AN: A second chapter so soon, you ask? Why yes, yes it is. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: We've been over this a time or two already: I don't own, nor will I ever own, anything you recognize here.
What happened just before John walked in the door:
"I won't let you keep him." Sherlock was all calm assurance as he sat across from Jim.
"Back off, Sherly, this isn't your decision to make." Jim calmly reasoned back, knowing that his calm acceptance would irritate the detective he had unfortunately brought into his and John's life more than anything else would.
"It is as much mine as it is yours." Jim had to suppress a snort at the man's sheer egotism.
"Oh? And how do you come to such a backwards conclusion?" He teased.
"John is my friend, he'll believe me once I explain to him just how wrong a choice he is making." Sherlock stated with all the confidence of a general on the battlefield, it was just his ill-luck to have finally run afoul a force he couldn't just bowl over.
"Bollox. He and I are going to marry no matter what you have to say, and if he hadn't decided to try and surprise me with the rings I would already be calling him my fiancé. So you're just going to have to deal with it." Sherlock narrowed his eyes fractionally- not enough for normal people to see, but more than enough for Jim to see what was coming.
Jim was already moving by the time Sherlock was halfway out of his chair.
"Really now, you know that violence is the last resort of a beaten man, don't you?" Jim quipped even as he slammed the hastily grabbed tea-tray into Sherlock's side, sending the detective to the floor.
"When all other avenues prove fruitless one must make do." The detective replied as he snaked a foot around Jim's knee and brought him down on top of him.
Sherlock went to wrap his longer frame around Jim's shorter one but was stopped as Jim managed to somehow maneuver himself to straddle Sherlock's hips.
"That's a trick I learned from John, he's very good at getting the upper hand in a tussle- though usually he and I are naked by this point." Sherlock went to grab at Jim but wound up getting his hands restrained above his head instead.
"Now, now, none of that." Sherlock went to twist away but Jim, after transferring both hands to one of his own, stopped that by grabbing the detectives shirt and slamming him back to the floor.
"You know, for the one who started this you're not very good at hand to hand combat. Maybe I should get John to give you some tips." Jim then leaned forward to whisper into Sherlock's ear.
"After our honeymoon, of course." Sherlock then reared forward and sank his teeth into Jim's neck while be bucked his hips, trying to get Jim off of him.
"You can't keep John! He's mine!" Or so Sherlock attempted to say, but since he had a mouthful of Jim's neck it came out more as jumbled nonsense and grunts than anything intelligible. He even had to suffer the indignity of slurping as he couldn't risk losing his one advantage just to swallow properly.
For Jim's part he was cursing himself for having been so foolish as to give Sherlock such an opening as he had, now he was going to have to explain the nasty bite mark Sherlock was giving him to John; and John never reacted well whenever he got hurt.
Not wanting to give Sherlock the satisfaction of knowing just how much this really hurt, Jim pretended that it was John biting him instead. It worked so well that, instead of crying out in pain, he moaned out in pleasure. That was so embarrassing.
A small gasp, almost a whimper, had Jim rolling off Sherlock to look up at a devastated John.
It didn't require a genius level IQ to know what the scene he had walked in on had looked like.
"John, it's not what you think-" Jim tried, but John wouldn't have any of it.
"No, Jim, I don't want to hear it!"
JMJWJMJWJMJWJMJWJMJWJMJWJMJWJMJW
The next day:
John awoke with a hangover and a heavy heart late in the morning, only vaguely remembering Sebastian waking him up with a glass of water and an aspirin before heading out to who knows where to do who knows what.
Rolling off the bed, John didn't even bother finding his shoes before heading out to find the bathroom and the kitchen- in that order.
"Good morning, Dr. Watson." Came a falsely cheerful greeting from the sitting room as John finally managed to locate the kitchen.
Not bothering to acknowledge the greeting- he couldn't deal with Mycroft Bloody Holmes until he'd had his morning tea- John set to making two cups instead of one.
How he hated these impromptu visits, he had ever since the first one four months ago.
John opened the door of the exam room fully expecting to find a patient with a sprained wrist, but what he found instead was a well dressed man holding a file and looking at him as if he had just been scraped off the bottom of pair of expensive Italian loafers.
"Hello Mr. uh... Smith?" John finally realized how bad this could be and began backing out the door, only to have that avenue blocked by a woman typing away on a phone.
"Let us dispense with formalities, Dr. Watson, I'm only here to ask you a few questions concerning your intentions towards one Sherlock Holmes. Answer me honestly and we can be done here in no time at all." Realization hit and John visibly slumped in relief.
'The Ice Man is a force to be reckoned with, much like myself, and especially where his little brother is concerned. I keep eyes on him, so don't worry if he approaches you, I won't let him make you disappear. Just let him talk, it's something he loves to do, and answer his questions as truthfully as you can- that's something that almost never happens and so is likely to throw him for a loop. Ha!' John rolled Jim's advise around his head a moment before turning to the be-suited man in his exam room.
"How may I help you today, Mr. Holmes? And if this is about Sherlock you should know that I only just met him earlier today." Mycroft looked putout at having lost his greatest element of mystery, but he quickly regrouped and carried on.
"Earlier today, yes. And right after he met you he went out and moved himself into a larger flat that he really needs a flatmate to afford, saying all the while that he has someone in mind. Do you know anything about this?"
"No, but I wish him all the luck with whomever he finds. He doesn't really strike me as someone who gets on well with others."
"Indeed. What are you plans for future contact with Sherlock, doctor?"
"My plans? I don't have any. But I won't turn him away if he shows up again, I have a feeling he needs all the support he can get- even if he doesn't realize it himself." Mycroft then snapped his file shut and began heading for the door.
"Thank you for your time, doctor, I'll be in touch."
"Yeah, I just bet you will." John muttered once the elder Holmes brother was well out of ear shot. His phone then pinged and he fished it out to find a text from Jim.
Your first meeting with the Ice Man and you survived! Not so bad, was it? And I've finally decided on where I'm taking you tomorrow. It's a surprise so don't bother asking where. JM
John put his phone up and got back to work, he still had a long shift ahead of him.
"What do you want, Mycroft?" John asked bluntly even as he handed over the second mug of tea and took a seat as far from the other man as he could.
"Ah, but this time it isn't what I want. This time it is what I have been asked to deliver." He produced a memory stick from some inner pocket and laid it on the table alongside his untouched tea.
"As much as I loathe being reduced to a mere errand boy the payment for this was simply too much to pass up."
"How many cases does Sherlock have to do for you now? And what is on that?"
"I'm not privy to such details, though I suspect it's security footage from your flat last night. And as for my payment, well..." Mycroft stood and, with a sweep so dramatic it might have even made Sherlock proud, headed for the door.
"I never said it was Sherlock that owed me, now did I?" Then he was gone, leaving behind only the memory stick and a greasy feel of smugness in the air.
Giving in and picking up the small thing, John quickly placed it in one of Seb's unsecured laptops- he had several, each set up for a different purpose- and played the video file that was on it before he could change his mind.
Mycroft was right, it was, indeed, security footage- with sound- from the night before.
John almost turned away, not wanting to see all this all over again, but stopped himself as he realized what they were talking about.
They were talking about him! More specifically, they were talking about how Jim wanted to marry him and Sherlock wanted to keep him- John- all to himself, the selfish bastard.
And them the fight began, and John saw himself enter at the worst possible moment.
He saw how lost Jim looked as he opened the ring box after he had left.
He listened two the two geniuses talk as if getting him back were the most important thing in the whole of the World.
And then Jim spoke to him.
"I need to figure out a way to fix this."
"Yes we do."
"Where to begin..." On the screen Jim suddenly looked up at the camera and right into John's eyes.
"John..." Jim stood up and walked closer to the hidden camera so that John could see his face clearly and the depth of emotion that lay there.
"I can't even begin to apologize for this, for what you saw, for what you thought... for how you must surely feel at this very moment. But, if you will let me, I will spend the rest of my life making sure that you never feel this way again. Please John, I'm begging you, give me a second chance." Jim opened the ring box once more and placed one of the rings on his finger.
"My answer is yes, John, it will always be yes. You are the only man- the only person in the whole World- that I would ever want to spend my life with. But if you don't want to anymore then that is fine, I'll completely understand. Just... come home. Please! Just come home." The video stopped after that and John was left staring at a blank screen.
How could Jim think that he wouldn't still want to marry him? The idea of it was utterly preposterous! Even when he'd been drowning his sorrows in bottle after bottle he had still longed to walk down that long aisle and join himself to his lovably insane lover for the rest of his life.
Wiping his face clean- he didn't know when the tears had started but he wouldn't return to Jim with their tracks in fresh evidence- John grabbed his shoes and his wallet and made his way to the front door.
Opening it he found Jim standing there, looking more unsure than at any other time before in their acquaintance.
"I couldn't wait to find out your answer, I'm sorr-!" John cut off his words with a feral kiss, all teeth and tongue and need.
Pulling Jim back into the flat John sent up a silent prayer that Seb wouldn't return home for a good long while.
"He won't, I had to send him out of the country until everything settled down. He was very... upset over what happened and itching to put a bullet in the one responsible." Jim managed to get out when they broke air for a moment.
"Good!" Was all John had to say to that as he tugged Jim over to the couch and began undressing him.
"This doesn't mean you're fully forgiven(off comes the suit jacket and shirt) I was really hurt last night(the pants bunch at the knees but John doesn't care, the important parts are exposed) you are going to have to work hard to make it up to me."
"I know, John, and I'm willing to put in the effort for as long as it takes." So saying Jim reached down and wrapped his hand around John's member- which was a feat as John hadn't noticed his clothes being opened in his rush to get Jim naked- and made the doctor jump.
"Jim, are- are you wearing my ring?" John could feel it, that smooth band of skin heated metal on Jim's finger, as it moved along his need swollen cock.
"Yes. I never plan to take it off. Unless, of course, you want me to." Jim stilled his hand movements as he looked up at John, a smidgen of fear in his eyes.
It made John's heart swell to know that he was the one person Jim trusted enough to show such a thing to.
Leaning down, pressing his body as close to Jim's as possible, John whispered against his lover's lips even as he adjusted them to line up perfectly with each other.
"The only time I want to see you not wearing that ring is when I get to put it on you myself, understood?" Jim nodded and then gasped as John thrust against him.
"My beautiful, crazy love, I can't wait to call you all mine." John growled a he started getting close.
"Yes, John, yes! All yours! Only yours!" Jim panted out his agreement as he let John manhandle him into their release. Oh how he love it when John topped.
They came together- on an unsuspecting Sebastian's couch- with words of love and desire on their kiss swollen lips.
Afterwards as the lay resting, Jim drawing abstract patterns with his finger on John's back, a question that needed to be asked was finally put forth.
"What about dear Sherly? He won't stop trying to come between us, and I can't just kill him now that he's one of your friends."
"Don't worry about Sherlock, I have something terribly appropriate in mind as punishment for his part in all of this."
"Oh? Do tell."
"All in good time, Jim, but first you need to replace Seb's couch for me. I won't have a friend of mind, who was all too willing to defend my honor to someeone elses death, coming home to a jizz soaked sofa." Jim laughed as John knew he would and the world settled back to the way it should always be.
And it would stay that way up until John asked Sherlock to be his bestman, and then it would all go to hell again.