T H A N K S ,  S K I P

Finn cursed as he chased after his dog, hoping to drag Skip back before he made it all the way into his new neighbor's yard and inevitably destroyed something. But unfortunately, Finn had no such luck. Finn was not a lucky person.

"Hey, wait!" Finn half-yelled, half-whispered as the idiot he called Skip bounded through the neighbor's flower bed and into the driveway. But he didn't just stop in the driveway, of course, because that would have been too easy. Skip certainly did not exist to make Finn's life easy. Instead, muddy paws and all, Skip leapt up into the back of the neighbor's moving truck.

A muffled yelp of surprise made Finn cringe and regret nearly all of his life choices, but he forged ahead anyway, yelling an exasperated "Come on, Skip!" for good measure before poking his head cautiously around the truck.

His eyes immediately found Skip wagging his tail—so hard that his fluffy doggy rump shook with it, in fact—at a man, who, despite his best efforts, was having a difficult time keeping Skip in all his muddy glory off of his furniture. Which made Finn feel even worse, because he had to admit that it was some really nice furniture.

"I'm so sorry," Finn gushed, still mostly out of breath. He jumped up into the truck and rushed forward so he could get his arms around Skip and drag him backwards. "I tried to keep him away, I swear, but he just ran off and I—"

"It's okay," the man interrupted, chuckling a little bit. When Finn met his gaze, his eyes twinkled with amusement. "He didn't get anything dirty besides the floor of the truck, and I could use a break anyway. I've been working for hours."

"Right," Finn said uncertainly, glancing over the man. He was fairly normal, Finn gathered at first glance—not skinny, but not fat either; not super muscular, but fit enough that Finn could tell he worked out occasionally; not too short and not too tall; brown hair and brown eyes to match.

In fact, the only thing about him that Finn wouldn't call normal was the splash of freckles across his cheek. Cheek as in one cheek, not both cheeks. The man's right cheek, not his left. Finn found himself wondering if that was even possible—it could be a birthmark, perhaps—but decided that it would be quite rude to ask about it when he didn't even know the man's name.

"I'm Colin," the man said as if he just read Finn's mind. "I just moved here from Canada. It's been a long and hectic weekend, so thanks for the distraction. Seriously. Your dog—Skip, was it? He's absolutely adorable."

"I'm Finn. And thanks," Finn replied with a grin. "Need any help? I have nothing better to do at the moment besides scolding my idiot of a dog."

"If you're willing to help, that'd be great," Colin admitted. "The only stuff that's left is stuff that I'd have a hard time moving alone, anyway."

"Sure thing! Let me go put Skip back inside so he doesn't cause any more trouble and then I'll come back and help."

~/~/~/~/~

Finn ended up inviting Colin over for dinner because Colin was tired after working and enjoyed Skip's company. And because Finn didn't want Colin to have to cook for himself. Finn definitely did not invite Colin over because he thought Colin was cute and hot at the same time and had really pretty freckles on his right cheek and his right cheek only.

Despite having invited Colin over for a dinner and evening that was specifically supposed to be relaxing, Finn was nervous. He wanted to make a good first impression because Colin seemed like a really nice guy to be friends with. He was almost freakishly polite, but not in a pompous, condescending way. And he was also really funny. Finn liked people who had a sense of humor.

Finn had barely wrestled his clothes on after his shower when the doorbell rang, chiming three times before going silent. A strange silence, too—and then Finn realized that Skip wasn't barking.

"Coming!" he yelled worriedly, taking one last look in the mirror and running his hand through his hair before rushing out of the bathroom and to the door.

"Your dog decided to come pick me up early for dinner," Colin commented wryly upon seeing Finn's concerned look. And indeed he had—Skip sat next to Colin, his chest puffed out and his head held high. His tail wagged frantically as if to say, I did well, didn't I? Shower me with the praise I deserve, peasant. Finn just laughed and ushered Colin inside.

"I haven't really started cooking yet," he told Colin apologetically as they walked into the kitchen. "Sorry. Skip decided to be your escort half an hour too early. But since you're here, I might as well ask: What are you in the mood for?"

"Options?" Colin asked tentatively. "I'm not allergic to any foods or anything, so you don't have to worry about that at all."

Finn paused to think for a moment and tapped his finger against his chin, not noticing the way that Colin's eyes were inexplicably drawn to the subtle motion. "I can grill some meat, make some potato salad, or both, or make a stir fry?"

"Stir fry sounds good," Colin decided, reluctantly forcing his eyes away from Finn's face. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Nope. You're the guest, so you can't do anything," Finn chided with a frown. "Just come sit at the counter and take a break. Can I get you anything? Water? Milk? Beer?"

"Ice water would be nice. Thanks."

"One ice water, coming right up," Finn joked. "Here you go, good sir!"

"Thank you very much," Colin said with a grin. "Now, tell me a little bit about yourself? All I know about you is that your name is Finn and you have a dog named Skip."

"Well," Finn said as he got the ingredients out of his fridge, "My full name is Finn Ortiz—my dad's side of the family is from El Salvador—but all I can say is hola and adios, and I can't even say those with a proper accent, so I sound like an idiot."

Colin smirked with amusement. "Go on," he encouraged.

"I was born in El Salvador, but I moved here when I was two, so I don't remember it at all. Went to school here, including college. I work as an assistant professor in the linguistics department now, down at the local college. It's a really fun job. I love the kids and I love linguistics, so it's a pretty great combination."

"That does sound pretty ideal," Colin agreed, taking a sip of his ice water. "And dang, you're a professor? You look really young. No offense or anything."

Finn smirked. "None taken. I'm thirty-two, though, so I am on the lower end of the age range. Most of my colleagues are in their fifties, at least. Some are much older. Anyway, what do you do? Did you move here for a job?"

"Yeah. I finished up my PhD a few years ago, and I moved out here to get a job in engineering. I'm working in aerospace."

With a hum of acknowledgement, Finn swept the sliced vegetables and meat from a cutting board into the pan on the stove, and a sizzling sound immediately filled the kitchen. "That's pretty amazing, too. I've always been fascinated by engineering and physical science, but I'd never want to study it full time. Too much complicated math."

"To each his own," Colin said, shrugging and taking another sip of his water. Not that Finn noticed how attractive he looked when he swallowed or anything. Not at all.

"Did you grow up in Canada?" Finn asked, partly out of curiosity and partly out of a need to distract himself from the feelings that he was trying to convince himself didn't exist. "Or did you just go there for cheaper college?"

"I grew up in Quebec, which was great because I'm fluent in English and French now. Not that French is super useful around here, but it's still nice to know it."

"That's really cool!" Finn agreed enthusiastically. "I wish I was fluent in French, even if it's just for the bragging rights. And now dinner's ready! Here."

He took two plates out of the cupboard, grabbed the pan from the stove, and carried everything outside to the table on the back porch. Colin followed hesitantly, and after some coaxing, he finally agreed to sit at the table while Finn rushed back inside to grab some silverware and napkins.

Dinner went nicely, much to Finn's pleasant surprise. It only got awkward twice—once, when Colin caught Finn starting at him for too long to be socially acceptable, and another time when Finn caught Colin doing the same thing. But other than that, everything went perfectly.

When it was finally time for Colin to head back to his house and do some last-minute unpacking before bed, Finn showed him to the door with a giddy smile. He didn't exactly realize how foolishly big his own smile was or what the implications of Colin's matching smile were, but they both knew that they definitely enjoyed each other's company.

~/~/~/~/~

Finn cursed as he chased after his dog, hoping to drag Skip back before he made it all the way Colin's yard and inevitably destroyed something. But unfortunately, Finn had no such luck. Finn was not a lucky person. Although this time, Finn wasn't quite as upset about Skip's untimely escapades. It gave him an excuse to see Colin, after all.

"Hey, Colin!" Finn shouted breathlessly. "Incoming!"

Colin paused whatever yard work he had been doing—oops, was that the flower bed that Skip had trampled two days ago?—and turned his head just in time for Skip to plant a slobbery kiss on his forehead. Colin groaned.

"Gross," he commented, reaching his hand up to try and wipe the drool off his face.

"Wait," Finn called out again. "I have tissues in my pocket. You don't need to use your sleeve." He jogged over, but instead of just handing Colin the tissues like any other sane person would have done, Finn took one of the tissues in his hand and started wiping Colin's face himself.

Surprisingly, Colin didn't protest, kneeling silently and allowing Finn to basically caress his face—sure, there was a tissue in between his hand, but it was basically caressing, right? Colin thought so. Or his reddening cheeks and ears did, at least.

To Colin, it didn't seem like Finn had noticed his embarrassment, but truthfully, Finn had noticed a little. Okay, a lot. He couldn't help it, exactly; his eyes seemed drawn to whatever Colin did, or in this case, whatever Colin didn't do—move away, that is—and seeing Colin's blushing face made Finn's stomach do weird flips.

So what if he was acting like a middle schooler with a crush? Colin was cute. Sue him.

Finn made sure to wipe away a few pretend drops of drool on Colin's cheeks to see if Colin would blush any more—he did—before pulling away. "There!" he exclaimed triumphantly, pretending nothing had happened. "All done!"

"Great, thanks," Colin replied, also trying to sound like nothing had happened. However, he wasn't quite as successful as Finn, and while that made him embarrassed, it made Finn want to squeal. And smother him in kisses. But Finn didn't really want to do that, not yet at least, because he didn't want to make Colin uncomfortable.

"Do you have any plans for later?" Finn asked instead. "I thought I could show you around town a little bit if you're free."

"I have to go in to work for a while," said Colin with a frown. "They want to give me a tour. I'm sorry. How about Saturday?"

"Saturday sounds good," Finn agreed, even though that was three days from now and very much not good. "See you then!"

~/~/~/~/~

When Colin got home from work on Friday night, he unlocked his front door to find a very proud Skip sitting in his hallway. As soon he stepped inside, Skip started to bark enthusiastically and turn around in circles.

"Hey buddy," Colin mumbled to Skip, giving him a pat on the head. "Thanks for greeting me. It's been kind of a rough day. How'd you get in here, anyway?"

Skip didn't answer, of course, but just wagged his tail and perked up his ears in the most adorable way. Colin decided that he could steal Skip for a ten minute snuggle before going over and returning him to Finn. What was the harm in that?

So, setting his work bag down in the hallway and kicking off his shoes, Colin sat down on the floor and pulled Skip down next to him. Skip was no longer quite the bundle of energy that he had been a few minutes prior, instead laying calmly on his back and presenting himself for a belly rub. He didn't even get up when Finn started shouting for him in the distance, though his ears did perk up a little. How he could be such a good dog at some times and such a troublemaker at other times honestly puzzled Colin a bit, but he was still thankful.

"Skip!" Colin heard Finn shout over and over again, his voice coming ever closer. Colin saw Finn before Finn saw him, and the puzzled frown that Finn made when he noticed Colin's open front door made Colin chuckle because it was just an adorable cross between exasperation and amusement.

"He's here," Colin called, waving Finn over. Finn brightened immediately upon seeing Colin, and Colin's heart leapt a little with hope because maybe, just maybe that meant that Finn liked Colin as much as Colin liked Finn.

"Thanks." Finn walked in the door, gingerly stepping over Colin and Skip, and plopped down on Colin's left. "Stealing my dog, are we?"

Colin shrugged. "It's not my fault that your dog was inside my locked house after I got home from being at work."

"Oh, jeez," Finn said with an incredulous laugh. "I wonder how long he was in there. I didn't realize he was missing until about ten minutes ago, but I also hadn't seen him for a while before that. Hours, now that I think about it. Yikes."

"It's fine. It was nice coming home to someone, anyway, even if that someone was just a dog."

Finn studied Colin's face in concern for a few seconds before asking, "Rough day at work?"

"You could say that, yeah. Not work specifically. I'm just a little homesick, I guess."

"Yeah, I get that," said Finn with a thoughtful nod, and then he brightened. "Hey, I have an idea! You're going to come with me tonight into town and make some friends."

"Um," Colin said intelligently, "I am?"

Finn nodded. "Indeed you are. I'm meeting some of my friends for dinner tonight, and you're coming. I'm going to run back over with Skip and get changed. Be ready in ten, okay?"

~/~/~/~/~

To say that Colin was nervous to meet Finn's friends would definitely be an understatement. But Finn had turned on the radio to a music station and was singing comically along to all the songs, making Colin laugh, and Colin decided that if Finn's friends were anything like Finn, they couldn't be that bad.

"Oh, I love this song!" Finn exclaimed, and suddenly his horrible-on-purpose singing turned to genuine singing, and the most surprising thing to Colin was that he was actually good. Like, really good. So good that Colin didn't realize he had such an obvious awe-stricken expression on his face until Finn turned to him after the song finished and asked, "Like what you hear?" with a huge smirk on his face.

"Yeah," Colin breathed. "Wow. That was amazing."

"Thanks," Finn said bashfully, his smirk suddenly replaced by a shy smile. "I've never actually sang seriously for anyone before. I've always been too scared. I just pretend to be horrible so that people laugh and don't ask me to actually try."

Colin shook his head. "You're amazing, seriously. You should sing more often. For me, even if you don't sing for anybody else."

"I can do that, I suppose." Finn's words sounded reluctant, but Colin could tell that he was biting back an ecstatic smile.

A comfortable silence fell over the car, and Colin took the opportunity to study Finn more closely. Finn had expressive eyes, Colin noticed. Because while the rest of Finn looked calm and composed, his eyes were shining with barely contained excitement. But Colin also liked Finn's eyes because they were a marvelous shade of gray, mischievous and playful and perfect.

Colin quietly pinched his own arm to stop himself from getting any sappier. The last time he'd been this sappy was in high school when he'd had a crush on a guy that was in a few of his classes. A guy who had probably never even known that Colin existed. Which, frankly, was probably for the best. Even Colin himself had to acknowledge that he was a pretty cringey teenager. He was not fun to be around in general, much less date.

"Ready?" Finn asked, and it was only then that Colin realized the car was already parked in front of a diner, turned off.

"Yeah," Colin replied, because he couldn't very well tell Finn that no, he wasn't ready at all because he'd been too busy thinking about Finn's eyes to mentally prepare himself.

"Let's go then!" Finn hopped eagerly out of the car and shut the door, Colin doing the same but lacking the eager energy. The car beeped twice as Finn locked it, and then Finn trotted happily over to the door, beckoning for Colin to follow.

"Finn!" Colin heard someone yell as soon as they walked in the door. "Over here!"

"Kaylah!" Finn replied at a volume that made Colin uncomfortable because it wasn't quite quiet enough socially acceptable. Especially in the already relatively quiet diner. "Hey!"

Colin found himself being dragged over to a booth in the corner, and four unfamiliar faces—three girls and one guy—stared up at him. They didn't look unfriendly, but as friendly as Colin was, he was never one for meeting new people. Especially multiple all at once.

"Hey Finn, are you going to introduce us or what?" one of the girls asked. "We're waiting..."

Finn cleared his throat. "Sorry. Y'all, this is Colin! He's my new neighbor. Colin, these are my friends from college."

"You're supposed to give names, idiot," the same girl chided. She raised her hand enough to give Colin a little wave. "I'm Kaylah. Nice to meet you!"

"Hey Colin, I'm Ryan!"

"Samantha, but just call me Sam. Nice to meet you!"

"Cora. Hello!"

"Hi," Colin replied, still a little unsure of himself. He wanted to sit but he didn't know where, so he looked at Finn helplessly.

Finn opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Kaylah moved closer to the girl next to her—Cora, he thought—and patted the empty space next to her. "Come sit, Colin!"

"Hey," Ryan protested. "He should sit next to me! I want another guy to sit with for once."

"Nope," Kaylah said, tugging Colin down into the space next to her. "You can have Finn. Finn's a guy, you know."

"He doesn't count," Ryan retorted.

Finn scowled. "Hey, dude, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing," said Ryan smugly, and Colin found himself smiling at their banter. He also found himself smiling because he couldn't help but notice that Finn had called Ryan dude, but Finn had never called Colin that. Maybe there was hope, after all.

"Hey," Kaylah whispered, tugging sharply on Colin's elbow. "I just thought you might like to know that you're being really obvious. Like, really obvious."

Colin swallowed nervously. "Obvious about what?" he asked, hoping to deflect the question, but the second he spoke, Kaylah rolled her eyes.

"You like him. Duh. Try not to stare so much. But don't worry. You're, like, the only thing he talks about anymore. Well, since Wednesday, anyway. He's obsessed with your freckles. And you in general—he likes you, too, you know. But especially your freckles. He's always talking about your freckles."

"Oh," Colin choked out, his mouth hanging slightly open and his cheeks staining red. "Really?"

"Really what?" Finn asked curiously, leaning forward.

"Close your mouth, idiot," Kaylah hissed to Colin before turning to Finn. "I was just telling him about the stupid crap we did in college. Remember that one time we decided it would be a good idea to go skinny dipping in the indoor swimming pool in the middle of the day?"

Finn scowled and shuddered. "We agreed to never talk about that ever again."

Kaylah held up a finger and pointed it at Finn. "Correction: you agreed to never talk about it again. I didn't say a thing."

"Kaylah," he whined. "Really?"

Colin suddenly found himself laughing. "Really, Finn, that's not even embarrassing."

Finn shot him a daring look. "That sounds like a sentence that comes with a story."

"A story for another time, yeah," Colin said, waving his hand flippantly.

"I'll make you tell me later," Finn promised, an evil smile on his face. But before he could question Colin any further, the food came, and Colin had never been more relieved.

~/~/~/~/~

The next morning at 3:38 A.M., Colin woke up to incessant barking outside his window. And when Colin glanced at the window, he saw Skip's head poking up over the windowsill.

With a groan, Colin hoisted himself out of bed, slipped on a pair of sneakers, and stumbled to the front door. Seconds after opening it, Skip came shooting around the corner, still barking. He ran towards Finn's house and then back to Colin, nudging him forward.

Even though Skip was an energetic dog, he had never acted like this before, and it was starting to scare Colin a little. Especially because it was practically the middle of the night. What if something was wrong with Finn? So he sprinted over to Finn's house, Skip following closely on his heels.

The front door was locked—how Skip had gotten out, Colin figured he'd never know—but Finn had told Colin the location of his spare key just the day before, and Colin was able to think straight enough to lift up the doormat and grab the key.

The house was quiet, and Colin tried to retain some hope that Finn was just asleep, but that hope was quickly dashed when Skip led Colin to the bathroom and he found Finn unconscious on the floor. He had a rash covering his face, an unused EpiPen by his side.

Colin had never used an actual EpiPen before, but he'd gotten trained not too long ago for work, so he wasn't completely hopeless. Still, he had to read the instructions on the pen to make sure he was doing everything right, and once he'd stabbed Finn—stabbed sounded a bit violent, but he didn't know what else to call it—he pulled out his phone and dialed 911.

The operator was calm and composed and everything Colin was not. Could he tell her the address? Yes, he could do that. Could he tell her what happened? Yes, he could do that too, though he wasn't completely sure. Did he know how long Finn had been unconscious? No, he didn't. Probably not long, or Skip would have come earlier. Was Finn still breathing? Colin didn't know. He hadn't checked. There hadn't been time. Could he check and answer with a yes or a no? Yes, he could check. Yes, Finn was still breathing. Kind of. Not enough, but he was still breathing.

Colin reached for Finn's hand and grasped it tightly, muttering incomprehensible words of comfort, though the words were as much for his own benefit as they were for Finn's, since Colin was absolutely terrified out of his mind and had nobody else there to tell him what to do. Nobody besides Skip, that is, who had now cautiously approached Colin and rested his chin in his lap.

It wasn't long before Colin heard a woman call out from the front door, and Colin yelled at them to just come upstairs already and help Finn, for goodness' sake, before he died. They didn't seem put off by his attitude, though, and gently but firmly ordered him to get out of the way so that they could reach him.

Colin paced around helplessly as they placed him on a stretcher, lifted him up, and carried him down the steps to the ambulance in the driveway. He closed and locked the front door before running out and begging to be able to ride with Finn in the ambulance—there was nobody else to go with him, anyway, so it's not like they were short on space or anything—but they just told him to bring his car, promising him that Finn would be completely fine.

Colin half-sulked and half-panicked all the way to the hospital, driving much too far over the speed limit to be legal but not so far over that it was unnecessarily dangerous. Because in Colin's mind, not getting to the hospital fast enough was more dangerous than driving forty-five miles per hour in a thirty miles per hour speed zone.

Throwing his car in the closest available parking spot, Colin practically flew out of the car and towards the hospital entrance so quickly that he nearly forgot to lock the car behind him. He sprinted up to the front desk and politely demanded that the receptionist tell him where Finn was, something the man did readily. Probably not because he was actually thrilled to tell Colin where to go but rather because he wanted the panicking man to leave. But Colin didn't care how annoying he was being as long as he figured out where to find Finn.

Colin speed-walked just slow enough down the hall to abide by the no-running-in-the-hallways rule, down another hall, into the elevator, and even in the elevator—though that was more like pacing rather than speed-walking—and down another hall, where he finally found the room.

After receiving no answer after knocking on the door, he decided that it'd be better to ask for forgiveness later than ask now and not be able to see Finn because of stupid visiting hour restrictions or whatever, so he quietly opened the door and slipped inside.

The rash on Finn's face had largely disappeared, though his cheeks were still obviously swollen. He had a bunch of contraptions hooked up to his body, but the only ones that Colin recognized were the IV drip and the breathing mask. It just made Colin all the more scared. Because if Finn was going to be completely fine, as they'd told him, then why did he need all this stuff?

Finn remained unconscious, though, so Colin sat heavily down in one of the plastic chairs and pulled out his phone to call Kaylah.

"You need to go over to Finn's house and feed Skip breakfast" was the first thing that came out of Colin's mouth when Kaylah picked up on the fourth ring with a grunt.

"You called me at four thirty in the morning for that?" Kaylah groaned. "Why? Is something wrong? Did something happen?"

"Finn and I are at the hospital. Well, Finn doesn't really know he's at the hospital because he's unconscious, but I guess that doesn't really change the fact that he's at the hospital, so yeah. We're at the hospital. He's fine though, apparently."

Kaylah swore under her breath. "What happened?"

"I don't even know," Colin admitted with an incredulous laugh. "Skip woke me up at three thirty-eight by barking outside my window and led me over to Finn's house—thank god Finn told me where his spare key was—and Finn was laying, passed out, on the floor of his bathroom, and I had to freaking stab him with an EpiPen and then call an ambulance and—and—I held his hand until the paramedics came and now I just really want to hug him and I'm freaking out—"

"It's okay," Kaylah soothed. "Breathe, Colin. I'll go over and feed Skip, grab you some breakfast, and meet you at the hospital, okay?"

"Okay," Colin croaked. "Thanks."

~/~/~/~/~

Finn woke up an hour and a half later, a curse and a blessing at the same time. A curse because Colin just really wanted to know that Finn was okay and it had taken far too long for that to happen, but a blessing because it gave Colin time to compose himself so he wouldn't be a sobbing mess in front of Finn, who was probably already terrified himself.

Colin hadn't even noticed that Finn was awake until he heard a whispered "hey" that made him jump in his chair.

"Finn!" was all that Colin could say before jumping up and wrapping his arms around said person.

"Colin," Finn said back, a small smile on his face. "Or, should I say, Colin!"

"Shut up," Colin mumbled, the tips of his ears going red. "Stop making fun of me. My voice wasn't that high or squeaky."

"Was too."

"Was not." Colin cleared his throat. "But anyway, Finn, what happened? When I found you, you were just..."

Finn brought his hand up to brush his knuckles over Colin's cheek. Colin's skin felt like it was on fire wherever Finn's hand touched. "I'm not sure. Allergic reaction to something, but I'm not sure what. I just woke up and I couldn't breathe. I managed to get to the bathroom and take out the EpiPen, but I must have passed out before I could use it, I guess. Thank you, Colin."

Colin let out a sigh, leaning into Finn's touch. "Thank your dog. He came and barked outside of my window until I got up."

"Thank you both, then."

The door handle turned, and both Colin and Finn looked to see Kaylah poke her head in the door. "Finn!" she shrieked. "You're awake! I brought—" She paused, her eyes drifting over Finn's hand still resting against Colin's cheek. "Oh, good. You're finally doing something. You have ten minutes to kiss as much as you want, and then I'm coming back with snacks, okay?" And then she was gone.

Colin's face immediately caught fire, which was no surprise to either of them, but Finn's face was also a dark shade of pink, which made Colin swoon. Because Finn was much better at hiding his emotions than Colin. And likewise, because Colin was Colin, he didn't say anything, so Finn was the first one to break the silence.

"I suppose we might as well? Do what Kaylah said, I mean. Um, kiss, I mean. Unless you—"

"You're making this awkward," Colin groaned, finding a dose of courage in Finn's shyness. "Just come here, you big idiot."

Finn leaned in and Colin met him halfway, and then they were actually kissing. Colin let out an involuntary moan, not because the kiss was particularly urgent and sexual but because he had wanted this ever since he met Finn, and Finn seemed to understand because he hummed against Colin's lips.

When they pulled away—Colin made them separate because he had found Finn almost not breathing a few hours ago and was still terrified of making him breathless—both Colin and Finn shared a grin so wide that their cheeks hurt.

"Have I ever told you that I love your freckles?" Finn wondered aloud. "Because if I haven't, now I have."

"You didn't tell me, but Kaylah did."

Finn froze, his eyes widening. "What?"

"Last night. She told me last night at dinner that apparently you couldn't stop talking about my freckles."

"Dang it, Kaylah," Finn groaned, covering his face with his hands. "That's kind of embarrassing. No, that's really embarrassing. I can't believe she betrayed me like that."

"It's kind of cute to be honest," Colin said, trying to cheer Finn up. "If it makes you feel any better, I've been obsessing over your eyes for a while. That's also kind of embarrassing."

"My eyes, huh?"

"Don't say it again, Finn." Colin paused. "Finny."

Finn furrowed his brow. "Excuse me?"

"Finny," Colin repeated. "I think I'll call you Finny."

"Okay, Coliny."

"It doesn't work like that," Colin teased with a laugh. "Hey, Finny?"

"Yeah?"

"I like you. A lot."

"Good. I'd hope so, because I was thinking about asking you to be my boyfriend, but that wouldn't have worked very well if you didn't."

"Well, you're in luck, then, Finny."

Colin's grin was contagious, and when Kaylah finally came back in the room—ten minutes, just like she'd promised—she found the two of them just sitting there and grinning at each other like fools. Fools, but some of the happiest fools she'd ever seen.