The Game (Moriarty x Reader)

Chapter 21

"Mm, yeah." Y/n being oblivious to James' avoidance of any loving confirmation continued to eat her ice cream as if everything was fine.

Everything was not fine.

James' felt as if he lost leverage. Not that he thought he was ever going to need it, but you never know for certain with these fickle things.

"Y/n do you ever wonder what it would be like nowadays without being in the business we're in?" Y/n sat pondering for a moment as James bore holes in the bottom of the ice cream container. "Seeing as we'd have never met. Certainly not in the same circumstances we did at least. But, do you think we'd both be alive? Or well?"

"I think that, if I weren't kept busy with this whole, underground government business that I would most definitely be dead. Oh I can't imagine not having the training I've had. I'd have been dead before my thirties. Not even that I'd have been murdered, or anything spectacular like that. Probably just run over. I wasn't the most observant person when I was young. I was very intimidated by anyone that had common skills. Quite strange, but, what can you do when you're young? Except for isolate yourself and refuse to learn anything other than academics, that is." They both sat in silence as the words hung in the air. Afraid of people with common skills? What does that even mean? How did they traverse through childhood without acquiring skills?

"So, you didn't have any skills yourself? At all? You just went to your core subject classes and negated anything else?"

"Absolutely. It was really actually pretty amazing when I finally realized that I could and would do anything I wanted to. Just had to put my heart to it and push my mind out of the way for a bit." James stared at Y/n's face for any trace of a lie.

He couldn't believe what a fucking softy he'd actually enjoyed the company of. Here was this woman who just implied that in order to get her life together she had to listen to her heart, and James was awestruck. He had his jaw open slightly and just looked. How did this professional get their start like that? When not acting like she was a complete idiot she was quite the trooper. Always on some kind of undercover mission, calm and collected. Now here she was, stating that she re-enacted a Tom Petty song when she was younger.

"Wait so you really, really, really, pulled a mind over matter with your heart? Now how's that. When observed in a professional setting, and I use that term loosely, you seem so calloused. So rough and ready to set out with no regrets and no prisoners. How did you evolve into this machine from such an obviously pleasant little girl?" Y/n bent over to take the last bite of ice cream, took her bowl to the sink, washed it out, sat back down and answered with a compeltely straight face.

"Fuckin' drugs mate."

James of course had his face contorted into the biggest grin you'd ever seen. "Drugs? You did drugs?" His words were seperated by individual fits of soft laughter.

"Yes. A fuckin' serious matter. They threw me in rehab. Y'know after the whole I can do whatever I want to moment in my life. Not fun I'll tell you, I straightened out again real quick after that."

"So rehab was a no go? How'd they catch you with them?" One participant in this conversation was obviously having a field day with all of this information.

"I was watching Hot Fuzz in my room, as any college age person does, and I was so messed up, I just couldn't hear it, so I kept turning the fuckin' thing up and suddenly there was a knock on my door. A noise complaint. A damn noise complaint got me busted for hard drugs and sent on my life path."

"So, what, how did rehab send you on this, path to become a total dweeb working for the good guys?" James looked on, giddy with anticipation. He may have lost some leverage but now he's got ideas circulating on how to completely ruin Y/n's life if ever need be.

HEY LADIES I'M SO DISAPPOINTED IN MY LACK OF ENTHUSIASM ON REWRITING MY FIRST FEW CHAPTERS UGH LMAO SO HERE'S A REALLY SHORT CHAPTERWITH JUST TALKING N STUFF