Title: Yield

Author: wildwordwomyn

Word Count: 298

Fandom/Pairing: Person of Interest pre-slash drabble starring John Reese and Harold Finch

Rating: PG

Author's Notes: I gave myself a word prompt: "yield". This is what came out of it.

Disclaimers/Warnings: No spoilers. Not real. No own. Read at your own risk.

Summary: Being an operative means keeping control of a situation...

Being an operative means keeping control of a situation. Even when it gets out of control, you adapt, acclimate. You have to be willing to or you're dead. If Stanton and Snow taught John anything, it's figuring out when to take and when to give. Of course, in the field John's training made it possible. Out there he knew how to act and react.

Harold Finch is no operative. Yet the man has this remarkable gift for constantly catching him off-guard. A certain quirk of his eyebrow, a smile, a tightening of his mouth, his shoulders relaxing ever-so-slightly at his hand, and John finds himself at a loss. He's been in love before. He remembers how it feels. The exhilarating rush of it, the desire and intensity stealing his breath away. The instant need.

What's happening now is something wholly different. Finch is not a target. Not an asset nor his handler. At least not technically. Hell, he's not sure they can be considered friends. But he finds himself giving into the man more often the longer they work together. It doesn't bother him as much any more that he has yet to learn all his secrets. He can't help believing that he will, that Finch will eventually trust him. For now he sits in the library, listening to the soft clack of the older man's fingertips on the keyboard as he works his magic gathering intel on another number. Finch is within easy reach. Four steps, maybe three given the right amount of determination. The room is filled by a warmth he thought he'd never be lucky enough to experience twice, a quiet comfort both soothing and scary, and it makes John realize he didn't have much choice this time either. Once again he's learning to yield.

The End