Lessons in friendship 2 - Touches

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Chapter 4

Irene again

Irene returned, and with her, her irritating touches.

Most of them weren't even physical, but Sherlock could sense them on himself or on his personal space nevertheless.

When she turned up sleeping in his bed it felt like she was invading his privacy profoundly.

The way she touched his stuff was not how he like it, especially in that moment. She had no access privileges to his things, those were only granted to John… and partially to Mrs Hudson.

It felt like she touched him by this without permission again.

At least she did not touch the violin.

After she took a shower she dressed in his blue dressing gown. By then he had, at least a bit, gotten used to her behaviour, which seemed to be a part of her game or strategy or whatever, though he had not the faintest idea why she might be doing it or what this was supposed to cause in average men.

He didn't trust her and when John seemed irritated and behaved affronted or something he wondered if she was creating sexual tension in the room. Must have been, he realised moments later because John made a comment concerning baby names, once more he knew he was absolutely blind to the things she did. He dismissed it, but then she kissed him on the cheek. He ignored that, too as another unrequested touch by her.

Was it a part of her game or did she try to provoke a reaction?

Must have been.

When she informed him she'd have him on the table, he stared at her intensely, trying out to figure out what she meant.

The interaction seemed to make John uneasy… or maybe Sherlock's confusion was.

No, he had no idea, her face showed nothing and he ignored that remark, too.

John left him with her without warning him.

He felt not good with that. She informed him John had been gone for hours. He did not like it at all.

What had she done while he was in his mind palace? Her being present was one more step into his comfort zone he did not like.

She came very close and rested her hand on his. At first he was uneasy with the touch but only a moment later an interesting idea for a new experiment popped up in his mind.

Oh, a new chance to test something first handed.

Although he was slightly smitten with her closeness and her smell, he saw the opportunity and used it. He turned his hand under hers and held her wrist carefully, then imitated her movements, speaking slowly and coming closer. If she was doing it, it was probably the right behaviour. His forefinger found her pulse point and counted, then Mrs Hudson interrupted them and Irene retreated immediately.

The irony of the thing stomped his mind.

Was she trying to seduce him?

Was she aware he was not at all interested in being seduced?

He knew the chemistry and he decided to collect data.

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Some time later he learned that she had know about his inexperience in detail, it had been quite humiliating, not only to be told by his own brother that he had walked into her trap and then realised that her seduction had only been an distraction from the real thing she was doing and that it had worked as planned, because she found another weak spot.

Mycroft had pointed out his weaknesses and scolded him and Irene had humiliated him even more by suggesting that he had really believed she was interested in him.

But then everything fell into place and the complexity of it all was quite interesting.

He finally used the knowledge of how she had used her touch and mimicked her. Took her wrist, leaned very near to her ear, whispered into it. He told her about her body's reactions and revealed the truth that had just enfolded itself in his mind. The password was right and in the end they had the data.

Although, he still found her very interesting and the complexity of her plans disturbingly beautiful, which made him go to rescue her from being executed some time later.

But his frustration about being played somehow made a connection to being touched. Consequently he evaded every touch for months after that, not eager to explore the thing any further for a while. It was clearly a step back but he didn't care, it was too irritating to think about the topic.

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A/N:

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