Sherlock Holmes, after a fashion

Sherlock sleeps alone.

He always has, except for a few rare occasions with Tony.

Some days he wakes up slowly, some days instantly; today is one of the former. He lazes for at least a minute, snuggled into the pillows, before he even bothers to open his eyes.

There's a Stark boy sprawled on the couch at Milliways. Black leather jacket, blue jeans—these are indeterminate signs. The white button-down shirt with the top button undone says Sherlock; the nearly empty glass of whiskey on the table next to him says Tony.

The deciding factor, although you'd have to get fairly close to see it, is the scar on the left side of his neck.

He has not spoken to Cal in six days.

It is a ridiculous measurement. Plenty of more important things have happened since then. Tony is now CEO of Stark Industries. Virginia Potts has, with some reservations, accepted a position as his personal assistant. She is already proving invaluable. The media seem to believe that the only interesting thing Obadiah Stane ever did was die, and Tony has indulged in several bouts of cathartic rage on the subject.

And yet.

He has not spoken to Cal in six days.

Every moment he has to spare, away from the minutiae of making Tony's job easier as best he can, finds Sherlock on the couch in his workroom playing the violin. He throws himself into the most challenging pieces he can find, and as soon as he has perfected every note he moves on immediately to the next.

But he doesn't keep count of how many new solos he has mastered this way. Another count entirely occupies that part of his attention.

He has not spoken to Cal in six days.

It has been no more than a few hours and still he feels that is too long.

"Where are they?" he asks as he steps inside. Home at last. It should be comforting.

One entirely innocuous afternoon, Sherlock places a call through Jarvis to Cal's cellphone.

Sherlock is perfectly confident in his ability to take on a vampire in hand-to-hand combat and survive, unless the vampire in question has significant training. That's one vampire.

He is also perfectly confident in his ability to take on any number of them at a distance with his laser in hand, at a distance being the operative phrase.

The situation he finds himself in, when he tracks down the lair of the conspirators at last, transpires to be somewhat chancier. There is little margin for error, and at the end of what is unquestionably the most violent fifteen minutes of his life, he is lying on a richly carpeted floor surrounded by clouds of dust and wishing there were two of him so he could delegate the job of calling Peter Beardsley to the other one. Surely Tony could have cooked up an extra while he was at it.

No, that is not a productive train of thought. Coughing hoarsely, he drags himself to his feet and finds a telephone.

"Tony is home from school," says Jarvis.

Sherlock says nothing at all.

"Shall I let him know you're here?" asks Jarvis.

Sherlock says nothing at all.

"I'll take that as a yes."

As he expected, first-rate encryption; as he expected, Jarvis cracked it without much trouble; as he expected, it contained much that was of use to him.

Now, about that Beardsley fellow.

Digging up his address is the work of minutes. The real dilemma is deciding how to make the approach. Eventually, he settles on the relatively benign strategy of showing up on the man's doorstep just as he is likely to be coming home from work.

He knows the house is empty, but he rings the bell anyway. Then he tucks his hands in his pockets and settles in to wait, observing his surroundings carefully and standing where he is unlikely to be observed in return.

(the other summary)

1: in which Sherlock and Tony meet Cal somewhere unexpected
2: in which Cal meets Sherlock somewhere less unexpected, and shenanigans ensue
3: in which Sherlock stalks Peter Beardsley for perfectly logical reasons

4: in which Cal seeks independence
5: in which Sherlock pays Cal a visit

6: in which Obadiah Stane
7: in which Cal talks to Tony
8: in which Tony talks to Sherlock

9: in which Sherlock has a chance encounter

10: in which pizza

11: in which politics (and creepy, so much creepy)
12: in which friendship
13: in which Jarvis

14: in which Sherlock breaks into Cal's house just once more
15: in which Cal visits the Stark household

16: in which it is Cal's birthday
     i: out of your skull
     ii: grumpy and drunk
     iii: your security sucks

17: in which it isn't
18: in which it worked for Howard Stark
19: in which is it any wonder?

20: in which phone calls
21: in which school
22: in which vampires

23: in which Cal is disillusioned
24: in which Reed is impatient and Cal is sleepless, until he isn't
25: in which Cal calls Sherlock

26: in which Sherlock goes looking
27: in which Cal confronts his late father and compares scars with Sherlock
28: in which Sherlock visits New York and Jarvis calls Peter

29: in which Cal visits Tony and Peter calls Sherlock
30: in which (the muns forget to include a thread and then) Cal drives Tony home from school
31: in which Sherlock receives a call

32: in which that cannot possibly have happened
33: in which Sherlock returns
34: in which Sherlock calls Peter

35: in which Cal thinks
36: in which Tony visits him
37: in which Sherlock frets

38: in which dinner
39: in which Cal talks to Sherlock
40: in which Tony makes a speech
     (40a: interlude)
     (40b: diversion)

41: in which pizza, for real this time
42: in which Cal and Tina are d'aww

(intermission)

43: in which Sherlock is a bit of a creep
44: in which... idk I haven't read it yet I'm in fucking England leave me alone
45: in which hi I'm Pyth and I'm too jetlagged to summarize this thread (but it has Gracie in it fuck yes)
46: in which Cal talks to Sherry about some stuff

47: graduation
48: celebration

49: in which James again
50: in which Cal some more

51: hsdga
52: kjethrsfw

53: soup
54: sanctioned
55: surprise
56: still

(57: cygnus)

58: a little trip

59: educational
60: addendum
61: in a skirt

62: she thinks

(multiversal collision)

63: being unobtrusive
64: to await
65: fifth fact

66: piano man
67: it never rains but it pours
68: for wasting the dawn
69: until the day I die

70: one more time
71: but you can never

(rearrange)
(very much like Sherlock)

72: the things that we fear

1: In which Sherlock meets the Doctor.

2: In which the Doctor aims for nineteenth-century London, and misses.

3: In which Chekhov's pocket-watch is not fired.

4: In which Sherlock does research.

5: In which Twelve misses again.