[for the @calaisreno May Prompts Faire. g-rated today, lol.]
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) 17: chaos (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28) (29) (30) (31)
'Daddy! Tiger!'
John, who had been focused on his eReader, finds his daughter standing in front of him with a manic light in her eye. 'Tiger!'
He looks around the sitting room until his eyes land on the plush tiger Sherlock had gifted her those weeks ago, then he holds it out to her. 'Say please, Rosie.'
She grabs onto it and waddles off, definitely not saying anything resembling please. John rolls his eyes, lips twitching.
Two days later, she refuses to leave the flat, which is new and different. 'No, Daddy! Tiger will be lonely!'
John drops his head in defeat. 'Sherlock, will you--' Sherlock reappears, holding the toy, before John has a chance to finish the sentence. 'Thank you,' he says tiredly.
And so forth.
'D'you think she's got an imaginary friend tiger?' he ponders aloud as he and Sherlock wait behind a delicious-smelling Burmese restaurant for some counterfeiters. 'She seems awfully keen.'
'Hmm,' is Sherlock's non-answer, and John huffs, watching as the detective's mind churns through the facts of the case and completely ignores everything else. Some things never change, John thinks. Thank god.
Luckily (?), the mystery is solved the very next day.
Everyone in the household is very sleepy and warm, recharging from the excitement of the past week, so the sitting room is quiet and peaceful in a way it rarely is.
Which means, of course, that it must be shattered.
'Tiger!' Rosie suddenly shrieks from Sherlock's lap, and slides off so quickly she loses her balance but scrambles back up, unfazed, to shamble towards their visitor.
Which is a cat.
A rotund, wide-eyed, orange-striped cat.
'Tiger!' his daughter yells again, and the cat is off like a shot.
'Whoa there,' John says, scooping Rosie up and turning to follow the path of the creamsicle tornado. It's swift, the cat disappearing (back?) into Sherlock's room with alacrity, but surprisingly destructive.
John quickly assesses the aftermath while Rosie squirms to go after her new best friend. The skull is on the ground, books and papers are absolutely everywhere, a couple frames have jumped off the walls somehow, Sherlock's spindly music stand has wilted in terror, and Rosie's toys are, if it's even possible, even more of a chaotic mess than they'd been minutes before.
John closes his eyes and prays for patience. Both his and Sherlock's. But then he hears--
He opens his eyes to find Sherlock laughing. Doubled over laughing, in fact.
'Are you…' John asks dubiously, eyeing him. '... all right? Did it destroy something you hated?'
Sherlock snorts. 'No, no, it's just--' He puts his hands on his hips and clears his throat, the grin echoing on his face. 'Twenty years ago, if you'd told me I'd one day not only be sober, but with a partner and child and now a housepet--' He barks out another laugh, seemingly unable to stop himself.
John grins at the word "partner," then clocks the rest of the sentence. 'Wait-- We're keeping it?'
'Yes!' Rosie contributes with gusto. 'Keeping the tiger!'
Sherlock strides over and plucks Rosie out of John's arms. 'Yes, we are. Inasmuch as one can keep a cat used to the out of doors,' he amends. 'What shall we name him, Rosamund?'
'His name is Reginald,' Rosie says. Or at least, John thinks that's what she says. She's barely two and a half, after all, and John still sometimes feels like she's speaking a foreign language.
Sherlock, though, nods as if he heartily agrees. 'Reginald is a fine name. Your father will have to go and procure some food, a box, and probably some flea-preventative, and then our new friend Reginald will be all set.'
John starts to protest, but both his daughter and Sherlock turn big eyes on him, and he has absolutely no chance. 'Yeah, sure,' he says dryly. 'You can hold down the fort while I do so?'
Sherlock waves a hand, already moving on to walk Rosie around the room, presumably assessing damage. 'Of course.'
'Right.' John shrugs on his coat and heads out.
The last thing he hears is, 'Now, did you know, Rosamund, that a group of tigers is known as an "ambush" or a "streak"?'
Child, partner, cat, John contemplates as he steps out into the grey brightness. It's exactly what he'd thought for himself twenty years ago. Except... nothing like that at all.
Thank god.
[❤️]
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Because the tfc mercs are the 'evil shadow opposite' of their tf2 counterparts, id like to imagine that tfc medic was a genuine field doctor who cared about his job and the sanctity of it a lot.
Maybe he sincerely tried to heal and help and work with tfc heavy who only pushed him away since "nurses dont belong on the battlefield". Idk what i like better, cheavy just being like that and hating all attempts of cooperation from people he deems lesser than him, or him wanting to get closer with tfc medic but his firm beliefs and insecurities twisting that want into disgust and hatred
Im still torn about what made cmedic not stick with the tfc team in the comic, it could be this attitude they all had finally getting to him, or the much spicier 'cheavy killed him after he got tired of his ass/his own emotions getting too strong to suppress so he had to get rid of the problem'.
Now that i write this i absolutely like the second option more, it kinda makes me see the moment cheavy attacked medic in the comic in a different light. Like, he did this before. No issue getting rid of the same problem again.
(Not saying cheavy liked medic whatsoever, he didn't, he hated his guts. I imagine that by this point cheavy grew to be distant enough to almost fully suppress that need for anyone who tries to care for him again. Not to even mention how incompatible cheavy and tf2 medic are as characters. The "problem" this time is another medic trying to work with him on the battlefield, trying to protect him and care for him, trying to make him feel weak. in his head at least.)
Also makes the fact that his demise was a heavy/medic team-up even more delicious, the powerful bond he could've had but was too insecure to accept was the exact thing that killed him. after he tried to get rid of the problem the same way he did last time he had the chance to create something beautiful and stronger than he could ever be alone.
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