Safety
Love is a home
Sydney and TJ represented safety to one another.
For Sydney, TJ represented the safety of of a hug to cry on, where the macho otter went to die. Someone who loved him unconditionally, where his family and even sometimes their mutual friends (barring Flynn, ever loyal) failed to love. He could write him poems, he could be gentle. Even a wrestler needs solace from muscle aches, even a pirate needs a land to shore.
For TJ, Sydney represented the safety to explore. A controlled environment where politics, religion, philosophy and sexuality could be explored, without judgement and without extremes. A gentle lover pushing the boundaries so slightly, a fellow theologian willing to explore the divine without blasphemy. Even a blanket needs sharp edges, even a sun needs a shadow, provided the former aren't too sharp and the latter too dark.
Overall, they found solace and kindness in one another. An ebb and flow of tides, ever mindful and every loving, where boundaries were like the shores of a lake: visible but blurry, as the sediment becomes water and water becomes land.