She hasn't felt pain in a long time. Not this kind.
It's ironic, she knows, given her profession, but then she is usually the one inflicting pain. It's why she chose it, after all. To see what would drive the desire to be hurt, be controlled. To see the fire blaze in their eyes as the whip left stinging marks across their skin.
Behind it all, she had wanted to learn how to never feel the pain again. She had thought she'd been successful. She was wrong.
One man. A simple passcode. A war of her own making, one she lost. And then, Karachi.
She always wondered if he regretted it. Then she would laugh. At herself, for replaying the events in her mind like a lovesick schoolgirl. At him, because it hurt too much to do anything else.
She'd text him, sometimes. Birthdays, Christmases, Anniversaries. He never texted back. She never asked him why.
Until...
"Dinner?"
One word, of the screen of her phone. How could it have the power to cause so much pain? Her fingers were shaking, slightly when she hit the send button.
"When?"
The phone buzzed again after a few minutes.
"Window, now."
She hesitated, looking over to the white curtains that rippled gently in the breeze.
She walked over to it, parting the curtains.
A long black coat, collars turned up. The blue scarf peeking through it. And the familiar face that still took her breath away, not that she would let him find out as much.
"Dinner then, Mr Holmes."
Notes:
I'm sure Francesca_Wayland doesn't know me, but I..err, lurk around her tumblr a lot, and I've read all her amazingly beautiful Adlock fics. Every time I come back from her tumblr, I have an urge to write this ship, so this finally happened. Gifted to her for being the inspiration!