His own body is starting to relax as well, muscles not so rigid beneath where their hands rest, and the slight caress makes him twitch but not move. Just startled, still so easily startled.

When Connor speaks, John turns to look at him - rather like he's grown another head. Is that really what Connor thinks?

"Connor, you're not my best friend." And again he leads with a negative. He needs to learn the trick of this whole easing someone's mind thing. "You're - I don't even know what the hell you are, but you're way more than that. Both of you. Never mind staying in the house, I left my whole world behind. My kind. You -"

He just ends up staring into Connor's eyes, his own flicking back and forth as he tries to make his meaning known without words, because he can't speak the ones Connor has quite so easily. It slipped out with Euri, and he didn't know it was true until it was both said and said back. Besides, he can't conceptualize a love like this, considering he never knew any sort of love until romantic came along. All the other facets of it are foreign to him.