Sherlock lay back on the sofa with a hum, placing his hands behind his head he observed the doctor who sat reading in his chair besides the fire, his knees bunched up beneath his chin, the neck of his jumper in his mouth in concentration. Sherlock smirked, his gaze turning to the clock on the corner of the mantle, 5 o'clock, she's going to be late he thought, swinging his legs over the edge of the sofa and walking towards the window to look out onto Bakers street, searching for his guest.
"Sherlock what are you doing?"
"Nothing."
The detective lied returning to his place on the furniture and pulled out his phone frowning at the screen, no texts and no missed calls, god he hated it when people were late, not that he was ever punctual mind, but he would rather others were so that they didn't mess up is plans.
He was jolted out of his reverie by the sound of the doorbell; gliding to his feet he raced to the door, much to the confusion of his companion who had never seen Sherlock rush to anything but a murder much less to answer the door.
The detective opened the door and was greeted with a smile from the woman on the other side. "Sherlock I presume." She held out a hand which Sherlock took her grip strong.
She was almost his height, a slim boyish frame and a face vaguely reminiscent of John but decidedly more feminine, they shared the same eyes however, lines surrounded hers as though she had spent many nights not sleeping however they were faded, it was obvious that she was sleeping better. The corner of her mouth was tinged red from where she had been kissed goodbye not an hour before and when wiping her face clean of the lipstick had missed that spot.
In her hands she held a bottle of wine, but not for her Sherlock deduced, she hadn't drunk in a while, judging from the slight shake of her hand that is. Not for three weeks he thought suddenly, noticing the slight fade in her smile, he had been staring at her unusually long having quite forgotten the social decorum and getting lost in his deductions.
"Yes come in, he's upstairs"
Sherlock gave her an uncharacteristic smile and stood back, holding out an arm and indicating down the hall. He skipped in after her barely containing his excitement, the woman stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned back, "Err, does he know I'm coming?" She asked finally realising that something was up, humans can be so slow sometimes Sherlock mused.
"Nope." Sherlock smiled and indicated once more pushing past her into the flat, the uncharacteristic smile widening further.
...
"Hello John." The doctor spun round in his chair and hopped to his feet.
"Harry? What the..." His eyes narrowed as Sherlock entered the room, hands in pockets smirk still plastered over his face" You."
"Yes me John, not going to say hello to your own estranged sister?" Sherlock answered with an eyebrow raised, smiling at the blush that crept over his companions face and the flustered grumble he produced.
"We are not estranged; we just haven't talked in a while." He turned to Harry who had been watching the exchange with interest, his eyes shooting down to the bottle in his sisters hands a frown brewing on his face.
"It's alright John, she's not drinking it. Hasn't had a drink in at least three weeks." Sherlock mumbled on his way to the sofa, spinning around and dropping onto it," Mind pouring us one John?"
"How did he know I haven't?"
"Don't ask he only said it so he could show off." The doctor embraced his sister and led her to his chair, taking the bottle from her hands he walked into the kitchen, soon to be joined by his companion.
"Well?"
"Well what Sherlock?"
"Well aren't you going to say thank you? Isn't it a social obligation to thank people when they done something nice for you?"
Sherlock's smug smile fading slightly, perhaps he had got this wrong. John did not look happy.
"Nice? What's nice about springing my sister on me? I don't spring Mycroft on you!"
Sherlock pulled a face at the mention of his brother, "I'm sorry John I just thought... I mean I already fixed the whole psychosomatic limp thing so I thought you could use some help with the whole sister thing too."
John's face dropped in shock, "Wait, you tried to do something for another person with no benefit to yourself?"
Sherlock blushed, putting a hand to his head, "Well not necessarily, by ensuring you have contact with your family you will not go looking for affection in unwarranted directions and therefore run the risk of getting married to some unsuitable woman. Therefore leaving me alone with just the skull for company once more, also it would greatly improve your general happiness levels, leading to an overall loss in the levels of your fits of anger towards me and therefore less nagging."
The detective reached across and grasped the neck of his wine glass, flouncing past the doctor back towards the living room.
...
The evening had gone quite well as Sherlock was on his best behaviour (which granted wasn't very good), he had been watching the siblings talking, interrupting every now and then to give his observations whenever the conversation lulled, hopeful to impress John and get back into his good books after the unfortunate situation with his bedroom the day before.
"So you are back with Clara then?"
Sherlock picked at his food, not eating it but moving it around to give the illusion he had so John wouldn't try and force him to in front of his sister. Satisfied with the grin that spread across the doctor's face he excused himself to go to the toilet and left the siblings alone.
John turned from Sherlock with a slight frown; the behaviour of the detective was beginning to worry him, since when was he so courteous? Believing Sherlock's earlier story despite his logical reasoning he felt would be a mistake, and pausing he continued to watch the detective leave, his eyes lingering for a minute longer than strictly necessary before looking up and smiling at his sister.
"Really Harry? That's fantastic!"
The woman blushed and looked to the floor, "Thanks John, we decided to give it another go now that I'm getting clean and everything, Mum will be pleased at least, now that we have both settled down."
"What do you mean settled down?" John frowned for a moment, his eyes flickering to where Sherlock had disappeared through the door moments before.
"What do you mean, what do mean by settled down, you and Sherlock of course!" She answered with a giggle and a snort leaning across to nudge John's elbow with a wink, "And if I wasn't so into women I'd be jealous."
"I am not his date!" John answered incredulously looking between his sister and the stairs, his face turning red.
Heat raising around his collar once again, his sister apparently could read his mind as easily as she had done as a child; the only other person to read him as easily had been Sherlock. Luckily his deductions had yet to lead him to John's true feelings about his flatmate and the doctor intended to keep it that way.
As far he knew Sherlock was not interested in things of an amorous nature, and definitely not interested in him in that way. Even if he were, the detective saw this as his only friendship and nothing more than that the doctor assured himself, burying the ember of hope that blossomed at the merest mention of them as a couple once more.
"Really? Because you haven't stopped talking about him all night and any other time you've talked me to me since you met, it's obvious to everyone that you fancy him, and seeing as he's such a good detective, I'm sure he's worked that out for himself." She said with a grin, taking a sip of her orange juice. Pointedly looking from her brother to the door where his eyes had lingered she raised an eyebrow amusement.
"I don't fancy him!" John scowled, "Anyway if he did know Sherlock would defiantly say so."
"If he did know what?" Harry laughed clapping a hand on John's shoulder, triumph in her voice as he spluttered, choking on his drink."He's going to work it out pretty soon though, if you are going to keep making those googly eyes after him whenever he leaves or turns around, if he hasn't already of course." She added nonchalantly picking a crisp from the bowl in the centre and chewing on it thoughtfully.
"Actually I deduced it a while ago"
Sherlock re-entered to a shocked gasp from the doctor and dropped down, back into his chair, seemingly unaffected by the metaphorical bomb he just dropped upon his companion.
"Then why didn't you say anything?" Harry asked, interested, leaning past her still visibly shocked brother, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly to scrutinize the other man.
"I figured that jumping ones flatmate wasn't particularly at the height of social decorum. Was I wrong?" he asked, looking up from the rim of his wine glass in query. Harry laughed shaking her head and patting the detective on the leg.
"No, not the height of it but it would have saved us this awkward little coming out moment for my brother. Realising that your very male friend who you happen to have the biggest crush on reciprocated said feelings, and quote 'wanted to 'jump' you' in front of your sister isn't exactly an easy thing to go through."
"Is it not?" Sherlock mused turning to face John, eyebrows raised at the aghast expression still occupying his friends face, "Do stop pulling that face John, you may be as mentally negligible as most of the population but it can't be that much of a shock, you are an attractive man and I had already made my preferences known to you. Surely you must have surmised by now that there was the distinct possibility that I would reciprocate."
The doctor spluttered once again words tumbling out of his mouth, "But I thought you were married to your work?"
"So did I." Sherlock answered, silencing the doctor before his next sentence even had opportunity to form in his mouth. The two men stared at each other, ones face unreadable the other still frozen in awe.
The silence was broken by a cough and the doctor's head snapped to his sister, his mouth closed tightly but eyes still wide. "I think I'll be going now as you seem to have some things to talk about."
John stared for a moment and then shook his head "What...Oh right yeah ok, thanks for coming by the way and congratulations and everything. Call me later in the week and we can get together for a drink... oh shit sorry, a drink for me I mean, you can have something else or...or we both can, if you want and tell mum I said hi and Clara too. Maybe we should go for a meal, Clara and mum could come too, anyway, thank you. Bye!" he gabbled, leading his sister down the stairs and to the door, helping her with her coat.
With a peck on his cheek and a giggle she walked off into the night leaving him alone at the doorstep, the air cold against his face and the panic at being left alone with the revelation that awaited him back at the top of the stairs.
Putting on his best war face he closed the door and span around on the spot, staring down the stairs as thought they were a gauntlet.
...
He was surprised to find that Sherlock was no longer in the front room, sitting on his sofa when he returned. Walking back into the flat he turned his face to the side and was surprised by the detective standing just behind him, leaning against the door frame.
For a moment they just looked at each other. Suddenly Sherlock seemed to take the initiative, closing the distance between them and pushing the doctor backwards until he hit the opposite wall. He pressed his body solidly against John which freed his hands from his shoulders to run them through John's hair, turning his head to increase the access to his mouth, rolling his hips against Johns, drawing a deep moan from him that reverberated through his own chest and shot straight to his groin and the straining erection in his trousers. Rolling his hips once more he felt an answer to his arousal in John's trousers and let out a low moan.
"Sherlock! Wait."
John pushed him away and for a minute Sherlock's confidence in his own deductions was called in to question. Perhaps those glances, the way John was with him...perhaps it was an illusion created by his own mind. He'd had delusions this vivid before when he had experimented with certain chemicals and their effects upon a person's body.
Much to his immense relief John took his hand, leading him in the direction of the bedroom, a decided blush around the tips of his ears and he couldn't keep the grin from returning to his face.
"This doesn't get you off the hook for the whole bed thing you know."
"Damn."