You take me with you?

The memory stings, of Co's soft, hopeful longing and quiet joy…but this is so different. Here, John feels as if he’s the one asking for more than he can hope to have…

He wonders how the universe will make him pay for it.

Not with him. Never him.

John shuts his eyes and makes an oath of it, twisting his head to return that gentle kiss to his temple with one just as soft, but a little more fierce. The kind of kiss he wished he could have shared with Delmar the night he let John down so gently and without judgment, giving him instead a friendship that almost meant more than the crush he’d had on the big, beautiful moron…

He won’t let the universe use this generous and gentle man to punish him.

“…yeah.”

So he lets Finnick go. He follows once a room is secured, lets himself be led up and into the room…

…and once the door is shut, John can’t resist pulling Finnick in, close, hands slowly coming to rest on his hips as he kisses him again.

Slow, deep, and far less shy, greedy to see what other sounds he can get out of him.