Seeing Is Believing - JOHNLOCK

A/N: Just a warning upfront - one of the characters does drop the F-bomb. If that offends you, I apologize. Other than that, enjoy the story!

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There's a lot that can be told about a person by what can be observed - their appearance, the way they hold themself, the manner of their speech; all of those can spell out many underlying facts. Those facts can then connect to other facts and eventually draw out that persons secrets. Secrets that people assume are hidden where only they know of them, when in reality all their secrets are presented unwillingly and unknowingly by they themselves. Some people are exceptionally good at reading others and discovering these hidden truths - Sherlock being no exception - but others see things slightly differently. They see peoples' secrets, not by deduction as the detective does, but by a different way entirely. They see their Auras.

Auras are fields of coloured energy that surround each and every person. Everyone has their own aura and throughout the day it changes colours to reflect their moods, feelings and thoughts. A persons aura is what projects their emotions and feelings outward for others to notice. Auras are normally invisible to the human eye, but there are a select few that have the ability to see these energy fields and interpret their meanings. One of these few was Scotland Yard's own, Greg Lestrade. Yes, Lestrade could see these energy fields around people, and he had learned to master the art of reading them. He knew what different colours meant - from the basic ones, red for anger, and blue for sadness; to the more complex emotions like purple for confusion or nervousness and grey for anxiety. He understood what how the differences in brightness determined the strength of an emotion - A bright aura suggested that the person had a strong feeling, while a dim one said that the emotion was only minor. Lestrade knew how the movement of the auras around people showed the persons stability - A still aura meant the person was in control and could deal with said emotion, but a frantic, jumpy aura meant the person may be emotionally unstable.

Lestrade had always seen the auras of the people he's around. He tried not to interfere with people's lives, but when he sees someone with a potentially bad aura he would try to help them before it got too far. Red auras signify anger which could lead to dark red which is uncontrollable rage. Dark blue-grey aura's are the colour of depression and might lead to dark grey or black auras and suicide. Lestrade hated seeing the bad auras, because they make him feel as though he was too late in helping. Once someone is in a bad aura, it's difficult to come out of one. So whenever he can, Lestrade tried to point people in the right direction in keeping their aura good.

And one person he hadn't imagined he'd ever had to help was Sherlock. As much as Sherlock says that he distances himself from all emotion, his aura field says otherwise. His aura wasn't bad, per say, not bad at all really, but from the way Lestrade saw it, it would need help for it to change for the better.

Lestrade had noticed the ups and downs of Sherlock aura fields before, and he had always made sure they hadn't went so far gone that he was beyond help. But Lestrade had never seen Sherlock's aura field like this.

Before John came into the picture, Sherlock's aura would constantly fluctuate between a strange grey-green colour and a light pale green. These colours seemed to be specific to Sherlock, so for that reason, lestrade deemed them "The sociopath colours." When on a case, Sherlock's aura would change to a medium yellow-orange - the closest it would come to the joyfulness of pure orange.

When John became Sherlock's flat mate, Lestrade quickly noticed changes in Sherlock's aura patterns. When Sherlock brought John along on the first case Lestrade saw that Sherlock's aura was brighter, and slightly more of a strange peach colour - a mixture of more than one emotion, meaning that there could be some inner confliction.

Time passed on and Sherlock's aura continued to change, and as the detective's changed, so did John's. At the beginning, John's aura was what Lestrade would consider "normal". It had the expected colour fluctuations, but tended to show colours of anxiety more often than others, which could be attributed to him PTSD. Further along, however, the colour changes in John's aura were matching those of Sherlock's. There was also a strange peachy colour to his aura, and, while John's aura was usually still and stable, it now was always moving slowly around himself, showing perhaps that whatever emotion he was feeling, was one he wasn't quite 100 percent in control of. Both Sherlock and John's auras would frequently have sudden colour changes. Like one time, when Lestrade had been watching them.

It was after that first case when Lestrade was trying to get a statement from Sherlock. Sherlock had been asking why the EMTs kept putting the shock blanket on him. He refused the idea that he was in shock and began to tell Lestrade who would have the qualities to have shot the cab driver. At this moment, Sherlock's aura was the same strange peach colour, but then when Sherlock looked over slightly he stopped talking altogether. His aura then shifted and changed hue to more of a brighter magenta with bits of lime green. - Those two colours are not commonly seen together. Magenta typically represented attraction while lime usually was associated with surprise and spontaneous-ness. Sherlock told Lestrade to disregard everything he had said before and he walked off and went toward John.

Lestrade didn't stop him, continuing to watch the changing auras of both men. Lestrade couldn't hear their conversation, but the look they gave each other, their smiles and their now bright Magenta auras gave it all away. They may have been flat mates for only a day, but the auras don't lie. Lestrade knew that both of them had fallen of each other, unknowingly or not.

How long it would take them to realize this was a different story. Sometimes with magenta auras the subject of that person's attraction is oblivious to it entirely. Lestrade has seen it plenty of times before - In teens especially, and it was no different for Sherlock and John. Their auras were giving off the feelings of attraction, but they went unnoticed by the other.

It was rather hard for Lestrade not to interfere with this. He could obviously see that both Sherlock and John were hopelessly in love with each other, even despite how much John claims he's not gay and Sherlock claims to be asexual. They can say whatever they want and believe whatever they want to believe in their funny little heads, but their auras are like a lie detector test which they both have horrendously failed.

It seemed that this stage of obliviousness went on forever. It was almost painful for Lestrade to watch this - Seeing their love sick magenta auras every time they so much as looked each other in the eye. Lestrade would have liked to just tell the two of them that he could see their obvious feelings, but that would entail telling them how he knew, which meant telling them he could see auras. He never told anyone about this ability - if you could call it that - that he had. He hadn't ever really felt the need to, but with Sherlock and John, the DI was highly tempted to just let that secret out if it meant that those two would finally just get together.

The Inspector had tolerated this for as long as he could, but one day when Sherlock and John had come into the Scotland Yard headquarters, he just snapped.

Sherlock and John had been there to discuss details of... some case - Lestrade could remember - and they were standing off to the side talking amongst themselves, at one point smiling and giggling. Fields of bright magenta blocked all the other colours of the other Yarders, and Lestrade just couldn't take it anymore.

"You two!" He called, pointing to Sherlock and John. "Office. now!"

The two looked at each other in confusion over Lestrade's seemingly sudden anger, but did as they were told and followed the DI into his office.

Lestrade's angered tone didn't let up as he began to speak "I have had it up to HERE with you two! You are driving me insane!" Neither John nor Sherlock replied, still puzzled. "You have been doing this since you two MET! Its painful for me to even watch it anymore!"

"Watch what?" John asked.

"You! Both of you! Watching how hopelessly LOVESICK you are for each other!" Before either of them could say anything, Lestrade continued, going off into a sort of rant. "You both are so oblivious to your own feelings and each other's that you don't see what is staring you right in the face! You emotional auras are the brightest, most constantly magenta tinged aura field's I've ever come across! It happens every single time you look at each other! Look, you're doing it right now! There it is, bright ass magenta!"

John had been looking at Sherlock, and Sherlock between John and the Inspector.

"Aura fields, Graham?"

Lestrade was so highly agitated now he ignored the wrong name Sherlock used. "Yes! Auras! A-U-R-A-S. Fields of coloured energy that tell a person's emotions! I can see them and you two have the brightest fucking magenta fields I've seen in my life. My vision has practically been permanently tinted pink because of me having to look at your lovesick aura fields every single time you make eye contact!"

"You... see Auras..." said John.

"YES! I already said this! LOOK, this isn't about me! This is about you two!" Lestrade quickly set things right. "SHERLOCK, John loves you, and JOHN, Sherlock loves you, alright!? Now, I suggest you talk to each other right now and finally stop being such damn idiots!" Lestrade walked around them and opened his office door with a huff. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need some good pain killers for this splitting headache you lot have caused me!" With that, he slammed the door behind him. A few seconds later he quickly opened the door back up. He shouted once, "PINK!" And then shut the door again.

Sherlock and John were left standing in Lestrade's office, essentially having just confessed their feelings for each other, yet not on their own accord. For quite a few moments, neither of them said anything. Silence hung in the air along with the tension - until Sherlock cleared his throat. John looked up, but then looked away, feeling his face already go red.

Sherlock spoke first. "Well... that was... Graham made quite a scene."

"...y-yeah. He did..."

"But..."

"...but?"

Sherlock hesitated, which was silly seeing as how everything was all out in the open now. "...He's not wrong." John looked back up again. "He... He's right about... everything."

John got the courage to speak again. "E-Everything?"

"...Everything... on my account, yes..." Sherlock was looking John in the eye. "And... what about on yours?"

"He... He wasn't wrong either..." John replied, knowing that his face was mostly bright red by now.

"Well... that's... good then... good."

"Yeah..."

The silence made the moment all the more awkward.

"Soo..." Sherlock said. "um..."

Gaining a tiny spark of confidence, John said, "I love you, Sherlock."

"I think... With Lestrade's ranting it is pretty clear that... I love you too, John."

John took a step closer to Sherlock, wrapping his arms around him and burying his head into his chest, partly to hide his reddened face and partly out of simple impulse. Sherlock returned the gesture while also resting his head on top of John's. They stayed in this position for some time, just grateful now that there was nothing to hide anymore.

After a few minutes John laughed slightly, "We've really been idiots haven't we?"

"Seems so." Sherlock replied, "But now we know... Well... I guess subconsciously I've always had suspicions, but... I just didn't think-"

"So did I. I didn't know if you..."

"I do, John."

"So do I."

Sherlock shifted and lifted John's face up to look at him. They smiled at each other, probably looking like ridiculous teenagers. Then, going with the moment, they both leaned closer together. John reached up and put one hand on the back of Sherlock's neck, pulling him lower, and Sherlock placed his hands on either side of John's face. Their lips pressed together, and the metaphorical fireworks went off in both their minds. As cliché as it sounds they both would have described the kiss as magical. If Lestrade had been in the room, he would have saw their auras practically explode with bright, blinding pink energy. Pink energy so saturated that it showed their deep affection for the other. This bright pink was the colour of unbreakable love - not found often, but when it is, it's wonderful to watch.

Sherlock and John were both a bit breathless when they pulled away from each other.

"I suppose we'll have to thank Lestrade... for... enlightening us." John said.

"Hmmm. Maybe later." Sherlock replied. "How about we return home and... continue this in private."

John smiled and nodded in agreement with his detective.

The duo left the building walking hand in hand.

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Lestrade was relieved about that matter finally being sorted out, and for a while it seemed like things were back to 'normal' for him again.

...That was until he one day met Sherlock's brother, Mycroft.

When the other Holmes saw the DI he seemed to stare for a second... And Lestrade saw his aura change...

To Bright. Magenta. Pink.