Chapter 37
Disclaimer: I don't own Sherlock or anything.
Author's note: Sorry for the delay in updating, I've been on holiday for 2 weeks! Please review! Thank you!
John was digging around in his and Sherlock's suitcases for their swimming trunks.
"Found mine!" he called to his husband who was lying on their bed, staring at the ceiling in deep thought.
John looked at his swimming trunks in satisfaction. They were light blue, baggy, and mid-thigh length.
"And yours!" John chucked Sherlock's swimming trunks at him. Sherlock's were black, baggy, and just-above-the-knee-length.
Sherlock didn't reply but John just sighed and shook his head, his husband must be off in his mind palace, thinking about some old corpse or something.
John was naked and just about to slip into his swimming trunks when Sherlock came out of his own mind.
"Mmm, what a lovely sight." Sherlock smirked as John almost fell over in surprise at Sherlock's sudden chatter.
"Oh, thank you." He smiled and put his trunks on.
"Oh, unfair!" Sherlock pouted.
"Sherlock, I am not going skinny dipping." John said.
"Shame… well, I'm sure I'll find a way to get you into that pool naked… all in good time."
John chuckled and rolled his eyes "I'd like to see you try. Now get your trunks on and we'll sort out the sun cream."
Sherlock did as he was told and after they helped each other with water-proof sun tan lotion they went up to where there family were stood by the front door with bags and towels and just about ready to leave.
They all went to the swimming pool first. It was empty of people due to it being lunch time. Sherlock stood on the edge and curiously looked at the pool, it was decently sized and had a dolphin mosaic on the floor.
John grinned and tip-toed to his husband, then pushed him into the pool.
Sherlock made a surprised sound and fell into the water, quickly surfacing indignantly.
"John Hamish Watson-Holmes!" he shouted and climbed out of the pool then ran after John until he caught up with him, he grabbed John from behind and picked him up, his arms around his waist. John tried to free himself but Sherlock held tightly then used his weight to send them both crashing into the water.
They rose to the top and had a splashing fight, soaking each other and taking any opportunities to dunk each other underwater briefly.
Harry and Mycroft were quickly jumping into the water too and joined their siblings to have some friendly water fighting.
Julie and Kathy gracefully walked into the water while Alan sat at the side to read his book and Ron jumped in right beside Sherlock, splashing all four young adults.
After an afternoon at the pool they had a small lunch and John and Sherlock decided to go and play tennis.
Julie and Kathy were walking up to the tennis court, intending to watch their sons play tennis and then maybe have a go themselves, as they approached they heard the distinct sounds of their sons' grumpy voices.
"John, will you please hit straight!"
"I'm left handed, Sherlock, this isn't exactly easy for me!"
"You've been left handed for your entire life, I'm sure you can deal with this, it's very simple! Now give me a decent game!"
"Games like this are different! To hit towards you makes me hit at an odd angle! Now stop going on and let me try!"
…
"John! For goodness sake just swap racket hands, I'm sure you can use your right hand for one game. If you can give me a decent hand job with your right hand I'm sure holding a racket won't be too hard."
"Oh don't bring sex into this! I've given you –what?- three right handed hand jobs in the entirety of our relationship, and during them I'm caught up in the moment. Now just let me practice and I'll try to be better at this game! But right handed tennis is too uncomfortable! Hold on, if you're so clever, why don't you play left handed?"
"Because… because… oh! I am done! Done! I am not playing tennis with you again!"
They heard a racket being thrown on the floor and stomping footsteps.
"Oi! Come back here, Sherlock! You're rubbish at Rugby but I don't give up on you when I want to play catch with you! Oh, you're so stroppy! Is this what it's going to be like when we're old and have kids or something? We won't ever be able to play some sports games because you can't bear my awkward left handed tennis playing? Think of the kids, Sherlock! They'll be really upset if we can't play family games with them!" John shouted.
Julie quickly started shuffling Kathy round the back of a building so they wouldn't be spotted eavesdropping.
"Learn to play tennis decently and I'll play against you! But I will not waste my time playing with someone who can't hold a racket straight!" Sherlock shouted and stormed past, not noticing his mother or mother-in-law hiding behind a building, their heads poking out to listen.
Two minutes after Sherlock had passed to go back to the villa so did John, he held two rackets under one arm and a tube of tennis balls in his other hand and was mumbling to himself "Pretentious idiot, can't even try and help, just shouts away like he's the most important person and can't lower himself to helping someone who isn't a perfect player…"
Once John had gone Julie and Kathy turned to each other "Well, I didn't really want to hear half of that conversation." Kathy said, referring to the hand job discussion.
"Agreed." Julie nodded seriously.
"They better make up soon though, I don't want them bickering all holiday." Kathy added.
"Mmm… hey! They just… they just discussed having children in the future!" Julie suddenly noticed.
"Oh my… they did! Ohh, that is exciting! I didn't think they'd talked about that much!" Kathy gave a little clap and they started to make their way back to the villa. By the time they had got there they had already decided on who gets to pay for their grandchildren's University fees.
John was on the patio just outside the villa reading and Sherlock was sat in the living room, staring into space and looking into his mind palace, by evening neither had moved much, except John, who had moved where the shade moved.
"Boys! We're going to the restaurant now!" Ron shouted through the house.
"I don't want to go!" John shouted back.
"Why?" Julie asked, popping her head outside.
"Is Sherlock going?" John asked simply.
"We intend him to." Julie answered.
"Then I don't want to go. I'll probably irritate him with the way I hold my knife and fork and he'll refuse to share the table with me." John said grumpily.
"Son, you're going and that's that. If you don't want to talk to Sherlock then you can sit away from him, stop being childish and come out and enjoy the wonderful culinary skills of the Spanish!" Alan popped his head through the door too.
John huffed and put his book down then went to stand by the door, waiting for everyone else.
Sherlock trudged over five minutes later and they waited in stubborn silence until their siblings and parents were ready too.
Upon arrival to the restaurant John and Sherlock were still not talking but were unfortunately sat opposite each other at the table. Sherlock chose to stare at John with a frown marring his features, while John refused to look at Sherlock at all and that went on as they ordered their starter and drinks.
"Oh, boys, really! Can you not just move past this. Julie and I heard what happened and it's a silly thing to row over, really." Kathy sighed once everyone had had enough of the couple's tension.
"It isn't silly, mother, John is silly. He refuses to listen to my advice and put some effort into playing tennis with me." Sherlock said.
"I'm not silly, Sherlock is being silly, thinking that just because he finds something simple then I will also find it simple. Well, we're not all geniuses, some of us are ordinary and normal and if he can't accept that then he can piss off." John said, looking at the menu but not reading it.
"John Hamish Watson-Holmes! You mind your language!" Alan said firmly.
"Father, tell John that I already explained to him that he is not ordinary or normal, and that I shall not 'piss off'." Sherlock said.
Ron sighed and just took a sip of his beer.
"Well, dad, tell Sherlock that I-"Mycroft cut John off.
"Oh will you two please shut up! Sherlock, John finds it difficult to play tennis due to being left handed. If you did research into left handedness then you would discover that some left handed people do find games such as tennis less easy than right handed people due to the angle they have to make their hand twist to for the ball to aim at their opponent's racket, so stop nagging him about how he should do this and that and if you really want to play tennis with him then I suggest you personally try to coach him if you're so clever. And John, you are well aware of Sherlock's impatience with people not being as quick as him so maybe you should use that knowledge to be a little more lenient with him. Now stop being so damn rude to our parents, they have organised a lovely holiday and have taken us all out for a meal and you are sat there like children bickering over a foolish game." Mycroft said firmly, his face almost red with effort.
The table fell absolutely silent, then Sherlock and John both stood up in unison and walked to where Mycroft sat, stood on either side of him, then picked his chair up with him sat in it and they started moving it towards the outside of the restaurant.
"Hey! Put me down right now!" Mycroft shouted, the whole restaurant was watching the ordeal and Ron, Alan, Julie, and Kathy were all stammering and trying to call over for them to put Mycroft down.
Sherlock and John put Mycroft all the way onto the pavement of the street, then walked back into the restaurant and sat back in their seats.
"What the hell was that about?" Harry asked.
"Mycroft is an idiot." Sherlock said simply as he linked his ankle with John's under the table.
Everyone felt the tension between Sherlock and John leave and they were back to their lovely selves, Sherlock only eating food from John's plate and John sharing his food with his lover.
Mycroft sat back down at the table and glared at his brother and brother-in-law throughout the meal, but they didn't bother to notice, too wrapped up in each other.
As they left the restaurant and walked back towards the villa Sherlock entwined his fingers with John's and they walked together quietly for a few minutes, a few metres ahead of their family.
"Can you teach me to play decent tennis?" John queried gently.
"I'd love to." Sherlock smiled down at John.
John gave a small smile and squeezed Sherlock's hand.
"John…" Sherlock said and they slowly came to a stop just under a tree.
John looked up at Sherlock questioningly.
"I love you." Sherlock said and leant down to give John a kiss. John wrapped his arms around Sherlock's shoulders and their bodies moved together, their tongues dancing and their hands mapping out each other's hair and backs and bums like an astronomer would the stars above them.
"I love you too." John said as they pulled away slowly.
"Come on, tongue-chums!" Harry shouted at them, their family were a few steps ahead.
"Coming!" John shouted back then looked softly at his husband.
"Bed time?" Sherlock asked.
"Oh, yes." John nodded and they walked up to the villa slowly, their hands joined and their arms swinging in a happy harmony together.
Author's note: The left handed tennis situation is drawn on my older sister being left handed and my memory of her not being very good at it when she played. My mum once told me that it was because she was left handed so it wasn't as easy for her.