Chapter Text
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“You're positive?”
“John, I really would prefer to avoid having this conversation again.”
“But everyone's ticklish somewhere!”
“Really, John? You're comparing me to everyone? The majority? The general population? I am very insulted.” Sherlock turned himself on the leather sofa so that his back was facing John and curled his knees up to his chin, hugging them tightly to his chest.
Clearly, he assumed that this position was impenetrable. However, shockingly, the consulting detective had missed a key-factor in his plan: his bare feet lay exposed on the smooth leather couch cushion and John couldn't help but smirk as he silently strode over to the pouting man.
“You're right. I guess that was rather rude of me.” He reached out a hand slowly to the unsuspecting left sole.
“Yes, well, for once in your life, you guessed ri-HIGHT!!!” Sherlock jumped at the sudden scratch of a finger down the arch of his left foot and let out a most effeminate squeal at the contact.
“Heheh...I guess that was pretty rude, too, huh?” John let the rest of his fingers dance over the pale skin of the detective's sensitive sole before grabbing hold of his ankle as Sherlock desperately tried to retract his foot into his “cocoon of safety.”
“No! Nonononono!” Sherlock begged, thrashing around on the couch tugging his ankle from John's grasp with little success until he finally managed to roll himself off of the couch.
John simply smiled down at the disheveled detective looking back up at him with wide eyes. Fear. He was actually afraid of John. But it wasn't anything bad. He wasn't hurting him or anything. And after all he'd made John go through in the years they’d known each other, he deserves a little punishment to keep him in line. “No? You don't think that was rude? Well, I suppose I should just keep going then...”
Sherlock shot out a hand with a startled “NO!” but was too late as John sat down on Sherlock's lower legs and began spidering his fingertips up and down the soft, milk-white skin. Here and there, John would mix it up a bit by poking his arches or scratching his heels or even digging his fingers in between Sherlock's long toes- this one seeming to have a very strong effect as high-pitched shrieks and giggles were elicited from the younger man's quivering lips that he tried so desperately to sew shut. But with no avail, Sherlock lay on the ground, all strength gone from his body as he had to endure the merciless tickling of his feet.
After a good while, John placed his palms flat against Sherlock's soles, causing the younger man to let out a heavy sigh. He craned his neck to observe Sherlock's state below him and smiled almost sweetly at the panting man. “So, not ticklish, huh?” John smirked.
Between ragged breaths and labored sighs, Sherlock gave John a dirty look and retorted, “You just...caught me off....guard....is all...” his prominent cheekbones now a dusty-rose color.
John gave him a surprised look. “Oh? So, if I were to...oh I don't know, just lift your foot up like this...” he pulled Sherlock's left foot out from under his legs and held it up near his face so Sherlock could see it “...and maybe if I moved my fingers really slow-”
“DON'T!”
John paused his wiggling fingers in midair an inch from Sherlock's delicate sole and turned back to him. “What's wrong? You can see everything, right? You can see my fingers getting closer and closer to your soft, sensitiv-”
“NO!!! PLEASE DON'T! N-NOT THERE! ANYWHERE BUT THERE!!!”
Now John stopped altogether. Anywhere? Did he realize what he'd just said? “Really? Anywhere?”
Sherlock shifted uncomfortably on the floor, now realizing his mistake. “W-well no....not.....not anywhere....” Sherlock mumbled, clearly nervous, as he shot out shaking hands to defend himself.
John's smug smile fell at the detective's sudden change in tone. Oh God...this must look awful...I'm damn near sitting in Sherlock's lap, he's on the floor, sweaty and panting. No. This was definitely more than a bit not good... “Oh please. I didn't mean it like that! God, can you imagine what people would say? No. This isn't...no.” John started to get off of Sherlock's lower legs when he remembered who he was sitting on. That sneaky bastard. He's probably just playing this up so I'll stop. So he can get away. And God only knows what he'd do if I let him go...oh no. He's not getting away that easily. “Actually, on second thought, let them talk.” He sat himself back down on Sherlock's legs. “There's no one around anyway. Mrs. Hudson's out visiting some friends. I'm sure your brother would approve of my keeping you in line like this, assuming he has at least one camera hidden in here. In fact, I'm sure anyone who knows you would agree that you deserve this...” John crawled down Sherlock's body and quickly took his wrists in one hand, pinning them above his head. Sherlock swallowed loudly. “Now then, let's see if we can't find some other ticklish spots on you...” John snuck his free hand beneath the younger man's dark blue silk bathrobe and began to mercilessly scribble his fingers up Sherlock's sides. The detective bucked furiously about under John's weight, shifting and twisting his hips this way and that to try to escape the probing fingers, but had very short-lived success. “JohnJohnJohnJohnJohn please sto-ho-ho-hop!!! No more! Please! Oh God, please stop!!!!”
John did not stop. This was just too good. Instead, he bumped things up a notch. Moving his free hand over Sherlock's belly, he pushed the younger man's ash-grey t-shirt up to around his 7th and 8th ribs, licking his lips subconsciously as he gazed at the expanse of skin before him. The man's skin was flawless- pale, soft and smooth as marble. His figure, while slim, was not deathly skinny (much to his surprise, in terms of his eating habits,) and the very faintest trail of light blonde, borderline silver hairs could be seen leading down from his bellybutton to the top of his trousers. His rib cage was prominent enough where the light casts a shadow on each individual ridge and he even showed signs of what appeared to be developing abdominal muscles. The man had the body of a Greek God and suddenly John wanted to continue this experiment with his lips rather than just his fingers. He wanted to taste the slight sheen of sweat building in the crooks of his elbows and navel, the remnants of sugar that had stuck to his fingers when he had been fixing his tea earlier, the new scent of his natural musk lingering on his pronounced hipbones... God, those hipbones were just as delicious as those cheekbones of his...it just wasn't fair... Of course, he would never admit any of this to anyone, but deep inside, he had a budding urge to explore all of Sherlock's artfully sculpted body with tongue and teeth combined. So, he figured, why not try out a little taste right now?
“Well now, let's try something a little different, shall we?” John licked his lips again as he stared down at Sherlock's heaving stomach, his bellybutton in particular.
Sherlock swallowed audibly and John couldn't help but smirk at the usually haughty man's current inferiority. Yes, he quite liked this new side of Sherlock. He liked it quite a bit. Making sure he had Sherlock's legs secured beneath his own, John leaned down and, tongue out, dipped just the tip into the younger man's bellybutton and flicked the sensitive skin there experimentally. Sherlock, in response, gasped and arched his back up sharply, squeezing his eyes shut and whispering to himself what sounded like “Oh please God no....”
John simply smirked and began to swirl his tongue around the curve of Sherlock's bellybutton more, nipping at the edges of it here and there and kissing the whole crater of it and around it as well. He would speed up the swirls just for kicks, but for the most part, he kept the teasing at a torturously slow pace. Sherlock, all the while, kept choking on his laughs, trying desperately to hold them back, but ultimately failing miserably. The usually cool, silent man was now reduced to a fit of giggles and squeals and John had never heard (or seen) anything quite so entertaining in his whole life. Daring himself to keep it up, John pushed Sherlock's t-shirt even further up his chest so that it lay tucked right beneath the man's chin, exposing his upper ribs, underarms, pectorals and, shockingly (and somewhat arousing) his hardened nipples. He would have to come back for those...
“Hmm...let's see where else we can experiment on you...” John slowly gazed over the rise and fall of Sherlock's chest and ended up locking onto his ribs. Not quite those tantalizing nipples of his, but definitely close... “Yes, here should be a good spot...” John said with a cat-like smirk as he lowered his face to Sherlock's rib cage, planting a single kiss onto his 5th rib. The detective twitched, inhaling sharply, and tried to focus on the ceiling, maybe thinking about a case or counting the stains (most of which he'd put there himself) that were splotched here and there.
Of course, that wasn't really going to help him and they both knew it. So, John continued to place his gentle kisses over the little hills and valleys of marble skin, one kiss per rib. As he increased the speed and roughness of his kisses (flicking out his tongue every now and again) John could see that Sherlock was breaking. The corners of his lips twitched and he swallowed over and over again. Then, just when he thought he could do nothing more to ruin the younger man's cool, John gently scraped his teeth over the first few ribs and Sherlock made a noise....like nothing he'd ever heard. It was a cross between a laugh, a hiccup, an inhale and a scream.
And John wanted to hear it again.
So, with his new discovery, John began nipping at the rise and fall of each prominent rib and relished the “not-so-Sherlock” noises that were coming out of his best friend.
“So, still not ticklish, huh? Well what was that then?” John pursed his lips in a cat-like smirk as he wriggled the fingers of his free hand into the crook of Sherlock underarms.
“Y-you ju-hust ca-hau-haught me-he off-f-f g-guard is all! D-damn it John- stop it!!!” Sherlock gasped out between desperate breaths as he tried to squirm away from John's probing fingers.
John huffed out a laugh himself as he continued to scratch the warm, damp skin of Sherlock’s underarms. Then, with a sudden burst of creative inspiration, John dared himself to take his teasing a step further.
“Really? Are you sure about that Sherlock? ‘Cause I can go slower if that’ll help any…” John slowed the abuse on his flatmate’s hairless underarms to a crawl, dragging a single index finger in a spiraling circle around the sweaty hollow. “Here, I’ll even talk you through it.” He stopped his finger at the top of Sherlock’s armpit and began to ever-so-slowly trail in a clockwise motion, teasing the soft skin at the very edge of his underarm. “Right now, I’m just dragging the very tip of my index finger over the outside of your armpit. Very slowly…just gently scratching your soft, smooth skin….how does it feel? Does this tickle? Just me touching your outer arm?” John asked in a babying voice, smirking.
Sherlock panted and occasionally whimpered underneath him and tried bending his body away from John, but with no avail. His eyes said I hate you, but the corners of his mouth were giving him away. He could feel them curling up into a reluctant smile, which then turned into a sneer, then a quivering toothy grin, a snarl, and then- suddenly- an open mouthed laugh that was peppered with Oh God, Johohohohon!'s and S-stohohop!!! Please!!’s. John’s smirk only grew wider as his finger got closer to the center of Sherlock’s underarm. “What’s wrong, Sherlock? I’m not hurting you, am I?” He said with a mocking pouty lip.
Sherlock knew John could see right through the lie- that’s why he’d planted it in the first place- but, nonetheless, he still made an attempt and eagerly nodded his head saying “Yes, yes John! It hurts! Really hurts!!! Please stop, now!!!” The younger man pleaded beneath the ex-army doctor, tears starting to form at the corners of his eyes. He was hoping that maybe he could use those to his advantage when…
…John just gave a huge, toothy grin. “Oh my God, Sherlock! I’m so sorry!!! You should’ve said something earlier!” John gasped, looking at Sherlock with sudden immense concern.
Sherlock huffed stubbornly. “Yes, well I would have had you not been tickli- I mean hurting me the whole damned time!” He caught himself in a panic. Had John caught it, too?
“I really am sorry Sherlock.” John said in a surprisingly sincere voice.
Sherlock started to feel his heartbeat steady itself as he believed that the torture was finally over. “Yeah, well you ought to beeeee…….John. John. Wh-what are yo- John! No. Nono no! NononononononooOOOOOOOO!!!!!” Sherlock wailed out as, suddenly, John lowered his head to Sherlock’s armpit and began licking the smooth, sweat-slick skin. “Don’t worry, Sherlock! I’m making it better! You know, licking the wound clean?” He flicked his tongue like a snake, up and down, left to right, very quickly and very lightly in a way that drove Sherlock mad. And he’d thought the slow teasing was bad- oh no. This was at least ten times worse and so much more sensitizing and teasing and oh my god now he’s kissing a-and biting. “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! JOH-HON!!!! P-PLEASE!!!!! I’M BE-HE-HEGGING YOU!!!! STOP!!! I-IT…….IT T-TICKLES!!!!”
John stopped abruptly.
He still remained on all fours over Sherlock’s shaking and sweating body, but he lifted his head up a few inches to look Sherlock in the eye. “So…it does tickle…” John ducked down for one last lick of the salty skin and Sherlock bucked his hips in shock, stammering out “Y-yehes! I-it does tickle! It tickles a lot!!! I’m ticklish! Ok?! Now, please, just stop and let me go.”
John considered it. “Fine.”
Sherlock let out a heavy sigh of relief and stretched to get up, but realized his hands were still pinned above his head. John grinned maliciously. “On one condition.”
Sherlock’s head dropped to the floor with a solid thud and he groaned out “Come on, John! You got what you wanted. I admitted to being ticklish. You tickled the hell out of me for at least twenty minutes. What more could you….pos….possibly…wa-aaaaahhhh! O-oh John…” Sherlock mewled out in pleasure as John took one of Sherlock’s erect nipples between his lips and sucked gently.
Sherlock couldn’t help but stare in disbelief at the way John’s cheeks moved, sucking in and hollowing them out with every tug he gave on Sherlock’s sensitive nub. He let the tender flesh slip out from his lips and placed a quick kiss at the tip before moving over to the other, darting out his tongue to flick his nipple and sending Sherlock’s head flying back with a throaty moan. “J-John…wh-what…why are you….why?” Sherlock had many questions he wanted to ask John right then. Like why he was doing this- oh! And how did he just do that with his tongue?
Smiling up at him, John continued to swirl his tongue around the hard, pink flesh, taking it between his lips and sucking gently first and then a bit harder. Sherlock was reduced to a heap of huffed moans and needy whimpers as John trapped his nipple between his lips and rubbed the very tip of his tongue across the overly-sensitive flesh roughly. “O-ooh, yes….mmm….mmmore….h-harder- ah! Mmmm…Oh John, yes! Aaaahhh, right th-there….j-just at the tip…..” Satisfied with the younger man’s current state, John gave one last quick bite to Sherlock’s nipple and instantaneously, Sherlock’s hips rocked up, grinding his now evident erection against John’s. Sherlock flushed a deep scarlet, utterly embarrassed by how his body was giving over to the sensations that he’s normally so careful to avoid yet, right now, he’s completely defenseless to. “John..John please…I’m not…I don’t know how…” Sherlock’s voice trailed off as his lips were gently covered by John’s. Sherlock froze, not knowing what to do with his…well, his anything. Fortunately, John took pity on him and coaxed him into moving his lips a bit, stroking his prominent cheekbone with the thumb of his free hand, the other still pinning Sherlock to the floor.
The kiss continued for about a half a minute when John broke off. Sherlock looked lost. Like he didn’t know who or where he was, his lips still parted slightly. John just smiled and chuckled to himself before leaning down to whisper in his ear: “This is a lesson to help your body catch up to where it should be sensitivity wise. You passed the ‘pain’ section, now you get the ‘pleasure.’” John nipped Sherlock’s ear lobe and winked at him once before slowly placing kisses down Sherlock’s chest, down his stomach (Heheh…that tickles) and down towards his…his…...oh my!