airbnb au: they were roommates but WITH A DEADLINE
sherlock letting out the upstairs room of 221b on airbnb
john, coming home on leave from afghanistan, trying to put some distance between himself and all of harry’s issues and with nowhere else to go: let’s give this a go
john showing up to this airbnb and sherlock has like, all these beakers and test tubes and microscope things going on and there are like, fingernails in petri dishes and he walks in on sherlock talking to his skull and sherlock is like, oh. RIGHT. the AIRBNB GUY. that’s why hudders was hoovering, meanwhile, he is bemoaning the first impression fingernails must have made on this compact yet totally hot army doctor with tidy hands and an enormous–
john with even less sense of self-preservation than in asip like “hey what are these fingernails about”
john ends up spending all three days of his leave with sherlock
he helps sherlock with the fingernails experiment, telling him what he knows about how fingernails react to various injuries in afghanistan and how that was different from barts, and that night sherlock takes him to angelo’s, and angelo says, a date! and john has to say, oh, no, actually. i’m leaving in two days.
they go to a crime scene, and john grins at sherlock the whole time, and says that he’s brilliant, absolutely amazing, fantastic, and lestrade, with that curious little look, asks if this is sherlock’s new assistant, and john has to say, oh, no, actually, i’m leaving in a day
running after a murderer, taking the shot to save sherlock’s life, startling the suspect long enough for sherlock to get away, racing home afterwards with john’s hand in sherlock’s and the both of them laughing and john stepping in and sherlock stepping forward and then john says, “i’m leaving in six hours” instead of kissing him
sherlock falling back like “yes of course” but john steps in again and kisses sherlock on the cheek and says “nice airbnb though. think i’ll rent it again next time.”
and john leaves. and he and sherlock email, a little bit, and a little bit more, and a little bit more, and john reserves the room upstairs to spend his next leave home at 221b, and sherlock takes the listing down because he doesn’t want anyone else in the little room upstairs
and sherlock tidies everything and gets all excited and then
and finally sherlock does a little fb stalking and finds bill murray and asks what happened to john, if he could give sherlock john’s forwarding address, and bill murray says, sorry mate, he’s gone. took a bullet couple months back.
sherlock misinterpreting this and thinking john has died. totally devastated. all he ever got was the kiss on the cheek.
and then, out of nowhere, there’s a knock on the door downstairs.
it’s john. he has a single duffle bag and a steel cane.
“sorry i’m late,” he says. “my reservation still open?”
sherlock staring. reaching out. pulling john in. kissing him firmly. “you’ve qualified for an upgrade, actually,” sherlock says. “to the master bedroom.”
the door closes behind them, and john stays.
