A/N: 80 chapters already, wow. So, I finished Can't Buy Me Love, which took a lot longer than I expected, and I am currently writing from a prompt I saw on tumblr. It's about...drum roll please...tumblr. I'm really excited about it, I like it a lot, so please look for it and love it when it comes out. Anyway, thanks for reading. Please review!
Of course John is happy Sherlock is back. He's ecstatic, he feels so much joy that he's certain he's never felt this happy in his life.
Still, Sherlock's return has been…difficult.
It's been two weeks since Sherlock returned and John has only been to the house twice since that first day. Sherlock's texted for his company each time, and their visits have been limited to a few silent hours on the sofa. The sofa part is fine, and honestly John is fine with only being there for a few hours, but being unable to talk is getting on his last nerves.
But it's what's for the best, especially since Mycroft found Sherlock sleeping on his closet floor that first night. The blanket Sherlock was laying on was soaked through with sweat, and he didn't lay still for the entire five minutes that Mycroft watched him.
So it's fine. John wants Sherlock to recover as much as anyone else does, but not talking is just so annoying.
He's glad Sherlock is going to therapy. John doesn't know how it's going, but his own grief counseling helped a lot before Sherlock got home, and John knows it helped Declan.
So two weeks after Sherlock's return, Brady calls John to hang out. John gladly agrees, because he's dying to get out of the house, so he meets everyone at the laser tag arcade.
Sherlock's not there, not that John expected him to be. Everyone sits at a table and they order a pizza, like usual.
John sits next to Lane, who looks out of place with them because Olive isn't there.
"Hey, where's Olive?" John casually asks, reaching for a piece of pizza.
"Oh, she's with Sherlock."
Out of shock, John drops his pizza slice on top of the rest of the pizza. His patience snaps. He is so annoyed.
"She is?" he demands.
Lane jumps at the boom of his voice. "I, uh, yeah. She goes over there every day, didn't you know that?"
John wants to crush something. He is seriously so angry that he can't even stand up right. Finally, he makes it out of his chair.
"I'll see you guys later," John says to the table, then heads for the door.
He gets a cab to Sherlock's house and thinks about who to direct his anger towards. He could call Mycroft or Lestrade, surely they'd hear him out. Lestrade would try to be understanding, but Mycroft would probably yell at him. Plus, even if he called Lestrade, Lestrade would tell Mycroft and Mycroft would surely flip out on him.
Calling Sherlock isn't even an option. He's not mad at Sherlock, Sherlock can't help it. That only leaves one person.
He dials Olive's number and she picks up on the third ring.
"Hey, what's up?"
"I need to talk to you."
"Uh, okay. I'm—"
"I know where you are," John says. "I'm around the corner. Meet me outside."
"Uh, okay."
John hangs up, then tries to breathe calmly the rest of his way to Sherlock's house.
When he pulls up, Olive's outside. She looks innocent, she's probably wondering what John wants, but her expression changes when he hops out of the car. She looks nervous.
"What's going on?" Olive asks as he walks up to her.
"I'm going to start with honesty. I am pissed that you're here with Sherlock."
"What?"
"I should be in there with him, Olive. And you hanging out here all the time is telling me that you don't understand that. I understand you're his friend, but he's my boyfriend. You don't respect that!"
"I don't respect that?" she questions. "You know what I'm doing here every day? I'm listening to him ask over and over why he wants to die every time he thinks about you. I'm here listening to him cry because he wants to love you so badly but he can't stand to be near you, John. Do you get that? Do you even respect that?"
"Of course I…" John rubs his face. "Of course I respect that."
"Then why are you so mad right now?"
"Because I should be here! Me, not you!"
Olive crosses her arms. "That's not my fault. Should I just…what, do you want me to do? Say no when he calls? Push him to talk to you when he doesn't want to?"
John frowns. "Well, I—"
"I'm not doing any of those things."
"What do you even do when you're here?"
"We watch movies, we do experiments, we—"
"You do experiments?!"
Now Olive looks scared. "I, uh—"
"Fuck, Olive, this hurts as much as if you and Sherlock were cheating on me. This hurts worse than when you guys kissed."
"John—"
"No, no, fine, go be happy little science partners together."
John turns around to walk away, wanting to get as far away from the Holmes residence as quickly as possible, but he gets in front of the next house and hears his name being called.
"John, wait!"
John immediately stops and turns back to the house.
Sherlock runs up to him and jumps into his arms. He throws his arms around John's neck and presses his lips tight against John's.
John feels like bursting with tears, for two reasons. Reason the first, John feels terrible because Sherlock probably just saw his freak out and probably feels obligated to kiss him. Reason the second, John feels so happy that he's got an armful of Sherlock.
Sherlock pulls back and John opens his mouth to say something.
"No, shut up," Sherlock demands. "Listen to me. I'm not replacing you. I'm trying here, John, but you have absolutely no idea how hard it is."
John opens his mouth again, but Sherlock stops him.
"I said shut up. I love you, do you still love me?"
John moves to speak.
"Nod or shake."
John immediately nods.
"Good. So please let me cope. Please let me get over this. Please just…let me try to make this okay."
John nods again.
Sherlock rubs his nose against John's. "Do you want to come inside?"
John eagerly nods a third time.
Sherlock holds John's hand and pulls him to the house. Olive is still standing where John left her.
John tugs on Sherlock's hand, then motions towards Olive.
"I'll be upstairs," Sherlock says, heading towards the house.
John bites his lip. "Alright, look, I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have blown up on you like that."
Olive nods. "I understand."
"It hurts, okay? To think he doesn't want to spend time with me is killing me."
"I know. Actually, thanks for this. Lane's been upset with me for blowing him off."
"If you hurry you'll catch them at the arcade."
Olive's eyes sparkle. "Wonderful," she says, then she takes off down the street.
John spends the rest of the afternoon listening to Sherlock go on and on about his newest experiment. Honestly, John doesn't even listen to what he's saying, he just listens to Sherlock's voice. It's just as gorgeous as it's always been, and John loves it.
Clement asks John to stay for dinner, so he agrees. They sit at the table and John tries his hardest not to say anything.
"This feels right," Clement says, beaming at the two of them. "The boys back together again."
John looks over at Sherlock and smiles. Sherlock reaches over and grabs his hand. John squeezes his fingers tight.