burnedgirl (burnedgirl) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-08-20 21:27:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, gale hawthorne, katniss everdeen |
Who: Katniss and Gale
What: Proposing an idea to a grumpy Gale
Where: Gale's house
When: During the Shattered Sight plot
Rating: Fairly high, some bad language mostly
Status: Complete
Unable to shake this awful mood, Gale went for a run on the beach - alone, not with anyone else who was getting on his last damn nerve (like Wash, whom he had to knock unconscious by pistol-whipping his face before he riddled a whole bar with bullets like the crazy fuck he was) and not with Tella. Even his dog seemed to be irritating him, what with her constant whining and barking and trying to get all in his space for petting. Usually he went with her on runs but he left her back at the house this time, only to return and discover that Katniss wanted to come over for some reason. Gale told her that she could, but it wasn’t like he gave a crap about what she wanted or anything. Besides, she’d ditched his ass for Peeta anyway, in the dreams, what did she care?
Into the shower he went, to let the hot water ease the tension in his muscles, and he had just changed into a new pair of jeans and was shirtless and barefoot when he went to answer the knock at the door. Tella, wisely, did not rouse from where she was hiding behind the sofa looking very sad.
“Yeah?” he opened the door to find Katniss there and, reluctantly, waved her inside.
Katniss was looking forward to seeing Gale. She had an idea for a business she could potentially set up and she wanted his advice, maybe even his help. She valued him highly, he was her best friend in her Dreams and she’d always wondered if they could have been more. If her head hadn’t been so screwed up there by Snow and the Games, she liked to think their partnership would only have blossomed into something more. The Games and the war had changed them both. Changed them all and she and Gale had somehow grown apart without her noticing.
She was determined not to let that happen here. When Gale answered the door so abruptly and half naked, she was completely taken aback. He was the epitome of the sexiest Levi’s advert you had ever seen but his gruff tone wasn’t quite so inviting. She gaped at him for a second, eyes running over him down to his bare feet and up to his damp hair, before realising she needed to do something. With a slight shake of her head and a thick swallow, she edged her way past him and into his hallway. “Sorry I...I...I hope I’m not...interrupting anything,” she gestured vaguely to his state of dress while struggling to find the words.
Gale rolled his eyes, the timberwolf grey catapulting skyward and then back again - but not without nearly getting stuck in his skull. Here’s where he’d offer her something to eat, or drink (since Katniss was a guest and all), but he wasn’t exactly feeling very hospitable at the moment. “You wanted to come over, right?” he asked, his tone clipped and snappy. Not usually how he acted around Katniss. He cared about her, here and there, but the more he looked at her now, all he saw was how she’d treated him like he was some kind of monster and pulled away from him - he’d left her, basically, to make her life easier and she didn’t even care that a solid brick wall had been erected between them at the end of the war.
“So, what is it?” He went to go grab a shirt from the clean laundry basket in his room, still talking as he did. Maybe he should try to not be such a dick, in all actuality - she hadn’t done anything to warrant that. “Here to talk about Peeta’s engagement?”
Katniss’ eyebrows shot up in surprise. Not only at the way he was talking to her, but at the news about Peeta. “I...Peeta’s engaged? No I...I didn’t know that,” she admitted sadly. It should have been something she knew, but it served her right for pulling away from them all and trying to stay off the radar. After their one...not entirely pleasant encounter on the Net, she hadn’t tried to approach him again for fear he would lash out at her again. At the time she hadn’t been in the right headspace to be told off about how she was dealing, or not dealing with things, still wasn’t really, and he hadn’t tried to contact her.
Having only just started coming out of a dark place thanks to Haymitch’s insistence she get out and about, she had ventured back onto the Net and spied a couple of opportunities to try out survival skills and her archery which had inspired her idea. “I assume he’s happy? Who’s the girl?” she asked, moving a little down the hallway to continue talking. She looked around for Tella, frowning when she couldn’t see her. The bouncy dog was normally there at the door to greet you before you stepped over the threshold.
“Her name’s Alyssa. They’ve only been dating a couple months, so, kind of stupid to get engaged if you ask me,” Gale snorted out of pure disdain - and really, how fucking idiotic? They didn’t even know each other, yet they were going to be saddled for the rest of their lives? Talk about contributing to the divorce rates in this country. No way that was going to last.
He emerged from his room, meeting Katniss in the hallway - though he just decided they should talk in his room anyway, so he disappeared back into it and waited for her to join him. It was clean, actually - even army corners on the bed, since there were some habits he just couldn’t break.
“Well. Sit down, I guess.”
She felt a little disappointed at him putting a shirt on, but would never say it. Taking the hint, Katniss followed him back to his room. His whole demeanour was off, it was like she'd done something to upset him yet he was trying to be civil but she couldn't think what she'd done. Looking around his room, she gave a little internal smile at his neatly made bed then sat on it, outwardly remaining confused and getting to be slightly irritated by his tone. "Have I done something to upset you Gale? Because if I have, can you tell me? Then I at least stand a chance of putting it right," she told him. Katniss had never really been one to avoid the elephant in the room. Unless it came to her Dreams that is.
“No,” Gale responded, and he knew that was true - but he also couldn’t explain why the hell he felt so irritated. Everything was just bugging the ever-loving hell out of him, like constant thorns in his sides and itches he couldn’t really scratch. “You didn’t do anything, Katniss, except, I don’t know.”
He exhaled, frustrated, as he sat on the bed near her looking very stormy, expression darkened. “My dreams ended, and everything ended, and you get to be happy with Peeta and I’m just...cast off to live alone, and out of your life. It doesn’t seem fair, after everything we’ve been through.” What was to stop her from doing it again?
Katniss turned her head to gaze at him as he sat next to her, a dark expression shadowing his beautiful features. "Nothing in those Dreams was fair. And what I'm slowly trying to make myself learn is that no matter what happens there, I shouldn't let it interfere with the life I could build for myself here," she replied quietly. She reached out and took his hand in hers where it rested in his lap, lacing their fingers and fighting the fear that he would snap at her for doing so. "I'm sorry you got the shitty end of the deal there, but it doesn't have to be that way here," she squeezed his fingers and smiled up at him. "We can make it different," she told him honestly with a shaky voice as her gaze briefly flickered to his lips without her realising. She was afraid his obvious bad mood would make him throw her out, never speak to her again, but after her conversation with Johanna the other day she felt a little more confident in herself for a change.
Surprisingly, he didn’t throw her out. Gale didn’t know what was wrong with him, but he felt a sudden twinge of guilt for snapping at Katniss over the events of their dreams - it wasn’t her fault now, or his, this was a whole different time and place. So maybe things could be different. No one was dying, they weren’t starving, or caught in the crossfire of political warfare. He didn’t have to be banished from her life.
“Okay,” he agreed, squeezing her hand, trying to get ahold of himself. “I...yeah. Not gonna do any good to let what happened then cloud judgment here.” Sometimes it easier said than done. “So...?”
He looked at her inquisitively, eyebrow raised. “I didn’t mean to get off course there. What was it you wanted to talk about?”
Katniss smiled at him then. They were both battered and bruised from the dreams. Hopefully they could keep each other sane. "That's ok, it can wait for a minute," she shook her head then swallowed nervously before speaking again. "Do you want to talk about anything else? You were pretty worked up there," she watched him with concern. She hated speaking about the Dreams in any detail, but she had to force herself to. To remember they weren't her. Especially if talking about them could help one of her friends, her best friend to be precise.
Gale shook his head, “No, I’m fine. I promise.” The effects of the dreams, the way he felt weighed down by them, that was something he’d have to deal with on his own in the aftermath of having experienced the full story. He didn’t get a happy ending, but then again, did anyone? That was the whole theme in Panem - misery. The best they could hope for was learning how to move on, and push through the hell they were constantly saddled with. And learning how to deal with the trauma, how to ignore the pain rather than be hindered by it.
“I’d rather focus on other things anyway,” he pointed out, and that was true. Maybe it would help shake the perpetual gloom and doom he’d been feeling lately.
"Ok, if you're sure," Katniss eyed him warily, unconvinced he didn't have other things on his mind. "Well, what I was coming over to ask you about is that I have business idea. Bear in mind it's just an idea and I'm open to suggestions and constructive criticism. So my idea is to put together a facility for people of all ages and skill levels to learn or practice survival skills. Archery," she said, gesturing to herself with her free hand. She made no move to extricate her other hand from his. It was comforting and grounding. She hoped he wouldn't let go. "Fire building, camping, hunting, swimming, rock climbing and the like. I guess it's kind of like a summer school crossed with an adventure park but open all year round and for everyone," she explained, hoping he wouldn't tell her it was an awful idea.
Survival skills? Just hearing those words caused flashbacks for Gale - flickering images interspersed with the dreams and his life here. But he had a knack for it in both lives. After all, he’d been the main provider for his family for awhile. If anyone knew how to survive, it was him.
“I think that’s...” He paused, considering it. “That sounds good, actually.” For the first time since Katniss actually arrived, he even managed a smile. A small one, but Gale wasn’t really a smiley person anyway. Very few of his genuine grins had been captured by the shutter of a camera lens for posterity. “I could help? I mean, teach what you wanted me to. Trap-making, snares, how to gut and clean animals,” he shrugged. Kind of gross, but sometimes necessary when you had to live off the land. In the dreams, he taught Katniss the art of snares; she had been the one to teach him how to swim, and she’d also taught him archery. Here, he was decent but still probably not as good as her with a bow and arrow. “However you want me involved, I will be. I’m sure Haymitch will be also.”
Katniss grinned in relief and her shoulders sagged, signalling how tense she'd been about asking his opinion and for his involvement. She knew it was a difficult subject for them, but they'd been given a unique set of skills and she figured using them might be the best way forward. For her anyway. "Thank you Gale," she sighed. "I haven't spoken to Haymitch yet. I told Johanna when I met her the other day and now you," she told him. She had caught his little smile and it filled her with joy considering how snippy he'd been with her before. She rested her head on his shoulder, feeling much more confident with idea now she had he and Johanna on board.
“Johanna would be into it too. She could put her axe skills to use,” Gale chuckled wryly. He had to bite back a smart-ass comment about how that would be more useful than her taking her clothes off for the shock value at every chance she got, but oh well. As far as he knew, Johanna wasn’t a nudist here.
Then he nudged Katniss gently. “Want to stay for dinner? I could make something.” Being occupied with other things, keeping himself busy, he’d feel better overall - maybe then he could actually get his mind out of the hazy, angry trap he’d been struggling with lately.
Katniss looked up at the nudge and nodded at him, glad he seemed to have calmed down somewhat. "I'd love to," she smiled, then frowned. "But can I put a veto in for rabbit?"
A veto? Well, obviously someone’s palatte was a little off. Because rabbit was fucking delicious, thanks. So was squirrel, when it was fried, but he doubted that Katniss would want that, if rabbit turned her stomach. “Didn’t know you wanted to save Thumper that badly,” Gale pulled a face, standing up to head for the kitchen. “But sure. I think I have chicken that I didn’t shoot and kill, and clean myself.” Not too much of a sacrifice. They’d make do, as usual.