In retrospect Sherlock can see how to problem arose. John had asked him at his first meeting if he had a girlfriend and he had said no , he'd said no to the boyfriend question too and tried to make clear that his job was the most important thing to him . He hadn't explained that this situation was time restricted . He was getting the consulting jobs now, he was established with the police and now finding he had more time for well, leisure pursuits . Somehow John had taken his replies to mean that he Sherlock had no sexual interest in either sex and insisted on seeing him as some celibate brainbox totally disconnected from sexual impulses. It was a highly flawed conclusion and Sherlock was at a loss at how to raise the error at this late date . Other people both male and female seemed aware of him as a sexual being . John had never thought to ask him why both Anderson and Donovan had such a hatred of him . No one likes to be turned down and Sherlock's possibly slight too emphatic reaction to both of them at separate times had served as a force uniting them together in anger at him. Really they should thank him , they seemed as happy as two bitter adulterers could be together-Sherlock had practically been their cupid . But John remained oblivious even though everyone they met made clear that they thought something could well be going on between them. Even worse John seemed to feel it necessary to defend Sherlock's right to be the celibate brainiac he imaged him to be, by loudly insisting that they were in fact not a couple. And that he John was not gay and therefore not likely to put his innocent flat mate in danger of unwarranted sexual advances . It was typical of the goodness of John to defend Sherlock's honour like this but also typical of his stupidity not to notice that frankly Sherlock wouldn't have minded any sexual advances from his flat mate at all . Quite the reverse in fact. Sherlock had sworn off relationship with both men or women to concentrate on his career some time before meeting John . However since meeting him it had become increasingly clear to Sherlock that he had met the most fuckable person he had ever encountered in the form of John Watson. Sherlock didn't have the heart to open his flatmate's eyes to his actual sexuality by having John discover him in a clinch with someone else. He was pretty sure that such behaviour would move him straight into the sexual but unreliable category in John's head and probably lead to John' moving out . So instead Sherlock was forced to maintain a disinterested air to keep his flat mate beside him .
It didn't help that he and John had fallen into a remarkably casual relationship within the flat . He was aware for example of his flatmate's preference for sleeping in the nude and his occasional tendency to wander from the main bathroom,damp from the shower with only a towel wrapped around his hips . And Sherlock was supposed to remain unmoved by the sight of droplets of water rolling from his flat mate's shoulders on to his naked chest . His fingers twitched with his desire to trace the path of the water droplet and circle his oblivious flatmate's nipple. So Sherlock was forced into faking an intense interest in the police file in his hands as his flat mate stood in the door way ,so damp and rosy pink, as he talked to him about who was suppose to buy the milk this week. Every time John got in the shower Sherlock could feel his self control fraying until he really thought that the this time he was going to barge in and join his flatmate in the shower even if John did immediately move out. He was beginning to despair of opening his flatmate's eyes – subtle hints hadn't worked and the bloody obvious seem to fly straight pass him too - did John really think it was perfectly normal behaviour for a grown man to wear a sheet around the flat and even, dear god, out in public? Sherlock was being to think an advert in the Times might be the only way to enlighten the delectable doctor.
John watched his flatmate as he lay on the sofa obviously deep in thought , he wondered what case was preoccupying his friend now . Clearly from the frown on his face it was a highly perplexing one . And not for the first time he fought down the urge to bend down and kiss the closed eyelids of his flatmate and from there down to that beautiful mouth of his, kissing him so thoroughly that coherent thought would be impossible for him. John caught himself mentally. Jesus , if he kept thinking like this he was going to do something Sherlock would never forgive him for. And once again John concluded that a quick cold shower was the only possible solution.