Initially, the appearance of Sam’s hand on his face triggered a flurry of blinks, but over the course of several heartbeats, Remi melted into the touch. Another heartbeat and he’d shifted slightly to press a kiss to the heel of the vampire’s palm, performing an act that he’d wanted to since the night of the carnival. He’d recognized then how absurd it was that he’d wanted to put his lips anywhere near a man — a vampire — he’d just met. Two nights later, it shouldn’t have seemed any less absurd, but enough time had passed that he'd discovered being close to Sam felt a lot like flying — enough so that he wanted to ignore the ants crawling between his shoulder blades so he could remain there with him.
The ants had other ideas, though.
Remi clenched his jaw and rolled his shoulders as the sensation of crawling increased, putting an end to all thoughts of staying at the academy any longer than he had to. Once the need to fly struck him, he knew he wouldn’t be able to shake his discomfort until he summoned his wings and actually took to the sky.
"I wanted to stay," he said, "but yeah, I could use a break." He reached up to gather Sam’s hand in his, pulling it away from his face and down to the same level as their other joined hands. He cocked his head, a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. "Hang on. You said ‘we don’t have to do more’. Does that mean you’re free to come with me?"
