" Tej glanced toward the balcony. Toward him. Toward the balcony. Toward him. Why is this a hard choice? From the hallway, a teeth-gritting mechanical whine began, as of someone cutting through an airseal door. “You can’t tell me you’d rather jump off a twenty-story building and smash in your skull than marry me,” Ivan went on desperately. “I am not a fate worse than death, dammit! Or at least not worse than that death, good God! "
― Lois McMaster Bujold , Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (Vorkosigan Saga, #15)