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[whatofthewarts]

Irene Adler had many homes, and many more hiding places, but months after her death Sherlock was certain he'd found at least half those in the country. She had her many stolen jewels tucked away all over the apartment, and it took him the better part of the afternoon to dig them all out of their hidey holes. When he had them in his pockets, he went searching for someone else entirely.

Although they had their obvious differences, given their different environments, Sherlock found it was remarkably easy to track himself down.

"Making headway, I presume?"

Comments

[lostwithoutmyblogger]

"Moriarty? No. She was always too kept to cross him."

Callous, maybe, but.

"He wouldn't have cared, or she wouldn't have risked it. Watson's piece on your death was rather above his usual quality of work."

[whatofthewarts]

"Tragedy does spur one to new depths."

He dismisses the comment about his biography with that. He snatches the diamond back and tosses it between his hands like an apricot.

"How do you believe you've come to be here? Through chance, or through some malicious design?"

[lostwithoutmyblogger]

"An accident, though not precisely by chance. Wait a moment or two and you'll see one of the bees from last week come through."

Remarking cryptically, leaning back in his seat.

"She's dead, then?"

[whatofthewarts]

A moment or two. Well, for the sake of science, Holmes can spare that.

He lights his pipe.

"Dead is my theory. But since you seem so thoroughly convinced otherwise, and I am between cases, I am exploring other avenues."

[lostwithoutmyblogger]

"She likes bolt-holes near water, in my world. The sea shore amuses her."

Explaining, with a shrug.

"A constant stream of tourists. Anonymity."

[whatofthewarts]

He sets that bulky diamond down.

"I believe that this is a clue. If she suspected he would try to kill her, and as she is no fool I am certain she suspected it, she would have tried to make arrangements. ...How long did you say your bee would take?"

[lostwithoutmyblogger]

"Very little way to tell. It isn't an exact science as of yet."

Explaining, turning back to his notes.

"If I were you, I wouldn't bother looking. She'll surface if she wishes it, or remain a fugitive sex worker until then."

[whatofthewarts]

"Yours would, perhaps."

But Holmes's Irene was more attached to him than Sherlock's sounds.

"Or perhaps not. I wonder, do you really know any of the people around you back in your world? Or are they all so- detached. Distant. Your Watson doesn't write as often as mine; your Adler plies her trade through sex.

He turns to him, abruptly accusative. "Do you even have a dog?"

[lostwithoutmyblogger]

"Of course not. Annoying things."

He dismisses, back into the microscope, now that the gem is out of sight. He does take the time to correct, though;

"John isn't detached."

[whatofthewarts]

"You haven't met mine."

He sniffs, examining the contents of a beaker near Sherlock's arm.

"Yours sounds as clever as wallpaper paste next to the good doctor here."

[lostwithoutmyblogger]

"Get out of my house."

He tells him, icily. For a few seconds, things are very, very still.

A bee pops into existence a few inches in front of his face, blatantly out of nowhere.

[whatofthewarts]

Holmes has no intention of leaving, of course. And the fact he's getting a rise is all the more reason to stay.

But then there's a bee, and his eyebrows go up, and he reaches carefully for an empty jar to catch it in.

"Your visitor has arrived."

[lostwithoutmyblogger]

"Keep it in there, I need to see if it dies. There's a lid with air holes-"

Pointing.

[whatofthewarts]

"I see it."

Speaking carefully, since he's stalking the bee. He manages the catch it without incident, and he holds it up to the light, as Sherlock had done with the diamond.

[lostwithoutmyblogger]

It buzzes contentedly, bumbling about in the jar, and Sherlock leans back in his seat, finally permitting himself a smug grin.

[whatofthewarts]

"Hand me that magnifying lens."

Hand out for it. He does this to Watson all the time, with the same result each time: a snide remark.

[lostwithoutmyblogger]

Sherlock isn't even dignifying that with a glance. He's off in his own world in his papers, reading new pages of theory, scrawling experiment results and observations about the bee intently.

[whatofthewarts]

So Holmes gets it himself, examines the bee, hums to himself.

And then throws the magnifying glass like a knife onto those papers.

"It has returned missing certain aspects."

[lostwithoutmyblogger]

"Don't break that."

It's his only one. So he protests with a snap, looking up at him.

"You obviously have no interest in me or my problems or anything other than your dead prostitute, so get out of my house and stop bothering my things."

[whatofthewarts]

"And you have no interest in utilizing the resources around you, apart from the obvious. You lack the environmental conditioning to note all the necessary small details, and you are headed for disaster."

He rattles this off, rapid but calm, noting the arrogance in his counterpart. The sense of superiority Sherlock must feel, because he's from a more advanced point in time. He won't listen to a word Holmes says, not really.

So he grabs him by the throat, locks his ankle behind Sherlock's, and throws him over his hip.

"And she was not a prostitute."

[lostwithoutmyblogger]

"You're blinded by sentimentality. Feeling. She beat you because you care."

He accuses, on the way down, delivering a powerful kick and not quite managing to catch himself well, but keeping rolling.

[whatofthewarts]

Holmes manages to deflect with a vicious forearm block. He skids it along Sherlock's shin, to make it sting, make his toes go momentarily numb.

"You speak as one who doesn't feel. But you and I know better. If you are going to pretend to be superior, you shouldn't wear your own heart out on your sleeve."

[lostwithoutmyblogger]

He gasps, and scrambles up, albeit unsteady on that foot, now. He knows how to fight- just not this well.

"And yet I've never lost."

[whatofthewarts]

"You don't seem to be winning in one regard here."

He waits for Sherlock to move, because Holmes may be more guided by emotion than his modern self, but he's not a brute. And he's not angry enough to turn this into a street fight.

[lostwithoutmyblogger]

"Yes, congratulations, you're an ape. How remarkable, how worthwhile."

Sneering, now with his hands up between them. Been years since he boxed.

"You truly are mediocre."