Maintaining a Personal Life

Chapter Four

By now John easily recognized the signs for when to give Sherlock space, so when he saw them that morning he left the other man lost in his own head for the better part of the day. Whether Sherlock was just deep in contemplation about the case, or somehow pissed off about the man in the flat this morning was still unclear. Either way, John felt it was best to let him sort it out on his own.

It was late afternoon by the time Sherlock emerged from his mental retreat and dropped into his armchair opposite John's. "So."

"Yes?" John turned the page of the newspaper he was currently reading and didn't look up. He had a strong suspicion about what topic they were about to discuss, but resolved to feign ignorance until the last possible moment.

"A man." Sherlock was nothing if not compulsively direct.

With a short sigh, John lifted his gaze from the paper to meet the other man's. Sherlock's expression was sharply intent, and he appeared to be studying John carefully over steepled fingers.

"Yes." John drew out the word to exaggerated effect.

"Is this a... thing, now?" Sherlock made an amorphous swooping gesture with one hand, and even after all this time John never did really understand what half of the gestures those slender hands made when Sherlock was speaking were supposed to mean.

"Not that it's any of your business," John replied with his voice overly casual, and he paused before adding, "but yes."

"I see." Sherlock paused as well, resting his still steepled fingertips on his chin. "So you're, in fact..."

"Still not gay." John cleared his throat, and he could see the wheels turning in Sherlock's brain as a longer silence stretched out between them. John shifted slightly in his chair before feeling compelled to add, "There are plenty of stops on the line between Gay and Straight, it so happens."

"I'm aware." One of Sherlock's eyebrows twitched upward slightly, and John could feel the weight of Sherlock's entire focus settled squarely upon him. It should have been uncomfortable, but John was actually still a bit flattered every time he managed to find himself on the centre stage of this brilliant man's attention.

"Good." John glanced back down to the paper in his lap, picking it up before he reconsidered and set it aside on the nearby table. Now was as good a time as any to finally get to the bottom of something he'd wondered about since they first met. Surely after everything they'd been through together, there was nothing off limits between them now. "So. Are you—"

"Yes." Sherlock's reply was immediate, and it lifted John's eyebrows as his gaze shot back to Sherlock's face.

"You don't even know what I was going to ask," John said, torn between surprise and mild amusement.

"You've wanted to ask me properly since the day we met," Sherlock replied shrewdly, and really John should have known better than to be shocked by this in the slightest. "Frankly I'm surprised it took you this long."

"Now hang on, I did try—" John's protest was effectively cut off by one of Sherlock's elegantly raised eyebrows.

"Asking if I've got a boyfriend isn't the same as asking if I'm homosexual."

"It's implied!"

"If you say so." Sherlock looked fairly smug as he settled back in his chair with one leg crossed over the other, his hands draping over either of the chair's arms as though he were presiding over a throne.

"It is." John scowled for a moment before shrugging off his annoyance in favour of selecting for patience. This was a rare opportunity for clarity, and he didn't want to spoil it. "But just so we're clear," John said, levelling a direct look at Sherlock. "You're gay. You like men."