All The Rage Back Home - Interpol

"I'm not staying there. Nothing ever happened there." Sherlock leaned over Ramona's shoulder to look at the laptop screen where a nice hotel was displayed. Ramona frowned, amused, and turned to face the side of his head.

"We're not going on a murder mystery tour, y'know. It's just a hotel, we're only gonna sleep there." Sherlock turns to face her.

"Can we at least stay somewhere a bit less generic?" They suddenly both froze at the closeness and Sherlock turned to look back at the screen, clearing his throat deeply.

"I've shown you loads!" Ramona felt exasperated at the consulting detective, who was surprisingly fussy as to where he stayed, considering he had a human head in his fridge at this point in time.

"And they've all been boring!" Sherlock stresses. Ramona shakes her head.

"If my hotel picking skills are so bad, then you find one."

"Fine."

"Fine." Sherlock smiled as he went to pick up her laptop, and Ramona swatted his hands away protectively. "You have your own."

"But yours is closer." Sherlock pouts and Ramona sighs.

"Then stop leaving yours in the bedroom. Actually, why do you always bring your laptop to bed, Sherlock?" He played a straight face and continued to pretend to study the hotel. "Am I going to find stuff similar to on John's if I go on it?" She grinned, realising he was going slightly red, which almost never happened.

"You could never get in anyway, it's password protected." He goes to sit at his chair.

"Try me." Ramona smirked. Sherlock sighed.

"I'd rather not." And off he went to get his laptop.

Arriving at Leeds was nostalgic to say the least, as Ramona stepped off the train, pulling a small suitcase behind her. As Sherlock stepped beside her they started walking, he leaned down to talk above the rabble and echo of voices.

"80% of the air we breath in in train stations is microscopic sized dead skin cells." Ramona grimaced and he chuckled.

"Thanks for that." She said sarcastically.

The pair arrived at the hotel slightly tired, and on the inside it was sleek and modern, black glossy marble flooring that looked way too expensive to walk on. As the doors slid open Ramona spoke to Sherlock.

"Alright, what happened here?" Sherlock's eyes seemed to light, like he had been waiting for her to ask.

"Around ninety ago this was a hotel for only the richest and most influential. It's been reported that in every case days before the victim's 'disappearance'," Sherlock raises his fingers to make air speech marks. "Because it's never actually been proven it was murder, victims reported the same thing, all of them seeing a black cat, as if it wanted them to follow it. After a few days they went missing. The hotel naturally tried to cover it up, which is probably why you've never heard of it before."

"They could of been poisoned, and eventually took their own life from slowly going mad." Ramona suggested.

"Unlikely, as the bodies were never found. Why would they try to hide themselves?" She felt stupid and immediately regretted what she had said. "Two rooms booked under Sherlock Holmes." The woman at reception smiled and nodded, scrolling through her computer. She suddenly frowned.

"Two rooms, you said?" Sherlock nodded, brows furrowing. "I only have one under your name." Sherlock shook his head.

"There must of been a mistake."

"It happens very rarely, but there's a glitch in the booking system." Ramona stared incredulously.

"Can I not just get another room then?" The woman tapped something into her keyboard.

"Hmm, we're all booked tonight, but tomorrow there's a room on the top floor that's available." I'm going to share a room with Sherlock, how could this trip get any worse? How more embarrassing?

"Is it two singles in the room that's booked?" Sherlock asks, his voice strangely strangled. The woman at the desk shook her head.

"I'm afraid not. However we can give you a day'd refund for any inconvenience caused." Sherlock and Ramona look at each other. How bad could it be? It's just like me and Hannah sharing a bed. We're both adults after all. Sherlock seems to have been thinking the same thing as he takes the key from the woman's hand.

It was complete silence, and for some reason Ramona felt sick with nerves. Her palms were verging on sweating, and she felt an awful anxiety, like she was walking toward a noose with her name on it. I'm just being stupid. Sherlock is Sherlock, he'd never participate or even think about you or anyone in that way... Would he?

"I'm sorry about this." Sherlock said as he stopped by the door, room 48 on the fourth floor.

"It's not your fault." He turns the key and opens the room to reveal a simple but big room, with a large double bed in the middle of the right hand side of the room, a wardrobe to their immediate left, an expensive looking desk opposite the bed, above it was a mirror and on the right of that was a large flat screen television on the wall. Opposite to the wall were balcony windows. At the end of the left wall there is a door, presumably the bathroom. Sherlock walks in and goes to see the bathroom whilst Ramona goes straight to the all-glass balcony doors, opening them wide and entering onto a medium sized terrace, with a surprisingly good view of the city. She goes to lean on the glass and metal railings that looked new and very strong, and began to get a good feeling that it'd look even better at night. She smiled at the sight of the old and new buildings she had never seen from this perspective. She suddenly realised Sherlock was behind her, and she felt slightly embarrassed.

"It's a good view, isn't it?" He walked to beside her and leaned backwards on it. Ramona looked down involuntary and her eyes widened, realising the height of it. She swallowed and steadied herself, focusing on Sherlock's face, as to not take a step back from the dizzying drop and look stupid.

"It'd look better at night." For some reason, Sherlock smiled at this, before facing the city, leaving her to look up at his regal profile. God he's gorgeous.

"Are you nervous? For tonight, I mean." His voice.

"Why did you come here with me, Sherlock?" He seems slightly startled by this question. His hair moved slightly in the breeze. His hair is so perfect.

"I was curious. I know- compared to what I know about other people- nothing about you. It's my job to be interested in mysteries, isn't it?" Ramona's heart sank at this. What did you expect? For him to care about you like you do him? Some people just aren't built that way, and he can't help it. He'd never reciprocate romantic feelings, the only relationships he's ever had are for manipulation only.

"So that's all I am to you? A subject? An experiment?" Sherlock frowned.

"That isn't what I was trying to say, you know that." She laughs cynically and shakes her head.

"No Sherlock, I don't know that." She looks down at the people below, going about their lives, unknowing to the storm of feelings brewing inside Ramona. Suddenly her phone rang out in the sound of the Tardis. Sherlock frowned for a second and looked around, causing Ramona to throw her head back and laugh heartily before pulling out her phone and raising her eyebrows. Sherlock tried to look indifferent but couldn't seem to fight a smile.

Ramona got changed in the toilet of the room into a short black high necked body-con dress. She felt her stomach churning away at the prospect of seeing her schoolmates again. She had isolated herself and they had mistaken it for hatred, which they had given back unconditionally. At this point Ramona thought she may actually throw up with nerves. She shouldn't be going. She'd just run off. Or, She could stay for two minutes, and quickly slip out of the back door, if she remembered the layout of the hall correctly. Of course she did. Putting on a pair of black high heels, she began to work on her hair, taking two locks of hair on either side of her face and pulling them back to clip to the back of her hair. She swallowed and reviewed her appearance, feeling anxiety in every bone of her body. She stepped out of the room to face Sherlock, who was waiting for her in his usual suit with her favourite purple shirt. (It was of course her favourite for the tightness of it.) He turned to look at her and his eyes widened slightly before blinking several times and clearing his throat, before going to get their coats that were hung on the back of the door. Ramona started to shake her head as she took her leather jacket from his hand.

"I can't do it Sherlock." His eyes seemed to soften. "I can't go." She's still shaking her head. "Let's just go somewhere else tonight, you and me, please I don't-" Her voice was wracked with nerves, as if weighed down by tonnes of bricks.

"Don't be ridiculous. We've come this far, after all." He smiled down softly at her and she thought she might melt into a puddle at his expensive shoes. "Now put your jacket on, you're going to have a good night tonight." She stared up at him, her eyes pleading and his merciless under the pretense of kind. After a few seconds she grumbled and put her jacket on.

"That sounded way too sexual." Sherlock chuckled and the sound gave her butterflies. She was scared at how he did that to her.

Their taxi pulled up outside the school at eight pm, the only lights on were coming from the large dinner hall. Saint Georges Catholic School was a large campus, mostly consisting of a large Victorian main building, along with another modern one that had walls of glass, and one from the eighties, which Ramona felt ruined the whole look of it. However the dining hall building made up for whatever was lacking in architecture in the school. It had large wooden double doors and a big doorway, along with a big hall inside, with big boards that dated back to the 20's with lists of pupils that had graduated. That tradition had of course long stopped when they realised they were running out of wall. You could slowly see the font becoming smaller on them as school became more and more available, How girl's names became present when it switched from an all boys school in the 40's, and for some reason Ramona had always been fascinated by them.

"Ramona?" She suddenly snapped out of her lines of thought, as if entranced. She turned to Sherlock with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry I- I was just thinking." He smiled down at her, making her feel like his stupid dog who ran into walls when it got too excited. A few more steps and they were greeted by Hannah and Harry, Hannah already being basically swarmed by five women. When she spotted Ramona She started waving like an idiot- like herself. As soon as the other women saw Ramona and Sherlock their eyes widened, before backing away slightly and turning to themselves for chatter.

"I was worrying you weren't coming!" Ramona looked up at Sherlock who was already looking at her and looked back to Hannah.

"Yeah, well, we've come this far after all." She smiled as she saw Sherlock smile out of the corner of her eye.

When they entered the hall there was a stage for the DJ and the 'prizes' that they were going to vote for throughout the night, some of them were for 'Person who got the hottest' another was for 'most surprising success' and another was for 'cutest couple' and on and on went the superficial rubbish she would have to contend with throughout the night. There were lots of round tables that could hold six people, and the four of them found one completely free and sat down. Ramona started to feel relaxed and almost safe in Sherlock's company, and knew it would have been a huge mistake for him not to have come. He got up suddenly, excusing himself to go to the loo.

Harry and Hannah were suddenly taking to the dancefloor, and Ramona couldn't not come with them, laughing at Harry's inability to feel embarrassed in the slightest at his horrendous drunk uncle at a wedding dancing. Suddenly two men and a woman were in front of her, and she wouldn't of thought anything of it, except they were standing still, and staring right at her. She took a good luck and a hard pang ran through her, almost reducing her to run out right at that second.

"Hello, little miss perfect." Gabrielle said, maliciously but sugar coated so it would sound sweet if you didn't know what she was talking about. That nickname had been awful, so awful that at one point she had actually flunked out on everything, and it had only gotten worse.

"Dry Ice, didn't think you'd come." Daniel came out with. That had been her worst nickname. They'd thought her cold, evil even, so labelled her dry ice in year seven.

"Hi, Ramona. You're looking well." That hurt the most. It was Tom. It was Tom who she had abandoned in an alley. Never seen again. His face brought back too many memories, and she couldn't look at it, it physically brought her pain. She forced out a convincing smile.

"Thanks, lovely to see all of you again."

"Here alone?" Tom asked. Please go away.

"Can't say I'm surprised." Gabrielle shrugs her blonde hair and green eyes glinting. Tom looks at her, as if to say something defensive.

"When weren't you alone at school? Just like old times." Just like old times.

"Surprised you haven't got a boyfriend looking like that, but then again, who could put up with you?" She laughed like they were old friends discussing an inside joke. But they weren't. Leave right now. Turn around and walk out of the door, don't look back. Sherlock'll figure out where you've gone.

"Ramona?" A sudden baritone is heard from behind. Her hand is now engulfed in a bigger one, her fingers being intertwined with longer ones. She looked up in surprise and confusion, only to earn a wink from the consulting detective and a small squeeze of her hand. The trio frowned collectively and then hid it behind a politely fake smile.

"Who's this? You never mentioned a boyfriend." Gabrielle said happily, twirling a blond lock of hair around a finger. Ramona opened her mouth to speak but Sherlock butted in.

"She doesn't like talking about me. Honestly, sometimes I think she's embarrassed." He smiled down at her with a sparkle in his eye and wrapped a strong, protective arm around her waist. The best thing now would be to play along. Gabrielle giggled and Daniel smiled as Tom eyed him up and down.

"How long have you two been together?" His kind voice was laced with poison. They both go to answer.

"Three year-" Sherlock's voice can be heard.

"Two year-" And there's Ramona's. "Two years and a half. I guess I'm more precise like that." Sherlock's phone suddenly starts ringing.

"You need to take this Ramona." She frowned for a second before catching on. He retracted his arm and held her hand again.

"Ah, okay. It's been nice catching up. Have a good night." She smiled sweetly and they got to the door, before Sherlock pushed one open to let her out first. They stood outside alone together, before Ramona let go of Sherlock's hand.

"Thank you, Sherlock." She said into the chilly night air, suddenly realising she should of brought her jacket.

"It was nothing, There's this app you can get that plays a ringtone when the timer goes off. I use it to get out of family dinners, although I suspect Mycroft is on to me-"

"I don't mean for that, Sherlock. I mean for... For saying that you were my, that you're my boyfriend." She looks up at him and he seems ridiculously flustered. "You didn't have to do it. You're a good best friend." Sherlock suddenly freezes, going into a state of shock. His eyes din't leave hers as they simply stared, as if he didn't believe what he had just heard. Did he not think of them as best friends? Had she blown it? Was he completely disgusted at the thought?

"I- I thought your best friend was Hannah." Ramona smiled.

"Yes, and so are you." Sherlock frowned.

"You can't have two best friends! That disproves the idea of you ever having a best friend meaning that your two alleged best friends are no longer best friends and demoted to good friends!" He hissed. Ramona laughed.

"We really are too old for this conversation. Am I your best friend?" She asked, and for a moment she feared it was going to be a no as she put a her left hand down the right side of her dress.

"Ye- What are you doing?" Ramona rolled her eyes at the surprisingly uptight detective.

"Chill out, I'm getting this." She waved a small matchbox around in front of his face. His brow furrowed.

"Are you going to try to set the school on fire? Because if so it's really not the best conditions, and you've brought sub -par equipment, and why was it even in your bra-"

"It's so if I'm in a situation like this. It's only small and it goes in at the side of it so you can't actually see it, it's just if I don't have any pockets." Sherlock blinked several times at all the information about her bra. "Answer the question then." She commanded as She opened the matchbox to be greeted with three matchsticks and two cigarettes. Old habits die hard.

"W- well, yes, you are." He struggled over the words as she struck the match and it caught flame instantly, and she lit her cigarette.

"Sorry, do you mind? It's just I don't think I can go back in there if I don't have this." He shook his head to say it didn't matter. "Well, John is also your best friend, yes?" Sherlock thought for a second.

"He's never said anything to-"

"Come on, y'know how bad John is with feelings."

"Almost as bad as you." Ramona glared at him and he smirked as she blew smoke into the air. "So, wait, you're saying that I have..."

"Two best friends." Sherlock looked at her like she had just spoken Latin.

"I have two best friends? Two?" Ramona nodded slowly with her eyebrows raised as Sherlock seemed to be on cloud nine. She laughed at the look on his face that resembled a kid at Christmas.

"It's not unheard of, y'know." She said. He smiled with pursed lips.

"To me it is." Those four words and Ramona was a mess of emotions. Sadness, happiness, excitement, anxiety, and love. She dropped her barely used cigarette and crushed it with the bottom of her high heel, before leaning forward and kissing Sherlock on the cheek.

"Come on, let's get back inside." She took his hand to lead him back in but was quickly halted when Sherlock wouldn't move. "Sherlock?" He was still staring at where she was stood seconds ago. "Come on, Sherlock." She thought for a second. "It's getting cold, Sherlock." She tried. suddenly he was back online.

"I- yeah, sorry." And he let her lead him back.

The night carried on with them playing house, and it was dangerously fun for both of them. She leant down quickly to whisper to Hannah 'I'll explain later' before sitting down next to Sherlock with her hand firmly in his.

"Ramona?" She looked up to see Will. "You've changed!"

"You too." She said with a smile at the boy with platinum blond hair and blue eyes. They had been mistaken for twins in high school multiple times and had gotten called 'the twins' on multiple occasions. The kids had definitely been keen on nicknames back then. "How's my favourite twin doing?" She said this because Ramona had a twin, a real biological twin. She'd get here late of course, if she was coming at all.

"Good, cheers, yourself?"

"I'm alright. What've you been doing since graduation?"

"Oh, y'know, I went round Europe for a bit, eventually got an apprenticeship and now I'm an electrician! How's you're real twin?" Sherlock's eyes widen ridiculously large in shock, and Ramona chuckles, but squeezes his hand and gives him a warning look. any giveaway that he didn't know about her family was a sure fire way to get to the conclusion that they weren't actually going out.

"She's good. Well, actually, she could be dead for all I know, but I did hear she was coming, and y'know what she's like, big entrances n'that." Sherlock frowned bemusedly at her accent suddenly coming out after she'd had a few and was talking to a fellow northerner. As ridiculous as it was, he though it was ridiculously endearing, maybe even cute. Suddenly there were hands on Ramona's shoulders, and black hair over hers.

"That's no way to talk about your big sister." an Irish voice said in a musical like tone. Sherlock's eyes were as wide as ever as he looked between them. He was seeing double.

"You're a minute older than me." Ramona said with a dead tone.

"Still counts." She waggled a finger at her, and Ramona rolled her eyes, and then realised what was about to happen.

"And who's this handsome young man?" She stage gasps for emphasis. "You're boyfriend? Mona Coralie Doherty!" Another frown from Sherlock was earned.

"This is my twin sister, Ciara. Ciara, this is my, er," Sherlock looked at her in anticipation. "Boyfriend, Sherlock Holmes." This was going to get messy.

a sort of twist haha

this is a sort of the hounds of baskerville adaptation with a cat scary I know :)

Also I wanted to flesh out Ramona more, I don't want her to be there for an add-on for Sherlock y'know?

Thanks so much for reading :))