A/N: And here we go! Giroro's going to come in in this chapter.
6
An Internship of Sorts
Five months later…
John hugged his arms around his jacket as he surveyed the scene before him. In the crisp winter air, his breath came out in puffs. In front of him, Natsumi and a friend, Amanda, chucked snowballs at each other in one of the rare parks in London, laughing hysterically.
Next to John, Sherlock said, "Pointless. Can't they have a little dignity? They're both almost twenty-one."
John laughed. "Let them enjoy it."
Suddenly, Sherlock tensed. "We have a shadow," he whispered.
"A member of Moriarty?"
"Not sure. He doesn't seem like he's fixated on us, specifically, but he does show some interest in Natsumi. He's looking away occasionally, but it's clearly very forced. Thanks to the weather, I can't tell whether the blush on his face is due to cold or the fact that he might like her."
"Where is he?"
"Red hair, scar over his right eye- fairly prominent. That's what's making me nervous- the scar. The only way he could get a scar like that was if someone was intentionally trying to harm him. You don't get that from an accident."
John nodded. He knew that; after all, he had been a doctor in the army. Glancing around, he found it wasn't too hard to find the man Sherlock was referring to. His hair wasn't a normal shade of red; it was practically the color of a Crayola marker. "That is a pretty nasty scar." Then he got an idea. "Hang on, I'm joining in."
"To the snowball fight? Petty."
"Not petty. I'm going to let Natsumi know about our little problem." Trying to look nonchalant, John scooped up a snowball and threw it at Natsumi. Of course, having impeccable aim, he hit her right on target. She turned around.
"If I actually knew you were going to do that, I could have avoided it!" she laughed.
"Of course," he replied with a grin as she pelted him back, and a second later Amanda followed suit.
John slowly and strategically made his way towards the girls until he was taking the snowballs full force. At that moment, Amanda held up a hand in a 'time out'.
"Sorry, Natsumi," she said. "I gotta go. Classes."
Natsumi nodded, and Amanda dusted the snow off her coat before racing off. John sighed in both exhaustion and relief. Perfect timing.
"You better be ready," Natsumi laughed after waving goodbye to Amanda.
"Just hang on a sec," John said. Then, in an undertone, "We've got someone watching us. He might be part of Moriarty. Be careful."
Natsumi gave a short nod. "Where?"
"Up the hill behind me. He's by the coffee shop. Brown leather jacket, red hair, scar-"
Natsumi's head whipped in the direction John had described, and stood frozen like that for a few seconds.
"Careful!" John hissed. "Do you want him to see you saw him?"
"Yes," Natsumi replied, face lighting up. And then she was racing up the hill, pink hair flying out behind her, as she ran to the coffee shop and straight into the arms of the redhead.
John, surprised and shocked, glanced nervously at Sherlock. The younger man frantically waved him over, and the doctor jogged up the hill. When he reached Sherlock, the two made their way across the street and to Natsumi and the strange man.
"Oh my god," Natsumi was saying. "When did you get here?!"
"Here or Japan?" the redhead replied, growing redder in the face. That was when John decided the strange man probably liked John and Sherlock's young colleague.
"Both!"
"Japan, three days ago. I got to London about noon."
"I can't believe this! Is the rest of the platoon here?"
"Yeah."
"Wait- platoon?" John asked.
Natsumi nodded. "Yeah, he's in the army too."
"You're a soldier?" the man asked.
John nodded. "Captain John Watson." Despite his uncertainty about this man, Natsumi seemed to be comfortable around him, so he saluted.
The man returned the military salutation. "Second Lieutenant Giroro."
Natsumi's jaw dropped. "You didn't tell me you got promoted!"
"Several times." He shot her a grin.
"Forgive me for asking, but… are you two dating?" John asked after a short pause.
"If I recall correctly, you don't appreciate people asking that about us," Sherlock muttered, and John shot him a warning look.
Giroro and Natsumi both blushed profusely. "No," Natsumi laughed. "I think I would have mentioned if I had a boyfriend, considering we've been flatmates for almost half a year."
Giroro stiffened. "You live with them?" he asked, his voice laced with jealousy.
Natsumi nodded, then paused as if she had changed her mind. "I live in the attic above them- our landlady turned it into a room for me- but I do share their living room and kitchen."
Giroro nodded in a relieved way and Natsumi's eyes narrowed, the way they often did when she figured something out that she wasn't sure how to respond to (any other conclusions resulted in her eyes lighting up in much the same way Sherlock's did).
"So…" Giroro asked, "You said our landlady, like you pay her too. Do you have a job or something?"
Natsumi laughed and glanced over at Sherlock. "Of a sorts," she said.
"What do you mean by-"
At that moment Sherlock's phone beeped. "New text, let me check that," he said. Everyone grew quiet as he read the text, then his eyes lit up.
"Oh no," John said nervously, quite aware of what was going to happen.
"Finally! We've got a murder not a mile from here. Brilliant timing!"
Natsumi gave a small grin- despite not being as naturally enthusiastic about a case as Sherlock was, she still took a thrill in the chase- and said, "Giroro, you're about to find out what I do." She and Sherlock took off.
Giroro looked confused, but dashed after the two detectives, John following behind him with a sigh.
When they got to the crime scene- an alleyway, so cliché- they immediately ran into Anderson and Donovan. "Freak," Donovan greeted Sherlock, then turned to Natsumi. "Mini-freak."
"Good to see you too, Sergeant Donovan," Natsumi muttered back, then stepped under the police tape.
"Wait. What's going on?" Giroro asked.
Donovan's eyes narrowed. "Who's this?" she asked.
"A friend," Natsumi said, "who I'm hoping you'll let in," she added as Anderson blocked Giroro from going under the police tape.
Anderson frowned. "He's not in the Yard or part of your little 'team'."
"You let in John when he first met me," Sherlock said.
"Temporary lapse of judgement," Anderson scoffed.
John felt a prick of irritation but ignored it as Natsumi pushed Anderson to the side- not so gently- and held up the tape for Giroro.
"Will you please explain what's going on?" Giroro asked as they walked down the alleyway.
Natsumi gave a mysterious smile. "All in good time." She strode confidently towards the dead body at the end of the alleyway, then kneeled by it before looking up. "Sherlock?"
"You've trained long enough. Besides, I'm assuming it might be fun to show off a bit in front of your friend."
John groaned as a smug smile grew on Natsumi's face, then she turned to examine the body before beginning to analyze rapidly.
"This man's in his late fourties. Probably a low-paying office job- he's wearing a business suit, but it's fairly low-quality and extremely rumpled. Clean ring on his finger- happy marriage, but it looks fairly new- he's been married for probably two to three years." She considered the corpse for a moment, then pulled out a wallet from his pocket- empty of cash and credit cards, but containing a family picture. After examining it, she continued, "He has no children with his current wife, but he's been married before and has three children from that previous marriage- two girls and a boy. One of the girls is in college, the other two children are probably early high school. He also has a fairly large, enthusiastic dog, probably a labradoodle." Natsumi slipped the wallet back in the victim's pocket and returned to her analysis. "At first glance, it appeared he was killed with a bullet to the head, but there's not much blood- possibly because the killer cleaned the wound, more likely because he was killed because of some kind of poison and shot in the head afterwards." She looked up. "Did I miss anything?"
Sherlock smiled. "Good, but look more carefully and you can see signs of how he was poisoned."
John saw Giroro go slack-jawed out of the corner of his eye, while Natsumi examined the corpse again. Finally, she said, "Nitrobenzene. The skin's turned grey and what little blood is around the bullet wound is very dark and clotted. Stomach seems inflamed, and when I got closer the area where his organs were smelled slightly of bitter almonds."
Sherlock gave a nod of approval. "Very good."
Giroro was still staring at Natsumi. "How did you do that?"
Natsumi smirked. "Lots of practice."
Giroro faltered. "What are you, exactly?"
Natsumi took a deep breath. "World's second consulting detective. Sherlock's the first."
Giroro let out a forced "Whew." Then, "Well, I guess I sort of saw that coming."
John laughed. "Not sure what to think?"
"Exactly."
"Life's just going to get weirder. You might want to get used to it."
Giroro glanced at Natsumi with a small smile. "I think I can do that."
At that point Natsumi turned to Sherlock. "Can you take things from here?"
"Of course. Why?"
Natsumi simply laughed. "Giroro… you love me, don't you?"
Giroro gaped. "H-how long have you…?"
Natsumi smirked. "Didn't take me too long once I started talking to you earlier."
Giroro gave a heavy sigh, walked over to Natsumi, and knelt down next to her. "I have loved you since the day I met you. You are the most amazing girl in the universe, and I could never let you go." He smiled… and then kissed her quite tenderly. A small smile crossed Natsumi's face, and she wrapped her arms around him.
After several awkward seconds, when they pulled away from each other, John gave a nervous laugh. "Um…"
Natsumi smiled in return. "Giroro… maybe we should take this elsewhere. I think it's a bit awkward for Sherlock and John."
"Please do," Sherlock said sternly, but John knew that he was smiling inside.
End note: And there you go! I know I got Giroro and Natsumi together fairly quick, but since this is sort of from John's perspective, and because I have so many GiroNatsu stories, I wanted to focus more on Johnlock.