The morning after...
John awoke disoriented, his brain taking a second to process that he was in Sherlock's room. For a moment, he couldn't quite remember why he was there until suddenly, the events from the night before came to him.
The look on Sherlock's face as John slowly entered him.
John sat up and rubbed at his eyes as the memory caused his face to heat up.
Sherlock reaching around and gripping John's hips as their bodies established a rhythm.
He slowly dragged himself out of Sherlock's bed and wrapped a sheet around his naked body. Last night... John would admit, it started off awkward and rigid, but there were these certain moments...
The sound of Sherlock's moans, muffled as he bit down into a pillow.
John forced his brain to focus on other matters as he stepped out into the living room, only to be greeted by Mrs. Hudson's startled face. She took a moment to compose herself and when she registered that she was staring at a nearly naked John emerging from Sherlock's room, a knowing smile set into her face.
John stuttered, trying to put together a convincing lie but coming up short under the pressure.
Mrs. Hudson tried to keep the edges of her mouth down, but failed as she placed the tray of morning tea she brought up for the boys down and briskly left the room. John stood frozen in shock as the door closed behind her. Her constant assumptions and theories were just confirmed. Angered, he strode over to where Sherlock stood prepared to rant, but paused when he seen what Sherlock was working on.
There, centered in the room was a cork board filled with different articles and images.
Fetishes, role playing, various unthinkable positions.
"What is all of this?"
"Research." Sherlock briskly answered, his eyes not leaving his work.
"It's pornagraphy is what it is. Did Mrs. Hudson see this on her way in?"
Sherlock shrugged nonchalantly as if he hadn't given it much thought. "I don't know John, I suppose so, the woman is very observant."
"Sherlock, I don't know about all of this." John stuttered, his eyes back on the board.
Sherlock's focus left his work and he turned to John, briskly gripping him by the shoulders while forcing their eyes to meet.
"John, we need to discuss this once and discuss this now. I need these kind of experiments." He gestured behind him towards the board, "in order to make this study work. Now, I believe that last night was a very successful copulation and that we should research further. But once we delve, I'm going to need a consistent partner. If that isn't you, I will find someone else. So I need to know that you are committed to this."
John paused, too lost in his own thoughts to see Sherlock's tells in the way his lip slightly quivered and shoulders squared, Sherlock was bluffing about finding another partner, he knew after the night him and John spent together that John was the only person he wanted to familiarize himself with in that way. If John chose to reject him, he would simply toss out the study among the others that he had lost interest in.
Unbeknownst to him was that John was thinking practically along the same lines. John had always felt an attraction to his flat mate which he himself could not understand and this had been the perfect excuse to explore those urges without Sherlock being any the wiser.
After last night-albeit awkward at moments- there was a longing that stirred within both of them that they had only just begun to explore.
"Don't worry Sherlock, I am completely committed to the work."
