Moriarty Brother oneshots

Train Car

A/N- Set after William and Sherlock solved the case on the train, Enjoy~

Louis POV

They return to their train car, where Louis hopes to spend the rest of the evening until they arrive in London.

William reveals nothing, not even to him. Perhaps it’s his brotherly intuition, but he knows something is out of the ordinary.

“We should take greater care to avoid Holmes in the future. He may not look it, but he is sharp.”

“You are probably right.”

“Probably?” It wasn’t like William to say things like probably or maybe. William knows things when he says them. Even more concerning, William leans to look through the window and his chest heaves in a sigh. “Did that man’s ridiculous game exhaust you? You should take some rest.”

“I’m fine, Louis.”

“Hmf. The nerve of him to call you by some name of his own invention.”

“I’m sorry for indulging him.”

“You don’t need to apologize to me. There was no reason not to, like you said. And a murderer could have escaped while an innocent man stood trial, like you said.”

William gazes out the window with a strange expression on his face, almost wistful. “Those things are true, but it would be dishonest for me to say that it was for any other reason than because I simply wanted to.”

“You wanted to play that game? I thought he was annoying you.”

“Quite the opposite. I had fun.”

“I see…”

William sits up away from the window, and his mask is donned once again. Louis wishes he could see that unfiltered expression of his more often, but he is concerned to what the cause for this forlorn look of his might be.

“Worry not. I won’t allow myself to indulge in such a dangerous interaction for the sake of fun ever again.”

“It doesn’t bother me if you enjoy it, Brother William. It isn’t dangerous if it’s you. You can handle his suspicions so gracefully, like you did at the table. I just don’t understand what you see in that man. Outside of his usefulness to our plans, of course.

“I will tell you, Louis. Only you.”

“Only me, but why?”

“It’s a bit embarrassing. I wouldn’t want Albert or the others to know. I rather like that man, Sherlock.”

Sherlock? Louis hadn’t heard him drop Sherlock’s name when they were with him. William didn’t reciprocate the detective’s insistence on first names, let alone his pet name for William. Yet, in private, he says his name with such a fond tone to his voice.

William smiles and laughs in that perfectly practiced way. “I know that he is unkempt and rude, but I would like to consider him a friend, if things were different.”

“You have friends, Brother William, and I’ve never seen you sigh like that.”

“Nothing escapes you, brother. Ah… to tell the truth, perhaps it’s a bit deeper than that.”

Louis could swear his brother looks bashful, a thing he’d have thought impossible. He turns his head, as if it’s too hard to look Louis in the eyes as he explains.

“This man makes me feel something I thought I would never experience, and had long given up on. If this world were different, I might have found a companion in someone like that.”

“Someone like that?”. For some reason that is the most outlandish part of what William is saying.

He knows that William is lonely. He knows that he keeps Albert and himself at arms length. They have fought about it. And in spite of the fact that William has opened up to him, and this conversation in itself is proof of that, there is still something that William desires, that neither he nor Albert can fulfill. Something that Holmes has.

Is his intellect really so much higher than theirs? Perhaps. Is he on par with William? Surely not.

Maybe it is exactly the things that Louis finds intolerable about this man that draws William to him. Someone who doesn’t revere him as a savior.

Someone who won’t put their very life into William’s hands. Someone who respects his intellect, but doesn’t bow to it. At first Louis found these things so disrespectful, but what if that’s the point?

Perhaps the William that came out while playing the game with Holmes was the first time he’d seen the real person who William would like to be.

“If that’s so…”. He crosses his arms, frowning, incredulous of the fact he is about to say this. “Then I regret you won’t be able to see him again without taking an unacceptable risk.”

William looks at him. “You… would like me to? If such a thing were possible. You’d allow me to be friends with someone like that?”

Louis sighs and smiles in spite of himself. “Yes, of course. If you are able to have a bit of fun when he’s around, I would tolerate his presence.”

That earns him a genuine smile from William, something that is so rare to see. “You would put yourself through such terrible annoyances for me. Ha. I love you, Louis.”

“Ah...,Brother…”. Louis stares back. “I love you too, of course I do.”

William is still smiling. The wistful expression is gone. “Let’s have dinner together when we get back to London.”

“I would like that.” Louis doesn’t want to do this, but he forces himself. “That detective is headed to London as well. We could invite him.”

“I must not. Besides. I think I’d like it to be just the two of us.”

Louis can’t help but laugh a bit at that. “But that’s how most of our meals are.”

“I know, and I would not have it any other way.”

Words- 958