A/N: Since I ran out of characters in the summary, the pairings in this story will be the following:

Sherlock/John, John/Major Sholto, Sherlock/Victor Trevor, and Mycroft/Lestrade.

The problem with being color blind was that you didn't know that you were color blind until you met your soul mate. That was what his professor had said when they were learning about the optic nerve. He had said it so sadly that a few people in the class who had somehow maintained their childlike wonder when it came to love and soul mates began to cry. One girl had sobbed hysterically to the point where they had to stop class so she could be given some space. She hiccupped that not being able to see when you met your soul mate was one thing, but it must be worse being the half of the pair who could see because they would have to convince the other one that they really did belong together.

John had no romantic ideas about love or soul mates. He knew that they existed, but he also knew from watching his sister as well as one of his uncles that even though someone may have found their soul mate, things were not always coming up roses. He silently hoped that his world remained black and white because that way he wouldn't have to deal with the heartache of things going back to the way they were when his soul mate died.

People were born with the ability to see all colors on the spectrum of light, but they could only process what they were seeing in black and white. Colors were reserved for when people had met their soul mate. Once that special person was in their life, a person was able to access and process all colors. While their soul mate was alive, one could continue to see all colors. When one of the pair died, the remaining half would revert to their original state of only being able to see black and white. Some soldiered on after their soul mate died, but many lost the ability to care for themselves after the death of their other half. Nursing homes for people who had reverted back to seeing black and white were bleak places that were filled with people of all ages with sad eyes and an aura of defeat about them. John's gran had gone to one, and the cloud of sadness that hung around the building made him want to curl around his grandmother and find a way to force her to see color again.

Though soul mates were supposed to be completely compatible, there were some matches that made no sense, and unfortunately that seemed to run in families. Mr. and Dr. Watson the elder were a happy couple and fit the description on the tin. Most of John's family was filled with happy couples who lived comfortable lives with their soul mates. What worried him was the close proximity of people who had awful relationships with their soul mates. His father's parents despised each other. His mother's youngest brother had abused his wife to the point where he was sent to prison for assaulting her. The only reason she had survived when her world went back to black and white was because of a man she had met in a support group for people who had been abused by their soul mates and had severed their legal connection with their other half. His sister was an awful partner, but Clara was too idealistic for her own good. She thought she could fix Harry because she was her soul mate.

John saw these disastrous relationships and decided that finding his soul mate was too much trouble. He threw himself into school, where he received unnaturally high grades. He then launched himself into medical school, where he was in the top ten percent of his class. From there, in order to avoid the very real possibility of finding a nice, sweet girl to settle down with, John Watson joined the Army. He mucked around a lot and earned himself some funny and some very unsavory nicknames because of his sexual prowess, but John was careful with those who he fooled around with. He would later look back on his techniques for pulling women with some shame, but he usually chose people who were significantly less intelligent than he was. If there was something that was a near constant factor among soul mates, it was that they were generally about as smart as the other one. John felt safe surrounding himself with women who didn't know the barrel end of a gun from the back of one. That way he could have a good fuck with whoever was around but didn't have to worry about the color.

Then he met James Sholto.

There was something about his commander that made John pause. He had never looked at another man with that sort of interest before then. He had gotten off with a few mates when he was a teenager and hormones demanded that people jerk off at the most inconvenient of times, but those had been strictly testosterone-driven. There hadn't been any sort of sexual attraction between them other than the fact that the other person was an actual body to rub off against. There was something different about Sholto. Maybe it was the fact that John had always been attracted to authority (hell, he had joined the Army), or maybe it was the fact that they were in the desert and there were no women around him that wouldn't cause him to have a reprimand if they were caught. Whatever the reason was, John Watson, who had developed quite the reputation with ladies on several continents, found himself choking back the name of his superior whenever he was able to sneak a wank.

He knew that they weren't soul mates because nothing had changed with his sight, and he knew nothing had changed with Sholto's because John was the one who had given the man his latest physical and one of the routine questions on any medical exam was if the person saw in black and white or in color. With that worry out of the way, John began to have a small sexuality crisis, which is not the best thing to have in the middle of Afghanistan. He was a very open-minded man, but he had always been straight as an arrow, with the exception of that little kink where he would have adolescent wanks with friends. These were easy to put down to testosterone, so he didn't have a problem with that part of his sexual past. Now, testosterone may be playing a factor, but to be perfectly honest John didn't know much about the man other than his medical history and a bit about his professional life. Sholto was a closed book, and maybe that was what made John want him, but the fact of the matter was that John wanted a man and that was something that was very confusing for him.

He decided to try to get the closed-off officer better. Perhaps if he spoke with him, John would realize that this little infatuation was nothing more than his hormones rebelling because there had been no warm, wet, glorious tightness around his cock in several months. Determined to find an excuse to speak with his superior about something not related to the war, John kept his eyes open and his ears alert for reasons for him to speak with Sholto. It took him two weeks, but finally John decided to flip open the man's medical file and it was there that he found his answer. Of course Sholto needed to be regularly screened for scoliosis because he had a mild case. If anything changed, there would need to be changes made so the man would be able to perform his job. That was how John Watson lured his commanding officer into his office every week for a chance to run a hand up the man's back, then he could keep him there with the promise of a cup of tea and company.

It turned out that John and Sholto were rather dissimilar. John was amicable and well-liked, whereas Sholto was commanding in a way that didn't require many words. He was closed off from others for some reason that John couldn't understand, but he knew the way to get the man talking was to bring up cricket. When he was at home, John would switch on a cricket match when he needed to go to sleep, but his father was enough of a fan that he knew the sport fairly well. All he needed to do was research players and how different teams were doing that season.

The turning point in their friendship was when Sholto asked John to his quarters to watch a match one night when they both happened to be off duty. John had accepted and was determined to stay awake through the whole match, but he failed miserably at that and ended up falling asleep on Sholto's shoulder. He woke up when a hand pressed onto his shoulder and gently shook him, and he groaned.

"Must have been more tired than I thought I was," he lied, his voice gravelly.

Sholto smiled, his face still close. "Neither of these were your team. You're perfectly within your rights to doze off during a match that isn't for your own squad."

"Still, I haven't had a chance to watch a match in ages." This was not a lie. The last time John had watched cricket was at home with his father while he was on leave. He had ended up curled up on the couch with his father's hand in his hair. It had reminded him of when he was a kid and the memory left him warm inside.

"We shall have to find another time to watch, then," Sholto breathed, leaning imperceptibly closer to John's face. John matched the movement, and before he knew it, they were breathing into each other's space with their noses brushing. "Is this something you want, Watson?" Sholto asked, his voice unsteady for the first time since John had met him.

"Oh, God yes," John replied shakily. One of them closed the gap between their mouths, and John was suddenly being kissed within an inch of his life. John swung his leg over Sholto's lap and straddled him, knocking their arousals together. They kissed hard enough to bruise, and John was about to suggest that they move somewhere more comfortable when Sholto, who was considerably taller, stood up and carried John over to his cot without ever breaking contact. They plucked at clothes and kissed until they were gasping and naked against each other.

"Enough," John gasped, pulling away. He didn't give Sholto time to react to the slight rejection because he quickly shimmied down so his head was level with the Major's hips. He hadn't done this since he was sixteen, when he and another perpetually horny mate had choked on each other's cocks for a few minutes, but he figured that it had been done enough to him that he could figure it out. Taking a deep breath, John bent down and took a little over an inch of Sholto's cock into his mouth. It was awkward and he choked more than he wanted to admit, but it only took a few minutes for Sholto to scrabble at his shoulder and gasp, "Watson," before John pulled off and finished off his commander with his hand.

As Sholto lay there panting, John reached over for a tissue and wiped off both his hand and Sholto. He then crept up the bed and curled up against his commander. He was hard enough to crack concrete, but it could wait.

It took Sholto a few moments to come back to himself, but when he did, he turned to John and said, "I'm so sorry, Watson. I've been so caught up that I forgot about you."

John waved his hand and gave a half shrug with the shoulder he wasn't leaning on. "Are you alright? You were gone for a little while."

"Yes," Sholto replied tersely. "Yes, I am. I haven't been with anyone for quite a while, so coming off and having you still in my bed is a bit of a shock."

"I'm not the type to suck and run," John replied with a wink. Sholto gave a small smile.

"Indeed. May I?" Sholto asked, gesturing down at John's penis. John gave an enthusiastic nod and rolled onto his back as Sholto crawled backwards down the bed so he was at eye level with John's dick.

John was feeling overly scrutinized when the tip of Sholto's tongue tapped John's frenulum and then traced the vein on the bottom down to his balls. John expected Sholto to move back in the direction that he had come from, but instead he placed two open mouthed kisses onto each testicle, which made John squirm in pleasure. He gave a short series of gasps of pleasure, and Sholto responded by lifting both of John's legs over his shoulders and opening his mouth as wide as he could and putting both balls into his mouth and rolling them around. John was almost convinced that he could come just like that, but suddenly the heat was gone and John groaned. He hoped that he hadn't gotten too excited and had scared off the quieter man, but he was again surprised by the trail of breath down his perineum that blew in short bursts over his anus. The tongue that darted out and licked him was completely unexpected, and John had to stuff a fist in his mouth to keep from howling out loud and alerting people around them to their activity. Sholto kept licking and teasing until John began to squirm. He popped up so John could see him again and swallowed his cock. It took only a minute or so of bobbing and cupping his balls before John went rigid and came.

John's brain was firing in ways that in no way helpful. Between having an orgasm with someone else and having that someone else be another man was overwhelming. He stared at the ceiling and tried to control his breathing. Sholto was saying something about having wanted this to happen for a long time and how if John only wanted it to be casual he could do that. He was well-versed with the battlefield flings that could happen when two people were lonely and a little unsteady in their surroundings. John must have been silent for too long after Sholto stopped talking because he called John's name gently.

John snapped up, nearly clipping Sholto's chin with his shoulder. "I have to go," he panted. He jumped out of the bed and began to throw his clothes back on so he could leave as quickly as possible. "I have to – I just. Sorry. Sorry about all of this," he said with a vague gesticulation of his hand as he pulled his boots back on. He registered the look of shock on Sholto's face and cringed. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done this." Before he could be convinced otherwise, he sprinted out the door and across the compound to his office. As he ran, the thought that he was making a mistake flitted through his mind, but with a cringe he realized he couldn't go back.

Apparently he was the type to suck and run.

A/N: Hello all! I've written something new! I saw a post on Tumblr about this a while back and started writing this based on that. I plan to update daily. As always, feedback is lovely and greatly appreciated! xoxoxo

As always: I own none of the characters in this story, and I apologize to those who are responsible for them for playing with their things.