221B Drabbles

by tsukinoblossom

My attempt at writing short stories in the 221-B format 221 words, last word starting with B . I'm really enjoying writing and I think these will encourage me to to do it more often and present an interesting challenge. Note: These stories are not sequential, or even necessarily in the same universe. Unless otherwise specified, each drabble is a unique, complete entity.

186. Boundaries

I suppose this is a direct continuation of yesterday's drabble. For HiddenLacuna. XD

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The launderette is mercifully quiet, nobody's ever here in the middle of the afternoon. Humming softly, John upends the laundry bag. He pulls out the darks, separating Sherlock's purple shirt, a bunch of socks, and a few pairs of pants. He comes across a bit of cotton with a strange faded spot across it. It's a bit stiff. Perplexed, he picks it up, wondering what sort of experiment led to this.

The sudden realisation that it's a pair of Sherlock's pants causes John to yelp with alarm and drop them. God damn. Sherlock's. Dirty. Pants. With what is quite obviously come on them. Cringing, John picks them up by one leg hole, pinched between thumb and forefinger and held out at arm's length, like a piece of particularly disgusting evidence at a crime scene. Not that there's any risk of him contaminating them. Rather the opposite, really?

Unceremoniously, he drops them into the washer, along with Sherlock's socks and shirts. His own laundry can wait. He pours far more soap into the machine than entirely necessary and slams the lid shut before darting to the dispenser of hand sanitizer, scowling.

He debates texting Sherlock but gives it up as a lost cause. When he gets home, he's going to need to have a long talk with Sherlock about overstepping personal boundaries.