Work Text:
Watson was sitting in his armchair, engrossed in the newspaper.
Holmes, in his usual corner, was leaning over the laboratory table amid test tubes, reagent bottles, and the soft bubbling of a flask on the fire.
At one point, Watson smiled, and that smile turned into a brief laugh. The sound was enough to make Holmes look up from his test tube.
"What's so amusing, Watson?" he asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Your story has been published," Watson replied with a certain pride. "The Blanched Soldier"
"Oh, yeah?" replied in his tone of feigned disinterest.
"Did my editor advise you on the title? That man has a real talent for naming yours cases."
"He has a peculiar talent for naming stories, though he never manages to avoid certain touches of melodrama. I wrote to him as you suggested, but that gentleman insisted on abbreviating the manuscript. Apparently, my 236 pages of case details seemed, in his opinion, somewhat excessive." Holmes snorted disdainfully.
Watson smiled, picturing the scene.
"Well? What do you think of it?" he asked after a few seconds of silence.
"I think it's a very curious coincidence," Watson replied, still amused.
"Coincidence?" the detective repeated, frowning. "You know very well, my dear Watson, that I detest the word 'coincidence' when it is applied to matters that admit of rational explanation."
"I know, I know," he tried to charm him ", but I think it's a very curious coincidence that I'm leaving you a few weeks to go to the Continent for a reunion of old soldiers, and not because of a new woman..."
"That was your editor's idea!" Holmes exclaimed, turning angrily to his friend "I told him I would never put that in, and that man has changed it without my consent...”
Watson laughed at his indignation.
"Anyway," he continued, "I'll give you a few weeks, and in that time, a case is presented to you, and you write it up. And, curiously enough, that case concerns how a client of yours asks you for help in finding his dear..."
"Beloved," Holmes corrected him.
"Beloved friend."
Holmes raised an eyebrow and placed the test tube on the table.
"I don't see what you're getting at," he cleared his throat. "It was you who insisted so much that I write if I didn't like your stories. I saw my opportunity and seized it."
Watson could barely contain his smile.
"Then your client, Mr..."
"Mr. James M. Dodd, Watson, has just read it." Holmes said dryly, but the smile remained on Watson's face.
"You say you belong to the..." He quickly scanned the newspaper, "the Imperial Cavalry Volunteer Corps, the Middlesex Regiment. This also seems to me to be a tremendous coincidence."
Holmes raised an eyebrow.
"Well, as you well know, I've spent the last few weeks surrounded by soldiers, many friends and acquaintances, many battalions, regiments, brigades, and entire corps. Enjoying stimulating conversations with all of them, and…” Watson rubbed his chin. “Holmes, I don’t recall there being any such corp at our recent meeting.”
The detective cleared his throat.
“Perhaps you didn’t pay due attention, my dear Watson.”
“I find it very curious, and odd, that having attended a meeting of such magnitude, none of its members turned up.”
“My client was returning from South Africa” he replied calmly. “It’s likely he was fatigued from the journey. Or perhaps some of his battalion were there, and you, distracted as you usually are, failed to notice them.”
Watson smiled helplessly. Holmes, satisfied with his evasiveness, returned to his test tubes.
“Perhaps,” he admitted, though without conviction. “Still, it never ceases to amaze me.”
Silence returned to them, broken only by the soft crackling of the fire in the grate and the bubbling of the boiling water from Sherlock Holmes's experiments.
"Ah!" Watson cried with satisfaction, causing Holmes to turn sharply, frowning, as his concentration was broken. "This is the third time I've read this story, and I still haven't tired of it. It is, if I may say so, terribly romantic, Holmes. You ought to take up writing."
Holmes dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand and went about his business.
Watson stared at him for a few moments. Then, putting the newspaper aside on the pile of the day's leftovers, he stood up and walked over to Holmes. He walked the few steps that separated them and, taking his chin in one hand, gently tugged it upward, causing Holmes to look at him.
"Watson!" Holmes shouted as he interrupted the measurement, but upon seeing Watson's face, his anger faded.
"Did your client tell his soldier how much he loved him?"
Watson saw his reflection in Holmes's pupils, who now looked at him adoringly, and Holmes shook his head slightly, without looking away.
"There was no need, it was clear enough. The soldier was very clever."
Watson leaned in slowly, enjoying how Holmes's eyes slowly closed.
When there was barely any separation between them, and they could feel each other's warmth on their lips, Watson spoke.
"I missed you horribly too, my dear Holmes."
And they kissed.
Holmes let himself be carried away by the kiss, which, although it was nothing more than a pressure on his lips, sent a jolt through his entire body, which he could only explain as a sensation even greater than that of cocaine.
After a few seconds, Watson stepped back and Holmes moved in with him, making the kiss last a few seconds longer. Watson, happy to oblige as always, let Holmes decide when to pull away.
When he did, Watson smiled at the state of his companion's cheeks. Wanting to give him a break and fearing that if he kissed him again, he wouldn't stop. He took a few steps back.
"I'll let you continue with your experiments." He walked to the door of the room they shared and after disappearing through it, his voice was heard from halfway down the stairs. "Please make sure that thing doesn't explode!"
Holmes's gaze followed him until Watson left the room, and once he heard the door to his apartment close, he slowly raised his hand to his lips.
"The case was real..." he murmured.
Immediately afterward, the liquid in his test tube reacted with a pop, and white smoke filled the air of Baker Street.
Oh god, I realized the fanart I drew isn't showing up 🤣🤣