When Sherlock pulled away, John realised that it had gotten dark.
"Wow. Erm, how long have we been…?"
"It's 8.12, we'll have to go very soon"
"But.." John grumbled, evidently disappointed.
"Don't worry, we'll have a lot of time for this" then he planted a small kiss upon John's lips and stood up.
"You're good at that, you know. Especially for someone so inexperienced"
"Of course I am. It's just a simple pattern of movement and knowing the subjects favourite places."
"Did you just turn kissing into science?" He laughed, still looking slightly disoriented. He wasn't focusing fully, his mind obviously somewhere else.
"You can turn anything into science. At the beginning, I even had to experiment" he smirked.
John bit his lip and shook his head a little, smiling fondly at Sherlock.
"We'll go now. You're not so bad yourself, though I don't have much to compare it to." Sherlock added, grabbing John's hand and tugging.
"Mmmm hmmm" John murmured, his eyes still fixed on Sherlock's perfect Cupid 's bow lips, not looking where they were walking.
"John, this is going to need your full attention. I don't want you to get us caught, love"
John's eyes lost their glazed over look and he smiled at the affectionate name. "No. I'm fine. What made you call me that? Not that I don't like it."
"Isn't that what couples do? Give each other pet names? 'Love' is much better than 'cutiepie' or 'snugglepuss'" He made a face "-as Anderson once referred to Sally, obviously forgetting about his wife again"
"So…we're a couple now? And yes, I just didn't think that you were the type of person to do that." he beamed up at Sherlock.
"Well of course, John. We love each other, we've kissed." John's face broke into the widest grin Sherlock had seen "I just thought it would be nice" he said, sticking out his bottom lip.
"It's lovely, don't worry. Don't do that Sherlock, I'm having a hard time thinking straight already"
Sherlock quickened his pace, almost running now. "Whoa slow down a little" John had to run to keep up, his legs were much shorter than Sherlock's.
"The sooner we get this over with the sooner we can get back to kissing, or hugging. Which I enjoy almost as much"
They both began to run.
Soon they were back to the streets of London, it was almost exactly like before, when they had been running after a serial killer or gang of smugglers. But this time he could hold John's hand, without the excuse of being handcuffed together.
It didn't take them very long to get to the offices, and as Sherlock had said the window at the back was open wide, fortunately this time it was on the ground floor.
"I'll go in first John, just in case"
"Okay, wait there for me though"
"Of course"
Sherlock jumped over the low window ledge gracefully. As soon as he was in he turned and held out his hand so that he would be able to help John over the ledge.
"Thanks" John whispered as soon as he was over, keeping hold of Sherlock's hand.
"I need both my hands to work, love"
"Oh yes" John put both his hands in his pockets and looked around the small, dark office filled with filing cabinets. "Where do we start?"
"The one by the door, that should contain the 'Bs'
John was reaching towards the top drawer when Sherlock grabbed his arm. "No, John. Stop!"
It had been too dark to notice before, and he had been looking outside, then listening to see if the rest of the building was safe. The whole thing was alarmed.
But John had already curled his fingers around the handle of the drawer and Sherlock's attempt to yank his hand away had caused him to pull open the draw.
The screech of the alarm was ear splitting "Go John!" Sherlock shouted, his voice could only just be heard over the alarm's violent scream.
John hosted himself up and jumped out of the window.
"Sherlock" he yelled, but Sherlock was leaning over the filling cabinet, searching.
"Sherlock! Hurry up!" He was almost jumping up and down in his urgency for Sherlock to get out.
Already, John could hear a siren in the distance.
"It's fine, I have it" Sherlock bellowed back, almost to the window. From the other end of the building, they could hear the screech of the brakes of police cars, which contrasted oddly with the alarms unending high-pitched yell.
As Sherlock scrambled over the window, now much led elegant in his haste, they hear the door to the front of the building open.
His coat was stuck on something, it had caught in the cabinet nearest the window, who's bottom draw had not be shut properly by whoever left it last. "John help" he yelled, his voice now muffled as he had the file clenched between his teeth so he could use both hands to pull his coat. He was now sat on the window ledge.
They could hear voices from inside the building, but they were still at the front of the facility, supposedly checking the rooms in order.
John leaned over the windowsill, he could just lean in enough to get closer to the coats trap then Sherlock, he yanked the coat and Sherlock almost fell off of the window ledge with the force.
He jumped down and they ran off again together . Sherlock reached for John's arm and pulled him along hoping that it would help him to go faster.
They ran through the streets, John running blindly after Sherlock with no idea to where they were going. He stopped so abruptly and John almost ran into him.
"In here John" he said indicating a small door that John would never have noticed if he had been just walking past.
"What is this?"
"Just somewhere Mycroft bought a while ago, I took the keys from him while he was gloating about finding us" he stooped and unlocked the door.
"Why does he have this place?" John asked. As he Sherlock turned the light on, he gasped. "Oh my God, this place is like the TARDIS"
The room was enormous, John couldn't figure out how it had all been hidden behind that tiny door. There were chaise- lounges, the carpets and wallpaper were obviously top quality, and there were even chandeliers.
"Mycroft's taste is very decadent; he has this place in case anyone needs to go into hiding. So I suppose it would need to be suitable for those guests too"
John immediately grasped who Mycroft's 'guests' might be, judging by his expression.
"Then why didn't he let you use it earlier?"
"I'm not important enough" Sherlock wasn't self-pitying when he said this, as most people in the situation. He just said it in his normal matter-of-fact tone. "I can't believe that. They don't even have any sign of the alarm system on the outside of the building. The foyer isn't alarmed either. "
"So you wouldn't have known. We're fine. There weren't even any cameras, after the incident with Mycroft I always check."
"Why are the police even so quick to get to offices like that anyway? Maybe if they didn't spend time on those things they wouldn't all be such idiots, or have to call me for the simplest cases"
"It's a government building, in fact I'm surprised it wasn't more heavily guarded"
Sherlock looked slightly sheepish "It usually is, I just had a few of the guards removed."
"What?"
"I got some people to blackmail them. It was easy."
"How?"
"I noticed there secret affairs, their gambling and drug addictions. Then I had one of my contacts bribe them that I would let all the information out to those they were hiding the problems from if they didn't disappear tonight"
"Brilliant. You would make a fantastic criminal you know"
"I know. I just chose the side of the angels" he said, quoting Moriarty.
"What are you talking about?" John asked, still gazing around the vast room Oh yeah that thing Moriarty said to you on the roof." He yawned.
"You're tired. Do you want to go up to the bedroom, take your pick. There are three. "
"O-okay," he stifled another yawn. He had only just noticed the doors different diverting form the room. He could just see through each of them, one was a kitchen and another a bathroom. He walked through the closest of the remaining three doors .
He threw himself down on the lush four poster bed then shouted out to Sherlock who was waiting just outside the door.
"Yes? Do you need something?" He was worrying about John, maybe it wasn't good to do this to him. He should have told him to go home. What would Mrs Hudson say when he didn't come home? Maybe she had even guessed his original plan for the day…No of course not, she would have done something.
"Could you...sleep here tonight?"
Sherlock looked startled for a second "What? Do you mean-" then his face cleared in understanding, even before John started speaking.
"No Sherlock. God no. Not now"
"I knew that John" he rolled his eyes. He laid down next to on the bed and John snuggled into him.