"I'm not cute," Kala said, peering at him for a good long while. "At all." She didn't hit people, but she thought about it for a moment. He wasn't that irritating, though, and she wasn't particularly bothered when it came right down to it. And she wasn't cute.

"And I avoid excessive use of emotions. Rising Phoenix and I aren't...equipped to deal with them." They were broken. Both of them. And the only one to get a full smile out of Kala had been one William Shane Barlow...even if it hadn't been a real smile. Not on her face.