Work Text:
"Gale," says Beetee, exhaustion creeping into his voice. "You cannot get physical with people anymore. We are both on a knife's edge here and like it or not, we need these people to respect us."
Gale tries to breathe deeply, tries to simmer down the rage. He succeeds, mostly. "He called me 'boy.' Don't tell me you understand what that's like, because you don't."
Hearing the way Beetee speaks only serves Gale's point that the older man doesn't get it, doesn't understand what it's like when you open your mouth and see people underestimate you the minute you start talking. Beetee doesn't sound Capitol, exactly, more like a District 1 civilian or a 13 native. Gale hadn't ever actually met another district-born rich person before, and while Beetee is one of a very few people in 13 who doesn't condescend to him, they still come from different worlds.
And the thing is, the way that Gale talks isn't entirely because he's poor— Peeta sounds like Gale, despite how much the younger boy tries to play it down (to Gale's resentment). It's just that the mountains isolate you and your voice, and Gale is pretty sure that would happen even if 12 were like 3, one of those districts with actual rich people.
Gale would never tell Katniss this, but he had been secretly afraid that she'd come back from her Victory Tour sounding like Finnick, with all the edges and twang smoothed out by a Capitol stain.
Now he's afraid that will happen to him in 13, and he wonders if he has to leave the mountains behind in order to be respected.
"Let's just get back to work," Gale says.