It isn't something to push; even Jude knows that. He's waved people away in the past, too keyed up, too bad a smell in the air or a twitch behind his eye that he didn't want to see the other side of. But it isn't something to let go of with a shrug and a nod, either.

"If you want to try anyway, whenever, I don't mind." Eventually the petting hand stays at his hip, resting and not squeezing. "But if you don't, that's alright too."

It's less that something different than that something must be different, but Jude feels largely the same. Things are how they are; sometimes they change, and they stay that kind of same awhile longer. His current mood doesn't much allow for any extreme feeling, on what they do with the rest of the firelight.