John let a few days pass, giving Sherlock his headspace, not pushing for anything at all, doing nothing that the genius had not already approved as "fine", figuring that even Sherlock Holmes sometimes could need just a few moments to sort his head, a few days of space after what must have been a traumatic event. Though he knew that Sherlock had not been afraid, he also knew that the event had utterly exhausted him, so he tried to give him some space to drift into the mind palace all he needed to sort it out.

This did, however, not extend to the physical. John knew his lover, if he could truly be called that when he barely allowed for a backrub, plenty well enough to know that physical distance was the very last thing Sherlock wanted nor needed now. So John spent most of their time together silently reading books and stroking his genius' hair or gently caressing or rubbing the skin he had been expressively permitted to. Which was honestly a big improvement, as Sherlock's neck and pale collar bone was very touchable.

John was lying on the couch, updating his blog, his lap full of consulting detective, while Sherlock was mulling over a case Lestrade had presented them with that morning, gently stroking the hair of his detective as he proofread the text he had written earlier, as Sherlock, who was in his usual manner absently touching him, suddenly looked up.

"Solved it?" John asked, looking up from his computer in turn. For a brief moment Sherlock looked taken aback, then he shrugged it off "oh, no. It was the brother in law, it was elementary. I texted Lestrade while you made tea". "Oh". John put his laptop down, trying to move as little as possible "then what have you been thinking so hard about?"

"You" Sherlock stated simply, and then promptly buried his face to John's side. John didn't even bat an eye at this, being more than used to Sherlock being particular. In his experience, such statements could lead three ways. Either, and doubtlessly most common, Sherlock was puzzled by something utterly mundane, and it would lead to some amusement and a brief explanation on John's part. Always rather brief, as however unused to sentiment that Sherlock might be, he was also a very, very quick study.

The other possible scenario was that Sherlock had become hung up on sentiment, as he called it, feeling something or possibly needing help sorting out just what he was feeling, in short, that he was about to be completely adorable.

Lastly, and John's least favorite one, was that they were about to have a problem. Nevermind if Sherlock had become bothered by something, puzzled or just was uncomfortable, these were the times when Sherlock would withdraw or pull away, the same situation as when John might snarl or slam doors, little occasion as he had had for that lately.

So which of the three was it? There had been plenty of examples of all three in their time together, like the time when Sherlock had spent a full day puzzling over why John suddenly wanted to touch him so much more or openly nagged him about eating just because they were together. Or when he had one day, wastly uncomforable, as if he expected a lecture or catastrophe, confessed to John that he loved him. And the time when he, just as uncomfortable, or even more so, agonisingly politely excused himself and actually left the room when John had tried to touch him, a little too much.

After waiting for a few seconds, John tilted his head and asked softly "and what were you thinking?"

If this story had a tag, it'd be "Evil cliffhanger is evil". Sorry about that... No I am not. All recognisable content belongs to its respective owners.

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