Unaware of John's own consternation, Gustav wiggles in response to Scotty's barking and rushing towards him, barking his own greeting and hopping excitedly in place and feeling very irked as to the fact that John has him on a leash just now and he is thus not able to simply bound around and play.

John, on the other hand, catches that look that passes across Jim's face and his own expression pinches somewhat, before he offers the other man a nod. Fighting with himself not to offer as honest an answer as he does, but it's no use. The curse still has him fully in its clutches.

"It isn't that I don't want to see you," he reassures the other man softly. "Simply that I am afraid of what it is I might say to you just now, with my tongue thus dangerously loosened."