Hello all! Sorry for the delayed update! I didn't realize that a week had passed since I last updated. Anyways, here is the chapter! To make up for the delay, this chapter is slightly longer than the others. I really hope that you enjoy it. As always, thank you for your continued support, and thank you for reading!
The next few days passed pretty uneventfully. Sherlock and John worked on two more cases, and Sherlock experimented while John went to the clinic. Today, however, was different than any other day. Today, John and Sherlock would meet with a wedding planner. Sherlock had originally rejected the idea, but John had told him that they needed one since neither of them knew anything about planning a wedding. John had known some people in the past who had gotten married, but he never asked them about how they actually planned the wedding.
Once Sherlock had agreed to the wedding planner, John had to convince Sherlock to come to the meeting. Sherlock had insisted that he trusted John on planning the wedding, but John didn't want to decide on anything major without Sherlock by his side. So they were now in a taxi, heading to the slightly richer side of London. Sherlock was staring out the window and his breath left white clouds on the glass. Rain pattered against the windows the cab. John pulled his coat closer to his body and shook his head.
Sherlock's gaze flicked over to John. He tugged at John's sleeve. John furrowed his eyebrows and looked over at Sherlock. Sherlock tugged at his sleeve again, pulling John closer to him. John finally got what Sherlock was trying to say and moved over so his shoulder was pressed against Sherlock's bicep. Sherlock wrapped his arm around John's shoulder and pulled him closer to him so almost every part of their bodies was touching. The chill that had been taking over John's body slowly died down. Goosebumps still covered his skin, but they weren't there just because of the cold anymore.
John and Sherlock sat in silence until they reached their destination. The cabbie glanced into the rearview mirror.
"Have a good day," he said as John and Sherlock got out of the cab.
They had arrived at a building that was made out of light tan stone. An iron gate outlined the front of the building so it was cut off from the surrounding area. John handed the cabbie a few bills and went over to Sherlock who was staring up at the building.
"This is where the wedding planner is?" Sherlock asked.
"Yes, come on," John said, pulling Sherlock's sleeve so he would follow him into the building.
A receptionist greeted them once they were inside. She smiled at them when they went up to her desk.
"How may I help you?" she asked.
"We have an appointment. It's under Watson."
Sherlock shot John a look; John shrugged and glanced back at the receptionist. The receptionist typed something into the computer and nodded.
"Yep. Feel free to enter her office now if you want. Thanks for stopping by."
With that, John and Sherlock went to the left of the desk over to a door that supposedly led to the planner's office.
Sherlock really, truly, did not want to be doing this right now. He knew that the wedding was important to John, but he did not fully understand why they needed to go to a wedding planner. He thought that they could just figure out how to plan the wedding by looking up instructions online. John, unsurprisingly, did not want to do that; he thought that they would screw up the wedding if they tried to plan it all by themselves. Sherlock understood why John believed that, but he still thought that they could plan it by themselves.
Sherlock opened the door to the office for John. John thanked him and went into the office, Sherlock closely following him. The office was a relatively large room that was framed by bookshelves on every wall save for one that was lined with windows. Sunlight streamed through the windows, lighting the room. A woman sat at a desk in the center of the room. She got up from her desk and extended her hand. John smiled and shook her hand. The planner moved her hand so it was in front of Sherlock, but he just sat down instead.
John rolled his eyes but didn't say anything. The wedding planner frowned, but didn't say anything.
"So, you must be John and Sherlock," she said, sitting back down and opening her laptop. John and Sherlock nodded. "It's very nice to meet you. Please call me Amy. I hate formal titles."
John nodded.
"It's very nice to meet you as well," John said, smiling slightly.
"A wedding is a very important event, whether you think it is or not. In five years, you'll look back on your wedding day and it'll mean something to you. A wedding marks the beginning of a new chapter of your life. You want to give this new chapter a proper beginning."
John nodded as Sherlock rolled his eyes. She was being a bit overdramatic; sentimental.
"So, when would you like your wedding to be?"
"Well, we were thinking about having one in the winter. We know that winter can be a dreadful time of year, but we'd love to have our wedding then."
Amy glanced down at her laptop and typed something.
"Winter isn't a very popular season to get married in, but people certainly do get married then. Some people want to be different than other people so they choose winter instead of the summer. But, winter is good because a lot of hotels and other places are not very busy with weddings so it's easier to reserve a location. Speaking of locations, do you have any in mind?"
Sherlock's and John's gazes met. They had talked about locations a bit over the last few days, but they hadn't really agreed on a place. Each of them picked five hotels that they wanted the wedding to be at, but they hadn't narrowed their selection down to one yet. Picking the location was a big step so they didn't want to rush into anything. Especially when they didn't know how expensive it would be to actually book a place.
They weren't really worried about the price of the wedding, but they didn't want it to be too expensive. John got paid pretty well at the clinic, but Sherlock and John both agreed that they'd rather have a smaller wedding so they could do other things, like take a vacation, in the future.
"We have a few places in mind, but we'd like to hear your suggestions as well. We really don't know anything about the wedding process."
Sherlock let out a sound of annoyance and looked out the window. He had researched a lot over the last few days about planning a wedding, but John seemed to think that they needed some "professional" help. He said that it was their wedding and he wanted to do it right. Amy launched into a spiel about different venues and why one was better than the other while Sherlock tuned her out and thought about something else.
John grinned as he walked out of the building. The meeting had actually gone much better than he thought it would. Amy seemed like a very nice person who completely understood the wedding planning process. Sherlock was standing on the curb, hailing a taxi. A taxi pulled over as Sherlock gestured for John to join him. John went over to the taxi and slid in. Sherlock joined him a few seconds later and closed the door behind him. The taxi was quiet until they were about halfway to Baker Street. John glanced over at Sherlock who was staring out of the window as usual.
"So, what did you think?" John asked, raising his eyebrows.
Sherlock shrugged.
"I don't think it should be too hard to plan the wedding. I think we should schedule the venue soon though if we want to have a wedding at a good place. I know that Amy said that there aren't a lot of weddings in the winter, but we don't know how reliable she is."
"I'm sure she's very reliable, Sherlock. I mean, she does this for a living."
"So? The officers at Scotland Yard say that they are reliable, but they are rarely reliable."
John let out an agitated sigh; why did Sherlock have to make this a big deal? All John wanted to do was pick a place that Sherlock and him both liked. He didn't care when they scheduled the venue, but he wanted to do it so they could start planning the other parts of the wedding. Amy said that planning a wedding could be stressful, but John doubted that it was as stressful as she made it out to be.
The next few days weren't the most exciting days for either John or Sherlock. Picking out a venue was actually much more difficult than both of them had expected. They both wanted a similar venue style, but neither of them could agree on one place for the wedding. Sherlock wanted the wedding to be at a slightly bigger place than John. In truth, Sherlock didn't really want to have a big wedding, but he thought that John would want to have one since it was their big day.
Sherlock stretched and got up from the couch. John looked up from his laptop and then continued to type whatever he was typing. Sherlock went over to him so he could see what he was up to. As expected, John was on the internet, searching for possible venues for the wedding. He sighed and closed a tab; he ran a hand over his face.
"You know, this is much more difficult than I expected, Sherlock," he said, looking through a list of venues on another site.
"It'll be worth it though. The key is to find a venue that we both like," Sherlock said, trying to appease John. John hadn't been getting much sleep for the past few nights. Normally Sherlock was the one who stayed up all night, but now John was staying up later than Sherlock. During these last few nights Sherlock went to bed a few hours than John, which never usually happened. John's eyes were marked with purple bags and his normally perfectly pressed clothes were wrinkled. To be honest, this sudden change of behavior was starting to worry Sherlock.
"Yes, but we haven't decided on one yet, Sherlock, and what if we don't? I mean, we want completely different things. There isn't any way that we'll find one that we both agree on."
Sherlock ran a hand through his curly hair and placed his hands on John's shoulders. John's body felt tense under Sherlock's touch. Sherlock gently pressed his thumbs into John's shoulder blades, circling around an area that was filled with knots. John groaned; Sherlock smirked and continued to work the knots out, hoping that it would make him feel better. John tilted his head back so his eyes were almost directly underneath Sherlock's. His lips were partly open and all the tension from his face seemed to evaporate.
"We'll find a place, John. The likelihood that we do not find a venue is very, very, small."
"Yes, but we don't know that, Sherlock. We haven't agreed on a place yet."
Suddenly Sherlock's shirt felt very tight. He nodded slowly to John and then turned around to go to his room. He grabbed a white box from his room and then went outside, leaving John staring after him. Sherlock shut the door behind him and pressed his back against the white brick. He opened the package of cigarettes, unable to control his craving. He knew that he shouldn't smoke, but he didn't care. He needed something to calm his racing mind; to bring some clarity to his thoughts. He lit a cigarette and brought it to his lips. Inhaling, he relished the way the cigarette felt between his teeth. Slowly, he let out a breath, pouring the smoke out of his mouth.
Deep down, Sherlock knew that they would find a venue. After all, they needed to have one in order to have the wedding. That didn't seem to calm his mind, though. All he could focus on was the fact that they still hadn't found one. He knew that couples sometimes took a while to make decisions, but he never thought that it would take this long. He brought the cigarette to his mouth again and inhaled. His crowded mind seemed to quiet some. The thoughts that had been penetrating his mind seemed to die down; some of them even disappeared. He continued to smoke, hoping that John wouldn't walk out any second and catch him. Smoking, after all, was one of John's pet peeves. John absolutely hated it when Sherlock decided to smoke. John always told Sherlock that smoking was the number one cause of lung cancer. If John caught him smoking, well, John would not be very happy.
Sherlock closed his eyes and pressed his head against the brick. Finally, his muscles seemed to relax, and his thoughts became more coherent. He tossed the cigarette to the ground and turned back to 221B, ready to find a venue for the wedding.
I hope that you enjoyed the chapter! If you have any comments, feel free to leave one below. No matter what you say in the comment, I always enjoy reading it. Anyways, thank you again for your continued support! It means a lot to me.