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Graves from the Central London branch of security was stationed behind the counter with no experience as a barista. While Aris from the paramedic branch sat near the windows with week old newspapers. Wicks, the woman who usually drove him around, waited in line while trying not to make it obvious that she was planning escape routes. Hell, even his own brother sat at the other end of the small café they were in.
Sebastian was on tight watch ever since his little stunt three weeks prior. He was not allowed out of sight with no exceptions. Either there were twenty-four/seven recordings of Sebastian’s every waking movement or the rivers would be floating with unidentifiable bodies. There were always cameras watching him and staff trailing him nowadays. Jim and Mycroft have even taken time out of their schedules just to stroll around the city with him. Sebastian did not breathe without there being a person making sure his breaths came out even.
He personally thought the ordeal was excessive, but then again, so was marrying the two crazy bastards. Moran was theirs. No one looked at him the wrong way without them knowing. Gone were the days where he worked as their guard dog. He may still take jobs when the want arouse, the bloodlust never having left his system. But he was expected back for dinner even if he was on the other side of the country. Jim and Mycroft could be a bit extra sometimes, but he loved them for it.
In the corner of his eye a camera rotated silently to face his table. The light blinked red and Sebastian was tempted to give it a little wave. It had taken him ages to convince the two men to allow him out for the day. He knew they were probably watching him now. Perhaps even Sherlock was watching as John took the seat across from him.
“Sorry, I’m late,” the doctor said politely, pulling his seat in closer. “I didn’t actually think you’d make it.” He looked at Sebastian pointedly, almost accusingly.
Sebastian gently pushed a cup of tea in John’s direction as if to apologize for causing the blonde man to be late. Their small table was somewhat crowded with the pastries Sebastian had ordered with Mycroft’s card. He may have gone a little overboard. Though, to be fair, Mycroft shouldn’t have given him his card if he didn’t want Sebastian to use it. Mycroft should have expected him to use it on something useless like Bakewell tarts instead of useful.
“Believe me, it cost me an arm and a leg to be here,” Sebastian joked, taking a bite of a slice of tiramisu.
As if afraid that his limbs were actually taken, John, not so subtly, looked under the table. The doctor’s sigh of relief at the sight of Sebastian’s two perfectly functioning, healthy legs had Sebastian holding in a chuckle. John was adorable. No wonder Sherlock loved him so much.
“Not actually, doctor,” Sebastian reassured, shoving a platter of Chelsea Buns in John’s direction. “I have all my original limbs.”
John ignored the peace offering and made a face at Sebastian’s sense of humor. The doctor’s face was a mix between exasperation and fear. Sebastian didn’t know a man could make such an expressive face. “I’ve had the misfortune to be captured by both of your husbands. Don’t laugh at me for making sure you weren’t being fed to yourself.”
“Cannibalism isn’t really our thing. Mycroft’s too much of a snob to eat people.” Sebastian smirked, “Who knows where they’ve been.”
The doctor shifted in his seat, fumbling with his hands for a moment before deciding to cross them. He faced Sebastian head on and decided to be forthright. A slight air of hostility surrounded him. “And what exactly is your thing, Mr. Holmes? Or is it Mr. Moriarty?”
“Call me, Sebastian,” he properly introduced himself. Most of their interactions have been over text. Sebastian had stolen John’s number from Mycroft’s mobile and decided to have some fun while he was being punished. Sherlock’s doctor was quite fun to mess with. Sebastian didn’t even need to make up some elaborate scheme. Their first conversation was a mix of a heart attack and excitement for the army doctor.
Hello, Dr. Watson. -SM
Who is this?
A friend of your brother-in-law’s. -SM
A friend of Mycroft’s or an enemy?
Depends on the day. -SM
And if he’s being good. -SM
At first John thought he was Irene which was completely insulting. She was interested in Sherlock and the mere implication that she ever considered Mycroft made Sebastian unreasonably upset. Mycroft was his as much as he belonged to the man. No dominatrix could break the Iceman. Only he and Jim could do that, only they had any right to touch Mycroft. Sebastian cleared up the confusion as fast as he could. Even someone thinking that Mycroft was involved with Irene had Sebastian scrambling to right things.
And thus really, began Sebastian’s little friendship with Dr. Watson.
“John, then. There’s no need for formalities,” John stated, eyes still piercing Sebastian’s like a sharpened blade. If looks could kill Sebastian would be dying and his husbands seething. John’s eyes were this flowering blue that seemed empathetic but could poison the very soul.
Sebastian was enjoying getting to know his brother-in-law.
“What with us being relatives and all,” John continued, “I mean this in the nicest way I can put this given the situation. I’m just very curious what exactly your whole deal is.” He leaned towards Sebastian ever so slightly, the staff inclined forwards on the front of their feet. His mobile buzzed within his pocket and he could guess at what it said. “I don’t understand you. So please, as a potential friend, explain.”
Sebastian shrugged, “There’s really not much to it.”
John gave Sebastian another pointed look. “Alright, let me be a little more specific. How is Moriarty alive and married to Mycroft?”
A smile grew on Sebastian’s face at the fond memory. He resisted the urge to wink at the camera knowing that Jim and Mycroft could be on the other side. “I can only answer half of that question. Jim hasn’t told either of us how he survived, though Mycroft has his guesses.” John nodded at this like he had expected the answer. “As to the second half, I proposed and they both agreed. It was as easy as that.”
“But it couldn’t have been that simple,” John urged, baffled at Sebastian’s words. “This is Mycroft we’re talking about. How long have you even been together?”
“Now you’re asking the right questions, John.” Sebastian was getting giddy. It was sort of fun to hold information over someone’s head. Sebastian was so used to the dirty work that this mind game was new and exciting. He felt like a lad in a sweeties shop. “I’ve been with Jim for over a decade now, as a worker and as a partner. Mycroft on the other hand, I’ve only been with for four years or so.”
John turned the information in his head. Sebastian could practically see the timeline being built in his head. From the fall to the resurrection. From Mycroft’s schemes to Sherlock’s. From one game to the next. Watching John work out the problem was so very different from watching Mycroft or Jim. They didn’t let you simply look into their minds. They were too private for that, too guarded to let Sebastian look in the rooms of their mind palaces. To see the dungeon or the throne. With John, it was a different story. It was like Sebastian could wander around the corridors with John in sight. Could see how the blueprint was laid out. He was so used to a fortress that arriving at a cottage seemed almost bizarre.
Interacting with normal people were so rare these days. He was always in the presence of some genius or egotistical mastermind. Some lunatic or money hungry bastard. Having someone like John to talk to, even over something banal like his marriage was refreshing. It was so very fun to see the light go off in his eyes. The dots finally connecting. The story coming together. Making sense out of the few vague lines. Sebastian couldn’t very well face a mirror as he mundled over the things Mycroft or Jim rambled on about. With John, he could see something both familiar and utterly alien.
John softened around the edges before he spoke again. His earlier hostility was replaced with something new. Sebastian couldn’t quite name it. “Did you know that he was going to do that? Either of them?” John asked.
Sebastian shook his head in reply, his grin losing its mirth. John seemed to understand what he was saying without Sebastian having to say a word. “How long did Jim make you wait?”
“Too long.” What Sebastian didn’t say was that he remembered the amount of time Jim left him for down to the day. To the hour. John seemed to understand that too. That was nice, being understood. Having someone to relate to. John knew what he had gone through because the man had experienced something similar. “He came back around the time I confessed to Mycroft.”
A grime laugh escaped them both. Sebastian could pretend he had the upper hand on John all he wanted, but they were one in the same. The only difference was that one had been in the business a little longer than the other. Sebastian had years on John. He still had all four of his limbs but the amount of times where he almost lost them would make any other man thankful for his uneventful life.
“I bet you, they planned that,” John said not unkindly. “Sherlock came back on the night I was going to propose to Mary.” John quickly explained who Mary was but Sebastian had already known from Mycroft. He just didn’t interrupt the man. Hearing John happily speak about Mary was like whiplash from Mycroft’s cynical descriptions. Sebastian finally learned about Rosie who up until this point was referred to as, the Watson girl and nothing else.
“Did you know I almost broke his nose?”
“To be fair, I shot Jim.” John burst out laughing before Sebastian could add, “Nothing fatal, of course. Just something that would hurt.” It had been a shot to his leg, something of a reflex that Sebastian had not had for months at the time. He had never been so quick to reach for a gun that sat snug against his waist. Jim had yelled, not screamed, in absolute surprise, not hurt or fear. The shock written on his face will always be etched into Sebastian’s mind. No one had ever seen that face but him and Mycroft. “He didn’t even flinch. Although, he did get upset that I ruined a pair of his favorite trousers.”
“And you married the crazy bastard?”
“I could say the same for you, given my point of view,” Sebastian bit back not unkindly. His smile, absent of much emotion, was back on his face. A touch of teasing was tugging at his cheeks.
“Sherlock can be an utter loon sometimes, but he at least yelps when he’s shot in the leg,” John bit back with the same amount of sass.
“Oh, speaking from experience are we?”
John rolled his blue eyes halfheartedly, the pastries sat on their table half eaten. “Don’t get me started on his eccentricities. We’d be here for days before I can get a breather to ask you about Jim and Mycroft’s.” Another laugh left them before a thought seemed to pass the doctor. He gave Sebastian an odd look, one even he could not read. The uncertainty of the expression had Severin shifting closer just in case.
“On the topic of eccentricities, I must ask how they have not killed each other yet?” This was said with such genuine curiosity. A vast well of knowledge that Sebastian could easily share with his new friend. It felt almost like a test from his husbands, this tidbit of vulnerability that they wanted him to ration. Tell John or don’t tell John they seem to say. The very unspoken test was amusing to Sebastian.
Sebastian shrugged, nonchalantly taking a bite out of his choice of baked goods. “I make sure they don’t.” A half truth. The sort of lie that he was best at. “They would have, you know, if I weren’t around. Might have brought the whole country down with them.” Sebastian regretted his word choice the moment it left his mouth.
“If not the whole country, then at least their families?” John began and Sebastian really should have seen this conversation coming. He berated himself in his head for not thinking of this sooner. He could have prepared for this but instead he was sidetracked by an empty stomach and a café of sweets. Distracted by the possibility of a friend who lived through the same hell that he had. Sebastian should have known that making friends with Sherlock’s live-in, his husband for that matter, was not going to be all fun and games.
“I have to ask about Eurus,” John said to him. “ Everything that happened with Eurus. You must know something.” A concerned look crossed John’s metal gaze and Sebastian frowned. He felt bad that he caused that look on John’s face, guilty for something he didn’t play a part in. It was such an odd thing, feeling ill on the fact that John was upset and not on the matter at hand.
“If you don’t know about her, I have to tell you. Mycroft’s wrath be damned.”
“I-I know about Eurus,” Sebastian told John, suddenly choked up. His throat was contracting of its own free will. His eyes felt like they were blistering to the point of tears. Sebastian didn’t know why he felt like crying out of the blue. “I know what she did to you.” He was trembling. Why was he trembling? It made no sense. Was he affected by making John upset? Was he still upset at what Eurus had done? Or was this something else entirely?
Sebastian couldn’t rack his brain for the answer and his frustrations made it all worse. The security team took notice of Sebastian’s discomfort. He could see them making the call to Mycroft and Jim to call off the outing. To send Sebastian back home. But he didn’t want to go back just yet. His punishment could wait a little longer. Sebastian wanted to keep speaking with John, and wanted to explain to him the situation. Make a friend, get someone to talk to, tell them about all the things that made him different and far from human.
This was supposed to be a joyous, once in a lifetime occasion for him. This outing was supposed to be amusing and fun and not at all breath constricting. Sebastian had planned to make a friend and perhaps this was a part of it. It had been so long since he had one of those.
Sebastian was going to do it. He was going to talk to John, explain and converse even if he was tearing up through every word without knowing why.
“Jim had planned it long before we were together. He was her Christmas gift. They had planned this and kept it hidden from all of us.” Sebastian didn’t have to explain who he was referring to. “I made them behave with each other, but neither Jim nor Mycroft could stay content for long. Jim had planned it and allowed it to follow through because he wanted revenge for being cheated out of Sherlock’s death. He didn’t call it off even though he could. He was mad at Mycroft. He was mad at me as well. When Jim gets angry he makes sure everyone knows.”
Sebastian swallowed the stone that formed in his throat. John allowed him to pause but he could tell the doctor wanted to know more. “I-I didn’t know what he was planning. I knew Eurus, it was hard not to hear about her when you live in my shoes. Everyone warned me of what she was capable of and Mycroft didn’t allow me to see her. But I knew her,” Sebastian admitted through disoriented eyes. “I just didn’t know the grudge she had on Sherlock and Mycroft.”
He could see Severin approaching but he gestured for his brother to hang back. John wanted to know and he wanted to tell him. He needed to tell him. “He had me unconscious for the whole thing. Jim wanted Mycroft to suffer and made sure I couldn’t rush in to help him. Mycroft was locked in Eurus’ cell.” John already knew this but he never found out the exact effects it had on Mycroft. “Mycroft still has nightmares about it. He’d wake up screaming and I feel like it was my fault for not being there for him. I was originally hired as his bodyguard and I allowed this to happen.”
“And then Jim said they were even,” John finished for him. Sebastian nodded to confirm, gripping at his arms like as long as he held himself together he won’t fall apart.
The sound of a chair scraping back had the whole café on high alert. The other patrons had gone silent when Sebastian began his breakdown. His phone had gone off a dozen times. The staff were all on varying degrees of nearness and all the safeties off of their guns. Most of them were too far away to hear what happened but Sebastian didn’t just start crying in the middle of public without a damn good reason.
“There, there.” A comforting hand went to his shoulder, rubbing rough circles to soothe him. Sebastian was surprised that he didn’t strike John with the unexpected contact. Instead, he leaned into the shorter man. “Just let it out now. They’re a bunch of bastards anyhow, but you keep them from each other’s throats. You told me so yourself.” John handed him a handkerchief and Sebastian took it tentatively. “You keep them well and alive and from what I can tell, happy.”
“I’m sorry. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I really just wanted to talk to you as friends would,” Sebastian said between heaved breaths that snagged at his lungs like thorns. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry I pushed you, Sebastian,” John apologized, earnestly. “I just wanted to know what the hell went through our husband’s head that I forgot to consider the things that went through yours.”
Sebastian nodded his understanding and sighed deeply. “You know they won’t let me out again for a while. Especially after what just happened.” John spoke of his understanding. Sebastian pulled John by the collar. He whispered his warning for John and John only, “Lay low until I tell you otherwise. They won’t be happy that I cried in front of you. They’ll think you made me.” Once again, John whispered his understanding. “Keep all of your limbs, John.”