"Mrs. Hudson had definitely a valid point!" Molly said from the kitchen making Sherlock raising his eyebrow in surprise.
"Your kitchen needed to be burnt to aches to be sanitized!" she walked to the living room holding two paper cups of tea.
"Have you ever used it for its main purpose which is, you know, making food?!" she smirked giving him his cup and sat on one of the small bean bags she brought with her when she offered her help to bring 221B back to its shape after the Eurus attack.
They didn't talk about the phone call since that day, especially after she knew the circumstances that made him do what he did and the destruction of his home. She offered her help immediately without hesitation after Mrs. Hudson asked for it. It was much easier to rebuild the destroyed house than to open the wounds again.
"Really? I didn't know people use it for that! After all cooking is not really my area." Sherlock smirked back still standing and looked to the other bean bag with uncertainty.
She sipped a little from her cup and grinned seeing the lost look on his face "don't worry, I promise if you sit it won't bite." She crossed her heart narrowing her eyes and chuckled
He clenched his teeth and walked to it with unsure steps "Sitting is not the problem, getting up of this thing is another said"
She shook her head and muttered "Mr. no fun!"
Sherlock narrowed his eyes and moved his head to the side, and then he moved and sat suddenly on the bean bag making some of the tea spilled on his shirt. He cursed looking to the stain, making Molly laugh loudly. He shook his head and smiled, got a handkerchief out of his pocket and cleaned his shirt.
"Are they still making those?!"
"Nope, it's a precious family inheritance that we pass through one generation after another" he joked.
They stayed silent for a while drinking their tea and taking a break, the whole living room and kitchen were upside down, the bedroom didn't get affected like both but it needed a lot of work too, there was a lot already done and much more still needed to be done before a human being lives again in this place.
They never looked directly into each other's eyes and the tensioned silence began to be unbearable.
Molly rose from her seat suddenly and looked around the living room.
"Will you redecorate the place the same old way, or are you up for some changes?" she asked him trying to find any topic to break the silence.
"I'm not really good with things change easily." He said dismissing the idea.
"Are you sure?" She looked to the burnt wall paper with the remains of a yellow face on it.
"You could put more cheerful wall paper here. It would lighten the place a little bit."
He suddenly rose from his uncomfortable seat looking alarmed.
"No, I'll use the same," he said in hurry.
"They probably don't produce this anymore, what if …"
"I said no! End of discussion." His voice was really tensed and his breath was catching the one before faster.
She swallowed hard "It's your home Sherlock, do whatever you want." She said before heading back to the kitchen.
"You know," he said making her stop.
She turned back to find him looking to the wall before he turned back to face her.
"In my mind palace, everyone I know has his significant appearance, a similar shape, John with his ridiculous jumper, Mycroft with his 1K Euro suit, Mrs. Hudson's floral dress, but you, you have two," his voice was serious all the time, never took his eyes off of hers.
She laughed lightly, "Now you make me wonder what I look like in this funny place of yours."
He looked down to the ground and smiled half a smile "You are Doctor Hooper in her lab coat and her comforting smile," he stopped talking, looking unsure if he should tell her the other or not.
She began to connect the dots together and felt anger rose inside her veins.
"Sherlock are you considering me as your wall paper?" Her voice was heart.
"No no not the wall paper, you are what behind it" he said in hurry defending himself, shaking his head.
Her eyes were filled with confusion.
He needed to show her, he turned back to the wall that was still containing the remains of the burnt wall paper, exposed to every eye sight, the fire effect and smoke were still shown on its-now black- surface, his stomach tied in knots every time his eyes landed on it and his heart ached.
"I stored every memory for us on this wall and hid it with the wall paper." Surprise was still written over her face when he looked to her again. He sighed closing his eyes and turned back to explain more.
"Here," he pointed low to the left, "is the first time we met, you were still wearing your eye glasses."
"Here," he pointed to a near spot, "is the first time we worked together on an experiment, I remember how awed you were after I discovered the murderer from the victim's broken nail"
"This is when you asked me what I need, when you had faith on me when all the evidence told you not to," he pointed to a place in the middle of the wall.
He moved around the wall pointing to different places talking with excitement and passion.
"The first time you held Rosie and the glow on your eyes while you looked at her" he pointed higher.
"Now this, this is really complicated." he pointed to the high left spot of the wall and chuckled.
"It's all in my mind palace where you saved me again, I mean you should get paid for doing this as it happens a lot," he laughed hard, while she only stood, the only evidence that she was listening was her- wide as a saucer- eyes.
"You saved me from the bullet I took; you helped me then twice, once as Doctor Hooper, you guided me how to survive a bullet and a hole in the chest, and again when I needed to lay on you and our memories to climb from death, when I needed a push to come back to save my friend."
He took a step back and looked to the wall that came alive in front of his eyes with all the memories his mind saved over the years, he was panting when he finished.
"I hid it all here." He whispered to himself more than to her.
"I thought I hid it well, I thought you are safe this way, no harm can reach you," he looked to her "but I was wrong." He turned looking to her.
"Molly, I know we have kind of unspoken agreement not to talk about what happened but I want you to know …" he couldn't continue his sentence as Molly cut the space between them in two steps, brought him down from his neck and kissed him.
"You meant it." She said between kisses.
"I always did." He answered.
She deepened the kiss more with every second; he tightened his hold on her waist more with every second.
"IT WORKED, MRS. HUDSON YOU ARE A GENIUS!" John's yelling made them broke the kiss fast as they found him standing in front the door of the apartment with wide eyes and wide smile.
"I'm uhhh … going down to help Mrs. Hudson doing … stuffs" he whispered taking few steps back, getting his phone out, the smile never left his face and ran down the stairs.
Molly giggled while Sherlock only frowned but suddenly rolled his eyes when he deduced that john must be texting his dear brother right now to inform him of the interesting update.