Running Free

Gale and Katniss DID run away in Catching Fire, and this is a taste of their adventures. Unfortunately I had to kill off everyone else who they planned to take because it interrupted my story- they got killed when a mine blew up. Sorry xx. Written to the song 'Echo' by British girl band Girls Can't Catch.

Run! Run! Faster! Make it all go away. Leave it behind, all the pain and death and heartbreak…

"Katniss."

I hadn't realised how fast I'd been running down the hill, almost falling over myself, sobbing hysterically. I stopped . Gale stood a few feet uphill from me, looking calm yet concerned, as he always did now. I felt the tidal wave of tears run down my cheeks. His expression softened.

"We have to stop. It's almost dark." He reached out to me, palms open. I grabbed his hands and collapsed into his hard, yet soft and always warm body, brokenly sobbing.

"Sshhh. Sshhhh." He murmured. "It's okay. I'm here. I'm always here." I nodded into his chest, choking as I felt the familiar wave of feeling rush through me. I needed him. I wanted him. He knew that, I knew, but he refused to focus on 'being in love' whilst we where in mortal danger, running from the world of people attacking us.

"I love you." I mumbled, loud enough for him to hear.

Silence.

" I found some berries." Gale looked up at me. We had hardly spoken since we had found our camp. The process of making our 'home' was familiar enough. He made the fire and I scraped together whatever I could find for us to eat.

"Edible?" He asked, his eyes boring into me to check if I was okay. I twisted my mouth into a shadow of a smile, the closest I would ever get for the foreseeable future.

"I've never seen them before," I said slowly, "but they were growing on a Golden Honeybush. My mother used to use the flowers in medicine, so they won't be poisonous."

"You're sure?" I nodded. He shrugged. "Well, I trust you, and they're better than nothing."

I shivered. It was cold, and the berries had only satisfied my hunger minutely. Gale put his arm around me, hugging me to him, which made me feel even worse. I felt as though I should have been doubled over at the pain of being so close to him and yet being so helpless. So this was love, huh? I breathed in, inhaling his scent of grass, the fire smoke, the sweet juice of the berries, Gale, my childhood, my home.

"I love you, too, you know." He broke the silence. I was surprised. Nowadays, it was unlike him to ever say anything that wasn't completely necessary. I choked up again.

"I know." I gasped. I sat up and looked him straight in the eye. " Exactly my point.."

He exhaled loudly. "Katniss, no. We are running from the all powerful Capitol! And all you can think about is sex!"

I frowned. "No. I think about other things, too. Like how I have almost been killed in cold blood, had to kill others, lost my whole family, left my whole world behind and have NOTHING LEFT TO LIVE FOR. Except you."

His expression, which had been slowly melting as I spoke, hardened again.

"No."

I frowned and went to get up, get away from him. Traitor. I stumbled, falling hard onto my side. My head span. Gale reached out to grab my shoulder, steadying me. What on earth was happening to me!?! The worry in Gale's eyes echoed mine. I was overcome by the sudden despair in my chest. I fell forewards onto Gale, bursting into tears yet again. He held me until I had dried out every ounce of sadness I had ever held.

"Maybe it was the berries." I looked at him quizzically.

"What?"

"Your balance" Oh.

"But they haven't affected you at all." I noticed that he was now holding me at arms length and wriggled free.

"I feel….tired." He frowned to himself.

"Oh. I'm sorry, really. I don't mean to pressure you, I just.."

He smiled slightly.

"Katniss, just because I say no doesn't mean that I don't feel the same. I do understand." I stared into his kind expression.

"No you don't…" I started to say, but he had already pressed his lips to mine, more serious than I had ever seen him. The kiss didn't stop, and I responded automatically, unsure of how long it would last and determined to make the most of it.

I woke up slumped against his chest. It took me a moment to process his bare skin, and another to notice the cold. He shivered in his sleep. I wrapped myself around him, and my discarded clothes around both of us. He stirred and his eyes opened slightly. He smiled and kissed my hair.

"I said I loved you," He murmured.

The weeks passed, and Gale, although he felt closer to me, made no attempt to echo what happened that night. We kept alive, kept running.

We were reaching District Eight, Rue's home. According to some other runaways we had met, there was a labyrinth of tunnels and caves, unknown to the Capitol, where families could run to and live until they knew what to do. Nobody could stay longer than necessary, though, because even miles of space can get filled up.

I woke up first on the morning of our arrival. We were about five miles away from the fixed point where cave refugees met future cave refugees. Gale came up behind me as I erased all signs of our camp and fire.

"We won't be staying." He told me.

"I know." I replied, turning to face him.

"It's space for families..." He said slowly.

"And we're not a family?" I prompted.

"No, Katniss…I didn't mean that. I'm sorry." He sighed and walked away to pack up our small survival kit: saucepan, two knives, my bow and arrow, a blanket and two spoons.

"It's okay. It was mean of me to say it." I paused. "Whether or not you were thinking that."

We reached the high, smooth walls surrounding District Eight.

"Wait, Gale," I gasped. "I'm tired. Can we just wait a second?"

He looked worried.

"Really? But we've hardly walked far." He half mused, half asked. I let him trail off, muttering to himself. I clutched my side, sucking all the oxygen out of the air around me. I slumped into a sitting position on the floor. He turned around.

"Katniss, we have to go. They go to the meeting place at nine o'clock each day and they won't wait for us. They don't even know that we're coming." He repeated what we had been through countless times. I nodded.

"Okay, I'll lift you over first, but stay on top of the wall. Then grab the rope I pass you and tie it to the iron spike, so I can climb up. Got it?" I nodded again.

He reached for me, pulling me up and up until I was standing on his knees in one effortless movement. He wrapped his arms around my waist to lift me up. I reached up for the top of the wall, but I couldn't reach. I looked down. Gale was frozen.

"Katniss…." He let me drop. I stumbled and landed on the floor. He crouched down next to me and lifted my shirt just high enough to view my stomach. Which was smoother and rounder than it had ever been, sticking out at least two inches. I touched it, feeling the firmness that couldn't have been created by me putting on weight. I gasped.

"Do-Don't say it…" he told me, shaking his head as if to get rid of the image of what he had just seen. I ignored him.

"I think I might be pregnant." I told him, trying to sound more confident than I actually was. He glared at me, then made a strange choking sound. He balled himself up and buried his face in his arms.

We sat like that for a while, probably missing the meeting time.

Finally he looked up at me and, to my relief, he smiled.

"Maybe we will need to stay in the caves a while?" He asked. I smiled back through pure relief.