The night sky hung over the streets of London and the contents of 221b Baker street was in an eerie silence. After Sherlock had 'Apologised' The whole flat fell into an awkward silence, Leila was perched on the sofa legs crossed and a cup of steaming tea placed between her hands. Sherlock sat staring at nothing, tunelessly plucking at the strings on his violin. And John was sat next to Leila also sipping from his tea. Time ticked slowly passed and no one had yet tried to start a conversation going. John coughed.
"So why was it that you decided to move to London?" He asked looking at the brunette that seemed to be in a world of her own. She snapped out of it and turned to face the doctor, a smile on her face as she was relieved that someone had finally broke the silence that had surrounded her.
"Well to cut a long story short, I lived with an Ex so when we broke up I had to leave, and plus it's nice to have a change." Leila explained, she took a long sip of tea and sunk back further into the sofa. "I forgot how great it was to be single." She added a small giggle leaving her lips. John laughed with her and the room fell into silence once again.
"MACARENA!" Sherlock bellowed causing both John and Leila to jump simultaneously, John swore under his breath as the hot liquid splashed onto his jumper.
"What are you on about?" John questioned staring down at the tea stain forming on his jumper.
"Oh nothing of importance, I was worried that you two had forgotten about me as you were too busy having a conversation of your own." Sherlock explained rapidly, his eyes caught sight of John dabbing his jumper in attempts to remove the stain. "Don't worry John you can easily buy a new jumper down at Oxfam for 50p." John looked up at his friend and glared. A burst of laughter erupted in the room and both glaring men turned to face to source of it.
"I'm so sorry. It's just..." Leila burst out laughing again, causing herself to nearly to spill her own tea down her top. She quickly wiped the tears away from her face and regained her composure. "I'm sorry it was just you face John, oh and not to mention how Sherlock got jealous over just a petty thing." Leila tried to stifle the laughter that was still threatening to come out.
"I was not jealous..." Sherlock began.
"Save it Sherlock, we all know you were." John responded.
"You two are like an old married couple." Leila laughed again, her laughter suddenly stopped and her face fell. "Oh my god. you two aren't, you know..." She pointed back and forth between them and raised her eyebrows.
"No!" Both men answered in a rush. She smiled back at them.
"It's not like I would've had a problem with that." She reassured them. Leila's voice was cut off by the Bee Gees, the song 'Staying alive' playing from the black phone that was balanced on the arm rest of the sofa. "Sorry about the song, my ex changed it a while back." Leila explained as she picked up her phone and tapped the screen.
"Molly, how's it going?" She asked down the phone. Sherlock rolled his eyes and continued to pluck away at his violin, John silently removed himself from the room and gave Sherlock a look which said 'Behave'.
"Did you get there alright? Are you sure you want to stay there? I can always pay for a hotel..." Molly's voice frantically poured through the phone. Leila put the phone back on the sofa and waited to the quiet buzz of noise that was her sister had stopped. Once satisfied that her sister had stopped talking she picked up the phone again.
"Everything's fine. Me and Holmesy are getting along..."
"Holmesy?" Both Molly's voice and The man sitting in front of her questioned. Leila brought the phone down and stared at Sherlock in disbelief.
"You've never had a nickname?" Leila gasped. Sherlock scrunched his nose up at the thought.
"I've been called all manner of names. But never...Holmesy." He explained. "Freak, yes. Sherly, yes. They had fun at school with that one, saying I had a girl's name. Funny, that came from a boy called Sam. He didn't like it when I said he had a unisex name." Sherlock's gaze met Leila's. "But never have I been called Holmesy." Leila stared back into the eyes of the detective, the grief and sorrow that filled them was heartbreaking. Leila quickly raised the phone back to her ear.
"Yep, so everything's fine. bye." She rushed, hanging up before giving Molly the chance to respond. Leila stood up. "What do you want to have for dinner?" She asked, Sherlock carelessly waved his hand her direction.
"I'm not hungry." He answered bluntly. Leila shrugged knowing it wasn't worth arguing with him.
"Your loss." She called out. She headed to the back of the living room and into the kitchen. "I make a mean spag bowl."
John entered the room now wearing a clean beige jumper. Sherlock raised his eyes to look at him and a look of pure disgust covered his features.
"Dear god, John. That one's worse." Sherlock sneered. Leila peeped her head around the archway and narrowed her eyes at the detective.
"Be nice, Holmesy." She lectured before returning back to looking through numerous cupboards. John turned to Sherlock, his eyebrows raised.
"Holmesy...That's, um, different." John responded politely. Sherlock looked up at his friend.
"It seems that I have acquired a nickname in your absence." Sherlock replied a small smile tugging the corners of his mouth. "A nice one."