Spoiler alert: The Blind Banker
No beta.
Chapter 8 in which our hero John is driven mad with anger at his new companion.
John was getting furious feeling helpless in front of an ordinary chipping pin machine. He should know this, but he doesn't. It seems simple enough and people are waiting behind him so his discomfort grows bigger. It's just not fair that so many things have changed in his absence. Not only during his time in Afghanistan, but it seems like he's been away for quite a long time. When he entered the army he left many things behind submitting himself in a more ascetic life. Frustration about money didn't help either. His pension just didn't cover it all. Despite flat share he just couldn't join one end with the other; money just slips away no matter how hard he tries. When, after all his effort, the machine refused his card he just gave up. It's not his shopping anyway; he wouldn't buy so many things for himself ever. That damn flatmate of his has to be extraordinary in every sense. He has sent him to the market so simply and without a second thought that John didn't refuse. It seemed like simple enough request at the time. He didn't expect obstacle like that damn chipping machine.
"You can do your own damn shopping, you know" John shouted at him, but he didn't even falter, he just pointed him to his wallet unfazed, unmoved and unperceivable. Sometimes John wondered why in hell he agreed to this. The man was just so infuriating at times, so calm and collected. John wondered was others right about him, to be unbearable prick and sociopath.
Living with him was strange. True he was a genius and he was fascinating, but he was odd in many ways and John wasn't entirely sure would he be able to adjust to all that. He can just lay there doing nothing, well nothing other than thinking, not moving, not talking, nothing. It made John uneasy. His manners didn't help, or lack of any. John would find himself more than once frowning at his relaxed face and closed eyes. Another thing was the way he ordered John around. He was doing it without thinking, like a natural response, just asking for something with a flat uninterested voice not bothering to even look at John, let alone smile or say please. That unnerved John. In that, John could really see his upper-class background that was clearly shown on his brother. John wondered how he ended up here in flat share, totally isolated from his privileged life that was there somewhere.
Of course, the man didn't clean, cook or collected food, anything crucial to everyday life. John imagined that he had servants to do such manual chores. Now he has John and as much John would like to fight it, his military time did teach him obedience, tidiness, and endurance, all of which he needed in great supplies to deal with his flatmate. And, because of his sister, he was rather used to wimps, changes of mood, temperament and unpredictable's.
John frustration came back while he stood in front of closed doors feeling like an idiot shouting on the hallway just waiting for someone to spot him. His irritation didn't fade away faced with a suicide inside.
It seemed simple enough but of course, Sherlock didn't do simple. Like he scooped man's name out of his pocket like a magic trick, that's how he deduced about his debts, disappearing bullet and left-handed thing. John believed him, but the young Welsh detective didn't. John couldn't blame him, it wasn't easy to deal with Sherlock for the first time, but when he thinks of it he had no troubles with him on the start. He was merely fascinated by his abilities; other things were the ones to annoy John. He started to lose his temper over them too often. He has to get a job because of that too.
John followed diary just to bump into Sherlock on the street and that colliding finally got them to some progress. He spotted the code on lucky cats, it was nice to contribute, so they sat across the street from smugglers and he ate, of course, Sherlock didn't. They had an intermezzo in which John felt useful asking question and understanding, writing highlights to his notebook and surprisingly Sherlock sat long enough for John to actually chew through few bites before he jumped up and break in some random flat. Of course, he left him standing on the road again like an idiot that runs around behind him. He couldn't hold it in anymore so he paced around like he was the mad one and yelled at the closed door.
"Can you not keep doing this please" he pleaded through letter opening.
When Sherlock got out his voice was hoarse so John forgot about his anger, for now, man is maybe going down with a cold and he is shouting at him.
So, little offbeat John, I thought he was quite agitated during the whole episode. I think that differences from Sherlock's perspective come from the lack of information that John has on Sherlock.