“He ground his teeth and slapped some slop down into a pile. The stench was beyond overwhelming. "I thought you said pigs are clean.""Cleaner than people usually think, but not as clean as you and I." She looked at his messy boots, amusement dancing in her gray eyes. "Well, usually.”

“In that case, it's good that you're a human Cuisinart," she said."I'm sorry?""A Cuisinart. It's an appliance from the Broken. You put vegetables into it, push a button, and it chops them into tiny pieces."Richard frowned. "Why would you need an appliance to chop vegetables? Wouldn't it be easier to chop them with a knife?""It's meant to save time," she explained."Does it?""Well, cleaning it usually eats up most of the time you save on chopping.""So you're telling me that I'm useless.""It's a neat gadget!""And I'm hard to clean, apparently."She checked his face. Tiny sparks danced in his eyes. He was pulling her leg. Well. If that's how it is... "Considering last night's argument, I think that you're remarkably difficult to clean.""There probably is a retort to this that's not off-color," he said. "But I can't think of one.”

“Whew,” he said. “You clean up good. You don’t look like the same girl.”She frowned right before she laughed. “Do women usually thank you for saying things like that?”

“Better stand her ground than back down and apologize, she thought. If I apologize, he'll feel justified in being pissed off, and then he'll be even more difficult than usual.”

“You were dancing with Yuki and I looked at you. And you turned away and held her closer. Why did you do that? If you didn't want to hurt me, then why?"He looked away, as though he'd been slapped, but he didn't look guilty. He looked pained. "I closed my eyes," he said, his voice so low and strangled she could hardly hear him."What?" she asked, not understanding."Tamani held up a hand and Laurel realized he hadn't finished-he was having trouble speaking at all. "I closed my eyes," he repeated after a few shallow breaths, "and imagined she was you."He looked at her, his face open, his eyes honest, his voice a song of anguish.”

“Expecting his usual aloof expression, she saw instead that his smoky eyes were locked on her face and the walls that he usually hid behind were gone. There was something that looked almost like longing in his expression.”