Tortured Wisteria

4

"I can't believe those are still up there!" Gale chuckles as he catches them, but quickly tossed the sticks aside so that he could help Wis out of the tree. His hands gripped her waist, lowering her to the ground safely. She hesitated as her boots touched the ground, her face flush. Wis was hyper aware of the feeling of his calloused hands on the bare skin exposed on her torso. They stood so close together that she could smell the alcohol on his breath. She cleared her throat and stepped back, reaching for her "sword".

She whacked him then, a grin spreading on her face as she back peddled. Gale let out a sound of protest and picked up his own, trying to smack her with it but Wis quickly deflected. The truth was, Wisteria was more talented with stick fighting than she was as a bowman. Katniss had always had insane precision with her shots. Not to say that Wisteria wasn't a good shot, she always hit her target. But Katniss managed to shoot an animal right in the eye from yards away every time.

Even intoxicated, the movements came flooding back to Wis like an old dance she'd learned long ago. She deflected attack after attack from Gale, quickly side stepping and dodging his attempts. They'd joked once upon a time that if she were to ever fight in the hunger games the sword would be her weapon of choice.

"I forgot how good you are at this!" Gale pants as he takes a good smack.

"I forgot how bad you are!" She taunts back as she whacks him again in the leg.

"Ha! Ha!" He mocks before he changes tactics all together. He drops the stick and runs at her, making Wis trip over her own feet in surprise. Her moment of clumsiness allowed him to grab onto her stick and yank her towards him. The imaginary sword slipped from her grasp and she fell into him, knocking both of them onto the ground.

Wisteria raised her head with a chuckle of pain, her hair coming loose from her ponytail and falling into her eyes. She'd landed on top of him, and Gale became acutely aware of the proximity of their faces as he pushed her dark locks away from her face. She stilled as he tucked the hair behind her ear, a soft smile on his lips.

Gale had always loved the Everdeens the way the Everdeens loved his family. But something had been different lately. As he looked upon Wisteria Everdeen's grinning, flushed face, he knew that he loved her different than he loved other people. He'd surely known for years that she was different to him. That his feelings were more than platonic. They'd never had much reason to allow it to change anything, she'd always been a constant. But in this moment, with her face so close and her eyes boring into his, he felt like maybe he was ready for more.

"Are you okay?" She asks quietly, breaking the silence that lingered as they stared at each other.

"I am," he chuckles, his hand still caressing the side of her face.

Gale was enjoying the moment, but something suddenly changed in Wis's eyes and she was pushing herself off of him. Gale sat up, looking at her with a bit of scared vulnerability on his face. Did she not want to be close to him?

"My mom's going to start wondering where I am," she says as she scrambles to her feet and half hazardly hides their stick swords up the tree. When she turns to go Gale reaches for her, wrapping a hand around her arm.

"Wis I'm not letting you walk back alone," he states. She opens her mouth to retort, but the look he gave her told her not to argue.

So she let him walk her home, an awkward silence hanging over both of them as they tried to walk as straight as possible. Gale would occasionally catch her arm, hoisting her back onto her feet as she fumbled.

Wisteria's mind was spinning a mile a minute, the feeling of his breath still lingering on her skin. Being so close to him, it'd awoken a feeling she worked hard to push down every day. The draw she felt for her best friend that she desperately tried to hide. They had only ever been friends, but sometimes she'd feel a spark of something more. A twinkle of a crush that made her heart race and her stomach flutter. She did all she could to make sure Gale wouldn't notice. How embarrassing it would be to fall for her best friend, to drive him away.