Quick update because I felt like it. Regret it now because I haven't done my English homework. Oh well.

Chapter 12

As John walked into the mess hall, followed by Sherlock and Scout, he felt like he was really a trainee. While the place didn't go silent, all eyes fell on him and Sherlock, and he knew he was blushing. Sometimes, he really hated his body. There were a few snickers around the room as Scout urged them to the remaining spots to the right of the door, and, surprisingly, the men and women sitting there actually moved aside for them, allowing them room to sit on the one bench, next to each other. Before John could say anything to Scout or Sherlock the woman sitting next to him spoke up. Her glossy brown hair fell into dark eyes as she turned to look at the doctor,

"What are you doing here, doctor?" she asked, eyeing the red cross on his arm, "you obviously aren't a cadet," her voice was like honey and for a second John found himself completely tongue –tied as everyone on the table laughed at his attempt at coherent speech, "I-er-well-have to-train" John finally stammered out to more laughter and the woman joined in, her teeth so white John wondered what she was doing in the army when any fashion agency would have her.

Sherlock glared at the woman who kept laughing at John's reaction, and felt a pang of jealousy, even though he knew John would never cheat on him.

"I'm Madeleine Edgly," she said, holding out her hand,
"John. Watson," the doctor took Madeleine's hand, only just remembering what his surname was, and shaking it with a smile on his face,

"We call her Maddie," Scout said from next to John and Maddie took her startling gaze off John and turned it onto Scout,

"Sergeant," she said and John watched as the man turned the same colour as the tomato sauce that covered the pasta in front of them.

"Hey Maddie," he said, his voice soft and the table burst into laughter,

"John," Sherlock grabbed the doctor's attention,

"Hmm?" John asked, his mouth full of food. Sherlock rolled his eyes,

"Can I talk to you?" he asked, smiling much too sweetly for John's liking. Before John could reply and tell Sherlock that no, he couldn't, because John was starving, Sally walked in, wearing the fatigues this time, and spotted them.

"Hey guys," She said, sliding onto the seat between John and Maddie, the latter holding out her hand to Sally,

"Maddie," she said, and Sally shook it, smiling,

"Sally,"
"You're in my cabin," Maddie said, and Sally smiled,

"Really?"

"Yeah, we were told we'd be getting a new kid," she said and Sally laughed,

"Good to know,"

While everyone was talking and John started a conversation with the corporal sitting across from them, Sherlock was wondering when he could get John alone. It was obvious that the man was not going to leave his dinner, and there was nowhere in here that was private. Plus, after dinner, in the half an hour they have before lights out, Sally was probably going to come over to their cabin. Sherlock downed the last bite on his plate and got up, feeling slightly irritated when John didn't turn around to at least ask him where he was going, but kept talking.

Walking over to the washing racks, Sherlock all but slammed his tray down, the sound only mingling with every other sound in the hall. Working himself into a real temper tantrum, Sherlock turned around and stomped out of the mess hall and into the fresh air outside. He turned his collar up and walked across the ground as the first drop fell from the now stormy sky.

Sherlock climbed the stairs to their cabin and slammed the door behind him, keeping the light off. The cabin was, as he expected empty and Sherlock huffed before walking to his bed and falling onto it. He kicked off his boots without using his hands, and, keeping his eyes closed, as he couldn't see anything anyway, Sherlock yanked off his jacket leaving the t-shirt on, as the heating in these cabins was on way too high for his liking. Pushing thoughts of what he would like to do to get John's attention – including climbing onto the roof in a storm and tell John he was going to jump if he didn't get any attention – he let the tiredness that ached around his body get a hold of him and drifted off to sleep.

The next thing Sherlock heard was the whistling of the wind and the laughter of John and Sally, who were walking into the cabin. Opening his eyes and lifting his arm enough to see but not to make it obvious he was awake, Sherlock watched as John, ever the gentleman took Sally's coat and hung it on the back of the door.

"Quiet, you'll wake him up," John said, motioning to Sherlock who felt every last bit of jealously and ill-feelings towards John disappear, "He gets little sleep as it is,"

"Why?" Sally asked softly, as the two of them took a seat at the centre table. Sherlock gazed into John's eyes as the doctor looked at him, knowing that the dim light of the bulb would not highlight the flicker of his eyes under his arm,

"Because he's an idiot," The words came out softly as John turned his gaze back to Sally and Sherlock didn't know whether he wanted to hug John or hit him for being so sentimental. Somehow, he decided that it wouldn't be the latter.

"What are we going to do?" Sally asked, stretching out and looking at the doctor,

"About the Howell situation? I don't quite know yet," John mumbled, his eyes tired and Sally laughed,

"Wait for tomorrow?" she asked, and John nodded,

"We don't know all the facts yet. We need to find out more, now that Bob being bad is an actual possibility," he said, watching the light swing slightly as warm air from the vents in the roof blew over it. He figured the army needed to get its priorities right. They bothered with ducted heating, but couldn't spend a little on better lighting.

Sally sighed, "We should probably both get some sleep," Sherlock felt his heart skip a beat as a thought occurred to him, triggered by Sally's words. This was the first night in months that he was going to sleep alone and he didn't like it. So what if John was in the same room? It wasn't the same. Sherlock watched as John nodded,

'Well that was rather pointless," he said, 'you have to brave that again" he nodded towards the rain that was lashing the glass and Sally chuckled,

"Eh, I like water," Sally got to her feet and so did John,

"I'll come with you," he said and Sherlock almost decided to come out of his false sleep, but then couldn't be bothered,

'Are you sure?" Sally asked, pulling on the fatigues' outer jacket and shivering as the wet material touched her neck. It was only water-proof to a certain point,

"Yeah, can't have you wandering around on your own, can we?" John asked, chuckling and Sally smiled as she opened the door. John zipped his jacket up as he stepped outside and closed the door behind him.

He grabbed Sally's hand and pulled her towards the female cabins and she laughed,

"I think everyone's going to get the wrong idea about us!" she said, having to yell over the sound of the storm. John stopped to give her look, which, even in the distorted light of the lamppost three metres from them, was obviously sceptical,

"I think I'm pretty obvious with Sherlock," John said, not entirely sure why he felt the need to have this conversation outside, in the rain,

"No, not really," Sally said, also wondering why they were standing outside but making no move to go anywhere else,

'What do you mean?" John asked,

"Well, there isn't a single woman who was at dinner tonight who doesn't want to know your relationship status,"

"What?' John asked and Sally laughed at his utter disbelief,

"They all asked me,"

"When?" John racked his brain to try and remember when he had seen Sally having a covert conversation with anyone but couldn't remember anything happening,

"Right during dinner," Sally said and John shook his head,

"Seriously?" he asked,

"Yes. Why, considering any offers?" she asked teasing, and John flushed,

"Don't-no-why," he tried to think of something mildly intelligent but was saved the trouble,

"Relax, I know you love Sherlock," John didn't know what to say. Yeah, he always admitted to himself, that he loved the man and he joked about it with Sherlock…but somehow, when someone else said it…it made it so much more real, solid, and it felt like all his Christmases had come at once. He grinned broadly at the sergeant,

"Yeah," he said, nodding, "Yeah, I do,"

Thunder cracked above them reminding them that they were still outside and we both shivering, but neither had noticed, "Let's go," John said, once again grabbing Sally's hand and dragging her along. She laughed as John almost tripped and he shot her glare as they mercifully reached her cabin,

"Here we are, m'lady," John said, bowing slightly and Sally laughed, opening the door,

'See you tomorrow, yeah?" she asked and John nodded,

'Tomorrow," he replied and Sally went inside., closing the door behind her.

John looked back out across the grounds to where his cabin was and decided he couldn't actually get any wetter, so he decided to walk. As he left he heard squeals from the cabin behind him and glanced behind to watch through the previously dark window as Sally was cornered by every woman in her cabin, and as she laughed and pushed them playfully away. He shook his head. What was so attractive about him? and more importantly, where were all these women when he was younger?

He strolled across the ground, his skin numb from exposure, and let his mind wander as he made his way back to the cabin, the thought of a warm, dry bed, in occupying his mind.

John walked into the cabin and flicked the light on, sighing as the warm air hit him as he closed the door. Sherlock was still awake, and, while he wondered briefly what took the doctor so long, he watched as John walked to his bed and stripped off his jacket, moaning slightly as he stretched his worn out muscles. Sherlock felt his breathing speed up as John lifted his t-shirt off as well, to reveal a chest, that in the swinging light, and from this distance looked like it was made out of marble – a real life David, standing in front of Sherlock, dripping with rain water that John had no doubt collected from his little outing. Reminding himself to breathe, he watched as John, unaware that his partner was awake, reached down and pulled his shoes off, quickly followed by his socks. Shivering, John unbuckled his pants and removed them as quickly as possible, leaving them on the floor and Sherlock slightly breathless as he went to look for his towel.

Sherlock shifted slightly – not enough to make any noise – to keep John in his vision as the doctor found his duffel bag which was across the room, and extracted his towel dressed only in a pair of briefs. John draped the towel loosely around his neck after running it up and down his chest and back, before, very uncaringly (uncaring because Sherlock couldn't move if he wanted to), the doctor proceeded to remove his last article of clothing.

Sherlock stopped breathing all together as the light swung slightly from the rafters and the shadows shifted over the doctor's figure, bent over, looking for a dry set of clothes, ghostly in this light. To Sherlock's eyes, it was as if he was looking at an angel, transfixed and unable to move but wanting oh so very much to move and do what he liked to that angel. Finally, mercifully, John found his underwear and a spare army t-shirt and pulled them both on. Ruffling his hair with the towel, John walked over to his pants and threw them over the back of the chair, picking up the rest of his clothes and chucking them to the other side of the room, before walking to the light and flicking it off, deciding that he wasn't going to bother with pants. Sherlock, by this point was feeling quite dizzy from the lack of oxygen and light-headed from all the blood rushing to one particular organ, and, as the light flicked off, he finally remembered to breathe. He drew in a silent breath and let it out again, watching the shadow of his John huff before sliding into bed, and realised he wasn't going to last the night. Now, how exactly was Sherlock going to get into the good doctor's bed?

Okay. Yes. Fluff. I like it occasionally, you know. :D

Sneaking into bed is next Chapter, courtesy of doctorcoffeegirl, who gave me the idea. :D

I will return to the main storyline after that. I just felt like something light. :D

Aza

xoxo