The Bonfire had begun the same way, Alby's little speech about making it another month and then he turned to me at the back, stretched out his gorilla arm and pointed at me.

"Snips! You're our Glade Manager, get your shanky butt up here!"

My eyes grew wide and a few Gladers around me started whispering and their eyes narrowed. Alby waved me forward, and slowly I made my way through the crowd to stand beside Alby and Newt. Alby handed me a long tourch with a flame at th end. He grinned at me.

"Okay Shanks! Light 'em up!" He bellowed.

And all the keepers and myself threw the touches and the fire flared to life. It was kind of fun being up with the keepers. But I hated all the looks I was getting. As soon as the fire was going everyone went into their seperate groups. I made my way to the back again and leaned against the big pile of wood.

"Hey! Pipsqueak!" Gally hollard.

I turned my head with raised eyebrows. He had never called me that in front of anyone. How many jars did he have already?

"You got a challenge to fullfil!"

I looked down at my boots for a second and smirked, he was going to lose in front of everyone. I pushed off the pile and came over to the table. He gave me a crooked grin.

"You can still back out, Pipsqueak."

"Your awfully cocky for a guy who's going to loose." I replied calmly.

There were a few oohs.

Without saying anything else, he handed me a jar, keeping his eyes locked on mine.

I took it and raised it up, he clinked his jar with mine and I raised it to my mouth. He cocked an eyebrow at me and I smirked. I threw my head back and chugged the disgusting burning light brown liquid. I felt the fire all the way down my throat and I to the pit of my stomach. There was no way to drink this without just not letting it sit in your mouth too long. I just let it fall straight down my throat.

I finished the jar and held it up into the air to wild applause. With a smirk I slammed it down on the table in front of Gally. His eyes went wide in shock and then into ammusment.

"Well colour me impressed." He let out a small deep chuckle.

"Told ya." I smirked and crossed my arms.

"So you did." He mused.

His intense eyes were trying to read into my soul. I could feel a slight blush rising in my cheeks. I ran my hand threw my hair, just to give me something to do. I felt nervous all of a sudden. Gally's eyes were so intense right now, looking me up and and down. My heart skipped a beat when he smirked again.

"Will you be wrestling this time?" He folded his large arms, making his tight shirt stretch across his shoulders.

I shrugged. Last time was a weird fluke. Like I felt like I had to prove something. This time? Maybe I still needed to prove who I was and what I was capable of.

"Well I did have a shower already, don't really want to get gross. But who knows."

He hummed.

"Well one for the road? And we can go watch the matches. And who know..."

Maybe it was the drink but my mouth spoke before my brain could stop me.

"You asking me on a date Gally?"

"Maybe I am." He raised an eyebrow at me.

We both grinned. He handed me another jar and he came around the table, with his hand possessively on my back again, we made our way through the crowd and over to the sand pit.

He elbowed some guys out of the way. I sat down on a stack of empty boxes and crates. Gally sat down beside me. His leg touching mine and his shoulder right up against mine. I felt heat seeping into my body and a tingling in my limbs that had nothing to do with the drink.

Right now in the pit were two kids I didn't really know. But watching them I knew I could beat them. Leaning over to Gally I yelled over the noise how someone could beat them. i did this with a few matches.

"See? When he takes a step to punch, he's off balance..sweep his leg and it's over!"

"He's a southpaw, all you gotta do is switch your stance and he's lost."

"He drops his other hand, look! Duck under his punch and get him in the torso."

"He's a bit harder, he goes for the knees. If you can get him first then he's got nothing."

Gally hummed each time and nodded, a smirk on his face. He kept looking at me with ammusment in his usually cold eyes.

"You have quite the skill set, Pipsqueak. Could be a MMA fighting coach."

"Maybe I was!" I grind at him.

His face was so close to mine, we had to lean in to hear each other over the noise. I wasn't sure but I'm pretty sure his eyes flicked down to my lips. It made my heart speed up. There was a moment when all the yelling and cheering died away and it was just Gally sitting so closely our sides touched and his face so close I could feel his breath and see his pulse in his neck.

Shuck.

Something solid slammed into us. The spell we were under snapped. We both ripped our eyes away from each other and together we both shoved the kid back into the sand pit with a yell. He kid stumbled back and stood up, glarring at us.

I recognized him. He was one of the many sleezey guys who would whisper klunk at me. My blood boiled. I narrowed my eyes and growled. I hoped off the box.

"Gally hold my drink!" I growled and went to hand it, but stopped.

"Wait. Nope. Wait."

I looked the jerk in the eye and chugged the rest of the jar and then handed the empty jar to Gally, without looking at him. I could see him gulp nervously. I smirked. And daunted into the sand pit.

"Let's see if your moves are as big as your talk."

I pulled my hair into a ponytail. The guy narrowed his eyes. And brought up his hands. I didn't bother, this kid was going to go down easy. He threw his fists wildy. Sure he won two matches already, but that didn't mean anything. He ran forwards swing his fists wildy. I deflected each ouch easily with my open hand, it was like he was punching into my open palms like in a boxing practice. I smirked. This kid got nothing.

He went for another wind swing, I grabbed his hand bringing it down and twisting twisting it with my own body. I was now behind him still holding his wrist. I yanked it hard, making his shoulder twist. He yelped. I grabbed his other shoulder with my other hand and kicked the back of his knees. Making him crumble. I let go of his arms and kicked his back making him faceplate in the sand.

Match one in the sand pit went to me.

"Looks like all your eating tonight is sand. Looser." I spat at him.

There was a wild scream of laughter and cheering. I caught Gally's eye. He smirked at me and I felt my heart flutter. I folded my arms and smirked back. I spun slowly in a circle, raising an eyebrow.

"Who's next?"

The crowd quieted down.

"Oh so your all cocky when no one is watching, but when you finally have a chance your all a bunch of shucken chickens! Shuck you all!"

It was quiet.

"Shucken cowards." I growled.

I went to turn away and leave when someone behind me stepped forward.

"Come on Girly!"

I grinned. And turned around my hands on my hips.

"Ahh. A worthy opponent." I spread my arms out wide. I stepped into the centre of the pit again.

"Come on Ben. Let's go."

"Don't pull your punches! But don't beat him too much, he's gotta run tomorrow."

"No promises Min."

Ben grinned.

He was fast and agile, running everyday was good endurance training. He kept moving his feet, dancing around the pit. I didn't move too much, knowing he was trying to tire me out, so I just kept him in my line of vision, no point in trying to follow him.

"Are we dancing or fighting? Come ya shank!" I taunted.

He grinned and winked. He lunged at me suddenly. I wasn't expecting such a drastic change in his fighting style.

He had wrapped me up in his long arms. My arms were trapped. I brought my knee up, getting him in the lower stomach, avoiding the cheap crotch shot. He grunted, and loosened his iron grip, trying to regain his breath. It gave me just enough room to rotate my body enough. He had his arms wrapped around the upped half of my arms, allowing me to bend my elbows. I grabbed his hands, lifting my legs up off the ground. I slammed my feet back down and bent my knees using the momentum and bent forwards, effectively flipping him over my back and head. He slammed into the sand on his back with a loud oomph and groan. He held his stomach and coughed a few times and moaned.

Breathing heavily, I leaned my hands on my knees, bending over him so he was looking at me upside down. I grinned.

"Good try shank."

He just groaned.

"To make this more interesting, 'cause you keep winning, it ain't fair to these poor useless shanks..." Minho called, stepping forwards, with a mischievous smirk and twinkle in his eye.

I straightened up.

"Listening."

"Drink."

Was all he said, holding another jar out. I stepped over, without an expression grabbed the jar and downed the contents. Handing the empty jar back I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

And so it went. Every time I won a match Minho handed me another jar. My movements got more and more sluggish and more wild. My vision went fuzzy pretty quickly. I could hardly keep my feet under me, my head was spinning and I couldn't hit the side of the BloodHouse if I tried. Fred stepped forward and I was flat on my back in about two minutes. I was done. I lay on the ground staring at the night sky, it wouldn't stop spinning.

Two grinning faces appeared above me, it took so much effort to focus on who it was. Minho and Gally. They each held out a hand to help me up, but I ignored them and attempted to get to my feet. I stumbled, my feet wouldn't cooperate. I growled. I felt arms pick me up, my head flopped.

"I don't feel so good."

"Lets get you some water and food. You drank way too much." I felt his chest rumble when he talked, "I'm impressed you could hold your alcohol, Pipsqueak."

He sat me down. And then crouched down in front of me, my head was swaying back and forth, having a hard time focusing. I felt his callused hands grab my face, holding my head steady.

"Hey, Charlie, you listening?"

I felt electricity shoot through my body starting at the point where his hands touched. I gasped. Gally's hands were firm but gentle, I couldn't move, he was watching me with a mixture of amusement and exasperation.

"I'm going to go get you water and some food from Fry." He said again, slower and louder.

"You know..Gally.." My words were coming out really slurred, and my mouth was talking without my brains knowledge.

Gally raised his eyebrow, well at least I think he did. His hands were still holding my face still, I placed my hand over his.

"I liiiike you. A looot! Like a lot a looot! You make my heaaaart go-"

I scrunched my face trying to think of the word.

"-TWITERPATTED!...Buuuut your kiiiinnnda mean sometimes."

"Huh. That was... honest."

I grinned at him. He rolled his eyes, but I think there was a smile on his face. He held my face a little longer, just looking at me.

"Don't go anywhere, alright?"

"Ey ey Captain Gally!" I saluted him and giggled.

I felt his hands leave and I felt cold. He was only gone for a few minutes, I sat where he left me, among of the loud crowd, watching the next two guys fight. My head was swaying again. Everything was rushing passed me and it took a few seconds for my brain to catch up.

Gally came back with a jar filled with water and a plate of food.

"Eat."

I did as I was told. The food made me feel a little less sick. I was feeling sleepy, and I laied my head on the big strong shoulder beside me.

"Hey...Pipsqueak, wake up." Gally shook his shoulder making me pick up my head.

"Why? I'm tired!" I whined.

"It's my turn in the ring!"

I sat up straight, fully awake now. He smirked at my reaction. My head was too full of the hot fuzzy drink to understand. Gally got up, and before he got into the ring, in a swift movement he pulled his shirt off. I giggled and wolf whistled. The guys around me laughed and then joined in. Woolf whistling Gally and now Clint who joined him. They faced off. Gally's back to me, and I frowned. My fuzzy head registered a huge bruise on his back.

How did he get that? That looks big and painful! Maybe he fell of a roof too!

I giggled to my self. I watched as Gally and Clint fought and wrestled. Gally was a beast in the sand pit. He won match after match. Me and the guys around me cheered wildly, whistling and laughing. At some point someone had given me another jar. It wasn't water and I grinned at the person. I raised my jar and took a long sip.

Gally came breathing heavily over, glistening in sweat. He grabbed his t shirt and wiped the sweat off.

"Daaaamn! Yoooou looooook gooood!" I grinned at him, my eyes were fuzzy and I couldn't focus.

I saw him frown, and I copied him.

"Who gave you another drink?"

I shrugged and took another sip.

"I think your done for the evening. You're going to be really sick tomorrow."

"Awwww! Gally the meany has a soft spot!" I giggled.

"Yeah. Your done."

He tried to take the jar, but I swatted his hands, trying to cradle the jar to my chest, I slipped off the box, landing on the ground I giggled. Gally crouched down in front of me. Before he could grab the jar I downed the last bit of the drink. He sighed. Without warning he swooped me up.

"Come on Charlie. Its bed time."

"I think you need to buy me another drink if your taking me to bed."

I felt his chest rumble. He carried me away from the loud crowd. It got darker and quieter. It made me shiver.

"You cold?"

"No." I whispered. "I don't like the dark...That's when the voices come."

He was quiet.

"Voices?"

I nodded my heavy fuzzy head. Gally nudged the HomeStead door open with his hip and carried me down the hall

"They whisper to me. Inside my head."

Gally stopped in front of my door. I leaned closer into him.

"I don't want to be alone. I don't like the dark." I whispered again, pressing my cheek into his chest. I felt a rumble. He opened the door and placed me on the bed.

"Get ready for bed. I'll be ring outside the door."

I stumbled around, falling off my bed and giggled.

"Charlie?" Gally yelled through the door.

I managed to strip off the shirt and a tank top on. I kicked my boots off with great difficulty. My feet kept moving. Or maybe it was my hand eye coordination. I managed to tug my jeans off and pulled on those big grey sweats. And then sat on the edge of the bed.

"Charlie? Are you done?"

I nodded. It took me a few moments to realize Gally couldn't see me. I giggled again and called him in. The giggling stopped when I saw the ring on my finger, it turned into a frown and I felt tears slid down my cheeks. The door opened slowly.

"Charlie?" Gally had crouched down in front of me. I felt a thumb wipe the tears.

"I'm scared. All the time. I hate it here. I hate it so much. I want to go home."

He didn't say anything. I tried to focus on his face. His blue eyes looked sad.

"I don't want to be alone Gally." I whispered again as another tear slid down my face.

He stood up, and picked me up gently and carried me out the door and down the hall. He nudged a door open and laid me on a bed. The smell made me feel safe. I curled up in the middle of it, my head buried in the pillow. I fell asleep with a small smile.

________________________________________________________________________

** Longer chapter. But a fun one.**

**Charlie finally opens up...after way too many drinks. :) **