<P> Peeta Mellark is the male tribute from District 12 in both the 74th and 75th Hunger Games . He is the same age as Katniss, with fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes, characteristic of the town residents of District 12, whose middle - class merchants are slightly more well - to - do than those of the Seam . Peeta is the baker's son and lives with two brothers, a quiet father, and a strict disciplinarian mother . Peeta's favorite color is orange, like the sunset . His skills include personal charm and charisma, physical strength, baking, and painting . Peeta has been in love with Katniss ever since he first saw her during elementary school, and declares his love for her during the pre-Games interview . Katniss believes this is a ploy to gain the support of sponsors to help them survive the Games . Lacking Katniss' skills with weapons like the bow and arrow, he relies on his charm and physical strength, and teamwork with Katniss, to survive in the Games . </P> <P> Peeta is captured by the Capitol at the end of the Quarter Quell and submitted to "hijacking", a process of torture and brainwashing which gives him an instinctual fear of Katniss and effectively turns him into an assassination weapon against her . During the civil war, he is rescued and eventually rehabilitated by the rebels . After the Capitol is defeated, he returns to District 12 with Katniss and marries her . Twenty years after the war, they have two children . </P> <P> Gale Hawthorne is a Seam resident boy who is two years older than Katniss, and shares her hunting skill, dark hair, olive skin, and grey eyes . Through hunting they have become best friends . Muscular and handsome, Gale has caught the attention of several girls in District 12 . Like Katniss, Gale lives with his mother Hazelle and three younger siblings after his father's death in the same mining accident that killed Katniss' father . Being from the Seam, Gale and Katniss share a slight resemblance which had prompted Peeta to hope they were just cousins . The idea that they are cousins is used by the people of the seam to cover for his close relationship with Katniss so as not to suggest the "starcrossed lovers" storyline with Peeta is staged, as it is presumed her closeness with someone as good looking as Gale would draw suspicion . Though the suggestion that they are cousins effectively satisfies the press from the Capitol, it makes both Katniss and Gale very uncomfortable on several occasions . </P> <P> In the second book, Catching Fire, Katniss returns to District 12, but their relationship cannot continue as it was, since Katniss and Peeta must play the part of lovers due to threats from the Capitol . Gale confesses his love for Katniss after she asks him to run away with her . Soon afterward, he is brutally whipped in public for hunting on Capitol land . He and Katniss prepare to fight as it becomes clear that a rebellion is about to begin . However, Katniss, along with Peeta, is selected for the Third Quarter Quell and must leave District 12 to return to the Games . Once again, Gale is forced to say goodbye to Katniss as she prepares for a fight to the death . </P>

Description of gale in the hunger games book
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