Jim had been right about his mum not minding Sherlock eating with them. In fact, she had eagerly handed Sherlock almost half a pizza and smiled widely as he began to eat. She even made a comment about how Jim should bring his friend (she forgot Sherlock’s name and had to ask for it again, blushing as she did) round more often. Jim awkwardly explained they weren’t friends (and Sherlock didn’t miss the sadness in his tone as he said that) and that Sherlock was his model for the project. That turned into Niamh Moriarty gushing over how ‘gorgeous and handsome’ Sherlock is.

Once the pizza was gone, Jim was quick to dismiss them and practically ran up the stairs to get away from his embarrassing mother. Sherlock laughs and follows him, finding Jim’s mother rather pleasant. She was rather young as well, Sherlock noticed, for a mother of a sixteen year old. In her early thirties. She would have been under eighteen, or just eighteen, when she had Jim.

Jim clears his throat when he steps into his room, rubbing his cheeks in an attempt to remove the pink tinge they’d gained. He purposely doesn’t look at Sherlock or turn towards him as he plugs in and starts up his laptop. Sherlock just watches in amusement as he takes a seat on the bed.

“We, uh, the themes are… Yeah” Jim waves his hand at the word document he’d got up before he picks up the laptop and hands in to Sherlock.

Sherlock takes it and makes sure he catches Jim’s eyes as he does. “You have no reason to be embarrassed. Your mum is lovely, even if she’s chatty”

Jim’s eyes narrow. “I’m not embarrassed of my mum. I love her the way she is and would never change a thing about her”

For a moment Sherlock is struck by the honesty of the boy stood before him. He didn’t know any other sixteen year olds that would openly say they love their mother.

“Then why are you taking as if you’re embarrassed?” Sherlock questions.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t embarrassed. Just that I’m not embarrassed of my mum”

Sherlock raises an eyebrow at the explanation. “What are you embarrassed about?”

“We’ve said the word embarrassed a lot in the past minute” Jim says, avoiding the topic.

Sherlock pauses, unsure if he should press it or not. Then he frowns. He’d never cared about pressing things with people before and yet he was with Jim. Why? It’s not that he’s worried Jim will grow angry – part of Sherlock doubts that Jim is capable of that emotion. He hasn’t known Jim long enough to care about his privacy. And even saying that, Sherlock had known John for almost two years and he still didn’t care about his privacy.

Curious…

“We have” Sherlock agrees. Jim visibly relaxes when he sees that Sherlock isn’t going to grill him for answers.

Sherlock turns his attention to the laptop in his lap and Jim sits beside him.

“We’ll take it one at a time. So, first is Survival” Jim smiles.

Sherlock nods and begins to read the part on the document marked as Survival.

Survival – Sub-categories: Life on the street, education and work, prehistoric, finding hope/reason to live. 

Life on the street: Places to sleep, begging, soup kitchens, being shunned/ignored/looked down on. Could possibly tell the story of a homeless person (Sherlock can reenact memorable moments of that person’s life).

Education and work: Starting school, tests, getting back test papers, getting results, going to have interview for first job (before, during and after), struggling to pay bills, losing a job, getting a promotion.

Prehistoric: Discovering fire and warmth, finding shelter, hunting, fighting enemies, defending family.

Hope: Religion (going to church, praying, listening to minister), surrounded by supporting friends, having a passion (art, science, English), family (own children/wife).

Sherlock had to admit, while the list were relatively short and to the point, he was impressed by how much work Jim was setting up for himself. This was just one category and Sherlock could easily see this taking a few weeks. They had four months, Jim said, and didn’t really have time to spend weeks on a category.

“Are we going to have enough time?” Sherlock asks.

Jim frowns. “The deadline is a bit worrying, yeah… But we can do it. The first sub-category can easily be done in a day once we find a willing homeless person – if you’re okay with doing that.” Jim’s eyes move from the computer to Sherlock. “You could easily be the type to not go near a homeless person but I can also see you being the type to not care”

Sherlock hums, not sure what to make of Jim’s opinion of him. “I’m fine with reenacting someone’s life. We’ll have to find someone willing though, as you say. Anyway, what about all the others, how long will they take?”

Both look back to the laptop screen.

“We’ll need a day or two for the prehistoric bits, I reckon. With all the costumes and make up, as well as leaving town for somewhere deserted looking. A wood, maybe. Then, with luck, we can get the other two done in a day. We can take most of those shots at school” Jim pauses briefly to suck in air. “So, with any luck, we’ll have this done by the end of next week. We both have other classes and stuff, and I know I can’t expect you to drop your whole life for this”

Sherlock just shrugs at the last comment. “I don’t do too much with my life”

Jim smiles and nods, looking really glad that Sherlock has no life. “Right. All important question. You okay with everything here? The lack of clothing for prehistoric, the going to church, maybe having to kiss your ‘wife’?”

Sherlock makes a face at the last one. “A kiss on the cheek, I guess. I’d prefer not to go further than that”

“What about kissing a baby’s forehead?”

“That’s fine”

Jim grins. “Great. Let’s move on then”

Sherlock’s eyes return to the screen, eyes on the next category.

“This is one where you’ll be in costume for basically every shot. It’s probably going to be the most time consuming and even though the perfectionist in me wants to do this list in order, it’s more realistic to do this one over a half term” Jim explains.

Sherlock snorts. “You? A perfectionist?”

Jim looks deadly serious as he meets Sherlock’s eyes. “With photography, I refuse to be anything less”

Sherlock can only nod. Jim had proved his passion for photography over and over. Sherlock begins to reconsider his previous thoughts about Jim being incapable of anger. He could see the boy becoming angered easily if Sherlock carries on doubting his passion (even if doing so indirectly).

Instead of replying, Sherlock simply looks back to the screen and begins to read.

Historical – Sub-categories: World wars, Inventors, Industrial revolution, Gaining rights. 

Wars: Propaganda, signing up, training, first kill, change due to war, rationing.

Inventors: Focus on Thomas Edison. Brainstorming, working (electric power, Edison film studios), presenting ideas (the light bulb etc).

Industrial revolution: Working in a factory, producing cotton, selling produce, wealthy families.

Rights: Civil Rights Movement (sit-ins, riots, bus boycotts), Woman’s rights (supporting wife, supporting cause, working with women), LGBT rights (Civil partnership, pride parades/demonstrations, celebrating the legalisation of same sex marriage)

“Obviously,” Jim clears his throat “I can scrap the LGBT stuff if you’re uncomfortable with any of that”

Sherlock looks up, meeting Jim’s eyes, and he can’t stop himself from laughing. “I’m not uncomfortable with it. Especially seeing as I’m part of one of them”

Jim doesn’t seem that surprised or bothered that Sherlock just came out to him. He probably thought Sherlock being gay was the case when they had the ‘girlfriend’s are not my area’ conversation.

“So, everything on this one okay?”

Sherlock nods. “Yes, I don’t see why not. We’ll need other people for a number of these shots”

Jim waves off the problem. “That can easily be arranged”

“I don’t want to kiss anyone though. Male or female”

Jim nods. “Yeah, that’s fine”

The pair spend the next three hours going through all the themes. Sherlock didn’t object too much. The only thing he wasn’t overly keen on was any contact with other but as long as it wasn’t more than a hug or kiss on the cheek he was okay with it. He also didn’t care about make-up and costumes needed.

By the time Sherlock had crawled into his sleeping bag and Jim under his covers, the clock was displaying 1:23 and both were exhausted from looking at the laptop screen for so long. They’d even begun some online shopping for costumes.

As Jim fell into a peaceful sleep, he found himself thinking how much he was looking forward to the next four months. Not only did he get to spend most of his time doing what he loved but he also had pretty good company.