roquentine19:The first time it happens is 53 days after the wedding.Sherlock wakes just after 7am...

roquentine19:

The first time it happens is 53 days after the wedding.

Sherlock wakes just after 7am to a text from Lestrade: a body with no head has been found in the back of an abandoned lorry in Islington. Brilliant. He has a quick wash, returns to his room to throw on the same shirt and trousers he wore yesterday because no one will notice, and he’s back down the hall and almost at the door when he is stopped in his tracks.

By John. Asleep. On the couch.

On no particular Wednesday morning, John Watson is asleep on the couch. He’s on his stomach, facing the room, his head pillowed on his jacket, snoring lightly and otherwise motionless.

Sherlock blinks as the possibilities ping around his brain at light speed. He has a theory, but will need more data.

So he leaves it for now and instead moves quietly down the stairs and hails a cab.

* * * * *

John isn’t there when Sherlock gets back from Islington later that afternoon, and isn’t there the next morning, and hasn’t texted to say Oh by the way I slept on your couch last night and I know you know because you were gone when I left, and so Sherlock, heeding Mycroft’s repeated lessons about boundaries (which consist of Mycroft saying “Boundaries, Sherlock,” in that sing-song tone of his), leaves it alone.

The next time it happens is 18 days after the first time. Mycroft insisted that they visit their parents for the weekend - “It is their anniversary, Sherlock” - and Sherlock petulantly refuses to spend two hours with him in the back of a car on Friday night but agrees to take the first train Saturday morning.

So he’s trying to leave the flat at 5:15am and of course it’s raining and as he moves into the living room to grab his laptop from the desk he’s calculating how long it will take him to get a cab and he stops because there’s John again, on the couch, asleep, in very nearly the exact same position.

Sherlock stares at him but just for a second because he really is worried about finding a cab and if he misses the train Mycroft will seethe the entire weekend. He slips out.

His theory has crossed the line into balance of probability.

* * * * *

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