She can keep telling herself that, but Matt hopes that eventually she'll realize that she is. In any case, at least she's selfish enough not to push everyone and everything away. Matt wouldn't even call it selfish; he'd call it a survival instinct and Katniss has that in spades, which isn't a bad thing. People aren't made to exist in a vacuum, at least not most of them. He wouldn't call what he feels for Katniss love, not yet, at least not the romantic sort, but he cares about her a great deal. He's interested in her romantically and he suspects that it could easily turn to him falling in love with her.

They'll have to work on that, but a great deal of it will simply come in time. She needs to be able to see herself as a person again, a person worthy of good things. If he thought she'd talk to a professional, he'd find someone for her to talk to. It might be something he addresses with her at some point. He'd had to talk to an endless string of professionals after his father had died and at first he'd been so angry about it, but over time it had helped.

No, that's not really how it works and even if she did get into an accident with something radioactive the way he had, there's no guarantee it would give her any abilities, but he can help make her very capable without any abilities. As she'd pointed out, Hawkeye manages just fine. So does Black Widow. Besides, he thinks she'll end up liking training. It's a good way to work out frustrations, anger and stress. Fighting is different when it's not a life or death situation.

Her heart racing isn't a bad thing, but the fear is. He doesn't want her to ever be afraid of him. This place is supposed to be safe for her.

He swallows hard when she kisses the tip of his thumb. His heart is racing, hammering hard in his chest even if she can't hear it. He doesn't want her to want to please him, not right now. That can come later. He'd rather that selfish streak in her arise and she please herself. She's not stupid or reckless. This won't endanger her in any way regardless of where things between them go from here. That's why he felt the need to say those words. He wants her to know that her shelter, her food, his help isn't dependent on what happens in the next few moments. He is talking about this moment right now, but obviously not in the way she thinks he is. This is something he wants (has wanted for a few weeks), but he's denied himself because he was/is afraid that it'll be unwanted or that's not how she thinks of him.

The kiss gets a great deal more heated than Matt had intended and that's due to Katniss' reaction. He moves a hand to the small of her back, tugging her closer so that she's practically in his lap. If this is something they're going to explore, he's definitely going to want to slow things down for her sake because she deserves a sweet, romantic relationship rather than something hurried and heated and over before it can really be enjoyed. However, at the moment he's definitely not thinking of slowing anything down. In fact, the things that he's thinking about really shouldn't be voiced. It's been a long time since he's been with anyone and that makes it all the more difficult to think about slowing down or taking his time.

Of course, her next words are like cold water on the whole situation. He takes a sharp breath, guilt and shame washing over him. He swallows thickly and clears his throat. "I--I apologize. I didn't realize--I guess I read the situation wrong. I thought this was..." he takes another sharp breath. "I thought this was what you wanted." He starts to move his hands, to lean back away from her. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, Katniss."

He wants to say that he doesn't think of her like a daughter or a sister, but he'd rather not put that out there if she thinks of him that way.