Texting Sherlock

Soulmates

Individual Chapter

A/N: This is going to be one of those soulmate chapters where you can't see color until you meet your soulmate.

They've always said that you were born into a gray world. They also said that that world exploded into color when you made eye contact with your soulmate.

John Watson had always thought that his world would color-ify (that's the term the textbooks used at least) by his twenties or at least before 25. He never expected to be in his late thirties and still be seeing everything in grayscale. It made him queasy to see his friends and family start seeing colors for the first time. He had given up after he came back from the war, deciding to face the fact that he may never meet his soulmate. 

On the other hand, Sherlock Holmes had always thought that he didn't have a soulmate. A sociopath like him wasn't cut out for a committed relationship. He never paid any attention to his grayscale world, except for the times that it had interfered with his cases. 

Imagine the shock for the two men when they saw color for the first time. 

John was walking through a park, cane in his right hand when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"John?" the voice said, "John Watson?"

John turned, heading back towards the man that was sitting on a bench and sipping a coffee, "Mike?"

"Yeah! Mike Stamford!"

They got to talking and John involuntarily mentioned that he was looking for a flatmate to share rent with. A proposition to which Mike scoffed and said that he knew just the person.

They had continued talking on the way to St. Barts where, according to Mike, John's potential new flatmate was working. 

They'd gone up to the third floor before walking into a secluded lab. John was always nervous before meeting new people because what if... what if this time it was the one? He shuffled into the lab carefully, keeping his head down, his heart rate high. 

He looks up to find a tall man with messy black curls sitting at one of the lab tables. He prepares for color.

And?

And?

Nothing...

Nothing happens. John sighs. He looks around at all the chemistry equipment while the man at the counter asks Mike for his cellphone and Mike replies that he left it in his coat pocket.

"Er... Here, use mine" John says, fishing his own out from his back pocket. He extends his hand towards the taller man and waits while he walks over. 

Just as the curly haired man was about to take the phone from John's hand, they made eye contact. 

BAM.

Flashes of color. Color springing into John's life. Color springing into Sherlock's life. 

The blue stripes of John's shirt.

The pink liquid in the jar.

The tan jacket Mike is wearing.

The green jacket John has on.

The red brimming in one of the buttonholes of Sherlock's jacket.

The light blue of the sky.

Color. 

Sherlock stands frozen in place, hand still outstretched for the phone that was now on the floor because John had dropped it while stumbling back towards the wall to steady himself.

He felt his world spinning, turning, falling into place. What he had hoped for, for such a long time, was finally coming true. He pushed back against the wall. 

Sherlock didn't even blink once. This wasn't supposed to happen. He couldn't have a soulmate, he was a sociopath... Yet, here he was, seeing color for the first time and his (apparent) soulmate was standing (trying to stand) right across from him, surrounded by the same amount of surprise (if not more).

They were so engrossed that they didn't even notice how Mike slowly left the room and pulled the door shut, he knew what was happening.

Sherlock broke the silence first.

"Are you seeing it too?"

"Seeing color?" John addressed the elephant in the room, "If that's what you're asking about, then yes".

"I play the violin" Sherlock straightened up, lowering his arm to his side, "Just letting you know".

John shook his head, confused, "Why?" 

"Well, we're soulmates, I suspect we'll be moving in together because you need a flatmate anyways. Just returned from Afganistan (or Iran), probably sent home with an injury, and army pensions are ridiculously small nowadays. Now that we've found out we're soulmates, I would suspect it would be natural for us to move in together" Sherlock smiled at John. 

"John Watson" he stuck out his hand.

Sherlock shook it, "Unfortunately, I have to run, I have a fresh corpse waiting in the mortuary". He walked over to the coat hanger, marveling at the detailing on his (new? no) jacket. He shrugged it onto his shoulders, his eyes quickly examining all of the colors in the room. He nodded at John and walked out of the lab. 

John stood there dumbfounded before he realized that he didn't even know the man's name. As if reading his mind, Sherlock popped back into the room.

"The name is Sherlock Holmes and the address is 221B Baker Street" and he was gone again.

That night, after packing most of his stuff into a couple of boxes, John fell asleep with a smile on his face. 

Finally, the puzzle pieces were falling into place for both Sherlock and John.

[I <3 HEARING FROM YOU]
Would you like to live in a world like that? A world where you would only see color when you meet your soulmate?
-It's an interesting idea to live about, but can you imagine finding one person out of 7 billion? It would be next to impossible. Unless I was guaranteed to find my soulmate before like 40 years of age, then I wouldn't want to live in a world like that.