Chapter Text
It said a lot about how John’s life normally went that he was alarmed to come home and hear the sounds of laughter and conversation from upstairs.
He quickly took the steps, concerned that some other, friendlier people had broken into his flat. When he opened the door, however, there was only Sherlock, in his armchair, and a man that looked vaguely familiar.
They both stared at John for a moment. The man that was sitting in John’s chair was in his late forties, but fit and well groomed. His brown hair was cut a little longer than the standard side-part, greying tastefully at the sides, and he wore it well. He had soft brown eyes, and a sharp jawline.
John pulled his hand down from where he’d self consciously been touching the back of his head while looking the man over.
“Right, uh, hi,” John said, extending a hand to the stranger. He looked familiar, but he couldn’t place him.
“We’ve met, actually,” the man replied, shaking his hand. He had a soft Scottish burr. “Don’t you remember the Pythagoras case?”
John snapped his fingers in recognition. “Right! You were the physics professor, weren't you?”
He smiled tastefully at John. John looked back over at Sherlock, who was eyeing the professor with his brows furrowed. “Professor Cameron.”
He nodded, glancing between the man smiling innocently up at John from his chair and the strangely focused Sherlock. “Well. I’ll just. Go make some tea.”
“We have tea.” Sherlock said, still focused on professor Cameron.
Cameron lifted a tea glass off the side table and tapped it, still wearing that smile that made John oddly irritated.
“Oh… kay, I’ll just. Go and have a lie down then.” John felt out of his element here. He wasn’t used to Sherlock having guests over.
John left the room to go up his stairs, and once the door shut he heard them burst into giggles together. He fought the urge to yank the door back open and demand what had been so funny.
***
“Okay, Sherlock, who’s texting so much?”
Sherlock rolled his eyes while pulling off a wet sock from the corpse laying on top of the electric box. “I suppose I should silence my phone more often.”
“Well my calls never get through to you anyway,” Lestrade grumbled back at him.
“No, but seriously Sherlock, who’s texting? Is it Mycroft?” John said from the sidelines, already having given his medical opinion on the body.
Sherlock looked up at him sharply. “I do know other people.”
“Molly?”
Sherlock frowned. John would never admit it but he kind of loved when Sherlock frowned because he really threw his whole face into it and it looked quite funny. He’d even put him in a strop on purpose once just to see the wrinkles under his neck appear.
“I can’t think of anyone else you hang out with,” Lestrade said honestly.
“Oh! Wait is it em, the Scottish guy--”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but yes, it is Alexander.”
Lestrade looked askance at John, “Professor Cameron? From the Pythagoras case? I think it was Dimmock on that one, actually.”
Lestrade nodded, still looking confused. John understood how he felt.
***
“Hey, do you have any plans tonight?”
“Yes.”
John stopped in his tracks, halfway back to the sitting room. He had been waiting for Sherlock to confirm that he didn’t so he could finish inviting him to go see a movie in the theaters with him (Sherlock, as John had recently learned, was actually an excellent movie goer. Plop him down in the seat with a family sized bucket of popcorn and he could be silent and attentive for a whole two hours. It was incredible. John thought it might be something in the popcorn butter.), and was thrown off by this change in the script.
“Oh. Uh, what are you up to?”
Sherlock looked over at John from the couch, a rare smile gracing his face. “A date.”
“A date?” John said.
Sherlock gave him the same look that John gave Sherlock when he was being a bit not good.
“Right sorry, but… A date? With who?”
“Alex.”
John nodded, and then nodded again when his brain connected “Alex” with “professor Cameron from that case that one time”.
“Dear god, I can actually here your heterosexual panic from here.”
John snorted. “Not panic, just… surprise. Not at the heterosexual-- or not heterosexual-- part, just at the date part. I didn’t really peg you for the type who, y’know…”
Sherlock raised his eyebrows at John. “Dates?”
John shrugged, realizing how silly he sounded. Just because he hadn’t seen Sherlock going on dates doesn’t mean he didn’t.
“I don’t, much. I just find Alex very… stimulating.”
John looked over at Sherlock, mouth open in surprise and excitement. “Sherlock, are you blushing?”
Sherlock glared at him, cheeks rosy. “No.”
“You are! You like this-- this Alex.”
“If I didn’t like him I wouldn’t waste my time going on a date, now would I?”
John tilted his head in acknowledgement, going back to reading on his phone.
A moment later, “Wait, this isn’t an experiment, right?”
Sherlock looked over again. “What do you mean?”
“Like you’re not just going on a date to learn more about human nature or something, are you?”
Sherlock snorted. “No, John, I actually enjoy Alex’s company. Very much so.”
John’s stomach turned over. Maybe a gas bubble from lunch. “Well then I wish you all the best.”
Sherlock didn’t acknowledge the remark, and John pretended he didn’t wait up in his bed to hear Sherlock come home later that night.