the king's crown | j. moriarty (18+)

forty eight

ELIZABETH STOLE THE scent of Sebastian Moran's aftershave. She smelt the cedarwood and mixed spice and the crisp smell that lingered from the bleach he always used to scrub away blood from his skin. Elizabeth was also grinning. She fell to his side in his car and beamed at him.

"I need your help with something." Her face was illuminated by her newly found discovery. Her aura was glowing from the inside out. Sebastian couldn't fight it. She sat in the passenger seat half turned in his direction with a beautiful courage cloaking her. She sat with her chin slightly lifted, power passing through her veins and a sparkling grin being framed by the ruby of her lips. So, intoxicated by the company of Elizabeth Dallon, Sebastian couldn't help but fight off a smile and say 'Of course. Anything' because after just short of four years it was hard to deny she had finally found herself. He could see it. After everything - everything - she sat with such elegance and fulfilment. Elizabeth Dallon had survived the death of her only love, she had survived the lies the devil fed her when he went missing for months on end; she had survived the false relationship between him and Kitty Reiley by discovering it herself and even after all of that, she was still Elizabeth. Elizabeth, but a shell. Elizabeth, but broken. And recently, suddenly, she had risen beyond the timid girl he'd met four years ago. She had ascended the woman who had been untouched by Moriarty. Sebastian had seen it sometimes - a flicker. A flicker telling him that instead of Moriarty being her destroyer, ruining her, he could be her saviour. They could be equally as good for each other. Not just Moriarty's light in his darkness. And now, after all this time, Sebastian had been right. She was suddenly and completely unexpectedly godly. She was complete, and Sebastian felt blessed to be witness to it. Elizabeth smiled, leaning back in the passenger seat with a happy sigh.

"I need to make a visit first. Before we go see Jim?" Sebastion, for no reason, laughed as an agreement and he watched the bells of her enjoyment jangle from her throat too. Sebastian and Elizabeth got along inhumanly well and he had missed her company too much no matter how often he told himself to ignore it. He didn't want to smile around her too frequently in case Moriarty shot him between the eyes. He doubted he would, but this was Elizabeth Dallon and Sebastian Moran didn't come close to that.

Nevertheless, this wasn't the Elizabeth he always knew, this was the Elizabeth she had chosen to be. If she was evil or cruel or demented, she was wonderful. Regretfully, she fit into this world just right. His world. Finally.

"Where to Miss Dallon?" He was grinning and Elizabeth's shoulders lifted with her laughter.

"Actually, I'm not sure you're familiar with it, Mr Moran." She was smiling, basking in the light of the setting sun as it reflected through the window. She rolled her head to him with a possessed smile on her face. Leaning against the headrest she said, "Appledore, please."

♔

When she arrived back at Jim's side, she opened the door singing to herself. A nursery rhyme, she was sure. Elizabeth walked forward with light and bouncy steps until she heard James' voice ring through the apartment and she froze. Elizabeth simultaneously hummed and shivered. She forgot Sebastian Moran had entered behind her.

"Tiger," Elizabeth heard as Jim entered the room, one loud step after another. Sebastian looked around; guilty. "Do you have a reason for coming in?" Elizabeth would have defended Sebastian give any other day, but she was drunk by the sound of James' voice. Moriarty was looking at Elizabeth, blinded by her, and he was taken over by a blackness he couldn't fill with anything but Elizabeth and Elizabeth alone. "Have you finished?" Sebastian shrunk back a little, an apologetic smile on his lips.

"Ah..." he looked at Elizabeth with a sudden loss of character. Even Moriarty frightened him sometimes, Elizabeth realised. He frightened everybody, given the chance. Elizabeth hummed again, exhaling shakily. "No."