Fic: Four Times Katniss Wasn't Reaped (And One Time She Was)
Title: Four Times Katniss Wasn't Reaped (And One Time She Was)
Author: lit_chick08
Pairing: Katniss Everdeen/Gale Hawthorne
Rating: PG
Word Count: 4,113
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Suzanne Collins.
Summary: He's always been more afraid to hear her name than he was afraid to hear his own
A/N: written for the Good luck prompt off my 100 Fairytales Fic Table
1. When Katniss is 12
Everyone in the Seam knows each other to some degree, so it wasn't as if he had no idea who Katniss Everdeen was before the explosion which killed their fathers. He had seen her around school, her dark braid bouncing over her shoulders as she played tag with some of the older children, always managing to outrun them; he had raced her once when Jondi Foster had decided she no longer wanted to flirt with him during lunch break. Though he had denied it when his friends asked him, he had almost lost to the little girl, having to push him legs to save his pride. As they both tried to regain their breath, she had looked at him with her gray eyes and declared, “I'll beat you next time.”
He was thirteen then and she was barely eleven, but Gale believed her, which is why he turned down her challenge a week later.
A few weeks before the explosion, his next-door neighbor gets married, and there is a party near the Hob. His father was playing his fiddle and Mr. Everdeen started singing, and he saw the girl dancing in the center of the floor with her little sister, who is about Rory's age and fair enough to pass as a merchant's child. His mother caught him looking at her, that girl with her hair in this complicated braid, her skirt flaring as she spun around with her sister, and his mother set her hands upon his shoulders and said, “You should ask her to dance.”
He immediately shook his head, mumbling something before rushing off to find Vick and Rory, ignoring his crazy, pregnant mother.
After the explosion, at the ceremony to receive his father's medal, he saw an unfamiliar girl accept Mr. Everdeen's medal, and he realized with a start she was the girl from the races, from the wedding, was the girl now stoically taking the medal. Later, when he told people how he had first met Katniss Everdeen, this was the story he used because it was the first true glimpse of the girl who would become his best friend.
With his father gone, he knew what he had to do, which is why he went to the woods. He had always been good with snares, and he knew his mother was going to need all the help she can get, especially after Posy's birth. The day he found the girl in the woods, her father's coat hanging on her body, a bow and a quiver of arrows beside her, he knew she must be in the same boat as he.
The thing about Katniss, he learned very quickly, was that she was single-minded, maybe even more than he was. Food needed to be put on the table, so she hunted; Prim needed an expensive medicine her mother could not make, so she did not rest until she had trapped enough to pay for it. Gale forgot sometimes she was just a kid, just a little girl.
“You're taking care of her, right, Gale?” his mother asked one evening after he returned from the Hob, handing her the rabbits he'd kept for their dinner.
Sometimes he thought his mother was more worried about Katniss than she was about him.
One afternoon, Katniss didn't meet him in the woods. As he headed towards the Hob to trade the single goose he had been able to down with the bow he had made, Gale saw Katniss coming out, her arms weighted down with grain and heating oil.
“Where did you get the money for that?” he demanded, suddenly furious convinced she had gone out early to empty his traps.
“Tesserae,” she answered with a shrug.
“Why would you do that?” Gale exploded, his anger taking a different form in his chest.
“You do it!” Katniss shouted back. “And we need this!”
He stomped away then, too afraid of what he would say to her if he stayed, and, for the next three days, he did not see her. The Reaping was the next day, and he could not stop thinking about it. His mother sat beside him on the third evening of their fight and ventured, “She wants to do what's best for her family too.”
Gale glared at her before gritting out, “If she gets Reaped, there won't be anyone left to take care of Mrs. Everdeen and Prim.”
Brushing his hair away from his forehead, Hazelle leaned forward and kissed his forehead. “That's what you'll do.”
When they gather for the Reaping, everyone milling around in their nicest outfits, Gale spotted Katniss near the edge of the crowd, Prim's hand in her own; he didn't see Mrs. Everdeen, but, then again, no one saw much of Mrs. Everdeen anymore.
As Effie Trinket reached her hand into the collection of slips, Gale braced himself, waiting, frozen; his name was written on 18 slips, more than any other boy in District 12, and he knew the odds were not in his favor.
There are three slips bearing the name “Katniss Everdeen.”
When Justine Shill and Drake Logan are Reaped, Gale exhaled in relief. Katniss caught his eye across the crowd and nodded once.
The next day they met in the woods, the fight forgotten.
2. When Katniss was 13
Gale would never admit it out loud, but he loved to watch Katniss hunt. It was poetry in motion, the way she could shimmy up a tree, perch on a branch, and pick off any animal with one, clean shot through the eye. No matter how many times she tried to show him how to do it, he could never quite manage to do so.
Today's haul was one of the largest they'd ever accumulated in a single day, especially so fast; when they get back to town, they will walk away with more money and goods than they have from two weeks' worth of hunting. He was already calculating everything he could purchase with his half of the haul, when Katniss, who had been reclining back on the grass, suddenly sat up and asked, “Do you think you'd win?”
“What?”
“If you got picked, do you think you'd win?”
The Reaping was in two days; he had been trying not to think about it.
“Why?”
Katniss shrugged. “In school today, they were talking about the Games and one of the younger girls, her brother was Reaped a couple of years ago. And she said he knew he wasn't ever going to win.”
Gale suspected he knew which boy she was talking about; Mason Cooper had been in his grade when he was Reaped, a short boy who was skin and bones with no coordination. He hadn't even made it out of the Cornucopia.
“So would you win?” she pressed.
He plucked a blade of grass, whistling with it before admitting, “I don't know. I think I'd last awhile at least. The Careers know how to fight, but I know how to survive. I think I'd do okay.”
“But you don't think you'd win?”
Gale shrugged. “Depends on the situation I guess. I mean, no one expected that girl from District 4 to win a few years ago, but she was the only one who could swim. Just depends on the odds.”
“I think you'd win,” Katniss declared in that voice of hers which left no room for argument.
“Why's that?”
“Because you'd fight harder than anyone else to come home and take care of everyone.” Meeting his gaze unwaveringly, Katniss stated, “You'd make it back.”
There are 24 slips of paper with “Gale Hawthorne” written on them in the drawing this year; there are 6 slips of paper with “Katniss Everdeen” on them.
Dahlia Sparrow and Kai Marrow are Reaped.
3. When Katniss is 14
There were things a person could sell in the District which bring in far more money than small game. Gale was sixteen, and he knew if times ever got particularly desperate, Old Lady Linardi who runs the dress shop would pay him for it. Last winter, when Posy's breathing got so rough, her lungs full of fluid, he had been prepared to do just that in order to afford the doctor and medicine; but then, like an angel, Katniss had shown up at his door with her slightly dazed looking mother in tow. Posy was fine within a matter of days, and Gale relaxed, knowing he wouldn't have to sell off his pride to a woman who disgusted him.
They had gotten a decent haul that day, selling the squirrels to the baker, making a fortune by selling the doe Katniss had felled to Greasy Sae; even after taking away the game which would go their own families, there were rabbits to be sold and so they went door-to-door to their usual customers.
Gale knew Haymitch Abernathy would buy two rabbits despite the fact he could afford to shop at the butcher's, and so he went towards the empty Victor's Village while Katniss headed towards the merchants' homes. The moment Haymitch opened the door, Gale could smell the liquor on him, and he resisted the urge to step back for fear of offending him.
“Where's your girlfriend?” the older man rasped as he dug his wallet out of his pocket.
“Excuse me?”
“Girl that's usually with you,” Haymitch continued, squinting at the bills as he tried to separate them. “Skinny thing, always looks a little angry.”
“She's busy.”
Pressing the bills into Gale's palm as he accepted the rabbits, the drunk man declared, “She looks like a real handful, that one. Don't you want a nice girlfriend?”
Ignoring the question, Gale thanked him curtly before walking away, clenching his fists tightly. He had never liked Haymitch, Victor or not; despite having more money than anyone else in the District, more everything than everyone else, he was always stinking drunk, never spreading the wealth around like the people in the Seam. Once, he had made this comment to his father, and it was the only time Gale had ever seen his usually jovial father become dead serious. And then he said something Gale would never forget.
“Just because you leave the Games walking, doesn't mean you didn't die.”
Gale saw Katniss standing on the stoop of the new mine foreman, the one everyone was complaining about; as he got closer, he saw Katniss shaking her head, her brow folded in confusion, and he wondered what about the deal this man wasn't understanding.
“I'm only selling the rabbits,” Katniss was saying as Gale came into earshot. “I don't know what else you want to buy, sir.”
“I want an hour,” the foreman stated, his eyes tripping over Katniss's body, “and then I'll pay you for everything.”
Gale saw red as he quickened his step, barely hearing Katniss ask, “An hour for what?”
“Not for sale!” Gale barked as he reached the stoop, grabbing Katniss around the bicep, startling her. “C'mon.”
“Gale, what - “
“Come on!”
The foreman was cursing behind them, making horrendous slurs about Seam girls, but Gale kept walking, his grip on Katniss unflinching. It wasn't until she nearly tripped, he realized he was all-but-dragging her. The moment he released her, Katniss began to rub her sore arm, and Gale felt a flash of regret.
“What was that about?” she asked. “What did he want to give me 35 coin for?”
“I don't know.”
“Yes, you do or you wouldn't be so angry. Gale, what - “
“Look, all you need to know is that, if someone offers you money for something you didn't come to the door to sell, you say no,” he interrupted. “There are people out here who will hurt you if you give them the chance, and that guy would have hurt you.”
“By doing what?” Katniss asked, exasperated. When he pressed his lips together in a thin line, she added, “How can I keep myself safe if I don't know who the enemy is?”
“He wanted you in his bed for an hour,” Gale finally explained. As Katniss flushed a brilliant shade of crimson, dropping her chin to her chest in embarrassment, he added, “It's fast, easy money, and they know that, especially when we're desperate.”
“Have you ever - “
“No,” he emphatically stated, “and I don't ever want to hear about you doing it either.” Catching her under the chin with two fingers, lifting her head so he can look in her eyes, Gale swore, “If it ever gets that bad, you come to me first, and I'll get you whatever you need. You hear me, Catnip?”
She nodded, drawing the corner of her lip between her teeth, before asking, “How much did you get from Haymitch?”
“Twelve.”
“For rabbits?” she asked in surprise. “You cheated him!”
“Still a better deal than the butcher, and it's not like he doesn't have it. Drunk, old man has more money than he can drink away.”
“I wouldn't mind being a Victor if it meant never having to worry about money ever again,” Katniss declared as she kicked a pebble.
To be a Victor, you have to murder twenty-three people. To keep his family well taken care of, Gale knew he would not even hesitate to do so if he was Reaped.
Neither would Katniss.
There are 30 slips of paper with “Gale Hawthorne” written on them.
There are 9 slips of paper with “Katniss Everdeen” written on them.
Tobias Fell and Sunday Burton are Reaped.
4. When Katniss is 15
He had pneumonia; he didn't need Mrs. Everdeen diagnose him, not when everyone he came into contact told him so. At first Gale tried to deny it, insisting it was just a cold, but he was so weak now, he can barely sit up in his bed, coughing so hard his entire body ached with the movement. The fever he had would not break, and, though Katniss's mother came over every evening with a new remedy, going so far as to light matches on his chest and placing a jar atop it, Gale was not getting better.
Katniss was hunting for both of their families, coming over every evening with his family's portion, and Gale wished he had an appetite for the stews his mother cooked, for the stale bread which, when soaked in the broth, could fill an empty stomach. Hazelle kept bringing him bowls of straight broth, but he couldn't manage to choke it down. Weight was falling off of him, and he heard his mother and Katniss's whispering, talking about he needed a course of pills, something which would cost more money than anyone in the Seam had to spare.
Gale knew he was probably going to die, drowning in his own lungs, and all he could think about was how his family was going to be in deep trouble. He would ask Katniss to teach Vick and Rory to hunt, he decided as he slid towards sleep.
He wasn't sure what time it was when his mother shook him awake, forcing him out of the peaceful effects of the sleeping syrup. As he blinked his way back to consciousness, Gale felt his mouth being opened and something bitter being placed on his tongue; reflexively he swallowed before accepting a cup of milk and washing away the bitterness.
It was milk from Prim's goat, and Gale tried to keep his eyes open, to find Katniss who would have brought the milk, but he could not.
Three times a day, Hazelle woke him and placed a pill on his tongue. Within five days, Gale found his appetite returning, gratefully sucking down anything placed in front of him, for the first time since his father died eating more than his fair share. It was not until his fever finally broke he asked the question which had been plaguing him.
“Where did the pills come from, Mom?”
Hazelle, who had insisted he remain in bed for another two days, sighed happily. “Katniss. She showed up here one night with them, said she'd caught enough in the woods to pay. For two days, she stayed out there to get enough to pay for the medicine. It was...She saved your life.”
He stewed for hours until Katniss showed up that evening with a grouse for his mother. As she sank down on his bed, she removed a pouch for her pocket, opening the flaps to show a mixture of fresh berries.
“I brought your favorite,” she reported, popping a blackberry.
“What did you do to get that medicine?”
Katniss paused for a moment before lying, “I traded at the Hob.”
“Even if you had caught every rabbit in the forest, you still would've been short.” Grabbing her wrist when she tried to move away, he gritted out, “Tell me you didn't, Catnip.”
Understanding his meaning instantly, she jerked her arm away, snapping, “I didn't! I did what you would have done if I needed it.” Lowering her voice, casting a watchful eye towards the living room, she whispered, “I stole Haymitch's wallet.”
“What?!” he exclaimed, genuinely surprised.
They had always joked about it, usually on the days when they returned from the woods waterlogged from rain with only three skinny squirrels. It wasn't always Haymitch they used in their scenarios; the last time they had rhapsodized about how much easier it would be if they could just take what they needed rather than fight for it, Gale had suggested the Mellarks' bakery. When Katniss had laughed about his choice, he defended it by asking her if she hadn't had dreams about eating one of the beautifully decorated cakes in the windows.
But, whenever they playfully plotted to rob, it was always known it was only a joke. They were not thieves; they were proud people who wanted to provide for their families, and neither really minded hard work. The idea of stealing from their neighbors was as repugnant to them as the Career from District 2 who had murdered his own sister during the Games to win.
And yet Katniss was right; to save her, he would have robbed anyone, even Mayor Undersee.
“He passed out in the Hob,” she explained softly so no one would overhear, “and Darius was trying to pick him up. His wallet was just on the ground, so...So I took out some bills. Not all of them,” she hurriedly added. “Just enough for the medicine and some juice for Posy's birthday.”
Gale had almost forgotten his sister's birthday during his convalescence; he always got juice for the kids' birthdays, and he was so grateful Katniss remembered.
“You're so stupid, Catnip,” he groaned as he pulled her into a tight hug. Katniss hesitated for only a moment before returning it, and Gale couldn't help but bark out a laugh as she ordered, “Don't ever get sick like this again.”
Posy toddled into his room then, climbing up onto the bed and squealing with delight when she saw the berries. As Katniss patiently fed them to her so she would not crush them in her small hands, Gale knew he was going to marry Katniss Everdeen someday.
Four days later, he dragged himself to town for the Reaping, the color returning to his face though he was still unsteady on his feet.
Thirty-five slips of paper read “Gale Hawthorne.”
Twelve slips of paper read “Katniss Everdeen.”
Wyatt Nicodemus and Laurel McKenzie are Reaped.
5. When Katniss is 16
It was his last Reaping.
When he woke up that day, it was all Gale could think about; today was the last time he would ever have to wake up and potentially be brought to slaughter. He would be able to start planning his life now, start working and saving for when he finally proposed to Katniss.
There was never any doubt in his mind he will marry Katniss. But he could not actually put his dream to words until her last Reaping, until they were both free of the Capitol's twisted sense of entertainment.
Katniss smiled at him across the crowd, deliberately widening her eyes and then rolling them to show what she thought of the whole display, and Gale laughed quietly in return. She looked beautiful today, and, as Prim waved to him, Gale nodded in greeting to distract himself from studying his best friend. As he glanced around, he caught sight of one of the Mellark boys, his gaze also focused on Katniss, and Gale felt a flare of jealousy in his stomach. The merchants already got everything else in town; he'd be damned if he let any of them near his Katniss.
So wrapped up in his own head, Gale was completely unprepared for the Reaping to begin.
There are 40 slips of paper with “Gale Hawthorne” written on them.
There are 15 slips of paper with “Katniss Everdeen” written on them.
And then his worst nightmare was recognized as Effie Trinket read, “Primrose Everdeen.”
It was like the world started moving in slow motion. His eyes flew to Prim, who looked so tiny as she started to move forward, and then there was Katniss, his Katniss, moving forward, and he knew the words which were going to come out of her mouth before she ever said them because they were the words he would say if Vick or Rory's names ever passed through Effie Trinket's lips.
“I volunteer as Tribute!”
Gale took two steps forward, his hand starting to rise to do the same, unwilling to send Katniss into battle with the animals from the other Districts, unwilling to let her go off to die alone, but he saw Katniss subtly shake her head, and Gale remembered his promise. They had made it so long ago, vowing to take care of the other's family if they were ever Reaped, and Gale did not break promises; it was not the way things were done in the Seam.
And then Effie Trinket announced, “Peeta Mellark,” and Gale secretly sighed in relief. That stupid baker's boy, the one whose eyes followed Katniss anywhere and everywhere, would lay his lovesick life down for her in the Arena, and it would be one less person Katniss would have to kill to come back to him.
After she is gone, he went into the woods, emptying the traps, gathering up the sour berries Prim loves so much; the Everdeen house was silent as a tomb when he knocked on the door. Prim answered the door, her face pale and swollen from tears, and the sight of him sent her over the edge again. Setting the food on the table, he scooped her up like she was Posy's age and rocked her as Mrs. Everdeen appeared. Her face had the same empty quality it had after the explosion, and Gale suddenly knew he was going to need to be as available to the Everdeens as they need.
“She'll be back,” Gale stated with the kind of conviction only Katniss could put behind her words. “No one is tougher than Katniss. The second she gets a bow in her hand, they aren't going to be able to touch her.”
“Do you really think so?” Prim asked pathetically as she picked up one of the berries, rolling it between her fingers.
“Katniss Everdeen is going to win the 74th Hunger Games. I'll bet my life on it.”
There were 40 slips of paper that read “Gale Hawthorne” in the Reaping.
There were 15 slips of paper that read “Katniss Everdeen” in the Reaping.
There was 1 slip of paper that read “Primrose Everdeen” in the Reaping.
The odds had never been in their favor.
Author: lit_chick08
Pairing: Katniss Everdeen/Gale Hawthorne
Rating: PG
Word Count: 4,113
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Suzanne Collins.
Summary: He's always been more afraid to hear her name than he was afraid to hear his own
A/N: written for the Good luck prompt off my 100 Fairytales Fic Table
1. When Katniss is 12
Everyone in the Seam knows each other to some degree, so it wasn't as if he had no idea who Katniss Everdeen was before the explosion which killed their fathers. He had seen her around school, her dark braid bouncing over her shoulders as she played tag with some of the older children, always managing to outrun them; he had raced her once when Jondi Foster had decided she no longer wanted to flirt with him during lunch break. Though he had denied it when his friends asked him, he had almost lost to the little girl, having to push him legs to save his pride. As they both tried to regain their breath, she had looked at him with her gray eyes and declared, “I'll beat you next time.”
He was thirteen then and she was barely eleven, but Gale believed her, which is why he turned down her challenge a week later.
A few weeks before the explosion, his next-door neighbor gets married, and there is a party near the Hob. His father was playing his fiddle and Mr. Everdeen started singing, and he saw the girl dancing in the center of the floor with her little sister, who is about Rory's age and fair enough to pass as a merchant's child. His mother caught him looking at her, that girl with her hair in this complicated braid, her skirt flaring as she spun around with her sister, and his mother set her hands upon his shoulders and said, “You should ask her to dance.”
He immediately shook his head, mumbling something before rushing off to find Vick and Rory, ignoring his crazy, pregnant mother.
After the explosion, at the ceremony to receive his father's medal, he saw an unfamiliar girl accept Mr. Everdeen's medal, and he realized with a start she was the girl from the races, from the wedding, was the girl now stoically taking the medal. Later, when he told people how he had first met Katniss Everdeen, this was the story he used because it was the first true glimpse of the girl who would become his best friend.
With his father gone, he knew what he had to do, which is why he went to the woods. He had always been good with snares, and he knew his mother was going to need all the help she can get, especially after Posy's birth. The day he found the girl in the woods, her father's coat hanging on her body, a bow and a quiver of arrows beside her, he knew she must be in the same boat as he.
The thing about Katniss, he learned very quickly, was that she was single-minded, maybe even more than he was. Food needed to be put on the table, so she hunted; Prim needed an expensive medicine her mother could not make, so she did not rest until she had trapped enough to pay for it. Gale forgot sometimes she was just a kid, just a little girl.
“You're taking care of her, right, Gale?” his mother asked one evening after he returned from the Hob, handing her the rabbits he'd kept for their dinner.
Sometimes he thought his mother was more worried about Katniss than she was about him.
One afternoon, Katniss didn't meet him in the woods. As he headed towards the Hob to trade the single goose he had been able to down with the bow he had made, Gale saw Katniss coming out, her arms weighted down with grain and heating oil.
“Where did you get the money for that?” he demanded, suddenly furious convinced she had gone out early to empty his traps.
“Tesserae,” she answered with a shrug.
“Why would you do that?” Gale exploded, his anger taking a different form in his chest.
“You do it!” Katniss shouted back. “And we need this!”
He stomped away then, too afraid of what he would say to her if he stayed, and, for the next three days, he did not see her. The Reaping was the next day, and he could not stop thinking about it. His mother sat beside him on the third evening of their fight and ventured, “She wants to do what's best for her family too.”
Gale glared at her before gritting out, “If she gets Reaped, there won't be anyone left to take care of Mrs. Everdeen and Prim.”
Brushing his hair away from his forehead, Hazelle leaned forward and kissed his forehead. “That's what you'll do.”
When they gather for the Reaping, everyone milling around in their nicest outfits, Gale spotted Katniss near the edge of the crowd, Prim's hand in her own; he didn't see Mrs. Everdeen, but, then again, no one saw much of Mrs. Everdeen anymore.
As Effie Trinket reached her hand into the collection of slips, Gale braced himself, waiting, frozen; his name was written on 18 slips, more than any other boy in District 12, and he knew the odds were not in his favor.
There are three slips bearing the name “Katniss Everdeen.”
When Justine Shill and Drake Logan are Reaped, Gale exhaled in relief. Katniss caught his eye across the crowd and nodded once.
The next day they met in the woods, the fight forgotten.
2. When Katniss was 13
Gale would never admit it out loud, but he loved to watch Katniss hunt. It was poetry in motion, the way she could shimmy up a tree, perch on a branch, and pick off any animal with one, clean shot through the eye. No matter how many times she tried to show him how to do it, he could never quite manage to do so.
Today's haul was one of the largest they'd ever accumulated in a single day, especially so fast; when they get back to town, they will walk away with more money and goods than they have from two weeks' worth of hunting. He was already calculating everything he could purchase with his half of the haul, when Katniss, who had been reclining back on the grass, suddenly sat up and asked, “Do you think you'd win?”
“What?”
“If you got picked, do you think you'd win?”
The Reaping was in two days; he had been trying not to think about it.
“Why?”
Katniss shrugged. “In school today, they were talking about the Games and one of the younger girls, her brother was Reaped a couple of years ago. And she said he knew he wasn't ever going to win.”
Gale suspected he knew which boy she was talking about; Mason Cooper had been in his grade when he was Reaped, a short boy who was skin and bones with no coordination. He hadn't even made it out of the Cornucopia.
“So would you win?” she pressed.
He plucked a blade of grass, whistling with it before admitting, “I don't know. I think I'd last awhile at least. The Careers know how to fight, but I know how to survive. I think I'd do okay.”
“But you don't think you'd win?”
Gale shrugged. “Depends on the situation I guess. I mean, no one expected that girl from District 4 to win a few years ago, but she was the only one who could swim. Just depends on the odds.”
“I think you'd win,” Katniss declared in that voice of hers which left no room for argument.
“Why's that?”
“Because you'd fight harder than anyone else to come home and take care of everyone.” Meeting his gaze unwaveringly, Katniss stated, “You'd make it back.”
There are 24 slips of paper with “Gale Hawthorne” written on them in the drawing this year; there are 6 slips of paper with “Katniss Everdeen” on them.
Dahlia Sparrow and Kai Marrow are Reaped.
3. When Katniss is 14
There were things a person could sell in the District which bring in far more money than small game. Gale was sixteen, and he knew if times ever got particularly desperate, Old Lady Linardi who runs the dress shop would pay him for it. Last winter, when Posy's breathing got so rough, her lungs full of fluid, he had been prepared to do just that in order to afford the doctor and medicine; but then, like an angel, Katniss had shown up at his door with her slightly dazed looking mother in tow. Posy was fine within a matter of days, and Gale relaxed, knowing he wouldn't have to sell off his pride to a woman who disgusted him.
They had gotten a decent haul that day, selling the squirrels to the baker, making a fortune by selling the doe Katniss had felled to Greasy Sae; even after taking away the game which would go their own families, there were rabbits to be sold and so they went door-to-door to their usual customers.
Gale knew Haymitch Abernathy would buy two rabbits despite the fact he could afford to shop at the butcher's, and so he went towards the empty Victor's Village while Katniss headed towards the merchants' homes. The moment Haymitch opened the door, Gale could smell the liquor on him, and he resisted the urge to step back for fear of offending him.
“Where's your girlfriend?” the older man rasped as he dug his wallet out of his pocket.
“Excuse me?”
“Girl that's usually with you,” Haymitch continued, squinting at the bills as he tried to separate them. “Skinny thing, always looks a little angry.”
“She's busy.”
Pressing the bills into Gale's palm as he accepted the rabbits, the drunk man declared, “She looks like a real handful, that one. Don't you want a nice girlfriend?”
Ignoring the question, Gale thanked him curtly before walking away, clenching his fists tightly. He had never liked Haymitch, Victor or not; despite having more money than anyone else in the District, more everything than everyone else, he was always stinking drunk, never spreading the wealth around like the people in the Seam. Once, he had made this comment to his father, and it was the only time Gale had ever seen his usually jovial father become dead serious. And then he said something Gale would never forget.
“Just because you leave the Games walking, doesn't mean you didn't die.”
Gale saw Katniss standing on the stoop of the new mine foreman, the one everyone was complaining about; as he got closer, he saw Katniss shaking her head, her brow folded in confusion, and he wondered what about the deal this man wasn't understanding.
“I'm only selling the rabbits,” Katniss was saying as Gale came into earshot. “I don't know what else you want to buy, sir.”
“I want an hour,” the foreman stated, his eyes tripping over Katniss's body, “and then I'll pay you for everything.”
Gale saw red as he quickened his step, barely hearing Katniss ask, “An hour for what?”
“Not for sale!” Gale barked as he reached the stoop, grabbing Katniss around the bicep, startling her. “C'mon.”
“Gale, what - “
“Come on!”
The foreman was cursing behind them, making horrendous slurs about Seam girls, but Gale kept walking, his grip on Katniss unflinching. It wasn't until she nearly tripped, he realized he was all-but-dragging her. The moment he released her, Katniss began to rub her sore arm, and Gale felt a flash of regret.
“What was that about?” she asked. “What did he want to give me 35 coin for?”
“I don't know.”
“Yes, you do or you wouldn't be so angry. Gale, what - “
“Look, all you need to know is that, if someone offers you money for something you didn't come to the door to sell, you say no,” he interrupted. “There are people out here who will hurt you if you give them the chance, and that guy would have hurt you.”
“By doing what?” Katniss asked, exasperated. When he pressed his lips together in a thin line, she added, “How can I keep myself safe if I don't know who the enemy is?”
“He wanted you in his bed for an hour,” Gale finally explained. As Katniss flushed a brilliant shade of crimson, dropping her chin to her chest in embarrassment, he added, “It's fast, easy money, and they know that, especially when we're desperate.”
“Have you ever - “
“No,” he emphatically stated, “and I don't ever want to hear about you doing it either.” Catching her under the chin with two fingers, lifting her head so he can look in her eyes, Gale swore, “If it ever gets that bad, you come to me first, and I'll get you whatever you need. You hear me, Catnip?”
She nodded, drawing the corner of her lip between her teeth, before asking, “How much did you get from Haymitch?”
“Twelve.”
“For rabbits?” she asked in surprise. “You cheated him!”
“Still a better deal than the butcher, and it's not like he doesn't have it. Drunk, old man has more money than he can drink away.”
“I wouldn't mind being a Victor if it meant never having to worry about money ever again,” Katniss declared as she kicked a pebble.
To be a Victor, you have to murder twenty-three people. To keep his family well taken care of, Gale knew he would not even hesitate to do so if he was Reaped.
Neither would Katniss.
There are 30 slips of paper with “Gale Hawthorne” written on them.
There are 9 slips of paper with “Katniss Everdeen” written on them.
Tobias Fell and Sunday Burton are Reaped.
4. When Katniss is 15
He had pneumonia; he didn't need Mrs. Everdeen diagnose him, not when everyone he came into contact told him so. At first Gale tried to deny it, insisting it was just a cold, but he was so weak now, he can barely sit up in his bed, coughing so hard his entire body ached with the movement. The fever he had would not break, and, though Katniss's mother came over every evening with a new remedy, going so far as to light matches on his chest and placing a jar atop it, Gale was not getting better.
Katniss was hunting for both of their families, coming over every evening with his family's portion, and Gale wished he had an appetite for the stews his mother cooked, for the stale bread which, when soaked in the broth, could fill an empty stomach. Hazelle kept bringing him bowls of straight broth, but he couldn't manage to choke it down. Weight was falling off of him, and he heard his mother and Katniss's whispering, talking about he needed a course of pills, something which would cost more money than anyone in the Seam had to spare.
Gale knew he was probably going to die, drowning in his own lungs, and all he could think about was how his family was going to be in deep trouble. He would ask Katniss to teach Vick and Rory to hunt, he decided as he slid towards sleep.
He wasn't sure what time it was when his mother shook him awake, forcing him out of the peaceful effects of the sleeping syrup. As he blinked his way back to consciousness, Gale felt his mouth being opened and something bitter being placed on his tongue; reflexively he swallowed before accepting a cup of milk and washing away the bitterness.
It was milk from Prim's goat, and Gale tried to keep his eyes open, to find Katniss who would have brought the milk, but he could not.
Three times a day, Hazelle woke him and placed a pill on his tongue. Within five days, Gale found his appetite returning, gratefully sucking down anything placed in front of him, for the first time since his father died eating more than his fair share. It was not until his fever finally broke he asked the question which had been plaguing him.
“Where did the pills come from, Mom?”
Hazelle, who had insisted he remain in bed for another two days, sighed happily. “Katniss. She showed up here one night with them, said she'd caught enough in the woods to pay. For two days, she stayed out there to get enough to pay for the medicine. It was...She saved your life.”
He stewed for hours until Katniss showed up that evening with a grouse for his mother. As she sank down on his bed, she removed a pouch for her pocket, opening the flaps to show a mixture of fresh berries.
“I brought your favorite,” she reported, popping a blackberry.
“What did you do to get that medicine?”
Katniss paused for a moment before lying, “I traded at the Hob.”
“Even if you had caught every rabbit in the forest, you still would've been short.” Grabbing her wrist when she tried to move away, he gritted out, “Tell me you didn't, Catnip.”
Understanding his meaning instantly, she jerked her arm away, snapping, “I didn't! I did what you would have done if I needed it.” Lowering her voice, casting a watchful eye towards the living room, she whispered, “I stole Haymitch's wallet.”
“What?!” he exclaimed, genuinely surprised.
They had always joked about it, usually on the days when they returned from the woods waterlogged from rain with only three skinny squirrels. It wasn't always Haymitch they used in their scenarios; the last time they had rhapsodized about how much easier it would be if they could just take what they needed rather than fight for it, Gale had suggested the Mellarks' bakery. When Katniss had laughed about his choice, he defended it by asking her if she hadn't had dreams about eating one of the beautifully decorated cakes in the windows.
But, whenever they playfully plotted to rob, it was always known it was only a joke. They were not thieves; they were proud people who wanted to provide for their families, and neither really minded hard work. The idea of stealing from their neighbors was as repugnant to them as the Career from District 2 who had murdered his own sister during the Games to win.
And yet Katniss was right; to save her, he would have robbed anyone, even Mayor Undersee.
“He passed out in the Hob,” she explained softly so no one would overhear, “and Darius was trying to pick him up. His wallet was just on the ground, so...So I took out some bills. Not all of them,” she hurriedly added. “Just enough for the medicine and some juice for Posy's birthday.”
Gale had almost forgotten his sister's birthday during his convalescence; he always got juice for the kids' birthdays, and he was so grateful Katniss remembered.
“You're so stupid, Catnip,” he groaned as he pulled her into a tight hug. Katniss hesitated for only a moment before returning it, and Gale couldn't help but bark out a laugh as she ordered, “Don't ever get sick like this again.”
Posy toddled into his room then, climbing up onto the bed and squealing with delight when she saw the berries. As Katniss patiently fed them to her so she would not crush them in her small hands, Gale knew he was going to marry Katniss Everdeen someday.
Four days later, he dragged himself to town for the Reaping, the color returning to his face though he was still unsteady on his feet.
Thirty-five slips of paper read “Gale Hawthorne.”
Twelve slips of paper read “Katniss Everdeen.”
Wyatt Nicodemus and Laurel McKenzie are Reaped.
5. When Katniss is 16
It was his last Reaping.
When he woke up that day, it was all Gale could think about; today was the last time he would ever have to wake up and potentially be brought to slaughter. He would be able to start planning his life now, start working and saving for when he finally proposed to Katniss.
There was never any doubt in his mind he will marry Katniss. But he could not actually put his dream to words until her last Reaping, until they were both free of the Capitol's twisted sense of entertainment.
Katniss smiled at him across the crowd, deliberately widening her eyes and then rolling them to show what she thought of the whole display, and Gale laughed quietly in return. She looked beautiful today, and, as Prim waved to him, Gale nodded in greeting to distract himself from studying his best friend. As he glanced around, he caught sight of one of the Mellark boys, his gaze also focused on Katniss, and Gale felt a flare of jealousy in his stomach. The merchants already got everything else in town; he'd be damned if he let any of them near his Katniss.
So wrapped up in his own head, Gale was completely unprepared for the Reaping to begin.
There are 40 slips of paper with “Gale Hawthorne” written on them.
There are 15 slips of paper with “Katniss Everdeen” written on them.
And then his worst nightmare was recognized as Effie Trinket read, “Primrose Everdeen.”
It was like the world started moving in slow motion. His eyes flew to Prim, who looked so tiny as she started to move forward, and then there was Katniss, his Katniss, moving forward, and he knew the words which were going to come out of her mouth before she ever said them because they were the words he would say if Vick or Rory's names ever passed through Effie Trinket's lips.
“I volunteer as Tribute!”
Gale took two steps forward, his hand starting to rise to do the same, unwilling to send Katniss into battle with the animals from the other Districts, unwilling to let her go off to die alone, but he saw Katniss subtly shake her head, and Gale remembered his promise. They had made it so long ago, vowing to take care of the other's family if they were ever Reaped, and Gale did not break promises; it was not the way things were done in the Seam.
And then Effie Trinket announced, “Peeta Mellark,” and Gale secretly sighed in relief. That stupid baker's boy, the one whose eyes followed Katniss anywhere and everywhere, would lay his lovesick life down for her in the Arena, and it would be one less person Katniss would have to kill to come back to him.
After she is gone, he went into the woods, emptying the traps, gathering up the sour berries Prim loves so much; the Everdeen house was silent as a tomb when he knocked on the door. Prim answered the door, her face pale and swollen from tears, and the sight of him sent her over the edge again. Setting the food on the table, he scooped her up like she was Posy's age and rocked her as Mrs. Everdeen appeared. Her face had the same empty quality it had after the explosion, and Gale suddenly knew he was going to need to be as available to the Everdeens as they need.
“She'll be back,” Gale stated with the kind of conviction only Katniss could put behind her words. “No one is tougher than Katniss. The second she gets a bow in her hand, they aren't going to be able to touch her.”
“Do you really think so?” Prim asked pathetically as she picked up one of the berries, rolling it between her fingers.
“Katniss Everdeen is going to win the 74th Hunger Games. I'll bet my life on it.”
There were 40 slips of paper that read “Gale Hawthorne” in the Reaping.
There were 15 slips of paper that read “Katniss Everdeen” in the Reaping.
There was 1 slip of paper that read “Primrose Everdeen” in the Reaping.
The odds had never been in their favor.