#reply:gale

[phantom-overdose]

❝ i don't like how you make me feel. but i like not being around you even less. ❞ Katniss & Gale //oops

@southern-belle-outcasts

Gale furrowed his brow at her words. Confused. Mildly annoyed.

"How do I make you feel?" He asked, perhaps focusing too much on that comment, specifically. They were friends, weren't they? Or maybe that was dead and past. Because they were on the same side in the war, but they were on opposite sides of this conversation. They were on opposite sides of a lot of things lately, it seemed.

"Go ahead, Katniss. Tell me. How do I make you feel?" The question was more demanding now, bordering on aggressive, though he was trying not to be. Maybe he was just tired. Or maybe everything that was going on had been getting to him. Or maybe a part of him had thought that when she returned, things would go back to normal. That Peeta, in the capitol as he was, would no longer serve as competitor for her affections. And maybe that jealousy was utterly selfish of him. But it was there. No doubts about it. Bubbling under the surface. He'd long thought that it would be them. That they'd get the hell out of 12 with their families one day, maybe start one of their own. But now...

He ran his fingers through his hair, shook his head. "Never mind. It doesn't matter." But it did. If it hadn't, he wouldn't have said anything. Wouldn't have started to push before reeling back the way he had. "You should go lie down. Rest. You look sick." Pregnancy and stress would do that to a person, he supposed.

[phantom-overdose]

"What part of bedrest do you not understand?"

"The one where me laying around is gonna do anything for our situation."

Katniss & Gale //in 13? Only if you want to!

@southern-belle-outcasts

"What part of bedrest do you not understand?"

"The one where me laying around is gonna do anything for our situation."

Leave it to Katniss to be stubborn as hell at a time like this.

"And what makes you think walking around is gonna do anything different?" Gale wasn't questioning her to be a jerk, he was trying to get her to get it. There was nothing, nothing at all, that she could do right now. She was pregnant. She was under a lot of stress. And she was just gonna stress herself out more trying to focus on all the things she thought she could be doing instead of laying in bed.

"We're doing what we can to get Peeta back, I promise you that," He couldn't help but glance at her stomach, the heat of jealousy washing through him. Any time they had talked about their futures, she'd said she never wanted kids. Yet here she was. Gale hadn't pressed her about it all, and he was, as of yet, unaware of what had actually transpired. In fact, there was a moment in which he'd thought that maybe this had been all Peeta's fault, that he'd pushed her into something she didn't want. But that had been the part of him that wanted Peeta to be the bad guy. Peeta, however, was anything but. Even so, accepting that Katniss was maybe actually in love with Peeta wasn't as easy as he would have liked it to be.

"Right now, your job is to get your butt back to bed and rest. You'll just stress your body more if you're up and walking around." Gale knew he was right, but he wasn't sure that Katniss was letting those words get through to her yet. Prim was safe, she was here with them, but she was still in bad shape, not quite out of the woods yet. And Peeta... well, Peeta was at the Capitol, and who the hell knew what they were doing to him after the stunt he'd pulled to help bring the arena down. "If you won't do it for me, do it for the baby. Do it for Peeta." He placed a hand on Katniss's shoulder, leaned down some to look her in the eyes. He could remember how it had felt to kiss her and a part of him wanted to do it again right now. But it dawned on him in that moment that he wasn't sure if it was out of love or because he wanted desperately just to comfort her. "I promise I'll come get you when Prim wakes up. I'll take you to her personally if I have to," He gave a gentle grip on her shoulder and lightly pushed, trying to get her to turn back around. This time, he tried to give a smile, something to bee reassuring even when he, too, felt a little out of sorts. "She'll be fine, Catnip. She's stronger than you give her credit for."

[phantom-overdose]

❝ i wish you actually understood me. ❞ Katniss & Gale //oops?

@southern-belle-outcasts

Gale stared at Katniss, expression blank. Who understood her better than him? Who understood the loss of her father, the sudden need to grow up and take charge and provide for a family, the way he did?

And yet, she was right. Sometimes, he didn't really understand her at all. The games, too, had changed her. He wouldn't fault her for that- an ordeal like what she had been through? You don't come out of that unscathed. But he had thought that after everything she endured at the hands of the Capitol would have put her in a position to understand why they were doing what they were doing for the war. Why he was doing what he was doing for the war.

Clearly that was not the case.

"I wish you actually understood me, too," He finally said, that level of stoicism still in place. Guarded. He had chosen her a dozen times over, but she would never choose him. Never try to understand him. He loved her, even if he couldn't explain, even to himself, in what way. But this was more important than just Katniss. It was more important than him. They both carried the weight of Panem on their shoulders, but the burden on each of them was different. He could never understand what it felt like to be a symbol of the revolution. The face of it. And she could never understand the careful planning, the weighing of lives, the need to do this right or risk losing everything they were fighting for. She would save everyone if she could, and Gale, too, would do the same. But he knew, realistically, that there was no way to go about a war like this without killing innocent civilians along the way. It was a sacrifice they had to make if they ever wanted to be free. Each death now would make up for a child who never had to be forced into the games. Each person who never had to look down the barrel of a Peacekeeper's gun for stealing a loaf of bread to feed their starving family. It was all calculated. He'd carry their deaths with him forever. Blood soaked hands and heart. But if they didn't make these hard choices now, there would be so many more lives on their hands as the years dragged on. Even beyond his own end. His grave would be saturated with it, their ghosts never letting him rest. At least this way, when the horror hit, he could always try to remind himself it was for the greater good.

"I guess we're just different people now."

[phantom-overdose]

“If this is who you are now, why does it feel like betrayal?” Katniss and Gale //oops? xD

@southern-belle-outcasts

Gale's eyebrows furrowed, eyes narrowed- both in confusion and frustration.

What did she mean by if this is who he was now? He was still who he had always been. Trying to survive. Trying to protect. Fighting. Always, always, fighting. And he knew she was the same. They shared that in common- the struggle. The need to move forward. To make things better. And here, now, in District 13, he had the opportunity to help everyone. Not just himself and his family, or her and hers, but everyone in the districts. They had the choice to fight back against their oppressors, to liberate the districts from this hellish tyranny they'd been under. They could be free. But that kind of freedom didn't come without a cost.

"How is this a betrayal?" He questioned, sincerely not understanding. This was a war. She'd survived in the arena, had her hand in killing to save herself. But she didn't understand this? This was about more than personal survival. This was bigger than her or him or any of the lives that were being lost to make his dream a reality. They had a real chance at breaking free! And, as unfortunate as it was, that meant people were going to have to die. Not just soldiers, but civilians. Innocent lives. It was tragic. Heartbreaking. But it was necessary. Wars weren't won with small skirmishes and discussions of treaties. A ceasefire wouldn't last. A truce was just waiting to be broken. This was a revolution. Everything, everything, needed to change.

"Seriously, Katniss, how is this a betrayal?" He repeated himself, more defensive this time. "We have the means to save people, to free ourselves from the Capitol. Whatever the cost, we need to try. Otherwise, we'll be stuck in this cycle forever. We can't keep letting them control us. We can't let there be another Hunger Games. We have to put an end to it. Right here. Right now. And if we have to kill a few Capitol civilians to make it happen..." He paused, eyes dark, jaw tense. A part of him struggled with this, with knowing how many lives would be taken. At least... he cared about the innocents in the districts who might get caught up in this. The Capitol scum and those who willingly worked for them, on the other hand... "It's not like any of them are innocent. They've watched kids from our districts slaughter each other for their entertainment for decades. Maybe they deserve to watch some of their own be killed for once."

[phantom-overdose]

❛ It’s been a while! I missed this. ❜ Katniss & Gale

@southern-belle-outcasts

The grass was soft and plush, no longer tread down by their footsteps. It had been a long time since they'd come out here to hunt, to just... spend time together. It had been a long time since the reaping that had taken her away from him- but that still felt so much more recent than their last outing did. It was funny to think they'd been the same day.

Gale sat on the stump of a fallen tree, the bark worn and mossy. It had been here as long as he could remember, years of the earth trying and, so far failing, to fully reclaim it. Someday it would wither away entirely, but for now it held its spot.

"I missed this too, Catnip," He smiled, letting out a contented sigh. He'd thought he'd lost her- first to the games, then to herself when she had first come back. She still wasn't the same Katniss he had known before and Gale was trying to make peace with the fact that she never would be. But in some ways she was still just her. A girl broken apart and pieced back together time and again. A girl with the weight of all of Panem on her shoulders, whether she realized it yet or not.

He dug into his satchel, pulled out a circle of cloth- aged cheese, made of cow's milk, yellowed and sharp to the taste. He had considered getting them a nice loaf of bread, but... well, he had his reasons for avoiding that right now. She probably got it all the time from Peeta, anyway. Of course, she could afford stuff like this now. But he'd wanted to give her something, something just to say "I'm glad you're here".

He used a clean, recently sharpened, knife to cut a chunk off the small wheel then passed it over to Katniss. "It's been too long. I know you don't need to hunt anymore if you don't want to, but... it's good to have you here. It's not the same being out here without you,." This, to both of them he knew, wasn't just about the hunting. It was about finding a bit of a peace in an otherwise suffocating world.