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Sherlock always got nervous when he had to leave William alone for too long.
He wasn’t fully healed yet, hadn’t gotten used to seeing with one eye, and while in a better place, still wasn’t doing great mentally. What if something happened to him while Sherlock was away? What if he did something to himself? What if he- Sherlock didn’t want to continue the train of thought, but he had no idea how to stop it. If anything happened to his Liam, he would lose himself.
This was the first time one of his worst fears came true.
He opened the door. No sweet voice welcoming him home. Weird, he never did that. Maybe he was asleep? He sure hoped he was asleep. The living room was empty. So was the bedroom. He kept looking. Empty, empty, empty. Liam was nowhere to be found. Panic was rising in his chest. Everywhere. He looked everywhere.
Everywhere except the bathroom. The door was slightly ajar. He could hear the sound of water running. Oh fuck.
He rushed in to see William cleaning up a cut on his forearm. One that seemed pretty deep. Judging from the angle, it had to be self-inflicted. And it seemed like a clean cut. Done with a very sharp blade, and absolutely not accidental.
Sherlock felt the world crashing down around him. What happened, why did he do that, how could he leave Liam alone when he knew this could happen, how could he be so careless…
He came back to his senses when he heard a soft gasp from Liam. He looked up to see the man in front of him looking away, tears starting to form in the corners of his eyes. His voice sounded broken as he called Sherlock’s name.
“I’m sorry.”
What was he apologising for? Sherlock was the one at fault here. It was his negligence that caused this.
“I worried you didn’t I?”
Sherlock’s heart ached looking at the sad smile on William’s face. When was this man going to stop putting others’ feelings before his own? Even when he was the one bleeding, he was still worried more about Sherlock being upset.
“Stop that, Liam.”
That gave the other man a pause. His brows furrowed in confusion, and he tilted his head to the side with a light smile on his face. “Huh? What do you mean by that, Sherlock?”
“Aren’t you the one who needs consoling right now?” Sherlock asked, trying to lighten the mood and moved behind Liam. “Let’s finish cleaning this and put some antiseptic and bandages on it, okay? Then we can talk about what happened if you're up to it.”
Liam gave Sherlock a smile, a subtle one, but genuine.
"Okay, I'd like that."
"I love you, Liam."
"I love you too, Sherly."