agoodyarn | Fluffy Stuff for ceaselesslabor

There'd been some discussion before they made their choices.

One of their bargains with the House was of course to deal with the problem of Kayne and the Blackstone and all that that entailed. John had taken care of that, citing the fact that he could be careful in how he worded it to avoid any such problems that they might have to deal with.

The other had been simple enough: the body that John was using, to allow them to keep it when they went back to their world. Not to Arkham, perhaps. Arkham had quite a lot of trouble still left behind, though John assured Arthur that he could handle it. And New York held too many memories, though John did intend to look up and check on a few people there, given the time differences.

No, they'd decided to head back to England, as John explains they had decided. Back to England, where Arthur could start up a fresh private investigation office with John as his partner and the two of them would have an apartment just above together as-

"...do we want to say we got married in the States, Arthur?"

They're standing in their new apartment, only barely furnished, and there are- well, there are some decisions to be made.

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"...am I allowed to cheat for this?" he asks quietly, keeping pace.

He nods. "Yes."

And because they have to do less work with searching, he does open the sandwich to eat it while they walk.

John breathes in deep and breathes out before-

"Left. There's the feel of something burned down, destroyed, the residual heat... that way."

"Hm. Easy enough."

He turns to the left, stopping to let a few cars pass, then trots out across the street. He is, as John might notice, eating as he walks.

"I wonder where she's staying," he comments to himself.

"I'd imagine she's at a hotel or something, given she's rich," is his guess. And he'll gives a look around the area. "There's probably something nearby here. Do you think she'd want to stay close to it or farther?"

"Close by," he says automatically without examining why. "The streets are familiar and the route she would walk would look comforting. Better for the child, too."

"Did it say how old they were? The child, I mean."

He doesn't question Arthur's intuition on this. Arthur is empathetic in his own way, excellent at figuring out what people might do.

"Seven," he answers, pausing a little as the smell of the fire reaches him. No amount of rain would diminish it. "Old enough for - things like that to matter."

He nods and gives a glance around, trying to catch a whiff of something liminal. Hotels have plenty of that, the inbetween nature of them making it easier to spot.

He points up the street, to the one building with an awning.

"Let's try there."

Arthur finishes the sandwich, folding the wrapping and shoving it neatly in a pocket. He brushes off his hands. "There's a doorman. He might not let us in if we don't have a key. Come on. We can sneak around the back."

John just nods and he'll follow Arthur as they head towards the back. He has to ask, though-

"How do people get a hotel room if they can't get in without a key?"

"They go to the front desk," he explains, crossing the street and ducking into an alley. "But we aren't going to the front desk."

He huffs in amusement.

"Obviously."

Though it does make him question-

"Would it also work to go to the front desk, rent a room, and then go looking that way?"

He shakes his head. "Only if we want to waste money," he reminds him. "And we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves."

"No, no," he agrees as they walk around, "not for this time. But I was thinking about other times, or cases where we might not be able to go around."

He points to the fire escape.

"Or where we might want the room to stay close and keep an eye on things."

He reaches up and grabs the ladder, pulling it down before he starts to climb up. "If we were going out of town, it would probably be the best choice. Or - well, yes, those would be alright, too. But that was not always an option for Parker and me."

"No, I suppose not," he says as he leans over to offer his arm to help steady the ladder. He'll come up after Arthur.

"...is this illegal?"

"No." He peers into a window and sees an empty room, so he slides it open.

"Well, now it is."

John just shrugs; it's not like it actually matters. But he'll slip in after him, quiet as a mouse.

"Where to now? How do we actually find her in here?"

He brushes his fingers through his hair. "Well, I was hoping that we could cheat," he laughs softly, wandering the empty room and admiring the furnishings.

John rolls his eyes, just the once, before he leans over to steal a rare kiss out in public; if they're going to do something illegal, he might as well do something illegal he likes.

After a moment, he nods and points.

"Two floors up. She's in."

Arthur blushes a bright red and then stares immediately into a mirror to adjust his collar. "Yes. Well. That should be easy. And it's better to climb stairs than the ladder."

It makes John want to muss up his collar more, leave a few bite marks, redden his jaw with obvious kisses or Joan's lipstick. He passes that thought along to Arthur with a quick grin.

"Right. Stairs are this way."

He shudders.

"Soon," he promises, the word coming out in a soft huff before he takes the stairs casually, like they aren't in any hurry.

They aren't, really. And John will smile as he trots along beside him. There's nothing quite like getting Arthur happily flustered. It's one of the joys of his days.

Once they're up a few stairs, he points down the hallway.

"Third door on the left."

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