John woke with a start. His whole body twitched before he relaxed again and turned to his side, drowsily throwing his arm to the side which landed with a dull, soft 'thud' on the sheets.
He almost went back to sleep until it suddenly hit his brain that he was alone in the bed. Suddenly wide awake he threw his eyes open and searched the whole room without moving a muscle. Better not to disturb anything until he was sure what the situation was.
And the situation was that no one was in the room with him.
John was alone. Sherlock hadn't stayed. And he had known that. Hadn't he? He had suspected that it would be wishful thinking from both of them. It had been uplifting to witness Sherlock being so positive about this. Then again, Sherlock had been high again, had buried himself into the topic until he had believed it.
If only he had been right about it.
Defeated he turned on his back and stared at the ceiling, feeling his eyes getting wet, though he refused to cry. He wouldn't.
It was just something they both hadn't had control over and it had defeated them. Simple as that.
Taking a stuttering breath, he forced himself to sit up and get out of bed. It was no use lying in it and musing over things that could've been.
John could do that as easily in the kitchen with a cup of tea.
Opening the door he was surprised to see that the lights were turned off because he was pretty sure that not one of them had done that while they had made their way through the kitchen. Maybe Mrs. Hudson had shown up and had decided to help him save some money.
Except that she had never done that before. Sure she brought him the mail and showed up from time to time but nothing like this.
Stepping through the small hallway John almost though his knees would get weak. There, in all his tall glory, stood Sherlock. Hair tousled from the bed, the dressing gown crumpled and clearly slept in while sleep lines adorned his face.
It shouldn't be allowed to look that amazing after coming down from a high and sleeping.
While John still tried to wrap his mind around the fact that Sherlock stood there, hopefully not with another shot within his veins, Sherlock turned to him. He looked amused once he gave him a brief glance.
He lifted up too cups to show that he had made tea and placed them on the table before he simply threw himself into a chair. "Tea, John. Just as you like it. No sugar but cream. You will find that it tastes amazing." A sly grin followed that statement and John simply walked into the kitchen and sat down, staring at the tea.
For a moment he thought he would ask Sherlock about the how and why (about them, not the tea) but decided to give into the tea first and took a sip of the hot beverage. Somehow, Sherlock had made it perfect but before he could say anything Sherlock was already leaning back. Clearly knowing that he had done a perfect job and his face screamed 'Told you'.
John cleared his throat, trying to look as unaffected as he could (he failed, he was an open book for Sherlock) and let his eyes roam Sherlock's face, neck, upper body again. Just to make sure he wasn't dreaming. And if the other hadn't stared at him like he did John would have pinched his skin. Again, just making sure.
It seemed that Sherlock took pity at him and scoffed amused. After a sip of his tea he simply talked, aware that John had wanted to say something.
"Here we are," he said amused. "Which, hopefully, is pretty obvious. Should be obvious."
Nodding slightly to that, John took controlled breaths and opened his mouth, only to be cut off again.
"No, I'm not high again John. Please, I did say I wasn't going to use anymore...maybe I didn't say it. We both know I meant it. Don't make me repeat myself." Sherlock sounded like he was above everything, as if this was a normal day and this was their usual morning talk.
Only that something else danced in those grey eyes. To John it looked like affection.
"And... I am glad it worked. Of course I knew it would work but to see the result myself...to see you sober, granted I do have a slight headache and tremors in my hand, but those things are not relevant. You are John."
And that felt like a confession, everything about this. The warm fuzzy feeling in John's stomach, the perfectly made tea and Sherlock's attention directed to him. John couldn't resist the soft smile appearing on his face, relief washing through him, his shoulders dropping.
He hadn't realized how tense his whole body had gotten after getting out of bed.
Sherlock wasn't any better though. John could clearly see the nervous energy in that lanky body. Sure, it could have been the drug washing out of his system but for some reason John got the feeling that this was only one of those reasons. No, the nervous energy was coupled with a slightly nervous look. Those clear eyes dancing over John's face and searching for something, anything and-
Oh, he should probably say something. So he did.
"I'm... also very glad Sherlock. To be honest, you... you gave me quite the scare, with waking up alone in the bedroom. I thought," John swallowed heavily and looked down at his tea for a moment before facing Sherlock again. "I thought it hadn't worked and I was alone again." The truth, clear honesty. Because he had been afraid. John had thought he would be alone and never get to see Sherlock again. How could they if John disapproved of the drug habit and constantly being drunk.
No, it wouldn't have worked out.
Yet here they were. Sherlock had found a solution and had taken action and it had worked. Truly a remarkable man and for some reason John had captured his attention. Despite this being some kind of supernatural thing. If he had been too boring for the man John was sure that he wouldn't have gone through all that trouble to merge their worlds.
If it was a merge. "What... happens now?" John had been lost in his thoughts and the question easily slipped out of him. Unaware that Sherlock had looked at him relieved and had smiled with his eyes when John had admitted that he was happy to be with him too.
"That, my dear John, is for us to find out. And isn't that exciting?" Sherlock sounded full of glee. Something new for him to explore, to create theories about and get results. A very unique experiment and both of them were probably the only participants who knew about it.
With some weird mixture between amusement and nervous energy John looked at the other. This really would be an adventure and it would start by finding out how the people would see them. Did John suddenly pop up, despite knowing Sherlock for quite some time now? Would people question Sherlock's sudden appearance in John's life?
Sherlock was right, this really was something to explore.
As if on cue (the universe really was busy, wasn't it) the door to their flat opened and Mrs. Hudson came into the kitchen, through the living room.
"Sherlock!" She yelled around the corner before stepping into view. "You've got a cl- Oh John! It's so nice to see you back!" Mrs. Hudson cooed in an all too familiar way that made it hard for John to tell if this was his Mrs. Hudson or Sherlock's. "You have to tell me how the trip was for you! Shame on you for not telling me you're already back. I had reached a point where I thought Sherlock and you had a fight and you left. Never do that again," she scolded him with a hard tone before slipping into the usual hyper energy she seemed to have.
Before she could go on did Sherlock stand up and look bored at her, taking in all this new information about John and the merge. "Mrs. Hudson, you were about to say?"
"Oh yes, silly me! There's a client downstairs and since it's pretty early I wasn't sure if you wanted to see him-" she was about to trail off again but this time John bumped in. Just to see if he could. Everything about this was new despite being familiar (except the client thing).
"You can show up into the flat, you know we don't mind…uh a case." Glancing at Sherlock he saw that the tall man had turned around to place his cup of tea in the sink, a small smile on his face. So John hadn't misjudged.
Sighing softly he nodded once more to Mrs. Hudson, before she slipped away to get the client, and then looked at Sherlock.
"Well…this is going to be…interesting and difficult. Based on… Mrs. Hudson we do have a life together and-"
"And now we figure it out together too! Very exciting, this will keep us busy for quite some time. Additionally to the case, granted if it's any good. Oh John, you-…where are you going?" Sherlock frowned when John stood up and turned away, the attention of the blond man gone as well.
Turning around John waved at Sherlock. "Go on! I'm just going to… I need pen and paper. This is the first case I can witness myself so I want to take notes! If my blog still exists I could start to write down every case." With that he was gone, searching for the utensil in the bedroom and emerging just as quickly.
Sherlock gave off a soft "Ah," and watched after John. When he was back Sherlock stared at him, appreciating how willing John was to accept all of this. This new life, this situation. Everything.
The detective wasn't able to voice all of this, if he would have tried it wouldn't have sounded like anything that he had in mind. So he kept silent about it and suddenly started into motion.
"Come John, we need to re-arrange the living room! Your chair needs to be here and mine needs to be placed here." Stepping back to view the changed to the room, Sherlock nodded to himself before he frowned and started to drag the couch table a little bit to the side.
John stood between kitchen and living room, a notepad and a pen in his hand, while watching all of this unfold. Amusement and fondness working through him. He just let Sherlock do as he wanted and for some reason he had the feeling that this wasn't going to change anytime soon.
Life would certainly stay interesting with Sherlock.
He really hoped the lanky git would want him around for a long time because he wasn't going anywhere.
That's it. I made it.
Thank you to everyone who tuned in and stayed with me! I do apologize for the long wait but we all know those excuses don't we - this tho, feels like a perfect end. For me.
See y'all