It had been two months since the funeral. A little more than two and a half since the actual fall. John wasn't coping very well.

He was still living in 221B, but he felt wrong and out of place without Sherlock there, and as a result he was pretty much always out and about, hardly getting any sleep. Which is also why it didn't surprise him too much, when he started to see Moriarty just about everywhere: In the grocery store, in the pub, on various different streets. Even in the graveyard.

John knew it was his mind playing tricks on him, vivid hallucinations spun from his sleep-deprived mind. Or, he thought he knew. Until the day Moriarty spoke to him.

"Hello, Dr. Watson." Hearing the easily recognized voice was enough to make John's head snap up. He blinked a few times, confusedly, as he waited for the hallucination to disappear. But it didn't It was when the hallucination spoke again that John realized that it was, in fact, not one. "You don't look very well. Now that Sherlock is gone, somebody else ought to look after you."

"Sherlock didn't look after me." He scoffed, without thinking. "If anything it was the other way around." He stiffened as a smile formed on Moriarty's face, making him realize who he was talking to. John waited a while for the Irish-man to explain what he wanted, but when it didn't happened he simply asked. "What do you want? Have you been following me?"

To his surprise, Moriarty's smile just grew.

"What do I want?" He repeated the question as he let his eyes run over the doctor, who started to feel uncomfortable under the intense stare. "The other question is easier to answer. Yes, I have been following you. Not a lot of excitement going on in your life recently, is there?" He asked, tilting his head slightly as he noted how John had tensed up.

"Why don't you find someone else to stalk then?" His tone was flat, and his eyes showed nothing as he stared at the nemesis of his best friend. Moriarty actually chuckled at the question.

"Oh, but what would the point be then?" He said, a smirk still on his face. John sighed as he rubbed his tired eyes. He had no clue as to why Moriarty would be interested in him, and he was too tired to even worry about it.

"What do you want from me?" He sighed, looking up so his chocolate eyes met Moriarty's even darker ones.

"I want you to come with me. Stay with me. Be to me what you were to Sherlock." There was no trace of humour in his voice and the smile had even disappeared, leaving his face with a serious expression. John's brows flew up in a questioningly manner.

"What if I tell you I don't want to?" He asked, knowing that he had to be careful around the criminal. Before he was halfway through his sentence, Moriarty was smiling again.

"I can be very persuasive." He said mysteriously, as he took a sudden step forward, placing his hand on John's forehead. The doctor was too surprised to even move, so he just stood there, staring in confusion as a frown formed on Moriarty's face. "You've got a fever." He muttered, sounding almost worried. "You're a doctor, John, you're supposed to take care of these things." It sounded almost as if Moriarty was scolding him, and he would have found the situation hysterical if he wasn't too focused on the fact that Moriarty had called him by his first name. The way he had said it, made John unable to stop thinking about it. He stood there, dumbfounded, as Moriarty took a step back and looked at him, disapprovingly.

"I'm not interested." John finally managed to get out, after a long break of silence. Moriarty half-smiled again.

"Find me when you are. For now, go home and rest up. You're not useful in this state." With those words, the criminal mastermind turned on his heel and walked away, leaving John alone and confused, his skin tingling where Moriarty had touched him and his voice as he'd said John's name replaying in the doctor's head.

John lasted five days. At first he was considering to wait for Moriarty at the graveyard, where they met last, but he felt it would be wrong to get Sherlock involved, dead or not. So instead he chose a pub not too far from Baker Street, where he knew he'd seen the criminal before. He sat down at the bar with a pint, and waited.

It took about half an hour before he found Moriarty, or well, before Moriarty found him – It must have been obvious that John was looking for him, because the self-proclaimed villain didn't wait for an invitation before taking up the empty chair next to the doctor. His way to confident smile almost made John regret his decision, but he knew he would never be able to kill his curiosity any other way.

"What exactly do you want me to do?" John asked, after a short moment of silence. He didn't look up from where his hands was holding the glass in a tight grip. It bothered him when he noticed that his hand was calm again, feeling at home in the dangerous situation.

"Not much, really." The Irish man replied. "I want you to tag along with me, help me, normal stuff like that." There was a break between each sentence, as if Moriarty himself wasn't completely sure what it was he wanted. John finally turned to look and wasn't surprised that he was being stared at.

"Help you? With your criminal stuff? Normal?" He wasn't sure these were words he would normally use in the same sentence. Moriarty gave a small laugh.

"Nothing you'd be uncomfortable with, I promise. I'll even spare you the details, if my job bothers you." His eyes were shining.

"So basically, you just want someone to hang out with?" John's tone was flat, he didn't need an answer. It came anyways.

"You could say so." Moriarty's smile grew bigger, as they both knew that John had already made up his mind. The criminal stood up from his seat and pushed the chair back in. "Pack your bags tonight and I'll pick you up tomorrow morning. It's about time you get away from Baker Street."

John didn't answer, but as he watched his former enemy turn and leave, he knew what he was going to do. He knew what the right thing to do was, but for once that wasn't what was on his mind. He sighed to himself, as he downed the rest of his pint before ordering the next.