this is where it ends, past perfect future tense

[consulting]

CHARACTERS: Irene Adler ( adlered ) and Sherlock Holmes ( consulting )
LOCATION: One of the kitchens.
WARNINGS: Dinner.
SUMMARY: Dinner.
NOTES: Ally and I love you, Tranquility. :D♥ BACKDATED LIKE A MOFO. Takes place after this.



[ Sherlock Holmes has never seen advantages to caring. His brain is a supercomputer with the function to file raw zips of emotion away and hide it under his circuitry. While he’s in the Tranquility, the people who aren’t do not exist and thus are put in a temporary state of deletion. Suspended in the recycling bin so he can focus on the things that are here. He has no room for nostalgia nor has he ever pined for anyone back home. Only what is on board the Tranquility matters and only what is on board the tranquility exists. What has replaced Lndon’s cartographies is dizzying mazes of what he can manage of the ship’s infrastructure. Knowledge of where you’d last been by the caking of mud around the edges of your shoes has been traded for the ability to recognize the number of your jump by the state of your walk.

He’s given up on returning and he’s not going to grieve for the life he lost.

He’s in a kitchen somewhere nearer her area on the passenger deck. There are many kitchens, but it’s easy to deduce that this is not one people come to often. This is mutual ground for them and there is too much to risk, too much to give away if they allow themselves entrance in their respective rooms.

He is waiting for her.

His eyes are shut and his chin is pressed against the violin. The clamor of bow against string produces something somewhat melodic. Standing with his back turned against the door. Each chord fills the whole room and for a moment he focuses on nothing else but the song. He can’t stay idle while he waits. The idea of being still, of not doing anything, makes him tense. Never as tense as knowing that Irene knows exactly where and how he is disadvantaged. He’s avoided her as much as he could, perhaps exactly for that reason. Despite the lack of face-to-face conversation, she’s been a constant on his periphery.

Her mobile phone is on the table next to a bowl of thawing strawberries. ]

Comments

[adlered]

[ Caring is what gets individuals killed, especially when they're in her position. You don't make friends when you misbehave, you make enemies and she knows that better than anyone. After all she had almost died, but it was that same misbehaving that allowed her to have people in her pocket when she needed them. Irene has never been so cocky as to believe that she can get herself out of any situation on her own, no sometimes you need assistance. The thing is, while Irene tries not to care herself, she knows that manipulating those emotions (truly, any emotions) is essential to her survival and how she interacts with people. The Tranquility is no different, she's slowly learning how to deal with every person on this ship while allowing her own emotions to remain removed from equation.

She had learned her lesson with Sherlock after all, regardless of what her attraction to him was it had bitten her in the butt. (Though, really, it had worked out in the end, hadn't it.)

Irene allowed him to set their interaction in the kitchen for one simple reason, it allowed him to show the weakness. If she had chosen it, he would have potentially realized her desire to remain away from the fifth floor's kitchen. (That was hers and Tyke's domain and not hers and his.)

When she arrives she doesn't say a word, instead choosing to watch Sherlock play. The fact that he's having to move (do something with his hands) while waiting is telling, but she knows he knows this just as well as she does, so she won't say it. Irene makes sure her body is relaxed as she approaches, knowing that any of her actions can be telling. (She hasn't been avoiding him, she just prefers the idea of him seeking her out, not the other way around. Though, she has tracked him extensively.)

When she gets close enough, one hand moves to grab a strawberry and the other her phone. ]

Shocking, you listened.

[consulting]

[ He does listen. It's a facet of observation. He's quite good at it, it's the follow through of listening he's a tad more peculiar about. He brushes people to the side, thinking their opinions, their actions aren't usually enough to warrant his attention. Irene Adler - in any form - however always gets his attention. Captures it like a moth to flame. Around her Sherlock is alert, tense but mostly he is focused. ]

[ The song stops, somewhere between two notes. Abruptly. The violin is moved away from his chin. Placed delicately on the table. ]

Surprisingly within my capacities.

[ It's a purse of lips, it's meant to come of as sarcastic. ]

[ He's willing to listen to you, Irene. How much of his set rules, the codes he lives by are broken by her. They're beaten and disregarded and whenever they interact, he's forced to rearrange everything. Sherlock observes her. From the placement of her hands against the fruit, to the way she holds the phone. It's her comfort item and he isn't cruel enough to keep it from her. Sherlock knows what it stands for; the fact she is powerful and it's a game in itself that Sherlock is handing it to her. Giving her the thing that makes her feel like she's on top of the world. ]

[ It's a beat of silence as he pays attention to everything from her posture to the tone of her voice. ]

Ms. Adler.