Natalie

“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“You can kill someone in your heart. Stop loving them. And one day they die.”
― José Mauro de Vasconcelos, My Sweet Orange Tree

“For you, a thousand times over”
― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

“Blitz and Hearth were almost at the shore when Alex stopped abruptly.
I didn't have any energy left either, but I thought I should try to sound encouraging. "We - we have to k-keep going." I looked over. We were nose-to-nose under the blankets. Her eyes glinted, amber and brown. Her scarf had dipped below her chin. Her breath was like limes.
Then, before I even knew what was happening, she kissed me. She could have bitten off my mouth and I would have been less surprised. Her lips were cracked and rough from the cold. Her nose fitted perfectly next to mine. Our faces aligned, our breath mixed. Then she pulled away.
"I wasn't going to die without doing that," she said.
The world of primordial ice must not have frozen me completely, because my chest burned like a coal furnace.
"Well?" She frowned. "Stop gaping and let's move."
We trudged towards the shore. My mind wasn't working properly. I wondered if Alex had kissed me just to inspire me to keep going, or to distract me from our imminent deaths. It didn't seem possible she'd actually wanted to kiss me. Whatever the case, that kiss was the only reason I made it to shore.”
― Rick Riordan, The Ship of the Dead