"Yes I'm sure you're very clever but your underwear costs even more than your shoes and you get paid even more to take both off," Jim said derisively.

Adler looked unabashed at this comment. Instead she picked up her phone, holding it up for Jim to see.

"You'll find I get paid in more than one way Mr Moriarty. Over the years I've gathered quite the collection of… resources."

"You said the name Holmes, that's why I'm here," Said Jim impatiently, showing disinterest by pulling out his own phone to send a text.

"Mycroft Holmes. He has taken particular interest in one or two of the photographs I have possession of."

Adler's eyes darted keenly between us, noting the poorly hidden look of surprise on my face and the renewed interest on Jim's.

"Mycroft Holmes?" Jim said, smiling slightly.

"One of my clients, well she's a royal…"

I was standing on guard, watching the pair of them talk from the entrance to the room, in the same position that I always assumed when attending meetings with Jim. I had been grateful for the perfect timing of her phone call last night, interrupting Jim's altercation with Sherlock, but if all she was going to do was involve Jim with another member of the Holmes family then I didn't have very much to be happy about.

They weren't talking for long, Jim's disdain for the ordinary meant that he never had the patience for lengthy discussions. He was soon making his way towards the door, dialling the number of another client, his mind miles ahead of everyone else in the room.

"So you're the brawn to his brain then?" Irene said approaching me, "I suppose he pays you well," She looked up at me with big eyes, bright and glittering- quite unlike the pair of eyes I'd grown accustomed to staring into these last few months.

"Not as much as you'd think," I said, eyeing her.

"Ah well, you can put it on your expenses," She said, slipping her card into my jacket pocket. Her hand lingered there and she slowly ran her fingers down my chest. Just as Jim ended his phone conversation and turned back around to face us.

His expression was almost unreadable, a potential mixture of disgust, anger and pain.

Before I knew it his back was facing me as he walked quickly towards the stairway.

"Are you two…?" Irene asked, blanching in shock.

This gave me the confirmation that what I had seen on Jim's face had been no hallucination. I ran after him. Fuck, this must be the hundredth time I'd seen him turn on his heel and walk away from me but I'd never dared to follow.

"Jim!" I shouted once I was out on the street, not giving a thought to the still sleeping residents of Belgravia.

I was just in time to see a glimpse of dark blue suit whip round the corner into a back road. I kept on running, soon catching up with him.

"Jim?"

"Go back to your whore!"

Was this really jealousy?

I was level with him now, unsure what to do. This was like something couples would do in a romance; far too close to normality that it was a relief to have him swing around and grab me by the throat, pushing me roughly against the wall.

"Aren't pets allowed toys?" I said, before his grip tightened so hard that I couldn't speak.

I bared my teeth at him, snapping them playfully as though trying to bite him.

He snarled at me, straining in his effort to hold me up against the brick.

"You're mine Moran."

So this was jealousy, or an exaggerated caricature of that emotion. Jim was shaking in anger, his eyes watering in sheer frustration. I just wanted to…

Pulling his head up to mine I kissed him on the lips. He kissed me back, teeth biting at my bottom lip and then his tongue scraping the roof of my mouth.

Pride, jealousy- Jim Moriarty was something more than just flesh, blood and brain after all.