The rest of the stargateland drabbles...
...are all John/Cam as well. Even after I ran out of John/Cam prompts, I... kept writing it. 2,607 words.
18- SGA, John Sheppard, snakes on a puddlejumper
There are good days and there are bad days, and then there are days like today, where John closes his eyes for a split-second and wonders why this shit only happens to him.
“Interesting galaxy you’ve got here,” Cam says dryly from the copilot’s seat, and John flips him the finger without opening his eyes, listening as Cam chuckles. “I’m just saying, we never had to deal with this stuff in the Milky Way-”
“That’s because the Milky Way is boring,” John retorts, flinching as something hits the bulkhead doors.
Cam just says, “Snakes, John, in a-”
“Do not,” John cuts him off, “do not finish that sentence, Mitchell.”
Cam grins.
Bastard.
“What are our options?” he asks a few minutes later. The banging is still going on behind the bulkhead doors, and honestly, John has no idea how to answer Cam’s question.
“I think those are the poisonous ones,” he says slowly. “I’m pretty sure, anyway. Seventy percent. Maybe sixty.”
“That’s sixty percent too sure,” Cam decides. “I don’t suppose they’ll leave on their own.”
“Probably not,” John says. “There’s a release up here for the back hatch, so if we take off , open, and tilt, they should just-” He makes a vague sort of flapping motion with his hand. “Slither out.”
John nods, just about to give his buckle-up-and-hang-on speech, when Cam suddenly says, “My jacket.”
“Your jacket,” John repeats. “I think it’s okay to count that as a loss, Cam.”
“No,” Cam replies firmly. “No, we can’t dump it.”
John stares for a minute, wondering if his partner is pulling his leg, but Cam looks absolutely serious. “I’ll get you another one,” he says finally.
“No.”
“You have another one,” John says, throwing his hands up. “What’s so special about this one?”
Cam flushes and won’t meet his eyes.
“Cam?” John asks, a little suspicious, but Cam’s cheeks just get redder and he mumbles something. “Momma will send you another picture, okay, and I thought you kept that in your tac vest anyway-”
“A ring,” Cam says loudly. He’s staring at the mark on the floor from where Zelenka had dropped a datapad at precisely the wrong angle, causing it to short out against the metal. “It’s in the pocket of that jacket, and I’d really rather we not dump it out with the snakes, okay?”
“A ring,” John echoes, sitting back in his seat. “You have - in your jacket-”
“I’ve had it for a while,” Cam says. Apparently now that he’s admitted it, he’ll give all the details, not that John was expecting any different. “More than a while, actually, but I’ve been carrying it with me for a few months now.” He shrugs, smiling a little. “Waiting for the right time, I guess.”
“You got me a ring,” John says slowly. “A while ago. And you were waiting.”
“It was my Granddaddy’s,” Cam adds. “Momma gave me Gramma’s ring when I turned eighteen, told me to give it to my girl when I was ready. When I told her the guy I was seeing probably wouldn’t wear it, she took it back and gave me that one instead.”
“Oh,” John says faintly.
“I’ve wanted to give it to you for a long time,” Cam goes on, more quietly now. “Lately I’ve been thinking that you just might be willing to say yes if I asked.”
“Yes,” John says immediately. “I mean - if you’re asking - of course I’d say-”
“I’m asking,” Cam interrupts, but he’s got a smile on his face now.
“I’m saying yes,” John replies, smiling back, and Cam leans over and kisses him, sweet and sure.
There’s another banging sound from the back of the puddlejumper, but they both ignore it for the time being.
-0-
03- SGA/SG1, John Sheppard &/ Cameron Mitchell, Free
“So how does it work?” John is frowning down at the oven, turning random knobs and pushing buttons. “Actually, scratch that. Does it work at all?”
“It works,” Cam says patiently, turning the knobs back off and batting John’s hands away. “It’s not installed yet. Hard to heat it up without a power source attached.”
“Fair enough,” John says, backing up until he can rest his hips on the opposite counter. “Tell me again why our new oven is older than either of us?”
“It was free,” Cam replies, like he’d said earlier when he was wheeling it in, like he’s said about the microwave and the refrigerator and the laundry machines. “Free is good, John. We like free things.”
“I like free things,” John protests. “Just not free things that look like they’re going to burn down our new house when I try to use them.”
Cam grins, because John’s complaining with words but his tone is full of pride. Our new house. And it is - they spent a combined four months retired before they’d decided they needed something to do, and when Momma had mentioned in a phone call that the Arrenson place was for sale, well, it hadn’t been much of a decision. John had hung up with Momma and started asking Cam specifics about the house, which Cam had tried his best to recall. He’d paused about an hour into the conversation and asked, suddenly sounding unsure, “Is this - do you want to? With me?”
And Cam had kissed him and kissed him and kissed him until John had laughed and pushed him away to find them some plane tickets to Kansas.
So now they’re here, in the kitchen of the house they own, staring their future in the face, and Cam couldn’t be happier. They have to replace all of the appliances, they’ll have to rip up the flooring in two of the bedrooms and the den, and there’s spackling and sanding and painting and finishing to be done everywhere, but John has paint in his hair and a grease smudge on his cheek and a smile in his eyes, and Cam puts his wrench down and pulls John over and kisses him and kisses him and kisses him.
-0-
06- SGA/SG1, John Sheppard/Cameron Mitchell, body switched
“Well,” Cam said, scratching his - John’s - chin. “This is new.”
“It’s not like this hasn’t happened before,” John points out, and it’s weird to hear John’s cadence and John’s words in his own voice, that’s for damn sure. “First year? Second year? Everyone got tossed into each other’s bodies?”
“Ma’chello’s body-swapping thing, right,” Cam agrees. “But there was a way to reverse that. Sam figured it out before things got too messy.”
“They’ll figure this out, too,” John says confidently, and wow, that’s what Cam knows he must sound like when he’s bullshitting someone, cocky and self-assured. “They’ll just, you know, look at the thing we touched. And find the undo.”
“Not everything has control-Z,” Cam says mildly, and it’s something John would say in John’s voice and Cam sees his own face register a quick flash of surprise before John grins.
“I’m rubbing off on you,” he says, a little proudly, and Cam grins back and laughs.
“There’s an idea,” Cam says, and He watches his own eyes darken, his own mouth slip into a smirk he’s sure it’s never worn before.
“You have excellent ideas sometimes,” John informs him, walking over to rest his hands on Cam’s hips. They’ve always been pretty evenly matched; Cam’s more muscular, but John knows how to move his body to take the advantage, and both of those things together means that Cam’s now way outmatched. It’s only a matter of a few seconds before John has him backed up against a wall.
“I could get used to this, actually,” John says thoughtfully, putting one hand on either side of Cam and leaning in. If John were in his own body, he’d be able to wriggle free without an issue, but Cam’s never had to learn that skill.
Not that he minds. Not really.
Not here.
“Yeah, well, I’m sure they’ve almost got it figured out,” Cam replies, settling his hands on John’s waist. “So let’s not waste time, okay?”
“Sounds like a plan,” John agrees as he leans in, and okay, this is new, too.
-0-
09- SG1/SGA, Cameron Mitchell & John Sheppard, Of Lemons & Astrophysicists.
“He really doesn’t like you, you know.”
“I know.”
“It’s the lemon thing.”
“I know.”
“At least I think it’s the lemon thing.”
“It’s probably the lemon thing, John.”
“Right. I mean, what else could it be?”
“I can think of a few things.”
“Seriously, you can think of reasons why my best friend loathes you? There’s more than one possible reason?”
“Well, like you said, there’s the lemon thing-”
“Which I mentioned-”
“-and that you now spend a lot of time with me that he’s used to you spending with him-”
“You think he thinks I forgot about him?”
“-and that there’s something I have with you that he never will.”
“What, honestly?”
“Honestly.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.”
“Well, then.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“Okay.”
-0-
27- SGA, Col John Sheppard, Perfect plans aren't.
“This sucks.”
“That’s astute,” John says dryly, inspecting the inside of the cave they’d managed to find.
“What, you don’t think this sucks?” Cam replies, leaning back against the wall of the cave and staring out the mouth. Torrential rain is pouring down, making it impossible to see more than a few feet beyond.
“It’s maybe not what I had planned,” John admits, completing his investigation of the cave and finding nothing of real interest. “Could be worse.”
“Neither of us have broken limbs,” Cam considers.
“We haven’t been shot at.”
“We still have our guns.”
“Nothing’s tried to eat us.”
“We’re still in our own bodies.”
“There aren’t any bugs,” John adds, not quite shuddering and definitely not looking back towards the darker corner of the cave. “Like I said, it could be worse.”
There’s silence for a while - they don’t talk, at least, but the rain and the thunder do a pretty good job of keeping it from being actually quiet. It’s cold in the cave, but there’s not enough ventilation to build a fire, so John just kind of shivers quietly to himself while looking longingly at his saturated clothing and wishing he’d somehow thought to bring spare BDUs.
“So,” Cam says after a while, “what was the plan for today?”
“The, uh-” John fumbles, wondering wildly why he hadn’t been trying to think of something to tell Cam, a story to weave, because this isn’t how things are supposed to go. This isn’t what he had in mind, and damn it, he’s going to try again. Cam’s not going to fall for just anything, though, and John doesn’t have a good distraction in place. “I don’t suppose you’ll let me get away with saying there wasn’t one?”
Cam grins. “I’ll let it drop if you don’t want to tell me,” he says easily, shrugging his shoulders. And that - that right there, that’s why John is ridiculously in love with this man. Anyone else would have pushed and prodded, wheedled until John told them out of annoyance, but Cam - Cam isn’t that guy. He’s never been that guy, not in any aspect of their relationship. He’s never pushed John past his boundaries in anything, never asked him for more than he could give, and did it all with a smile and a grace that John knew he’d never possess himself.
“It’s about an hour’s hike from here,” John estimates, gesturing north. “There’s this forest, and there are all these trails through it. It’s even terrain, green. Reminded me of the time we went walking behind your parents’ place a few years ago.” He shrugs, kind of self-conscious. Saying it out loud makes it seem a little ridiculous, to be honest.
Cam’s smiling, though, open and happy, looking like he doesn’t think it’s ridiculous at all. “I would have liked to see that.”
“We can try to visit again,” John offers. “When it’s not monsoon season.”
“Sounds good,” Cam agrees. “I miss hiking.”
“Yeah,” John says with a smile. “After the hike - one of the trails we found leads to this overhang. It’s a sheer dropoff - a hundred feet, at least, with a river down below, and you can see out across the valley for miles.”
John falls quiet, smiling a little as he recalls the view, how he’d instantly thought of Cam, how he’d wanted to find a reason to drag him out to see it himself.
“Now I really wish we’d been able to make it out there,” Cam says softly, and John looks up and meets his eyes. Cam is looking at him with the sort of open affection that he has never tried to hide, even when it could have gotten them in trouble. John’s pretty sure he doesn’t know how to, and he hopes that never changes.
“And I was going to give you something,” John says, barely loudly enough to be heard over the storm that doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon.
“Okay,” Cam says in that same soft, even tone. “You still want to, or would you rather wait?”
John undoes one of the flaps on his tac vest and draws out an envelope. It’s a little wrinkled for wear and water, but it’s still intact, and he passes it silently to Cam, who smiles at him before opening the flap and upending it.
A simple gold ring falls out into his outstretched palm, and John feels his stomach twist as Cam breathes out softly and stares at it. “Oh, John.”
“You don’t-” John says after a minute, trying to swallow past the lump in his throat, the burning in his eyes. “I get it if - I just thought that maybe-”
Cam finally looks up, and John’s a little astonished by the look on his face - a little hurt, a little angry, a lot something else entirely that John doesn’t have the time to process before Cam starts to talk. “Don’t finish that sentence,” he says quietly, and then he’s pushing off the wall, moving to crouch in John’s space. He takes John’s hand in his own and presses the ring into John’s palm, then holds his left hand out, fingers apart.
John would swear to anyone else that his fingers don’t shake as he slides the ring onto Cam’s finger, but he knows it’s a lie.
“I have-” He stops, clears his throat, and goes back into the pocket in his vest. There’s another ring there, and he hands it to Cam, who pushes it onto John’s finger without saying anything else. Then he leans in and kisses John, and it’s sweet and tender and almost overflowing with feeling, and John feels the tension in his body dissipate almost all at once as he kisses Cam back.
“I didn’t think you’d ever be ready,” Cam whispers when they break apart, touching his forehead to John’s. Cam’s eyes are closed, and John reaches out, astonished, to wipe away a drop on his face that’s not from the rain outside. “I swore I’d never ask, John, because I thought I’d scare you away with how much I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“That doesn’t scare me,” John says. “Well, the fact that I’ve just chained myself to a guy who worships at the altar of NC State scares me a little, but I guess we all have our flaws-”
“Jackass,” Cam laughs, and then he pulls John in tightly and hugs him like he never wants to let go, and that, that right there - maybe John’s plan turned out well enough after all.
18- SGA, John Sheppard, snakes on a puddlejumper
There are good days and there are bad days, and then there are days like today, where John closes his eyes for a split-second and wonders why this shit only happens to him.
“Interesting galaxy you’ve got here,” Cam says dryly from the copilot’s seat, and John flips him the finger without opening his eyes, listening as Cam chuckles. “I’m just saying, we never had to deal with this stuff in the Milky Way-”
“That’s because the Milky Way is boring,” John retorts, flinching as something hits the bulkhead doors.
Cam just says, “Snakes, John, in a-”
“Do not,” John cuts him off, “do not finish that sentence, Mitchell.”
Cam grins.
Bastard.
“What are our options?” he asks a few minutes later. The banging is still going on behind the bulkhead doors, and honestly, John has no idea how to answer Cam’s question.
“I think those are the poisonous ones,” he says slowly. “I’m pretty sure, anyway. Seventy percent. Maybe sixty.”
“That’s sixty percent too sure,” Cam decides. “I don’t suppose they’ll leave on their own.”
“Probably not,” John says. “There’s a release up here for the back hatch, so if we take off , open, and tilt, they should just-” He makes a vague sort of flapping motion with his hand. “Slither out.”
John nods, just about to give his buckle-up-and-hang-on speech, when Cam suddenly says, “My jacket.”
“Your jacket,” John repeats. “I think it’s okay to count that as a loss, Cam.”
“No,” Cam replies firmly. “No, we can’t dump it.”
John stares for a minute, wondering if his partner is pulling his leg, but Cam looks absolutely serious. “I’ll get you another one,” he says finally.
“No.”
“You have another one,” John says, throwing his hands up. “What’s so special about this one?”
Cam flushes and won’t meet his eyes.
“Cam?” John asks, a little suspicious, but Cam’s cheeks just get redder and he mumbles something. “Momma will send you another picture, okay, and I thought you kept that in your tac vest anyway-”
“A ring,” Cam says loudly. He’s staring at the mark on the floor from where Zelenka had dropped a datapad at precisely the wrong angle, causing it to short out against the metal. “It’s in the pocket of that jacket, and I’d really rather we not dump it out with the snakes, okay?”
“A ring,” John echoes, sitting back in his seat. “You have - in your jacket-”
“I’ve had it for a while,” Cam says. Apparently now that he’s admitted it, he’ll give all the details, not that John was expecting any different. “More than a while, actually, but I’ve been carrying it with me for a few months now.” He shrugs, smiling a little. “Waiting for the right time, I guess.”
“You got me a ring,” John says slowly. “A while ago. And you were waiting.”
“It was my Granddaddy’s,” Cam adds. “Momma gave me Gramma’s ring when I turned eighteen, told me to give it to my girl when I was ready. When I told her the guy I was seeing probably wouldn’t wear it, she took it back and gave me that one instead.”
“Oh,” John says faintly.
“I’ve wanted to give it to you for a long time,” Cam goes on, more quietly now. “Lately I’ve been thinking that you just might be willing to say yes if I asked.”
“Yes,” John says immediately. “I mean - if you’re asking - of course I’d say-”
“I’m asking,” Cam interrupts, but he’s got a smile on his face now.
“I’m saying yes,” John replies, smiling back, and Cam leans over and kisses him, sweet and sure.
There’s another banging sound from the back of the puddlejumper, but they both ignore it for the time being.
-0-
03- SGA/SG1, John Sheppard &/ Cameron Mitchell, Free
“So how does it work?” John is frowning down at the oven, turning random knobs and pushing buttons. “Actually, scratch that. Does it work at all?”
“It works,” Cam says patiently, turning the knobs back off and batting John’s hands away. “It’s not installed yet. Hard to heat it up without a power source attached.”
“Fair enough,” John says, backing up until he can rest his hips on the opposite counter. “Tell me again why our new oven is older than either of us?”
“It was free,” Cam replies, like he’d said earlier when he was wheeling it in, like he’s said about the microwave and the refrigerator and the laundry machines. “Free is good, John. We like free things.”
“I like free things,” John protests. “Just not free things that look like they’re going to burn down our new house when I try to use them.”
Cam grins, because John’s complaining with words but his tone is full of pride. Our new house. And it is - they spent a combined four months retired before they’d decided they needed something to do, and when Momma had mentioned in a phone call that the Arrenson place was for sale, well, it hadn’t been much of a decision. John had hung up with Momma and started asking Cam specifics about the house, which Cam had tried his best to recall. He’d paused about an hour into the conversation and asked, suddenly sounding unsure, “Is this - do you want to? With me?”
And Cam had kissed him and kissed him and kissed him until John had laughed and pushed him away to find them some plane tickets to Kansas.
So now they’re here, in the kitchen of the house they own, staring their future in the face, and Cam couldn’t be happier. They have to replace all of the appliances, they’ll have to rip up the flooring in two of the bedrooms and the den, and there’s spackling and sanding and painting and finishing to be done everywhere, but John has paint in his hair and a grease smudge on his cheek and a smile in his eyes, and Cam puts his wrench down and pulls John over and kisses him and kisses him and kisses him.
-0-
06- SGA/SG1, John Sheppard/Cameron Mitchell, body switched
“Well,” Cam said, scratching his - John’s - chin. “This is new.”
“It’s not like this hasn’t happened before,” John points out, and it’s weird to hear John’s cadence and John’s words in his own voice, that’s for damn sure. “First year? Second year? Everyone got tossed into each other’s bodies?”
“Ma’chello’s body-swapping thing, right,” Cam agrees. “But there was a way to reverse that. Sam figured it out before things got too messy.”
“They’ll figure this out, too,” John says confidently, and wow, that’s what Cam knows he must sound like when he’s bullshitting someone, cocky and self-assured. “They’ll just, you know, look at the thing we touched. And find the undo.”
“Not everything has control-Z,” Cam says mildly, and it’s something John would say in John’s voice and Cam sees his own face register a quick flash of surprise before John grins.
“I’m rubbing off on you,” he says, a little proudly, and Cam grins back and laughs.
“There’s an idea,” Cam says, and He watches his own eyes darken, his own mouth slip into a smirk he’s sure it’s never worn before.
“You have excellent ideas sometimes,” John informs him, walking over to rest his hands on Cam’s hips. They’ve always been pretty evenly matched; Cam’s more muscular, but John knows how to move his body to take the advantage, and both of those things together means that Cam’s now way outmatched. It’s only a matter of a few seconds before John has him backed up against a wall.
“I could get used to this, actually,” John says thoughtfully, putting one hand on either side of Cam and leaning in. If John were in his own body, he’d be able to wriggle free without an issue, but Cam’s never had to learn that skill.
Not that he minds. Not really.
Not here.
“Yeah, well, I’m sure they’ve almost got it figured out,” Cam replies, settling his hands on John’s waist. “So let’s not waste time, okay?”
“Sounds like a plan,” John agrees as he leans in, and okay, this is new, too.
-0-
09- SG1/SGA, Cameron Mitchell & John Sheppard, Of Lemons & Astrophysicists.
“He really doesn’t like you, you know.”
“I know.”
“It’s the lemon thing.”
“I know.”
“At least I think it’s the lemon thing.”
“It’s probably the lemon thing, John.”
“Right. I mean, what else could it be?”
“I can think of a few things.”
“Seriously, you can think of reasons why my best friend loathes you? There’s more than one possible reason?”
“Well, like you said, there’s the lemon thing-”
“Which I mentioned-”
“-and that you now spend a lot of time with me that he’s used to you spending with him-”
“You think he thinks I forgot about him?”
“-and that there’s something I have with you that he never will.”
“What, honestly?”
“Honestly.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.”
“Well, then.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“Okay.”
-0-
27- SGA, Col John Sheppard, Perfect plans aren't.
“This sucks.”
“That’s astute,” John says dryly, inspecting the inside of the cave they’d managed to find.
“What, you don’t think this sucks?” Cam replies, leaning back against the wall of the cave and staring out the mouth. Torrential rain is pouring down, making it impossible to see more than a few feet beyond.
“It’s maybe not what I had planned,” John admits, completing his investigation of the cave and finding nothing of real interest. “Could be worse.”
“Neither of us have broken limbs,” Cam considers.
“We haven’t been shot at.”
“We still have our guns.”
“Nothing’s tried to eat us.”
“We’re still in our own bodies.”
“There aren’t any bugs,” John adds, not quite shuddering and definitely not looking back towards the darker corner of the cave. “Like I said, it could be worse.”
There’s silence for a while - they don’t talk, at least, but the rain and the thunder do a pretty good job of keeping it from being actually quiet. It’s cold in the cave, but there’s not enough ventilation to build a fire, so John just kind of shivers quietly to himself while looking longingly at his saturated clothing and wishing he’d somehow thought to bring spare BDUs.
“So,” Cam says after a while, “what was the plan for today?”
“The, uh-” John fumbles, wondering wildly why he hadn’t been trying to think of something to tell Cam, a story to weave, because this isn’t how things are supposed to go. This isn’t what he had in mind, and damn it, he’s going to try again. Cam’s not going to fall for just anything, though, and John doesn’t have a good distraction in place. “I don’t suppose you’ll let me get away with saying there wasn’t one?”
Cam grins. “I’ll let it drop if you don’t want to tell me,” he says easily, shrugging his shoulders. And that - that right there, that’s why John is ridiculously in love with this man. Anyone else would have pushed and prodded, wheedled until John told them out of annoyance, but Cam - Cam isn’t that guy. He’s never been that guy, not in any aspect of their relationship. He’s never pushed John past his boundaries in anything, never asked him for more than he could give, and did it all with a smile and a grace that John knew he’d never possess himself.
“It’s about an hour’s hike from here,” John estimates, gesturing north. “There’s this forest, and there are all these trails through it. It’s even terrain, green. Reminded me of the time we went walking behind your parents’ place a few years ago.” He shrugs, kind of self-conscious. Saying it out loud makes it seem a little ridiculous, to be honest.
Cam’s smiling, though, open and happy, looking like he doesn’t think it’s ridiculous at all. “I would have liked to see that.”
“We can try to visit again,” John offers. “When it’s not monsoon season.”
“Sounds good,” Cam agrees. “I miss hiking.”
“Yeah,” John says with a smile. “After the hike - one of the trails we found leads to this overhang. It’s a sheer dropoff - a hundred feet, at least, with a river down below, and you can see out across the valley for miles.”
John falls quiet, smiling a little as he recalls the view, how he’d instantly thought of Cam, how he’d wanted to find a reason to drag him out to see it himself.
“Now I really wish we’d been able to make it out there,” Cam says softly, and John looks up and meets his eyes. Cam is looking at him with the sort of open affection that he has never tried to hide, even when it could have gotten them in trouble. John’s pretty sure he doesn’t know how to, and he hopes that never changes.
“And I was going to give you something,” John says, barely loudly enough to be heard over the storm that doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon.
“Okay,” Cam says in that same soft, even tone. “You still want to, or would you rather wait?”
John undoes one of the flaps on his tac vest and draws out an envelope. It’s a little wrinkled for wear and water, but it’s still intact, and he passes it silently to Cam, who smiles at him before opening the flap and upending it.
A simple gold ring falls out into his outstretched palm, and John feels his stomach twist as Cam breathes out softly and stares at it. “Oh, John.”
“You don’t-” John says after a minute, trying to swallow past the lump in his throat, the burning in his eyes. “I get it if - I just thought that maybe-”
Cam finally looks up, and John’s a little astonished by the look on his face - a little hurt, a little angry, a lot something else entirely that John doesn’t have the time to process before Cam starts to talk. “Don’t finish that sentence,” he says quietly, and then he’s pushing off the wall, moving to crouch in John’s space. He takes John’s hand in his own and presses the ring into John’s palm, then holds his left hand out, fingers apart.
John would swear to anyone else that his fingers don’t shake as he slides the ring onto Cam’s finger, but he knows it’s a lie.
“I have-” He stops, clears his throat, and goes back into the pocket in his vest. There’s another ring there, and he hands it to Cam, who pushes it onto John’s finger without saying anything else. Then he leans in and kisses John, and it’s sweet and tender and almost overflowing with feeling, and John feels the tension in his body dissipate almost all at once as he kisses Cam back.
“I didn’t think you’d ever be ready,” Cam whispers when they break apart, touching his forehead to John’s. Cam’s eyes are closed, and John reaches out, astonished, to wipe away a drop on his face that’s not from the rain outside. “I swore I’d never ask, John, because I thought I’d scare you away with how much I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“That doesn’t scare me,” John says. “Well, the fact that I’ve just chained myself to a guy who worships at the altar of NC State scares me a little, but I guess we all have our flaws-”
“Jackass,” Cam laughs, and then he pulls John in tightly and hugs him like he never wants to let go, and that, that right there - maybe John’s plan turned out well enough after all.