"Well, she did ride my broom today," Terrence said, laughing. Even though he knew she would realize he was joking about it, he added, "Literally. But her dog did manage to slip me some tongue. Quite a day, really - no wonder I ended up with these things."
He curled an arm around her shoulders, that hand threading into her hair, and he leaned into her. Even in relatively innocent situations, he never bothered controlling the impulse to touch her, to move closer. With his free hand, he pointed to each of the crabs in turn. "Purple's Lord Tuffington von Hefferschtat. He won the race, that's why he's the lord. Pink's Candy Cane, I was rooting for her to win, but she's the village bicycle, not a racewinner. Blue Balls - that's the blue one - was all over her." He was laughing again, remembering it. "Red's Rudolph and green's Vixen. Both of them are Hos - it's their last name. And yellow's Bob Blitzen."
He grinned, lowering his pointing arm. "What d'you think of training hawks?" That idea had occurred to him at the same time as he'd been talking about making an aquarium for his crabs, and he could not have quite explained that train of thought, except that hawks and falcons also sounded like awesome pets.