Bee

“I suppose that's why I love you."
His eyes flew open and his face lit in an extraordinary grin. "All Saints, say it again."
"I will not."
"You must."
"I'm the queen. I must do nothing but please myself."
"Would it please you to kiss me?”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“Love was the destroyer. It made mourners, widows, left misery in its wake. Grief and love were one and the same. Grief was the shadow love left when it was gone.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“She'd been promised this year would be better. A promise made on New Year's Eve. She'd been heading across the estate when a man, some drunk, had called out to her from the shadows, by the bins. He'd asked her what year it was. It had just chimed midnight, so she'd told him it was 2005. His face was lost in darkness and snow but somehow she heard him smile. He said, "This year is going to be great."

Yeah, sure.

Never trust a drunk in the dark.

But the funny thing was, she did trust him. That stranger. There was something about his voice, the way he said it, like he was saying it only for her. Somehow, out of all the nonsense she had ever heard from drunken men, she remembered his words.”
― Russell T. Davies, Doctor Who: Rose

“Where you lead me," I said, "I'll follow."
He laughed. "Baby. Baby. Baby. I love you. And I'm going to build us a table and a whole lot of folks going to be eating off it for a long, long time to come.”
― James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk