days?

"No," he looks at Glen. "You can't touch a girl's, uh, anything."

He almost adds 'ever' but doesn't want to traumatize him.

"Until when?" Glen asks.

"Yeah, Gale," Rory comes around the counter, throws his arm around his nephews shoulder. "Until when?"

Glaring at Rory, he's a dead man, Gale tries to come up with an answer.

"Until…you're older." Smooth.

It would be divine justice to have his idiot brothers give Glen 'the talk' as Gale had been forced to do so many years ago, but he doesn't trust the bastards to not fill his son's head with all kinds of nonsense.

Well, Rory would. Vick is still much too enamored with Madge to teach her baby lies. He eggs Rory on, but he won't actively do it himself.

"How much older?"

Why is he suddenly so interested in kissing girls?

"Much." And that's all the elaboration he's getting.

Gale runs his hand through his hair, sticking it up in all directions he's sure, gives his son a pained look. "Why do you want to kiss this girl so much?"

A little smile creeps up on his son's face, his dark lashes flicker down to the ground, and his face darkens a little more.

"She's pretty," he sighs, looks up. "She's like momma. Pretty and nice and we share lunch, like you and momma share food, and she smells like peaches and…"

He's off, telling Gale all the things about Ariel that make her so wonderful.

It takes some work, but Gale manages to keep his grin at a respectable level, he doesn't want Glen to think he's laughing at him, but he's adorable with how completely taken with the girl he is.

His actions may be all inherited from Gale, but his understanding of why he wants to do them is definitely from his mother.

#######

When Madge gets home Vick and Rory make a hasty exit.

"Have a good night," Rory tells her ominously as he ducks out the back door to where his motorcycle is parked behind the garden.

Vick gives her a kiss on the cheek as he heads out the door. "See you this weekend."

Madge looks a little confused. Normally Vick hangs out for a while and tells her about his clinicals, something Gale wants to know nothing about. Neither, he thinks, does Madge, but she's spent too long letting him dish out the painful details and now she's stuck.

Gale gets the impression both his brothers are looking forward to the weekly dinner at their mother's house more than usual just so they can hear the lurid conclusion to the Tale of Glen's Love Life.

Nose wrinkling up at the door as it drops closed behind Vick, Madge turns to Gale, "What am I missing?"

You really don't want to know.

Propping the baby a little more securely on his hip, Gale sighs, "Sit down."

#######

Gale gives her the short version of events, shows her the note, then Glen, when he finally emerges from his bath, gives her his much more entertaining version.

"…and daddy said I have to be married to kiss her like that, but Uncle Rory said daddy kissed you before you were married and had sleepovers and touched your butt-"

Madge is blazing crimson when she covers her eyes, holds up a hand to stop him from speaking.

"Glen, sweety, daddy and I were much, much older when we started…doing those things." She gives him a little smile, pulls him into her lap, "Take it slow. There'll be plenty of time to kiss when you're older."

Though he doesn't look totally convinced, Glen's shoulders droop a little and he nods.

"I can't kiss her at all?"

Madge plucks up the note, gives it a look over, "What does the note say?"

For a second Glen is quiet, then he grins, "It says no kissing at school."

My wife is creating a monster.

Madge nods, "Not at school."

Glen grins, looks at the note again, then pops up and kisses Madge on the cheek.

He bounces off her lap, over to Gale and Savanna, tells them both goodnight, before racing down the hall to bed.

"What have you done?"

Madge rolls her eyes, "Oh, Gale, it's pre-school. He spends five minutes outside after class with the girl before we pick him up. How much trouble can he get into?"

Considering he's Gale's child, clearly got the Hawthorne charm, the answer is probably 'plenty'.

Thinking about this poor 'Ariel' girl, Gale feels a little queasy, pulls Savanna a little closer. In a few short years she'll be in school, be just as cute as Glen, and Gale will be on the other side of this child-sized tale of kissing and groping. It'll be his little girl that just learned what Gale greatly fears is tongue kissing from some smarmy boy.

Seeing the look on his face, Madge snorts, "What?"

"She's never going to school." Clearly it's not a safe place to be.

With a long sigh Madge scoots down the couch, presses herself into his side, "You think she won't be able to defend herself?"

That's stupid, she's his and Madge's daughter, of course she'll be able to defend herself. Considering it a little more, Gale sees what the real problem will be.

"If she's anything like her mother she'll be a devious little thing. I need to protect the boys from her."

Madge gives him a narrow little look, a small smile creeping up her lips, "Oh, I'm devious?"

Did she not just hear herself giving their son advice on how to circumvent the school rules? She's the most devious person Gale's ever known.

He nods, "Always manipulating me."

"Am I?" She presses a kiss under his ear, her breath ghosting along his jaw.

"Absolutely."

Gale feels her shift, presses a little closer to his side. He's ready to grab her, put the baby to bed, head to their room and lock the door, god forbid they give Glen anymore ideas.

Then she sits back, stealing her warm breath and soft body from his side.

"I'm going to go tuck Glen in."

Gale scowls at her back as she gets up and head for the hall.

"See? Devious."

Turning back, she grins, "Well let's hope they do get my abilities to influence, rather than your ability to be influenced, don't you think?"

He does. He really does.

Standing, Gale follows after her, catches her around the waist and pulls her back, causing her to squeak.

"Since I'm so easily influenced, why don't we put these rugrats to bed and then you can manipulate me a little more?"

She kind of owes him, he thinks. Clearly she uses her powers of persuasion against him, which is why their kid knows way too much about kissing.

Madge gives him a hard look, "Maybe Glen should give you some lessons on being a little more smooth."

"He learned his moves somewhere," Gale presses a few kisses to her neck.

"Yeah, and now we have to go meet with his teacher." She smirks at his disgusted look. "So, if he inherited just a little bit more of my deviousness and learned fewer of your moves we wouldn't be in this mess."

While that might be true, he isn't about to admit it.

Slowly, they make their way down the hall, to the baby's room. She's already asleep, Rory has the amazing power to exhaust her, one of the few abilities his brother has that Gale is actually a little envious of. As soon as she's in the crib Gale hoists Madge up, almost running out of the room.

"We still have to tuck Glen in," she laughs into his shoulder.

He groans.

Madge plops down, takes his hand, "Don't worry, I'll still manipulate you later."

Happy at that thought, he follows her down to their son's room.

Despite the bad omen of his brothers watching the kids, Gale's evening is looking to end on a high note after all.