It didn't work, John!

Chapter 8

Back at Baker Street.
First of all, John made tea. He was still angry with Sherlock. Well, a bit.
He'd forgiven him, actually. But he didn't need to show him that straight away, so he mumbled a bit more.
He took the tea into the living room, poured himself a cup. And Sherlock too.
The man was sitting on the sofa, looking at him expectantly.
John took a sip of tea.

"Can you explain it to me, John?"
"Explain what?"
"Why is it wrong to say something that's actually true? It's true that in the first few minutes after we have sex, which I enjoy very much, but I'm sure you know that..."
Yeah, of course John knew that. He could feel it. But still, it was the first time Sherlock had said it so clearly. And that was nice. It felt good.
"...you're not really sane and you're babbling nonsense. I once asked you in a situation like this to tell me what the square root of 25 is. Basic arithmetic. But you just stared at me and mumbled something. Ten minutes later, you were in control again and could answer me correctly."

"Sherlock."
"John, and it's not unusual to experience the phenomenon of post-coital dementia... and that we both copulate for pleasure, as our friends and family know, since we're a couple, it's a given..."
"Sherlock!!!!"

Sherlock stopped talking.
John didn't know whether to shout angrily or laugh.
He decided to take the third way and tried to explain.
"That that well may be. But that's not the point."
He sighed.
"There are some things you just don't say, no matter how true they may be, because they hurt. And certainly not in public."
Sherlock nodded his head, understandably.
"Intimate things and publicity. Yes, I'm beginning to understand that concept, although I don't quite see the logic behind it either."
"Sherlock, there is no logic behind everything. Some things, especially in human relations, are not logical."

Sherlock moaned.
"Yes, John. That's what makes this so complicated for me."
He looked at John.
"Nevertheless, I have now come to understand this point - intimate things and publicity. Can we please strengthen it, John?"
"Strengthen it? What do you think?"
But in the next moment he knew what Sherlock meant.
"Well, John, according to the system, punishment for a certain behaviour is an incentive to avoid further punishment, and to avoid the behaviour in question."
John was silent.
"That," Sherlock said, "is indeed logical."

John sighed.
But in a way, he could understand Sherlock.
If he found individual concepts in all this confusion of interpersonal and social interactions between people who had nothing to do with the logic he was so familiar with, which were logical again, they were his lifeline in all of this. And he clung to such things.
In the hope that with their help he would find ways not to drown in this ocean of feelings and perhaps find practicable ways to treat his fellow human beings in such a way that he would not always be labeled a freak.

"All right. I will punish you for this insolence. The insolence to Anderson..."
Sherlock wanted to protest. In his opinion, Anderson was not a creature to be taken into consideration in any way.
But John just raised his index finger and looked at him sternly.
And Sherlock didn't speak.
John was always amazed that it worked.
That he actually had such authority over Sherlock.
"And above all, your insolence to me. Because you've embarrassed me a little bit in the process and it's hurt me."

Sherlock nodded.
He didn't mean to hurt John. He didn't need any extra incentive for that, now that he knew it hurt him, although he still didn't understand why.
But if John really wanted him to stop insulting Anderson... well, if a punishment would stop him the next time, that actually made sense.

"Now the only question is what to do with you," John said.
He pondered for a while.
Again Sherlock looked at him expectantly.
John stood up.
"Well," he said, "we'll just repeat the punishment from the other day. The one you said didn't work. You wanted it anyway, to confirm or not confirm that impression. If this punishment really doesn't work, well, I'll think of something else."
He kissed Sherlock gently.
Sherlock nodded.
Yes, that was good. Then he could immediately mark off another uncertainty as having been clarified.
He loved to put ambiguities to a definite conclusion.

John pulled the belt from his pants.
Then he took Sherlock's hand and pulled him behind him into the bedroom.
A short time later you could hear slapping noises and a painful moaning from the bedroom.
Again, a short time later, you could still hear slapping sounds and a moan of pleasure.
The slapping stopped.
The lustful moaning remained.
The moaning of pleasure was heard shortly afterwards from two different voices, in different pitches.
Increased, changed, became more intense, louder, and one of the voices, yes, it was John's voice, then turned into little pointed screams of lust.

Some time had passed.
Extremely satisfied and disarranged, they both left the bedroom.
John went into the kitchen to drink a large glass of water.
Sherlock leaned against him and laid his head on the shoulder of the smaller one.
"I was right. It's not working."

John turned his head a little and put his cheek to his fiancé's.
"John," Sherlock continued, and with his following words he made John blow the sipp of water that was just in his mouth across the kitchen shelf, "We should put it in the other category. The parallel system.
Reward to encourage desirable behavior."