Hunger Games 1. Chapter 1

She is beautiful in a way Katniss will never be. Never could be. She's pristine with her cascading blonde hair that manages to reflect brightly even in the darkened coal filled District 12. Her lips are plump and though she's naturally skinny, she has curves only a girl from the town could manage. Her long, lean legs. Her delicate hands that clearly haven't been forced to do anything… ever. Those blue eyes so different from the grey ones we all have in the Seam, encased in thick, dark lashes. Yeah, she's gorgeous and like Katniss, she's completely unaware of her affect on the males of the district. That is until we remember she's the Mayor's daughter.

"Well, if I go to the Capital, I want to look nice, don't I?" she asks and I'm already frustrated at her presence because I can't figure out if she's being sarcastic or not.

Annoyed, I begin to reply, laying on thick guilt that she'll never have to go into the Games. Not like me who has my name in the glass bowl more than any other male in the district. I eventually tune her out though, as Katniss finishes the transaction—strawberries for cash. The dirt under my nails, frankly, is far more appealing to me at this moment than Madge Undersee.

Eventually, I bid Katniss goodbye so we both can prepare for the Reaping. Like every year since I turned 12, I manage to detach my thoughts of the Games for the next few hours. But some time later, I am abruptly pulled out of my self-induced trance.

"Primrose Everdeen," the overly enthusiastic Effie calls with a sickening amount of glee.

From where I stand, grouped with the older boys from the district, I can see a terrified Prim being led forward by two white-clad Peacekeepers. I'm searching for Katniss in the group of girls but a swish of blonde hair is what I see first. Before Katniss even has managed to react, the Mayor's daughter is trying to push her way toward Prim. But for what Katniss lacks in reaction time, she makes up in brutality, easily knocking people out of her way much quicker than Madge can. And it's her who reaches the Peacekeepers first. It's her who volunteers to take the place of her little sister. It's her on the stage, stoic. It's her whisked into the Justice Building. And it's me, keeping a clawing, fidgeting, nearly hysterical Prim in my arms, trying desperately to contain her as her older sister is taken away.

And then it's Madge I see pushing through the remaining crowd to make it to the steps of the old building. Her white dress flows in the slight wind as she ascends toward the erected platform, and her long hair whips behind her. I loosen my grip on Prim as I watch the blonde screaming at Mayor Undersee and Mrs. Everdeen grabs my hand, saying something about needing to go inside to see Katniss. It takes me a moment to tear away my gaze from the scene Madge has managed to create and to realize that we are being escorted toward the back of the building to say our goodbyes. Our goodbyes.

Somehow Madge manages to get in front of me in line to see Katniss and I want to ask her what she said to the mayor. I want to ask her why she was trying to get to Prim. But thinking of anyone but Katniss in this moment seems like treason.

When Madge walks out of the room and I'm the last one left in the damp, dreary hallway, I realize I've been clenching my fists so hard, all ten knuckles are white. When allowed inside, Katniss and I hold each other. We've never held each other like this. I can't even fucking remember if we've ever even hugged. I try to encourage her and I do my best to alleviate all her worries about her family. Of course I will take care of them because they have become an extension of my own. And I want to tell her more, about how I care and how I need her to be here with me but I know it's selfish and I think that maybe I'm only thinking these things because of the circumstances. But nonetheless, Peacekeeprs have to drag me out of the room and away from her. And as the slam the door shut, the last glimpse I see of Katniss is the place on her dress where a gold pin is. The one I saw before on Madge that made me sick. The one that if sold could feed my family and the Everdeens for weeks. I want to ask Madge about it when I see her as I walk into the atrium like area of the Justice Building but I'm distracted by a bawling Prim and I punch a wall instead. Oops.

/

It's a wonder I can even manage to sleep. But I can't credit the slumber to myself, but instead the white liquor I indulged on my couch as I watched the recap of the Reapings. When they get to District 12, my eyes were trained on Katniss but the blonde head of hair makes an appearance at the end, where they hadn't manage to cut her yelling at her father from the footage. Since I had already sat through 11 other Reapings, I'm drunk and I laugh before promptly passing out.

It's Posy who wakes me the next morning. I'm still on the couch and I realize no one had the strength to move me to my own bed. I'm usually never harsh with my baby sister, but my head is throbbing and by the sunlight through the sooty window, I can tell I'm going to be late for school.

"Hey!" Posy says in protest as I push her off of myself quickly so that I can go into the room I share with Rory and Vick to change into my school clothes.

It doesn't take long and within minutes, I'm walking out the door, ignoring my mother's requests that I eat something. The door slams behind me and I'm trying to adjust the tie around my neck as I walk briskly toward town. I momentarily consider hanging myself with it but instead leave it harmlessly hanging over my white button-up. The only set of clothing my mother insists I keep clean.

The day is a blur and everyone, even my friends know better than to try to talk to me. The teacher doesn't even comment when I come into class twenty minutes late and slink into my usual seat in the back. I eat alone and as I leave the large building at the end of the day, I'm alone then too.

But then I see her in the distance.

It's her fault for being so goddamn noticeable. And it's her fault that her shoes are spotless, her shirt is ironed, and her skirt has clearly been tailored so that it fits her frame perfectly. It's her fault for everything I decide, so I quicken my pace to catch up with her.

"Undersee," I say as I am finally in stride with her.

The blonde startles slightly at this, glancing up at me momentarily before her gaze trains its elf elsewhere. Like she's too good for me. Especially since I have nothing to sell her.

"I'm fucking talking to you." I try again to command her attention but this time she doesn't even look at me. "I saw you try to get to Prim yesterday. What were you going to do? Volunteer yourself before Katniss could?"

No answer. No look. Nothing. All I get in response is a slight sigh that she releases. So I press on.

"Trying to be noble? The guilt of you living on these ruins in your perfect palace finally get to you? You're pathetic," I continue, practically spitting out the words.

I know I'm using her as a punching bag. I know I shouldn't. But she's here and Katniss isn't.

"So you gave her your pin? What a waste. Katniss only ever pitied you. She thought you were useless, just like everyone else does," and before I can even continue, the petite blonde has smacked me across the face.

"Thinks. She _thinks_ I'm useless," are the words Madge begins with. "She's still alive, asshole."

My hand is on my cheek, rubbing it as Undersee walks away from me. If she wasn't a girl, if she wasn't the mayor's daughter, and if what I had said Katniss thought about her hadn't been a lie, I'd kill her. But instead I walk toward the Seam, somewhat grateful some of my aggression, even if only by words, has been released.

* * *

**A/N**: HI. This is my first attempt at fanfic in a really long time. I'm also pretty new to the whole Hunger Games thing but after reading the books I am convinced Madge/Gale should have (and maybe did ;D) happen. I haaaatee proof-reading but I try to glance over before I publish so sorry if there's a lot of errors.


	2. Chapter 2

A few days later, after the interviews, after Peeta confesses his love to Katniss, I don't even bother going to school. I don't even bother existing. Luckily, I had delivered a large haul of game to the Everdeens that day before so I don't have to worry about them for a while. Instead, I'm replaying Katniss' interview over and over in my head. The way she twirled, the way she blew kisses to the Capital, the way she bowed her head in such a way that she convinced that crowd and maybe even me that she could love Peeta too.

I drink two bottles of white liquor and spend the evening throwing up everything in our tiny bathroom, not even sparring my dignity. Everyone in the house can hear me. They all know better than to say anything, to come near me. Even Posy ignores me completely.

Worn and disgusted, I lay on my back on my bed and I wonder if I should have told Katniss I love her. But even now that I've had a week to battle this thought in my head, ever since I held her for the last time, it feels almost forced in a way. Like everyone expects me to be in love with her. But I think that I just love her, instead. Because she's Catnip. Because she gets me. Because we've spent nearly every day with each other since our fathers died. This conclusion calms me slightly, but if I'm not in love with her, Peeta fucking Mellark sure as hell shouldn't be in love with her.

When the Games begin though, I watch intently the first day but my mother decides I should try to only to watch at the end of the night. So the second day, I finally go back to school.

I'm late again though, and I have to go to the office this time for a slip for my absences. I push open the double doors of the school's main office and immediately reach for my tie to hang myself for real this time. Madge Undersee is already at the counter. I feel the same rage that had attached itself to me the last time I saw her find its way inside me so I hang back a bit, not wanting to be near her. But I'm standing in front of the doors, so when Madge turns to leave, our eyes lock for a moment. Well, she rolls her eyes at me and I just stare at her, really.

"You literally look like shit," she says as she passes me and she actually lifts a hand to pat my shoulder in a condescending way. "Get yourself together, Hawthorn."

And as she leaves the office, it takes me a moment to move. That rage has somewhat diminished and a feeling of relief has settled in. Why, I don't know. Maybe because she's the first person since the Reaping who has talked me without tiptoeing, the first person to momentarily make me care about myself instead of Katniss and the Games. Probably because being compared to shit makes me realize that I'm still alive and need to act accordingly. Just because Catnip is fighting for her life, doesn't mean I need to forget I'm still living. I have too many mouths to feed to sulk about a maybe-love that I can't confirm or deny.

Thank you, Undersee.

* * *

That day after school gets out, I quickly change out of my school clothes, kiss Posy on the cheek to apologize for the last few days, and leave the house again. I need to go to the woods. My snares have been unchecked in two days and I cannot afford to waste precious meat, which exchanges so quickly into food and money for my families.

I don't even check for the hum of the electric fence before I crawl under it, thankful though I'm not immediately shocked to death on contact. I spend a great deal of time collecting the game from the snares, and even manage to take down a few more rabbits. When I deem myself done, I clench my fully bag tightly, knowing I must make it to the Hob to sell before it's completely dark out. But as I'm leaving, I spot the berry bushes, looking like they have pox, the way they're all spotted red.

I stand in front of them for a moment, thinking how Katniss always eats more than she actually collects. The way she usually always sells them to the Mayor. And I'm reminded of a time when we were both younger, that we had a whole basket full as we waited outside the back of the Mayor's house. Katniss and Madge must have sat together at lunch even then, because no nerves existed as she waited for an answer to our knocks. It was the first time we were selling anything to the largest, richest house in the district. I was tense enough for the both of us. I towered over everyone even more back then so when the petite blonde answered the door, she looked especially tiny in comparison. I knew the Mayor had a daughter, and I had seen her before for brief moments in town but I had never really actually looked at her.

The light hair on her head was long even then, and where other girls were cute at age eleven, she was already showing signs of a mature sort of beauty. Her light blue dress, so pressed and clean that it made my skin crawl once I realized it matched her eyes. Who has time to match their clothing to their eyes? Fuck. And as Katniss exchanged pleasantries with the girl I learned was called Madge, I peered around her and into the castle of District 12. I decided then to thoroughly hate her and the way she always overpaid for the berries. But I also learned to depend on it.

So when I found myself once again outside her doorstep, the larger bag of game at my feet, the smaller bag clasped in my hand as I knocked on the mahogany wood of the door, I was cursing myself but praying it was her who answered. The Mayor never overpaid like she did.

"Oh," was the respond I was greeted with as Madge opened the door to reveal my figure.

She looked slightly startled, almost as if she was expecting Katniss to be the one holding the bag. Most of the time, I didn't even go to the door with the berries, but hung back instead.

"Do you want any?" I asked, my spare hand running through my much darker hair. She'd say yes, though. She always did.

"Oh," she repeated and I decided she was rather thick headed. "I just need to get some money."

This almost caused a laugh to release itself from my lips because I guess in my head I imagined her to constantly have pockets full of money. So as she left me at the doorstep to run off somewhere, I was grinning. Definitely not to her, but to myself. That grin didn't remain long though, as I heard a very familiar scream voice coming from within the large house.

I was inside and had navigated myself to the living room within seconds to come face to face with a large TV screen that seemingly was constructed of the wall itself. On it was Katniss, running, releasing one more scream as fire was barreling toward her. I was so engrossed in the visual; I didn't hear Madge come next to me. I was only alerted of her presence when the coins she must have been carrying crashed to the wooden floor. Catnip was on fire. Her leg had been hit. I was cursing under my breath, willing her to get up, to go, to find safety. Eventually, she did.

Madge, I guess satisfied that Katniss was ok, had dropped to the ground and was collected the money she had dropped. I was still somewhat transfixed on the screen though, as if I didn't believe Katniss was out of harms way. Which, I guess, she technically wouldn't be until she won the Games… or died.

"Can I see how many you have?" My thoughts were interrupted by this question and I looked over to see Madge holding out her free hand for the bag. I gave it to her. "Here," she replied again as she handed me the money she had been holding. Characteristically overcompensating for the trade.

I thanked her nearly without vocals, glancing around the interior of the house as she escorted me out. I felt strange as she walked me to the front door, the entryway was so elaborate, and it was almost funny. Like, who does that Mayor have to impress here? All it takes is windows not blackened with coal to wildly impress someone from the Seam. But before she closed the door on me, I set a hand to it to keep it from creating a barrier from between us.

"Hey," I started but didn't really know what I had planned to follow that word. So I took a moment and she looked almost prepared to slap me again. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry about er… calling you pathetic. And shit."

I think the large amount of money she had handed me prompted this apology, or maybe it was because she seemed so lonely in this empty house. Like a goddamn doll in a perfect playhouse but with no one to play with her. I didn't feel sorry for her, but I guess I was just sorry.

"It's fine," she said and I'm suddenly looking at her face, appreciating the single freckle on her cheek. Freckle. Weird word. But she continues speaking. "I am sort of pathetic. Like I wouldn't die within the first five minutes of the Games. I just wanted to help. It was so unfair for Prim to be called. But I'm not like Katniss."

I want to confirm that no, she's not like Katniss. She never could be. Because Katniss was forced to grow up at age eleven and Madge still resembles herself as a child. Because Katniss is cautious of everyone and every action and Madge drops money when she's startled and doesn't mind that a boy from the Seam who verbally assaulted her walked into her house without invite. Because Madge lets her hair stay loose and her beauty is so obvious it's hard to stare at her directly. Madge is like the sun in a way that Katniss is just the moon.

"Yeah," is all that I manage to get out though. Because I still don't like Madge. "See you, then."

* * *

**A/N:** I literally have written so much more but I'm not sure I want to publish it yet or ever. I'm super paranoid this isn't a good read. I don't know. Shhh. I'll put a few more chapters up in a day or so, I guess.

Does this Gale POV sound enough like his character? He'll get meaner as time goes on but I don't know. This just how I pictured him during HG and before the end of CF. More lighthearted.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day is a Saturday, so I head to the Hob to sell the remaining game I had collected from the previous evening. I sell it all for a good amount and even have enough to buy the Everdeens and my family some fruit. Besides the berries, we never even see fruit unless it's bought from the Hob.

Prim's smile is a good enough reward for my work as I drop the apples into her small hands and she confides in me that she hopes her mom has enough flour to make a pie. I ruffle her hair and shout a goodbye to Mrs. Everdeen who is busy in the kitchen working on some unfortunate miner. I quickly wonder how long it will take when I begin my job in the mine to end up on their table. But I push the thought away as Prim speaks to me while I walk out their door.

"Katniss' leg looks bad but maybe she'll remember how mama and I treat those burns." Prim says, obviously fishing for an affirmation that it will be okay.

"She'll figure it out," I say over my shoulder, the bag of the leftover apples at my side.

It's barely passed noon and I've done all the work I've planned on for the day so I don't hurry to go anywhere really. I just walk and eventually find myself in the meadow between the Seam and the fence. I'm eating one of my apples but nearly spit it out when I see in the distance that unmistakable blonde head. She's sitting, facing the woods and I briefly wonder if she's ever even been outside of District 12.

"Undersee," is how I greet her when I sit down next to her. I'm not exactly pleased to see her but I'm smirking as I see what she's doing.

In her hand is a green bottle nearly still half full of red liquid and she's taking a sip as I've sat down. She's drinking wine. And not the bootleg wine we get in the Seam, but the nice wine shipped from the Capital as a gift to the rich townspeople of 12.

"Does Mr. Mayor know what his daughter is doing right now?" I question her before taking another bite from the apple, wiping my mouth of the juice with my free hand.

She doesn't even combat me, just simply lifts her hand to dismiss my question as she takes another sip. And suddenly, I'm impressed the way she does so without even a displeased face. But then again, I guess she's been given glasses of Capital wine at dinner often.

"Go away, Hawthorn," she finally speaks but she's looking at me in a hazy sort of way and I laugh because clearly she's a lightweight.

Instead of listening, I simply take the bottle and drink a large amount for myself before handing it back to her. She doesn't even protest when after a few minutes, I repeat the same action.

"What are you even doing out here?" I ask and I throw my apple core at the electric fence in front of us, letting out a pleased snort when it falls to the ground fried from the current that has been switched on.

"Sitting. Clearly," she says this and takes another drink of her wine, which with my help is reaching the end of its life.

"Clearly," I repeat her sarcastic answer, allowing myself to finish the rest of her wine bottle, throwing it at the fence once it's empty. The electricity doesn't do much to it though, and it falls to the ground and shatters.

I don't even hold in my laughter as I look over and realize she's taken out another full bottle, handing it to me to open. I help myself to another large drink of wine and the subtle burn it leaves in my stomach is pleasing. Madge eventually takes it back for herself, slipping slowly. And it's now that I understand why Katniss chooses to sit with Madge at lunch instead alone. It's because Madge isn't obtrusive but instead her silent company is kind of calming. But just when I've come to that conclusion, she opens her mouth.

"She took me out to the woods once," Madge says and by the rosy hint of her cheeks, I can tell she's buzzed from the alcohol, if not drunk. I silently vow to catch up and take the wine from her. "And we went swimming in that pond. She talked about you and how you're so great and how you're the reason her family is alive."

I say nothing, so the blonde continues and I realize the past two days I've heard her speak more than I have the past five years.

"She said she thought she should be in love with you," Madge says and now she's laid back in the tall grass of the meadow so I'm looking down at her.

These words make me down more wine and I'm thinking to myself, pleased Madge knows to give me silence. Katniss thinks she _should_ be in love with me like I think I should be in love with her. Everyone in the Seam assumes we fool around but Katniss and I have never even kissed. And I wonder if maybe it's all of the speculation that put the idea of being in love with Catnip in my head in the first place. I don't think I'm in love with Katniss. Concluded somewhat, I punctuate the thought with a long swig of wine and a glance in Madge's direction.

The wine is strong because even I feel its affect after drinking more than half a bottle. So tiny Madge, I decide, is definitely drunk. And with fewer inhibitions flooding my mind, I'm giving her stretched out body an appreciative glance. Her eyes are clothes but she's eating from a bag of strawberries. Her plump lips are stained red, her light hair is fanned around, framing her flawless face. And I'm glad I've concluded that I maybe, definitely am not in love with Katniss because when Madge opens her eyes between strawberries and notices me staring at her, she smiles.

And after I take another drink of wine and hand it to her as she sits up, we quickly finish the bottle. I'm picking pieces of loose grass from the hair, brushing them from her back and feeling the subtle bones of her spine. I can't remember if it's her stained lips that touch mine first or if I'm the one who starts it but we're kissing. And when I part her lips with my tongue, and I finally get to taste her, I decide she's far more intoxicating than the wine. And she's so much sweeter than any girl I've kissed from the Seam. My arms are wrapped around her and I'm pulling her closer to me and unlike when Katniss was in my arms, there's lust permeating my thoughts as Madge's body is against mine.

When the blonde pulls back slightly for air, the haze is broken and our position registers. Madge on top of me, her legs straddling my waist as my back is against the grass of the meadow. I smirk because this innocent looking girl is completely in charge and she has no idea. Or maybe she does because she presses another light kiss to my lips and rolls off of me, grabbing her bag and nearly running from the meadow.

* * *

My body literally aches when Madge has separated hers from it. I decide it's not because of Madge but rather because of the alcohol and the fact that I haven't hooked up with a girl in several months. I sit up only enough to see her blonde head reaching the end of the meadow and the start of town and then allow myself to crash back against the cushion of the grass. I reach blindly, eyes closed for a bottle of wine, willing for it not to be empty. But my fishing hand only comes back with a worn brown leather journal. I open my eyes to look at it and it's old, scratched, filled with loose papers and only intact because of the blue ribbon that's tied around it. The fucking ribbon. I groan, drop it on my chest, and allow myself to pass out in the meadow until early evening.

When I wake up, I feel sober again so I sit up quickly and the journal falls into my lap. I tug out one of the loose papers and realize the foreign looking squiggles are actually music notes. Maybe I'm still a little drunk because instead of forcing the paper back within the journal, I fold it up and keep it in my pocket. I hold onto the journal as I stand though, and head toward my house in the Seam, knowing mother's probably wondering where I've been all day.

When I walk in the door, Posy runs to me and I lift her up, tossing her over my shoulder and spinning around as she releases terrified but happy giggles. My mother smiles from the kitchen, I guess pleased because for the last week I've only ignored everyone and smelt like alcohol. Eventually, I set a dizzy Posy down and smack a fiddling Rory on the back of the head as I enter our room. Even in pain, I suppose he's pleased I'm acting somewhat normal because he just looks at me with a grin.

I take the time before dinner to shower and change, having set the journal in one of my drawers and transferring the little music sheet to my clean pair of pants. And by now the alcohol has worn off and I join my mother in the kitchen where she's making stew. I take the bag of apples from this morning and cut them up into slices for Vick, Rory, Posy, and me to eat while we wait for dinner to be cooked.

My siblings are watching the Games on the TV and I guess Katniss must be asleep or doing something unentertaining because they're focusing on the Careers. I watch for a bit but I'm grateful when my mother calls us to dinner. We eat quickly, like every family in the Seam—like this is the first time we've eaten in days, like this is the last time we'll ever eat. We're done in ten minutes. The younger kids help my mother finish cleaning up but I go to my room and fish out the journal from my drawer. I run my rough fingertips over it and though the leather is old, it's quality. Knowing I should give it back quickly to Madge, so she doesn't think I opened and pried through it, I give some excuse to my mother and I'm out of the house.

The sun is setting so the pathetic streetlights of the Seam have turned themselves on, only to flicker annoyingly. I make it town quickly though, nervous about something in the back of my mind but the feeling is foreign so I dismiss it quickly. When I arrive at the huge house, I'm suddenly unsure as to how to reach Madge. I don't want to talk to the Mayor, definitely not so I don't know whether to knock on the front, the back, or to try and find Madge's window.

I'm basically circling the house with uncertainty when I feel a finger tap my shoulder, I nearly smack it away because I'm concentrating but manage to turn to the owner instead. It's Madge. Her hair is up in a bun or something on top of her head, tied of course with a ribbon, and she's wearing fitted pants instead of a dress or skirt for once.

I suddenly become embarrassed about the afternoon in the meadow but if Madge is embarrassed it's unreadable. She tilts her head expectantly at me, wordlessly making me produce my reasoning for being halfway between her front and back yard at this time of day, with no strawberries in hand.

I hold out her journal for her and she takes it, looking strangely at my like she didn't even know it was gone. I want to tell her I didn't take it, that she left it, but I think she concludes this on her own as she turns it silently over in her hands. It looks so much bigger when she's holding on to it.

"Thanks," she says breathlessly.

And she's so casual that I wonder if she even remembers kissing me. Or me kissing her. Suddenly I feel lame for even caring and I'm about to spit out something about how stupid the journal is or how stupid she is for leaving it or how stupid she just is in general but she speaks again instead.

"Did you read it?" she asks.

"No," I answer quickly.

"Yeah, you did," she says and I can't tell if she's joking.

"But I didn't," I reply.

"You totally did," Madge says with a nod.

"Totally didn't," I say.

"You know, like, all my secrets now," Madge responds and I'm finally able to realize she's just being facetious.

"Oh yeah. You're in love with Darius. Thanks for the juicy details of that affair you're having with him," I continue and she laughs.

"The red hair, I think, it just makes it so hard to say no," she says after a quick moment has passed.

I can't help but smile at the thought. Darius who flirts with everyone, even Katniss probably never gets any. Especially from a girl like Madge. Like Madge? I don't even know what I mean by that but I'm still smiling and the blonde girl is laughing.

"I really didn't open it though," I defend myself with this after several moments pass. Posy, Katniss, and Prim have all taught me that girls appreciate their privacy.

"You couldn't have," Madge answers as she's retying the knot of the ribbon that holds it together. "It's all music anyway."

"You play music?" I ask but I already know the answer.

Even though I always protested about Katniss dragging me to sell the berries to the Mayor, I wanted to go because sometimes I could hear Madge playing the piano through the open windows. I always knew it was her because it would stop when we knocked, and she'd be the one to answer the door. I always wanted to make Katniss wait until the song finished but she'd think that was weird of me and besides Katniss never had time for music.

"Mhmm," Madge replies with only a sound of affirmation and I think she knows I know the answer already.

My hand is in my pocket and my fingers are running along the folded paper from her journal, the page littered so deliberately with music notes. I want to take it out and ask her to play it for me but I don't.

"Well, it's getting late. I better go inside," the blonde says to me, stepping away from where we stand together to make it toward her front door.

I hadn't even noticed it had gotten completely dark outside. I look upward to the sky, seeing the bright half-moon for a moment, but my eyes are more entranced by the blonde hair that seems to reflect even the slightest bit of light, even when it's up in a ridiculous bun.

* * *

**A/N**: you tube/watch?v=wt4nSLBW2Mg - I love this Madge/Gale video. And though I don't particularly imagine my Madge as Diana Agron, I think this is how I picture my Gale and Madge. :)


	4. Chapter 4

When I walk into the living room the next morning, Rory and Vick are glued to the TV as usual. I ask about Katniss and they briefly fill me in and I decide it's easier to hear about than to watch so I exit the room and the house.

Because of what I gathered the day before, I don't really need to go to the woods to hunt. But I like the woods because they make sense. There's a flask in my pocket filled with white liquor and I think to myself that everyone shouldn't blame Haymitch for being such an alcoholic because it really does help numb everything.

But it doesn't help numb the fact that there's a blonde girl at the fence when I get there and she's the Mayor's daughter and I'm supposed to hate her because she's everything I hate about Panem and unfair treatment and the gap between the poor and the rich. Alcohol won't help that fact that I'm beginning to enjoy her company and the way I thought about the kiss we shared as I slept and the way her lips were red with strawberries and how she tastes and the noises she makes when she's squirming against me.

Fuck.

"What are you doing?" I ask and when she doesn't turn startled by my quick apparition to her side, I decide she was waiting for me.

"The fence isn't on and I want to go swimming but I couldn't remember where to get under," Madge says, still not turning to look at me.

I say nothing but instead walk a ways along the fence before pointing to the place where the fence curls up. Before I can even go under myself, Madge is on the ground, crawling and then upright, walking. Part of me wants to just avoid any further confusion of my feelings, and just leave but her hair is down again today and her dress is pink and…

I'm under the fence and walking next to her within seconds. She seems to know where she's going so I let her lead, finding it amusing because even with Katniss, I'm in charge in the woods.

When she reaches the large pond that's fed by a brook, she stops and sets her leather backpack down. I let out a rough laugh because I see another wine bottle peaking out from the opening and Madge only turns to me and smiles slightly as she kicks off her shoes.

It's hot and the water looks cold and inviting and I could probably catch a few fish with my hands if I went in but I don't want to impose on Madge's plans. But before I can walk away, she's handing me the bottle of wine to open like she did yesterday. And when I give it back to her, she takes a long sip and then pushes it back towards me. I'm drinking from it when I start to nearly choke.

Madge is lifting her cotton dress up and I think I might literally die. First the backs of her thighs are revealed and then the curve of her ass, which is fuller than any girl from the Seam's I've seen. She's wearing underclothes, though. Fortunately or unfortunately, I can't decide. They're black and somewhat modest panties and I know I should look away because it's obvious she's not even aware of the affect this is having on me. But I can't. Her dress is over her head and dropped carefully on top of her backpack. When she turns to do this, I see her brassiere matches her panties and though it is plain and modest too, I can't look away from the top of her cleavage that's effortlessly revealed.

Somehow I've torn my gaze away by the time she actually looks at me. But she looks disapprovingly and I realize it's because I've managed to nearly drink half the bottle in several large gulps since she handed it to me. Not my fault. But I hand the bottle back to her anyway, and pull out my flask to show her that I can repay her in liquor but she wrinkles her nose and I laugh because I realize she's never drank anything other than wine. So she drinks her wine quick and I'm impressed because before I've done anything other than avoid surveying her body more again, the bottle is empty and she drops it onto her dress, onto her backpack.

When her back is toward me and she's walking toward the edge of the water, I take a swig from my flash, squinting my eyes until the burn in my throat ends. I'm going to take a second sip, but Madge is standing ankle deep in the water, staring at me. I take a moment to appreciate her skin. And though she's not olive complexion like everyone from the Seam, she's tanned evenly all over, which makes her blonde hair stand out even more.

She's motioning me forward, or I'm at least telling myself she is because I'm kicking off my boots and pulling off my shirt and pants. Leaving me in my boxers, which thank God, are simple and black without holes not obscenely tight—unlike most of my others.

She doesn't wait for me and by the time I get to the pond, she's now a little more than waist deep and I'm annoyed that half her body is no longer revealed to me. Whenever Katniss and I swim though, she makes me look away until she is completely submerged, even if we are still wearing our underwear. So I appreciate Madge's lack of modesty, even if I think it's just because she doesn't realize how appealing her body truly is.

When I'm next to her in the water, I laugh because while the water is covering almost half her torso, it's just up to my hips now. I decide to sit, so the water is at my neck and Madge smiles, I think because for once she feels tall. Under the water I grab at her legs with a straight face and at first she looks frightened but when she realizes it's my hands, she wrinkles her nose in feigned annoyance but I can see a grin working its way through her features.

I'm quickly unhappy when I see her walking back toward the shore of the pond. But I remain where I am because the cool water is soothing and I'm not forced to think about anything other than Madge Undersee's backside. But when my glazed over gaze readjusts, I see her taking a drink from my flask and immediately stomping her feet, no doubt in subtle pain from the sting. I'm impressed though because only a moment passes and she's reclosed the flask and is wading through the water back toward me, flask in hand.

When she's close enough, I reach up around her waist and pull her down into the water with me so she's situated on my lap. Madge is giggling in a careless way I've never head Katniss laugh and it makes me grin. I'm pushing her blonde hair from her face with my hand, which is really only getting it wet, but the ends of it are already soaked from the pond water so she doesn't seem to mind. I eventually take the flask from her hand, swig from it and then make her do the same, tickling her sides after she swallows which seems to alleviate the burn because she's laughing again.

Before I'm even aware of it, the flask is empty and I'm still sitting in the water, Madge on my lap wondering if this is how the rest of the Hunger Games will be. Drunk with the Mayor's daughter, waiting until both of our inhibitions and hostilities are dampened enough by the alcohol so that we can kiss.

* * *

Even without the taste of strawberries on her lips and instead the hint of white liquor, kissing Madge is full of pleasure for me. Her lips are soft and full unlike so many of the girl's from the Seam. When I grip her hips to pull her closer to me, there's more than just bone to hold on to. And when my tongue is allowed between her lips, hers isn't afraid to tease my own.

Unlike the kiss from the previous evening, these kisses don't stop and Madge isn't pulling away from me. Her small hand is at my neck, her fingertips tracing over my damp skin and I can feel her long, thick eyelashes tickling my skin every time she adjust her head's positioning. Her other hand has found a home on my chest, her fingers splaying across there and I'm so content under her touch.

But it's me who pulls away after several, long minutes have passed. It's me who makes Madge open her eyes, which are heavy with alcohol. Because I'm drunker than I was yesterday and she's almost naked and my fingers have been allowed access to her perfect skin even if it's underwater. It's me trying to explain to her without having to say it that if we don't take a break I'm going to go to far. And when I get to that point I won't stop. I think she understands because she smiles and takes a deep breath, dropping her hands from my neck and chest. But my hands are still around her waist because I don't want her completely away from me.

After we stare, probably very drunkenly at each other for a while, Madge drops her hand into the water and splashes me. Sober, I'd be mad but I groan with a laugh as I try to wipe the water from my face. Secretly, I think even sober, I wouldn't be mad because Madge is smiling and her smile is bright, and white and her eyes light up when she reveals it.

"It's a shame we're not at the ocean," I begin, breaking our long silence.

"Why?" she asks, her head tilting slightly.

"Because then you'd really be Madge Under_sea_."

But before she has a chance to catch my pun, I've pushed her back off on my lap and for a moment she's completely submerged in the water. If it were Katniss, she'd be mad. She'd want to know why I did it and because her humor is lacking most of the time, she'd just be annoyed. But when Madge'reemerges from the water, she's laughing and shaking her head like a wet dog to get her now soaked hair from sticking to her face. When she stops, I push the remaining strands away from her eyes and lips and lean forward to reward her good humor with a kiss.

We do this, kissing and barely talking for a few hours until our fingers are pruned and the sun indicates it's passed lunch. She worries that her father will be wondering where's gone and I worry that the alcohol is wearing off so we both are beginning not to know how to act around another.

We walk hand and in hand to the shore of the pond and because it is so hot and the sun is so bright, our skin is practically dry once we reach our clothes. Madge's hair is still dripping water, but she ties it up with a ribbon before putting on her dress again. By the time I'm dressed as well, she's already packed with shoes on, leather backpack straps over her shoulders ready to go. But I'm pleased because she's waiting for me.

We make our way to the fence, her smaller fingers holding onto my pointer finger loosely as we walk. When we reach the fence, it's off, of course, and I hold up the loose part so that she can crawl and then I go under after her. She turns to me once we're both standing in the meadow to say goodbye. But as I look at her, I realize her cheeks are slightly burnt from the bright sun and something about it makes me grin and realize how precious I find her for some reason. So instead of a long kiss on her lips to bid her farewell, I bestow one to each cheek and then her forehead. She smiles up at me once I've pulled back and squeezes the fingers she has in her grip tightly enough so that I know she approves. And we walk away from one another.


	5. Chapter 5

When I reach home, there's a somber feeling within the house and I realize everyone is watching the TV, even little Posy.

"The girl from 11 died," Rory says and I look around and see my mom has tears in her eyes.

I glance at the TV, remembering that Katniss had formed an alliance with the tiny girl from the crop district and feel a pang of guilt when I see how distraught my best friend looks like as she covers the body of her friend with flowers. I wonder if Madge is watching and I wonder if she feels guilty too. But I can't watch the Games for long because it stresses me so I go to my room once Katniss leaves the body for the hovercraft and goes on through the woods. She's alive, so I have to be alive too, I remember.

When I lay down on my bed, the lightheaded feeling makes me understand that I'm still somewhat buzzed from the early afternoon's drinking. I let my head fall to my pillow and brush my hand through my still damp hair, wanting to sleep off the drunk and the guilt that surfaces when I think about how while Katniss was watching her friend die, I was making out and laughing with another.

I hate Madge. Maybe.

* * *

On Monday, I wake up early to do my rounds in the woods and the Hob. Since I can't take dead animals to school, I have to work quickly to rid myself of them before class. School goes slowly and at lunch, even though I sit with my friends, I'm miserable every second. The Hunger Games are hardest for me when my mind is idle and in school, unfortunately, that's where it idles the most.

Unlike the kids from the town, most of us from the Seam don't usually bother trying to get good marks. I'm lucky though, because I pass all my classes easily, without trying while others still must work to get that far. It doesn't matter that my teachers think I have potential because my only potential is the coalmine because that's the only future this district offers to me and everyone else in my family.

When the last bell of the day rings, I go home. The next few days follow in this pattern until after school one day, everyone in the town is talking in the streets. I gather from a friend that the Capital has decided that two may emerge from the Games victorious if they're from the same district. What a perfect ending to the love story of Katniss and Peeta. I spit onto the dirt road and head home.

Once I'm calmed down I weigh the situation in my head and decide it's good. If Peeta really does love Catnip, he'll protect her until the end. And if he doesn't, he'll still try to protect her until the end because if he kills her or lets her be killed, he won't be able to show his face in this district again. I'm deep in these thoughts as someone tugs on my sleeve.

I turn on whoever it is so quickly, they cower back a bit but it only takes a second for recognition and my expression undoubtedly softens.

"Did you hear?" Madge asks and her own expression is unreadable.

"Yeah," I answer simply because I'm not drunk and talking to her sober is somewhat awkward now when I know her anatomy so well.

"That's good right? They're going to make it," she says, and even though we haven't exactly talked that much, I can still tell she's trying to sound upbeat.

"I guess, yeah," I say because I don't know what else to say.

"I just think it's going to work out. I'm hoping. I just want her to be okay," she says and I immediately want to hit her because _I_ want her to be okay. I _need_ her to be okay and Madge doesn't need and has never needed anything in her life that she hasn't been sure to get.

"Shut the fuck up, Undersee," I say but continue instead of stopping. "She'll find Peeta and he better not weigh her down with all that love bullshit."

I guess she's use to my bipolar swings because she just shrugs, as if Peeta's masquerade of love for Katniss doesn't bother her. I'm going to tell her she's stupid but she talks again.

"Well, I don't know how full of shit it is, really. He joined the Careers and almost got killed to protect her," Madge states, looking away as if she knows this will annoy me.

I haven't been watching so that conclusion is news to me and I wonder why no one's told me. Not Mrs. Everdeen or Prim or my own family who I see everyday. But then I remember that everyone, literally everyone thinks I'm in love with Katniss so I guess they assume the realization that someone else might feel the same way about her will hurt me.

I'm frustrated by this huge assumption so I just leave Madge and walk toward the Seam. I don't think I could ever love Katniss on my own terms because it's so expected, so shoved down my throat that it hardly seems like it could ever be real. Katniss deserves something real.


	6. Chapter 6

After dinner, after I spent some hours in the woods adjusting snares and wasting time, I find myself in town. I'm trying to walk inconspicuously as my nearly 6'6 frame will let me though, because it's dark and guys from the Seam really don't have business up in town at this time. But I need to talk to Madge and I need to know what her and I are doing.

Outside of her house, like the previous time, I'm unsure whether to knock or not. I'm heading toward the front door, thinking of an excuse if anyone but her answers. But I stop. Because I hear the soft sound of a piano. There's a window open somewhere, so I walk around the exterior of the house until I find it and when I do, I can't help but to stare. In a sparsely decorated room, there is a black piano with a girl, blonde and beautiful sitting at it. Her fingers are moving more quickly than I even think mine can move with a bow and arrow. And I think she's singing and I realize I'm right when she tilts her head upward more. Her lips are moving barely at first but then the notes of the piano are louder and her voice rises with them.

For some reason I can't move and I know I'll frighten Madge when she finally notices me standing at her window. But I can't will my feet to drag myself away from the scene. Her voice is sweet but full and strong in a way I'd never be able to place with the blonde ordinarily. And when I finally make out the words, she's singing about finding peace and learning honor and I feel like I'm drunk on something completely different than wine or liquor. And watching her face is almost too much, so I concentrate on her fingers moving across the white keys so rapidly. I'm so lost in the moment, that when her hands stop and her voice ceases, it takes me a while to look up to see what happened. But I've been caught.

Madge is staring through the window at me, looking somewhat embarrassed and sort of annoyed. I start to apologize, but she waves a hand to shut me up and I don't why, but it works and I obey. She covers the keys of the piano back up and makes her way to the window and I wish she had never seen me because the night is silent again and without carrying her voice to me, it's like the air has no more purpose.

"What are you doing out there?" Madge asks with some amusement and suddenly I don't know really know what I am doing either.

"Stalking you, Undersee." I say because that's probably exactly what it looks like and she laughs and shakes her head. I want to tell her to keep singing and playing because it quells everything negative inside me in an impossible sort of way. But I don't.

"Ah, planning to shoot me like one of your illegal squirrel?" she says and I shake my head with a slight grin.

I think she understands I want to talk because she climbs out of the window and I almost laugh at how it seems she's done this a thousand times before. The Mayor's daughter being an expert at sneaking out is too perfect. But before I have a chance to chide her about this, she has my arm and is leading me into her family's garden. In one corner there's a shed and she removes her grip from me and sits down with her back against the metal side.

"Why'd you give Katniss your pin?" I ask and surprise myself because that wasn't anything I had planned talking about but Madge is wearing a white dress and it reminds me of the Reaping.

"It was my aunt's," Madge begins and I have to pause because I've never heard of Madge having extended family beyond the Mayor and her mother. "She was my mother's twin. They were best friend's with Katniss' mother."

I say nothing because it's all news to me. I knew Mrs. Everdeen wasn't always from the Seam because of her blonde hair and her chest of expensive looking items.

"Anyway, my mother gave it to me on my first Reaping and promised it would keep me safe. It always did so I wanted Katniss to have it," Madge is looking down, picking at some of the grass with her hands. "They're not supposed to exist and they're a pain to the Capital I think. I guess I just wanted part of Katniss to not belong to the Capital, just like those birds never will belong to the Capital. Free, I guess."

And when she says "free" I want to kiss her. The Mayor's daughter, a secret and slight but nonetheless brave rebel. She has no idea what she's doing to me because when she looks over at me, her brows are slightly furrowed at the smile across my face.

"What?" she asks.

"Nothing," I say but I'm just shaking my head and then we are silent for a few minutes. But her hand reaches for mine and she slips her fingers between mine and even though it's a gesture I would never think to do as we sit like this, I enjoy it.

"Thank you for convincing me Katniss will come back," I start. "But you and I have been drinking and… doing things and…"

"And you feel bad because it's behind her back?" she asks before I can figure out how to word it.

"Yeah, and it's been easy because we've been drunk and I've enjoyed it… but" I continue.

"It's only temporary." She finishes for me.

"Yeah," I say but pause because that's not what I meant. "No. I just think.."

"Look, Gale. I know I'm a friend with Katniss and I know you and I are… sort of friends now. But it will never be normal for all three of us to be friends. You and her have something that I can't compete with."

"Madge," I say trying to make her stop but she doesn't.

"So when she comes back, I feel like we just shouldn't mention anything happened. It will be easier for all of us," she says so matter of fact that I can feel anger rising up in me. It's like she's saying these things for my benefit but she's not even giving me a chance to explain myself. So I just go with anger.

"So I'm good enough for you in quiet, but not when Katniss is around? Typical, Undersee. I almost forgot what a townie you were. Worrying about appearances," I say.

"Gale, stop. You know that's not what it is. Don't you think this will hurt Katniss? She obviously has feelings for you which is why she was so hesitant when she kissed Peeta tonight when she found him in the cave," Madge is speaking more quickly now but I'm stuck because she said Katniss kissed Peeta.

Katniss kissed Peeta. I wait for the anger to become more powerful within me but I'm more upset Madge is assuming I care. I do care, and it bothers me. But not as much as Madge thinks.

"You're stoic, Gale. You can handle your emotions but I just can't," Madge is saying and her hand is finally withdrawing from mine. "And I think if we keep drinking and kissing we will just… confuse ourselves and hurt Katniss and I…"

I'm standing before she has a chance to finish and I think because she feels so vulnerable, she stands up as well. She reaches forward like she's going to try to calm me, but drops her hand back to her side instead.

"You really are pathetic, Undersee," I say this in a sort of quiet yell because I don't want to wake anyone, especially her father. "I have no emotions when it comes to you because you're just a distraction for me. Someone to touch when I'm wasted."

She looks hurt and offended and I know I'm lying but I can't quit.

"You want to stop? Fine. Easy," I say.

"Gale… I didn't…"

But I punch the side of the metal shed and I'm out of her yard before she can even respond. I don't feel the throbbing of my fist until I'm back in the Seam.

* * *

The next days go fast because I actually watch the Games and they're moving fast too. Everyone has died but Katniss, Peeta, the huge guy from 11, and the male Career. And while my family is sitting on the couch, Posy coloring on the bandage wrapped around my injured hand, the Game Makers must get bored. They release the muttations into the arena and there goes the giant from 11. And after a scuffle on the cornucopia, it's just Peeta and Katniss left. That's when they make the announcement. That only one person may win. Weak and looking half-dead, my whole family, and the whole district I'm sure, watches as Katniss pulls out the Nightlocke. All the oxygen seems to leave my body as I stand in the living room but as they put the berries in their mouths, the announcer stops them. And that's it.

They've both won. They're both coming home. And I'm thankful because this prospect makes me forget Madge.

* * *

**A/N: **Thanks everyone for reading and the reviews. I appreciate the encouragement


	7. Chapter 7

Weeks have passed since Katniss and Peeta arrived back as heroes in Distrct 12. I haven't spoken to Madge or even seen her. The bandage is off my hand and Katniss and I relish in our time together in the woods because we both know I'll be busy in the mines in only a few more weeks. And she'll be off on her victory tour soon after.

She doesn't talk about the Games and I don't make her. We don't even talk about Peeta until one day I bring it up. I've let my mind stray to Madge and how she, like everyone else, has assumed that Katniss and I will be together one day. Sooner in her mind than later.

"Katniss," I say one day as we lay in the meadow, waiting for the fence to turn off. "You think he really loves you?"

She nods.

"Do you love him?"

She doesn't answer immediately, but the look in her eyes makes me think she's considering it, considering if she could love him. Like so many times before, we don't need words to communicate. So I leave it.

We hunt and after a heated moment, something happens and I'm kissing her. It's a good kiss. A needed kiss. But when we pull away, we're awkward and I can tell it was nothing special to either of us. And I know we've finally concluded for ourselves that we will always love each other, but we aren't in love. Despite an entire district that thinks otherwise, and a Capital who was so scared of our potential involvement that they made me her cousin- we're not in love. And I'm thankful for this knowledge.

But it doesn't matter really, because everyone else still thinks we've been mad for each other for years. Even Madge.

* * *

The first time I see Madge is when our entire district is rounded up to send Peeta and Katniss off. She's on the steps of the Justice Building with her father. Her hair is blowing from her face; guided by the light, coal dusted air. She's wearing a pink dress, and Posy who is holding onto my hand in the crowd, is whining about how badly she wants a dress like that.

Madge's expression is unreadable. I know her and Katniss have been hanging out but I don't know if I've even been mentioned. They're both secretive and placid about things, so I sort of doubt it.

I've thought about the fight Madge and I had that ended whatever we were doing often About how I had originally came to tell her that night that I didn't want to only ever kiss or talk when we drank and how my anger didn't let me say it. How my temper didn't let me correct her when she wrongly assumed I was trying to stop us from continuing to see each other.

I'm only pulled from these thoughts as I stand in front of the old building when I realize Madge's gaze has met my own and I've been staring at her for a long time. She looks away first though, hugging a well-dressed Katniss and Peeta before they're gone and in the train bound for wherever.

I think of stopping Madge and talking to her but Posy drags me back toward home and the blonde on the steps has hidden herself within the large crowd.

* * *

It's a day later and I'm changing into clothes to go hunting when I reach in my pocket and am amazed the find the little folded slip of paper with all the music notes written on it. I trace my fingers over the edges of it for a moment, debate taking it out, but I instead leave it safe in my pocket and head out for the woods

I've tried to convince Rory to start hunting with me but he's more interested in girls and raising havoc in the Seam. So I go alone.

I almost step on her as I walk through the meadow to the opening in the fence but when I look down, she's barely opened her eyes to gaze up at me. It's colder in the mornings now, so she's wrapped in a grey sweater, which keeps grass on it when she finally sits up.

"Hey," Madge says.

"Hey," I reply back and I'm not sure if this is going to turn into a conversation so I remain standing.

"I'm sorry… about that. You know. That night," she says and I'm genuinely surprised. Mostly because she shouldn't be the one sorry but also because she's so different than stubborn Katniss who never attempts to reconcile things first.

"No, I'm sorry," I say and decide to sit down, dropping my game bag down next to me. "You didn't say anything wrong."

"Oh that's not why I'm sorry," Madge begins and I'm looking at her puzzled I guess because she's amused and grinning slightly at me. "I'm so sorry my shed is such a bully. Picking a fight with your fist like that."

Her words are all it takes to smooth away any hard feelings that have been harbored the last few weeks. I let out a deep laugh, reaching to push all of her hair into her face so she struggles to see me.

A minute later, I lay back in the grass and she joins me, our heads near each other. I'm wondering what she's thinking because unlike Katniss' grey eyes that are so easy to read, Madge's blue ones are impossible to breach. I would be lying if I said I hadn't been aching to see her, to be near her, to speak to her.

"You know I didn't mean what I said, right?" I ask and turn to look over at her, and though her eyes have closed again, she manages a nod. "You were more than a distraction. You helped me get through it. Through the Games, I mean."

"I know," she says while releasing a sigh. She's turned towards me now though, eyes opening when she speaks again. "I just didn't want you to be confused when she got back. I didn't want you to be pulled in two directions."

"We're not like that," I say. "Katniss and me. We don't… love each other like that. We never kissed until the other day, her and I, and when we did… nothing. There was nothing."

And it's weird because I'm saying so much. I rarely speak in full sentences, especially to people who aren't Katniss or a sibling. I'm explaining myself and I never explain myself because I usually feel like no one should understand me because it's not their job to. But I'm talking to Madge and I'm sober and I'm being rational. For once.

Madge nods again like she understands and she doesn't even look bothered by the fact that I kissed Katniss, which I appreciate. She doesn't press the issue any further; like that statement was all that was needed to make my point.

"I miss her again already," she says, her eyes now looking up in to the morning sky.

"Me too," I say because it's true.

But it's not even a minute later that I'm sitting up and leaning over Madge. Her eyes shift from the sky to my face and she gives me a soft smile. That's invitation enough for me so lower myself enough to kiss her once. It's light, and not very long because I'm not sure if she'll push me away. But when I've straightened up enough to see her reaction, she blinks her eyes slowly, her smile still present. She sits up as well now and I reach forward to wrap one of my arms around her waist to get her closer to me. Her head falls to rest on my shoulder and we're silent for a very long time. But she's the one who breaks it.

"I like you," she says, raising her head from my shoulder and it's almost funny because it's such a simple phrase that sums up everything perfectly.

"Mm." I mumble in reply and tilt my own head enough to kiss at her temple. "You only like me for money."

This causes her to laugh and the noise is so pleasant to me, I'm grinning and holding onto her tighter so she can't get away.

"Your face, your hands, your kisses," she says "And most importantly your money."

I realize this is why kissing Katniss meant nothing. Because even drunk, I feel... feelings when I kiss Madge. But I have a hard track record when it comes to conveying emotions with words, so the best I can do is kiss the blonde more and murmur a "mine" against her lips. Because she is.


	8. Chapter 8

Madge meets me most mornings the following week, in the meadow before school, before I go hunting. She never goes in the woods with me though, and she confesses she can't handle seeing things get killed so it's a wonder to me how she ever got through forced screenings of the Hunger Games.

But we spend about a half an hour every morning sitting and kissing but it isn't until Friday that Madge asks what our plan is for when Katniss comes back. Do we tell her? Do we tell anyone?

"I don't know," I answer honestly.

I know it's selfish of me to just want this to be between us but after witnessing the entire District silently forcing love on Katniss and I, I just want Madge and me to be safe from that. Not to mention I don't think I could handle the fall out from being the boy from the Seam who's dating the Mayor's daughter. The jokes that would come out of the mouths of my friends alone would be hard enough to handle.

"We don't have to tell anyone," she says and it surprises me because with my past sort-of girlfriends, they always told everyone. But then again, Madge doesn't really act like any girl from the Seam. Or from the town.

"Really?" I ask and I'm relieved when she nods. "Good. Because you'd embarrass me."

She smacks me playfully for this and I easily push her over on her back and keep her pinned down. She squirms slightly, but when I kiss her, she calms and stills herself. She even releases a soft noise almost of compliance when I say "mine" more forcefully against her lips this time.

When I've finally rolled off of her, my hair is disheveled from where her hand had continuously run through it. My breathing is slightly off because even though I'm in excellent shape, kissing Madge tends to challenge even my own endurance. But I don't mind and it's definitely my favorite exercise.

While we both stand to part ways, her blue eyes are searching mine for a moment and her small hand has slipped its fingers between mine. I've learned to be patient for her though, because unlike me, she takes her time to speak. Unlike me, she appreciates moments and basking in the minutes of them instead of powering through.

"I'm glad I have you," she says eventually.

It's a strange phrase to hear since it's directed towards me. I take care of my family and I even take care of Katniss when I need to but I don't do much for Madge. I listen to her, I spend time with her, I make her laugh but I don't _do_ anything tangible for her. How can she be glad to have me when nothing I do for her feeds her or protects her or keeps her safe? I'm confused but I realize that I am thankful for her as well. Thankful that she sits in silence with me, that she forgives my temper, that she wakes up early just to kiss me while I'm in my dirty hunting clothes.

And with her calm and kind ways, her beauty that even someone as angry and bitter as me can appreciate, Madge Undersee teaches me how to care about someone because I want to, not because I have to.

* * *

"Gale, stop being stubborn. It's fine." Madge is trying to convince me on the walkway to her house.

It's after school on a Friday, the last Friday I will ever attend school. The next week, I'm to start work in the mines. Like my father, like his father, and like Rory and Vick in the following years. I've been in a bad mood all day and Madge hasn't given up trying to comfort me ever since I saw her in the morning. So now we are outside of her house and she's pleading for me to come inside, to leave the cold weather that will only grow chillier as I descend towards the Seam for home. But I don't want to have to bare witness to the Mayor's condescending gaze as his prized daughter brings in a less than impressive me. But she's insatiable.

"Your father's not home? He's not going to be home?" I ask and she nods with some annoyance because I've asked this question about fourteen times now.

With my school bag in tow, I give up and follow the blonde into her large home. As promised, her father is no where to be seen as we walk through the downstairs, passing the kitchen, and the living room, and many other rooms I deem useless. Madge is leading me up the stairs, carpeted and plush and I can't help but look behind me to see if my shoes are leaving a trail behind.

When our procession ends, we are inside of a room with high ceilings. There's a bed in the center with a sort of lace netting around it, the quilts that cover it all white. A dresser made of wood, an oversized rocking chair, and a windowseat all decorate the room and everything is so clean looking, I stand in the middle of it all, unsure of what to do with myself.

But Madge throws her backpack on the bed and is kicking her shoes off without a care and this eases me. I set my bag on the windowseat and decide to take off my shoes as well, leaving me in just my school uniform. Without my worn shoes, I think I could pass as town kid, if no one pays too much attention to my Seam grey eyes. So maybe if her father walks by and sees me with his daughter, he won't be too harsh.

"Your room isn't you," I say as I finally calm enough to lie back on Madge's bed, which without a doubt is the most comfortable thing I've ever been on.

"Apparently, it came pre-decorated. When my parents moved in, it was like this. There's even a boy's room down the hall that, obviously, no one uses," Madge says, wrinkling her nose a bit. "And weird guest rooms we aren't even allowed to open unless people from the Capital are staying."

It's the first time I've realized that the out of place mansion in District 12 is nothing more than a hotel, not a home but a building for the Capital to take over and use when deemed necessary. I feel somewhat bad for Madge, imagining what a lonely childhood she must have had, constantly in a "look but don't touch" environment, no siblings to escape with. But I don't feel too badly because she was always fed, loved, and safe. Something many of us from the Seam would die for. Have died for.

"My father was called to the Capital, so you can stop staring at the doorway, Gale." Madge says and interrupts me from my thoughts and I realize I have been looking solely at the open doorway. So I move my gaze to her instead.

She's lying next to me on her bed, her school shirt untucked from her skirt, the crisscross tie that keeps her collar closed around her neck is untied and the top button of her shirt undone so I can see a hint of her collarbones. I can't help but reach forward and trace one of my fingertips along the protruding bone. I'm about to cup her face in my hand, to begin to bestow kisses along her cheek and jaw when I'm stopped by a large crash and then wail from a room down the hall.

"Oh, no." Madge says and before I can protest she is up and out of my grasp, walking briskly out of her room.

She's gone for a while so I can't be entirely blamed for my curiosity as I too leave her room. I wander down the hallway, pausing at the first open door I come across. Inside is a much larger bed than Madge's, more furniture, and a heavy curtain across the large window on one of the walls. Madge is leaning over the bed and I can just barely make out the shadow of a woman she is speaking quietly to. She looks skinny and helpless as Madge wipes her forehead with a cloth and then pushes a needle into her arm. It's an intimate sight, part of Madge's life she hasn't shared but then again, we both speak little about our families. I assume the woman must be her mother, the lady that my mother says use to be beautiful and ever present in the District when she was young. The one who had a twin who entered the Games and never came back—the apparent catalyst of her deteriorating condition.

I leave the scene and head back to Madge's room before I am detected; not wanting Madge to feel forced to explain. I'm glad I saw what I did though because sometimes I resent Madge's life, which seems so easy and carefree. The sighte of her mother reminded me that the pains the Capital bestows on our District cannot be avoided with money and position.

When Madge reenters her room, she is smiling and easily climbs back on to the bed and to me. I reach forward to smooth the wavy locks of her pale colored hair away from her face and she turns her head in toward one of my hands. I lean forward to kiss her forehead, oddly happy that I possess a secret of Madge's life, even if she hadn't openly shared it with me.


	9. Chapter 9

An hour passes of our idle talking and kissing when Madge rises from the bed again, prompted by no loud noises this time. I'm protesting and groaning when her body is no longer snuggly against mine but she rolls her eyes at my whines and turns to her dresser. She opens one of the top shelves and pulls out a small box. In an instant she's standing near where I remain sprawled across her bed. I don't approve of this arrangement however, so I sit up and swiftly pull her up and onto my lap.

"What's in the box, Goldilocks?" I ask because she's kept tight hold of it.

She can't answer right away though, because she's humming softly against my neck, causing small goose bumps to rise, which she quickly kisses over. I'm curious, sure, but I much prefer an overly affectionate Madge than one too quick to engage in conversation. Her treatment is over soon enough though, and she's opening the box as she speaks.

"You know in school how they taught us that diamonds rarely if ever form from coal?" she asks and I nod. Because they make sure that every potential delight of mining is stripped. "Well, when my great-grandfather mined he found a diamond down in the mines. He wasn't sure how it got there, but he said he kept it with him all the time and it helped. Helped remember there were still beautiful things."

I'm watching as she opens the black box and sure enough inside is an unshaped diamond with jagged edges. Madge lets me pick it up and hold it closer to my eyes so I can turn it around, seeing the way it reflects all of the light in the room. I've never seen a real diamond up close so I barely notice when she's slid off my lap and grabbed my thick coat, the one I'll no doubt be wearing in the mines. She returns to the bed and sits on the edge with the coat in her hand, a patch of fabric and a needle and thread in the other. Without time for me to object, she's sewn the patch of fabric with tiny, careful stitches to my jacket, leaving only a tiny opening. She snatches the diamond from my fingers and drops it in before sewing up the opening just as tightly as the rest.

"Why did you do that?" I ask because I'm honestly bewildered somewhat by her actions.

"Because," she starts as she sets the coat back next to my bag on the windowseat and deposits the unused thread and needle on the top of her dresser. These are pit stops before she comes back to me and I once again effortlessly lift her on to the bed and on top of me. "I want you to remember when you're down there that there's more to your life than mining. There's more to you than just… the Seam."

No one has ever said anything like that to me before—not Katniss, not my mother, not even my father before he passed away. I say nothing in reply but instead press my lips to hers so forcefully that she has to grip onto my shirt to keep from teetering off of me. Her lips part for me obediently and she doesn't protest when my hand manages to find the skin of her side beneath her shirt. I want to take her right then, want to feel her completely and in every way. But I'm cut short in that desire because the sound of a closing door resonates throughout the large house and Madge pulls back.

"Shit," she says and I laugh because her cursing is a true rarity. She can tell by the footsteps that it's her father.

I don't even mind much that I'm forced to climb out of her window and down the siding of her house to safely reach the ground. I don't mind that it's freezing as I walk home and I can see my breath as I pass under the weak streetlights of the Seam. I don't mind that Rory's fallen asleep in my bed for some reason, so I have to retire to the couch instead. I don't mind because the whole way I can feel a tiny poke into my chest and it's a constant reminder that the beautiful blonde, the Mayor's daughter, thinks I'm better than the lot I've been given in my life. And with every gentle poke of the rough diamond, I'm promising to myself that I will prove her right.

* * *

In the following weeks, it's hard to find time to see Madge. I head to work before the sun comes up and often, I don't make it home until the light has disappeared once again. On the days I manage to make it home earlier than that, I'm so exhausted it's all I can do to stay awake long enough to eat dinner. Thanks to Katniss' and Peeta's winning though, dinner is never in threat of not being served even if I haven't been able to hunt.

My weekends are spent half at home, helping my mother with the house and half with Madge, pretending the rest of world doesn't exist. She doesn't once complain about seeing me less, but instead only tells me with her smile that she misses me. She always pats my coat when she first sees me, making sure the diamond is still safe, getting coal dust on her hand every time.

"Don't you just ever want to leave?" she asks me one Saturday as we lay in the meadow, bundled under blankets.

"Hmm?" I murmur because my face is pressed against her hair, enjoying the scent.

"Just go into the woods and never come back.," she clarifies and I can't help but grin as I recall me brining up a similar idea to an incredulous Katniss.

"What business would you have in woods? You won't even come help me hunt. Besides, you're safe here," I say because I like her safe.

"Yeah but, what am I going to do when I'm older? Everyone else in the town has a profession to follow but I don't want to be Mayor. I don't want anything to do with Peacekeepers or the Capital," she says and I've adjusted my position so I can look at her, her neck covered in a blue knit scarf, her cheeks and nose rose hued from the cold.

When she says things like this, I wonder where they come from. She has to be incredibly smart, I think, to grow up a rather privileged life but still hate those who enable her to do so. It makes me want to never lose her. Because while I have a hateful rage for the Capital, the Games, the Peacekeepers, and Panem, Madge has a logical dislike. She calms the fire of my resentment, but keeps it as embers so that when I need to, I can blow on them and let the flames grow again.

"Mm, maybe one day, Undersee. I'll have to toughen you up first." I say and she's rolling her eyes but smiling. "One day. You and me, though."


	10. Chapter 10

When Katniss and Peeta return from the victory tour, the weather has warmed up and life is returning to the forest outside the district confines. Still no one has been privileged enough to find out about Madge and I, though my mother probably suspects something. The red marks on my neck definitely don't come from coal mining. But she says nothing, which I appreciate.

Things between Katniss and I are distant and I rarely see her for longer than a few minutes in passing. She hunts for my family, leaving us foul and other things because I won't allow her to give us any money. My mother appreciates the help, but I find it unnerving.

Madge and Katniss spend time together though, because unlike me, they both have ample moments to spare. Madge says she doesn't mind because her and Katniss get along so easily, and she knows Katniss needs someone. She says nothing to Katniss about us, even though I tell her that she can if she wants. But Madge is private, and quiet and doesn't want to ruin the already strained friendship between Katniss and I.

"Talk to her, Gale," Madge says to me one day in her backyard after she has come back from Katniss' new house in the Victor's Village. "She's just been through a lot with everything. She needs you."

I only shrug my shoulders in reply even though I know she's right. I'll talk to Katniss. Eventually. But I hate the way Katniss looks at me, like I should be telling her to not love Peeta when part of me is glad she has someone who loves her so desperately. They're getting married. It's a hoax, of course, but I don't mind. Because it makes it easier for me to kiss Madge without guilt and without regret.

"Besides, my father's been getting a lot of calls lately. From the Capital," Madge says after I haven't spoken in reply. "I don't know but I think things are happening in the other districts," she says.

"What do you mean?" I ask her, suddenly far more present in the conversation. But she has few answers and only guesses and assumptions.

"Promise to be careful when you go in the woods and the Hob, okay?" she asks this so sincerely that instead of verbalizing a response, I just kiss her instead, my hands gripping at her sides to bring her against me.

"Gale, promise," she repeats between our kissing.

"I promise. I'm always okay," I say to reassure her

And if I didn't almost die, what happened the next day would be pretty comical.

* * *

It's early morning and I'm pleased when I easily take down a wild turkey in the woods but suffer a lonely moment when I realize there's no one to congratulate me. So I stuff it in my game bag and continue my usual run-through of my snares before heading back under the fence and into town. I debate momentarily on brining the turkey to the Hob but I know our head Peacekeeper pays a higher price for this type of game, so I head there instead.

Like a thousands times before, usually with Katniss at my side, I knock on his backdoor and wait. I knock again after a few minutes pass with no answer and I'm about to leave and try again later when I hear the unlatching of a lock but when I look up to greet a familiar face, it's a very stern, very new face I meet.

When he accuses me of illegally poaching, I coolly give excuses that it wondered through the fence but none of this pleases the man. It seems like a flash and I'm tied up on a metal whipping post that must have been hastily put up on my behalf because it definitely wasn't there this morning. Though I can't see them because my back is facing them, I can tell a crowd has gathered and they sound like they're in disbelief. I gather, however, that this man must be the new head Peacekeeper because I hear Darius trying to reason with him. With a slew of pleas and sirs, he is desperately trying to explain that this is not how we punish in District 12. But Darius is shut up promptly by a blow to the temple with the butt of a large gun carried by another unfamiliar man dressed in Peacekeeper white.

Even after Darius is lying next to me on the ground, a small trickling of blood coming from his head, I still feel like someone is going to stop this, someone is going to end it before it begins. But when I feel the first lash on my back and I bite down on my lip to stop from yelling in pain, I realize this is happening. And I realize Madge was right.

Madge. When the next lash comes, my mind is focused on her. I can see her father in my peripherals, wringing his hands, keeping his eyes from meeting mine. He looks pale and disturbed and I finally understand how much he has managed to protect us from the Capital's cruelties. But he looks completely helpless now.

A third lash.

A fourth.

A fifth.

A sixth.

I can feel blood beginning to trickle down my back and I can hear quiet whispers of people protesting because other than that, the town square is completely silent. But no one speaks up because this isn't treatment they'd condemn themselves to.

I get to the tenth lash when I finally stop biting my lip because it's bleeding and the taste of metal is in my mouth. It's the twentieth lash when I feel myself beginning to pass out from the searing pain. My surroundings go black, then I come to, then black, then I come to. I'm thinking of Madge again because I honestly feel like I'm going to die like this. And I'll be gone forever and I will have broken my promise about being okay and about running away together. And it's the twenty-fifth lash when I wonder how she will find out I have died. Will she hear in passing when she's on her way to meet me in the meadow? No one will even know how to tell her and to comfort her because no one has any idea that it's her I disappear with.

It's the thirtieth lash when I give up staying conscious and allow myself to pass out. At some point I can barely make out a "stop!" being shouted but it's too late, I want to tell them as everything fades away for good this time.

* * *

**A/N:** I know things didn't happen in exactly this order in the books, but it just works better for M/G if it goes this way. SORRY. :D


	11. Chapter 11

When I finally wake up, I'm in Katniss' new house. I can tell by how pristine everything looks, how new and clean it all is. I'm on my stomach, bandages tightly wrapped around my torso. Katniss is sitting near me and when I open my eyes she stirs and greets me with kisses to my face and a squeeze to my hand that feels odd and embarrassing.

I'm glancing more around the strange room when I see them. There's a cardboard box on the nightstand filled with vials of liquid and a set of syringes. Morphling. And I know she's been her. I know Madge brought those for me. And though I'm thankful Katniss has been at my side, I wish it blonde hair tickling my face and pressing kisses to my skin. But I say nothing. Partly because that would be hurtful to Katniss and partly because speaking seems foreign thanks to the heavy painkillers.

I have no idea how long has passed since the whipping and when I am permitted by Mrs. Everdeen and Prim to leave and go home. My mother keeps me in bed for three days after that. And I wish I could send for Madge because I'm so angry and I'm hell-bent on extracting some sort of revenge and I need her to soothe that and quiet it and calm me in her effortless way. I need her.

So when I'm finally allowed to leave my house, I tell my mother I'm going to the Everdeens to thank them for their healing. But instead I head straight for the Mayor's. People are looking at me, watching me with sympathetic eyes.

I don't even care that the town is full of people and they can clearly all see me walking toward the Mayor's front door. I honestly don't even care who answers the goddamn door. If Mayor Undersee opened it, I would push him to the ground to get to his daughter faster.

But it's Madge at the door. She says nothing as she lets me inside and closes the door after me quickly. I'm looking over her face and even though it should be the other way around, I'm checking to make sure she's okay; to make sure she's all right. Other than dark circles under her eyes from clear lack of sleep, she looks perfect.

She keeps her hands carefully at my sides as my own arms are tightly wrapped around her frame and I'm thankful that without words, she knows not to touch my back. She's kissing at my jaw, murmuring things quietly, almost unintelligently before I guess she realizes that we are standing in the middle of her living room.

Wordlessly, she leads me upstairs to her bedroom, closing the door and locking it this time. She's crying now and I don't know what to do. It's not a hysterical Posy cry or tears welling up but not actually falling kind of cry that Katniss and mother do. She's silent, but I can see the tears streak down her cheeks, her blue eyes that already look like an ocean, seemingly spilling their contents onto her face.

"Shhh, baby," I say and it's me guiding her to her bed and making her sit as I join her. I've never called anyone baby before but it just came out and I don't even have time to worry if it was weird or not because I'm kissing each of her tears, trying to make them go away. "Stop. Please."

Madge closes her eyes as if to compose herself and she must do a good job because when she reopens them, they drop one more leftover tear before drying. And she's smiling now, her hand having risen to press to the side of one of my cheeks, staring appreciatively at me.

"I was so scared," she says, that hand dropping to her land to her lap. "Daddy came into the house and he looked sick. I asked what happen and he said a boy was whipped and I knew it was you. By the time I got there, I only saw blood."

"I'm okay though. See?" I ask, pressing a kiss to her lips as if to prove this point. "I said I'm always okay, I promised."

She nods as if to agree to this but she still makes me lift up my shirt to examine the bandaging which has grown lighter in the past days, but still covers the entirety of my back. When she finally seems to appraise the situation and conclude that I will live, she falls backward onto her bed. I lay on my side next to her.

I keep a hand at her own side, fiddling with the material of her shirt, raising it enough so that I'm rewarded by the feeling of her bare skin. We remain like this late into the night, barely speaking, dozing in and out of sleep until I know that if I don't get up and head home, I'll pass out for the night.

Madge pouts at my declaration of departure but I kiss it away and promise to see her again tomorrow. And she agrees to this, knowing now that I keep my promises. Especially to her.


	12. Chapter 12

Days later, when I can finally lay on my back and most of the bandages have been taken off, I insist on going back to work in the mines. Since hunting is now obviously off the table, I must work to make sure my family gets by. My mother, being reasonable agrees. So it's a rare occasion that I get to see Madge in the following week, but I have something planned that will require time.

The only good thing about the stricter head Peacekeeper is that he keeps Madge's father far more busy than previously. So on Saturday afternoon, I easily sneak into Madge's strange, pre-decorated room with a bag. I'm proud of the contents. It's two bottles of Madge's favorite wine (stolen from her father's stash I discovered while covertly exiting the house from the backdoor), a bag of strawberries I managed to pick from a wild bush that few know about that grows near the fence in the meadow, and a piece of coal.

Madge is lying on the carpeted floor of her bedroom, flipping through some Capital magazine. She doesn't even startle when I walk in and close the door after myself. She's learned the sounds and pace of my footsteps so she keeps her focus on the magazine in front of her when she speaks.

"Hawthorne, who said you could come over?" she asks without the trace of a smile, but her voice is dripping with her playful sarcasm that used to confuse me.

I don't even answer but instead toss my bag onto her bed, grab the magazine from her grip, handling the pages of it like they contain some disease before dropping it again to my feet. Madge is still sprawled across her floor, looking up at me with a smile, clearly enjoying my energetic presence. I had been tired and grumpy the past few times we had met up.

I'm kicking off my shoes when she decides to stand, walking over to my bag to investigate what made the clinking noise when I threw it onto her predictably made bed. To my amusement, she immediately takes out one of the bottles of wine, holding it up to examine.

"Did you steal this from my house… and then bring it back to my house?" she asks, glancing up at me. "You're doing it wrong, Gale."

Free from my coat, which I draped across her rocking chair, I move over to her and reach forward to grab the bottle away. She laughs as I hastily open it and take a few large sips from it. Without letting me down, she takes it from my grip once I've finished, drinking from it as well. She moves with the bottle to her bed, sitting back against her pillows. I join her and we switch off drinking in relative silence for a while, neither of us saying anything until we've finished half of it.

"What's the occasion?" she asks between more sips. "The last time you came over, I couldn't even get you to stay awake long enough to pay attention to me."

"So sensitive, Undersee," I say with a grin in her direction, but I place a kiss to her forehead to substitute as an apology. She must accept because she hands the wine back to me.

By the end of this bottle, she's giggling and squirming around the bed and I'm thankful she's such a lightweight still because the second bottle is mostly mine. As I sit with my back against the headboard of the bed, she's cooing over me, kissing up and down my jaw. I wouldn't be a male if I didn't love the way she becomes overly affectionate with a few drips of alcohol. Soon enough though, I'm feeling more than buzzed and returning most of her kisses. I pause these actions for a moment though, dragging my bag up to where we are both situated.

I pull out the coal piece that is wrapped in cloth. I had to hide it in my pocket during my shift and when I left the mine on Friday. Stealing coal is strictly prohibited and even though this was a small, unusable piece, I didn't feel like making another trip to the town square to be whipped almost to death. When I open it up and show Madge the black, chalky, but somewhat glittery piece of coal, she laughs. Looking slightly confused, she takes it in her hand, holding it on her palm as she peers closely to investigate it.

"Thank you. This will warm my house for days," she says in jest and I laugh before having a chance to explain.

"You gave me your diamond, so I'm giving you coal," I say. "Because you're more than just pretty to look at and more than the useless girl I condemned you to be. You're more than you think."

I worry for a moment that comparing her to a piece of coal is offensive because she doesn't react for a minute or so. She's running her fingertip over the small piece of coal, no doubt get black on it, but she starts to smile.

"Thank you, Gale," she says, finally looking up at me.

She gets up off her bed, stumbling a bit due to the alcohol but manages to make it to her dresser without losing the coal. She takes out a golden locket from a small jewelry stand and opens it up, placing the piece of coal inside. After closing the locket, she puts it around her neck and rejoins me on the bed. I offer her the last few sips of from the second wine and she accepts, letting the green glass bottle roll off her bed once it's emptied.

She's lying on her back and reaches a hand forward, indicating she wants to me to come to her. I move closer, still sitting up on the bed, my fingers tugging gently on the strands of her hair that frame her face. She's gazing up at me, her lids somewhat heavy from the wine, but she looks perfect. I lean down enough to press my lips to hers and she takes advantage of this, wrapping her arms around my neck, pulling me down completely to her.

We've been kissing for a while when I move from her mouth, instead pressing my lips to her jaw and her neck, pushing the fabric of her shirt away so that I can kiss to her collarbones. I suck lightly on her skin there, and she makes a soft noise of appreciation. I take that as a sign that it's okay to lift up her shirt more so that I can let my hands roam freely along her torso. She surprises me though when I feel her smooth fingertips pulling up my shirt. I help her rid my body of it and resume pressing kisses along her neck. The feeling of my skin against the part of her stomach that is exposed makes me stop soon enough though, taking off her shirt as she aids me with the action.

While we are parted enough to actually look at each other's faces, she smiles at me, her blue eyes looking brighter as they reflect the setting light of the sun through her window. She looks completely at ease with me and I know I'm about to put myself in position that will make it very hard for me to stop. But she doesn't protest when I slide the strands of her brassiere off her shoulders and reach behind her to unhook it, ridding her body of it. Her smile remains and a small laugh escapes her lips as I release an appreciative sigh, my gaze definitely reflecting how thankful I am that someone managed to make a girl as perfect as this.

But before I can look too long, she has pulled me back down to her and we're kissing again, fast and forceful like that day in the lake. We didn't even eat the strawberries yet, but when her tongue greets my own, she tastes better than any fruit in existence. It's only a few moments later that I'm permitting myself to unbutton and slide off her skirt. Madge wiggles, helping herself out of it. Nearly completely bare under me, that is when Madge decides to speak.

"Hawthorne, did you get me drunk just to have sex with me?" and I'm scared for a moment until I look to her face, which is an indicator that she definitely doesn't mind.

I don't bother answering but instead kiss down the length of her body, placing a few chaste kisses to her bellybutton, which she squirms in reply to. It's not much long after than we're both naked and I'm about take her that I respond to her question, our eyes locked intently.

"I didn't want it to hurt, baby," I say and once again the baby just blurts out but I think I'm starting to like it and Madge murmurs an accepting noise after. "Tell me if I need to stop."

But she doesn't. And I wake up in her bed Sunday morning, underneath her covers, my arms gripped tightly around her waist, keeping her pulled close to me. Her bare skin is my reward for awakening so early. But my eyes remain closed, not wanting to battle the bright light that is no doubt radiating through the windows. I blindly kiss the back of her ear and down the side of her neck, grinning when my lips brush the gold chain of her locket. The one that contains part of me inside.


	13. Chapter 13

When we finally will ourselves out of her bed and redress, it's early afternoon. I climb out of her window, which has become pretty routine and with the last glance I get of her, I see she's discarding of the empty wine bottles.

I get home soon after and my mother gives me a disapproving look because of my long absence, but she's interrupted because President Snow is speaking to us through the small TV in the living room, telling us there is a mandatory broadcast coming.

The mandatory broadcast ends up being about the Quarter Quell. About how past victor's of the district will be sent in to the Games again. One boy. One girl. And because there will only be one girl, I slam my hand on the rickety old coffee table in front of the couch. I need to find Katniss.

I comfort her the best I can but she is determined and busy and has little time for me. Peeta, who I appreciate somewhat because I know he'll do what he can to protect her, has enlisted Katniss and Haymitch in to conditioning.

I'm so occupied in the mines and trying to keep my family from starving, the time goes by quickly and once again I find myself standing in the crowd as Katniss is brought forth to the stage in front of the Justice Building. They usher her inside like last time, but they let no one enter after the Tributes. I'm yelling, practically growling at one of the Peacekeepers who stands guard. I know I'm on thin ice with them already, but I only stop when I feel small warm fingers stroking my arm as a figure passes by. Blonde hair, pretty dress. It's Madge and she's headed straight for her father. I watch unabashed as she tries to reason with him, but he places the blame on the head Peacekeeper. Madge stomps over to him next and I fight every urge to grab her, not wanting the asshole to even have a chance to look at her. But I don't because everyone's watching and no one knows that it's Madge that I call baby.

Her voice, usually so calm, so collected is loud and angry and she's calling it unjust and making all sort of eloquent arguments. The large, insidious looking man humors her for a bit, pretending to listen with a smirk on his face. His eyes make a perverted sweep over Madge's body and I'm beginning to walk over to beat the shit out of him when Mayor Undersee tugs his daughter away, doing his best to lead her from the stage and the head Peacekeeper. I leave, too. But my fist remains clenched all the way back to the Seam.

It's okay though, that I don't see Katniss before she leaves this time, because we knew her name would be called this time. We reconciled the best we could and exchanged everything we needed to before the Reaping even occurred.

* * *

I see Madge rarely in the following days because her house is acting as a hotel to Capital guests. But when I do see her, she seems stressed and worried, relaying parts of conversations she overhears. Her father makes her play piano for their guests so she occasionally catches talk of shortages and uncooperative Districts.

One day after she has school, I keep her outside in her front yard for a long time and we're talking, trying to be inconspicuous. But my hand is holding on to hers and I'm a second too late dropping it so that when her father walks outside to see what Madge is doing, he gives us a strange look.

I excuse myself quickly and Madge is ushered inside while I can feel the Mayor's eyes watching me as I leave. We laugh about the incident later in the meadow when we both have about an hour to spare. The Games have officially started so we try to avoid conversation about that, but Madge is scared for Katniss. The officials that stayed at her house were talking to her father about how he should be thankful he's almost guaranteed to be rid of the troublesome girl. She's even more worried because all the Capital officials have left and the supply trains that were bringing the extra food allotted to our district have stopped coming in the past few days.

For a change, it's me trying to calm her down from hectically worded rants. So while sitting in the meadow, it takes me a good ten minutes to talk her down. But I find amusement in her anger though, because she's usually the well-mannered one. I make fun of her and ask when her train to District 13 leaves and she laughs in response before laying down to rest her head in my lap. I stroke her hair soothingly, but I'm worried too. Worried for Katniss and worried for our District. People are getting whipped more often and I want to try and stop every lash but I lay low for Madge.

"Are you sure we can't run away?" she asks, looking up at me.

"You're still not tough enough," I say grinning, and she sits up to kiss the smile from my lips.

When we are about to part ways, she places her hands on either side of my face and guides her lips to my own, kissing me slowly, with less haste than most of our kisses recently. I appreciate the moment, enjoying her full lips and her hips pushing towards mine as we stand. To my great displeasure, she pulls away a bit to interrupt the action with words.

"Promise no talks of rebellion, no trying to start revolution in the mines?" she's grinning but I can tell she's somewhat serious. So I nod first before my smart-ass retort.

"So revolution outside of the mine is fair game?" I ask and she playfully slaps my arm before turning to head back to her house.


	14. Chapter 14

I'm walking by the TV in our living room when I habitually stop to check on Katniss' status in the games. My timing must impeccable because my eyes lock with the screen right when she releases an arrow seemingly at nothing. But then she's knocked out and something funny is happening, the arena seems to be opened, fuzzy. I can't tell if it's just our old television and I don't get time decide because the screen goes black. Rory and I are trying to figure out what happened, when ten minutes later the lights in our house go out.

"Gale?" my mother's voice is coming from the kitchen and there's a hint of anxiety.

"I'll go check," I say as I blindly guide myself out of our small home.

When I walk through our doorway, I realize all of our neighbors have done the same. I catch snippets of conversations and others have put it together faster than me. Katniss' shot was a form of dissent and one they didn't think the Capital would take lightly. Thinking they were just shutting off our power for a few days to teach us a lesson, most everyone seems generally unconcerned. I'm about to turn and head inside when I hear my name shouted in an exasperated female voice.

I turn around just in time as Madge reaches me, having been running. Her blonde hair is tangled and she's breathing so hard that I make her calm down before allowing her speak. When her chest stops heaving and she's standing upright, my hand moves to set on her waist. Normally such an action is reserved for private, but it's dark and no one is paying attention to us.

"Gale," she repeats my name and I nod to show she has my full attention. "You have to get out of here. As soon as possible, bring as many people as you can."

"Get out of where?" I ask and her face is so full of terror, my hand moves to her face, trying to calm her. "What do you mean?"

"Father got a call from someone in the Capital. A friend," she's speaking so quickly she's running out of breath again. "An hour. We have an hour and they're going to blow up District 12. Get to the woods."

I'm about to ask what again when she yanks tightly on my shirt. Such a brash action from her makes me realize what she's saying is true. She's urging me to go back inside and to gather my family but I'm holding on to her arm so she can't leave me.

"Are you going to be okay?" I ask but her eyes are gazing upward at an empty sky. "Madge. Madge, is your family going to be okay? Are you coming to the woods, too?"

"No," she says but she keeps her eyes trained on the sky for another moment before looking at me. "Daddy's friend arranged a hovercraft to pick us up. Mother couldn't make it to the woods."

With that, she's pulled my face down to her and she's kissing me and I'm impressed with how soft and gentle she manages to keep it even though she's practically hysterical. And it's when my eyes are closed and my hands are at her waist that the reality of what she has told me sinks in. I pull away to go inside to tell my family to get ready, but I grip her hand to keep her from getting away too quickly.

"You'll be okay?" I ask and she nods. "Promise you'll get to the woods if the hovercraft doesn't come."

I don't bother to wait for a reply because I just want to assume she'll agree. And because my feet are moving too quickly toward my house. When inside I'm yelling at my mother so forcefully she drops the pot she's washing. Posy starts crying and Rory and Vick are asking questions. But I'm already in my room, packing things for myself and my brothers into a backpack. My mother, who I think is still having a hard time believing me, but apparently scared enough by my temperament, has disappeared into her own room with Posy. Within five minutes we are out of the house. We start towards the woods and I'm relaying everything Madge told me loudly, out to no one in particular.

Once I'm satisfied Rory knows the way to the meadow and the fence, I send my family on their own and manage to run in to a few of my friends. Thom can tell by my voice that I'm serious and he rushes off to his own family, promising to pack up his neighbors as well. After about twenty minutes, I'm satisfied to see a large group, growing as it goes, making its way to the meadow. It's when I pass Katniss' old house I realize that the message probably never made it to the Victor's Village.

I'm running and it's a good thing my time in the mines hasn't completely ruined my lungs yet, because it's not a short distance to travel and I know the time is running out. When I make it to the large house, I'm screaming outside of it. It's Prim who opens the door, clearly shocked by my ragged appearance. She seems to think I'm hurt and is trying to take me inside.

"You have to pack and leave. Now." I say and Mrs. Everdeen, seems to understand what this means, or just doesn't question it because she sends Prim upstairs to pack.

With only two of them, they're ready quickly. Prim is crying now, trying without luck to call her ugly cat to her. But I'm rushing them, practically pushing them down the street toward the meadow. We're in the town square when I look up and notice the first pair of lights in the distant sky. Unmistakably a hovercraft's. As we pass, I see the houses around the square seem occupied still, candlelight through the window. Did Madge not tell them? Did they not believe her?

I feel ill though, when I notice her large house is in the same condition, candles lighting most of the windows. I tell the Everdeens to hurry towards the woods and they walk away hastily as I run up to the front door of Madge's house. Her father answers. And I immediately decide he does not look like a man about to be saved. He's wringing his hands like he was while he stood helplessly by as I was whipped.

"They don't believe me," he starts, gesturing to the townhouses around him. "They won't leave. They don't believe they're about to die."

"I thought you would have been picked up by now?" I ask the Mayor and he only gravely shakes his head.

"No one's coming for us, Hawthorne," he says and I'm about to say something when he grasps me by the back of my neck. "I can't leave my wife. Please, you have to take Madge. Please."

His grip is so tight on me and he's staring so intently at me, I'm actually frightened for the first time tonight. Madge comes to the door, obviously confused by my presence.

"You're supposed to be in the woods with the others!" she says as she pushes past her father, who has finally let go of me.

"Madge, let's go. Come on," I say and she looks at me confused.

"No, our hovercraft is coming. You need to go," she answers and there are tears of frustration in her blue eyes as she tries to push me into movement.

Her father has left our side and returned with Madge's full leather backpack. She takes it somewhat reproachfully from him, but her eyes are transfixed on me still.

"Sweetheart, please. Go with, Gale," he says and if circumstances were different, I'd be impressed he even knew my first name.

"Daddy, no look. There's a hovercraft coming, that must be them," she says but she's interrupted by a large blast somewhere in the Seam.

All three of our heads immediately look in the direction of the booming noise and we are rewarded with a huge billowing of flames and another similar blasting.

"Go," her father is saying while pulling her daughter away from the door and toward me.

"Daddy, no. Get mother and we'll all go," she says pleadingly, and from the slight light of the distant flames, I can see her cheeks are heavily streaked with tears now.

"There's no time. I love you, sweetheart. We love you. Go," he's kissing her on the forehead and then looks up at me giving me a look I never thought would come from him to me. He's begging me with his gaze. Begging me to leave now with his daughter.

I easily pick up an unsuspecting Madge by her waist and she's screaming in protest, slamming her fists into my frame as I try to start walking. She's yelling for her father to make me stop but he's left us. Madge makes it hard to run but I'm trying and I'm more motivated when I hear the somewhat now familiar bomb blast coming from behind us. Somewhere close.

Madge has stopped her protesting and screaming so I set her down, gripping her hand, hoping to move faster this way. But she's turned back towards town and when I see what she's looking at, I grab her up again, not giving her a chance to run back to the burning, caving mansion her father walked inside of.


	15. Chapter 15

When we reach the meadow, the fence has been plowed over I run over it with a disturbingly still and quiet Madge in my arms. We pass stragglers on the way, but I'm motivated to continue at a faster pace than them because I need to know my family and the Everdeens have made it.

Everyone has seemed to congregate by the lake that is surrounded by the dense woods. I set Madge down, letting her walk on her own, but my hand is still roughly contacted with her own, guiding her with me. She's not even crying now and thanks to the men I've seen dragged out of mining accidents, I know she's in shock. When I find my mother and siblings, I start allowing myself to breathe. The Everdeens are with them and I make Madge sit next to Mrs. Everdeen, who though shaky in past catastrophes immediately begins to brush Madge's blonde hair back from her damp face. Prim too is trying to comfort her, probably scared by her placid expression and pale appearance.

At first, the amount of people in the woods seems like a large group of survivors, but I know our district is much larger than this. There can't be more than 1,000 people milling around here in a strangely muted chaotic way. Someone somewhere heard from someone somewhere we are going to get rescued by District 13. Many laugh at this, but when the first transporter starts picking up people, we are all forced to realize District 13 has always been alive and apparently well.

* * *

By the time it's our turn to be picked up by one of the District 13 aircrafts, Madge is completely unresponsive to everything. I have to practically lift her to get her to come with us into the cabin of the aircraft. I sit down with her silently at my side, her eyes tightly closed and her light breathing the only indicator that she's still alive.

When we land in District 13, we are immediately ushered underground. Deep underground. We're escorted through a complex and thorough network of hallways with many doors. We finally arrive to a large room that seems to act normally as a cafeteria but it now serves as a holding area for the refugees of District 12. The apparent president of 13, who welcomes us and apologizes for the loss of our home and fellow citizens, addresses us. We're informed that all families will be assigned compartment numbers and each person will be given a bag of clothes and necessities. They're extremely prepared for us, which makes me wonder if they had known about the bombing long before we did.

Even though they were prepared, it still takes several hours for each family to receive their assignments. We all must be registered in to some electronic system they have which scans our faces and takes our fingerprints. Posy thinks the tablets that take all of our information are funny and her childish laugh is refreshing to hear after such a heavy toll has been taken on our emotions. Madge is still barely functioning so after my family has all been scanned in, we wait to make sure she is taken care of.

"Undersee?" the guard asks after Madge says her name. He looks to his partner and they call over a supervisor. They discuss something quickly and quiet enough so none of us can hear. "And it's just you? No family?"

At the mention of family, Madge just shakes her head. She won't even hold out her hands for them, so guards have to lift her arms up to take her fingerprints. She is given a bag and a single room assignment. It's hard for me to leave her and go with my own family but at my mother's prompting, I follow after them.

My mother makes my siblings all take showers, but I collapse on one of the single beds and promptly pass out. When I awake, the few items we managed to take out of District 12 decorate the sparse compartment, most notable the portrait of my father. I have no idea what time it is but apparently it's around lunch because my mother tries to make me go to the cafeteria with the rest of my family, but I refuse. So she orders me to shower and change into the strange District 13 uniform that my entire family is wearing now. When they walk out of our compartment, I do as she says, and wash the coal and the ash from my hair and skin.

I stand in front of the mirror that is in our bathroom for a moment, appraising the grey clothes before leaving our compartment to find Madge's. I had remembered the number they gave her earlier, so after navigating some of the halls I find her room. I knock but there's no answer so I try opening the door and it's unlocked. I let myself in to the unlit room, padding softly across the small expanse, running my hand along the wall until my fingers brush over the light switch. Once the electricity brightens the room, I see Madge curled up in a ball on the bed. She's wearing the same dress from last night, her skin slightly blackened from the amount of coal that was lifted into the air from the bombings.

I whisper her name and she turns to look at me. I walk to her bed and press a light kiss on to her temple and she closes her eyes again. I sit at the side of her bed for a long while before I attempt to rouse her so she will bathe. But she doesn't react to anything so I finally lift her and carry her to the tiny bathroom she has to herself. I turn on the water and I'm scared I'm going to have to undress her and wash her myself too, but she begins to disrobe. She takes no mind of me being there as she slides off her dress, so I decide to be decent and leave her alone in the bathroom.

Madge takes a long time to actually get in the shower and I nearly fall asleep on her bed waiting. When I hear her turn the faucet so the water ceases, I sit up. She comes out of the bathroom in the single white towel that was provided to her by District 13. I pull out her grey clothes from the issued bag but soon realize I will have to help dress her. I don't mind. I hold out the different items, starting with underwear, and she slips them on, having discarded the towel to floor at her feet. Eventually she's wearing the pants and the shirt that match mine. I pick up her towel and run it a few times over her soaked hair, drying it a bit. Satisfied, I make her lay back down on her bed.

I'm about to turn around and leave, return to my family's compartment when I hear Madge's speak the first word she's said in hours.

"Gale."

She's wrapped up in the blanket and though she says nothing else, I can tell she's beckoning me to her. I kick off my shoes and climb into her bed, pulling her to me and then keeping my arms tightly locked around her. Madge tucks her head under my chin and the only reason I know she's crying is because I can feel her tears dampen my shirt.

"Baby," I say, whispering the word against the crown of her head, my lips against her soft hair. "Please." I say because I don't know what else to do.

"I shouldn't have left them," she says as she's so tightly pressed to my chest.

"But I wouldn't have left you," I say.


	16. Chapter 16

In the days following, Madge slowly returns to life with much coaxing from me. My family is very much aware that something is has been going on between us now because I often make Madge eat with us and come back to our compartment. Otherwise she sits alone in her single room for hours at a time. Though 13 citizens seem busy and scheduled, they haven't seemed to figure out what exactly to do with all of us from 12 yet.

"Are you sad because you don't have anymore of your pretty dresses?" Posy asks as Madge sits with her on her bed. Though I'm helping Rory with hanging a picture on the wall, I'm watching them closely.

"Not too sad," Madge says, her fingers running through Posy's dark hair to braid it. "Besides, now I get to match you."

Posy, who is elated to have an older girl, especially one as well known as Madge, practically dies at this. It's like she hadn't realized that they were both wearing variations of the same grey outfit.

"But you still look the very most beautifulest more than me," Posy assures Madge.

"Not more than you." Madge says and I can hear Posy explode with pride and giddiness and even my mother laughs at her daughter's demeanor around the older girl.

When the picture Rory and I have been hanging is secure and straight on the white wall, I tell Madge I'll walk her back to her room. Rory and Vick wiggle their brows in a way only younger brothers know how to do and I throw Posy's stuffed dog at them.

Alone in the hallways, Madge grips onto my hand and I lean down as we begin walking to kiss the top of her head. It doesn't take long to reach her door and I hover around as she unlocks it, not sure if she wants me to come inside with her. She goes through moments of needing me near her constantly, to wanting to be completely alone. It turns out she needs me right now because she gently pulls on my shirt so I'll join her.

I sit on the edge of her bed as she takes off her boots, looking at the family portrait she has on the sidetable. She catches me staring at the younger versions of her mother and father, beaming as they hold on to baby Madge. She sits down on my lap, arms moving around my neck, pressing her forehead to mine. Her eyes are closed tightly, so I shut mine as well and wrap my arms around her middle, keeping her steady.

"My father asked about you that night, the night of the bombing," she says softly.

"He did?" I ask, not sure what else to say because she hasn't spoke of her parents in the past days.

"Mhm. He saw us holding hands that one day, in my front yard," she starts. "And he asked if we were dating."

"What did you say?" I ask, having reached my hand up to blindly stroke through her hair.

"I'm not a good liar, so I told him the truth," she says. "He knew your father, he said."

I've never heard that though, so I stay silent.

"They were in the same year at school and he said when your father died in that mining accident and you stepped up to take the award for valor, you looked just like him," she says and pulls back to look at me, so I open my eyes. "He said he trusted you with me."

I kiss her gently on her cheek, my hand still sliding my fingers through her long hair. Her words make me think about losing my own father and how difficult and painful it was for my whole family. But I always had my mother to comfort me. I realize Madge has no one, not her mother, no friends, just me.

"It will get easier, baby." I tell her, dropping my head enough so I can nuzzle lightly at her neck. "He knew you could be strong but he needed to be there with your mother."

She nods and turns her head to kiss me softly and I return it eagerly, still relishing in each kiss she bestows upon me, even if it's fairly common now. But after a few moments, she gives me a smile and slides off my lap, pulling me by my hands so I will stand up.

"Go home," she tells me. "Your mother is probably sick of me keeping you all the time."

I grumble out some protest because I want to stay with her, but Madge is adamant and I'm pleased to see her being somewhat upbeat, so I obey. After kissing her a few more times in goodbye, I leave her room and head back to my family's compartment.

* * *

The next morning I am finally given an imprinted schedule on my arm, like all of the citizens of 13 have. Even Posy receives one. It lists what we are expected to do all day, accounting for every moment. Breakfast is first, so I rise with the rest of my family, leaving our compartment together after we have all dressed. Once inside of the cafeteria, I sit with my tray of food and wait for Madge to join us so I can see what her schedule looks like.

I get distracted teasing Posy and when the bell sounding the end of breakfast goes off, I get concerned because I haven't seen Madge. Thinking maybe her schedule is different because she would still be enrolled in school, I brush it off and go to my next activity. I'm supposed to be working on electronics, but I find it easy and my instructor, some sort of commander, takes notice and promises to find me a more advance placement in the following days.

I continue working through my schedule and realize they're prepping me for a military career because I have several hours of weapons training and other instruction that sounds like plans for battle. I don't mind though, because if they plan on sending me out to fight against the Capital, I'd do it happily.

It's not until dinner that I really begin to get nervous about Madge's absence. I eat quickly and leave the dining hall to go knock on her door to see if she's just having a bad day, unable to follow her schedule. But when I hit the door with my fist it opens on it's own. I'm suddenly embarrassed because I think I've gotten the wrong room because this one is completely empty, nothing and no one inside. But after checking the number, I know I am correct in thinking Madge should be here.

Confused, I venture inside of the small compartment and see a not left on the bed. I can tell even before I pick it up, it's written by Madge. The handwriting is perfectly formed on the recycled parchment.

"Gale,

They're taking to me to another District.

Madge."

Even though her handwriting is neat, where she signed her name looks forced and quickly done. Knowing how attached she has been to me the last days, I assume they took her without warning so she didn't have a chance to tell me. I'm annoyed she didn't write more but fold up the slip of paper and stick it in my pocket as I leave her former room to return to my family's compartment.

"Where's Madge?" Rory asks when I return.

"They took her to another District," I say.

"So you're stuck with these ugly 13 girls, instead?" He asks with a smirk and I shove him back on his bed in passing. By the way he tries to flirt with Madge, it's obvious I'm not the only Hawthorne who's attracted to blondes.

"Will she be back?" My mother asks more concerned.

"I don't know," I say and I stop replying to them because I'm frustrated I can't answer their questions.


End file.
