Chapter 43: Matters Of The Heart.
"Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter's response seemed to her to have no sort of meaning in it, yet it was certainly English."
-Lewis Carrol, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
A/N: Quick warning for M-rated material in this chapter.
"Is this later?" Jim asked, pushing himself up onto one elbow.
"Technically, yes." John rolled over to face him. "But it can wait until morning."
"What if I say it can't?" He sounded as petulant as a child, told to wait for ice cream until after dinner.
"Then we will have a problem, because I'm going to sleep," John said. Jim stared at him with wide eyes for a few seconds, then gave up and dropped back down onto the covers.
"Fine, then. Morning." And unmindful of the sweat that still clung to their bodies, he wrapped himself around John, a half-restrictive and half-protective embrace, and they fell asleep.
Oooooo00000oooooO
"Is it later?" Jim's voice came unexpectedly from behind the curtain. John dropped the soap in surprise and bent to pick it up, water cascading down his back.
"Yes, but you want to talk about this while I'm in the shower?"
"Good point," Jim said, and then a pale hand pulled the curtain aside, and another body slipped into the shower.
"Wha- Jim!" There was no space in the shower for two men, but the consulting criminal didn't seem to mind, just moving quickly to lock his mouth over the doctor's. John pushed at his shoulders slightly, too surprised to just succumb. What the hell are you doing? he wanted to ask. But Jim rolled his hips once, erection sliding over John's leg, and then there was no more pushing away.
John opened his mouth to let their tongues dance over each other, and oh they danced. Moriarty's kisses, John discovered, changed as much as the man himself. The brutal conflict from last night was gone and now it was almost an exploration, finding John's weaknesses with brutal precision. John's back hit the cold shower wall, his knees weak. The hot water fell around them, tracing lines down their faces, making their bodies slide across each other, skin on skin.
Jim pulled back and then dropped his mouth to John's neck, sucking hard. John made a noise that he'd never heard from himself before, somewhere between a moan and a growl. Jim nipped at his skin, and then licked at the mark that was already forming, right on the side of his neck for everyone to see and to know.
"Fuck, Jim," he managed, his whole body on fire with want and need and impatience.
"Yes?" Jim asked, pulling back to look at him, lips swollen from kissing and sucking, but his eyes on fire with mischief. "Something you want, Johnny?"
"Don't," John said, knowing that he was just teasing, that there would be relief in brief minutes, but still not in the mood for waiting.
"Don't what?" the criminal mastermind said, widening his eyes to look innocent.
John surged forwards, lips colliding, arms coming up to cushion the blow as he pushed them into the other wall, the shower now prickling down his spine. He moved his hips, grinding down on the other man. Jim's back arched, and he made a small noise that John swallowed into the kiss. He attacked Jim's mouth, sucking at his lower lip, unrelenting. He rolled against the other man, keeping them pressed into the wall.
Then he stepped back, moving as far away as the shower allowed him, and smiled slightly. Jim was leaning against the shower wall, completely undone. His breathing was harsh, his eyes were closed, and his lips were glistening with John's ministrations.
"Don't tease," John said, and stayed where he was.
Slowly, Jim's eyes opened and fixed on him, fire alight in blown pupils. For a moment, John thought he was going to be murdered, but then Jim grinned.
"Okay."
He took two steps forwards and then collapsed onto his knees. John barely had time to take a surprised breath in, before Moriarty opened his mouth and swallowed him down in one smooth movement. John's cock hit the back of Jim's throat, but the criminal mastermind didn't gag, didn't move back, only made a little self-satisfied humming sound.
"Jesus fuck," John shouted, dropping his head back to collide with the wall. "Jim, god, please." And there was no teasing, only movement, as Jim started to bob, tongue flickering in time with the movement, as though he had done this to John a thousand times and knew exactly where to lick to make him come undone in seconds. John's hips stuttered forwards, and Jim's hands came up to hold him down, rendering him helpless as pleasure exploded behind his eyes.
They could probably hear him three hallways away, but John couldn't bring himself to care because he was climaxing, the world turning bright, and Jim was swallowing around him, taking everything he could, still moving, and then he pulled off and there was a beat of silence.
John slowly looked down. Jim was still kneeling between his spread legs, eyes on John's face, one drop of cum glistening at the edge of his mouth. Slowly, deliberately, the criminal mastermind licked his lips, and then stood up.
"Is it later?" he asked.
The answer was still no, although John made sure that Jim wasn't too disappointed about that.
Oooooo00000oooooooO
"Now it's later," John told him, sitting down on the couch across from him and folding his hands.
"Oh," Jim said, and then there was silence for several seconds. "I'm over it."
"You're over it," John said, doing his best not to make it sound like a question, because he wasn't sure that he wanted the answer. Nevertheless, his voice tilted up at the end, and Jim answered.
"Yeah."
"Oh. …Okay."
"I love you too, by the way."
"Wait, what?"
"That was fun to say!" Jim commented to himself cheerfully.
"Wait, what?"
"Well, I was freaking out, and then I wasn't, and then I decided to say that and see how it went," Jim explained, as though it was obvious. "Your face is hilarious." John really wasn't following.
"Did you mean it?"
"I don't know," Jim said happily. "I think so."
"You think so?"
"I told you, I don't know."
"How can you not know if you love someone?" John asked, finding himself more and more lost in the labyrinth of Jim's answers.
"How do you know if you love someone?" the criminal mastermind countered.
"You…" John faltered.
"What does love mean?" Jim continued. "I wouldn't die for you, or anything silly like that. But I would kill a lot of other people for you. Even probably people that I like. Sebastian, I'd kill Sebastian for you, not that you would ever ask. And if someone else ever killed you, I would keep them alive for years and years. And I feel distracted when you're upset."
"…I don't know if that's love," John said.
"Neither do I," Jim agreed.
"I think it might be. In a weird way."
"I might love you. In a weird way," Jim told him seriously, and they both looked at each other for a full five seconds, before they started laughing.
"This is not how I thought this would go," John commented.
"No."
"I guess it never is, with you.
"True."
"I guess it doesn't matter, though."
"And that is why I stopped being confused!" Jim said excitedly. "Just like almost everything, if you stop and really think about it, it doesn't actually matter, you just assume it does!"
"Okay," John said, and then had to say it again to cover up how much he didn't understand what had just been said. "Okay." Jim laughed, and then stretched out over the chair. He was wearing dark jeans, without a shirt, and his hair was lacking its usual gel, free to fall towards the floor as he tilted his head backwards.
"Since that's all sorted out," he said, "can we go back to bed now?"
John didn't say no.
A/N: And this second (very short) chapter in one day is brought to you in thanks for the amazing review skills of Sophie again! WOW, you bring me to tears of happiness. Hard to believe that twenty chapters ago, I didn't know if anyone was reading this, and now I'm overwhelmed by the positive feedback I get every time I post. You guys make my boring life a little bit brighter.
Hey K, it sucks that your reviews take so long to get posted, because of the weirdo delay that fanfiction is putting on you. Makes it hard to respond to you. I look forward to your reviews, though!
LOVE YOU ALL!