"Knock, knock, Seb, are you home?" Richard asked upon entering his brother's flat, a bag of his clothes slung over his shoulder.

"Did she finally throw you out?" Sebastian asked, looking up from where he was cleaning his riffle. Richard had watched Sebastian clean his weapons enough times that he was fairly certain that he could clean a gun on his own, though he'd never say that out loud to Sebastian, who got pissed enough when it turned out Jim could clean a weapon perfectly without having down it before.

"I'm moving out a bit at a time," Richard said. "Really, I just have to get out of there. The only reason I'm staying around at all is that I've got nowhere else to live," he said, setting down his knapsack.

"Do you plan to stay here?" Sebastian asked.

"Not really a good idea. I think I'd rather be homeless," Richard said rather earnestly. That finally got Sebastian to look up from his work. Sebastian mere held eye contact for a few moments and then looked away again.

"Have fun with that, more fun research, right?"

"No I did that already. I'm not really a fan of being homeless," Richard admitted.

"When did this happen?" Sebastian asked, never having heard the story.

"I was 19, basically as soon as Jim left after he ripped my rib out. I just didn't want to stay where he could find me."

"And he found you," Sebastian said.

"Two months later when he cared enough to wonder where I was," Richard said with a shrug. He leaned awkwardly against the wall, just watching the ex-sniper work.

"Yeah, well, that's Jim," Sebastian said, starting to pack his gear up.

"Uh, yeah," Richard said, only realizing just too late that he needed to say something.

"Do you need something?" Sebastian growled in exasperation. His hands didn't move any faster as he packed his riffle away in its case.

"Are you okay?"

"Really? Is that what you came the way down here to do? Check in on me?" Sebastian asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice in a way that was just very Jim.

"No, I came to drop off some clothes so that I'll have less things for Ms. Reilly to paw through while I'm away." Richard could hear the very Jim-like growl in his voice when he said it, and he noticed the way Sebastian's attention focused on him. "Look, Colonel… I don't know if you and Jim were… together, but-"

"We weren't," Sebastian said through clenched teeth.

"but-"

"We weren't!"

"But!" Richard said loudly. "I don't care, I honestly don't. You were as close as he could come to having a friend. I'm not sure how the will worked in relative terms, but I know that most if it goes to me, including all of Jim's properties."

"Including this flat," Sebastian said.

"Yeah. Sebastian, you know I absolutely don't want this place. What I want to know is if I can just give it to you without you arguing with me, or if I have sell it to you for a piss low price, because I'm not keeping it, and I'm not evicting you from your home."

Sebastian shook his head. "You're just as much of a bastard as he was, taking a man's pride away."

"Pride is vastly overrated," Richard said, pushing away from the wall and throwing himself down on the sofa. He had a specifically Jim-feeling inside himself. This was why he hated staying. He took on his brother's character too easily.

"That's what your brother used to say," Sebastian said, getting up and going to the kitchen. Richard wondered if to was to avoid being around him, but then Sebastian came back with two open beers and handed Richard one. As thanks, Richard moved his legs to Sebastian could take his seat back (instead of making him move). Then he just tossed his legs in Sebastian's lap, like he'd seen Jim do a hundred times. It didn't mean anything. Jim did stuff like that to everyone. "You're not Jim."

"Then push me off," Richard said, sipping his beer far more daintily than was necessary, making Sebastian snort. Sebastian got a highly devious look on his face and reached down.

"No shoes in the living room," he said, pulling Richard's shoes off, dumping them on the floor. Richard knew it was bad, but he didn't know what was going to happen until Sebastian clamped his arm over Richard's legs and started to tickle Richard's feet mercilessly. "Don't spill beer on the sofa," Sebastians added with a smirk.

Richard struggled helplessly. His cardigan and shirt and face were already covered with beer from where he'd snorted some up his nose when Sebastian first grabbed him. He was still having trouble chocking up the beer in his lungs. He couldn't struggle to hard to get away for fear of ruining the carpet or the sofa. He also couldn't get away because Sebastian had the most amazing and painful amount of force applied to shins all while still tickling Richard's feet with the ease of a practiced torture (which Richard would probably have supposed that Sebastian was, if Richard could have down anything but pray for death or to be let go at that moment.)

"I give, I give! You win! Fuck! Let me go!" Richard finally shouted.

Sebastian just started tickling worse. "Say pretty pretty please."

"F-fuck-ha ha- no-stop! You!" Richard gasped out.

"I can do this all day, darling," Sebastian purred in his best Jim imitation, which would have been funny on its own if Richard hadn't been seriously struggling to breath.

"Pretty-ha-p-pretty-p-please!" Richard shouted.

Sebastian smirked and let Richard go instantly. "All you had to do was ask." He proceeded to sip his own beer, which he had not spilled at all, despite being in the hand of the arm that held Richard down the whole time.

"Fuck you!" Richard snapped, sitting up and setting the can down on a coaster. He stripped off his shirt and cardigan, wiping the beer off his face with his shirt. He was still panting. His ribs hurt like a knife had been shoved between them and his feet were still tingling from the abuse. Richard stood, grumbling as he walked into Jim's room, grabbing his bag of clothes on the way through. He needed to wash the beer off.

Richard scowled, hearing Sebastian still laughing from the living room. "Bastard," Richard muttered, finding a wash cloth in Jim's bathroom and washing the sticky off himself as best he could. "No wonder Jim liked him," he added to no one, heading out to the bedroom and going to find a shirt.

It struck him and he dragged a clean shirt on that the flat, Jim Moriarty's flat actually belonged to him now. He owned it and everything in it that didn't have Sebastian's name scratched into it. That realization hit him hard, and he ended up sitting on Jim's bed, just staring off a bit stupidly. The idea that he could go through his brother's things seemed… impossible.

Richard jumped up and went to Jim's sock drawer, starting to riffle through it carefully. He was torn between speed and still not believing that Jim wouldn't appear around the corner and break his wrist for going through his drawers. Hence why he only bothered with the sock drawer. He didn't expect anything to be in there and Jim would probably be the least angry to see that Richard had gone through it.

That thought made Richard's eyes sting. He'd been cycling between incredible joy at not having to be afraid of Jim anymore, and the most soul crushing pain that Richard could even imagine. Molly was a nice distraction, but so far they'd only hate lunch dates, not a real date yet. Now that the will was about to be settled Richard could finally take her on a real date. He'd nearly lost his mind when he'd seen the production of Othello at the Rose, and their upcoming production of Macbeth already had his mouth watering already. Richard just kind of vaguely hoped that Molly wouldn't mind him dragging her to every theatre production he could find in London, now that he'd be able to afford to go.

Richard smiled at the thought, but frowned when his hand found something, velvet. Richard grabbed the thing, a box, and pulled it out. He carefully opened the box, which had two rings: a male and female engagement ring. "What the hell, Jim?" Richard murmured, pulling at the woman's ring. It was simple, classy, with a beautiful pear cut diamond.

Richard examined the outside, noting the matching white-gold of each bands. He wondered if maybe Jim had stolen it from some unlucky person. He doubted Jim would be keeping it for a 'friend'. The idea made Richard giggle. The giggles only increased at the idea that Jim might have been proposing to Sebastian. Richard hard to force himself not to try and figure out who would get the woman's ring. It was a completely silly thought and Sebastian would kill him if he knew that Richard had secretly hoped Sebastian was Jim's boyfriend.

Still smiled, Richard turned the woman's ring over, looking at the inside. His heart seemed to stop when he saw it. It'd been a whim to look inside. It was more popular to emblazon the inside with words of love or names now a days. Jim hadn't expected such a thing from Jim. If it had a name in it, then it meant the ring should have been from one of Jim's victims (though why Jim would keep it in his sock drawer was beyond Richard). Yet when Richard did see the engraving, he nearly dropped the ring. Instead he put the ring back very carefully, shut the box, put it back in its spot and carefully realigned all the socks.

"I'll drop more things off later," Richard said, heading out. He didn't let Sebastian speak to him and he hurried out. His heart was pounding too hard, and he didn't think he could have stopped if he wanted to. He ripped his new phone, Jim's phone, out of his pocket and sent Molly a sex message.

Let's have lunch. You know where. ;) –RB

He smiled at the instant response. (See you then –MH) but still couldn't get his heart to stop racing as he ducked down into the tube to head toward St. Bart's and the nearby café. Engraved on the inside of the ring were two simple and devastating words: Molly Moriarty.

Richard was tapping his foot more than a bit impatiently when Molly showed up at the café. Richard had already ordered tea, as well as sandwiches for them that could only be described as spicy chicken salad paninis. Molly had just told Richard to order for her at the café, since he seemed to know all the off the menu recipes. She'd told him that after eating the orange chocolate cheese cake. Richard ordered one of those too, for after lunch.

"Hey, have you been waiting long?" Molly asked, sitting down to sip her tea (Ceylon and Jasmine, as always).

"A bit, but it's not your fault, I didn't have anything else to do," Richard said, forcing his leg to stop moving. She didn't need to know about his panic. Jim was dead, and in any case, she had no idea how far Jim's obsession with her had gone.

"What do you do during the day?" Molly asked.

"Try to find a flat, mostly," Richard said. "I got a call last night. I'll get Jim's will settled tomorrow."

"Oh… so you'll have some place to live after that?" Molly asked.

"No, I don't want to stay in Jim's places," Richard admitted. "But, I did get tickets for a…our first real date. It's not very fancy… but I thought I'd take you some place I loved a lot… is that okay?" he asked, getting back into the awkward feeling of how he acted with her.

"It's wonderful, Richard," Molly said. "I don't ever feel like I get to know enough about you."

"Really?" Richard asked, a little stunned at that.

"You never talk about yourself expect in the context of yourself."

"Really?" Richard asked.

"Well, you ask me a lot of questions about myself. You talk about Jim a lot, and yourself by extension, but it's not really about you. I feel like I know Jim a lot better, though," she said with something of an ironic smile.

"Oh Christ, I'm so sorry!" Richard gasped. He reached out and took her hand. He noticed her smile and blush and he smiled too. He liked touching her, but he could tell it was always a jolt to her. She reminded him a bit of the old woman cat from Cats, just so shocked that anyone would ever touch her. That made Richard want to kill people.

"It's okay," Molly assured him, lacing their fingers. She was taking more liberties, as small as they were, Richard loved that.

"Jim had a nasty habit of using anything I put out into the world against me. He practiced being a controlling bastard on me, and I practiced being an actor on him. The side effect of which is that I don't even talk about myself anymore. It's… hard… for me. I don't mean to be difficult, and please don't feel guilty. I have to learn how to get over my fear of giving people a way to control me if I tell them anything about me."

"Most people aren't as smart as Jim," Molly pointed out.

"True," Richard said with a smile. "Why don't… you try asking me some questions."

"We'll start out easy," Molly promised, squeezing his hand. "Really easy. First question: what is your favorite color."

Richard grinned and then he thought. "Well… normally I'd say I don't have one, that green looks good on me, but so does rust, or grey though that's not actually a color."

"But if you're being honest…" Molly said, getting where this was going.

"Pink," Richard said with a grin. "The color of baby skin. It seems like… innocence, life, things you can't help but love and want to protect."

Molly beamed, gripping his hand. "It's a favorite of mine too," she said.

"I know… too much hate for the color. It used to be seen as very masculine, that it was the color a boy should wear because blue was a feminine color, but red was masculine. Pink was a boy's color, once upon a time. I don't think many people know that."

"I did," Molly admitted. Richard smiled affectionately and pulled her wrist of tehri still clasped hands up and kissed her wrist.

"Next question," he said.

"What's your favorite food?" she asked.

"Grilled cheese," Richard answered instantly and Molly laughed.

"Favorite play?" She asked.

"Othello," Richard said.

"Really?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"I've always wanted to try to play Iago… it scares me so badly… he remind me of Jim a lot… but I wanted to find my own Iago, separate from Jim… it's terrifying, and it would be so hard and I would suffer so much, but that's what would make it great," he said in a breathy voice. He blushed then, realizing that a little bit of who he really was had slipped out. "I'm sorry," he murmured.

"No… no, Richard…" she reached out, touching his cheek. "That's the most wonderful thing I think I've ever heard you say."

"Really?" Richard asked, honestly shocked.

"Really. You sounded so… absorbed, and passionate. It's like you weren't hiding at all."

"I wasn't, that was a mistake," Richard said in a grave voice. He gripped her hand tighter. "I'm trying Molly, I am, but this is hard."

"Then it will be great when you can," Molly said, squeezing back.

Richard smiled ruefully. "See, you're using my words against me too," he said, bitterness lacing his words.

Molly shifted forward and kissed the tip of Richard's nose. "A relationship can't work if you're playing the part of who you think I want you to be… it only works if both people are honest… and I know a play a part too, but I'm trying to not as well. It's hard… for everyone it's hard and I'm so damn shy and I wish I could have any confidence at all, and all I want to do is impress you… but for you that seems to mean that I have to find the courage to not hide… and it's so hard Richard. It's so hard," she whispered softly, like she was telling him a terrible secret.

Richard smiled, but there was a hard kind of understanding in his eyes. "I know… I really do," he told her. "I'll try… because me being myself is important to you, and because you're trying too."

"Thank you… see, I know you better already," Molly said with a sweet smile.

"I love it when you smile," he said. "There, you know something else," he said. He let go of her hand as the food arrived.

They ate for a bit in companionable silence. Molly let a few happy moans when she first bit into her food. Richard noticed that she did this a lot. He decided to find it adorable, and not worry about how much it screwed with his libido. Though today she let out a wonderfully, terribly loud moan. She proceeded to continue to make cute little happy noises which were far more erotic then they had any place being. Richard cross his legs at the knee and was damn glad for the table.

"So, what did you do today?" Richard asked.

"Do you really want to know?" Molly asked.

"Yes, why?" Richard asked.

"All Jim wanted to do was talk about cadavers and Sherlock Holmes," she said with a shrug.

"Which was the only thing your day was about, right?" Richard asked with a heavy sigh. He knew about people coming to try and get information about Sherlock from her.

"Yes, unfortunately… what about you?"

"Desperately trying to move out of Kitty Reilly's flat," Richard said. "You don't happen to know a place I could lease for just a bit until I could find another place… what?" he asked, noticing Molly biting her lip, something she only did when she didn't want to admit something.

"I… well, I do know a place, but I'm not sure it's a good idea."

"Can't be worse than being with Ms. Reilly, or in Jim's flat," Richard said blankly.

Molly still hesitated, chewing on her lower lip and sighing heavily. "John moved out of 221b Baker Street, and Mrs. Hudson really needs a new tenant."

"Oh… yes, I see why that might be a problem," Richard said. "Um… did she ever meet Jim?"

"Not that I know of," Molly said.

Richard sighed heavily. "You think she might give me a chance if I… if you went with me?"

"You want me to ask her a favor?"

"The only person I know who knows her is Doctor Watson, and while he's never tried to kill me, I'm not certain he won't wake up one day and decide it's a good idea. I don't want to bother him."

"Oh, well, when you put it that way," Molly said, taking a bite of her sandwich. She let out a happy moan that made Richard clench his legs together tighter. He was glad for her taking time to sip her tea. "How about I call her now and go with you after work?"

"Sounds like the most brilliant thing I could imagine."

Molly grinned and pulled out her phone. "Yes, Hello, Mrs. Hudson. Yes, it's Molly Hooper. Yes, it's lovely to hear you again as well. Listen, have you found anyone for 221b yet?" She glanced at Richard and smiled at him. "No, I have someone. No, he's my… well, my boyfriend." Both she and Richard blushed at that. "He needs a place to stay for a while. He's willing to pay rent, of course. I'd just like you meet him…. His name is Richard. Yes, it's probably just temporary, so you can keep trying to find someone if you don't like him, but you'll still have someone paying rent," she said. "Yes, can we come by this evening? Yes… of course he's a good guy. John knows him. No, his old flat was leased and the roommate he was boarding with is really awful… his brother just died recently." Richard could hear sympathetic cooing sounds on the other end. "Okay… alright, I'll bring him by once I finish with work. Thank you Mrs. Hudson." She hung up.

"So…" Richard said, still blushing. "Am I your boyfriend?"

Molly's blush came back with a vengeance. "I… don't know… do you want to be?"

"Well… that was the plan eventually. I don't mind you calling me that now, though."

"Then I guess you're my boyfriend," Molly said with a suddenly very brilliant grin.

"I guess that makes you my girlfriend," Richard said, taking a bite of his sandwich. "Mmm, this is good," he said, just realizing it because he'd been so distracted by Molly before.

"I'm your girlfriend," Molly said with a wonderful smile. Richard couldn't remember exactly when he'd felt so happy. He wasn't even thinking about Jim at all.