There Is Nothing Wrong With Me

Loving In The Light of Captain Alien Crusher

"Do you want to get dried off?" Sherlock suggested softly, taking the role of mother it would seem. John nodded thankfully, pulling himself to his feet and walking along the shallow side of the stream to where Sherlock sat. He held out one of his hands, for support it would seem, but it meant more than that. It was sort of a confirmation, a silent pledge of mutual trust, and he forced a sort of smile onto his face as well. Sherlock smiled back, and he ever so carefully took John's hand and got shakily to his feet, the two of them walking around the pool and over the slippery rocks until they could finally clamber onto the muddy banks once more. Sherlock had taken once more to shivering violently, as soon as the cold wind started to blow across his wet shirt his skin immediately erupted into goosebumps, and he was very thankful that his trench coat sat nice and dry waiting for him in the grass.
"You're shivering." John commented softly, pulling Sherlock closer and walking him very quickly over to where the trench coat lie, far enough away from the edge of the water so that the wind didn't blow the cold mist into their faces while they tried to dry off. In a very motherly act John collected the trench coat from the ground and draped it across Sherlock's shoulders, letting the boy snuggle thankfully into its depths. The trench coat was very good at not only containing heat but keeping unwanted chills out, and yet despite the undeniable warmth from inside his coat Sherlock couldn't stand to see John looking so cold. He wearing nothing but a tee shirt, not thoroughly soaked through with the cold water, and he stood with his bare feet on the cold grey rocks, shivering from head to toe so that his clacking teeth joined in with the chorus of nightly bugs singing their songs.
"Want to share?" Sherlock wondered nervously, doubting that John would want to be in such close proximity to him after what he had done. However John nodded thankfully, waddling up and carefully trying to get the trench coat over himself as well. It was a horrible effort, obviously a single coat couldn't cover too boys unless they tried to stand face to face, however as impractical yet tempting as that idea was, they both knew it wouldn't be at all effective if they wanted to stay warm. Sherlock knew that John was going to insist that he had suddenly warmed up, he always did try to be the man in this relationship, and yet he certainly wasn't going to let that poor boy freeze.
"Here, how about we use it as a blanket?" Sherlock suggested, walking over to a patch of soft, tufty grass and sitting down determinedly on it.
"I'll fall asleep, I guarantee it." John warned, however Sherlock just smiled, patting the ground next to him in invitation. They were going about warming up all wrong of course, it was impossible to stay warm when their shirts were soaking wet and yet the two of them were much too modest after the incident in the stream, and it would seem that they would rather freeze properly dressed than warm up shirtless. And so John sat next to Sherlock with a little bit of a reluctant smile on his face, as though he knew this was going to be useless and yet he was willing to humor Sherlock just for the sake of seeing a satisfied smile on the other boy's face. The two of them lay down shoulder to shoulder, and Sherlock very carefully draped the trench coat over top of them like something of a heavy blanket. Sherlock envied John very much at the moment, because since he stood so close to the ground his legs weren't nearly as long, and so his bare feet were just able to tuck underneath the very edge of the fabric. Sherlock's feet hung out a good inch or so, and his poor toes looked rather blue from this angle in the moonlight. However uncomfortable this situation was Sherlock couldn't deny that it was working, he was starting to feel a little bit of warmth radiating off of his skin and off of the fabric and every bit helped.
"Very innovative." John decided with a little bit of a smile, tilting his head so that he could see Sherlock as he lay in the dirt.
"Yes well, what else could we do?" Sherlock wondered, keeping his eyes fixed on the stars that twinkled above them in the breaks of the tree line.
"Can you name any stars?" John asked after a moment of silence, obviously focusing his own attention on the lights that shined from universes away. Sherlock just laughed, shaking his head doubtfully.
"On the right night I can find the big dipper, but other than that it's safe to say I'm clueless." Sherlock admitted. He heard John reposition next to him, as if trying to get a better view of the stars all while pulling the trench coat even farther up towards their chins. Now his toes stuck out as well, and part of Sherlock was happy to see that he would have to suffer the same pain. The other part of Sherlock, the less sociopathic side, wanted to insist on him pulling the coat back down so that he didn't lose any toes to frost bite.
"Well the North Star should be out there somewhere." John decided, craning his neck as if he suspected the North Star was hiding behind one of the meager leaves that was hanging in their way.
"Yes I imagine it is." Sherlock agreed with laugh, and John simply shushed him in playful annoyance.
"And there's Orion's belt, see it? Those three stars all lined up?" John wondered, pointing directly above him and yet honestly his finger could be pointing at any three stars in the sky. Sherlock had no idea what to look for, astronomy was never his strong point, and yet he nodded right along with John, as if trying to encourage him to go on.
"And what is Orion then?" Sherlock asked. John shrugged, trying to look around the belt to see the stars that were supposed to make up some sort of figure.
"I think he's a warrior, or a wolf. Honestly I don't know, these stupid star figures are so vague that he could be a microwave for all I know." John grumbled, and Sherlock just laughed a little bit. Laughing hurt because it would seem he was laying on top of a rock that was just concealed in the earth enough to hide from his sight, however every time his lungs inflated or his spine moved in the right way he could feel it against his back.
"I'm more of a cloud watcher than a star gazer." Sherlock admitted with a shrug.
"No you're not." John insisted with grin, and Sherlock nodded again.
"Alright fine, even though my head is always in the cloud's you're right, I'm not usually looking at them. Then again I think I look up more in the daytime than in the nighttime, so there is some truth to my lie." Sherlock defended flatly. John nodded doubtfully, cuddling ever so closer so that their shoulders were nearly overlapping. Sherlock was happy that he was suddenly able to move closer or at least that he had built up the confidence and trust that was necessary to move closer.
"You know that you can buy a star?" John asked, watching the night sky once more. Sherlock knew that they were both trying to ignore that they could feel the other's breathing increase as the distance between them shrunk, and it was very probable that the distance between them would shrink some more.
"That sounds a bit unethical to me, but please go on." Sherlock insisted curiously. John nodded, taking a moment to try to remember all that he had heard.
"Well you just go through some sort of program I suppose, something outer space oriented, and you pick a star in the sky that hasn't been named and all of that, and you can buy it and name it and show it off to all your friends, I don't even think it's that expensive." John admitted with a shrug.
"Do you have any interest in buying a star for yourself?" Sherlock asked with polite curiosity, and yet already John's boring outer space talk was beginning to put him to sleep. This was a horrible place to fall asleep of course, and judging on how his parents were most certainly expecting him to be in bed in the morning he would be in all sorts of trouble if he did in fact give his eyes a little bit of a break, however the ground had suddenly become so soft, and the jacket so warm...
"I'd love a star, it would be a good conversational topic you know? We could just be laying here and I'd be all like, ya I own that star right there, and you'd be like wow, you're so cool John." John said with a laugh, and once more Sherlock laughed enough to suspect a bruise on his back before the night was through. He snuggled closer, looping his arm around John's as something of an anchor and letting his head lean against John's shoulder, still a little bit damp from the water but cozy enough for this proximity.
"And what might you name that star?" Sherlock wondered curiously. John just laughed, shrugging his shoulders (and hitting his shoulder against Sherlock's forehead before apologizing like a thousand times).
"Do you want the real answer, or the cheesy answer?" John asked with a little smile, and Sherlock sighed, closing his eyes for a moment and listening to John's heartbeat through the faint vibrations in his skin.
"Cheesy first." Sherlock decided, although he was quite sure he knew what was going to follow this silence.
"Then I'd name it Sherlock." John admitted with a smile. Sherlock laughed a little bit more, feeling John's arm wrap around his shoulder protectively. His eyes were still drooping sleepily, and with every word uttered his mouth simply wanted to stay closed, the goal here was to try to keep John talking so that he didn't have to say a word.
"And the real?" Sherlock asked carelessly.
"Oh I don't know, something obnoxiously spacy. Like...Captain Alien Crusher, or something lame like that." John decided with all seriousness. Sherlock couldn't help but laugh, breathing softly so that he knew John could feel his breaths on his arm. Maybe that would serve as some sort of hint that he was getting tired and that he wanted to just fall asleep for a moment before they had to make their exit.
"You're so confusing you know?" Sherlock mumbled sleepily, his eyelids now refusing to open as the ground started to sink below him so comfortably.
"And why is that?" John wondered with a small little laugh.
"Because you seem so heterosexual." Sherlock muttered, pressing the sleepiest of kisses to John's shoulder as if trying to insist that he stay gay. John could do nothing but laugh in an almost playful state of confusion, as if Sherlock's words did nothing more than confuse him.
"Well I mean, you're kind of a guy so I find one flaw in your theory." John defended with a laugh. Sherlock just shook his head carelessly, humming a single word although he wasn't quite sure what it was supposed to be.
"Sleepy?" John wondered softly. Sherlock hummed again in agreement, happy that John was finally able to detect his exhaustion.
"Sleep is probably a bad idea Sherlock, we both have places we need to be." John warned, however he let his head fall more stably into the grass, craning his neck so that he could kiss the top of Sherlock's head softly. Sherlock smiled yet he still didn't open his eyes, cuddling against John and his warmth while his consciousness slowly started to fade. He thought he heard John mutter something, a silent goodnight or maybe a soft love confession, and yet his words just faded into nothingness as sleep started to take over, and Sherlock fell soundly asleep in this moonlight riverside paradise, interlocked with the boy who seemed to be too good to be true.