The one thing Jade hates most in life are bullies. She’s been bullied since her childhood, and now that she can fight back, she does.
Cole is back in the United States, alive but not whole. The war has taken parts of him that he'll never get back, so he works to make his life fulfilling, staying around people he cares about. Romance never enters in his mind until he meets Jade.
He always thought he repulsed women, so he hasn't started to date. Jade doesn't seem to see his disability and becames protective of him. It gets to the point that he has to pull her out of fights every day. She doesn't seem to understand that he can easily kill anyone with just his bare hands—he isn't as helpless as she thinks he is. He’ll get her to see the truth sooner or later because he isn't letting her go. Ever.