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As they turned the corner into a darkly lit side street, John pushed Sherlock against a wall and whispered against his chest, "I can give you reasons not to die."
"Can you?" Sherlock pushed John away just enough to look down into his eyes. He nodded in response. "But -"
"Why?" John asked, seeing the confusion in his eyes.
Sherlock nodded as he looked over the man in front of him. "You already killed one man because you believed I was in danger - you believe I have some worth - why? You don't know anything about me - other than I had - have a problem with drugs - always will - have very few friends - often forget to sleep, and eat - I'm better with corpses than I am with living specimens -"
"I like a challenge?" John raised an eyebrow at him, then realized Sherlock wanted a real answer. "You really want to know what I see in you?"
Sherlock bit his lip and failed to stop the tears that were welling up in his eyes. "No one - I've never had a - I - you came after me - you thought - you didn't give it a second thought - I don't - it isn't logical -"
"Shhhh." John pushed his steady hands into Sherlock's curls and kissed him long and hard, grinning slightly as Sherlock chased after him as he retreated a bit. He traced Sherlock's questioning lips with a single finger, watching his eyes close at the sensation. "Not everything can be explained with logic, sometimes... when I saw you yesterday, I knew - I just knew - in my gut - that from that moment, I had found my reason - my reason to - you are the first to see me as something more than a broken, former surgeon, with a psychosomatic limp and a tremor. You made me want to get up this morning, because I had something to look forward to - and then I saw you - how you - you are simply brilliant, and you know it, but you - you have no idea how incredibly sexy you are - and I don't believe in anything, never have really - but I know I believe in you."
Sherlock blinked at him for what felt like an eternity, then something in his eyes flickered, as if a flame had suddenly come to life, as he laid a slightly trembling gloved hand on John's strong jaw and nodded before leaning closer and gently pressing his lips against John's, then sighed before taking John's hand in his, as they fell into step again. "This place - I never have to order, the owner always knows - I had the same feeling, yesterday - that I - something made sense - like you saw me - I'm used to being the one who sees everything, everyone - but you - I recognized something of myself in you." He shrugged and held tighter to John's hand, then paused and looked down at their entwined fingers and his eyes asked a wordless question, as if speaking the words out loud would break the spell, somehow.
"It's fine, it's all fine."