Everlark- The Years After the Epilogue *Editing*

Gale

After the play yesterday everyone was allowed to leave early, so we picked up Rye on the way back and went out for a meal. Willow was buzzing with excitement the whole night and neither I nor Peeta had taken in what had happened. We didn’t realise how many people still respected us both, but it was nice.

 This morning Peeta was opening back up the bakery after it being shut over Christmas and the New Year. Normally, I would have gone with him but I was exhausted from being awake all night thinking of how much our lives had change. We’d finished walking Willow to school and he’d just left to open up now, promising to pop back in around 2 o clock. He worried too much about me, but I didn’t complain, it was nice to feel wanted, alone I couldn’t have been the Mockingjay. Rye was toddling about the kitchen making small gurgles as I made us both some lamb and plum stew. I’d just finished blending his up when I felt him tug at the hem of my dress. ‘’Mama’’, he said. I remember hearing him call me that for the first time, it was such a lovely moment, hearing my son say that word, I started to wonder how my mother felt when I couldn’t even look her in the eye and how she would long for me to call her ‘mum’ again.

‘’Hello my handsome’’, I say picking him up and giving him a tickle. Rye doesn’t really laugh, he chuckles and smiles exactly like Peeta. I pop him down into his high chair and watch him sticking his fingers into his dinner and smearing it all over his face. Once we’d both finished I took him into the nursery for his nap and sung him to sleep, stroking his head as his big grey eyes started to slowly shut. Just as he’d fallen to sleep there was a knock at the door. Who could it be? Anyone we knew would usually knock and come straight in, and it wasn’t Peeta because he wasn’t due back for a couple of hours. I walked up to the door and twisted the handle. It wasn’t who I’d expected at all. It was Gale.

‘’Hey Catnip’’, he says with his crooked smile. I felt sick to my stomach, I hadn’t seen him since we all visited Annie’s when I practically told him I never wanted to see him again. I stood there frozen, unable to speak or move. He looked uncomfortable. ‘’Um, can I come in?’’, I opened the door wider as he came inside taking off his boots. ‘’Wow, nice place you’ve got here’’, he said looking around the hallway and into the kitchen. ‘’Where’s Peeta?’’, he asked like he was expecting him to be here.

‘’Er, he’s just down at the bakery.’’ I sighed. ‘’Gale why are you here?’’, he hadn’t even mentioned why he’d come.

‘’I just thought we needed to talk Katniss. Do you want to go to the forest and do some hunting or something?’’ He asked almost shyly. I didn’t see how he thought things could go back to normal in an instant…because they couldn’t.

‘’I can’t I’ve just put Rye down for his nap…sorry’’, this was getting awkward.

‘’Oh, yeah sorry I forgot about your little boy.’’, he fidgeted about uncomfortably. ‘’Erm, can I see him?’’ That wasn’t what I’d expected at all.

‘’Just give him half an hour and yeah you can, come on’’, I said as I headed for the front room and sat on the sofa. Gale sat next to me, his heat radiating off of his body. We sat in silence for a while, just waiting for someone to say something.

‘’I did mean to visit sooner’’, he whispered in the silence. ‘’The amount of times I’ve come to district 12 to see you Katniss, but I just couldn’t bare it.’’ My face snapped to my left like I’d just been slapped.

‘’You, couldn’t bare it Gale!?’’ How could he say that, I was the one who’d lost Prim because of his bombs? How could he sit there and act like he was the one that was hurt during all of this!?

‘’No Katniss I couldn’t. Seeing how much I hurt you destroyed me inside, I loved you, why couldn’t you see that?’’ I sighed.

‘’Gale, you knew how I felt about you, I was yours and you were mine. But all you were bothered about was if I loved you or Peeta more, not that fact that I was hurting. I was a teenage girl for Christ’s sake and I had so much pressure on me but you kept going on and on. And then to top it all of you designed some of those STUPID, STUPID BOMBS! THEY KILLED HER GALE AND SHE’S NOT HERE ANYMORE’’, tears had started streaming down my face at this point, it was uncontrollable. Before I knew it, Gale’s arms were wrapped around me, exactly the same as when we were saying our goodbye’s the first time I was reaped.  

‘’Katniss, you know if I could take anything back it would be that. I broke down for months after it happened. I couldn’t live with myself knowing that…that I’d’’, he couldn’t even say the words.

‘’Look, I am so sorry Katniss I didn’t mean any of that to happen. Please believe me, you know I’d never hurt you. All I wanted was to be with you and for you not to suffer anymore.’’ My mind swam with hundreds of thoughts. I missed the old days where we’d hunt together in the forest. Gale was my best friend, but he hurt me and I needed Peeta more. Once I’d finally got myself together I pulled myself out of his arms and stared at him.

‘’We became too different Gale, we wanted different things and we grew apart. I miss them too you know, I haven’t picked up my arrows in what? 17 years. I’m happy as I am now though, and that includes being with Peeta and our kids.’’

‘’What so now everythings over you’re happy acting like the games were never a thing now you have your ‘perfect little life’?’’ His tone had turned so much harsher now, he was so wrong.

‘’Gale you have no idea, every day all I can think about is the games. Everyone in the streets always look at us and thank us so please don’t think I’ve forgot.’’, my tone is much softer, he suddenly relaxes.

‘’Yeah I’m s-‘’, Rye starts screaming, obviously a sign that he’s woken up.

‘’Look, I’ll be back in minute and you can meet him yeah?’’, I stand up and smile at him before I walk off down the hall. Why did he think it was alright to just show up out of nowhere? It wasn’t fair. I grabbed Rye from his cot, gently rocking him until he’d calmed down and took him in to meet Gale. ‘’Rye, this is your, um Uncle Gale’’, I say handing him over.

‘’Untle Ga-ga’’, he says as he starts to touch all over his face.

‘’He doesn’t half look like Peeta, but he’s got your eyes Katniss’’, I watch them both getting to know each other. It was weird I’d never have even considered having kids whenever he’d asked me, but Peeta made me feel safe and it became a possibility. Rye had started to fuss about so I took him off of Gale, just as the door opened.

‘’Mummy, mummy I’m back look what I’ve got.’’ Willow came racing into room where we all were, followed by Peeta.

‘’Hey babe, I finished early so I thought we could all go to the meadow for a bit’’, he said as he entered the room, his eyes meeting Gales and an uncomfortable silence filling the room…

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Sorry that was such a long chapter! But i hope you enjoyed it:)