Could we perchance pretty please get a little translation breakdown for Sherlock talking about how he sees Liam and/or feels about him in the new chapter? I always trust you to give us the goods without exaggerating them 😂
Hyper, I adore you deeply, but Sherlock's chat with Fred about Liam is fully 13 pages long, and I am Not diagramming all of that. It's like half of the chapter. And frankly, it would be hard to follow. I started doing some of it and didn't even get halfway through the meaty bits before I went. "No, there's no way."
This is all internal dialogue from Sherlock, by the way.
Sherlock thinks about how everyone is thinking of William with good intentions, but "William" and "The Lord of Crime" are inextricably bound to each other. And via good intentions for Liam, they're binding "William" even further.
Like he's literally using "William" and "Lord of Crime" in quotes, and Liam is not accompanied by them. Liam is the essence of who the person is, to Sherlock. William is one part of him, and The Lord of Crime is also part of it, but Liam is more than both.
(I think, at this point, it's interesting to bring up the fact that, strictly speaking, from birth, Liam wasn't William. Like the Lord of Crime, it was a persona he took on for his needs)
Sherlock wanted to ask Liam if Liam is okay with this situation, but decided it was a meaningless question that didn't matter and bit it back.
And that, from a practical standpoint, this is for the best. Sinners/criminals don't get to live unobstructed free lives, and this is how best to keep Liam safe. And he had also thought that as long as Liam was alive, it was...fine.
But. This isn't the Liam he wants to see. This isn't what he wants Liam to look like.
What he likes. What he wants to see.
Is the person who commits crimes for the happiness of others, the person who pushes forward alone to spare his friends, the person who completely ignores Sherlock's advice to stay inside and wanders the streets, the person who rushed into danger to save his friend.
A man who isn't tied down by anything.
And then he brings up their vows from Vermissa. How he swore to Liam that they would face their sins and live on together.
And now, if only a little, he wants to be able to give Liam some of that freedom back.
And then his quiet contemplation gets interrupted by Fred being like "Look, I think William's safety is of the utmost importance, and keeping the knowledge of his survival secret is a top priority...but I really want to meet your William. So we are going to figure this out."
So, Sherlock loves Liam so, so deeply, and all the most deeply unhinged parts of him. And he wants to take the hinges off that lock box again, even if Liam, as he's Liaming about this, has decided to sit in the goddamn box.
But he doesn't say he loves him.
Like, let's be real, did he have to?
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