Victoria pulled over to the curb and parked her car. She hated driving and hated parking even more but it was necessary. She sorted her things out in the passenger seat, figuring out what she would take up now and what she would take on her inevitable second trip.
She'd take the food up first. Maybe Sherlock would eat something if he didn't have his erasers to immediately distract him...
*tap tap tap*
She looked up in surprise but the surprise immediately left her face and was replaced with a grin. She opened her door. "John Watson," she greeted.
"Hey, how are you?" He smiled. "You look good."
"Just pretty words but I appreciate it all the same." She laughed and then asked, "Are you visiting Sherlock?"
"I am. Just got here, actually." John looked up at the building and then back at her. "Can I give you a hand with any of that?"
"I would love that. We're heading to the same place, you know." She offered him the two boxes of erasers and decided to leave her coffee cup in the car before getting out, holding her bag and the bag of food.
"You're going to see Sherlock?" John asked, stepping away so she could close the door.
"Yeah. He needed me to get something for him." She explained as they began to walk. "I wish I knew that you were coming over. I could have picked some food up for you as well."
"Ah no... It's okay. I had a late lunch with Mary." John assured her with a smile.
Victoria rolled her eyes, "Don't try to make me feel better, John. You know I like to find things to feel bad about. How else am I supposed to pass the time?"
"You can always visit Mary and me. You need to get out more." John told her, "You and Sherlock both. You guys like to hole yourself up in your flats and think the day away. It's not healthy."
"I may have a vitamin D deficiency but I like to think my pale skin is ethereal and delicate." She paused and then added, "But in a good way."
"Maybe a few hundred years ago, you could have gotten a husband with that skin of yours." John commented.
"Ah the good old days."
"But you actually need to make an effort to go out now. Why don't you?" He asked, stopping when they got to Sherlock's door. Victoria knocked.
"Who needs to date? Not me." She dismissed.
"You don't need to do anything." John sighed. "I'm just saying it would probably be good for you to."
If Victoria could cross her arms, she would. "Well there is a serious lack of guys in my life right now and I am not into that whole Internet thing." She knocked on the door again. "Who is there to date?"
"Good. You're here." Sherlock's voice startled them both out of their conversation.
They turned around to see Sherlock behind them.
"Where were you?" John asked, feeling silly for waiting at the door like he did.
"Victoria's flat. Mrs. Hudson doesn't know to look for me there yet." Sherlock brushed past them and walked into his own flat, swiping the boxes of erasers from John as did so.
"He has a key to your flat?" John asked Victoria in surprise. What in the world was going on there...
"No. He doesn't need a key to get through a lock. His will alone can open doors, I'm sure." Victoria grumbled, following Sherlock and John into the flat.
"When there is a will, there's a way," John chuckled.
Victoria walked into the the sitting area and placed the food down on a small table. She looked around. Everything seemed to be in order. Sometimes she worried about Sherlock living on his own so she liked to make sure everything was okay when she could.
"You've lost weight."
She looked up to see Sherlock placing the two boxes on his chair before beginning to move some furniture. He wasn't even looking at her but she knew that his comment was toward her.
"I have." She replied simply, waiting for him to continue. "I loose weight during the school year every year."
He pushed the table with the food on it out of the way before he sat down on the cleared out floor. He reached over and grabbed the boxes of erasers. "You looked a more acceptable mate before. If you are so focused on dating, losing weight may make you feel better about yourself and have you feeling more appealing to the opposite sex, but men would want the mother of their child or children to be able to nourish their child or children while pregnant whether they know it or not. You fit that role more before you lost the weight." He evenly spaced the erasers out around him on the floor.
John snorted. Whether Sherlock knew it or not, he said Victoria was more shagable when she was five kilos heavier and the fact that he said she was shagable at all is hilarious.
Sherlock rose an eyebrow at John, "Excuse you." He went back to setting up the erasers. "You should focus on your own eating habits and stop bothering me about mine."
"I eat plenty." Victoria took out her fish and chips, whether it was her proving a point or because she felt the need to eat more she didn't know.
Sherlock's eyes flickered up to her before focusing back on his task. "So do I."
They smiled: Victoria in surrender, Sherlock in victory, both in understanding.
"You win this time, Holmes." She shook her head. "I'll put this in the fridge for when you decide you want it." She carefully stepped around his eraser circles and into the kitchen.
"John," she heard Sherlock say, "throw this out the window and tell me what happens."
Victoria looked down, the corners of her lips still turned up.
Is it bad she wanted to call them her friends?