"Best that she know you've chosen to stay, instead of doing some stupid chivalrous thing," Krem explains as he pulls the socks straight, then pulls his feet back under the blanket and glances around to find somewhere not bloodstained to rest. He doesn't really want to move at the moment, and so simply resigns himself to staying right here, his blanket tight around him to be withdrawn into like a turtle's shell.

He's quiet after that, watching the fire with half-lidded eyes, trying not to feel as off his game as he really was. Telling other people about this was easy. It didn't have romantic consequences for him. Now though, it feels like most of the world has fallen out from under him. He isn't entirely convinced that Sam isn't just staying there with him out of a sense of duty to Lady LeBlanc.