bakerstreet | Are we friends or are we more?

Are we friends or are we more?

the best friends to more meme

There's nothing in this world quite like a true, blue best friend that you can rely on. They've been with you through thick and thin, good and bad. You want to have fun? They're the first person you look for, because they always know how to bring the best out in you. You need a shoulder to cry on? Don't worry, they're already here. You need to bury a body? ...you should probably reconsider your priorities, but you know your best friend will be there with a shovel and a smile. You'd never ruin this friendship for ANYTHING in the world.

Something's brewing that may do just that, though. One of you has feelings, has for a long time, and that spells trouble. Unless you keep that to yourself and remain platonic, of course. Repression in this case might be a good thing.

Only it's too late. The cat's out of the bag, whether it's by confession or by accident. What to do, what to do? If feelings aren't returned, can you turn down a friend, or will you force something that isn't there just to make them happy? If feelings are returned, will you risk changing the perfect thing you have?

Comment with your character, canon, preferences, and which side you may want to play. IE, the one with feelings, etc. Also, mention if you'd like things to be more fluffy or more tragic.
Respond to others. Assumed CR and AU it up if need be.

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[Would greatly prefer fluffy romance or angst over smut.

Sherlock towards John (one or two-sided) or someone else towards Sherlock (one-sided).]

Sherlock's been needling her about the planned time off she has coming up. He doesn't seem to understand the need for people to take holidays, apparently, most of all her.

"I've told you, Sherlock, I just need some time away," she says, trying to busy herself with paperwork so she doesn't have to look at him. It's the truth she's telling him, but not the whole truth and she's an awful liar.

The whole truth is that her shrink has made her realize that she is never going to get over Sherlock if she has to see him almost daily. Now that John's often preoccupied with the baby, Molly seems to have become a bit of a replacement sounding board and companion, which she enjoys. Truly. But perhaps too much. All the time with Sherlock gives her hope for a relationship with him she knows deep down she will never have.

"What do you need time away for?" Sherlock asks, not bothering to disguise or otherwise reduce the apparent frustration and impatience in his tone. How could he be anything but fussed about losing not only his foot in the door for Bart's morgue, but also the one person he knows who doesn't have enough of a social life to get called away when he's in the middle of a thought. Of course, Molly means more to him than the sum of those two things, but those are the only two things he's focusing on when it comes to this inconvenience.

He can't seem to stand still. Fidgeting has always been a side effect to excitement and distress, this being no different. Unfortunately, a lack of speech filter is another side effect. "It's not like you've got anything on," he says from over her left shoulder. "Marathon watching Glee reruns doesn't count."

She's trying to ignore him practically vibrating with agitation right near her elbow. It's just making her more agitated, as does his presumptuousness about her lack of social life (even if it's true). It's his fault anyway.

"For your information, I'm not taking holiday to watch telly," she says defensively. "And...and...it's not really any of your business what I need time away for anyway."

So there, Sherlock.

Sherlock groans and walks a few steps away from her, then paces back. He continues going back and forth for all of half a minute while checking something on his mobile.

"You never take holiday and you're obviously not ill," he says, staying on the offensive because he's not ready to roll over and let Molly off the hook without trying to convince her to cancel her impromptu leave of absence. "No conferences in your field until mid-November. If it were a family emergency, you'd be gone already."

Sorry, Molly. For someone who likes to keep his private business to himself, he doesn't show the same concern about other people's privacy.

"Please, Sherlock, just...just let it go," she says. "For once."

She finally looks up at him, her eyes are pleading and nervous and have a bit of a warning in them. She's worried he'll deduce the truth from just looking at her.

"I need time away," she says. The 'from you' is unspoken.

And Christ, why does he still have to look so good even when he's getting on her last nerve.

Sherlock can tell he's wearing her down, but he can also tell she's desperate for him to stop guessing. He stares at her for a moment, taking in her face, posture, and any other silent tell he can see. He doesn't see anything out of the ordinary there. She looks exactly as he expects her to look, so is it any wonder he hasn't deduced the entire truth from her yet?

He slumps a bit, slipping his phone back into his pocket. He's upset her - never his intention, but not an atypical occurrence when it comes to the two of them. Time for a different tack.

"Molly," he says, stepping closer and maintaining eye-contact for as long as she's looking his way. "I need you here."

She can see him trying to figure her out and for once, by his own body language, she sees that he fails to do it. She almost thinks that maybe he is going to give up.

But the idea is short lived.

She knows the moment it happens what he's doing. It's what he always, always does to her. Does he even realize? He must. He must know that his charms have historically gotten him what he wants from her. Jesus, she's such an idiot to have let him play her for so long, for still feeling the desire to please him just because he pays her any bit of attention. It makes her feel both ashamed and angry. Mostly at herself.

"Don't," she warns him as she tries to back up a bit. "Don't say that. You don't need me."

He's stunned for a moment when the tried and true method doesn't pan out the way he expects it to. There had been a time where his initial response would have been to go back to the frustrated needling at her. Back when his need for her really was as shallow as getting into Bart's lab whenever the whim happened to take him. Back before they had somehow become more than just casual work associates.

"But it's true," Sherlock says flat out. Putting on charm or not, he's never outright lied to her. Despite what she thinks, he does have a certain amount of respect for her.

He makes no move to keep her pinned where she's at. If anything, he takes a half-step back to give her a wider berth. "I do need you, Molly," he says, voice still that quiet tone, only this time it's sincere.

At least it's sincere until he starts deflecting, "Who else would put up with a call at two in the morning to follow through with a lead on a case?" Amongst other subjects that might come up in conversation in the middle of the night when the mind starts working on too much caffeine and too little sleep.

"Not the way I want you to," she says before she realizes it's out of her mouth. She has a bit of a deer in the headlights look for a moment before she sighs and closes her eyes for a moment, resigning herself to the idea that she's making a fool of herself again. She pinches the bridge of her nose and wills herself not to make it even worse by starting to cry. She's tired and has too many things to wrap up before her holiday to be dealing with this right now.

"I...you're just...you'll manage without me," she says without looking at him as she gathers up her papers to escape to her office. "I'm sure."

Sherlock matches her deer in the headlights expression. It takes just a second for all the pieces to click together. All of her comments throughout the years and that awful Christmas with his not-so-kind deconstruction of her choice in lipstick and wrapping paper. He'd realised it then, hadn't he? That Molly's feelings towards him didn't begin and end with wanting to share a cup of coffee outside the hospital.

But hadn't she moved on? Surely, seeing him at his worst - just after the 'suicide' and since - would have erased all of that, wouldn't it?

No, apparently it hadn't.

"Oh," he says, blinking a few times and looking at Molly like he's never seen her before. "You mean... you," there's a long pause where he's speaking in his mind, but none of it makes it past his lips. Real words always seem to fail him when they matter the most. He furrows his brow and watches her gather up her things and move towards the door.

"It's only two weeks," she says as her ears burn and she ignores what he's said and right now she wishes it were longer. How she thinks she'll get over this man in two weeks when two years and an engagement didn't seem to do the trick, she does not know. But she has to try.

"Over before you know it. Sorry, I have things to do now. Goodbye, Sherlock."

She looks at him briefly before she and her armful of papers disappear into her office.

Sherlock stays behind in the lab, eventually sitting down on the nearest stool to process the conclusions he's drawn from the conversation. He's flattered by her infatuation where he'd been annoyed by it at first. In hindsight, now that he knows she still feels something towards him, he wonders if his method of using her affection towards him would be considered cruel.

It's almost ten minutes before she'll receive a series of texts from his phone:

Coffee?

When you're back from holiday.

We should discuss this.

The moment she's alone she groans at herself. How could she say that to him? How could she be so stupid? She sits at her desk and puts her head in her hands and does none of the work she intends to. She'll be here all night at this rate.

When her phone dings she hesitates to look at it. It can't possibly be him. Not after that.

But it is. And she's not sure what to make of the message. She's not sure what there is to discuss.

it's alright. Would be best if you just erased the whole thing I think.

He was lucky to have such an option.

This is probably not the best time to tell Molly that he can't actually delete things, isn't it? At least not by command. He forgets unimportant details simply because he chooses not to remember them. And sometimes, when he forgets something that turns out to be important, he uses 'deleting' as an excuse.

Sherlock won't be deleting this. But, refusing to acknowledge it and carrying on like it had never happened could save them both from an awkward conversation.

If you'd prefer it.

He considers leaving it at that, but he feels responsible in some way for her condition. Whether it's sympathy in knowing where she's coming from or guilt for using her, he's not sure and he doesn't really care. The feeling is there and he'd rather do something to render it neutralised if he can.

I have something to say first.

I'm sorry, Molly. I didn't realise how you felt.

About me.

I'm afraid I'm not built for romance, but I wish you the best in your endeavours.

I told you before that you deserve it and I've never lied to you.

And it's probably got awkward now, hasn't it?

She's ready to write back that she does prefer it, when another text comes in. And another. And another.

Damn that man. Now he has to go and be nice. Stupid, stupid, beautiful idiot.

She's crying at her desk and she can't help it. She knows that Sherlock is never going to feel the same for her, but she also knows that just cutting him out of her life will never do either. He's become too good a friend and sometimes he even acts like it. Like now.

I know. Thank you. Apologies for being silly as usual.

Sherlock takes the time to exit the lab - and the hospital - after he sends that last text. He'll be in the back of a cab when he checks his phone. Her texts are unnecessary, particularly the last one. He's grown rather used to Molly being herself around him and one aspect of that is her propensity to be silly when it comes to who she feels fond of. The holiday leave is going overboard, but he's done enough damage there already.

He leaves one more text before respecting her decision to be left alone.

Enjoy your holiday, Molly.

He'll fall back on using his kitchen lab when he can. He could get in to see the bodies in more creative ways. Demands, bribery, or breaking and entering if all else fails. It won't remedy the lack of company, but he'll manage.

[Should we go with one or two-sided? These two are my guilty pleasure, so I'm fine with either.]

[You like to ask the hard questions, don't you? It's just so difficult to choose. Do you have a canon point preference?

If we do an S2 canon point, we could do something with Sherlock not knowing how to reciprocate John's affection.

If we do something from S3, we could use John's relationship with Mary to switch it to John feeling unable to reciprocate.

And then there's always the happy ending scenario that includes Sherlock and John reuniting without anything stopping them from finding comfort in each other. Most likely with us handwaving some sort of end to things with Mary.]

[That's just how I roll! Also sorry about that delay, I had to go out for a bit.

Ugh, now you're really making me think. All of these sound fun in their own way.

If we did keep Mary in the picture, maybe like, feelings could still be there on John's side making things extra confusing? Like, he loves his wife and all that, but he can't deny the fact his feelings for Sherlock go stronger than friendship too?

OR we could make it sorta sad and KIND OF like the books in which Mary tragically dies? In which case John might need some time to move on, so maybe it's still too soon, or it could be more of a happy thing.

Honestly, I'm fine with either, if one of these sounds better to you! OR we could do the whole thing where it's totally one-sided on Sherlock's side and John has to try and let him down easy or something.]

Edited 2015-10-08 02:09 (UTC)

[Don't worry about it. I've been sporting a bad headache, so I'm a bit slow to reply myself.

Hmm, I like the first two options a little better since Sherlock would already assume that he's got one-sided feelings for John. Though, we could mix in the strictly one-sided bit with either of the two scenarios you've mentioned if we feel like it.

I guess the main two genres we could play with is super awkward mutual pining that may come to fruition or angsty pining hurt/comfort that may or may not have a happy ending. The first one would be cute and possibly amusing too, but the second one is already trying to tug at my heartstrings. I'm always a sucker for angst, if you're in the mood for it. (If we do the angst option, tragic death could be from natural causes or from gunshot. It's still not clear which side Mary falls in the grand scheme of things (villain or hero), so she could get shot by either John or Sherlock or shot trying to protect John or Sherlock.)]

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Are we friends or are we more?

Sherlock Holmes | Sherlock (BBC)

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