Just A Game [Teenlock]

Chapter Twenty: Play Your Cards Right

A/N: Sort of a filler. I know it seems like I'm not really going anywhere with all this but I have plans. We'll have some more Benjamin in the next chapter and Sherlock's going to start focusing on The Game a bit more.

Also, I was wondering if you guys would like me to start putting a reference thingy at the end of each chapter needed to explain the references. I'd go back and do them for previous chapters too. Let me know guys!

~

"Hey, have you heard the news? I'm into dudes!" Corey giggles, bumping his shoulder into Sherlock's.

They'd all (John, Jim, Sherlock, Molly and Corey) been sitting around playing cards in Sherlock's house considering the weather outside was horrid today. It was typical, really. As soon as they all had time off school, the weather turned crappy.

It had been fun playing cards. Until ten minutes ago when Corey got bored and decided he didn't want to be dealt in. He was just randomly saying things now and it was starting to get on Sherlock's nerves. Everyone else found him pretty funny though.

Molly laughs at Corey's latest one while John puts one card down on the pile, facing up, and picks another up. Currently, they were playing Jim Rummy.

"Corey, shut the hell up..." Sherlock sighs.

"Awhhh, don't be mean, Sher!" The blonde whines, blinking those bright blue eyes at him and leaning his head on Sherlock's shoulder. "You're always so mean to me! I thought you loved me. You said you'd love me long time!"

Rolling his eyes, Sherlock sighs again and choose not to reply. Instead, he takes his go.

A thought occurs to him and he turns to whisper into Corey's ear. "I haven't seen Benjamin in a few days.."

Corey grins and raises his head before he wiggles his eyebrows. Sherlock frowns. What the hell does that mean?

Sherlock ignores it for now and continues with the game. Corey soon goes back to resting his head on Sherlock's shoulder, running his finger up and down his arm in an attempt to distract Sherlock. Seems he's run of his oh so lovely catchphrases.

"Rummy!" Molly calls, showing her cards to reveal three kings and four queens.

She's congratulated before the cards are dealt again and the game is restart, Corey still the only who not playing. He doesn't move from Sherlock's shoulder, even when he starts texting and Sherlock can see every word he typed.

He was texting his sister, so none of it was nice. Her nickname for her brother hadn't changed in the time Sherlock hadn't seen them. 'Faggot'. It made Sherlock despise the word even more.

"You'll have to arrange a meeting for me and your sister.." Sherlock tells the boy on his shoulder. Most of their friends weren't paying attention to them, luckily. Molly was though, they just didn't notice.

"Um.. I don't think so" Corey snorts. "It never ends well. She always gets the better of you, hun"

Sherlock frowns, mumbling "Not always"

"Yes, always. She's a bitch and there's no reason for you to come face to face with her ever again..." Corey sits up a bit, giving Sherlock one of his rare serious stares. It softens and he places his hand on Sherlock's cheek. "I can't see you get hurt. Not again..."

Sherlock looks down, ashamed. He nods though, understanding Corey's concern.

Out of Corey, his sister and Benjamin, Corey had always been the only one to truly look out for Sherlock and care for him and be honestly kind to him. As he said, his sister was a bitch. Benjamin.. He was always difficult to read but once a upon a time he was someone who caused Sherlock a great deal of pain.

"I don't like seeing you hurt, either" Sherlock tells Corey, gently taking hold of Corey's bruised wrist.

He knew exactly where those finger shaped bruise came from.

Corey is quick to yank it away and turn his tearing eyes to the game. "It's your turn, Sherly-Wurly" He says with a fake giggle.

Sherlock swallows, knowing what Corey was doing but not having any idea how to change Corey's mind. He'd always been stupidly stubborn. Sherlock then turns back to the game as well, sighing as he does and ignoring the way most eyes were on him (except Corey's).

He takes his go, still ignoring the curious looks of his friends.

The game seems to stop and Sherlock looks around, frowning.

"Where's John?" He asks.

Before anyone would reply, John walks into the room with a tray full of cups and Sherlock's largest teapot.

"Woof" John smirks, making his presence known.

Immediately, Sherlock eyes widen, his mind linking the word to one of his favourite animes, and he stares at John. "Was that..."

John's eyes widen as well and he stares back. He chuckles as he puts down the tray. "Jesus, Sherlock. You're like the perfect guy, I swear."

Sherlock laughs too. "Not my fault I have good taste"

The boy across from him pauses for just a second before asking. "Do you want to name some stars?"

He can't stop the way he freezes, knowing exactly what John meant by that. How he had the confidence to ask in front of everyone, Sherlock didn't know. Sure, he was referencing but still.

Sherlock swallows a lump that had formed in his throat, the scene from Farscape flashing through his mind. The scene where two characters admit their feelings for each other and get together.

"I..." Sherlock doesn't know what to say.

Is John asking for a relationship? Or is he just teasing and flirting?

John giggles again and starts handing out the tea. "You look so scared. Calm down, I'm not asking you for your hand in marriage or anything like that"

Sherlock sighs, relieved. He nods and manages a small laugh before they continue the game.

Both Jim and Corey (who were sitting either side of Sherlock) continuously tapped and poked him, trying to find out what all that was.

Sherlock's heart was racing, he couldn't concentrate on the game. He just couldn't shake the feeling that John had been asking him something else and he'd purposely used a reference to a show they both loved so he could disguise it should he be rejected.

It was no secret, to him anyway, that John liked him in more than friendly ways. But that didn't mean that John named the brightest star in space 'Sherlock'.

Sherlock was more than glad when the front door opened and his mother walked in, smiling brightly as him. Sherlock stands and moves to help his mum with the shopping bags she was carrying. Their eyes lock for a moment and she raises an eyebrow. Sherlock never helps with the shopping.

"What..." She stops. "Go play your card game, Sherlock." She then looks back to the group of Sherlock's friends, scanning their faces for a moment before her gaze locks onto him again.

Sherlock does as his mum told him and went back to the game, frowning. Jim was frowning too, never having seen Sherlock's mum turn him down when he wanted to talk.

They finish the game and Molly takes out her phone to find fifteen miss calls from her parents. It doesn't take long for Molly to leave. John soon follows suit and heads for home.

Sherlock sees them out (more than glad to see John's back) before he comes back to the living room and flops onto the sofa, between Jim and Corey once again. Normally, he'd fall onto Jim's shoulder but Benjamin's warning was in the back of his head so he makes sure to let his head fall onto Corey's shoulder instead.

Corey winces as he does and Sherlock lifts his head, raising an eyebrow. Corey tries to shrug off the look, feigning indifference but Sherlock isn't stupid. He lifts the sleeve of Corey's T-shirt and pushes it up passed his shoulder to reveal a massive, ugly bruise.

"It's nothing" Corey snaps, pulling his T-shirt back into place.

Sherlock glares at him. "You should stop trying to prote-"

Sherlock is cut off by a snort from Corey. "I should stop, huh? I'm not the one that offering myself up on a sliver platter."

Corey had never taken that tone with him before and Sherlock shrinks back, the words hitting him as well as the tone. He looks away from Corey, trying to pretend that it didn't hurt to have Corey speak like he hated him.

It doesn't take more than five seconds for Corey to calm and look incredibly guilty. He puts a hand on Sherlock's arm and squeezes. Sherlock looks back to him, eyes wet with unshed tears. He nods once before he stands and heads for the kitchen to make them all tea despite the fact they still had a pot in the living room.

The kettle was just boiling when Sherlock felt arms wrap around him from behind. He relaxes at the familiar touch immediately. He hadn't even realised how much he missed it until now.

"You okay?" Jim mumbled against Sherlock's back.

"Yeah. I just wasn't expecting him to snap like that. He's normally so.. upbeat"

By this point Sherlock had turned and had his own arms wrapped around Jim, both of them holding the other as close as they could. Making up for the lack of contact as much as they could.

Jim looks up at Sherlock and smiles sadly. "The first sorta argument with your first proper boyfriend is bound to be hard"

Sherlock pauses. Then opens his mouth to reply before he pauses again.

Jim thought... Oh God.

"Boyfriend?" Sherlock asks, frowning again.

"Yeah. Corey's-"

"not my boyfriend" Sherlock finished.

Jim makes a small 'o' with his lips before nodding and grinning. It was the most Sherlock had seen his friend smile in some time. Smiling back, Sherlock pulls Jim closer, nuzzling into his neck.

Jim actually smelled really nice, Sherlock notes. There was his aftershave, obviously, but there was also an undertone of something that was just Jim. Sherlock wasn't sure how to describe it but he certainly liked the smell.

"Sherlock?" Jim asks, pulling back a bit so he could see Sherlock's face.

"Mm?"

"What was all that with John earlier? The thing with the stars?" Jim sounded worried. Really worried.

Sherlock shrugs, not making a big deal out of it. "Misunderstanding. It's a reference from a show and I thought John was using it as a way to ask me out. But he was just referencing."

At least, he hoped it was.

Jim hums, not convinced. He opens his mouth to say something but is cut off by a knocking sound from the arch into the kitchen (that seemed to be happening a lot today - people getting cut off).

"Knock, knock, I like cock!" Corey cheers, dancing into the kitchen.

Back to his cheery self. Sherlock smiles at him, glad to have this less serious Corey back. He doesn't unwrap himself from Jim, though. If anything he snuggles closer. He wasn't sure if he did it to convince Jim further that he and Corey weren't together or if he did it to prove to Corey he hadn't completely 'offered himself up'.

Jim rolls his eyes at Corey's latest phrase before he looks up to Sherlock again.

"It's getting kinda late. I haven't stayed round in a while. Is it alright to stay here tonight?" He tilts his head, giving Sherlock a small smile.

There's no hesitation as Sherlock nods. "Of course, you-"

"Bad idea, babe" Corey shakes his head.

That doesn't settle right with Jim at all. Since when does Corey get to decided what Sherlock does or doesn't do during his space time? He wasn't even Sherlock's boyfriend (thank God) and yet he acted like Sherlock was all his. Jim was bloody sick of Corey popping up and taking Sherlock off on that death bike of his.

Sherlock raises an eyebrow. "Why not, Corey?"

Jim smirks at that. Sherlock didn't sound too pleased with this development either.

Corey glances at the clock. "You said yourself: it's been a few days"

Sherlock makes a soft 'oh' sound and leans back against the counter, moving away from Jim slightly.

Jim frowns "What is it?" He didn't like being left out of the loop.

Sherlock and Corey exchange a look. Corey is the one to speak up.

"Sherlock and I need to go somewhere in a few hours."

"Where?" Jim demands.

"My sister's" Corey lies easily.

"She needs my help with a few science bits. She's got a big test coming up after half term."

Jim narrows his eyes, really not convinced. "And why are you doing this in the middle of the night?"

"Because I usually fuck her as well" Sherlock shrugs, turning to the kettle and pouring the tea.

Corey pulls a face and sticks out his tongue, putting his finger near his tongue and pretending to be sick. "Ew, dude. Too, too, too much info! That's my baby sister!"

Jim raises an eyebrow at the 'baby'. "How old is she?"

"Um, seventeen." Corey says, frowning like he wasn't sure. "Maybe eighteen. I dunno."

"And that's your baby sister? Sherlock's not even eighteen.. Wait. How old are you then?" Jim's eyebrows just raise further.

Corey bites his lip and Sherlock snorts a laugh.

"I'm quite a bit older than I look... I'm older than you lot, too" He shrugs, avoiding saying an actual number.

"Nineteen?" Jim guesses. He couldn't see Corey being older than that.

He looked like he was sixteen, for God's sake. Then his childish attitude didn't make him seem any older.

Corey shakes his head. Jim just frowns, confused.

"You look so young!" He protests.

"I know" Corey winks at him before twirling and dancing out of the room.

Jim turns to Sherlock and raises an eyebrow (again). "How old is he then? He acts like a six year old."

Sherlock laughs and nods, agreeing. "He's twenty-one"

Jim's eyes widen in disbelief. "Bullshit!"

"Nope. He is. He hates to admit it, though. Prefers to let people think he's still in his teens. I doubt he'll ever grow up, to be honest"

Jim just blinks, still frowning. He had no idea that he'd been hanging around with someone four year older than him. It was a shock to say the least. He sakes his head and picks up his tea, just deciding to accept the idea.

"So, am I staying tonight or...?"

"No." Sherlock shakes his head and reaches out to squeeze Jim's hand. "Sorry. She really does need help"

Jim just nods, even though he really wasn't convinced that Sherlock was ditching him to go shag Corey's 'baby' sister.