Gale and I stay out in the forest for the rest of the afternoon, lounging on our rock and staring up at the sky until our eyes burn with heat. Years ago we would have hated ourselves for spending a day like this, wasting perfect hunting weather, but today we couldn't care less; we're happy, and that's all that matters.

Eventually the sun begins to set and the wind picks up, sending rusty leaves flying through the air. I breathe in the sweet scent of it all. The pine, the dirt, the berries... They all come together to form my ideal smell of home.

"I could stay like this forever," Gale sighs. I turn my face towards him. His eyes are shut and his lips are spreading into a warm smile. He looks the same as he did when we were young, but yet so different, as if a huge weight has been lifted off his shoulders.

I scoot myself closer to him on our rock, so that our shoulders are pressed against eachother. "Me too," I say softly. And it's true.

Gale wraps his arm around me and takes my hand in his, kissing it softly and pressing it against his cheek. His skin is warm and smooth, like a flower petal on a hot day. There are no permanent scars making his skin, no burns to constantly remind him of a terrible past whenever he looks in the mirror. His pain is cloaked under a perfect cover.

"Gale," I whisper. "How can I ever know what you're feeling?"

He turns his face towards me, confusion plain in his expression. "What do you mean?" he asks.

I stare down at our intertwined fingers, contemplating what to say. "You seem so put together. Even after the war, and losing so many people that we love," my voice cracks as the faces flash through my memory, "You can always turn back around with your head held high. I am a complete trainwreck compared to you."

Gale's smile vanishes. "Katniss, that's not true at all. You're a heroine; you've been through hell and back! What do you expect to feel like, to look like, after all of this? A flawless, unaffected girl?" I start to say something but Gale plants a hand over my mouth, cutting off my response. "You can't be who you used to be, Catnip. She's gone now. You have to stop trying to find her."

I close my stinging eyes and crawl onto his lap, my head resting on his shoulder. A single tear roles down my cheek. "I wish she were still here," I tell him.

Gale's arms tighten around me. "If she was, there would still be hundreds of people dying everyday for no reason. There would still be twenty-three children being murdered on live television every year. And there would still be two people hunting together in the woods, never telling the other how they really feel."

I lift my face to look at him, and find myself staring into deep gray eyes. "If she was, she would still have a sister."

This time, Gale has nothing to say.

That night Gale and I sit by the fire with warm bread and cheese. I would have usually had cheese buns with me, but over the last months I've never worked up the courage to visit the bakery, and Peeta has never worked up the courage to visit. My chest begins to ache and I let the thought drop.

We both eat in silence until we've finished, at which point I lay my head in Gale's lap with a long sigh. "Long day eh, Catnip?" he says.

I nod my head. "I haven't been out of the house in..." I try to do the math in my head, unsuccessfully.

"Don't even tell me," Gale groans.

I can't help but smile, but it quickly becomes serious. "I don't know what I'd be doing if you never came back, if I never called you."

He frowns and looks away from my eyes. "I should have called you, Katniss. I was the one who needed to apologize. I should have never left you like that, when you needed me the most. I'm a complete idiot."

I roll my eyes but squeeze his hand reassuringly. "Gale, it doesn't matter. We both needed to apologize after the war. I've done worse things than you have."

"You did what had to be done for our country, for us to survive. I did what I thought would avenge us for the pain they've put us through. I didn't have to become such a monster. I can never make it up to you, Katniss, and I hate myself for it."

Gale's eyes have darkened just like I remember them to do when he's upset or angry. I've seen it happen hundreds of times when we were younger, when he would be angriest at the Capitol. It would usually happen around Reaping time or in the winter when things are hardest for us. He would storm towards our meeting place with his eyes dark and his face in a scowl, and he would rant for hours in his anger until I agreed with what he said. It wasn't hard to.

But this time is different. The same hatred is burning in his eyes, but it isn't for Snow, or the Games. It's for himself. He truly hates himself for what he's done, and with everything in him.

"Gale." My voice comes out as soft as feathers.

He still doesn't look at me.

I rub circles into his palms just like him and Peeta have done to soothe me on bad days. I can see him visibly swallow, but he still doesn't avert his eyes from the corner of the room.

Slowly, I stand up and tug on his hands. He turns his face towards me but doesn't look me directly in the eye. I don't mind, I just need him closer to me. I pull him up gently, and once he is standing I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him into me. "I will never hate you, Gale. And you shouldn't, either," I whisper in his ear.

He makes a strained noise in the back of his throat and for the second time in two days, I hear my best friend crying. I kiss his neck softly and run my hands up and down his back. We stay like this for a long time until eventually our legs begin to cramp and we are too tired to stay standing. Gale pulls his face from my hair and kisses me. It's a long, lingering kiss. One of the best we have ever shared.

And definitely not one of our last.

Believe it or not, I have lots planned for this story now that it's the summer.

Review please :)