Winter in London - Part XV

[w_a_i_d]

Watson started a little and for a second or two we stood there in the doorway looking at each other, both immobile and silent.  The rain had eased since I made my way home, but his coat was wet nevertheless, beads of water glittering on the darkened wool.

“Come on,” I said, standing out of his way.   “Loitering’s a bad habit, dear fellow.”

He

Comments

[w_a_i_d]

Thank you! I’m really glad you liked that passage, (Holmes' heartbeat, Watson's cold hand) as I’ve been fond of that image for quite a while but I had to find a way of putting it that didn’t make my teeth simultaneously rot and crawl inside my skull on a kamikaze mission to my brain. Because that really must be the most sentimental thing I've ever written, concept-wise. But oh, I did so want it.

[tweedisgood]

Ah, but that's the beauty of your style - you convey so much with such spare imagery and subtle, indirect emoting - very Victorian.

Lovely, as ever.

[ingridmatthews]

*PURRSSSSS*

So then I turned, keeling up on the settee to close my other arm about him too, and I dropped a kiss onto his hair before I could think to stop myself.

MMMMMMMMMM. (Wee typo there, but MMMMMMM still.)

♥

[mothergoddamn]

Keeling means to navigate up, doesn't it? So, I thought he was just sort of pulling himself up to get his arm round? Unless that isn't even what you're referring to, I am insanely tired right now...

[ingridmatthews]

I thought she wanted "kneeling", but if I'm wrong, that's fine too. :D

[w_a_i_d]

I did, alas, want kneeling. Curse you and your technically correct words, spell-check!

[mothergoddamn]

" I had just been thinking that I could live perfectly well on the subtle scent of his skin and hair indefinitely. English is regrettably imprecise about smell, French scarcely any better. The best one can say is that beneath the odour of tobacco and the thyme-and-cedar fragrance of soap, his own scent does not really resemble that of fresh coffee, yet has some warm quality that reminds me of it."

That's just a beautiful, gorgeous line. I'm planning on re-reading this from the start in this media so prepare for old school reviews.

[w_a_i_d]

Thank you! I thought that having discoursed on the smell of prisons, Holmes should at some point discourse on the smell of Watsons. I had quite a bit of fun concocting that bit.

Yay! I love old school reviews!

[cordelia_v]

Oh, this is such a delight. I loved the two passages quoted in the comments upthread, too, and so many others. Gorgeous, perfect voice and phrasing for each of them, and thank you so very much!

And falling asleep lying across Watson's lap, more or less! And the business of the chloral! This just gets steadily more wonderful.

[w_a_i_d]

Thank you! I thought it was about time something nice happened.

[snarryfool]

I came home from a lovely dinner out with friends to see this was up, and immediately told my partner I would be socially unavailable till I'd done reading it. Oh, I was so afraid the discussion of the chloral would turn into an argument!

I second what Scheming_reader says about the perfect slash line. Also so perfectly slashy: Holmes's somewhat obtuse response to the fact that Watson thought of him during the rape and that he as much as said it would have been a pleasurable experience if the other man had been Holmes. You've got to love it when smart people miss the most obvious points.

If the checking on Watson asleep doesn't get them into bed together ... !

[w_a_i_d]

Aww, I'm thrilled if this made what sounds a lovely evening even better! Thank you!

Holmes's somewhat obtuse response to the fact that Watson thought of him during the rape and that he as much as said it would have been a pleasurable experience if the other man had been Holmes. You've got to love it when smart people miss the most obvious points.Well... yes, on the one hand, Occam's Razor would seem to have some good news for Holmes. But at the same time, I actually kind of agree with his take on that. It’s not really up to him to decide what, if anything, that meant. Much as Watson would like to know what the fuck it was about, Holmes can’t really give him any pointers without it getting kind of... opportunistic. And really I think finding out that your beloved thought of you in place of his rapist would be less encouraging and more “I would like to claw my own brain out, punch it and throw it out of the window, except that I did that already when I found he was thinking about killing himself.” And I also think that while Watson