The way Tycho sighed made Ford feel a little giddy despite himself. It didn't mean anything — it couldn't mean anything. This was just the way Tycho was with everyone. But if it did mean something, how lovely it would be to be the cause of one of those sighs. If only. This was only play-acting, though. They were not lovers. They were friends, pretending at the dizzy bliss of a new relationship. Somewhere behind all the feelings twisting his stomach Ford was a bit alarmed at how smoothly and quickly they'd slipped into this after Tycho had kissed him and Ford had returned it, but it still wasn't real. It would end, he assumed, as suddenly as it began. Ty would do this same thing with someone else the next time the mood struck him.
(Tycho was blushing, though).
If Ford did everything right, then when this make-believe dissolved their friendship would be left behind just as it had been before, but with the added history of being more intimately familiar with each other's bodies than friends typically were. He needed to follow all of the unwritten rules for this encounter — the difficulty being that he didn't actually know what they were, because they were likely things unique to Tycho that he had long since internalized and no longer thought about. But Ford knew Tycho, so he ought to be able to guess at many of them and tread carefully around any areas of uncertainty. The rules, as he guessed them so far, boiled down to don't make things awkward. Rejecting Ty's advances would have made things awkward (particularly as the bulge in his pants had given away that he was clearly physically interested, at least). Being too invested would also have made things awkward, which was why Ford didn't want to treat Ty's words or his gestures as wholly sincere, or say anything that reciprocated the exact sentiment behind them. It was easier — safer — to keep things superficial until the dust settled.
"Don't put on too many clothes," he teased. "I'll see you."
Set by Lady!
