Disclaimer: I own nothing. But I love it all.
Thanks to GreenEyedLiz for helping to inspire this piece :)
Its my 17th birthday today, so be extra nice!
-John shows Sherlock the beauty of things out of his control. Namely, a tropical storm. Enjoy!
Cameroon
"Se lo incontri in uno dei tuoi giri"
It was absolutely throwing it down with rain outside as John and Sherlock stepped out of the cab somewhere in Cameroon. They'd just left an essential meeting, negotiating a complex deal that Mycroft had leant on them very heavily to carry off. They headed across the road and Sherlock, flushed with success, glanced back to his dear blogger, who had stopped in the near-torrential rain.
"Coming?" he asked, fishing in his pocket for the hotel key. He could already feel the monsoon-like rain start to dampen his scarf and coat.
"Wait," John said, "come here"
He grabbed Sherlock and pulled him back out into the downpour, shouting over the noise, "This weather, isn't it incredible?!"
Water threw itself at their bodies, down their backs, hitting their shoulders and heads.
"No, John. John I want to go in" Sherlock impatiently replied, voice slightly muffled.
John frowned and pulled his coat over both their heads, a sudden shelter, raindrops thrumming on the fabric. Forcing their faces close together, he looked Sherlock in the eyes.
"You're not doing it right" he said, ignoring his friend's surprised laugh, "No, you're not. Listen to me, okay?" He waited until Sherlock nodded to continue. "It's like what you told me before, about how I see but I don't observe. You're in the rain, and you're getting wet, but you haven't really felt it, Sherlock, the excitement of it all!"
He swept the coat off them in a dramatic movement, grabbing Sherlock's hand as he did so.
"This is nuts," He yelled. "A completely unstoppable natural force, and you just have to let it hit you!"
"But John," Sherlock called, "I can't think, its too loud!"
"Exactly!" He shouted back, grinning. "Some peace and quiet from your own thoughts, you'll love it"
As he watched, Sherlock closed his eyes and tipped his face towards the skies, rivulets now running off his hair. John, enchanted, pulled off his jumper, wanting to feel more closely the warm water falling all around them. It reminded him of Afghanistan, the hot days followed by sudden rainstorms: fat, hot droplets splattering onto muddy army gear. The smell of it as it evaporated off hot dirt, the humid mornings that followed, the constant reminder that this was different to home, to the gentle pittle-pattle of English weather. He loved it.
John yelled at the sky, the lightning forking across the clouds above him.
He heard Sherlock begin to laugh, caught up in the wild freedom of the moment, the utter, unrestrained abandonment of his fears and his thoughts, and letting the adrenaline take over. He also pulled off his large coat, allowing the tropical downpour to soak through his shirt and to his skin, embracing it. "You're right, this is- truly amazing! Incredible, astonishing, wonderful!"
John smiled in return, streams mapping their way past his eyes and nose, contouring down his face. He watched Sherlock in this moment of vulnerable, open wantonness, and was glad that finally, after being shown so many extraordinary things, he could give Sherlock something back, a new breathtaking experience.
He grasped the taller man's wrist.
"Come on, let's go!"
Thankyou for reading, I'd love a review :) I think I'll do some more, loosely-but-not-really connected to this, about Sherlock and their experiences of travelling the world. I'm about to do some travelling myself, I'm off to Ghana on Friday, so no updates for a couple of weeks. Sorry!
I'd encourage you to listen to Ludivico Einaudi's piano pieces, from the album 'I giorni'. They are really beautiful and, for some reason, remind me of other countries, specifically rain in hot countries.