Eliza didn't go to Gale's room the next few days, thinking he might want it all to himself to rest from the mission. She had been meaning to ask him about his visit to 12, but during class it didn't feel like the right time, and in between them, she had barely even seen him. Even when she did, he always managed to look busy chatting to Katniss or somebody else, and there was no way in hell Eliza would want to meddle in between that.

She had almost given up on it, when they stumbled on each other after dinner and he asked her why she hadn't been back to his room to study.

"I thought you might want some time after...you know, the whole mission thing."

The whole visiting the bombed remains of our old home thing.

"It's fine, don't worry about it. Are you coming?" He asked, already walking down the corridor.

Eliza hesitated for a second, but agreed right after, glad she'd taken her textbook with her to read at dinner.

"So... How was it?" She braced before asking, wondering if he wanted to talk about it at all.

He shrugged lightly before answering, "I thought it would be worse. I didn't even leave the ship, so maybe it has something to do with that. And how you imagine it, is just the way it looks. There's barely anything left."

Eliza gulped, the image of her house dissolving into ashes replaying in her mind for the hundredth time.

"It didn't even feel...well, honestly, it felt like it could be any other place. At first glance I wouldn't have been able to tell it was 12, if it weren't for the row of victor's houses still in the same place. The Mayor's is still up too."

"Really?! And what about survivors? You didn't find anyone?"

She knew how low the chances were after all that time. And they had checked everything, according to Mindy. It still pained her to see Gale shake his head, as they were getting out of the elevator on his floor.

"Unless you count Prim's cat. Katniss found it and they're letting her keep it, if you can believe it."

"The cat?" Her mouth fell open. "How did it even make it that long?"

"Animals are tougher than you'd think. Plus, I wouldn't put it past that one having some kind of immortality superpower. It already acts like a demon reincarnated."

Eliza let out a chuckle, but her mind wandered off to District 12 again. Despite her best judgment, she had been hoping to have some news on Madge. She'd disappeared before the bombings, so maybe she had found a way to survive out there, or had come back to 12 once the dust settled.

Apparently, all that hadn't been more than wishful thinking.

"I wish I at least knew what happened to Madge." She hadn't planned to say it out loud, but before she could think further, she let it out in a mumble.

"Did you know her well?" Gale asked, "I thought you just worked for her family."

"Well, I kind of started to, eventually."

They had reached his door. "She was such a snob." Gale complained, taking the key from his pocket and opening it.

"No she wasn't!" Eliza countered, feeling defensive of Madge and surprising herself in the process. "She was sweet, she was just…clueless sometimes."

"She had no problem fluttering her money around." Gale grunted, once he sat on his bed and took off his boots.

It was only kind of true. With time, Eliza realized she did not do it on purpose. Madge simply was not aware of how little people on the Seam had, and how much she did in comparison. As she started to open her eyes to that, the change was visible.

She even came with a bag full of her old clothes once, and said Eliza could keep whatever she wanted. Even if it was used clothes, and most of them didn't fit her properly, it made great fabric to work with.

"I know she came across like that," she said, laying her book on the desk. "But I think she was just... Well, her parents kept a lot from her. Until she got older, I don't think she saw how lucky she was. And it's not like she ever went to the Seam. I bet that if she saw it, she'd act differently."

Gale took a look at her, deliberating. After a few seconds, he was complaining again. "Fine. But she was still annoying. Always around when I went to the house, but wouldn't say a thing. I found her staring at me in disgust more than once. Look, I know I was covered in dirt most of the time, but c'mon, most of the people were."

"Now who's clueless?" Eliza laughed, sitting on her chair and looking back at him. "She liked you, that's why she was always there."

Gale jerked his head in her direction, stunned.

"You're joking."

"I wish. She tried to pretend not to, but kept pressing me to tell her things about you. It was so obvious."

Eliza remembered feeling annoyed at the time, thinking to herself that Katniss was already enough of a competitor, and there was no need for fate to bring the pretty immaculate Madge Undersee into the picture as well.

She stared at Gale's hands, while also reminding herself that there was no competition anyway when the winner was clear from the beginning.

"It is a bit weird," he noted, bringing her out of her thoughts, "imagining you gossiping about me behind my back."

"I wasn't gossiping! I only told her the truth."

"Oh yeah, like what?"

"Well…" She hesitated, conveniently turning her back to him, flipping through her textbook while trying to find the stuff she could tell without giving away her own crush in the process. "You know, the normal stuff. She wanted to know how you learned how to hunt, and…"

"And…"

"Whatever, just girl stuff."

"I don't know what girl stuff is. I have two brothers, and a sister that is basically a baby."

Eliza rolled her eyes, glad he could not see her.

"You know Katniss well enough, don't you? That should teach you all about it." Her tone was sharper than she meant it to be, but Gale didn't seem to mind.

"For some reason I get the feeling you and Madge wouldn't spend much time talking about hunting." Eliza could hear the sarcastic smile through his words.

"How do you know that? I could be Artemis' spirit reincarnated or—"

"Artemis?"

"Greek mythology's hunting goddess." She said, turning his way with a cheeky and proud smile.

He returned it to her and said, sitting back with his arms crossed. "Forgive me Burrich, but I've seen you shoot. There's no way you're a hunting goddess reincarnated."

She opened her mouth and turned her back to him again, on one hand because she was pretending to be offended. On the other, because Gale's arms looked especially toned in his new uniform and she wouldn't be caught eyeing him.

"How did you even see me shoot?" She asked honestly, while reviewing every time she'd been practicing her aim during the training, unable to spot Gale watching her.

"The other day, during the morning. You failed your target close to fifty times, remember?"

"I had almost successfully forgotten it up until now." She complained, erasing some notes from the page, and almost tearing up the paper in the process. "So, thank you."

"You're welcome." He let out before one of his loud yawns.

"You're just trying to put me down, anyway."

"Actually, I'm just trying to get you to tell me what you and Madge said about me."

Eliza exhaled loudly. She had hoped to at least have distracted him from that topic.

"Look, honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal, but it's kind of embarrassing talking about it. You've had crushes right? It's the same thing."

"Of course I had. Madge was one of them for a while."

He got up to brush his teeth as if nothing had happened, while Eliza had suddenly put down her pencil once again, as her eyebrows shot upwards. But she should have known.

Of course he would have liked her. Of course.

"That's why you're so interested then."

"Yeah, well, one always wonders." She could hear him moving around near the sink.

"But you just called her a snob..."

"Yes, but also...she was pretty... And I used to linger around the Mayors sometimes to hear her sing while playing the piano. Even Katniss liked it."

A bomb could have exploded that exact same time, that Eliza wouldn't have been as shocked.

"You...you liked to hear her sing?"

"Yeah, you know... I noticed she played a lot, but would only sing sometimes. And would always shut up once we rang the bell. Usually I stayed outside to listen for a bit, and rang only after a few songs." Gale smiled, scratching his forehead with his thumb, but not holding her gaze when she turned back to him. "I now get why you said it's embarrassing."

He told all of it as a harmless story, but Eliza was having a hard time processing it. And he was not completely unbothered either, because she could see the regret on his face, as he focused on messing around with his wrist-communication-thingy, as if it was super important. She turned to her book again, praying he didn't notice the red on her face, and tried to think about something to say.

He beat her to it, getting back on his bed.

"I don't get why she wouldn't sing in public more, since she played so often at the ceremonies. Why would they have to call on another person to sing?"

Eliza felt her stomach do a backflip, and cleared her throat before speaking.

"I think she didn't feel so confident about that. She had a piano teacher, but not voice lessons."

"I don't think she needed any. I mean...it's not like I know anything about music, I just think it sounded nice."

Eliza let the silence linger for a bit, before saying, "I think...well, you know, from what I gathered from being with her... I think maybe she looked at it as music for herself. When she sang...she wasn't performing, she was just doing something she liked, that made her feel better. And she only did it because she thought there was no one else around to listen."

"It was kind of a shame" Gale said, and yawned loudly once again, as Eliza's stomach waged war against every other organ inside of her. She gathered, by the sound of it, that he was preparing to sleep "Do you remember when Mindy asked what we missed the most out of District 12? There's a lot of things I could say but honestly...I loved those moments."

Eliza spared him a glance over her shoulder. He had indeed laid down, his back to her.

"When I got near the house and could hear the piano...I went towards the back, where I knew I'd hear better if she was singing, and sat there for a while. I could be having the shitiest of days but that made it more bearable somehow. Especially after Katniss went to the games. Going to the forest wasn't the same anymore but that... Well, it helped".

Eliza's heart took a double step. He yawned once again, as if what he had just said was just some innocuous comment about the weather.

"The Capitol's garish music shows had nothing on that, in my opinion."

Should she tell him? It would just make the conversation uncomfortable, and what did it matter? She was not a great singer anyway, and without Madge's music it would be even more apparent.

But it felt dishonest, somehow.

Gale didn't wait for an answer though. She could tell his breathing got heavier, and that he most likely had fallen asleep, so she tried with all her might to focus on the textbook. For a few minutes, then for half an hour. By the end of it, she realized she remembered nothing of what she'd just read.

She did remember how Madge would sit on her stool, and lean forward when about to ask for the million alterations on the same dress. When she started to have freshly baked bread every time Eliza worked there because she learnt that she liked it. How her hair fell down her back and danced gracefully when she played a lively piano piece. How she smiled when she listened to Eliza sing for the first time, after insisting on it for ten minutes straight.

Right then, she realized how much she missed her.

Just like a few nights before, the tears came before she could think of stopping them. She tried to gather her things and leave before Gale could notice, but ruined it by stumbling on one of the legs of the desk, falling to the ground and grunting loudly.

"What's wrong?! Are you okay?"

Eliza had barely processed what had happened herself, but Gale was already up, checking up on her.

"I'm fine! I'm so sorry, I didn't want to wake you, I—"

"You're crying, how are you fine? Let me see it." He laid out his hands, for her to grab, and helped her up.

Her foot did hurt like hell, but nothing that wouldn't disappear in a few minutes. She was glad to at least have an alibi for crying in his room.

"It's fine, it didn't hurt that much. I'm sorry I woke you." She said, taking her burning hands from his and getting her textbook from the desk. "I should go anyway, see you tomorrow!"

She left before he could say anything else, practically shutting the door on his face, and wondering how she was able to find ways to embarrass herself as much as she did.

Once her head finally rested on her pillow though, she had almost completely forgotten about any sort of embarrassment. Instead, her mind lingered on what Gale had just told her, and she couldn't help the fuzzy warm feeling that grew inside her at the thought of him enjoying her singing.