#@sherlollysecretsanta @destinysrequiem

[amyutz]

Secret Santa Fic "Snowflakes in his Hair"

Molly and Sherlock walked down the dark London street on one cold, winter evening. Molly slipped on an icy patch and Sherlock grabbed her arm to steady her. As they continued walking, he kept his arm linked through hers. 

She said, “Greg put on a lovely holiday party! After the stressful year we’ve all had, it was great to see everyone relaxed and just enjoying themselves.” 

He replied, “Yes, Gavin did an adequate job fulfilling societal expectations for a Christmas party. There were plenty of mince pies, repetitive holiday tunes and various forms of alcohol. What more could one want?” 

She giggled, “You didn’t seem to want more. You helped yourself to more than several cups of that mulled wine.” 

He said, “You had 4.3 cups, or approximately 1350ml of mulled wine, which had added brandy, only stopping when Sally Donovan commented that you were competing with Rudolph for who would have the reddest nose.” 

Molly hiccupped and said, “I thought that was very rude of her. I didn’t have that much. On the other hand, Phillip Anderson did, did you see him challenging the Christmas tree to a staring contest? He then accused it of cheating because he said the lights were distracting him.” 

By this time they had arrived at Molly’s mid-terrace home’s front door. She stood on the one step that led to her front door and said, “Thanks for walking me home, Sherlock. This time of year it gets dark so early!” 

He nodded. “I wanted to ensure that my favourite pathologist got home safely from George Lestrade’s first annual holiday party.” 

She asked, “Why was the party at Greg’s this year? I forgot to ask, but normally you have a party at this time every year.” 

“Mrs. Hudson is doing renovations on my flat, replacing the lino. Apparently, the experiments I performed with corrosive acid ate through the flooring. Just because you could see straight through my floor into the kitchen of her flat, she thought it necessary to replace the flooring, and is sending me the bill! It’s very annoying, the whole place has been off limits for over a week!” 

Molly was surprised, “Where have you been sleeping then?” 

He said, “The first few nights I didn’t sleep. I was working on a case and I needed to stake out a high street shop. The ‘Paws and Relax’ pet groomers was an obvious front for smuggling uncut diamonds into this country hidden inside the dog collars.” 

She smiled, charmed, as always, by hearing about his eccentric cases. 

He went on, “But the lack of sleep couldn’t continue, so for the last few nights I’ve been sleeping on John and Mary’s settee. But our goddaughter has been teething, and her cries have been preventing me from a solid night’s sleep.” 

Molly responded, “Poor Rosie! Well why didn’t you tell me about this? I have a lumpy sofa that you are free to sleep on. I even have my grandmother’s hand crocheted mauve blanket that you can use.” 

Just at that moment, a cold wind blew and little bits of white started floating down from the sky. Molly saw a few small snowflakes settle in Sherlock’s dark hair. Without thinking, she reached out to touch them. She realized she had never touched his hair before, although she’s often fantasized about the dark curls. She’d wondered if he used products to make his hair stay in those perfect, sexy waves, but his hair felt soft and untouched by mousse or gel. 

She started as she realized she’d been fondling his hair, and was surprised to see that he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he was smiling at her and he said, “I’m tired of kipping of people’s sofas, what I’m looking for is a real bed to sleep in.” 

Maybe it was due to the wine, maybe it was due to the magic of the snow in his hair, but Molly leaned forward and did something she’d been wanting to do for years: she kissed him. 

To her surprise and delight, he didn’t pull away. In fact, his arm snaked around her waist and pulled her closer. Her hand stayed in those dark, snowy curls. The kiss continued and deepened. 

After quite a long time, she pulled back and murmured, “Looking for a bed, eh? I have a double and I’m sure there’s room for two.” 

He put his hand up to brush a snowflake from her hair and said, “Excellent, I was hoping you’d say that.”