"I'll talk to you like an adult when you start behaving like one." Jack went back to scrubbing his back, making sure to be extra thorough and happily taking his time. He paused, however, when he felt John's fingers in his hair, and closed his eyes with a sigh. This was why John was poison. He rested his forehead against John's shoulder, enjoying the rare tender touch.

"That's all I wanted from you," he said. "An apology. I shouldn't have to be there to stop you from doing things like that... I can't always be, and I worry that if I'm not, then something bad might happen and it might happen to you." The thought alone could have killed him. He wrapped his arms around John's waist and pulled him in for a hug.

"Thank you. For your effort, I mean..." He frowned and placed an affectionate kiss behind John's ear. "You're hard to figure out sometimes."