Tom is, sadly...second place to Jake. The reason Marco wants to save Tom more than you're average host isn't because of Tom, it's because Tom's Jake's brother.
When faced with just Tom though, he'll act like Tom's just an average guy, but he definitely won't let his guard down. Until such time as Iniss has his own boy, Marco's gonna keep being damn careful about what he says - so it kinda puts a major dampener on Marco getting to know Tom again. Tom also reminds Marco a lot of some of the other former hosts he'd seen post-war, which is why he thinks that all the people going on about how "oh, it should be Tom's choice" are idiots; he thinks Iniss is never going to let Tom get to the point where he can actually make his own decisions as long as he's still infesting Tom. He's kinda waiting, really, until Tom is completely and definitely free, before even letting himself get at all close to Tom.
Re: Marco
When faced with just Tom though, he'll act like Tom's just an average guy, but he definitely won't let his guard down. Until such time as Iniss has his own boy, Marco's gonna keep being damn careful about what he says - so it kinda puts a major dampener on Marco getting to know Tom again. Tom also reminds Marco a lot of some of the other former hosts he'd seen post-war, which is why he thinks that all the people going on about how "oh, it should be Tom's choice" are idiots; he thinks Iniss is never going to let Tom get to the point where he can actually make his own decisions as long as he's still infesting Tom. He's kinda waiting, really, until Tom is completely and definitely free, before even letting himself get at all close to Tom.