Hey! Here's another one shot thanks to my wonderful Beta, AlexisJames92. She has a lot of great stories on her profile! I hope you all enjoy this little story. Reviews help fuel the motivation of writing!
It was a normal day in London. The sun was shining, birds could be heard chirping all around, the laughter of children could be heard in the distance, and grown ups could be heard chatting during their morning run. John Watson decided to take advantage of the nice weather to finalize his plan to propose to his detective before said detective figures it out.
The goal was to make the proposal more like a case. A series of riddles, made by Mycroft so that Sherlock could actually have a challenge, describing unfinished crimes before leading him to a different place. Now, should the riddles be on paper or through text? It would depend on how long they still have before Sherlock figures out what they were up to. John had already figured out that the majority of their friends will be playing along too.
"John?" A voice called but John was so deep in thought that he didn't hear it. "John Watson?" That finally jarred John out of his thoughts as he turned to see who was summoning him. The doctor took a look around and saw Mike Stamford standing there beside him with a smile on his face.
"Mike, good to see you again," John greeted with a smile. Of course John would be happy to see his old Uni friend, it was him that got John to meet Sherlock after all. "How have you been?" The two males walked off to talk and catch up while they grabbed some coffee. They went and sat on a bench in the park as John starts telling Mike about his relationship, not stating any names, and how he has been happy with them for several years now.
"Well, whoever the girl is-"
"Guy." John interrupted.
"Guy?" Mike questioned, surprised.
"Yep. He's.. um… He's my exception," John informed with a nod of his head.
"Well, he certainly sounds good for you," Mike complemented, smirking at how this seems awfully familiar. "Do I get to know who this man is?" Mike asked even though he already had a feeling he knew who it was.
"Eventually," John said, taking a sip from his coffee. "I've been thinking about marrying him." Suddenly, Mike starts to hide his chuckle. "What? What's so funny about that?" John was now confused but couldn't help the slight feeling of deja vu.
"You're the second person to say that to me today," Mike informed as his laughter slowly died down. Now John was curious.
"Who was the first?!"
Meanwhile, across town, Sherlock was in a jewelry shop staring at the many variety of rings. He wanted to find the perfect one for when he proposed to his doctor at the right time. Maybe after a nice dinner at Angelo's. The detective still had a lot of planning left to do. Maybe he should do something sort of more romantic, like a scavenger hunt or a secluded picnic. John likes cliche ideas like that, right?
Sherlock when he was interrupted by a blip of his phone only to smile when he saw it was a text from John setting up a dinner date. The detective quickly sent his reply, stating that he will meet him there, and went back to look at the rings before his phone went off again, this one was from Mycroft. Sherlock frowned and was tempted to delete it but, of course, curiosity got the best of him.
Riddle me this, brother mine.
-MH
Why should I?
-SH
You will do it because it wasn't my idea
-MH
Another home, I am to you,
To solves these crimes I deliver you to
A place where sentiment can be seen
And where your informations can be gleen.
Solve these crimes post haste.
You don't have time to waste.
-MH
Why are you texting me a crime poem? Aren't you too busy ruling the government?
-SH
Mycroft didn't answer him after that so Sherlock quickly deciphered it and ran to the morgue where he was met with Molly, who had a huge smile on her face and stood next to a corpse. The detective, on the way to the morgue, texted his doctor to join him only to be told that he was busy at the moment. Sherlock ripped the sheet off of the corpse and observed. There seemed to be nothing wrong other than a black rose laying on his chest.
"Murdered by a love rival who is trying to become a taxidermist and is currently trying to get the love interest," Sherlock spouts out as Molly types on her phone. Moments later her phone buzzed.
"He goes to you for help,
Try not to be a whelp.
You go to him for crimes.
Oh listen as the bell chimes.
Hurry hurry, brother mine,
Go and look for the sign."
"You know what's going on," Sherlock stated. Molly just continued to smile, knowing that if she said anything, she would probably give it away. She had gotten a text from John earlier that day stating that the proposal plan would have to run ahead of schedule. Sherlock, again, texted John in hopes for the doctor to join him this time but found that he was still busy. The riddle Molly read lead Sherlock to Greg Lestrade's office, where the DI had a folder full of pictures from an old crime scene and a black rose tucked into the folder. Of course Sherlock solved it. A fake murder where the kid actually faked his death and then ran off to their cousin's basement across the neighborhood.
"To home you must go
Where the smile is yellow.
There awaits a female,
Don't expect her to get your mail.
She awaits with your next crime.
Hurry hurry, it's almost time."
The detective called the doctor this time and only received a voicemail. This riddle lead to 221B Baker Street where Mrs. Hudson giddily waited for Sherlock to solve the next crime with pictures and, yet again, another black rose. This one involving a divorced couple and child support. By this point, Sherlock realized that it was starting to get close to the dinner date he had planned with John but he decided one last riddle before dinner wouldn't hurt. So he let Mrs. Hudson say the next riddle.
"Brother mine, here is your clue,
Now it's down to me and to you.
Come on by, dear brother,
Unless you wouldn't rather.
Be quick as can be,
You're not waiting for me."
Sherlock tried texting John again but didn't receive an answer this time. He rushed to Mycroft's office where Mycroft had another crime scene, this one involved a cheating boyfriend and jealous girlfriend, and another black rose. Mycroft was cleaning Sherlock up for his next destination, which the detective was secretly thankful for until he heard his brother's next words.
"No more riddles, brother mine. You're next murder is at Angelo's," Mycroft stated before looking at his watch. "And it looks like the good doctor was in the middle of it."
Sherlock raced out of his brother's office and ran out into the middle of the street where he "borrowed" a motorcycle. After hopping on, he skedaddled over to Angelo's, fear coursing through him. Fear that he might just lose John due to a murderer. All of the previous cases were fairly recent. When Sherlock reached the restaurant, he saw a trail of black rose petals on the ground leading to John, who was already at their table with a single black rose and a single candle on the table.
Sherlock let out a sigh of relief as he watched John flip through the menu as he waited for the detective. Hearing the sigh of the detective, John turned around and finally noticed Sherlock. The doctor placed his menu down and stood up to meet his sociopath of a boyfriend.
"About time you showed up," John said, smiling at the detective.
"Sorry, I ran into a few cases," Sherlock explained, opting to leave out his brother's strange behavior for now. John nodded in understanding, a smile still on his lips. John could tell that the detective was waiting on the next case.
"Why don't we sit and eat?" John suggested. Sherlock nodded and walked over to to his seat after giving John a quick kiss. The great detective was about to sit down when he saw a shoebox in his seat. He gave a questioning look to his doctor, who merely tried to look as innocent as possible but couldn't miss the slight twinkle of mischief in his eyes. He grabbed the box and opened it as he sat down in his spot.
Inside was another case for Sherlock along with a black rose. This case involved a science lab doing illegal experiments to children and teens. Easy for Sherlock to solve, he even said so to John and was determined to show John since he missed the other cases. However, the detective froze when he saw a smaller black box hidden among more black roses at the bottom of the box. Sherlock couldn't stop staring at the little box.
"John?" Sherlock asked, not taking his eyes off the box to insure that he wasn't seeing things.
"Oh! Sherlock, I wanted to ask you something," John says with excitement and Sherlock finally looked away from the box to stare at the doctor intensely. "But before I do, I have a little story to tell you. I met up with Stamford today," John stated. "We were talking and a certain subject came up. Apparently I wasn't the only one to talk to him about marriage today." Sherlock look absolutely confused and John couldn't help the giggle that came from him. Then Sherlock remembered his conversation with Mike earlier that day when he was borrowing his lab again. "I had to put the plan into action a lot sooner than originally planned."
"How did you collaborate with Mycroft to make those riddles?" The detective asked. The doctor then told the detective about how he had to threaten to call Mrs. Holmes and talked more about his meet up with Mike Stamford while the two ate. Then, after they had finished, John placed a single silver ring onto Sherlock's finger. A year later, there was a wedding for the new Watson-Holmes couple.