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Watson sighed and threw the evening edition aside. He had taken a room at Baker Street just a week ago, and it occurred to him at that moment, he couldn't imagine his life as it had been before. He was a doctor, a man of science, and a soldier, who had seen life taken, tried to save lives that perhaps shouldn't always be saved, and in defense of his own survival knew what it meant to take a life. During the war, his life was a blur of colours, of insanity, and strangely enough, moments of most gentle peace. He had returned to a life in shades of grey, sepias and pain. Some days were worse than others, when his shoulder and knee weren't giving him bother, on those days, the memories came to him not only in nightmares, but in his waking hours, when they made him doubt his sanity.
And then...
Holmes looked up at him and his aquamarine eyes glittered. The brief introduction and few moments in the man's presence had not quite prepared him for what his life had become in such a short span of time. Once again he felt as if Holmes was not merely giving him his full attention, but also attempting to decipher him, though he always felt himself to be the simplest of men.
"No. You are not."
John glanced up at the nonsequitur and was about to speak when Sherlock shook his head. "You are one of the few puzzles I have come across that I believe will always confound and amaze me."
"Don't be ridiculous, Sherlock." He returned his gaze to the half-written entry that he had been working on since shortly after elevenses, and scrunched up his nose. He really needed to consider getting specs soon, he thought, then shook his head, and tried to regain his train of thought that had been disturbed.
"You could simply increase the zoom on your font, to make it clearer. Though I think specs would quite become you."
"Specs would just make me look even older," John snorted then looked back at his companion and sighed. "Somehow, you seem ageless. How long has it been now?"
"Hmmm... ages, and yet, I know I will never have enough time."
"Enough time for?"
"The moment I met you, Watson, you erased the world I had created for myself, and you gave me new eyes to see. My life had been mostly in shadow, save for those all too brief moments of clarity that I have spent my life in search of, until your arrival. I had never allowed another to affect me in such a way, and I admit, at first, it was quite disconcerting to find that I had been waiting for you."
"Waiting for me? How do you mean?"
"Years ago, I understood that I had been quite incomplete until you -"
"As was I, my dear Holmes; as I think you are quite aware."
"I had always hoped that to be the case, John."
"You must have known."
Sherlock shook his head. "Give me a locked room murder over a question of the heart every single time. The case will usually come to a satisfactory conclusion at some point, while I believed it safer to keep my desire, my love for you quite locked away, for fear once you knew -"
"It would bring our world crashing down around us?"
"Even so." Sherlock muttered as he got to his feet and walked the short distance between them, then laid a trembling hand on John's shoulder.
John laid a steady hand over Sherlock's and muttered, "we are two of the world's biggest idiots."
"So it would seem, John, so it would seem."