<blockquote>“What makes you like a person?” Jehan asked one evening.
They were at one of Jehan’s favorite shabby artistic cafés, and there had been nothing in their prior conversation to lead to this topic. “A willingness to defy the stultifying convention that one should only raise a subject when it is pertinent,” Bahorel said.
Jehan took a moment to understand him, and then blushed rather charmingly, his dark face suffused with violet. “I…oh, curse you, Bahorel, you know what I mean, don’t tease me. I was asking you in earnest.”
Bahorel grinned. “A person may tease, and yet be in earnest.”</blockquote>