Lovers In The Arena \\ Gale Hawthorne

Chapter 11: The Cave

Y/n's POV

I woke up still wrapped up with Gale, he was still asleep and I didn't want to wake him, there's no point. We aren't only surviving at this point in the games, but we're thriving. We have sponsors, my burn is completely healed, my fever is gone, we have enough food for a few days, we have a bunch of knives and other supplies, and we have each other. The only thing is that Gale can't walk on his own, I fixed up his leg pretty well but it's still hurt, and if we don't keep it clean then it'll get infected again. 

I'm not sure what time it is, but we were up at like 4 am last night so it must be at least 11. I look at Gale and kiss him awake. His eyes flutter open like they did the morning we had to go into the games. 

"Morning," I say

"Morning, how'd you sleep?" He asked

"Pretty good, besides the hard ground, but I can't complain."

"Yeah, me too" We kissed again, then another parachute came flying into our cave. We got up and found a container of ten biscuits, with butter and strawberry jam. I wondered what we did that got us, such great sponsors. Then it dawned on me. They're all loving the whole "lovers in the arena" thing. They're rooting for us. Now I understand why every time we kiss or hug or say 'I love you' we get sent something, this is great, we're getting rewards for loving each other, which is so easy because I love Gale more than anything right now. 

We eat while we think of everyone who is left. Cato, Thresh, Clove, fox face, and Gale and I. Cato and Clove are the only other people from the same district. But Thresh is from Rue's district. Eleven. And the boy from fox faces district already died.

"So, are we gonna go after Cato or let nature kill him?" Gales asks

"I don't think we should go after him, it could be dangerous. And your leg is too badly injured to go anywhere right now, I mean we barely even made it here last night." I say

"Yeah, you're right"

"Speaking of which I need to see your leg and see how it is"

"Okay" He takes his pants off again and I slowly unwrap his leg. He has blood poisoning. I know what it looks like because I've seen it in previous hunger games. I don't want to tell him because I don't want to scare him.

"It's doing good" I lie

"I know what blood pinioning looks like, Y/n." He says

"I'm so sorry, I'm gonna try to clean it again." I grab out the hydrogen peroxide and pour some on there, but the blood poisoning is too deep into him it won't work. He needs something more special, something that they have only in the capital hospitals. 

"If I die, you need to win."

"Gale, you're not going to die. Not on my watch anyway. I will keep you alive, no matter what." I wrap his leg with a new bandage cloth and he puts his pants back on. We sit there for a while in comfortable silence. We then talk about back home, how good it's going to be if we win, getting to see our families again, and sleeping in a regular bed. We just talk about random stuff for hours. But then a little later it starts to pour rain, and lightning and thunder start going off. But we're still dry because we're in the cave.

We get cuddled up by a rock and just listen to the storm, it's calming for some reason. I'm relaxed right now, Gale's right here next to me so everything's gonna be okay. We just sit there holding each other all day long, and I wouldn't change it for anything. It was silent, all we could hear was the storm, but then Gale decided to say something.

"Y/n, when was the first time that you realized you liked me?" He asked. I thought for a second, but then it came to me.

"We were in sixth grade, it was the first day of middle school and it was really scary only being eleven. I didn't know anybody except Peeta, but we didn't get to see each other at school because we had all different classes. I was trying to get past everyone to get to class when some rude kid pushed me out of the way, I dropped all my things and they didn't even turn back or say anything. But then you ran over and helped me pick everything up, I remember looking into your eyes for the first time, and I knew I liked you." I saw a smile forming on Gale's face as I talked "But every day after that I thought you would never like me back, and you and Katniss, I thought you guys were together so I tried to stay away. The night before the games on the roof, was when I realized I love you" He smiled wider and pulled me in tighter. "What about you?"

"Well, it's actually kind of the same. When I helped you pick up your stuff and I saw you for the first time, I knew I liked you. But, I remember one day, it was almost a year ago, I took my little sister, Posy, to town with me, and you were selling clothes that day. Posy saw a little pink dress that you made and she wanted it so badly, but obviously, we didn't have enough for it. You saw how badly she wanted it, and you gave it to her for free. She put it on as soon as we got home, and she loves it so much that when it was her bedtime she didn't want to take it off. That's when I really started to go crazy for you. Every time I see that dress, I think of you." I smiled at the memory of letting Posy keep the dress. 

"Aww, that's cute," I say, a gust of wind comes by and we both shiver, then another parachute floats in. We get up to see what's in this one. It's a lot bigger this time. It's a thermos of tea, two mugs, a big sleeping bag, and two thick, fluffy, waterproof blankets. And another note from Haymitch:
-Wouldn't want one of you love two birds to catch a cold-   We both laughed as we read it.

"This is great," I say

"Oh my god, yeah," Gale says. It's already starting to get dark, and the storm hasn't let up at all. We layout the sleeping bag and put the blankets on top of it, we sit on it, cuddle up, and drink the warm tea and eat the rest of the biscuits. A little bit later Gale starts showing signs of dehydration.

"Have you drank any water today?" I ask him

"No, I dont think so" He says

"All of ours is gone. I'll go fill up our bottles." I stand up and grab the bottles, but Gale stops me.

"No. You can't go out there. It's dark, and pouring rain, it's not safe. I'm fine, please stay"

"I'll be fine, you're dehydrated, you need water. It will only take like 10 minutes, okay?"

"What if Cato is out there? And he kills you as soon as you step out?"

"That wont happen. Cato is on the other side of the arena right now, I'm taking a knife, I'll be right back."

"Please be careful, Y/n."

"I will, I promise" I grab a long knife, and two water bottles, I pull my hood over my head and go out. I make it to the river in like five minutes, I fill up the first water bottle, then I think I hear a sound. I look back and nothings there. It was just the storm. I fill up the second one and walk back to the cave.

"Okay, I got it. See, I survived" I say when I walk in. He laughed, I sit next to him and he drinks half of one water bottle. "I love you" I say

"I love you too, thank you" He says and kissed me. "You should go to sleep, I'll take watch tonight"

"No, you sleep, I feel fine" 

"Please, I'll wake you if anything happens"

"Okay, wake me in an hour, then you sleep"

"Okay" I lay with my head in his lap, he pulls a blanket over me and his legs, and strokes my hair gently, I dont want him to stop and he doesn't. "Go to sleep, Y/n" He say softly, and I feel myself drift off, I dream about being at home again, seeing Peeta,  his family, and my mother, and it's the most comfortable sleep I've had since we got to the arena.