It's All Over

K: Meeting place

Katniss's POV

"What's that?" I ask.

"What's what?" Peeta replies, his voice husky. His lips are brushing on mine, but I heard heavy steps on the stairs.

"Footsteps," I insist, staring at his deep, blue eyes. He stares back, confused.

"Katniss?" calls the distant voice of Greasy Sae.

Me and Peeta scramble out of the bed, not breaking eye contact. I open the door and walk downstairs, Peeta at my heel.

"Did you see Gale a while ago? His face sure was pained." Greasy Sae asks as soon as we landed at the bottom of the steps. Gale!

"Gale? He's here?" me and Peeta say in unison.

"Yeah. I don't know what happened but his face was pale; he didn't even hear me when I called him. I think he's mad about something." Greasy Sae frowns.

I automatically ran away from them, knowing where Gale must've gone. Peeta shouted my name, running after me, but I told him not to follow. Eventually I was alone, still running. My mind and body knows where I should go. To our meeting place.

And I was right. There he sat, his back at me.

"Gale..." I whisper. I walk to him and lean down to hug him from behind.

I heard him gasp with surprise, his body tensed. But he didn't utter a single word, and that made my heart skip a beat.

"W-what's wrong?" I ask.

"Nothing." he replies coldly, taking him a whole minute. This is bad.

"Tell me." I plead. Again, no reply. There was an awkward silence and I wanted to change the mood. I smacked his left arm which made him flinch and grunt from the unexpected pain.

"What was that for?" and finally, he stood up, facing me.

"Why haven't you visited me, huh? Maybe you've got all the girls in two begging for your affection." I say standing, too, smiling as I continue to hit him.

"Ow, ow! Stop it." he smiles. When I stopped, we stared at each other then burst out laughing.

"I missed you." I hug him again. Now, he hugs me back.

"I missed you, too." he whispers in my ear.

We stood there for a while, our hug getting tighter. I missed his warmth, the very same warmth that I'll recognize and won't easily forget; the mold of his body and his strong arms, arms where I could stay for a long time. Gale is mine. Anything else is unthinkable.

I pull away and stare at his grey eyes, eyes like mine.

"So why didn't you talk to me?" I ask cautiously, my hands on his arms.

He then turned his head sideways, unable to meet my gaze. The smile was now lost on his face. Only... pain?

He's breathing heavily and that made me nervous. I grab his face with my hands to make him look at me eye-to-eye. I am surprised by how hot his face was but I tried my best not to flinch. It took him time to look directly at me, but thank God, he eventually did.

"I heard you..." he let out coldly. That made my breath hitch, my lips slightly parted. Watching him right now crushes my heart. It hurts.

"H-heard what?" I stammer.

Then, he looks at me furiously, wiggling out of my grasp. He backs away.

"Don't make me repeat them!" he snaps. I gasp, my right hand flying to cover my mouth. I'm close to crying. This is not what I expected for our reunion to be.

Then he exhaled deeply, looking at the ground. I notice something behind him but can't picture it with my sight blurring. He turns around and picks it up. He stares at it for a while. Then, he turns back at me and hands me a finely sculpted bow and a sheath.

"It's for you..." he murmurs, still not looking at me.

I was overwhelmed. He got me a brand new bow and arrows.

"Gale..." I say, unable to search the right words.

"It's made from mahogany. I made it myself, too." he shows a small, shy smile.

Then my tears uncontrollably make their way out of my eyes and all I could do... all I think I could do, is to hug him.

"Gale..." I repeat between sobs. He buries his head on my neck and hugs me back, even though his hands were occupied.

"I love you." he whispers.