“I've been known to slum it and shop in the gag-him-and-bag-him aisles, believe it or not.”

“I grabbed his hand and dragged him down the street to a convenience shop. I abandoned him once inside and went down the stationery aisle. I'd already known I wanted to get him some colored pencils, but now I finally had the occasion to do it. Not long after I'd picked out a big box of them, I heard Rafael call out from another part of the store, "Trojans? Like The Iliad?"I didn't waste a second finding him and pulling him out of that aisle.”

“I've never known him as a civilian. Never known him as just a regular guy, something I'm not sure he--or any warrior--can ever be again.”

“Not his real name, darling, but my own name for him. I never thought it could be like this. I never thought one could be so close, and yet so different to a single human being. He is everything I've never been, and yet I love him more than any person or anything I've ever known.”

“In this, with him... I'm as close to the sky as I've ever been.”

“Feels like I've known him since before he got to the world—longer than he knew himself, truthfully. Seems like we'd been friends really...Somewhere before life on earth...”