PUPPY LOVE

Written on June 29, 2014 / Previously only posted on Tumblr - it was time to change that.

Synopsis: Archie comes to Baker St looking for Sherlock and finds Molly, who is also waiting for the detective. He finds himself in the uncomfortable position of seeing two grown people who don't know how to stop looking at each other in that yucky way, especially when neither of them are doing it at the same time.

Because I've been thinking about Archie and Sherlock a lot and I wanted to put him in a scene with Molly too. So I came up with this thing. Hope you like it. :)

much love,

day

xx

Molly is already in a hurry as she stumbles down the corner making it to Baker Street. It isn't the fact that she has gotten a voicemail from Sherlock Holmes being awfully desperate like that she's trying to get to 221B too quickly, nor is the fact that she got it about two hours ago but hadn't the chance to check it until thirty minutes ago. She was supposed to be at a gathering with friends but she thought she should check on him before making her way there.

There were just times when it wasn't okay to leave the man alone. Definitely not when he was sounding like that, and then there was that empty space of time where he didn't try to contact her or anyone else again. She had sent texts to Greg, John and Mary. She thought about contacting Mycroft but stopped herself until she knew something concrete. The man already worried too much about Sherlock. He had his reasons and she had hers.

However, she was not prepared to see a little boy who looked to be at least in the 7-10 age range waiting on the doorstep of 221 with a frown on his face. He looked familiar. It took her a moment to realize why.

The Watson wedding had been a little over six months ago now but she couldn't forget the face of the little boy who had excited reigned in the attention of Sherlock Holmes when he was already so shifty and very much into detective mode. He had called him Archie.

She stopped on the stoop and sat down next to him as he looked at her as she came to a stop in front of him. "Hello. You were in the wedding weren't you? Archie, right?" He looked at her slowly as he nodded his head.

"Yep. Who are you? You know Mr. Holmes?" Molly smiled at him.

"Who doesn't?" She giggled, before continuing on and confiding in him softly, "we're kind of friends. Are you looking for him?"

"Yes, I wanted to see more of those photos. I discovered a rabbit the other day. Reminded me of the ones he showed me. Do you know where he is?"

Molly frowned. She was sure if Sherlock was here he would have let the kid in. He had spoke so fondly of him before and had been thrilled to interact with him before. She made a motion to grab her phone and immediately called him. "Molly?" He sounded like he was distracted by something and there was music in the background but she couldn't tell much from it.

"Sherlock. Where are you? You asked me to come here and sorry about not getting here until now but there's this little boy waiting for you…" She muttered as she looked over at Archie who was asking for her phone.

"Boy? What boy?" He sounded genuinely flabbergasted but as Archie got on the line she didn't know if that would change. She'd hate to see him disappointed.

"Mr. Holmes! This lady says she's your friend. Is that right? Should I trust her?"

Something that Sherlock said made Archie smile for he was handing her back her phone after a few more minutes of excited talking. Sherlock had hung up though. "He's on his way. He says I should call you Miss Hooper. What do you do, Miss?"

He was a very amusing chap. Molly indulged him with stories while they waited. She supposed they probably could have gone inside if Mrs. Hudson was around but she remembered that she was away. This could have also been the cause of the reason she was being called on so desperately.

After ten minutes passed Molly realized she would have to let the girls know that she wasn't coming. She sighed as she sent a text to the lot of them before turning back to Archie who was deep into a tale of frogs and muck in the pond at his grandparents home and how he had to wash off twice because he was so dirty. He had taken another kid with him by the name of Jane. She was a girl who lived down the street from them.

Molly had a feeling that Archie liked Jane. He was still a kid but the way he talked about her was awfully sweet.

It was almost directly reminscent of the way she talked about the first guy she ever liked when she was ten years old. He had been mediocre at best but he had liked to talking to Molly, and he even shared his finger sandwiches her when he came over. His name was Ryan. She blinked away the nostalgia as she continued listening to the story that he was telling her.

It didn't take too much longer before Sherlock was rushing out of a cab and slipping between the two of them to open the door. Molly and Archie trailed after him. Archie had already caught the detective's attention by the time they had made it up the steps to his flat. Molly knew that she probably could have still made it to the dinner but somehow she felt that it wouldn't have been as interesting as this was. Sherlock was smiling as he grabbed a large file box and begin philphering through it digging for a certain case, she suspected.

He did seem to realize that she was still there. "Don't you have a thing tonight with Jeanne, Ellis and what is that redheaded one's name?"

Molly rolled her eyes at him as she plopped down on the couch, taking her shoes off at the same time that she replied to him. "Her name is Joy. Did you forget you called me over here earlier when I was busy?"

"Not exactly." Liar. She didn't hold it against him. He often forgot little details only to remember them later. He seemed to be juggling a few things at the moment but he still tried to keep up with both Archie and Molly.

"Anyway, I was going to be late so I just told them that I'd see them next time they were in town."

Sherlock looked up and over towards Molly who was looking over at him. "Sorry." His face told her he meant it. She gave him a small smile, nodding her head before looking down at her hands. She could hear him talking with Archie again. He had splayed some photos on the ground by the table and had sat there with Archie, while he asked questions and genuinely seemed interested.

Molly fiddled with her phone. She had already had some unanswered texts from her friends. For a moment she felt like maybe she should go. She could always just go. It would probably be better. Archie had come here for Sherlock, and Molly had come for Sherlock though she wasn't sure what he had wanted and he didn't seem to remember as to why he had called her in the first place. She could physically seeing herself slipping away but then she heard Sherlock call her name.

"Molly," She peeked up at him as she opened up the first message from Ellis. "Hm?" She hummed before typing out a quick reply.

"You helped with the case with the woman with the blue hair, right?" Molly got up and walked over the two boys. She remembered the case. The hair color was odd even if it had been a dye job, however it hadn't been. There was a strange reaction to being in a sewer full of radiation and chemical waste where the woman had been drowned. It was the only lead they had had - or Sherlock had but Molly had been instrumental in helping with her analyst and a another object she had found in the near hollow chest cavity of the woman.

"Yes. Surprised John hadn't talked about that one. It was fun." Archie looked interested in this.

"Oooh. I'd love to hear about that one. Blue hair is kind of cool. I asked mum if I could do something to my hair when I'm older but she is doesn't know yet."

Sherlock patted the empty space near him and across from Archie. Molly sat down sideways as she was in a dress and she didn't want to scar the boy for life - not that she thought he'd be staring. He seemed much more interested in the case. He had a good eye the last she recalled. He managed to help Sherlock after all. So, Molly told him with Sherlock help about the case start to finish. Sherlock always remembered more than her but they worked around each other well enough that it was almost entertaining especially for Archie who had seen two people like this before.

It was like they knew each other better. It didn't help much that when the other wasn't talking they were spying glancing at each other. Never at the same time but there was something funny about it. He had seen it before with his parents.

When they finished filling him in on the case, he told right out. "You're weird around each other."

Molly gave him a confused glance while Sherlock merely blinked, unsure of what the boy meant exactly.

"How so?"

"You look at each other funnily. When the other is focused, I don't know how to explain it like puppies! Or my mum and dad. You just look very yucky and gross but not in the way I like. Just weird."

Molly colored realizing what he was talking about and she had bite back the urge to look over at Sherlock to see what he was thinking. The man himself briefly glanced over at Molly to see her looking highly tensed. Did Archie observations bother her? He hadn't even realize he had been staring her so much, and he had feeling Molly didn't like the idea of someone pointing it out so much let alone a child who knew nothing about sentiment or their relationship. He had merely just met Molly.

Sherlock spoke up anyways. "Perhaps, it's been a long time since I've seen Molly that's all." Molly peered in Sherlock's direction for a brief moment to see him shrug but she could tell that he wasn't all there. He slid the first set of photos back into their file folder and then grabbed another and began showing more of the photos off.

Archie seemed a bit distracted since making his observation though, and when his mother arrived a bit annoyed with him because hadn't called to remind her to come get him he simply told Molly what he was thinking as Sherlock tried to soothe his mother's worry while Molly and Archie cleaned up the mess. They had managed at least three more case files before it got really late.

"You like Mister Holmes, don't you Miss Hooper?"

"What's not to like?" She giggled, trying to brush off his question just like earlier when the inquired about how she knew Sherlock in the first place. This boy was highly presistent though.

"I think he'd like it if you snogged him. He stares at your mouth when you're talking."

"Archie!" His mum called, not hearing that last bit of his statement but being in a hurry because dinner was waiting at home. Molly managed to keep it together while saying her goodbyes to Archie who thanked her for the stories. He gave her his own version of a smirk. It failed the finesse that most men's elluded to but he was quite the charmer - she had to admit.

He was going to be a lady killer when he got in his teens or possibly older in university. Sherlock was placing the file box back on the shelf in his office when Molly came in deciding she should probably go too. She didn't have work in the morning but she was starting to feel weird not to mention tiredness was setting in.

"He's not wrong, you know."

"Archie."

"Obviously." He turned back to her and leaned against the desk. "I remembered why I asked you here. I like your company, and I wanted to see you."

"You lied to him." She skirted over his admission, because her heart was beating entirely too fast.

His brow furrowed. "We saw each other last week."

"I hear that's a long time to be without someone you want to be around in a more non-friendly way."

Molly stood still, unsure if she was hearing the right? He was still Sherlock but she found it hard to believe the words that he was saying. Did a little boy really make him want to confess so much? It was unreal.

"You're kidding." She breathed in.

"No, no, I never kid. I hang around them sometimes because I find them fascinating. I also find you fascinating. You are interesting in an entirely different way."

She doesn't say anything, knowing that he isn't finished and honestly unsure of what she could say to him at this point. He decides he should move close to her anyways.

He takes the first step as he begins another section of his speech. "I know you can't stand me sometimes yet you decided to stay even though you had at least twenty more minutes to join your friends at the restaurant. I know you don't see them often and I feel bad when I keep you from them, but I am delighted that you stayed and kept me company. It was funner with you, John would have made sarcastic remarks about how Archie inflated my ego. You went along with it as if you were happy to make something good happen for him too."

"Is that why you let him come here even still?"

"He's nice…" He trails off as he stops in front of her.

"He likes you. He wanted me to tell him more about you. I don't think it's just the pictures he comes for."

This seemed to puzzle him, for he hummed a moment. "You're distracting me, Molly. Stop." He berated her playfully.

"I'm distracting you, you are aware how close you're standing to me right?" They both smiled, sometimes she let things slip out like this and she used to apologize for it but now it seemed things were different. If Archie's observations were a clue into how far they had come then so was almost playful look in his eyes.

He didn't stop looking at her either while he reached out and touched her cheek carefully. The tingle that

slid up his arm when his hand met her cheek wasn't anything knew exactly. He had felt when he wasn't touching her, but on the rare ocassion that he decided that he wanted to he liked it immensely.

"Don't run away." He whispered.

Molly blinked, "Now why would I do that?"

"I'm about to kiss you. You don't exactly believe this is happening so you have a choice to opt out of it."

Molly laughed before grabbing his other arm. "You think I'm gonna run away just because you think I'll hate you for it later, or is it because you think that I don't want this anymore?"

Neither of those were exactly positive thoughts of inquiry but Molly Hooper had a habit of saying the things that most would rather just let him figure out on his own. "Why do you always have to ask those kind of questions."

She hummed as he slid his thumb across her cheek caressing her flesh. "It's a bad habit of mines. I'm not sorry though."

"Nor am I, for this." He pressed his mouth against hers before she could say another word, or he could back out of it. Both, highly possibly options. He took it slow seeing as while Archie's words had struck him as funny coming from a child, he had wanted to kiss her. Even when he really shouldn't have wanted to. So he would savour this moment and take it one small motion at the time.

It was the most tender kiss she had ever experienced and she held him up when he felt like he needed to end it. His head stayed pressed against hers.

"I'll have to thank Archie next time he's round. That could have taken you much longer than necessary."

Sherlock laughed at her as he pressed his mouth against her forehead. "Jokes, Molly?"

She realized that he wouldn't be able to not want to kiss her now and that was just fine with her. She liked the way it felt to have his mouth against her skin. It was all compassing and passionate just like the man himself.

"It was a good one." She insisted.

"Yes. Have you eaten today?" He seem to have moved on from that already. His mind was always moving faster. She didn't mind.

"A couple of hours ago, are you hungry?"

He didn't say anything for a minute. "Let's go eat something. I don't trust your rules of what is an acceptable amount of time between meals."

"You're already trying to feed me up and it's only been a minute and a half since I snogged you."

"Get used to it, Mister Holmes."

/end.