Chapter Text
“Where is it?” Sherlock asks sharply.
John looks up from his newspaper. “Where is what?”
“The ring. Mary’s ring. Where is it?”
John smiles and folds the newspaper.
“I can’t believe it took you four days to notice it was missing. You’re supposed to be the master of observation.”
“Where is it?” Sherlock insists. There is a panicky feeling rising in his chest. He knows it’s stupid, he knows it, but it’s still there.
“Oh, it has a new owner now,” John says nonchalantly. “A very beautiful young woman named Chloe. The wedding will probably be in April.”
Sherlock stares and he can feel colour drain from his face.
John tilts his head and rolls his eyes.
“Sherlock, come on! What are you thinking? I sold it!”
Sherlock feels like an idiot. Of course John didn’t just go and propose to a random woman. He is with Sherlock now and he likes it - it should be impossible, but somehow it isn’t. The way Sherlock’s judgement gets clouded when it comes to John is absolutely unacceptable.
John smiles and stands up.
“By the way, do you know what I did with the money? I bought you a present.”
“It’s not my birthday,” Sherlock tells him, but he knows he sounds excited. He just likes getting presents from John, because it means John has been thinking of him.
“I know that, but I want to give you something anyway.”
He goes to the bookshelf, pulls out a few books and then he takes out a black leather case that was hidden behind them.
“Here,” he says with a shy smile, and hands the case to Sherlock.
Sherlock weighs it in his hand. It’s too big and too heavy to contain jewellery. He opens it.
There is an antique-looking magnifying glass with a silver handle inside.
“I know it’s not very practical,” John says hesitantly. “It’s mostly just decorative, but I know you don’t care for jewellery, and this seemed more fitting, so...”
Sherlock stares at the magnifying glass, because there is an engraving on the handle. The engraving says, With love, J.W.
He lifts his eyes to find John looking at him expectantly.
“Do you like it?” he asks rather charmingly.
Sherlock kisses him. He can feel John smile against his mouth, and then he wraps his arms around Sherlock’s neck and they kiss languidly for a while. John’s lips are soft and yielding under his and his body warm, and Sherlock knows that there is nothing in the world that compares to kissing John Watson, who’s just let him know he loves him.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” John breathes when they break apart.
“A definite yes,” Sherlock agrees and nuzzles the top of John’s head.
John moves his arms to Sherlock’s waist, setting his head against Sherlock’s shoulder and sighing contentedly. Sherlock carefully balances the case on top of a pile of books so he can have his hands free to hold John. He quite likes the way John’s head fits right under his chin.
“I met Mary this morning,” John says, and Sherlock forces himself not to tense.
“Oh.”
“Hmm. Quite by accident, at the supermarket. She said that she and that boyfriend of hers broke up a month ago. Apparently he turned out to be a jerk, and now she regrets that she left me.” He presses himself closer against Sherlock. “I told her that I didn’t regret it at all.”
“You don’t?”
“I used to, of course, but I don’t anymore,” John says, pulling away slightly to look Sherlock in the eye. “I’m happy now, and I love you.”
It’s just words, but they make warmth burst deep inside Sherlock’s chest and spread to every cell of his body until he’s tingling with joy, and he thinks that he’s quite probably the luckiest man in the world.
“I love you too,” he breathes. It’s the first time he’s said it directly and it feels wonderful. “And now I want to take you to bed and examine every inch of your body with that magnifying glass.”
“Do you now?” John smirks. “Well, if you insist, I think I might be persuaded.”
Later, when they lie in bed, bodies entwined, warm and satisfied and in love, Sherlock thinks that he indeed doesn’t like wearing jewellery and that he’s expressed his negative views on matrimony several times, but he finds himself quite willing to reconsider many things where John is concerned. He doesn’t think he would mind wearing John’s ring. No, he wouldn’t mind that at all. It’s too early to be thinking about such things, they’ve only been together for three months, a week and two days, and less than a year ago John was planning to marry someone else, but maybe, in half a year or so... he could ask John. Perhaps on the 28th of January, in the lab at Bart’s, where they first met - that could be rather romantic. John might say no, of course, but Sherlock has a feeling that it’s a little bit more likely that he would say yes. And it will be brilliant if he does.