Chapter seven – Moments

The passing week had been horrible for Sherlock. He was thinking non-stop about the kiss, the kiss that he had incited with a pupil in his classroom during an open day. He'd been practically beating himself up about it. It didn't help that he saw her four days this week, of course she hadn't let on that anything was wrong. On the contrary she seemed to be acting normal, like nothing was happening, like nothing had happened. He thought that she might have been ignoring the kiss because she didn't like him but then again she had been the one to proposition him that day in the car. It was clear that she was just thinking about other things and giving him the space he needed. But he didn't want space, he wanted her. It was practically killing him.

Clarissa had kept her head down during class and gotten on with the work. There had been a small moment where she had looked up from her textbook on Monday. Their eyes connected for a few seconds before she had looked down with a blush spreading across her cheeks. At the end of class she had lingered for a minute as she placed her timed essay on his desk at the top of the pile. There was a small post it note on the top with a note scrawled in her effortlessly neat handwriting 'I'm waiting Mr Holmes, don't make me wait too long.' Sherlock felt his heart flutter at the way she had scribbled her name at the bottom. He pocketed the note not wanting to lose it anytime soon and started on marking the essays. It only stood to reason that he mark hers first, it was on the top of the pile.

It was Wednesday when he saw her again. The school day had just started and she was in the hallway with a pile of notes in her hand that seemed to be well organised if the small coloured post it notes on the edges were anything to go by. There was also a folder in her hand so she must have been planning to put them into the folder during tutor time. That to Sherlock was the tell-tale sign of a dedicated student, someone who was willing to work in tutor time instead of chatting aimlessly with her friends about whatever they had done that was insignificant the night before.

She was dressed in a tight skirt that stopped just below her knees with a red tartan pattern. A simple black top was over the top with some heeled black trainers. The outfit was concealing of everything except the bruises dotted over her arms. A boy in her year, Daniel something or other was obviously unaware of her walking as he bashed into her. His shoulder hit hers hard, she turned on impact, pulling her shoulder away from his with a hiss of pain. The papers in her hands fell from her hands and scattered across the floor.

"Nice move wanker" she spoke sarcastically as she cradled her shoulder slightly with her other hand.

Daniel looked mortified. Sherlock almost laughed. It was clear to him almost immediately why the boy had frozen looking like he was staring at a monster. He liked her. There were the tell-tale signs, how he looked at her, eyes flicking over her whole boy and halting on her lips. The way he then licked his lips and how he talked about her with his friends. "I-I'm so sorry" Daniel apologised, crouching down to help her pick up the papers.

Clarissa rubbed at her shoulder slightly. "Leave it Daniel, I can do it." She insisted as she moved into a crouched position the best she could with her skirt and heels. Daniels kept on picking up the papers and pulling them into a straight pile as his eyes lined up with her chest.

"Seriously Clarissa I didn't mean it, I wasn't looking where I was going. It was entirely my fault." He said quickly. It was surprising that he wasn't tripping over his words by how nervous he was getting.

The school bell rang loudly, signalling tutor times for the students. "Go to tutor Daniel, I can handle this and know it was an accident."

Daniel handed her the papers he had collected before practically running down the hallway to tutor. Clarissa let out a small laugh at the sight of him running away nervously but carried on gathering the papers.

"Do you need some help?" Sherlock asked from where he was stood against some lockers. They were alone in the hallway now.

"I'm fine" she responded simply with all the papers now in hand. She stood up as quickly as she could.

"You've hurt your shoulder" he observed. "Is it bruised?"

"Yes" she almost hissed, the 'S' sound was elongated more than necessary. There was still some pain if she was being honest but mostly she could ignore it. "Nothing excessive, it's just a little tender today but it's nothing some pain killers won't fix."

"Only if you're sure?" he asked. They both knew he wasn't asking about the shoulder, well he was but it was subtext. He knew he couldn't do anything about the abuse until she came to him for help. Right now he was asking about the post it note she had written to him, about waiting.

"I'm sure" she replied with a smile before heading towards tutor. Sherlock smiled to himself against his wishes, he just couldn't help being happy about it. Of course that didn't mean he was making a decision it was far from a decision.

"What did you think you were doing?" Sherlock questioned. There was no compassion in his voice, it was instead dripping with annoyance.

The two students were at the front of the classroom. Daniel had his head ducked in embarrassment, the arm of his shirt was wet from where he had seemingly tripped over and dropped a jug of water that was meant for their experiment. Clarissa's white top was soaked through so the material was sticking to her like a second skin and doing nothing but drawing attention to her pale pink bra. The rest of the class had been excused a few minutes early while he dealt with the situation at hand.

"It was an accident –" Daniel began in explanation.

Sherlock cut him off almost immediately. "An accident that had you and a fellow student" he gestured towards Clarissa but didn't dare look at her "drenched with cold water not to mention breaking a glass jug. Are you really that dim-witted that walking the meter from the sink to your desk is too much a task to arrive without disaster?"

Clarissa spoke up at this point. "I don't think that's fair Sh-" she began but corrected herself quickly when he glared at her "-Sir. Daniel just tripped over, he didn't mean for the water to spill or jug to smash, it was an accident."

Sherlock eyed her for a minute, careful to keep his gaze on her eyes and not the very visible pale pink bra. "Daniel you may go, please try and be more careful. I'm not sure the school can stand more of your accidents." Daniel kept his head ducked down as he picked up his bag and left without a sound.

The door slammed shut. Sherlock let out a long breath. "Do you have a change of shirt or jumper or something?" he asked with more care. "That water was extremely cold and you cannot keep that shirt on. It will do nothing for your health and well it leaves little to the imagination." Clarissa blushed at his words but shook her head. She hadn't thought to bring a spare set of clothes of jumper today. Sherlock sighed and plucked up a dark blue and grey striped jumper from the back of his desk chair. He handed it to her wordlessly. "Put it on" he instructed when he noted her confused look.

"Thanks" she muttered before peeling off her own wet shirt. Sherlock wanted to look away or protest but couldn't bring himself to. Instead he just watched, eyes wide in surprise as she dropped the water covered shirt to the floor. She was stood in the middle of his classroom with only her bra on, it was incredibly inappropriate, anybody could walk in but that did nothing to make Sherlock want to protest the action. He felt the blood flow south but ignored it as he watched fascinated as she slipped on his jumper.

The material was soft against her skin but not overly tight. It was just lose enough to cling to her chest. It was a male jumper and not designed for women. The V neck showed off her cleavage while she adjusted to the feeling. It was Sherlock Holmes jumper and it smelt like him. Small amounts of cigarette smoke and coffee mixed with an expensive cologne and the natural smell that is Sherlock. Sherlock opened his mouth to speak but Clarissa looked up, her blue eyes dilated as she spoke slowly. "I have to go to lesson." Sherlock gave a small nod of the head and turned away from her. Clarissa took this as her queue to leave. Sherlock only relaxed when the door closed, he released a long breath. He was in school, half hard and totally in love with one of his students.