Short Stories and Oneshots

My Soul Reason Is You

Author: CreatePeaceFromChaos

Platform: AO3

Type: Sherlock

The one where soulmates share extreme physical sensation – if one gets hurt, the other gets hurt, and etc.

~

He feels it rarely, because apparently his soulmate is a cautious person. There are the occasional aches, but the truly painful injuries are few and far between. In fact, the last was over a year ago, his upper left chest and shoulder radiating agony for weeks.

He'd almost turned back to the drugs to escape it, but Mycroft had been thorough in forcing him to go clean. (And he didn't want to hurt his soulmate when they were already in so much pain).

He'd never let on to anyone at Scotland Yard that he could and indeed did have a soulmate, although due to the occasional shock of pain over the past year he was fairly certain that Lestrade at least suspected it.

He was perhaps not as dull as the rest of the Yard's employees.

After a while the shoulder no longer hurt, and he was back to his boring routine.

Mike Stamford introducing him to one Doctor John Watson was the best thing to happen in a long while.

John was...interesting. He didn't react the way people usually did when they met Sherlock, and it was refreshing.

He almost didn't want to meet his soulmate, certain that there was no way they could measure up to John.

~

It'd been years since his soulmate had felt any extreme pain, and John was grateful for it. Yes, he could tell there were the occasional scrapes and bruises, but there had been nothing alarming or out of the ordinary in over three years.

He regretted that his gunshot wound would have caused his soulmate debilitating pain for as long as it had him, but he didn't regret having a soulmate.

He just wished he could find whoever it was.

Mike introducing him to Sherlock was a godsend – chasing after the scarily-intelligent 'consulting detective' took his mind off the matter of who his soulmate was or where they were.

Until chasing after Sherlock one day did absolutely nothing to distract him from the soulmate issue.

~

Sherlock was inside Soo Lin's apartment, and John had been left outside. This was the third building Sherlock had broken into and left John outside, and he was starting to get a bit pissy about it.

He would have started yelling, cussing his flat mate out for going in alone – and what kind of idiot goes into potentially hostile territory alone? – but sudden constriction around his throat had his words catching before they could leave his lips.

Choking on nothing – his soulmate was choking.

Three men dead in apartments locked from the inside, an acrobatic assassin presumably the cause.

Sherlock currently inside a locked apartment that might possibly be a target for the assassin.

Sherlock's bloody blue scarf he insisted on wearing everywhere that would make an easy means of strangulation.

Sherlock's habit of rubbing his left shoulder when he was deep in thought, even though John knew there was no wound there. Not on Sherlock's shoulder, anyway...

The pieces connected rapidly, even as John moved to break down the door to Soo Lin's apartment – fuck the consequences, his soulmate was being strangled in there!

Sherlock was being strangled.

Growing dizzy with the sensation of a lack of air, John delivered a powerful kick to the weakest point of the door around the lock and was gratified when it cracked beneath the force.

The non-existent pressure on his throat let up instantly, and John threw his weight at the door to knock it open. He stumbled a little when it gave way, and then rushed up the stairs to where he could hear Sherlock wheezing and coughing.

The person responsible for the strangling was gone by the time John got up the stairs, but he didn't care – he just needed to get to Sherlock.

"Breathe slowly," he ordered, dropping to his knees beside his soulmate and carefully unwinding the scarf. Sherlock's throat was red and already starting to bruise, and John carefully felt for any damage to Sherlock's trachea.

Sherlock flinched at the touch, but John simply gave him a stern look and then continued to feel for damage.

"You'll be fine. A bit hoarse for a while, but you'll be fine."

"Did you see him?" Sherlock rasped, and John shook his head.

"No, you idiot,

"...what?"

"Idiot," John sighed, a fond smile forming without his consent. "I felt it happen. Just like you felt the bullet that almost shattered my scapula."

"Oh." A pause, and then realization. "Oh!"

"Yeah." John shook his head slightly. "I have to admit...I'm glad it's you."

"...likewise," Sherlock replied quietly, and then pushed himself up to a sitting position. "We need to go. Did you break down the door?"

"I didn't exactly have any other options. Come on, let's get you back to the flat so I can take a proper look at your throat."

"If we must."

Soulmates or not, aware of it or not, Sherlock was the same as always. John wouldn't have him any other way.

FIN