"An interesting thought..." he muttered to himself, almost appreciatively, and squirmed away from the fingers dancing along his sides. "I wonder where it came from."

He wasn't entirely comfortable with this idea. Not yet. He did his best not to show it, not wanting it to be taken as a rejection, afraid of being responsible for putting a mortified look on his partner's face. His voice remained even and his gaze steady, but there was a subtle tension running through his body, and he slowly pulled and worked at the ties on his wrist as if out of reflex.