A/N: This ficlet (rated K+) comes to you courtesy of: a) my fingers being on the wrong keys and typing 'war' instead of 'est' (as in "established"), b) me blogging about it, and c) writingwife83 commenting with "#war relationship". Enjoy this little WWII AU!
"Ah, Captain Holmes, here to inspect the troops?"
The officer in question didn't bother to smooth the scowl from his features as he turned to see the cheeky young mechanic wiping oil from a pair of wrenches. "If by 'the troops' you mean 'my aeroplane', Corporal Hooper, then yes," he said frostily. "How is the Mrs. Hudson today?"
"Oh, she'll do," Corporal Hooper replied with a grin, reaching over to slap an affectionate hand on the aircraft's fuselage. Her grin vanished and her eyes narrowed as she added, "That is, if you manage to keep out of harm's way this time. Your missions are supposed to be strictly recon, so you keep telling me."
Captain John Watson awkwardly turned a laugh into a cough as the RAF pilot side-eyed him. "Yes, well, too bad the Germans don't always cooperate with me on that, Corporal."
"Oh my God, will you too please stop with all this 'Captain' and 'Corporal' nonsense?" A new voice - that of Molly's fellow mechanic, Mary Morstan, entered the conversation. She gave an exasperated shake of her head at the two even as she threaded her arm through that of her fiancé. "There's no one in this part of the airfield today but the four of us." She looked around with an exaggerated air, hand over her eyes. "Just get it over with, will you?"
"Get what over with?" Sherlock demanded - but the tips of his ears had turned a decided shade of pink.
"You know," John said. "You've been dancing around this long enough. Mary's right; just…just get it over with and kiss the girl, will you?"
Molly's eyes widened and her lips parted, but her words went forever unheard as Sherlock finally did as his friends had been urging and kissed the woman he loved.
And if Molly was heard to mumble something along the lines of "About bloody time" afterwards, well, the others pretended not to hear.