Couple 1
Every couple has to have that first fight, right? That one fight that's just the end of the scale for other fights. On a scale from 0 to that first fight, how bad is this one? And I'm not talking little fights over jeans left on the floor or someone being grumpy with the other, I mean screaming, yelling, door slamming, walk out and maybe I'll turn back fights. That first fight.
Today just so happens to be Greg and Mycroft's. Greg's not sure what happened between then and now, but then they angry and sure it'd blow over soon, and now they're so angry they're taking all they can not to punch each other in the face. Man/man or not, it's still domestic violence to beat the shit out of your partner.
The fight started in Mycroft's office because the exchange of anger began during the work day, so Greg wastes no time getting this started and goes straight to Mycroft's office. He swings the door open and steps in, then paces because Mycroft's not hanging up the phone for this.
Finally he hangs up and looks at Greg. "Well?"
"Well?" Greg repeats.
"Get on with it, then."
"You know why I'm mad, Mycroft. I can't believe you—" Greg frustratedly grunts and runs his hands through his hair. "Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish you could be on my side!"
"Have you stopped to think maybe this is a professional matter and not a personal—"
"It's personal when you don't choose me, Mycroft. I could have just as easily taken this case than fucking Dimmock and either way I work better with your brother. And once more, I am your boyfriend, your bloody damn boyfriend and I think that gives me a little bit of a—"
Mycroft laughs, "You want special treatment, then? You want me to go back on my decision and fire Dimmock so that you can have this case?"
"When it's a case this big—"
"You're not getting special treatment. Go on a pout, Greg, but I'm not—"
"You give Sherlock special treatment."
Mycroft's voice goes cold and dark and he stares straight at Greg, "If you want me to put you in the same category as Sherlock, go on and tell me right now. I can treat you how I treat him."
Greg almost growls in anger before exiting Mycroft's office, slamming the door as he goes.
Greg goes to his own flat because he knows it's better this way for a while, at least until this blows over. What he doesn't anticipate is Mycroft following him there and when the doorbell rings he jumps. He opens the door to see Mycroft.
"Mycroft."
"Gregory."
"Come in, please."
Apparently the niceties only last while Mycroft's in the hall because once in he almost immediately begins shouting at Greg.
"It was very rude of you, Detective Inspector, to barge into my office and make a fool of me like that. You had no business—"
"Detective Inspector? Is that the game we're playing now? Because, oh boy, if that's how it's going then please allow me to voice my opinions, Holmes."
"You voiced your opinions in my office. You're not getting special treatment, Lestrade, because you don't…you don't deserve it. I'm not going to give you special cases because of what happens in this flat because I keep my private and personal life separate."
"Oh, so you really do just think I'm an incompetent detective inspector? It really is a professional matter and you can't tell me I suck at my job because you keep work separate from home life."
"Now, I didn't say that—"
"You are saying that because you didn't choose me."
Mycroft's voice suddenly lowered and he said calmly to Greg, "I didn't say that, Greg, I said—"
"I don't care anymore, Mycroft," Greg rubs his nose and lowers his gaze away from Mycroft. "I think it's time you leave now."
"Greg, I—"
"Save it, Mycroft."
Mycroft picks up his coat and heads for the door. His voice is angry again as he opens the door, "I didn't choose you because if my brother's going to solve a case anyway, I'd rather it not be you that looks like the fool." He slams the door when he leaves.
They don't talk for a while and Mycroft's sure Greg's not going to come back. Mycroft lets Greg have his time because it was Greg that ended it, it was Greg that comes back. Ended it, Mycroft thinks. He wonders what it is that Greg ended.
A week and a half after their fight, Greg shows up at Mycroft's office. This time he waits patiently in the waiting room until Mycroft's secretary says he can go in. When he does, Mycroft's pouring himself and Greg a glass of Scotch. He doesn't turn to look at Greg.
"Lestrade? To what do I owe the pleasure?" he asks, his voice a little bit more or less annoyed, maybe worried.
"I, uh," Greg pulls a bouquet of flowers from behind his back, "I brought you these."
Mycroft turns to looks at Mycroft and gets a surprised look on his face. "Oh?" he asks.
"Yeah, I wasn't sure if you're a flowers guy or not, but I'd always get my girlfriends flowers when I upset them." Greg tentatively hands the flowers to Mycroft.
Mycroft even more tentatively takes them. "Thank you, Greg. I appreciate the gesture."
Greg steps closer to Mycroft. "I'm really sorry, Mycroft. I shouldn't have been upset or yelled or come here, I was just upset. You're right, I don't deserve special treatment."
"I accept your apology. Honestly, the part that hurt the worst was when you told me to get out."
Greg takes two steps to be right in front of Mycroft. He touches Mycroft's arm and wants to pull him in, but doesn't. "I'm sorry, Mycroft. I shouldn't have. We should have talked about it or forgotten it because you're right, we shouldn't bring work home with us. I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry, too, Greg."
"I love you, Mycroft," Greg says.
It's still early in their relationship and saying, 'I love you,' is still a shocking thing, so when Greg says it Mycroft looks up and into his eyes. "I love you too, Greg," he says.
They kiss and it's short and sweet and perfectly loving and equally sorry. They hug and the same is conveyed. They kiss again and after a minute or two, Greg pulls back and says, "I'd better go. Wouldn't want to mix work with pleasure, would we?"
Mycroft smiles and laughs, "Oh, shut up," he says before kissing Greg again.
So their first big fight ends and it's the worst fight they've ever had because it was the first and the scariest because what if Greg never came back? They'd both be left heartbroken. Luckily they aren't and they live happily ever after the end.
Couple 2
It's six months into their relationship and a few days into this case. Sherlock is losing and he is getting angrier and angrier each day, and John's getting angrier and angrier that he has to remind Sherlock that the big picture is the missing boy and yes, he is losing but he should focus on finding the boy and not dwell on the fact that he's losing.
On the fifth day Sherlock gets close enough to find the boy but can't pinpoint exactly, exactly where he is. This irks him to no end and when John goes home to sleep on it, Sherlock doesn't follow but stays back in the lab to retest the soil samples and go over everything one more time.
In the middle of the night, Lestrade calls John and says they found the boy. He doesn't sound happy and John is being called so either Sherlock got shot or Sherlock went and off'd himself because he lost. John gets to the scene and sees a body in a bag being lifted into an ambulance. His stomach drops and he keeps moving but soon he hears Sherlock and he lets out a deep breath. But then his panic is back because there's no young boy anywhere to be found.
"Sherlock?" John asks as he reaches Sherlock and Lestrade. He touches Sherlock's shoulder and Lestrade sort of nods as indicator that it's ok for him to hug Sherlock. John hugs Sherlock, Sherlock tries to pull away but John holds tighter so Sherlock wraps his arms around John, too. "Are you ok, Sherlock?"
"I'm fine, I still don't know why I need this blanket."
Lestrade rolls his eyes, "You were just held at gunpoint. Again. This time no handy dandy Army doctor to—" John whips his head to glare at Greg with wide eyes. "Sorry, nevermind. Questioning tomorrow, Sherlock. You know the drill."
Greg walks away and John grabs Sherlock and looks him up and down. "Are you ok?"
"Yes, I'm fine! Let go of me." Sherlock squirms out of John's grasp.
"Who's in the bag, Sherlock?"
Sherlock looks down and ashamed and angry.
"Who, Sherlock?"
"It's the boy."
"Christ, Sherlock. It's alright. Are you ok?"
"Stop asking if I'm ok, John, I'm fine. I'm not the one that's dead."
"Sherlock don't say it like that, please. And don't be angry, I know you're upset and all but don't be—"
"I'm only angry because I lost, John. I lost, I didn't get the facts on time, I didn't figure it out on time."
"Sherlock, you did all you could—"
"You don't get it, John! I knew, I could have made it, but I had to be sure, and he…he tricked me. I didn't make it, John. I could have but I didn't."
John crosses his arms and stares at Sherlock. "How long have you known where he's been, Sherlock."
"That's hardly relevant, John. What matters is that he beat me."
"You mean to tell me right now, Sherlock Holmes, that you're upset because he beat you and not because you let a young boy die?"
"Is that not—"
"No, it's not." John snaps. He turns to leave and Sherlock follows, dropping his blanket as he walks.
John gets in a cab and leaves before Sherlock can get in. Sherlock gets his own cab and follows John and once he's up in the flat, the words come and the pain starts.
"You could have saved him, Sherlock!"
"Don't you think I know that, John? I didn't solve the case, I know that!"
"It's not that you didn't solve it, Sherlock, it's that you let him die! You could have solved it and he could have lived!"
"For the record, he was shot and killed while I was trying to save him. What were you doing? Sleeping? Here in the flat, alone?"
"Yes, sleeping alone because you were trying and not succeeding, Sherlock."
"I could have solved it."
"But he's dead."
"And he beat me."
"That's not the point, Sherlock."
"Of course it's the point, John! That's the point of all of this, isn't it?"
John gets up in Sherlock's personal space and breathes in his face, "Honestly, Sherlock, I don't know what I ever see in you because you are the worst human I've ever met in my life!"
Sherlock looks down at John with a face of disgust. It's not the worst that's ever been said to him but it is the worst John's said since Sherlock's come back. "Tell me more, please," Sherlock says.
John moves away from Sherlock, and as he grabs his coat and pulls the door open, he shouts, "I'm leaving and I may or may not come back, Sherlock, because I can't handle this anymore I really can't!"
Sherlock stands still until John exits the flat, then he goes to the window to see what direction John goes. Towards Sarah's, Sherlock notes. Of course, he should know by now that if John's upset he runs to a woman, he just wishes the woman wasn't Sarah.
John actually wanders for a while and cries a little bit because he shouldn't say mean things to Sherlock. The last time he yelled at Sherlock like that, those were the last words he said to Sherlock. What if it happens again tonight? John asks himself. What if he…dies tonight and I…that would be the last thing I said to him. He turns to go home but before he can walk away, Sarah arrives home and offers John upstairs. John accepts and follows and before he knows it he's too tired to go home, so he sleeps there.
The next day Mycroft calls to ask if maybe John knows what's going on. John tells him what happened and Mycroft says today he was still bitching about losing the case, so John opts to stay at Sarah's one more night to avoid the same fight. The day after that he wakes up feeling horribly empty because he left Sherlock, and he wonders if Sherlock thinks he's gone for good. He gets home as soon as he can to find Sherlock on the floor wearing one of his shirts and just underwear. His heart breaks, Sherlock did miss him.
"Come to collect your things?" Sherlock asks.
"No."
"Oh," Sherlock doesn't move or look at John, then asks, "Where've you been?"
"You know where I've been."
"Sarah's was nice, then? Nice enough to stay two days."
"That's not—" John rubs the bridge of his nose, "That's not why I stayed there, not because it's nice."
"But it was nice."
John realizes 'it's nice' was the wrong choice of words, but he continues, "Sherlock, that's not the point. I didn't come home to tell you if Sarah's is nice or not nice."
Sherlock finally looks up and asks curiously, "Home? Is this still where you live?"
John kneels next to Sherlock's hip. "Sherlock, I came home to tell you that I'm sorry."
Sherlock sits up and looks face to face with John. "Oh?"
John sits on his bum, more comfortably next to Sherlock, still facing Sherlock. He reaches for Sherlock's face and Sherlock winces at his touch. "I'm so sorry, baby, I didn't mean…I could never…you're not the worst human I've ever met…"
Sherlock's staring at John with wide eyes that tell John he doesn't care. John wants to give up and start crying or something, but he continues, "Sherlock, please don't look at me like that, ok? I'm so sorry for what I said and that I yelled at you." John leans in and wraps his arms around Sherlock, but Sherlock doesn't move. "I could never leave you. I love you so much."
John unwraps himself from Sherlock and takes Sherlock's face in his hands. John begins to cry and Sherlock sees it before John's lips are touching his. Sherlock is shocked and doesn't move, but keeps looking at John while John kisses him. John starts to cry more because he thinks This is it, this is the end of John + Sherlock. Sherlock notes John's tears and closes his eyes, wraps his arms around John, opens his mouth, and lets John apologize to him.
Sherlock does his own apologizing by not bring up the case at all, which is enough for John. And after that neither of them bring it up because, really who likes to bring up the first big fight with the one they love? These two definitely don't like to.
*Hey guys! Thanks for the reviews last chapter. Tomorrow I'll write a Couple 3 First Fight because I'm tired right now but I want to get this up before I forget. You know the drill…review, review, review : )