Nemo ran both of his hands over his face and into his hair, pulling on the back of his hair for just a minute in frustration. The circles kept getting wider and wider and he didn't know how to get things back to the way they were. It seemed impossible. He couldn't think of what to say that wouldn't damn him or their friendship in just a few words.

"We've been friends for a long time," He said finally, the words just kind of tumbling out quietly. "I assumed you didn't want to, not really." Sure, she'd been the one to invite him into the bed, but she'd been drunk, probably the most drunk he'd ever seen her and he hadn't wanted her to regret something he wasn't entirely sure she would have offered if sober. "I tried to respect the boundary we had in place." The one that now seemed smashed to smithereens. "Because I respect you and I—" Aww fuck she was going to make him say it. "And I love you, but I don't think you feel the same and I'd rather be friends than nothing at all, but then everything went awry and you went on that damn boat and I didn't think you were coming back and now were here and it's still all messed up and I can't lose you like that again."

He knew it sounded ridiculous, like he was a little lost puppy, wounded and sad and scared, but he was beyond caring. Something had to give.