only a lad

John’s unconscious little smile when Sherlock’s reminiscing on their cases

i'm going to be honest, i was shocked when i first read a scandal in bohemia to learn that irene adler appears in only one story. all she wanted to do was BE FREE to be with her HUSBAND who she LOVED and YET so many modern adaptations decide to drag her back in to be holmes' love interest. they saw one woman that sherlock holmes NEVER EVEN had a real conversation with and decided that she must be the love of his life, ignoring the ENTIRE first paragraph of the story about her and also everything about sherlock holmes. i honestly thought she was a recurring character in the original novels because of how much emphasis is put on her in adaptations (likely to distract from the tangible homoeroticism between holmes and watson that, no matter how they try to delete it, simply cannot stop appearing in their scripts)