Archive of Our Own

A Cold Winter's Night

Winter had come to London several weeks ago in a very tangible manner. Now, day after day, snow covered the city like a blanket. Carriages were having trouble navigating the streets and any snow which had been shoveled aside was now amassing in high piles along the pavement. It was beginning to grow quite troublesome. On occasion, a snowball would hit Yujin from behind when he was walking along to or from the market. Shrill laughter would ring out and he would turn his head just in time to see several children ducking for cover, if not outright dashing in the opposite direction.  And it was cold- so very cold. Whenever Yujin went out to work in the morning hours, his breath would rise before him in such a thick mist, it put the city’s usual fog to shame.

He couldn’t remember last year’s winter being quite this bad.

The days were still somewhat tolerable. The nights were not. Though he had a stove fueled by coals up in the attic, along with thick woolen blankets, he still struggled to find the comfort of warmth. More often than not, the window would host frost to the point where it blocked his vision. The cold , however, would pass right through the glass. To make matters worse, they had run out of logs for the fireplace earlier that day and found themselves unable to purchase a new batch. Now 221B was even worse off than ever before.

He hoped spring would come soon.

Even now, as he lay in bed, sleep wouldn’t quite take him. At most, it tickled at him, allowing for some half-hearted dozing. What time was it? The question haunted him, and yet, checking his pocket watch would require his arm to leave the warmth beneath the blanket. It was fine. He’d be officially awoken by the local constable eventually.

Penetrating the haze, he could swear he heard a creak. A trick of the mind, perhaps. Still, not long after, he heard it again. And again. It came from the stairway, Yujin realized. Rolling onto his side, he peered into the darkness. Something had come to a halt in the shadows, just barely discernible.

“... Holmes?”

“My apologies. I didn’t mean to… to wake you.”

“That would have been impossible. I was not asleep to begin with.”

“Oh…”

“Do you need something from the attic?”

There was a light bit of movement in the darkness; Holmes was shrugging. Now that Yujin’s eyes were adjusting, he could see that the man had a blanket draped over his shoulders, wrapped around his torso.

“I suppose one might say that,” Holmes said slowly. “It’s too cold in my room. And then I remembered that you have a stove. So I thought I might warm myself here, just for a little.”

“Of course. Feel free. Though, in all fairness, I haven’t fed it since I went to bed.”

Holmes was already striding towards the stove as he replied. “That’s fiiine, I can get it fired up again.”

Yujin’s eyes drifted shut again, and not long after, he heard the shuffling and crackling of coals being added to whatever was left of last night’s fuel. In his mind’s eye, he could visualize no more than a spread of glowing ashes. Even so, Holmes hummed with delight as he worked. It must’ve been an improvement from the state of his own room. Exhausted, Yujin felt himself lose his grasp on consciousness once more, caught in between the attic and his slumber. Some time passed.

“... Mikotoba.”

“Hmm…?”

“I was thinking,” Holmes said, and his voice seemed to originate from somewhere closer than before. The bedside, perhaps. “You know about body heat, correct?”

“Hm. Yes,” he replied, his lucid mind unable to connect the topic to this moment in time. Another case, perhaps? Had Holmes accepted a new one?

“Well, if one body emanates a certain amount of heat, then two bodies in one space emanate twice the amount of heat to fill that space. And so, if we both share a bed and blankets, we’ll be twice as warm. Isn’t that so?”

“That’s… not how that works, Holmes…” Yujin mumbled quietly. Then his thoughts caught up with him and his eyes snapped open. “Hang on… Are you asking…?”

“No, no!” Holmes sputtered immediately. “Well, maybe. It’s more of a hypothesis. For science, you see.”

Yujin felt one of his eyebrows raise. Following that, he slid himself towards the very edge of the bed and folded the blanket open. “You could have simply asked, you know.”

There was no delay whatsoever in Holmes’s movements. No shame, no hesitation, nothing. He dropped the would-be cloak from around his shoulders, slipped himself onto the bed and raised the blanket right up to his chin. As a result, some of it was pulled away from Yujin’s side and cold prickled at his now bare foot.

“Holmes. I will permit you to spend the night here so long as you share the blanket.”

“Oh! Sorry, my dear fellow. You really ought to get a bigger one, you know.”

Part of the blanket was returned to Yujin and a bit of clumsy reaching later, Holmes’s own fleece was flung onto the bed to add to the mixture.

“Ahh… That’s better, isn’t it?” Holmes asked, sounding quite content.

Having felt an ice cold foot brush past his leg only a moment ago, Yujin smiled wryly. “It’s better,” he said.

“Mmh… Good night, partner.”

“... Good night.”