Because my ability to live was becoming compromised without this.
Based on my post: After re-watching A Study in Pink I’ve decided that the “married ones” next door are Colin and Bradley.
A lot of you seemed to like this idea so I wrote up a little fic (okay, not little, it’s almost 2,000 words). This story takes place during The Reichenbach Fall, no huge spoilers but just wanted to warn you before you read.
This is rated PG. I might write a dirtier one tomorrow. For now it’s off to bed because I have to work early in the morning.
Colin was more than a little nervous at the prospect of meeting their next door neighbors. It might have been the bickering at two in the morning or the constant flashing of police lights outside, or the gunshots. Colin had once run into the tall dark haired one on the way to the grocery. The man had given him a short glance and mumbled “Actor” under his breath and continued on his way.
Bradley apparently had a much more pleasant conversation with the short blond one. They just happen to be getting coffee at the café at the same time and took a table together. At the end of the meeting they decided it would be nice to have tea that weekend at Colin and Bradley’s.
“But why?” Colin asked Bradley. “We’ve gone this long just fine without having them over.”
“Because we should get to know our neighbors, Col,” Bradley replied. “And that John bloke’s not too bad.”
“It’s not him I’m worried about. He seems more or less normal,” Colin argued. “It’s the other one.”
Bradley shrugged and looked sidelong at Colin.
“I don’t know, I think he sort of looks like you,” Bradley said. Colin busted out in nervous laughter. “No, I mean it. He’s tall, skinny, has black hair and insanely sexy cheekbones.”
As he spoke he moved closer to Colin, who was washing dishes in the sink. Bradley came up behind him, wrapping his arms around the small waist and nuzzling his husband’s ear. Colin gave a soft sigh in the back of his throat.
“I wanted to move here because it was more private, somewhere we can go between filming to be alone, just you and me,” Colin replied. He rinsed the soap off the last bowl and set it on the towel to air dry with the rest of the dishes. Bradley kissed Colin at the nape of his neck.
“It would just be nice to meet new people, make new friends,” Bradley whispered. The bell chimed just then and he felt Colin jump in surprise. Bradley smiled and said, “That and it’s too late to back out now.”
—
“But why?” Sherlock whined outside the door. He looked over fondly to the familiar sight of 221b and thought for a moment of running inside and bolting the door behind him. With one look to John he knew he would fail.
“It’s nice to get to know the neighbors, to make friends,” John replied. Sherlock scoffed and put up the collar of his coat.
“I don’t need friends,” he said harshly. John pressed the door bell without giving a response. Although Sherlock could sense the tension suddenly build in John’s body.
“Please be nice,” John mumbled as he heard the pounding of feet coming down the stairs inside. A young man with messy blond hair answered. Sherlock took one look at him.
“Gay.”
—
Bradley could only stare with a slack jaw at his guest’s proclamation. He stumbled to find words but was too taken aback to think clearly. Luckily John came to the rescue by squeezing his companion’s wrist harshly as a warning.
“Sorry,” John said with a smile, “he’s terrible at…being social.”
Sherlock glared at the side of John’s face, John determinately not paying attention. Bradley laughed nervously and ushered them inside. They met Colin at the door to their flat, he had already set the kitchen table with a nice arrange of tea and biscuits. Sherlock sniffed the air.
“Blueberry muffins,” he said to no one in particular.
“Are you really going to make me continuously apologize for your behavior,” John whispered to him. Bradley and Colin looked on, unsure of what to do.
“I was merely stating a fact,” Sherlock replied as he unbuttoned his coat.
“And it’s annoying,” John said, taking off his own black jacket. They walked into the kitchen and took two seats next to one another, laying their coats over the back of their respective chairs. “Sherlock this is Bradley and Colin. Bradley, Colin, this is Sherlock.”
“Pleasure to meet you,” Colin said and reached a hand across the table. Sherlock stared at it before reaching out to take it and gave it a firm shake before doing the same with Bradley. They sat around the table as Colin poured tea for each of them. An awkward silence settled in.
“How did you know?” Bradley asked as he set down his cup. John and Colin looked at him in confusion but Sherlock sat back in his chair with a knowing look.
“You wear a silver band on you right ring finger instead of the left, often a sign of a commitment in a homosexual relationship. Mrs. Hudson mentioned when we moved in that Mrs. Turner had a gay married couple next door, wasn’t hard to put two and two together,” Sherlock replied. Just as John was about to thank the stars that Sherlock had not said anything too embarrassing the consulting detective continued, “That and I heard the two of you having sex against the wall yesterday.”
John began to choke on the tea he had been sipping. Both Colin and Bradley turned a blistering shade of red. Colin ducked his head as close to his chest as he possibly could in a vain attempt to hide. Sherlock thumped John hard on the back to get him breathing again.
“Right then, we’re leaving,” John said as soon as he could draw air in his lungs properly. He stood up and grabbed his coat off the chair.
“We just got here,” Sherlock replied innocently.
“You know if you don’t want to do something there are better ways of getting out of it,” John admonished him.
“You’re probably right but I find my way the most effective and the funniest,” Sherlock replied as he too stood. With a flourish he began to put his coat back on. Bradley was more than flustered but he was the first to recover.
“Don’t go,” he said, a small smile playing on his lips. Colin sent him a glare that seemed to question his husband’s sanity. “You haven’t heard my deduction yet.”
“Oh god,” Colin and John mumbled in unison. Colin tried once again to hide himself, this time behind his hands. Sherlock stood with his coat half on with a look of amusement.
“Do go on,” he said in genuine interest with just a side of sarcasm.
“You’re jealous,” Bradley said, his smile only got bigger as he saw Sherlock’s eyes go wide. “So you haven’t told him then?”
“What? What’s he on about, Sherlock?” John asked. He wrinkled his forehead in confusion, although he felt a tug at his heart and a drop in his stomach. Bradley stood and leaned over the table.
“You wish you could have this, but you won’t let yourself. I did the same thing for a long time too, mate,” Bradley continued. He looked over to Colin who caught his gaze. “Waste of time, if you ask me.”
“Well I didn’t,” Sherlock’s voice was strained. “Let’s go, John.”
“There are things you want to say,” Bradley’s voice trailed behind them, “but won’t.”
“Sherlock?” John asked as he stopped on the stairs.
“One day it’ll be too late,” Bradley said from the door of the flat. Sherlock halted at the bottom of the stairs, the door to the world outside a few steps away. He felt a pull toward it, to escape the feelings that threatened to surface. He couldn’t be blinded by them. Love was, after all, a defect.
“What’s he mean, Sherlock?” John asked as he joined Sherlock on the ground floor. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“N-nothing,” Sherlock stuttered. He went to the door and opened it but did not make to leave. He turned back to look at John. “You already know.”
“What if I want to hear you say it?” John replied quietly. He closed the distance between them until he stood almost flush against Sherlock. This time Sherlock looked away from him and out into the street, to the cars that pass by, and the people that walk past.
He knew he should say it. He knew that soon it would be too late. Ever since the acquittal and the visit from Moriarty he knew that his time was becoming limited. The words were there on his tongue and for a moment his heart took over and he almost let them free. As always his brain returned to the controls to shut the declaration away under lock and key. He walked out the door without any response made. John stared after him with a mixture of hope and repugnance.
—
“Well, that was interesting,” Colin said. “I hope you learned your lesson.”
Bradley was clearing the table as Colin stood with his arms crossed over his chest in an irritated stance. Bradley looked up at him from underneath his eyelashes in an attempt to look too sexy to get angry with, which was almost successful.
“I was only trying to help John,” Bradley explained once he realized the look wasn’t working.
“What do you mean?” Colin released his arms to swing freely by his side and Bradley considered that a momentary win.
“When he and I had coffee the other day I could tell he was in love with Sherlock. That’s all he talked about the entire time. He seemed happy to go on and on about him,” Bradley paused then and set the plates in the sink before moving to embrace Colin. “It’s the same way I talk about you all the time.”
Colin curled one hand on the nape of Bradley’s neck and the other went around his waist. Their noses bumped in the newly found closeness. Colin planted a soft kiss on Bradley’s upper lip. Before Colin could even move away Bradley caught him in another kiss, this one deeper.
“If it makes you feel any better, you can say it to me any time you want,” Colin said after they broke the kiss.
“I love you, Colin Morgan-James,” Bradley said, to which Colin wrinkled his nose.
“You know I hate the hyphen. It makes us sound like law firm,” Colin teased. Bradley gave him another quick kiss.
“Well then you should have just changed it to James,” Bradley laughed. “Colin James has a nice ring to it.”
“No, I think Bradley Morgan sounds better,” Colin smiled. He kissed Bradley just below his ear. “I love you, Bradley Morgan. See how good that sounds.”
“I love you, Colin James,” Bradley retorted. “Nah that sounds better.”
They collided together for a deep, searing kiss.
Next door, Sherlock absconded to his room without another word to John. In the living room, sitting on the couch by himself, John leaned an ear against the wall to hear laughter from the other side. His heart felt a deep pang of jealousy, one that would only intensify in the days to come.
