Chapter 2
It was his face bleeding now. Yet again it had been by her hand but Sherlock only raised a vaguely questioning eyebrow.
She smiled again. Not apologetically. More mischievous. More Irene.
"Don't ever make me cry again, Sherlock" her voice was oddly calm. Not at all desperate like that unforgettable time when he made is one and only deduction about her. The one crack into Irene Adler's life that he knew.
This information acquired by the camera phone that now rested in the top drawer, alongside other memoirs of his past, favourite cases.
"Twice" he remarked, purely to spite her and remind her that she wouldn't be standin there now if it weren't for him.
Irene rolled her eyes and Sherlock did his utmost to sit upright in his chair.
"Why did you come hear Irene?" his voice ached with indifference but he wasn't letting her leave without an answer.
"Oh a number of things. Cases, boredom, dinner-" all of these things they shared, but Sherlock somehow thought that by "dinner" her definition was completely different to his own "-and protection" she spelled out the final word carefully and smiled, still giving nothing away.
"I'm afraid my brother removed your protection a long time ago"
"I'll just have to have you instead" she smirked as Sherlock quickly removed what he knew was her literal meaning from his mind.
"A simple thank you would have been sufficient" he said almost completely emotionlessly, a tiny smile nearly escaping him.
"Very well" she leaned in towards him until he felt her soft lips against his cheek, "thank you, Mr Holmes".
John Watson backed into the living room, his arms full of early morning shopping, just as Irene Adler planted a kiss on Sherlocks cheek.
He immediately dropped the contents of the bags onto floor "what th-?"
"Oh yeah" Sherlock said lazily, rolling his eyes "she's alive".
Irene smirked at John's gob smacked expression. It had become a common expression of his since about 2 months earlier when he had walked in on almost exactly the same scene, with Sherlock sitting in the chair, tuning his violin, clearly alive.
Now he saw two people looking at him like he was an idiot, one tied to the chair, the other still leant over him.
"If Moriarty suddenly walks through the door..!" John picked up the groceries "with all the other people who should be dead.." he stood, fed up of being outsmarted by both of them. They both had the same look of amusement as they watched him. They were both the same. But they were both the complete opposite of each other. John smiled a little to himself, knowing in his mind that in another world Sherlock and Irene would make the perfect couple.
"Attraction of the opposites I suppose" John mumbled to himself before walking over and attempting to release Sherlock from his small prison.
"Bloody hell Irene! How tight did you tie this!"
"I wouldn't be very good at my job if I couldn't tie simple knots" she smirked, "as an army man, surely you should be able to untie my little trap"
John struggled to reply to this. The best comeback he could think of "they do knots in the navy" earned him a snigger from Sherlock and Irene.
Great. They were both back.