He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

A Daffodil and The Hunch Back Of Notre Dame

    Greg ran him through all the basics of running a cash register, all the do's and don'ts of customer service, and a brief over view of the store all in less than five minutes. That was because he was basically talking without taking a breath and without taking questions, so John was just left standing there with a blank look, not absorbing anything Greg was throwing at him.
"Got it?" Greg asked with a smile, and John blinked for a moment, his mouth hanging open in confusion.
"Um...sure, ya...no." John admitted with a sigh.
"Nah, you'll do fine, it's so easy I'm sure anyone can do it." Greg assured, leaning against the cash register and pressing the open button, causing the tray of money to come shooting out into his leg with a ding. Sure, anyone. It took a bit of time for the first costumers to start coming in, and it was all rather slow until lunch time. John did his best to treat the costumers well all while keeping them moving and trying not to fail miserably at his new job. Greg's job was to apparently criticize John for every wrong move he made, and unlike John, Greg was excellent at his job. The lunch rush was a bit chaotic, everyone was rushing in to buy those weird to go meals, middle aged mothers with spinach salads, business men with coffee and hoagies, little kids released from kindergarten with cookies and juice boxes. Some of the people John recognized from around town (one man he recognized from the sushi restaurant, so he just kept his head down), others he had never seen before. But he tried to make a good impression, he tried to appear likeable.
"You're doing great John, very friendly." Greg decided with a little smile, swirling around on a swivel chair in an unoccupied checkout aisle.
"Thanks, I'm trying." John agreed thankfully, his stomach grumbling uncomfortably. He could really go for a hoagie right now. "Hey, when are we allowed to eat?" he wondered.
"When the boss tells us to, when we know there's not too many customers milling around." Greg shrugged, as if this should be common knowledge.
"Oh, alright." John sighed. "I hadn't even eaten breakfast, I was so worked up about being late it totally slipped my mind."
"That's unfortunate. I mean, you can buy yourself a candy bar or something, we're having a sale I think." Greg shrugged. John sighed, shaking his head. As much as he would love to eat some candy right now there was probably a healthier alternative.
"Ya well, I'll live." John sighed; leaning against the little cubicle he was standing in and sighing heavily.
"I hate working." John decided, the only logical sentence he could make.
"Oh come on mate, this is only your first day, it should be fun filled and exciting. You shouldn't hate it on only the first day." Greg insisted.
"Ya well, it sucks." John decided. "I was a doctor you know, I've got a medical thingy."
"Then why don't you work at a hospital?" Greg wondered.
"I tried, but they were filled or something, they told me that there was a positon open but they turned out to be lying hags. They thought their doctor was dead but found out he wasn't just in time for me to fill out my application and try to apply. So I'm working at a bloody grocery store." John sighed, tapping his fingers impatiently against the cash register.
"Oh well, I mean, you did your best. This is a fair paying job once you move up in the ranks, look at me, I'm doing pretty well and all I do is train the new people." Greg said proudly, doing a swirl in the spinny chair to prove himself.
"Ya well, not all of us can be that privileged." John muttered with a sigh.
"Come on John don't be like that, you may hate your job but I don't have a girlfriend. I don't even have a boyfriend, and you've got Sherlock Holmes, the world's most beautiful gardener." Greg pointed out. John smiled to himself; of course any thought of Sherlock could make his day a little bit brighter.
"Ya, I guess I do, don't I? He is pretty darn beautiful." John agreed.
"Ya, so no self-pity here Joh, think about Sherlock." Greg suggested.
"We kissed for the first time last night." John said proudly, and Greg just smiled widely, a reaction not unlike Molly's.
"You're kidding!" he cried out, maybe a bit too loudly because all the other cashiers turned to look at them. Honestly John had no idea why he told Greg that, maybe it was just because he was so proud of it and had very limited people to tell.
"I'm not, we kissed and it was beautiful." John assured, and Greg just awed him for a moment.
"Romeo huh? I heard he's never had a relationship, not ever." Greg pointed out.
"It's true, I'm his first anything." John said with a smile. Greg's face lit up; as if that was the most amazing thing he had ever heard.
"Wow, that's actually pretty encouraging. A guy like that, and he hasn't even had a boyfriend for his entire life. Makes me feel a lot better about being single." Greg decided.
"Maybe you should get a better job." John suggested. Greg just laughed, shaking his head at John's daring.
"Ya, maybe I should." He agreed. The rest of the day was extremely boring, whatever energy Greg had in the morning had long since faded away, and soon he was nodding off in his swivel chair, his head leaning against the checkout counter. John did his best to make sure every costumer that came up to him was well taken care of, but to be honest he was going a lot slower than he would like. He just didn't have the rhythm down I guess, because by the time his line finally died down it was just about time for his shift to end. When five o'clock rolled around John grabbed his coat, prodding Greg in the side for him to wake up. Greg woke with a start, yelping in surprise at being woken so suddenly.
"Yes, what, John?" he muttered, rubbing his eyes and looking around in shock. There were still costumers mingling around, but John's light was off and his aisle was closed.
"It's time to leave, at least for me. You can go get your job done now, instead of 'watching over me'." John said with a little laugh.
"Hey, training the new recruits is tiring; I was just resting my eyes a little bit. What time do you get off, two, three?" Greg asked, looking around for a clock somewhere.
"Greg it's five o'clock." John pointed out.
"Oh...it is, isn't it...wait, five o'clock!" Greg exclaimed, getting up from his chair with a mad sort of look in his eyes.
"What's so important about five o'clock?" John wondered, pulling on his coat in confusion.
"Dang it, the game starts at six; I've got to get out of here soon!" Greg insisted, rolling the chair back to where he found it and fixing his hair, which was sticking up in all sorts of odd directions. John just laughed, he didn't know Greg very well but he could already tell that this was a very Greg thing to do.
"It's alright Greg, we can leave together." John offered.
"Ya, ya I guess so." Greg agreed. They walked together to the manager's office, knocking lightly on the door. John didn't know if there was some sort of system they used for checking in and out, but it seemed as though Greg was just going to pop in to say goodbye. The door opened and the manager stood there scowling at them, his greasy comb over glistening in the office light.
"Lestrade, Watson?" he muttered, looking bored already.
"We're clocking out boss, shift's over." Greg shrugged, giving a little wave. The manager watched them suspiciously, as if there was something else to their evil plan of leaving the store.
"Alright then." He decided, no goodbye, or have a nice night, just alright then. John sighed; kind of disappointed his boss had as many emotions as his cash register.
"Have a nice night!" John called, trying to see if he'd get any response back. There was only a lowly grunt, and the door slammed in their faces.
"Well that was...friendly." John muttered. Greg just laughed, starting his walk towards the front doors.
"That was beyond friendly for him, usually I don't get a single word out of him." Greg insisted.
"Oh that's great, seems like a great guy to work for." John groaned.
"He's not bad; he usually keeps to himself and doesn't bother with punishment." Greg decided.
"Not that you'd deserve any." John added, just to be safe.
"Oh no, definitely not. I'm employee of the month three times in a row." Greg assured with a sarcastic laugh. John just nodded, not seeing Greg as the responsible type. In fact, he didn't seem like the type to even get a job in the first place. Then again, John wasn't going to complain. He was a good work buddy, and it seemed like in that desolate wasteland of groceries, he was going to need a friend. Not ten minutes later John pulled into his driveway, seeing that the house was dark. That was a bit odd; even though it was getting a bit later he thought that Hamish should at least be home. John sighed, shaking his head in idiocy and remembering that Hamish wouldn't be home, he'd be at Mrs. Hudson's. So John got out of his car, locking the doors and pocketing his keys, marching across the street to where Mrs. Hudson's house was. His heart skipped a beat when he saw that Mrs. Hudson wasn't alone, there was a white truck parked in the driveway, the truck of the one and only Sherlock Holmes. Well this meeting was going to be interesting. John walked up to the front door and knocked, taking a deep breath and trying to look like a mature adult. He knew that he was going to throw in some fun facts about the day, and he made sure that he had the company logo very clearly on the front of his shirt. But when the door opened it wasn't Mrs. Hudson or Hamish, it was Sherlock, of course. Why wouldn't it be Sherlock in a time like this?
"Mr. Watson, hi!" he said quickly, ducking behind the door for a moment to run his hand through his curls. Thankfully he didn't hide very well, and John got to witness the entire beautiful event. Of course John's brain didn't feel like thinking, or talking, in fact it didn't seem to want to do anything except stare blankly at the man, completely entranced by his beauty.
"I thought you called me John now?" John wondered, a weak conversation starter to be honest.
"I call you whatever I want to John, whatever first comes to mind." Sherlock shrugged.
"Alright, but no sappy couple talk, like baby or honey or something stupid like that." John insisted. Sherlock just put his heads up in surrender, nodding furiously.
"No, god no, never that's just disgusting." Sherlock assured. "You're more like my little daffodil." John just laughed, nodding along with Sherlock's ramblings.
"A daffodil, huh. I like that, I think." He muttered a bit apprehensively.
"Because they're a beautiful golden flower, and you're a beautiful man with golden hair." Sherlock pointed out, as if John needed an explanation.
"Ya, ya I got that." John assured. Sherlock just nodded, looking a bit awkward as he watched John in the doorway.
"Well, I know it's not my house, but would you like to come in?" he wondered, holding the door open wider in invitation.
"Ya, oh yes please." John agreed, blinking a couple of times in recognition before stepping into the threshold.
"Mrs. Hudson and Hamish are downstairs, making some sort of arts and crafts project, I'm not quite sure." Sherlock admitted.
"Then what are you doing here? It's a bit too late for gardening." John pointed out.
"Well I didn't really want to go home yet, it's um...a bit loud over there. The neighbor's aren't nearly as calm as they are here." Sherlock admitted in a small voice, as if not wanting John to know how awful his living arrangements currently were.
"That's alright; it's good to see you again, after last night. It's um..." John just laughed, not sure what to say. He knew that they were a bit close and he absentmindedly took a step back, getting just a little bit more personal space even if he didn't want any. "Ya it's been good." He agreed, the only thing he could think to say now. Sherlock nodded in agreement, looking like an awkward teenaged boy going to his first dance or something. There was a nervous curiosity in his eyes, as if he were holding back on feelings he didn't want to suppress.
"For me as well." Sherlock agreed, looking up at John with timid eyes. Oh the temptation to go up and just kiss him right now, this was almost too much for John to bear.
"You're um...you're not totally weirded out by me yet?" John wondered. Sherlock just laughed, shaking his head while his cheeks got progressively redder.
"By you? No of course not, I thought you were going to be the one to ignore me for the rest of your life. After that whole sprinkler incident, I thought you'd never want to see me again." Sherlock admitted.
"The...the sprinklers were fine. It was all fine, you were...fine." John assured, feeling a bit awkward even as he said it. Wasn't a sentence you really said every day. Sherlock looked a bit more hopeful, maybe more confident as he heard that.
"I was?" he muttered, sounding a bit unbelieving.
"Ya, I mean...as far as those um, as far as kissing goes, you were actually quite good." John admitted, feeling his cheeks glowing red hot. Sherlock blinked a little bit, and John could feel his stomach twisting nervously, he didn't want this to get anymore awkward than it already was. It took one wrong thing and one mistaken word for Sherlock to barge out of there in tears, and John didn't want that to happen. But instead Sherlock looked a bit awed, staring at John as if sure his mouth were malfunctioning.
"I had never...never kissed a man before. Never kissed anyone before, actually. I'm surprised it went alright, I assumed that you'd, well...not want to see me after that." Sherlock admitted, as if that had really been on his mind lately.
"You think that just because you had a bad kiss I would leave you? It wasn't a bad kiss, by the way, it was magical, but that's not the point. You think the only reason I'm going out with you is for the quality of love I get in return? You don't think I love you because of who you are?" John wondered.
"Well, yes I mean, you've told me that many times, I just kind of, I'm cautious John, very cautious. This is my first relationship and I don't want to mess it up. I don't want to lose you because of an idiotic mistake I may have made." Sherlock admitted.
"Don't worry Sherlock; you have absolutely nothing to worry about!" John assured, taking a step closer just to try to comfort Sherlock from afar. "I have no intentions of ending this relationship at all, the thought hasn't even crossed my mind."
"Nor mine, of course not, I just don't want you to leave me. You're the first person that I've ever fallen in love with and I just, well, I want to make it last." Sherlock admitted.
"Yes, yes of course Sherlock, there's nothing I want more in this world than to be with you, trust me when I say that." John assured. Sherlock exhaled a breath it seemed he had been holding in for a while, staring at John with glistening kaleidoscope eyes, irises so beautiful and complex it was hard not to get hopelessly lost in them.
"We're alright?" Sherlock muttered nervously.
"We've always been alright, come here." John agreed, holding out his hands for a hug. Sherlock walked over with a bit of an awkward smile, leaning over just enough so that he could wrap his arms around John's shoulders.
"This height difference is going to be a problem." Sherlock decided after a moment of very awkward embrace.
"Ya, you can't be the hunch back of Notre Dame every time we hug each other." John agreed.
"Let's switch, you hug me." Sherlock decided, straightening up and holding out his arms for a hug.
"What, this is tactical now?" John wondered. Sherlock nodded, his smile not wavering one bit.
"Yes of course, we need to perfect this if we're going to be together for a long while." Sherlock agreed.
"Alright, but only because I want a long while to turn into forever." John decided, and with that he stood up on his tiptoes and wrapped his arms around Sherlock's neck. He had to admit, it felt a lot more natural, Sherlock's arms wrapped around his chest and held him close, their hearts beating as one. John felt so comfortable being so close to this man, he even closed his eyes and let the steady rhythm of Sherlock's breathing take him into a beautiful utopia, a world where it was only he and Sherlock, together and in love. This precious moment of closeness was shattered, however, when he heard the sound of quick footsteps racing up the stairs. Sherlock immediately let go, stumbling away from John just in time for Hamish to run into the hallway, followed closely by a very energetic Redbeard.