spirit cold ➙ writings

the boy in the blue scarf.

Thrill of the Chase!

SUMMARY; John Watson ends up stuck taking the dreaded night shifts at a local cafe in order to afford his pricy medical textbooks. It is generally a quiet ordeal, and he finds himself using the silent nights to study for his upcoming exams. But all of his peacefulness shatters when a dashing boy with a blue scarf and midnight curls begins making a regular appearance in the last few hours that the cafe is open. While John realizes that he should resent the boy for staying until the doors close, he finds himself feeling enamored by the beautiful student instead. Mild obsession ensues. 

PROMPT; Probably some coffee shop plot, but as I started writing it in 2019, I no longer remember it.

PAIRING(S); Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Irene Adler/Mary Morstan.

TRIGGER WARNINGS; N/A.

NOTE(S); my unilock babies from FOUR YEARS AGO are finally done. i love them, your honor.

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Blue Scarf had been sitting there for three hours. Nearly John's entire shift.

It wasn't even a practical shift. Night shift in October. Hardly anyone came in, aside from the occasional drunken straggler attempting to sober up before returning to their wife and 2.5 children. Until tonight, when the devil apparently decided to test him.

John had prepared three orders of black coffees for Blue Scarf this evening. Including two sugars. Each time, he had smiled, emphasizing the ridiculous curl of his lips and the glittering of his blue-grey eyes, somehow making John feel as though he had been directly sliced into approximately a dozen times.

Not to mention his voice.

In other news, John was apparently a prepubescent girl now, because he had palpably felt his knees weaken each time Blue Scarf muttered his order, accompanied by a distracted thanks.

So yes, admittedly, John had worse experiences serving customers. He never would forget the elderly man who had inexplicably thought the coffee shop was an eye exam center, or the drunken secondary school girl who had vomited pink all over his shirt, causing Mary to howl with laughter for seven days whenever she saw him.

But it was nearing the end of his shift. In a coffee shop that was otherwise deserted.

Aside from Blue Scarf.

Seriously, couldn't he just go home already?

John had an exam tomorrow. A very important, very integral exam that he could not take while exhausted. Uni students were already perpetually tired; no need to heighten that to new extremes. While he was careful about it, John did sometimes manage to escape his shift a half hour early most nights, the shop and street eerily vacant aside from a few passing cabs that he could rarely afford to splurge on. Apparently not tonight.

Ten more minutes until closing.

John was gong to lose his mind.

Catching the movement from the corner of his eye, John watched as Blue Scarf's fingers — of course they were slender, of course they'd distracted John as his thoughts delved into something closer to anatomy than microbiology, which was what he should have been dwelling on for that exam — curled around his navy mug, a perfect match to the scarf wrapped firmly around his throat despite lingering here for so long.

He'd been staring on-and-off for awhile now. Not in a potentially concerning stalker manner. Just observing. It was impossible not to be drawn to Blue Scarf when there was no one else in the small shop, aside from the poor taste in decor his manager had chosen. He could only stand to look at tiny candles in oversized wooden lanterns for so long before his mind numbed.