baudown

Title: Pizzicato
Author: baudown
Fandom: Sherlock (TV)
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Disclaimer: Not mine
Note: A 221b ficlet (221 words, the last word beginning with the letter b). Because I'm re-watching A Study in Pink.

"...nerves of steel..." he says. The words trail off, retreating from their target. Sherlock sees John, at the fringes of the crowd. Waiting there, unnoticed, though it seems to Sherlock that he stands in a bright, spotlit circle.

John looks his way, a blank mask hiding a smile. Not a prepossessing picture -- plain-faced and short, an average fellow in rumpled clothing. Yet he holds himself still, so perfectly still. A deliverer of death, for Sherlock's sake, and yet, so perfectly still.

And his mind rushes back and he's in that room and he'll swallow the pill and perhaps he will die he very well might and he's never feared death because death is a game and the only game ever worth losing/but now he's afraid because now if he dies then death means he'll never see John again/never know this man never know him inside never know how he thinks never know his beating heart never live with this man who's killed for him tonight with such steady hands and without hesitation/and he wants/yes he wants/to rest his hands on John's broad shoulders to taste his open mouth/to belong/to belong/and is this what it means? When they say love?

He feels a sound, like a string being plucked. And then, the music begins.