Story [Hunger Games] Because That's My Job - Gale and Rory brotherly bonding

Title: Because That?s My Job
Author: karebear
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Gale, Rory
Standard Disclaimer (Hunger Games): The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I?m just borrowing the characters and world for a short while.
Summary: Gale and Rory missing scene. Brotherly bonding.
Notes: I tend to find throwaway lines, and take them and run. Sue me. This comes from this one: ?Rory has signed up for tesserae, something Gale can?t even speak about, but it?s still not enough.? (Catching Fire, p. 132)


They?ve got him scheduled seven days a week in the mines, now, which is good for all kinds of reasons. The extra hours mean more money, and every little bit helps.

And it means he can?t go out to the woods. He would if he could, and he?d get himself killed, and then where would his family be?

Rory finds him one night, after he?s collapsed, exhausted, into bed.

?Go ?way,? he mumbles. ?We can talk in the morning.?

?We won?t either,? Rory says. ?You always leave before sunrise and you ignore me even if I wake up early. I want to hunt.?

Gale is pretty sure his heart stops beating at that moment.

He sits up and forces Rory to look directly into his eyes. ?No,? he says. His voice is harsh and uncompromising. He?s surprised by how much power he can put behind such a small word.

He doesn?t want to let his little brother see how much the very idea terrifies him, but he is not at all sure how successful he is at hiding this emotion.

?The electricity on the fence is active all the time now, anyway,? he manages to say.

?That doesn?t matter,? is Rory?s response. He is completely unfazed. ?You can still climb a tree to get over it. Prim told me you and Katniss used to do it all the time. And I?m older than Katniss was when she started following you around in the woods. I know how to shoot, a little. Someone has to do it, if you?re working all the time. And what if...?

He doesn?t finish the sentence, but Gale knows what he?s thinking. He lost his father in the mine, and there?s nothing at all to guarantee he won?t lose his big brother too.

?It was different, for Katniss and me.?

He still remembers how every single lash felt, and he knows that it won?t matter to Thread that his brother is barely twelve.

If he?s old enough for his name to show up in the reaping ball, he?s old enough to take the punishment for any Capitol law he gets caught breaking.

?The tessarae?s not enough, and you know it!? Rory shouts.

?No,? Gale repeats, snarling.

Bad enough that Rory signed up for tesserae at all.

Doesn?t he understand what he?s asking?

?You follow the law, Rory. All the laws, even the ones I always told you didn?t matter. They all matter now. Any excuse and they?ll...?

They?ll kill him.

Gale has absolutely no doubt about this.

Because he?s unlucky enough to be a Hawthorne, connected, no matter how loosely, to Katniss Everdeen and her personal war against President Snow.

?He didn?t actually give me a copy of the list, but it?s a good guess it includes both our families.?

The rate they?re going, he doesn?t even need to wait until reaping day to worry about losing his little brother.

?I know what you?re scared of, Gale,? Rory whispers. ?But they won?t kill me. They?ll kill you, if you get caught again, Thread said so. But I can take a whipping. If you can do it, I can do it.?

?No you can?t!?

Actually, he has no doubt that Rory could, if he had to. His brother is just as stubborn and stupid and terrifying as he ever was.

But he will never let that happen.

Isn?t that what you said about letting him take tesserae too? the nagging, guilt-ridden, accusing voice at the back of his mind whispers.

?Do you know how close I came to dying??

That?s what scares him.

He still wakes up in the middle of the night sometimes, haunted by the sound of the cracking whip, fighting against a rope that doesn?t hold him anymore.

If Katniss hadn?t b

 

Great look at Gale's determination to protect his siblings as long as possible.

 

That was so sad! Poor Gale adn Rory But this was very well-written!