Eventually they arrive! It's a smallish house, but pretty and well taken care of.

"Welco—nope that might count as an invitation, uh."

"… Well we can try it and see if that does count as an invitation slash I don't have an invitation limit, then we can see if I can, I dunno, sneak into Matt's place?" Pause. "Sneak as in without his parents knowing, not as in like, through a window or something."

"Right, okay."

He opens his door and steps out of the way.

Matt waits patiently.

Theo looks at the door, then at Matt! Perhaps Matt should go first.

Matt is: slightly confused! Indicates that Theo should go first.

"...there's no reason for Matt to go first."

"… No? But there's no reason for him not to." Pause. "I'll just go first, then."

So he looks at the door and walks that way. Somewhat slowly.

Waits.

Theo gets closer to the door! Slows down. Looks at the door and frowns a bit.

"That's a no, then."

He frowns. "So half a welcome doesn't actually– count."

He takes another few steps towards the door, then stops. And tries taking another step, but can't quite bring himself to do it.

"Well that's– weird," says Matt. "You okay?"

"Yeah?" he tries.

Sideways works mostly okay. Lifting his leg works fine. But walking forwards is– nope.

"What's it feel like?"

"Sort of– um." Pause. "Just a moment."

He tries leaning forwards, which is a no, then sees if he'd be able to jump in the direction of the door – also a no – and then sort of hops around on the spot a bit.

He stops. "It's. Hard to verbalize but sort of– can't or don't want to or really shouldn't go closer than this, and it was like that but less so further back, and I am sort of nervous about getting closer because it feels like it would be wrong?"

"… I'm curious what happens if one of us pulls you closer," says Matt. "Probably me because it might be an invitation if Sadde does it."

Theo shudders a little. Very briefly.

"Science or no science?"

He looks between himself and the door a bit more, then says, "Science."

Well okay then! Matt can go the other side of Theo and – unless Sadde would like to suggest something else – will try pulling Theo closer to the door!

Sadde has no suggestions.

So Matt pulls Theo.