Prompt at the end to avoid spoilers
"Take the settee."
I made no reply, eyes on my feet as I carefully picked my way through the notes and "evidence" littering the sitting room floor. I wanted to sleep, not doze, and my own bed would be far quieter than the sitting room. Especially if Holmes could not stop muttering and tossing stuff around.
"There is no reason for you to climb the stairs when the settee is free."
There was if he insisted on working all night again. Just as Holmes did not believe Mrs. Hudson's and my assertions that his violin was loud, so I doubted he realized just how difficult his mutterings made sleep. If I did not get some meaningful rest soon, I risked wandering at best and illness at worst. A fortnight was far too long without more than a few scattered hours at a time.
"Watson?"
"G'night." The mutter barely carried to his hearing, but it at least proved me conscious even if I refused to acknowledge his offer. Silence answered for two slow steps. Then three. I had almost reached the door when he tried again.
"Then take my bed."
No. Too close to his noise, and I could not sleep in view of his many portraits, anyway. How he managed to sleep with all those eyes staring at him I would never understand. I ignored him yet again.
And he evidently decided not to press. Small noises resumed as I reached the stairs, though the slight click of my bedroom door lessened their volume. I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Only to wake to a familiar circle of fifths. Clumsy movements confirmed my watch read just after midnight, but low notes drifted through the floor from the room below. I could not halt an irritated groan. Even burying my head in the pillow did not muffle the noise enough to return to sleep. Could he not be quiet for one night?
Apparently not. Notes changed to something like a tune, then into bits and pieces of various songs. I finally sighed and pushed myself upright. Throwing something at him would accomplish more than filling my ears with wax, and if that did not shut him up, perhaps I would go to a bolthole for a while. That had worked well enough the last time he had kept me awake too many nights in a row.
The heavy grogginess of sleep interfered with my movements and tried to cloud my thoughts. I needed two attempts to grab my dressing gown, and the blankets tangled around me on trying to swing my legs over the edge. When my first step nearly became a stumble, I used the bed as support to reach my cane in the corner. Only with my stick in hand did I finally turn towards the stairs.
The sound never wavered. Melodies, scratching, scales, random notes, all filled the sitting room and stairs without care, rising to the highest of heights before trilling through the lowest octave a violin could reach. Up and down and everywhere in between, my sleep-deprived mind fancied the notes as tendrils of light that twisted and turned through the air. Rainbows of melody drifted up the stairs and colored the walls in their various hues. A distracted thought became gratitude that painting was not truly so easy. Mrs. Hudson would have redecorated dozens of times per year, solely to try new arrangements.
A particularly high note reached an unintentional volume, as evidenced by the next falling to nearly inaudible. Soft notes grew to approximate a lullaby for just under a minute, and I finally reached the landing when the door to Holmes' room opened.
"Watson?"
I froze, glancing between him and the other door with a small frown of confusion. If he had been asleep, then who did I hear in the sitting room? Mrs. Hudson did not play the violin, and no intruder would break in simply to use an instrument.
Besides, that tune was one of Holmes' inventions.
"Watson, what are you doing?"
Trying to figure this out. Two steps from the stairs peered into the sitting room, where I easily spied my friend pacing in front of the fireplace, instrument on one shoulder. He did not look up even when I stood in the doorway.
"Can you hear me?"
The other Holmes still stood behind me, arms away from his sides as if he debated reaching for me. Confusion glanced between them once more before I found the words for a question.
"How are you doing that?"
He slowly moved closer. "Doing what?"
Be in two places at once. What else? My friend still paced before the dying coals, though his tune now drifted into one of Mendelsohn's.
"Here and there at the same time," I finally replied.
"I am not. I am only here."
"And I am only here." The other Holmes turned on one heel, pleasure lighting his face on spotting me in the doorway. "There you are, Watson! Grab your viola, old chap. We can spend the night tossing the melody back and forth."
My viola? I made no move to obey, not sure how I would obey such a command. My shoulder injury had taken my ability to play. Holmes did not even know I could play.
Right?
Right. I had purposely kept that from him. He did not need to know why I alternated enjoying and avoiding his music.
"Watson?"
Though I still wanted to know how my friend had managed to duplicate himself. A hand landed on my shoulder, then the nightclothes-clad Holmes slowly moved to stand between me and the hearth.
"Watson, you need to wake up."
I needed to…wake up? Was I not already awake? How else would I have come downstairs to tell him to stop playing if his noise had not woken me?
"You need to wake up," he repeated. "Then I want you to spend the rest of tonight on the settee."
Only if he intended to be quiet, but the notes changed before I could say as much. I looked towards the hearth just in time to watch the other Holmes—and his music—slowly fade from view. That was strange.
The room gave a sudden lurch, then shifted to leave me standing in front of the settee. Holmes' hands on my shoulders gently pressed me toward the cushions, but I resisted. How had I gotten over here?
"Watson? Are you awake now?"
I…maybe? I did not feel asleep, but I had not earlier, nor could I decipher how I had essentially teleported across the sitting room. What was going on?
"When was the last time you slept through the night?"
Far too long ago, but the rest of the clues finally clicked into place to make me hide my face in my hands. Two Holmeses made one a dream, which meant I had dreamed Holmes playing and sleepwalked down to the sitting room. He must have heard me on the stairs and come to see what was wrong.
"Have I been keeping you awake?"
I waved away the quiet question. Yes, he had, but I would not admit that. I could always spend the night in a bolthole when the noise grew too irritating.
"Watson, say something."
"I'm 'wake," I muttered, uncaring that my position muffled the words slightly. "Did I do 'nything?"
"Wandered down the stairs and asked me how I could be in two places at once." He made no effort to hide the tendril of amusement lacing that reply. "What were you dreaming?"
"You were playin' in front of the fire, 'n I came down to throw somethin' at you to make you be quiet."
Amusement became a bark of laughter, and I glanced up to find a smile trying to twitch his mouth. "What would you have thrown?"
"Dunno." A shrug answered him. "Didn't make it that far. Wh'time 's it?"
"Shortly before three. You are not ill?"
A silent negative eased the beginnings of worry trying to take hold. I adjusted to lie flat, a partial stretch retrieving the blanket from the back of the settee as I settled against the pillow. "Jus' tired," I promised. "Le' me…sl'p t'morrow, wouldju?"
Fatigue strengthened to blend my words. Holmes would understand, though. He always had before, and he knew to expect my speech to slur when I became overtired. Rolling onto my side pulled the blanket up to my chin—and restarted that infernal noise. I pulled myself to wakefulness just enough to ensure Holmes' slippers remained in front of the settee.
"And Holmes?" He gave a low noise of acknowledgement. "Tell your instr'ment to cease its racket."
I never could decide whether the hearty laughter did not come from yet another dream.
Well, I wasn't intending to write another sleepwalking fic, but the prompt seemed to demand it.
Prompt: Believe me when I say. Use an unreliable narrator in your work today.
Hope you enjoyed :)