A writing request for a friend, USUK in a Sherlock AU. I wrote this without revision..whoops! Oh well hope it's not too sucky!
Private detective Arthur Kirkland and his American assistant Alfred Jones did their best to solve the most complex cases in all of London. Arthur would collect the information, store it in what he would like to call his mind palace, and solve the case, Alfred would blog about it. They made a great team, well, when Arthur wasn't being stubborn and secretive and when Alfred would give the case his undivided attention. Although, it was needless to say, that never really happened. One day Alfred came across an idea, one that Arthur would surely say yes to, or that's what he thought. He made up his mind to be as creative as possible so his idea wouldn't be turned down. He logged onto his laptop and started writing something, once he was done, he posted it on his own blog, hiding the fact that it was actually he who wrote it then called Arthur.
"Hey, Artie! Look what I found!"
Arthur was silent for a moment then came grumbling down the hallway of their flat.
"What is it? I was trying to concentrate."
Alfred just smiled and pointed to the post he made a moment ago. "Look! Someone hacked into our blog, I think, and they wrote this! I think it's some sort of code message!
"Code...message? Let me see"
Alfred tried not to smile too much as he might give it away. He knew how much Arthur liked solving codes, he was a natural at it! He passed the laptop to the Englishman and waited for him to read it.
Message:
This day, is a special day you see. At precisely noon this document will be written in ink as a case is lowered down into earthen rock containing remains of a past not well known. Name this document and you shall find your way through the path I set out for you. Refuse to, and this will be the end.
Arthur stared blankly at the words for a moment when he noticed an address below it. "Huh...this is rubbish! Only an idiot would expect me to take this seriously. Although, I don't think I've ever seen anything with that address...perhaps we should go see."
Alfred held his breath in anticipation and quickly nodded in agreement. "Yeah! It seems fun! Let's go!"
Arthur looked at him with slight concern about his excitement but smiled anyways. "Right, off we go" he grabbed his coat and hurriedly went outside, Alfred following him, trying not to laugh. The detective hailed a cab and they both got in, off towards their destination. After some miles of driving out of the city, they got to their destined address, to their surprise, a cemetery. It was old, small, and probably never visited in years. Alfred would've chosen somewhere else to go if it was dark, but since the light guarded off anything scary, he happily followed Arthur out of the cab afterwards. Looking around, they immediately started clueing for looks- I mean, searching for hints.
"We're here now, and nothing has happened, I guess we were just fooled by some idiot. I told you we shouldn't have listened!" Arthur began to complain.
Alfred quickly had to make up something to further move on his plan, and so he thought before whipping out his phone with a fake surprise. "Oh! I think I just got a text!" He typed in a random number and wrote what he could before Arthur demanded to see it. "It says we have five minutes!"
"Huh? Five minutes? They must be joking, that's way too long, I've already gotten their answer, I just wanted to find out who they were."
Alfred snatched back his phone nervously, afraid the other had found out what he was up to. "R-really? Well what is it then! I wanna know!" He stared at Arthur with the puppy eyes he knew he couldn't refuse. And it worked, in fact.
"D-don't make that face! Fine, I'll tell you! The document is a will. The kind you write after your funeral. It's simple, I'm surprised you couldn't get it."
Alfred almost laughed at the irony but repressed it as he knew it would ruin his plan.
"Woah! You're so awesome, Artie!"
Arthur flushed at this flattering and cleared his throat, "O-of course I am! I'm the best detective in London!"
Alfred just chuckled, "I'll send it to them then!" He entered the word "will", but he also made a show of having a reply. "Hey, Artie! They sent us another code thing! Listen:
'It's in an umbrella but it's never in the rain. It's in autumn but not in the fall. It's upwards but never above. What is it?'"
He looked expectantly at Arthur, who was just confused. He quickly added, "oh there's an address here too!" This made him more interested and Alfred could see it in the other's eyes as he quickly walked back to hail another cab, Alfred followed closely behind. Once they attempted to stop one, they both got in quickly and showed the cabbie the address. Alfred was internally bubbling with excitement and glanced at Arthur, he could tell he was excited as well though he didn't necessarily show it as much. His plan was working after all. A few moments later they had arrived at their destination: an old church. Arthur walked around it, making sure there was no one nearby who could have let them here. He was confused, why would they lead them to a church? He turned to Alfred who just shrugged. "Let's go inside" The Englishman said as he began walking towards the entrance. But Alfred immediately stopped him by grabbing his arm.
"W-wait! They sent us something else! They said we have to give them the answer or else! They say this is just the beginning!"
Arthur scoffed at this. "Tell them I don't have time for their games! I already know their stupid answer anyways!"
Alfred stood there, wide eyed at how fast the other had gotten it. "Really? What is it?"
The detective sighed and shook his head, "I wonder if you ever actually try to solve anything on your own. It is the letter "U". In umbrella but not in rain, in autumn but not in the word fall and so on. This is child's play, Alfred."
Though his assistant couldn't help but smile and nod enthusiastically. "Amazing! You really are smart! I'll tell them!" and with that he quickly started to make up another clue for his plan. Arthur started to look around, internally worried that someone might have been following them, but he never let Alfred out of his sight. Not because he was worried about him or anything! No, it was simply because he didn't want to go rescue him if he got captured that's all.
"Hey, Artie!" Alfred suddenly called out, interrupting his thoughts. "They sent us these steps! It says that from the point of entrance we need to take twenty steps left, turn right thirty steps then keep going forward for ten steps, then to answer what we see! It sounds like a treasure map let's do it!" he couldn't help but hide the excitement in his voice. Arthur was about to refuse, but looking at those sparkling blue orbs filled with adventure, he couldn't help but just agree with a slight smile.
"Alright, just because if we don't, you'll never stop bothering me about it."
Both went up to the main entrance and followed the directions set out. When they took the last ten steps, they came face to face with a statue.
"Huh...I did not expect to find that here." Alfred added, just to make him seem more surprised.
"Yes, it seems like it's a statue of...the virgin Mary. Though it does seem rather neglected, it's covered in vines for crying out loud."
Alfred had a sudden realisation, mostly he remembered what happened in a movie he had watched. "Maybe it will get angry at us and come to life and eat us up! Ah, Artie, let's get out of here!" he clutched tightly to the Englishman which just made him flush.
"B-be quiet! This is a holy place after all! As long as it isn't a weeping angel there is nothing to worry about you know."
"R-right…" Alfred settled down and let go of him, though he stayed close just in case. He regretted using this place as a hint now, but it was too late to back out now. "H-hey, so, what's the answer then?"
"Hm? I guess you could say it is "Mary" for short." Arthur couldn't see any other possible solution, it was clear that's what they wanted him to guess.
Alfred nodded and typed the answer down. Then a small smile crept to his lips as he realised he only needed one more hint to complete his plan. He quickly thought of it and looked up at Arthur with bright eyes. "Hey, you were right!"
Arthur shrugged, he wasn't too surprised, "Of course I was right, this has got to be the easiest game ever, I'm just going along with it because you seem really into it you know...W-well I mean not that I care if you are or anything!"
His assistant just chuckled, he loved it when Arthur got embarrassed, it was just too cute. Alfred then read the last hint out loud. "They sent us some numbers and another address! The numbers are: 13, 15, 9 and...oh..the address is..our flat…"
This startled Arthur as he quickly ran towards the street, once again hailing a cab for the both of them. This time, he wasn't laughing, he was more serious. The thought that these people broke into their flat, frightened him as they could steal lots of his unfinished work. As for the numbers, they might mean a code or a lock, but that wasn't something important as of now. The whole cab ride he was silently praying for everything to be in it's place. Several minutes later, when they stopped at their flat, nothing seemed wrong. But Arthur wasn't taking any chances, he slowly entered the flat with Alfred following closely behind him. The two of them looked around carefully, well, one of them pretended to and came to the conclusion that all was well after their thorough search.
The Detective sighed, "Well, thank god it's nothing. Those fools have really gotten into my nerves you know."
Alfred chuckled nervously, this was not his intention at all and he didn't want his plan to turn out like this. "O-oh..uh..what about the numbers? You know, they could be something else than a lock...they could..uh..stand for something..you know.."
"Stand for something?" The Englishman echoed, his head spinning with multiple solutions as he sat in his favourite chair, his mind palace chair.
"Yeah like letters in the alphabet...for example!" Alfred didn't want to give Arthur too many clues, but he found his impatience hard to combat.
Suddenly the detective gasped and went wide eyed, he had got it. "Alphabet! Alfred you're a genius!" he didn't even realise the compliment he gave out to the other as he was too busy revealing the answer. But Alfred did catch it and he blushed, never hearing Arthur compliment him often, it was a miracle. "The numbers correspond to the position of the letters in the alphabet so that means 13 is M, 15 is O, and 9 is I! That spells out...moi? I don't think that's a- OH! OH!" Arthur was now hurriedly pacing around the room, jumping at every discovery he made unconsciously, Alfred thought it was very amusing to watch, not to mention how cute he looked when he was truly passionate about something. "Moi! That may not be an English word but it is, in French! And you know what it means in French?!" Not even waiting for an answer, the Englishman ranted on. "It means 'me'! The answer is the word 'ME'!" Arthur stopped, now panting for breath as he stood in the middle of the room with an open mouth. Alfred could not believe his plan had turned out this well, and he was blushing for what was about to come next. Arthur noted his, confused, then asked. "What is it..? I...I solved it?"
Alfred nodded, his blush staying then walked towards him, slowly. "It was really amazing, Artie! It...it really was...now, put the words together...all of them.."
Confused for the first time in a while, Arthur looked back in his memory and picked out all the words from before, saying them out loud with slight concern. Alfred seemed to know something that he didn't, and that was rare. "Uh..well there was...the will, then the letter "U" then Mary and lastly me." Arthur repeated the words in his head just to make sure he didn't miss one. That is the exact moment he froze and realised what he had just done. The Englishman stood in shock, staring at the other who had just the brightest blush. Not for long, Arthur could feel his own cheeks burning bright red as he whispered the words again, more coherently this time. "Will you marry me…" Arthur quietly gasped as Alfred kneeled down on the ground before him and pulled out the most beautiful emerald ring from behind his back. His soft blue eyes shimmering with a mix of hope and joy as he stared into his own. "Will you marry me, Arthur Kirkland?" The detective felt his heart skip a beat and his eyes started watering for reasons he could not describe, the emotions were overwhelming him and he could only shake his head with a huge grin. "I-it was you all along, idiot! All along?! I'm going to kill you, you bastard!" As the last words escaped from his mouth he leaped onto the other, pushing him down to the ground. Alfred let out a small squeak of surprise but grinned back as he wrapped his arms around his lover. "I'll take that as a 'yes'?" Arthur had no time to answer as he felt both of their lips clash together in a passionate kiss. A kiss of pure love and joy, for they decided that the best mystery, the mystery of love, had been solved that day. Wait- no, take that back, that's too cheesy! I will not end my story on that note! Well, it was getting late so you can guess what kind of...uh..activity they did next. Oh blast it, yes, they had sex and lived happily ever after, the END!