HI MATT

[wearsthecoats]

Sherlock has:

• an armchair by the fire
• an expression of unreasonable cheer
• a mug of cold-pressed coffee
• a truly impressive collection of hickeys, accented by a well-bitten lip that only recently stopped bleeding.

Comments

[wearsthecoats]

"You giggled. That's worse."

[semicharmed]

"I'm sorry," he murmurs, fingers drifting penitently up his neck.

(He is lying. It was adorable and he has no regrets.)

[wearsthecoats]

"The hell you are."

[semicharmed]

"Yeah, not really," he admits.

An untroubled ceilingward expression.

"You're welcome to try and persuade me to be, though. We've still got one more round of experiments."

[wearsthecoats]

"Mmmm. Persuade you how?" he inquires. "Does positive reinforcement or negative suit your fancy better?"

[semicharmed]

"That is a very good question."

That he doesn't get asked very often.


"It probably depends on your respective definitions." Most people, he's guessing, would find orgasm denial and self-aphrodisiac towards the more negative end of things, but his own perception is somewhat different.

[wearsthecoats]

"Let's go with positive then. Harder to fuck up."

[semicharmed]

He runs a fingertip along the edge of Sherlock's ear, up and then back down.

"That's very smart.

Positive it is."

(His brain replays good boy, and his lips twitch in amusement.)

[wearsthecoats]

"What's funny?" he wonders.

[semicharmed]

"Hm? Nothing."

[wearsthecoats]

"Liar."

[semicharmed]

He glances off to the side, grinning.

[wearsthecoats]

Sherlock snorts.

[semicharmed]

Matt rolls his eyes ceilingward again, this time in some embarrassment.


But admits, cheerfully enough, "Verbal cues."

[wearsthecoats]

"Mm?"

[semicharmed]

Oh man.

"Well you said positive reinforcement," Matt attempts to clarify, "of which praise is one type. And I remembered you said 'good boy' earlier, which I thought was funny because it should have made me feel like a golden retriever but ... kind of didn't."

[wearsthecoats]

"Oh," he reflects. "Hm. I think I like that."

He also likes the fact that he is lying down while Matt is sitting up. It's an interesting reversal.

[semicharmed]

He laughs, fingers stroking along Sherlock's jaw.

"The notion has potential."

[wearsthecoats]

"Doesn't it?"

[semicharmed]

"I certainly won't knock it until I try it."

[wearsthecoats]

"We are here to experiment," he muses. "What exactly would you like to try?"

[semicharmed]

Matt pauses thoughtfully.


"Actually," he says, "this idea has some implications for something I'm going to try with somebody else. I had wondered how he might feel about an encounter where nothing happened unless he explicitly wanted it to. As in," a twitch of his lips, "I do what he tells me to. And only that."

He shrugs.

"Kind of an extreme case. But I'd be interested to mess around on the spectrum."

[wearsthecoats]

"...As would I," he says, also thoughtful. "The idea has a certain academic appeal."

[semicharmed]

"Yeah?"

Matt's fingers brush his cheek.

"Which part?"

[wearsthecoats]

"It would be an interesting challenge to have control like that. The goal, of course, being to create a mutually satisfactory encounter without... spontaneous input."