She knocked and waited, because when the door was opened from within, it had the potential to lead someplace quite different.

I am one of billions. I am stardust gathered fleetingly into form. I will be ungathered. The stardust will go on to be other things someday and I will be free.

You are a conniving, deceitful hussy. I stand in awe."
"You're sitting."
"I sit in awe.

Tienes razón. Muy aburrida. Empezaré a coleccionar sellos. Eso es interesante, ¿no?
- No. A menos que te los vayas a pegar por el cuerpo y los utilices como ropa.

But let's not be casual about this body, okay?" She nuzzled him back. "It may be your soul that I love, but I'm pretty keen on its vessel, too."

Her voice had dropped lower as she spoke, and his response was low and husky in kind. "I can't say I'm sorry to hear that," he said, and brushed his face past hers to kiss a place beneath her ear, sending instant, electric frissons coursing through her body.

War is all we've been taught, but there are other ways to live. We can find them, Akiva. We can invent them. This is the beginning, here." She touched his chest and felt a rush of love for the heart that moved his blood, for his smooth skin and his scars and his unsoldierly tenderness. She took his hand and pressed it to her breast and said, "We are the beginning.