Boys Will Be...
"William!"
Sherlock didn't look up, but John did, eyebrows furrowing at the yell across the office. They'd been here investigating for almost an hour now, and he knew for a fact that a) the people here, while eccentric, weren't spontaneous enough to yell randomly, and b) no one that worked here was named William.
"William!"
Darting across the room was a brunette, dark hair and dark eyes, blazer unbuttoned to a polka-dot neon blue tie, guy. And he seemed awfully fixated on John and Sherlock.
"Er..."
"William Sherlock!"
Sherlock's head snapped up, attention jerking away from his mobile. He recognised the voice, John could tell, watching the way that his body frozen for a half second and his shoulders straightened. He knew this brunette bloke, but he hadn't said anything about knowing anyone that worked here... not that John would have expected him to.
"... Victor?" Sherlock muttered, twisting around to look over his shoulder.
"Victor?" John echoed. "Who's Victor?"
Sherlock looked a little shell-shocked as he watched Victor run towards them. "Uhh... old friend."
John laughed. Only when Sherlock didn't give him a verbal or appearance-designed rebuttal, he realised that... maybe... he was serious. "You're serious?"
"Hey!" Victor greeted, coming to a stop in front of Sherlock. "It's been ages since I've seen you, Will! What, ten, no, no, fifteen years? You haven't changed at all!"
Sherlock crashed back into himself in that second, straightening up. "Yes, it has been... Isn't this a bit low-key for you, Victor? Video game designer? I would have expected more."
Victor grinned. "Nah. Well, maybe a little low on the spectrum, but we're dedicated. You have no idea what goes into video games, Will. Big business."
"Yes, for the tiny IQ," Sherlock muttered.
"Now, now," Victor said easily. "Don't knock it unless you try it!" He looked at John then, for the first time, as if he was only just noticing him now. "Oh, look at me! I'm so sorry. I'm Victor, Victor Trevor," he said, offering his hand. "William- although I guess he goes by Sherlock now? - William and I went to university together."
John blinked and shook his hand. "Oh, really?" So this was what Sherlock had meant by old friend... but then, why did he seem so uncomfortable? Sebastian had been an old friend, too, but that guy had been a dick, so Sherlock's manner towards him was justifiable. This guy seemed nice... a little too overenthusiastic maybe, but nice.
Victor nodded. "Yeah. Are you his new boyfriend? Oh, the stories I could tell you."
The words filtered slowly through John's head, marred somewhat by stories I could tell, but then- "Oh, no! No, we're just... friends. We have a flatshare."
"Oh! I see. Not stewing in solitary anymore, my friend?"
"Not in so much a sense, I suppose," Sherlock muttered. "John, this alibi is time-sensitive. I need to get to the morgue." He looked back at Victor. "No offence."
Victor laughed. "Nope, you haven't changed at all. We have to get together... Coffee, or something?"
"Yeah... maybe," Sherlock said, in what John could read was his yeah-I-think-you're-stupid-but-let's-play-pretend tone. There probably wouldn't be any coffee meetings, but... at least Sherlock was learning little things, like tact and his own clothes sizes.
"Don't hold out on me, Will." Victor held out his hand for Sherlock, but when Sherlock made to shake it, he instead pulled Sherlock into a hug. He whispered something to him, but John couldn't make it out. When Sherlock pulled back, there was a smirk on his lips.
"I wouldn't dream of it," he said lazily. "Nice seeing you, Victor."
"Call me!"
Call me? Who said that? Well, women, women said that to their womanly friends, but all the guys John hung out with, they didn't say call me. It was just more of an unspoken I'll see you when I see you most of the time.
And secondly, who did this Victor think he was, implying that John was Sherlock's boyfriend? Actually, most of the population did that... but... Wait. New boyfriend. Victor had asked if he was Sherlock's new boyfriend. Implying that...
"Old friend?" John asked aloud.
Sherlock had already processed past fixing his scarf and pulling his coat collar up around his face as they walked down the sidewalk, but now he glanced up and over at John. "We might have been a little closer than that."
Well. So... "He asked me if I was your new boyfriend."
"Yes?" Sherlock intoned.
"New. Implying that you had an old one. An old one that could tell me stories."
Sherlock glanced sideways at him again, catching his gaze. "Oh, don't judge me," he said, shortly, flippantly.
"I'm not. I mean..." A few years ago, John would have been gobsmacked, but... after their first ever dinner conversation glossing over their sexualities, he honestly really wasn't. He figured it should probably bothered him more... but, oh well. He'd told him what he thought about it years ago: he didn't have a problem with it. As long as people weren't assuming he was Sherlock's boyfriend, never-mind they did anyway.
"You are."
"No, I'm not," John repeated. "I'm not. I'm just surprised. Married to your work?" he asked.
"I didn't have my work in uni," Sherlock replied simply. "Victor... Victor was a genius, too. He doesn't look like it now, granted; I didn't even know he worked here. He got along with me. He was a friend before he was something more, but then he graduated and it was over. I'm not exactly sure it was serious to begin with."
"Did you love him?" John asked hesitantly. Personal lives... dating was definitely something best mates talked about to each other, but this was Sherlock, and this was him, and they both kind of kept to their own personal lives in the dating regard. Mostly because Sherlock didn't want to hear about John's girlfriends, and John hadn't known about any dating exploration of Sherlock's.
Sherlock was quiet for a long moment. "No," he said shortly, the syllable turning to a puff of condensation in the cold air.
"You sure?"
Sherlock shrugged. "I don't even know what real romantic love is," he said absently, tugging on his scarf. "It was fun; I craved the attention and the sex was phenomenal."
"You're not a virgin!"
Sherlock made a face. "Of course I'm not. But don't go spreading the secret; my so-called virginity seems to be a popular target for terrorists to latch onto, for whatever reason," he added, sarcastically.
John laughed. "Yeah..."
"Besides, I was a teenager surrounded by sex and Victor just happened to be there. We worked together well, until he left. It did get a bit more lonely after that," Sherlock added. "But he's right: I spent most of my time at uni in solitary, by myself. There was me, there was him, and then there was nothing."
"Sorry about that," John muttered.
Sherlock scoffed. "I wasn't there for relationships, anyway. I was there to learn. Which I did," he added. "I learned a lot from Victor." He paused. "Mostly about sex."
John shook his head, grinning. "Nice. You're not actually going to call him, are you?"
"Hmm?"
"For coffee, I mean."
"Oh. No," Sherlock said. "Probably not."
"Why not?" John muttered. "Unlike with most of the population, he actually likes you."
Sherlock smirked, looking down at him again. "Oh, John. I have you. I don't need anyone else."
John rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. I'm your friend, not your partner."
"I thought we were partners," Sherlock replied.
"Smartarse. We are, but... not like the way you and Victor used to be, you prat."
Sherlock chuckled. "True enough. I just don't have time for it, relationships, whatever. Like I said, I have the work now. I'm completely content with my relationship with it; it rarely ever fails me and I can never make it angry." He grinned and hailed down a cab.
"Of course you'd say that," John said, sliding in behind him and pulling the door closed.
I love the idea of Victor, I hope they bring a Victor in in the show. Me, I like the idea of Sherlock being really close, like rowdy teenagers, with Victor, or being his boyfriend. Because I think both ways: Sherlock's either a virgin because he doesn't care about all of that, but then, he likes to experiment, so maybe he's been with more people in the past than everyone realises: blokes and gals. Anyway, I wanted to write about Victor. :P
I do not own Sherlock. Thanks for reading!