I really like this idea! It’s awesome that you’re thinking about addressing something that we might tend to ignore in favor of willing suspension of disbelief/really wanting romance in the story.
I like the “Ioco makes the first move, MC checks in” formulation a lot. You might want to put it after some sort of internal interest check, though. (Even if I weren’t interested in Ioco, I think I’d be fine with it if he gracefully takes a “no,” but some folks would probably prefer it not happen.)
I definitely got his ambivalence during the actual body burning – it was really his initial support for it while we were still at the Sanctuary that surprised me. Either editing the very first conversation or just signaling his ambivalence a bit more in the Sanctuary conversation seems like it would work.
Hope you feel better soon!