Vaughn drew his legs up beneath him, too, feeling a mixture of anxiety and...something else. He didn't know what that something else was, but Mao was laughing, and Vaughn wasn't entirely sure why. He picked at his food, frowning, waiting for something else to go on, to know if he should be worried or not.
It seemed fine, though. Mao hadn't gotten up and left, so that was good. And he wasn't leaving, that was even better. Vaughn managed to smile, relieved, and he was very, very into the idea of having someone he could hang out with as a human. Do things out in the world. "Yeah-" he spoke for the first time in a few minutes. "Yeah, I'd like to be able to hang out and do stuff. That'll be good." He probably didn't have to say out loud that he didn't have a lot of friends. He'd never spoken about anyone, he'd always been here, on his own, or at work. "We could go to the movies or something-" well, they could do anything, the world was very much their oyster.
Vaughn's eyes widened again at the comment that followed, his cheeks flooding with colour, his pulse picking up almost painfully. And even when Mao was laughing, he was still too flustered to react sensibly. Because he might have agreed, or he might have thought it was too much, or- he had no idea. It had been a very long time since he'd been in this kind of situation. Since he'd been attracted to someone and could honestly say it was now more than a physical attraction-
"Uh-" he stammered out. "I- It's been a while since- since I had any friends. Ones I shared a bed with, too. It was okay when you were a cat, when I didn't know that you looked like this." Vaughn stabbed at his noodles and then put them down and picked up some egg rolls. "That's not a bad thing, but- shit, I really liked spending time with you, and then you put all of that together and package it up to look like you and- that's difficult. Do you understand?"
It felt like a break up conversation, the way it was making his insides twist. Mao probably didn't understand; looking like that and the confidence that oozed out of him, he was probably not short of people being attracted to him.
"But I'd like us to hang out. I'd love that, a lot. If you need somewhere to stay then we can sort that out too. I don't think I'd be comfortable sharing a bed with you, though. Because I'm attracted to you-"