Compatible but unrelated kinks? So totally one of my buttons, and both different particular kink tangents in play here seemed very in character.
I've written a story with bootkink as very much object/situation fetish (they were in the POV character's office; his partner was into the boots), so this really made more sense to me than powerplay might have.
And powerplay this early in their relationship probably would have felt more exploitative than this happy, pseudo-homecoming/intimacy feel. (Basch, being exploitative, is hard to imagine... though Vossler could probably reinterpret Basch-- that hand on the back of his neck-- as being exploitative if he put enough effort into mindfucking himself.)