John glared at the carved numbers in the wooden door. He had waited a week before allowing his curiosity to get the better of him, letting his legs carry him to the Baker Street Inn and up the stairs to room 221B. Now that he was actually here, he felt like a giant fool. This person, this...Sherlock Holmes...had been causing trouble all through town. He had deduced everyone, leading to a sense of chaos that held not been felt since the Hound first appeared hundreds of years ago.

John took a deep breath, raising his hand to knock against the wood. His knuckles had barely brushed the wood before the door was flung open, revealing a very disheveled Sherlock. "How does it feel to live each day with a simple mind?"

"That's not very polite."

"Politeness is dull, so I deleted it."

"You...what?"

"Deleted it. I don't spare space to dull, boring, and useless information. Everything I know is important."

"And social niceties aren't important?"

"Not when society is boring. I find that I'm the only exciting person I know, so why should I be polite to myself? Really John, it makes no sense."

"What makes no sense is that I'm here."

"Yes, a week late! Although I'm not surprised. You were clearly interested in my proposal last we met, yet your pride is obviously strong. A few days would seem like a weakness on your part, but more than a week would make you forgettable. A week shows that you find me pretty unimportant, but not too unimportant to forget."

"How do you do that? It's incredible! Amazing!" John knew he had a big smile on his face, but he didn't care that his admiration was obvious. This man knew everything.

"As you've said. Now, you've wasted enough time so I think we should get back to business, don't you?" Sherlock tugged John into the room, slamming the door shut behind him. "Now, I've found paw prints, clearly canine, but much larger than normal. I do not admit to the Hound's existence yet, for I have yet to see the creature myself."

"Of course not. It's pretty quiet most of the time. It's only during the full moon when the killings start happening."

"A full moon?" Sherlock plopped down into a chair, folding his legs so that the knees were level with his chin. He put his hands together, holding them under his nose.

John looked at him in confusion. "Sherlock?"

"Hush, John! I'm thinking!" Sherlock went still, his eyes getting a far-away look in them.

"Of course." John took this time to look about the room in an effort to better understand the other man. There were books everywhere, in piles waist-high. Strange science equipment covered every bare flat surface, even the tables. In the corner, a music stand was covered with sheet music. John was surprised and yet not to see that the music included some of the most difficult pieces to play. On the lone bookcase, there were little bowls, dead plants and a human skull. John moved closer, his nose wrinkling in distaste at the concoction in the bowls.

"I'm growing different types of molds and bacterias." John turned, giving Sherlock a blank stare.

"May I ask why?"

"To discover optimal growing conditions. I solved a case involving a female newlywed who supposedly died because she had become infected with a certain bacteria while on her honeymoon. I proved that her husband had infected her with a bacteria grown in his hometown. The type she had was a bacteria that flourished in wet, cool climates, nothing like where they had been. He, on their hand, often went to visit a friend in Scotland. It was quite obvious that he had killed her for her inheritance and also so that he might openly court her younger sister. They had been having an affair so he had intended to murder his new bride, get her money and claim the woman he truly wanted but could not have due to her lack of inheritance."

"Do you ever get tired of being so..."

"Amazing?"

John chuckled, picking up the skull. "Of course."

"Please be careful. Yorick is an old friend."

"You named your skull after a character from Hamlet?"

Sherlock smiled, reaching out to take the skull from John's hands and putting it back on the shelf. "So you do know how to read. I'm shocked at how many people don't know how."

"Many people here never got the education you or I did. You must be patient with them."

"Bored."

"What?"

"Bored!" John had only a moment to cover his ears before Sherlock pulled a pistol from his pocket and began firing shots into the wall. After a couple, he handed it to John who gratefully took it and emptied out the remaining bullets.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"The full moon is not for another couple weeks, John! I've revealed every liaison and unpaid debt this town has to offer! Everything from a 1/10 to a 4/10! There's nothing left!"

"Please don't tell me you rate your cases," John sighed.

"It helps later when I decide which ones are important and which ones can be deleted. Do try and keep up, John."

"Of course, I should have known." John dropped down into the other chair, trying his damnedest to ignore the fussing detective. "How's the arm?"

"What?"

"Your arm? The bite?"

"It got infected so I had to fix it."

"Why didn't you come to me?! I'm a bloody doctor!"

"I was letting you have your week. Besides, I was curious about what kinds of antibiotics I could create on my own."

"You're impossible," John groaned, sending an exhausted smile up towards the other man. "Has anyone ever told you that?"

"Often, and usually accompanied with other words like 'freak' and 'psychopath'."

John looked up at Sherlock, frowning. "They really call you that?"

"Yes, but if they did their research, they'd see I'm clearly a high-functioning sociopath. There's an obvious difference."

John chuckled, stretching his back to release some tension he didn't even realize he had. "How are you not married, Sherlock?"

Sherlock froze, looking everywhere but at John. "I feel the need to tell you that I do not want a relationship of any kind as I am married to my work..."

"Hold on, I...I don't...you don't think..." John blushed, slumping down in the chair. "I'm not like that. I like women. I want to be with a woman, not..."

"Good! Then we can get back to the game! Has this Hound ever killed before?"

"Centuries ago, when we were still unfamiliar with it. Then nothing until recently."

"So he's new to this." Sherlock sat down again in what John had already decided was his "thinking pose." "Perhaps a copycat of that earlier killer. This could only be so if there were records of those killings. Such records would require a certain level of power to gain access to, and then there's te fact that the individual would have to know how to read. A privileged individual then."

"You've narrowed it down significantly. Not many people in town know how because they never had the time or the wealth."

"Then the killer must be one of them. Who in this town has such an advantage?"

"My sister, my father, and myself. Governor Lestrade can, a little. And then there's you."

"It cannot be myself, as I have been in London since a few days ago."

"What about me? Do you think it could be me?"

Sherlock looked up, pinning John to the spot with those steely eyes. After a minute-long eternity, Sherlock shook his head. "I think not. You had obvious sentiment for your sister, making it impossible to do such a crime against her person."

"That leaves my father, Sherlock." John gave the detective a look, silently challenging him to make te accusation.

"You can out that glare away, John. I do not believe it was him on the same grounds as the ones for why I discounted you." Sherlock gave an exaggerated sigh, stretching his long legs out and slumping down in his own chair. "I can make no more guesses until I see a new body or the creature itself."

"So you're staying in town then?"

"It would seem so. This Hound is interesting to me...among other things."

John felt a shiver crawl up his spine at the way Sherlock's deep baritone caressed over the words. He found himself hoping that maybe he was one of the other things.

I have to say, I'm pretty excited about this story. I have no idea where I'm gonna go with it, but that's the way it is! Please leave a review, favorite, follow, whatever makes you happy because when you guys are happy, I'm happy :)