"Success would have been very certain," Watson said, truthfully, "at any stage. I was rather taken with you from the beginning, you realise, even if I was intending it to be a merely fraternal sort of regard." He pressed a lazy sort of kiss to the side of Holmes's neck before settling back down with his brandy. "At any rate, as I said, it's fortunate for my health that you did not 'leap on me all at once.'"

They had been good days, and what it meant for his regard for Mary, he didn't like to think about, but they had been good, agonising days.

"I really never had a chance," he observed, thoughtfully. "Rooming with a handsome, charming-if-tempermental artistic genius, particularly one who was able to provide me a taste of adventure when I sorely needed it? I should have known better than to try to remain platonic."