"You're not pushing," Ryan said, shaking his head. "I like you, too, and not just as friends and not just for kissing. Although the kissing is nice, we can - we should keep doing that." With her looking up at him, it was a little bit more difficult to focus than he could've asked for. He couldn't continue, though, in good conscience without talking to her first. "I just... I want to do this right."

He wasn't really sure himself what that entailed, not yet. Maybe it was another of those things they'd figure out as they went. It wasn't like he could take her on dates or anything here, anymore than he knew if they'd both still be there tomorrow. Relationships were confusing enough without dragging time and space and all that uncertainty into it, let alone his own lingering issues. He tried not to put himself out on the line like this, and still he found himself doing it over and over again. "It's just kinda tough to figure out what that really means around here."