if_inconvenient | (no subject)

Sherlock does not want to be at school today. For once in his life he is something less than indifferent to the occasional stare and snicker, the looks of familiar contempt from those who have been around long enough to get used to him. His mood has been fluctuating wildly between rage and despair since yesterday morning. He knows his self-control is good enough to keep him from reacting to any taunts with violence, but nothing will stop him from wanting to. Which is unsettling in itself.

He has a duty, though, one that cannot be ignored. And if he is going to show up at school again, he may as well do the job properly. He is on time for every class before lunch, polite if not friendly when circumstances call for conversation, crisply dressed—in trousers, thank you; he does not think he could bear the reactions to another skirt. The only signs that anything is wrong are the dark circles under his eyes and the tension that stands in sharp contrast to his usual indolence.

At noon on the dot he is in the cafeteria waiting for Bella Swan.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sherlock nods agreement. He hardly intended to listen at keyholes, after all.

"Thank you," Bella says, to both of them.

"My thoughts are who I am. I reserve the right to share myself with someone at my discretion, not theirs."

"Oh boy," Tony repeats, in wry anticipation of what this is going to mean between her and Sherlock.

He smiles, acknowledging both points.

"And I don't need anyone in my life who can't respect that," she adds.

Sherlock closes his eyes.

This 'oh boy', he keeps to himself.

"Just so we're all clear from the beginning," she finishes, not ungently.

"You," Tony says with certainty, "are gonna be talking to Sherry about that a lot."

Because the other option is she gets fed up and calls it quits, and Tony is an optimist.

"Yes, it's clearly going to be an on-going project," she says. "As long as he listens."

Because if he doesn't, she's done. She likes him, and she understands that one person's needs can't come first all the time. She's not incapable of compromise. But she won't bash her head unendingly against the same wall, and she won't tolerate having her privacy treated like a disposable inconvenience.