Anonymously Gorgeous said: "More hurt/angst John and possessive protective Sherlock!"
Your wish is my command dear reader! ;)
This one was so hard to write while keeping John in character, you have no idea. Not to mention I kept worrying I had used the end of this story in another story before (it gets hard to keep track of which ideas I have used and which I haven't when you have a story over fifty chapters long!) Hopefully it turns out alright, enjoy!
Sherlock was well experienced in being introverted and reclusive. Sometimes he wouldn't leave his room for days, wouldn't talk to anyone at all. This was normal for him.
It was not, however, normal for John Watson.
Though many people considered Sherlock ignorant to the emotions of other people, he was very well attuned to John and his attitudes. He could usually tell how the soldier felt just by looking at the lines around his eyes, his stance, whether or not he was limping, or the tremor in his hand. So when John began displaying behavior which was once totally foreign to him, he began to worry immensely.
It had been a few days, at first John just returned home with a sulking look and would retreat to his room for the remainder of the day. Just yesterday however John had not left his room at all. Sherlock had resisted the urge to check on his friend at first, wondering if maybe this was how normal people dealt with their problems (rather than deleting them from their minds and disregarding them entirely). It was only when the next morning came and John had still not left his room that Sherlock decided to take matters into his own hands.
Without bothering to knock, Sherlock pushed open John's door and walked inside with determination. He saw John curled up in bed under the comforter, dressed in a light t-shirt and sweatpants. Even though the doctor was in bed and appeared to just have been woken from sleep, his eyes had dark circles around them and he looked like he hadn't slept in days.
"Sherlock, I don't care who's been murdered." He groaned, shoving his face into the pillow. "I'm taking a day off."
"Two days off." Sherlock corrected, not intending to sound critical.
John just grunted in reply and pretended to ignore the consulting detective pacing his room anxiously. Sherlock paced back and forth twice more before diving into the problem at hand.
"John, is there something wrong?" He fumbled over the words, but he meant them even if he had trouble saying them. "I would like for you to tell me if something is wrong."
"Sherlock. Go away." John sighed angrily, pushing himself up into a seated position in the bed and shooting Sherlock a pointed glare.
"This isn't normal for you, and I'm given to understand that as your friend I am allowed to notice and show concern about this." Sherlock felt a strange tugging in his chest as he said the word 'friend'. As if he wished there were some other word to describe his relationship to John. Clearly John was more than that. Sherlock had few friends: Mrs. Hudson, Lestrade, Molly...but still he could tell that John saw more of the inside of his head than anyone else he considered close to him.
"Couldn't you pick another time to develop emotions?" John replied frankly. Sherlock shook off the insult easily.
"You have not eaten at all the past day and a half." He continued. "This is also of concern to me. Considering how you always insist on my eating and sleeping regularly."
"Sherlock." John's voice held a warning tone, but it wasn't the usual strong and fierce tone John could take. No it sounded as though if Sherlock pushed anymore, then John would begin to cry. Sherlock simply adopted a thoughtful look and then strode out of the room quickly.
Whenever the detective was wrapped up in a case and refusing to stop for lunch, John would make him meals and then pester him about it until he ate. Sherlock would take a page from John's book then and make the doctor breakfast.
He began by filling the kettle for tea, before moving on to locating eggs behind the bag of eyeballs in the fridge and bacon under the drawer full of fingers.
Sherlock knew that John would be curious as to why the detective burst into his room and demanded a conversation only to dart out again, and so rather than ask John's presence he would simply wait until the doctor crept out of his bedroom to find out what Sherlock was up to. He didn't have to wait long, John appeared at the entrance to the kitchen just in time for Sherlock to set a mug of tea and a plate of breakfast on the table (after he'd cleared it of his chemistry set of course).
John eyed the table with disbelief, then looked up and shared his disbelief with Sherlock. The detective raised an eyebrow as if saying: "I can be nice.". Then he walked over and took John's arm carefully in his hands before leading him to the chair where he'd set out breakfast.
Sherlock gave his friend a cursory glance while he was busy pushing the food around on his plate. If something was wrong, wouldn't he be able to see it clear as day the way he could tell a man's profession from the ink splatters on his sleeve or could tell a woman was cheating by the lipstick she wore? John seemed closed off and blank to him, and that was almost as worrying as his uncharacteristic behavior.
"You're staring." John announced.
"Hm?" Sherlock's eyes slowly moved away from the man they had been studying. John sighed and placed his fork down, turning to look at his flatmate.
"It's Miranda." He sighed. Sherlock searched for the name and after a minute or so of staring blankly he finally remembered that Miranda was John's girlfriend of a year or so now.
"I figured you would have found out on your own by now but I guess you've been busy with your own things." John continued. "It's just...lately she was making excuses saying she was sick or at work...you know. Finally I find out she'd been sleeping with the man in the flat under her's since before she met me." John rubbed at his temples. "And if I hadn't figured this out...well she just seemed important to me."
Sherlock felt disgust rising up inside him. Of course he could never have seen because John never brought his girlfriends back to the flat anymore, he'd never lain eyes on the girl or else he would have warned John earlier. Finding out that this woman had led John on for a year, and played with his emotions only to leave him in this battered state...
Sherlock didn't even think about it, he didn't have a moment of considering his feelings for John and he didn't debate what he had to do in order to comfort the man. He just leaned forward and pulled John into his arms, wrapping them tightly around him.
John was clearly confused, but he didn't resist. He just lay against Sherlock with a meekness one would never associate with the army man. This only caused Sherlock to squeeze tighter.
"My dear John..." He sighed. "Did you really go this long without me noticing?"
"You were busy. You had that case when it all happened, and afterwards I made sure you didn't get a chance to see me." John murmured into the fabric of Sherlock's shirt.
"You shouldn't do that." Sherlock snapped. "I need to know if something is wrong with you, John. You are all I have and no case is more important than your well-being."
"It was just a breakup, hardly life threatening." John pulled away from Sherlock now, attempting to regain his composure.
"You were locked in your room refusing to eat." Sherlock said this as if he was scolding him.
"Isn't that your move?" John chuckled.
"Don't joke." Sherlock said quickly even though the corners of his mouth did lift slightly. "John, if you are unable to take care of yourself at this time then I will take care of you."
"I wouldn't say I can't..." John began to protest before sighing, realizing his argument was a little futile.
"John..." Sherlock's voice rumbled. "No one will ever break your heart again."
"You can't know that." John shook his head. "That's just one of the risks of falling in love."
"No, I mean it." Sherlock insisted. "I know because I'm going to take care of your heart from now on. No one else can touch it without my permission."
John felt like he should be yelling at the detective that he was being unreasonable and a bit possessive, but he couldn't find any anger in him. In fact he actually felt warmer, happier even, hearing Sherlock swear to protect his heart.
"Alright..." He agreed, his voice cracking a bit.
"Eat now." Sherlock commanded. "I'll run a warm shower for you. Then sleep, real sleep. Clearly you haven't slept in quite some time." The detective shook his head, looking rather ashamed at having let John sink to this condition.
"Thanks." John smiled. Sherlock simply gave John a curious look and then left him to finish his breakfast.
Two weeks later, John had dragged Sherlock out to do the shopping with him. It had taken a great amount of effort, but for some reason the detective had softened to John's will lately and had been allowing the doctor to take him out shopping or make him clean up his experiments when he was done.
They were walking down the street, Sherlock with his hands in his pockets and his breath fogging in the late October air and John talking excitedly about a patient at work when they first saw the woman sitting at an outdoors table at a coffee shop a few steps before them. John noticed her first, freezing on the spot with a horrified and pained look on his face. Sherlock followed his glance to the woman and needed no further explanation. Clearly this woman was Miranda.
Sherlock was about to take John's arm and lead him away when the woman noticed them both, her mouth forming an 'o' of shock. She abandoned her coffee and ran up to them both.
"John! Oh thank god it's you!" She said in a pleading voice, taking John's hand in hers. "I was so wrong, John. Kevin left me. I should have picked you, honest!" She cried out, and John was trying hard to look somewhere else.
This, Sherlock thought to himself, is not acceptable.
"Excuse me." He addressed the woman, and she blinked up at him as though she hadn't known he was there until now. Now that Sherlock had her attention, he focused his own attention on John. He leaned down and pulled the doctor into his arms and placed a soft kiss over his lips. John froze with the confusion of the moment, and Sherlock used this to his advantage and kept his arms wrapped tightly around the man.
"John isn't yours anymore." He snapped at the woman, close to baring his teeth like some kind of wolf. "Leave him alone."
"I...I..." Looking a little more shocked than even John, Miranda backed up a few steps before blushing and returning to her seat at the coffee shop.
Sherlock turned to John, hoping that the doctor would see the kiss as a tactical move to rid them of an unwanted presence, that he wouldn't read into the impulsive emotional reason for which it really occurred. It hadn't been a plan...no Sherlock just wanted this woman and everyone else in the area to know that John's heart was not theirs to break.
"I apologize..." Sherlock began when he saw John's surprised face. "I..."
"Oh shut up..." John pressed himself up against Sherlock's body. "...and do it again."