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crack_van2012-11-27 11:46 am
stars-inthe-sky.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2012-11-27 11:46 am
Entry tags:
"the heart i gave to you (i cannot find)" by electrumqueen (PG)
Fandom: THE HUNGER GAMES
Pairing: Gale/Katniss, Katniss/Peeta
Length: ~1100 words
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
electrumqueen
Author Website: Fic tag
Why this must be read: A character study of Gale after the war, this fic gives him more depth than we saw even in Mockingjay. It's never been clear to me whether Gale belonged in the same category, so to speak, as the various Victors, having chosen to fight and on what terms. But in just a few short, clear scenes,electrumqueen hints at the tragic parallels and contrasts between his choices and what might have been.
Posy sometimes writes him letters, sends him pictures of her house and the geese that flock through the village. Once there is a sketch of Katniss, sitting on a rock with her hair falling over her shoulder. (Not their rock; just a little rock by the front of the school.)
It is not this that gets him, strangely; it is a folded picture of a field filled with flowers.
He stares at it for a long time, finds himself crying. He's never been a crier; maybe now he can afford it.
--
He works on a politics show. They talk about the emerging government; mostly in helpful terms, because he knows a lot of people in it and they are good people who offered him any job he wanted.
He said no, of course; he can't have any responsibility, anymore. The idea of it sickens him.
His co-commentators talk about Katniss Everdeen sometimes, the mockingjay, the girl who was on fire. They're building a statue of her by the new Justice Building, which he thinks is kind of a waste of resources.
He never says her name.
--
He thinks about her all the time. He shouldn't; he should move on, as she has moved on, but she has stuck in his mind, in his heart: a symbol of everything he ever did wrong. (She wouldn't want this, he knows; she always hated being anyone's symbol of anything.)
He thinks about writing her a letter, saying, I wish we could talk to each other, but he knows they can't.
(He writes to Peeta, instead. Just short, inane conversation; the weather is fantastic here, what about there; I just got a cat. Peeta skirts around writing Katniss and Gale is glad; Peeta was always kind.
From these snippets of Peeta's life Gale builds his own version of Katniss; she is happy, now. And strong and healthy and she loves Peeta, plays with the cat and picks flowers and hunts.
For some reason it only makes him stronger to think of Katniss in the woods with her bow; this is something he did not spoil, did not break.)
He sometimes thinks he broke her heart, and that hurts even though she broke his. Peeta will have picked up the pieces, anyway.
Sometimes he wonders if he could have done something different, something kinder, something better; if she would still love him if he had never built a bomb, refused to go on a raid.
This is useless thinking but late at night it seems like the only thing that's worth examining, each decision from a hundred different angles.
Some of them end with her kissing him; it doesn't matter, either way, because he chose what he chose, and he'd do it again a million times.
the heart i gave to you (i cannot find)
Pairing: Gale/Katniss, Katniss/Peeta
Length: ~1100 words
Author on LJ:
electrumqueenAuthor Website: Fic tag
Why this must be read: A character study of Gale after the war, this fic gives him more depth than we saw even in Mockingjay. It's never been clear to me whether Gale belonged in the same category, so to speak, as the various Victors, having chosen to fight and on what terms. But in just a few short, clear scenes,
electrumqueen hints at the tragic parallels and contrasts between his choices and what might have been.Posy sometimes writes him letters, sends him pictures of her house and the geese that flock through the village. Once there is a sketch of Katniss, sitting on a rock with her hair falling over her shoulder. (Not their rock; just a little rock by the front of the school.)
It is not this that gets him, strangely; it is a folded picture of a field filled with flowers.
He stares at it for a long time, finds himself crying. He's never been a crier; maybe now he can afford it.
--
He works on a politics show. They talk about the emerging government; mostly in helpful terms, because he knows a lot of people in it and they are good people who offered him any job he wanted.
He said no, of course; he can't have any responsibility, anymore. The idea of it sickens him.
His co-commentators talk about Katniss Everdeen sometimes, the mockingjay, the girl who was on fire. They're building a statue of her by the new Justice Building, which he thinks is kind of a waste of resources.
He never says her name.
--
He thinks about her all the time. He shouldn't; he should move on, as she has moved on, but she has stuck in his mind, in his heart: a symbol of everything he ever did wrong. (She wouldn't want this, he knows; she always hated being anyone's symbol of anything.)
He thinks about writing her a letter, saying, I wish we could talk to each other, but he knows they can't.
(He writes to Peeta, instead. Just short, inane conversation; the weather is fantastic here, what about there; I just got a cat. Peeta skirts around writing Katniss and Gale is glad; Peeta was always kind.
From these snippets of Peeta's life Gale builds his own version of Katniss; she is happy, now. And strong and healthy and she loves Peeta, plays with the cat and picks flowers and hunts.
For some reason it only makes him stronger to think of Katniss in the woods with her bow; this is something he did not spoil, did not break.)
He sometimes thinks he broke her heart, and that hurts even though she broke his. Peeta will have picked up the pieces, anyway.
Sometimes he wonders if he could have done something different, something kinder, something better; if she would still love him if he had never built a bomb, refused to go on a raid.
This is useless thinking but late at night it seems like the only thing that's worth examining, each decision from a hundred different angles.
Some of them end with her kissing him; it doesn't matter, either way, because he chose what he chose, and he'd do it again a million times.
the heart i gave to you (i cannot find)