Chapter 7
After spending the whole cab ride into the city trying not to think about Jim Moriarty and quickly dropping his bags off at the hotel reception, Sherlock stepped back into the fresh air and headed to the right. His room wouldn’t be ready for another hour or so and he didn’t feel upset about it in the least. He was quite happy to go for an extended walk to make up for the time he’d spent sitting on the plane and it was always good to familiarise himself with his surroundings anyway. A part of him couldn’t help but wonder what Jim’s reaction would be if he was told his room wasn’t ready. He smiled at the thought of the consulting criminal’s annoyed facial expression that he would likely display to the receptionist. Almost rolling his eyes at himself, he pulled his phone out to text his brother in yet another attempt to stop thinking about Jim Moriarty and what he might be up to or how we would react to awfully specific situations that had nothing to do with work. Not wanting to discuss his flight alongside the criminal, he merely asked Mycroft whether he had made an appointment at the bank for him. It didn’t take long for his brother to reply with the date of the following day and a time in the afternoon. At least this meant that he could take the day to get settled into his hotel room and do whatever he felt like to recover from that flight. The rain from earlier had given way to some sunshine by the time he finished his walk and he once again forced himself not to think about how Jim had complained about the weather earlier.
With enough time having gone by now, Sherlock made his way to the sixth floor where a room with a view over the bay was waiting for him. Once inside, he left his bags by the door and kicked his shoes off before walking towards the window. Mycroft must have had a bad conscience about something when booking this, it was unexpectedly luxurious. Both the view and the new-looking furniture held in light, neutral colours, were more than he technically needed and it wasn’t usually like his brother to book the most expensive option. It was probably worth investigating what could have led to the reservation of this room, but for now all Sherlock really wanted was a shower. Being sent here on short notice, sitting next to Jim on the plane and taking in all he could during his walk had already given him more than enough material to keep his brain busy for a few hours.
He quickly unpacked some essentials from his suitcase before getting out of his clothes, carelessly leaving them behind on the carpeted floor before walking into the luxurious bathroom. By the time he stepped back into his room dressed in a soft hotel bathrobe and with wet hair dripping onto his shoulders, he felt much better. It was only afternoon now, but he didn’t usually mind staying up late when he was at home, so despite the different time zones it shouldn’t be too difficult to stay awake long enough until it was time to go to sleep. Since Mycroft was paying for the room, he grabbed a bottle of overpriced water from the mini bar and took it over to the bed where he sprawled out on the crisp sheets. Finding some basic information about the bank he was going to visit the next day wasn’t difficult. A quick online research told him about the building and the part of the city it was in as well as the bank itself. Mycroft still hadn’t mentioned why exactly this was important or what was at risk of being stolen, but Sherlock might be able to find out once he actually went there. Officially though, his job was to observe the place and figure out whether anything was out of the ordinary. The idea was that he could find a weak spot in the security system or notice something suspicious that nobody else had taken note of so far. That way they would be able to stop any break-ins from happening in the first place. Sherlock would have preferred working on a case where something actually had been stolen already. Some rare artifact disappearing from a locked room, no signs of a break-in, everyone claiming it’s impossible– An unfamiliar sound from his phone interrupted his fantasy of the ideal crime.
It wasn’t the notification sound his phone usually made when he got a text, but sure enough there was a message from a number he didn’t recognise although it seemed to have been saved to his contacts.
Eat your croissant xx -JM
Sherlock looked around. There was little chance that anyone was watching him through the window, unless Jim had placed a sniper somewhere on a distant building with the sole purpose of keeping an eye on his eating habits. It wouldn’t have been impossible for the criminal to place a recording device in the hotel room though, but– No, it wasn’t that. The pastry was still in his bag so even if there was a camera in the room, Jim had no way of knowing it was there. Sherlock could have eaten it by now so unless Jim had kept an eye on him the whole time, he couldn’t know.
Educated guess? -SH
He didn’t have to wait long to get an answer.
Oooh, he does reply… I know you forget to eat, that croissant was $6 btw -JM
So is the bottle of water I just opened. -SH
Aah, big brother is paying for your trip. Just make sure to remove everything from the fridge, they’ll add it to the bill automatically even if you don’t drink it… -JM
Sherlock looked towards the fridge. There had been a sign on the inside to warn him of this. Depending on how this case went, he might actually follow Jim’s advice just for the sake of it. With no response coming to mind, he left his phone on the bed and walked back to the bathroom to dry his hair and get dressed. He wasn’t sure how concerned he should be about the fact that the criminal had apparently saved his number in Sherlock’s phone and set a unique ringtone for it at some point during the flight. There wasn’t anything important saved on the device, but he wondered whether there was any risk of spyware being installed on it now. Not that it really mattered; Jim could definitely afford to have him watched 24/7 if he wanted to. Sherlock looked at himself in the mirror. He’d shaved, showered and gotten dressed in his pyjama trousers and a t-shirt. Since he didn’t expect to leave the hotel again until the next day, he simply blow dried his hair without paying any attention to how it looked.
On his way back to the bed, he grabbed the paper bag with the croissant and took a bite. It wasn’t quite as good as the one he’d eaten on the plane, but edible enough. Luckily his body wasn’t used to three meals each day, because the time zones would have messed with that regular schedule if he had one. The chime of the new ringtone caught his attention.
Would you be willing to watch Squid Game? -JM
Sherlock remembered the name of the television show they had shortly discussed on the plane. He’d thought it was some sort of video game at first and something about the suggestion of Jim playing it had been incredibly funny according to the criminal. Considering he did want to know more about the other man, it would make sense to watch something that they had talked about. Perhaps it could give him some insight into what Jim cared to watch in his free time.
Yes. You mentioned an uncensored version? -SH
He wasn’t entirely sure whether Jim had been referring to some illegal version that was only available on specific websites or not. A quick online research suggested the show was available on a streaming service, but Sherlock didn’t have an account. He had just started debating whether he could somehow charge the subscription to Mycroft’s credit card when he heard a knock on the door. For a moment he stayed completely still. If this was someone from the reception with some sort of welcome basket, he could pretend he wasn’t there and they might leave it at the door. There was another knock. At that point he decided it would be better to simply deal with whoever it was now before they decided to come back later when he might already be watching Jim’s show.
With a sigh, he pushed himself off the bed again and walked to the door to open it just enough to tell the other person whatever was necessary for them to leave him alone.
“There you are! Took you a while, thought you’d fallen asleep.” Jim remarked casually as ever. The criminal had changed from his outfit earlier that day into a hoodie and sweatpants. Why exactly he was standing in front of Sherlock’s room seemed unclear though.
“What are you doing here?”
“You said you’d watch Squid Game.” Jim shrugged.
Sherlock opened the door wider since it didn’t seem as if the criminal was about to turn around and leave.
“Yes, I was just looking into that– How did you find my room?” There were several possibilities, including the aforementioned spyware on his phone.
“My room’s down the hall.” The criminal pointed to the left.
“Oh. Right.”
“Saw you walking into the building earlier and may have called the front desk to ask for the room extension of my colleague. To be fair, we do work together… Sort of…” Sherlock narrowed his eyes at that statement. “For… Against… Are you going to let me in so we can watch that show or not?” Jim was technically giving him an option here. He could say no, close the door and be done with it. He could also have ignored his promise to text back. He also could have called Mycroft and told him all about the flight and their conversations, but he hadn’t.
“Fine, yes.” He stepped aside to let Jim into the room. It didn’t look like the criminal had brought anything with him apart from his phone and hotel keycard, but he had obviously taken a shower since his arrival at the hotel. Sherlock wasn’t sure what to think about the fact that his first observation was that Jim smelled good.
When he walked back into the room, the criminal was already sitting on the edge of the bed and trying to connect his phone to the large television that was placed on the desk in front of him.
“Want something to drink?” He offered in an attempt to be civil since that was something they were doing now apparently.
“Hmm, are you only asking because your brother is paying? Either way I’ll take some water please.” Jim smiled faintly without looking up from his phone screen. Still unsure how this was going to work out, Sherlock grabbed a second glass from the cupboard and placed it near the bottle on the bedside table. By the time he’d sat down on the bed with his legs crossed, Jim had managed to connect his phone and display the streaming service on the larger screen.
“D’you mind?” The criminal nodded towards the free spot next to Sherlock. He didn’t quite see what else they were supposed to do. It wasn’t as if there were many options as to where else Jim could sit, so he indicated to the criminal that he should just lean back if he felt like it. What he didn’t expect was that Jim crawled to the headboard, pulled the sheets up and made himself comfortable underneath.
“Right then, how long is this show?” Judging by the criminal’s position it looked like they were about to get ready for a sleepover despite the fact that it was still the middle of the day.
“A bit more than eight hours if you want to watch the whole season.” Conveniently that would mean they’d finish at a relatively decent time to go to sleep. The perfect activity to kill time. Sherlock momentarily questioned why he had decided he was fine with this. Truthfully, he had to admit that spending time with Jim wasn’t worse than being around other people. On the contrary, while Jim could be extremely irritating, he was also clever and witty. The criminal seemed to have little trouble understanding how Sherlock operated and he hadn’t really criticised him for it either. There was all the teasing of course, but that seemed to just be a natural way for them to communicate. How else were they supposed to have conversations? Neither of them were the type for idle small talk or lengthy discussions about how they currently felt about work. If the conversation was supposed to be entertaining rather than educational then teasing was the only way to go in Sherlock’s opinion. He was starting to wonder how things would have gone if they’d met under different circumstances. Somehow he was beginning to think that, had he met Jim at uni, they would have had a great time together.
“Alright, try to relax and not overthink every single detail.” Jim gave him an emphatic look before tapping his phone screen and starting the first episode.