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It was a curse sometimes, noticing things others wouldn’t. Like now, as Dr Watson returns to the flat with a polite greeting. Sherlock hadn’t asked where he had went, it wasn’t any of his business. Just because they’d been regularly taking tea together, and lived together, doesn’t mean for certain that they’re friends who discuss their whereabouts. Though, Sherlock could admit to himself, he wasn’t entirely sure how friendships work. Are they even friends now?
Besides, Sherlock very importantly had to ignore the feeling crawling up his throat at the lingering scent of someone’s perfume on John’s coat. A decidedly feminine scent. He found it hard to move his throat into a response and so he stayed silent.
It seemed to alert John to something amiss, usually Sherlock gave at least a distracted hum. Act normal Sherlock! He bumbled around the kitchen casually. In reality, he looked lost. He felt lost. What on earth is happening to him?
“Sherlock?” Johns voiced came from much closer than anticipated.
“Did you have fun?” Sherlock asked rapidly.
“What?”
“On your date.” This is what Sherlock knew, and he leaned into it, no longer feeling lost, but certain that out of every unknown, he did still have what he knew. “You’re wearing a very presentable outfit, your good cologne, you have a smile and a blush across your face, and there is the smell of a ladies perfume clinging to you. So, did you have fun on your date?”
Unexpectedly though, John laughed heartily in response. Lost again, Sherlock just watched and, unwittingly, he grew embarrassed.
“I was meeting with a good friend of mine.” John answered jovially.
Sherlock raised an eyebrow at that. “A married woman?” No signs led to her being a married woman, but there’s no other explanation he can think of that would cause John to lie to him unless—
Oh yes, Sherlock realised then that perhaps they weren’t as close as he’d assumed. Therefore it wasn’t any of his business whom he saw in his personal life, and he especially wouldnt confide in just an acquaintance. Right, well, Sherlock can take the hint.
“Sherlock, no stop, I can see you thinking too much.”
“I have no idea what you mean.” He winked, perhaps too overzealously but the message should come across.
“Sherlock she really is a good friend of mine. An academic, actually. See, you mentioned something the other day,”
Sherlock nodded along and then became confused as John explained more about how he’d been listening to intently to Sherlock talk about a current case, that he’d sought out the opinion of a scholar in the area to elaborate on some minute factors he’d mentioned noticing.
“And so, after she’d informed me of the likelihood that what you had noticed was actually the change in natural colour, whereas your explanation had been aimed at the colour of it itself in order to make it simpler for me to underst—“
“You weren’t on a date?” Sherlock interrupted.
“No, Sherlock.”
“You weren’t on a date with a married woman?”
“No.”
“You were talking with a woman abut something I had mentioned yesterday?”
“Yes,” John said with a nod of his head, as though obvious.
“You remembered what I’d said?”
“Sherlock.” John’s expression changed then, his voice softening. “You are a brilliant man. A brilliant man who cannot see when someone wants a genuine connection with you. You are my friend, I intend to continue listening to you and retaining that information, and perhaps even studying the details of our topics. There is no other—“ John pauses here like the two statements are linked. Like there’s something unsaid. Sherlock thinks maybe he understands.
“I—I appreciate our friendship. Greatly. I can be lackluster in my understanding of these things but, if you’ll have me,” He pauses to consider his words. “I would like to continue down the path we have been.”
John smiled at him warmly and places a gentle hand on his arm.
“Now, let me make us tea, and I shall be the one to do it, no offence Sherlock but this is an area you need much improvement in, and we will talk more about this colour-changing mystery we have on our hands.”
Sherlock watched John walk away as an echo bounced around his mind. Our.