Take care of those you call your own, and keep good company...

[lightconductor]

It had been a long, if not unrewarding day. Now, though, Watson was glad to relax in the comfort of familiar surroundings. There was something perfect about the cosiness of their rooms, the crackle and warmth of the fire, the scent of dinner and brandy and tobacco smoke. It was home, and it was far more perfect than he felt he had any right to claim.

He was stretched out on the sofa, comfortably full, with a novel propped up on his chest while he rested his head in Holmes's lap. The position was comfortable, intimate, and while in part he worried that it was... unmanly, unbecoming, unduly effeminate... it felt strangely safe, and he was grateful for the warmth of the thigh beneath his head.

Comments

[mustbethetruth]

"If being ladylike requires you to be repulsed, then I would ask that you refrain from that. I promise not to be too offended," he drawls, though he is rather inwardly annoyed at such notions of being ladylike and prone to fainting and all that ridiculousness. At least Mary isn't like those other kinds of women, and not just in areas of being open-minded about homosexuality.

[lightconductor]

"I'm of the opinion," Watson offered, beginning to relax a little again, "that men who demand their women be perfectly meek and 'ladylike' have little interest in their wives as people in their own right."

He was giving her a slightly evaluative look; he felt his heart might pound right out of his chest with worry, but... she seemed genuine, kind enough to not dismiss them out of hand for one mere sin.

"But I thought I liked you." He grinned. "Good to see I still do."

[theyarder]

Lestrade is, just now, so in love with his fiancee that he feels it bubbling up into a flush in his cheeks. It is, too, a relief to know that he doesn't have to keep this from Mary, that he can talk about Holmes and Watson and not have the knowledge of this secret rattling around in his brain. And maybe, too, they can be good for Holmes and Watson.

"I couldn't agree with you more, Watson," he says, smiling. "Personality's much more important than propriety, that's always been my opinion."