Title: Extant

Status: Ongoing. Unplanned.

Pairings: Gale x Katniss.

Warnings: Angst.

Comments: It's a multi-chap, so you can follow if you want to see more stuff.

Chapter Two: Vindicate (During 1)

Gale gets his first kiss the first day Katniss is gone.

She's a small, waif like pixie, absolutely glowing, and a sharply crooked, jarring sort of smile, something that verified that she was sure to be willing to fool around with him. Her lips are very dark; the berry-smeared kind of look. They don't taste like them however; it's a toxic kind of taste that he can't pinpoint. All he ends up deducing is that it's soft, and he doesn't want to do it again.

Gale puts away his disgust of the Capitol and becomes a dutiful boy. He's never late to his last days of school; he only hunts occasionally for the necessity.

In any case he doesn't like going into the woods anyways. They're emptier, more hallow, but at the same time much easier to navigate. It's easier and faster to bag game than it ever was, in fact evermore methodical.

Everyone looks at him with cow eyes. His mother doesn't bother talking to him much, just touches him sometimes in what's meant to be comforting, but just annoys him. His siblings try to at dinnertime, but he sits so quietly and broods so loudly that they stop bothering him after a while.

It's the same at the Seam, but they seem to not try with him, which is an utter relief. Gale notices that they're bartering much more leniently now, and he never takes advantage of it.

Katniss family does not talk. Her mom accepts his offerings quietly. Primrose only clings to him and whispers thank yous and cries a bit, and she is the only comfort that Gale ever bothers to return.

Instead he goes to school. Listens quietly. Hunt. Trade. Feed the two families. Watch the pre-games. Go to sleep. No fooling with girls anymore, no fooling with anyone.

He watches Katniss closely. She betrays him at every step. Holds hands with Peeta, is introduced as allies with Peeta, becomes Not Katniss. Still Gale keeps quiet.

It's Katniss, he figures. Really, would she get chummy with anyone if she didn't intend on getting something back from them?

Gale tells himself it doesn't hurt.

The interviews air, and Katniss spins around in her fire dress. She looks remarkable, and is Not Katniss. Gale doesn't know what to make of it.

Then Peeta comes on, and Gale looks at him.

How absolutely pathetic, truly. Some emotional idiot, chasing Katniss with moon eyes, flirting around with the newscaster-he wouldn't last a day in the arena, Gale decides. He can't even fathom how he managed to pull out a high score anyways.

Then Peeta confesses, and Gale's breath catches in his throat. He doesn't want to say it affects him, but it does. He breaks out a sweat in his hands and between his eyebrows, and he shifts, fidgets, continually endlessly moving.

Katniss is blushing. She's surprised, and Gale knows for sure that it's real. The surprise is real; she's never heard about it. The blush is real.

That kind of look on her face. It's real.

Gale manages to sit through the rest, which isn't hard at all, because Peeta was the last interview. As soon as the required viewing is finished Gale ricochets away, his mother's loud pleas chasing him.

He reaches the woods too quickly. He slips in hazardously, with shaking fingers and rattling bones.

Damnit.

He tries to shoot game in the night. It doesn't work. He almost decides to set up snares, but a burst of rationality surges through him and he decides today isn't the day to self harm himself with little reason.

Instead he sits on a tree stump, slumped over a bit, fiddling with his thumbs.

If that look on her face was real, what else was real? Was holding hands and bonding with Peeta real? Had Gale even ever known the real Katniss? Was Not Katniss the actual Katniss?

How come she never made that kind of face around him?

Gale rubs his face and knows he has to go home soon, before the light dims and he won't be able to find his way out. But stay he does.

He comes home in the morning. His mom throws his arms around him, and Gale returns it tightly.

No more of this. He can't be so selfish. Katniss was his first priority.

However, somewhere along the way in the day, he loses his mind. The approach of the Games looms over him, and Not Katniss's face and Peeta's pink, stuttering look, and everything.

He picks up another girl after school. Katniss wasn't kidding when she told him he had his pick. He enjoys it, all of a sudden-something that was once a hassle made for a fantastic distraction. Only he doesn't call it that, he continually reminds himself that it's only him gaining experience he could have used much earlier.

He slacks in class. He picks a fight with a teacher and punches a student who makes a sniveling comment about him. He bullies the Seam traders and comes with a full haul, picking only a few choice items for his family and dumping the rest in front of Katniss's abode without knocking the door. He screams about the Capitol as much as he could.

Who was he kidding? Did he think that if he was good enough, the Capitol would somehow notice and return his Katniss?

Foolish. What an idiot he had been.

The day before the Games begin, Madge visits him. He almost slams the door in his face but the look in her face stops him.

"What are you trying to pull off here?" she says very quietly. Her speech is formal and dangerously low toned.

Gale scoffs and shakes his head, and is about to say something when Madge slaps him, her eyes burning. She leaves without any more comment.

Gale stands in the doorway, watching her wrap her clean, intact clothes around her, slipping easily away.

The night before the Games begins Gale finally cries. Heaving, racking sobs, until he falls in a listless sleep.

He finds that crying won't convince the Capitol to send back Katniss either.

Thanks for reading.