Just A Game [Teenlock]

Chapter Twenty-Five: Rebuilding The Team

~

Even though Sherlock was the one to grab Jim and head here, Jim was the one to shove Sherlock into the storage cupboard. He didn't say a word, just pushed Sherlock in and pinned him to the wall. It was easy for Sherlock to see what headspace Jim was in.

The kisses were desperate. Like they were the last that Jim was ever going to get. It worried Sherlock. He didn't want Jim to go anywhere and this sure felt like a 'last time' moment. Sherlock's face was also being covered by Jim's tears.

Sherlock manages to break apart and holds Jim's face, his eyes meeting Jim's again. Jim's brown eyes, always so warm and so open when looking at Sherlock, were filled with tears, overflowing to the point the tears ran down his cheeks.

"Calm down" Sherlock says the words quietly, softly.

Jim shakes his head, pushing Sherlock against the wall harder than before. "I can't. Please. Please let me"

Sherlock swallows before he shakes his head. "No, Jim. I'm not letting you go anywhere. Not again. I refuse to lose you"

Jim blinks, realisation dawning on his face. Sherlock thought Jim was going to disappear.

Without a word, Jim leans forward and kisses a trembling Sherlock. He kisses him slowly, pouring all of his feelings into the kiss. He'd show Sherlock he's not going anywhere. He'd show him how much he loves him.

Sherlock's breathing hitches, mind racing. He's had others kiss him like this. Sometimes, after gaining a point, whoever he was with would kiss him like this. Slow. Loving. Full of passion. They'd give him a sickeningly romantic kiss in hopes that he'd return all their feelings.

Did this mean... Did Jim love him like that?

He knows Jim loves him. He always assumed it was as a friend - a best friend. They'd spent most of their lives together, ever since they'd met in that nursery class when they were tiny four year olds (Jim's accent had been so strong back then). They were the strongest kind of friend.

But... It seemed like it was more than that for him now.

Jim pulls back, looking at Sherlock, his hand cupping Sherlock's cheek. "Do you see now?"

"I..." He doesn't know what to say. What can he say?

This isn't like when one of those girls kissed him, desperate to have him love them back. This was so very different. This was Jim. Jim would never be another one of those people, not to Sherlock.

Smiling, Jim presses a light kiss to Sherlock's unresponsive lips. He's frozen, unable to react to Jim's words or actions. He's trying to think.

"I love you, Sherlock" He says it with the smile still on his lips.

Sherlock's eyebrows knit together in a frown. What the hell is he supposed to say to that?

"Jim, I..." He pauses. "I have no idea what to say.. You..."

Jim chuckles. "Is it that big a surprise?"

"What the hell? Why are you laughing? You were just crying! You looked torn apart and now you're laughing! Aren't you.. I don't know.. scared or worried?"

That's what usually happened. When he got confessed to. Whoever was confessing would look worried for their life, like Sherlock's answer could equate to being stabbed. But not Jim. Why not Jim?

"No, I'm not worried. If you can forgive me for being a murderer, I'm sure you can get over the fact I'm in love with you" Jim shrugs, visibly calmer now even though he was mentioning things that previously rendered him an emotional mess.

Then Sherlock's smiling. Because Jim really isn't like any of the other people he's met. He's unique.

Sherlock pushes off the wall and wraps a single arm around Jim's neck, pulling him into a hug.

"You're something special" Sherlock tells him.

Jim's about to reply when the door to the storage closet opens and a panting Irene tumbles in, slamming the door behind her so violently that both boys jumped.

She leans against the door, panting. Sherlock and Jim both look at each other before pulling away from each other and facing the girl as she got her breath back. She must have literally raced here.

"Well" She says, smiling and swallowing more air. "Glad I didn't come in while you two were going at it"

Then Irene is eyeing Jim's puffing eyes and trying to link that to the hugging and smiling she saw. It was fair to say, she was confused. Sherlock giggles and slides an arm around Jim's waist, making the boy jump.

Sherlock kisses his temple. "There's no reason for things to change" He tells them both.

Irene lets out a big relieved sigh. "That's exactly what I rushed here to say. I was hoping to get here before Jim poured his heart out but I can see I'm too late for that"

Jim shakes his head. "Doesn't matter. Sherlock's used to people liking him more than they should, right Sher?"

Sherlock grins at his friend. "Right" He says, not looking away from Jim even after he answered. Jim didn't look away either.

Sherlock was just leaning down to kiss him when Irene cleared her throat.

"Well. As much as I'm sure this room makes you two want to go at it like rabbits, there's more stuff I wanted to say" She's smiling though, glad to see these two getting closer and back to normal.

They were both good boys really. Jim could deal with the fact he wasn't Sherlock's one and only. He'd share him. It worked for them.

Sherlock leans back and slides down the wall, pulling Jim with him so they sat close together on the floor. Irene looks at him for a moment before shrugging and sitting too. She sat with her back to the door, legs crossed underneath her.

"This feels familiar" Jim smiles, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Just us three"

"Fucking hell" Irene huffs "Are you two just going to say everything I wanted to say or are you gonna let me talk, hm?"

Jim holds his hands up in surrender. "Calm down, Princess"

Sherlock grins and laughs. Jim/Irene was right. This did feel familiar. Familiar and right. This was how it was meant to be; just them, just the Trio. They didn't need anything other than each other when it came down to it.

They loved Molly and their other friends, of course. But, in the end, it was them that had a bond stronger than anything. They stuck together and understood each other 110%.

Lately, however, they'd been losing sight of that. They'd been keeping secrets and hurting each other. That needed to stop.

"Right" Irene claps her hands together. "I'm going to keep this short and sweet. To put it simply, we've been falling to shit. We've lost our usual ways. I mean, fuck, none of us has even gained a point over this half term and when's the last time we all discussed The Game?"

Both boys shake their heads and shrug, so Irene continues.

"I'm not pointing fingers" She coughs "You two" She coughs again.

"Subtle" Sherlock says.

Irene reaches over and hits him over the head. "Shut the fuck up. I'm talking here. So," She looks at them both "We need to sort ourselves out. We're getting through this half term like we always do. We're going to be a team again. It's like we haven't been a proper team since Harry's party and that was like a month and a half ago"

Sherlock nods, agreeing with her. Jim does the same.

At Harry's party, they coordinated to bring the dull party to life and ensure that a good time was had all round. That was the last time they came to together and achieved something together.

"Let's start now. What are the scores? Today, the game is back on!" Jim grins, leaning forward excitedly.

Irene smirks and pulls out her notebook where the scores were kept.

"Right, let's see" Her bright red fingernail runs down the page as she reads. "Sherlock's at 103 with six points this term. Jim, you're at 95 and a half with nine points this term. And I've got 88 and a half, eight points this term. So, Sherlock is third, I'm second and Jim's in the lead"

"Jesus. Only six?" Sherlock asks with a frown while Jim laughs.

"And you have a wild card!" Jim laughs even louder, pinching Sherlock's hip.

With an offended gasp, Sherlock shoves Jim away from him, causing the boy to fall on his side. Jim didn't stop giggling though. Sherlock had never been in third place with a two point gap between himself and second place. Really, it was amusing that, even with the whole college to choose from, he was in third place.

"Well, have fun trying to win when there's only a handful of the drama students left. You too, Irene, not many exchange students, are there?" Sherlock smirks.

Irene and Jim both glare at him.

"Game on, Holmes!"

"Oh, it's on"

*

By the time the school day had come to an end, everything seemed to be slotting together again. Sherlock didn't dare let himself get his hopes up too much for everything being fine and perfect. After he's talked to Benjamin, then he'll be allowed to get his hopes up.

Things were great with his friends. But he still had to sort himself out. The drugs wouldn't be too bad, he'd only had a few hits here and there since he's been back with Benjamin. Benjamin was the real addiction that he had to kick.

Corey would be there, though. He'd stop Benjamin if he got too angry. He promised.

Taking a breath, Sherlock picks up the tea tray and walks back into the living room. Everyone was here, not for any particular reason. His house had just become the place they all go to. The 'hangout' spot, he supposed. Which made sense, his parents were mostly out and when they were in they usually were in the office upstairs that was also the library of the house.

It was nice, always having friends around. Mycroft was even sitting with them today, wedged between Molly and John on the sofa, who where guarding him from Corey and Irene would wanted to ask him questions like 'are you alright?' a thousand times over.

Chuckling to himself, Sherlock sets the tray on the table before looking around for somewhere to sit.

Molly, John and Mycroft were taking up the sofa. Corey was lounging on the love seat, feet on Irene's lap and Jim was sat on the chair where Sherlock usually liked to sit.

As everyone sorts their tea out, Sherlock moves to the chair and sits on Jim's lap with a huge grin. Jim looks surprised for a moment before he smiles and pulls Sherlock closer.

"Oh! Irene?" Sherlock turns to face the woman as he leans forward to get one of the cupcakes that Corey provided for them.

"Hm?" Irene hums, her attention taken off trying to get Corey to move his feet.

"Add to two to my score"

Irene nods and rummages through the bag sat beside her.

"Just a single point for me" Jim tells her, arms sliding around Sherlock's waist as his chin rests on Sherlock's shoulder.

"Right so.. Jim's at ten. Sherlock's at eight and thanks to the lovely Rita, I'm at eight and a half" Irene jerks her head towards the boys. "Who were you with?"

"Cathy. Sadly not a virgin, so no bonus points" Jim answers, before looking to Sherlock the best he could from this position to prompt him into answering the question too.

"Well, I should get bonus points for them being twins, shall we say?" Sherlock replies innocently with a small smirk, biting into the cupcake he had. They didn't actually do bonus points for twins but still, it was a good way to reveal it to them.

Irene's face crumples up and Jim makes a disgusted gasp. "Arghh. You did not. The creepy Kyle twins?"

The creepy Kyle twins were almost as famous as The Trio around the college. They were the year above, in Mycroft's year, and rarely spoke. When they did speak, they'd always rhyme. Both of them had their hair dyed black and wore heavy eyeliner, exaggerating their dark eyes.

It wasn't their dress sense that was creepy, though. It was the constant staring and the way the wore the same clothes as each other everyday and the way they were so stiff and lifeless. When they looked at you, it would be both of them and they'd be unnervingly silent, you couldn't help getting scared and creeped out.

"How did you even manage that? And.. - Oh my God, was it at the same time?" John asks with a look of mild disgust mixed with interest, Molly's expression mirroring his from the other side of Mycroft.

Mycroft himself was just looking curiously at Sherlock, this being the first time he's been present during a conversation like this.

"It was the same time but they didn't do anything together" Sherlock shrugs.

"How did you get them to agree?" Irene asks as she marks the points in her notebook.

"I just asked. They were in the library and I thought 'why not?'. I approached and asked Adam if he was interested. He looked at me and then at his brother and said that they do everything together so it was a case of whether I to woo the two. So I invited them both and they said yes. We skipped last period and went to their house." He shrugs once again, acting like he didn't love all the looks of disbelief and amazement.

"Oh, God. Please tell me their dirty talk was in rhyme" Jim laughs.

Sherlock chuckles. "They didn't seem able to do much more than moan"

Molly scrunches her face up at that. "If they do everything together, does that mean they plan to share a husband, or a wife or whatever?"

"Maybe they'll just marry each other" Jim suggests with a snicker.

That has everyone laughing.