These Days

Pterodactyl Screeching

"You're quite a good people's person." John decided sarcastically.
"Really?" Sherlock asked, his words slurred behind the vampire teeth.
"No, not at all." John decided.
"Good, I thought I had to ship you away to a mental institution." Sherlock muttered with relief.
"Is that the teacher you were telling me about, the one you made friends with?" John asked, looking at Molly.
"We're not friends." Sherlock insisted.
"I know." John agreed.
"Where did Mary go?" Sherlock asked, almost nervously. John looked off to find that his wife was absent of the lobby.
"I don't know." John admitted. Sherlock stepped back a step, as if worried John might want to go find her. "I also don't care." He decided. Sherlock sighed, with annoyance or relief John couldn't tell.
"Well, I, um, I don't really have anything I should be doing right now." Sherlock muttered. John looked up with amusement, smiling accusingly up at Sherlock.
"And what do you mean by that Mr. Holmes?" John asked teasingly.
"What, nothing, nothing I just, you know, don't have Molly yelling at me at the moment." Sherlock muttered, looking at the floor and blushing so much that he looked like he had lay out in the sun for three days.
"Are you flirting with me?" John asked, taking a fake step back, pretending to be shocked. Sherlock immediately looked up in fear, as if he were trying to process if he were allowed to or not.
"No! God no, I wasn't, that never crossed my mind..." Sherlock said extremely quickly, his words falling over themselves in fear.
"Oh, shame." John muttered with a smile. Sherlock breathed a sigh of relief, still blushing furiously but at least he didn't look like he was about to throw up. John didn't really know what he was supposed to be doing either, certainly kissing Sherlock when there were so many people around was a terrible idea, and even behind a closed door there were no private halls around here, from lost parents trying to find the bathroom to children playing hide and seek, it wasn't exactly the most hidden place aren't.
"I uh, I like your costume." Sherlock muttered.
"I don't." John decided, looking down at his horrible get up.
"Oh, good." Sherlock said with a slight laugh. "I thought it was your idea."
"My idea would be skipping this entire thing." John decided.
"It certainly is loud and stuffy in here." Sherlock decided, watching as a little kid ran past with Fun Dip powder all over his face. "And there are so many children."
"You should be used to that by now." John pointed out.
"I can't drown my demons." Sherlock laughed.
"Yes, because they all have life jackets and floaties." John agreed.
"How about we take a walk?" Sherlock suggested.
"Where?" John asked, liking the idea immediately.
"Entirely up to you Mr. Watson." Sherlock shrugged.
"Outside. Too many bloody people in here." John decided.
"Precisely what I was thinking." Sherlock agreed. John smiled up at him, and Sherlock lead the way, pushing open the first door and holding it open.
"Sherlock Holmes!" cried a voice, obvious by the female sound that it had to be Molly. Sherlock groaned, swinging around and letting the door close behind him. John took a couple steps back, just in case she was going to march up and start yelling.
"Molly, such a lovely surprise." Sherlock sighed.
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, looking very scary for a lady dressed as candy corn.
"I was just going to step outside for a breather." Sherlock insisted.
"We need you in here." she pointed out.
"Doing what exactly?" Sherlock asked.
"Socializing, the parents will have questions and the kids will want candy. I'm sure you'll need to do a bit of supervising as well." She pointed out. John felt like slapping her, of course, but he kept a straight face to make sure she couldn't piece any thing together.
"Whatever you say Mrs. Hoper." Sherlock growled.
"Hooper." Molly corrected.
"Same thing." Sherlock muttered, pushing past her into the crowd and trying to make himself look busy. Molly turned to John, looking very apologetic.
"Sorry about Mr. Holmes, he's a new teacher, as you can probably tell, but if you have any questions feel free to ask." She decided.
"Oh, no actually I was just asking him some stuff." John shrugged, wanting dearly to push past her and follow Sherlock, but that might come across as rude.
"Oh, is he your child's teacher?" she asked.
"Yes, Hamish Watson." John agreed.
"Don't worry, he's not this way around the children, he's just a little bit grumpy tonight." Molly assured, trying to make it seem like Sherlock was as cheery as her.
"Well I doubt that, but I don't really have a problem with him." John shrugged.
"You'd be the first." Molly muttered.
"Oh I doubt that." John decided. Molly just smiled, as if pitying him, and excused herself, walking off into the gym to go help out with something. As soon as she was gone, John jumped back into the crowd, finding the lone scowling vampire and quick checking that Mary wasn't around before leading Sherlock back out of the crowd.
"Well, you never know if there are kids down the halls that need some candy." John shrugged.
"True Mr. Watson, always thinking I see." Sherlock agreed with a slight smile, as if proud of John's quick thinking. They walked down the hall together; looking around to make sure Molly wasn't hiding around any corners, ready to bust Sherlock for walking somewhere. To both of their reliefs she was as absent as Sherlock's heterosexuality and they were able to slip off into the hallways. It was a nice change in these abandoned halls, there were no kids yelling everywhere and there were no parents swarming. It was silent except for their footsteps on the marble floors and the echoing of the noise beyond.
"Much nicer here." Sherlock decided with a sigh, dropping his candy basket onto the floor and continuing the walk, stuffing his hands in his pockets nervously.
"Yes." John agreed.
"Is Hamish enjoying this whole thing then?" Sherlock asked, he sounded awkward, because they both know, sooner or later, what was coming.
"Oh yes, he was so excited." John agreed.
"What did he dress up as?" Sherlock asked.
"Captain America." John sighed. "For the third year in a row."
"Well then someone has a favorite superhero." Sherlock guessed.
"Oh yes." John agreed.
"And the Leprechauns, Mary's idea I assume?" Sherlock guessed.
"Just another terrible bullet on the Terms and Conditions of marriage." John sighed.
"Can't be all that bad." Sherlock sighed.
"Not if you marry the right person." John agreed, looking up at Sherlock to see if he could see what exactly John was trying to say. Sherlock was looking down at the floor, blushing once again and just nodding.
"Wouldn't know, would I?" he asked with a feeble laugh.
"You might, some day." John decided. Sherlock looked over at him and John found it a very good time to remove his wedding ring, just so Sherlock could see. The teacher immediately looked away, his pace quickening with nervousness.
"Maybe." Sherlock muttered. They were now well past civilization, the noise of the outside party was now extremely faint, there was no way anyone else was down here...
"So what's down here?" John asked.
"Well, all sorts of stuff really. Mostly fourth grade classrooms, the art room, I think the computer room is down here as well." Sherlock shrugged.
"Is there any art of Hamish's down here?" John asked curiously.
"There should be yes." Sherlock decided, sounding slightly relived to get onto another subject than marriage. He stopped at a door which was covered in all sorts of child's drawings and paintings, and John could only assume this was where the art room was. Sherlock looked around quickly before using his key to open it, letting the door open before slipping inside and turning on the light. It smelled like clay and glue, and there was a large fan blowing on watercolor paintings left to dry. The tables had blue stools all stood up on top of them, ready for the janitors to come around and clean up, but there were no janitors now.
"It's nice in here." John decided, looking around at all of the art works hanging on the walls and tacked to the cork boards.
"Smells nice I think." Sherlock agreed, shutting the door behind them and walking around the room to find some of Hamish's masterpieces.
"Ah, here we are, this was when we were supposed to draw birds. I remember Hamish's because he drew a pterodactyl." Sherlock said with amusement.
"That definitely sounds like something he'd do." John decided, joining Sherlock near the front of the room and looking up at the art. Between the cardinals and parrots, Hamish's poorly drawn dinosaur stuck out like a sore thumb.
"He likes dinosaurs then?" Sherlock asked.
"Yes, he does. Typical little boy if you ask me." John shrugged.
"No one is the same John." Sherlock pointed out.
"I know, I know, it's just, I liked them when I was little, I'm sure you did, pretty much all the boys these days like Captain America and all that, it's just natural I suppose." John shrugged.
"When I was little I like math and space, there was no time to focus on superheroes and extinct reptiles." Sherlock pointed out.
"Well, I suppose then you're not normal." John decided.
"I've always known that." Sherlock shrugged. John looked over at him and smiled, seeing that Sherlock was obviously a bit insecure about himself.
"That's a good thing Sherlock, a very good thing. Normal people are boring." John decided, leaning back onto the desk.
"Yes, I suppose they are." Sherlock agreed, following suit and sitting back on the desk.
"Mary's normal." John sighed.
"You aren't." Sherlock decided.
"Neither are you." John agreed with a small smile, blindly reaching out with his hand until he found Sherlock's fingers, interlocking them without saying a word. He could feel Sherlock stiffen up next to him, but he didn't pull away and he didn't walk out. A good sign usually.
"You know, a ginger beard doesn't really suit you." Sherlock decided, his voice a bit shaky as he felt John's fingers lace through his own.
"I agree, but, once again, it wasn't my idea." John shrugged, pulling the fake beard down with his free hand so it looked like a very shaggy necklace. Sherlock smiled, the plastic teeth poking through his lips.
"I should've learned my lesson not to sneak off with a vampire from all of those times Mary made me watch Twilight." John laughed.
"Never seen those movies, never want to." Sherlock decided.
"You're not missing anything, I promise." John assured. Sherlock smiled once again, his green eyes sparkling as he looked over John's face. John just couldn't get over how amazingly beautiful he was, it was like somewhere up there God just wanted to torture every married person alive by throwing such a specimen down to earth. They were in an art room, and although the art wasn't very good, Sherlock was the best masterpiece there.
"You know, maybe this Carnival isn't all that bad." Sherlock decided with a shy little smile, his cheeks glowing slightly.
"I would've stayed home, if it weren't for you." John pointed out.
"Well then, I'm sorry to disappoint." Sherlock muttered.
"You're too modest Sherlock Holmes." John decided, leaning forward and kissing him softly. It was a nice kiss, but ruined by those stupid plastic vampire teeth. Sherlock seemed to find his mistake immediately, ripping them out of his mouth as fast as humanly possible all while stuttering apologies and excuses. Honestly John thought it was adorable when he stuttered, as if he made one wrong move John would go out and leave him, but it only convinced him that Sherlock truly was the best person on the face of this Earth.
"Sorry." Sherlock muttered.
"It's fine, Sherlock, it's all fine." John assured. This time Sherlock, being the brave soul he was, leaned in, pecking John's lips so slightly that he barely even felt it. But he seemed satisfied, sitting back and turning extremely pale, staring at the ground as if he had done something wrong. John's heart was racing out of control, something that was becoming a bit of a habit when he was around this man, but he couldn't see what exactly was bothering him.
"Are you okay?" John asked lightly, giving Sherlock's hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Yes, I'm fine." Sherlock agreed, but his voice was shaking.
"Obviously not." John decided. "What's wrong."
"I don't want to get you in trouble." Sherlock said, once again thinking that John cared at all if his entire life came crashing down.
"I don't care if I get in trouble, and we're cautious, nothing is going to happen if we be careful." John assured.
"Have you ever heard of an affair that worked out?" Sherlock pointed out.
"Don't call it an affair Sherlock, it's more than that. Affair is such a horrible word, this isn't an affair this is following your destiny, it's love in its purest form. We're risking everything for each other, and even though I have to wear that terrible ring we're still out to find our one true love." John defended, stroking Sherlock's palm with his thumb gently.
"You're saying this isn't taking a toll on you?" Sherlock asked.
"Of course it is, but for all the right reasons. If you're not prepared to take the risks then that's fine, but I'm assuring you I am." John pointed out.
"I am too." Sherlock agreed. "I always have been."
"Then why aren't you taking them?" John asked. Sherlock answered him with a kiss, more forceful this time, standing and wrapping his long arms around John's neck. Now this was more like it.
"I am taking them." Sherlock whispered.