TJ

“I grinned. "Are you saying you want to be captain of my personal guard?"
Mal glanced at me, his lips quirking in a smile. "Do I get to wear a fancy hat?"
"The fanciest," I said. "And possibly a cape."
"Will there be plumes?"
"Oh, yes. Several."
"Then I'm in.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“Genya—” David tried.
“Don’t you dare,” she said roughly, tears welling up again. “You never looked at me twice before I was like this, before I was broken. Now I’m just something for you to fix.”
I was desperate for words to soothe her, but before I could find any, David bunched up his shoulders and said, “I know metal.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Genya cried.
David furrowed his brow. “I … I don’t understand half of what goes on around me. I don’t get jokes or sunsets or poetry, but I know metal.” His fingers flexed unconsciously as if he were physically grasping for words. “Beauty was your armor. Fragile stuff, all show. But what’s inside you? That’s steel. It’s brave and unbreakable. And it doesn’t need fixing.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“Did you miss me, Alina? Did you miss me when you were gone?”
“Every day,” I said honestly.
“ I missed you every hour. And you know what the worst part was? It caught me completely by surprise. I’d catch myself walking around to find you, not for any reason, just out of habit, because I’d seen something that I wanted to tell you about or because I wanted to hear your voice. And then I’d realize that you weren’t there anymore, and every time, every single time, it was like having the wind knocked out of me. I’ve risked my life for you. I’ve walked half the length of Ravka for you, and I’d do it again and again and again just to be with you, just to starve with you and freeze with you and hear you complain about hard cheese every day. So don’t tell me we don’t belong together,” he said fiercely. He was very close now, and my heart was suddenly hammering in my chest. “I’m sorry it took me so long to see you, Alina. But I see you now.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone

“None of this is your fault, Mal. None of it.”
He lowered his head, setting his forehead against mine. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
We both knew he was powerless to stop it, but the truth of that was too painful, so I just said, “I know.”
“You’re humoring me,” he said with the hint of a grin.
“You require a lot of coddling.”
He pressed his lips to the top of my head. “We’ll find a way out of this, Alina. We always do.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm