To Be Like That Of A God

That's Mr. Holmes To You

As soon as the food was placed before them Victor started to arrange himself a nice little snack, drizzling oil over top of his bread and placing pieces of cheese on top without even waiting for Sherlock to make the first move. Victor was undoubtedly hungry because they managed to finish the whole plate with Sherlock only eating a couple of pieces of bread and cheese, the rest was devoured by Victor before Sherlock had the time to choose what type of cheese he preferred. When the plate was emptied down to the last crumb Victor laid out a couple of coins on the table, both of them hoping that the money wouldn't be stolen when it was left unattended for such a short amount of time. Then they made their departure, reluctantly buttoning up their jackets while Sherlock replaced his hat on top of his head and his stick in his hand, tapping at the sidewalk as they continued down the very crowded main street. There were people all over the place doing all sorts of rather disgraceful tasks, some with little booths set up alongside of the street, selling vegetables and fruit and other sorts of homegrown items. Others were lingering at the store windows, looking glumly out of their grimy windows at the passerby, knowing that there was almost nothing they could do to lure them into their mediocre stores. Sherlock made sure not to touch any of them, skirting around to make sure his clothes went untainted by their dirty rags and nearly running into Victor every time. Victor didn't see too bothered by this of course, and so his lack of proximity proved to be the lesser of two evils when faced with brushing up against the filthy members of the lower classes. Sherlock's dedication to keeping himself clean was interrupted however when, in an attempt to sidestep a diseased looking creature; he stepped right into a puddle of murky water, filled with mud and the remnants of whatever rain they had received in the past couple of weeks. Sherlock growled in annoyance, nearly turning back around to shout profanities at the man who had made him step away before Victor pulled him along, insisting that they get to a shoe shiner who could restore the leather before the water did any permanent damage. Victor had a very clear head in situations like this, he was always able to take the very querulous Sherlock and drag him away to where he obviously ought to be, in this case, the shoe shiner. The only problem was that Victor insisted on dragging him away by the hand and had a very difficult time of letting go. And so they strode hand in hand together down the sidewalk, leaving one wet footprint between the two of them as they walked, Sherlock's walking stick tucked under his arm without any thought to how many people he was in danger of hitting when he swung it around to change its positioning. A shoe shiner wasn't all that difficult to find, with all of the shop keepers and the venders around town it was quite easy to spot a little wooden sign displaying shoe shining, tucked away in a store front window with only a little wooden chair and a man kneeling on the ground, busying himself with picking at the brush in his hand as he waited for his next costumer.
"Ah, here we are my Lord, a nice shoe shiner." Victor said proudly, as though he was some miracle worker for spotting a very obvious and very common occurrence along the sidewalk. Sherlock nodded, wincing in disgust as he felt the water beginning to soak into his sock and chill his foot. The man on the ground turned to look at his new costumers, attempting to greet them with a smile no matter how miserable he obviously was, when he gasped a little bit in recognition. He took Sherlock aback as well; in fact he almost turned and ran when he saw that the shoe shiner crouched on the sidewalk in an oily apron turned out to be none other than John Watson. 

 Victor POV: Victor immediately regretted the very idea of a shoe shiner when he saw Sherlock's stunned reaction, feeling his soft fingers fall stiffly from his own as he drifted ever so slightly away. It was that man, it was that despicable man from the party, Victor should've recognized him earlier, if not by his face than by the hideous air he radiated by his presence. And yet the man was smiling, and with a quick glance Victor saw that Sherlock was smiling as well, and before long he began to wonder why on earth they were smiling before he realized that there were words being exchanged, he just had chosen to tune them out.