"Your standards in women are basically me and I don't know whether to count that as a compliment or suggest you get checked out," Katniss teases back. "Because, really, I don't think you've ever seriously considered anyone else."

That's a little overwhelming. For herself, she'd always imagined she'd end up with Gale. He's from the Seam, like her, and town kids and Seam kids don't ever mix. But the Games had changed that and there's something about Peeta Mellark that she feels a kinship with that nobody else, even Gale, can touch.