Archive of Our Own ^beta

‘Soulmates can be… difficult,’ James Moriarty thinks as he watches the man he’d just met head out of the door. Sebastian Moran, he’d come to tell Jim that he worked for the local Police Department and they’d had reason to suspect that he may be in danger though they didn’t know why someone would want to target a professor.

His first words to Jim had been, “Excuse me, do you have a minute?” and the moment Sebastian had heard them he’d felt the burning sensation along his spine where his mark, a tiger who’s stripes were made of the words, was located. Jim had turned and nodded ignoring the tingling feeling down his back in favor of looking the man over. A quick observation told Jim that Sebastian was a cop moments before Sebastian himself could. At that moment Jim made the decision not to speak and allow Sebastian to realize their connection. Instead Jim had gone through the conversation with nods and shakes of his head and gently touching his throat to indicate he’d lost his voice when Sebastian asked for him to clearly state whether or not he wanted police protection.

Now Jim sits and he thinks about what to do with his soulmate, first he’ll have to run a background check on the man, he happens to be one of the newer policemen that Jim hasn’t had the time to investigate yet. Then students begin to trickle into Jim’s classroom and he snaps himself out of his daze, this is neither the time nor the place to be thinking about Sebastian or his other profession; that will come later. For now he has to keep up the act of an average school teacher.

For the next few days Jim is simply too busy to anything about his soulmate besides the background check. Though he has to admit he’d spent a whole hour in his office hunched over it once it’d arrived. He’d found the man, fascinating, for lack of a better term. There was more to him then he’d expected from the policeman and Jim found himself wondering why Sebastian had gone into that line of work at all.

In fact Sebastian would be perfect for Jim’s network, his file proved it. He appeared to be rather intelligent; he’d attended Eton and Oxford as well as written two books. His service records indicated that he’d been one of the best marksmen that the British Army had had in a long while and that he had nerves of steel. Inside the file were photos of him before, during and after his service; the before photos showed a charming young man sitting stiffly besides his father, Lord Moran. Unsurprisingly the photos from during his service were of when he’d been wounded by a tiger, one showed the big gash across his face and how close he’d been to losing an eye, while the other showed his face packed in gauze. After that Moriarty looks at the current pictures of him and notices that despite his new shiny badge, he looks unhappy, therefore Jim decides to something about it.

Exactly one week after they meet Jim sends three men to go pick up Sebastian and bring him to one of their riverside warehouses (cliché he knows but it really is good storage). He is pleasantly surprised when only one of his men returns and even then the man is barely holding onto his life as he tells Jim that they’d been woefully unprepared. Jim screams at him for his failure before putting a bullet in the man’s head and laughing giddily at his soulmate’s show of strength. Sebastian was just proving himself to Jim even more and if Jim had wanted Sebastian by his side before now he needs him, and so he would get him.

Jim pulls his top ten men from the jobs they are currently on; he informs them that they aren’t allowed to do more than rough this target up, no permanent damage, and what had happened to the last men who’d attempted this job, How Sebastian had brutally torn through them with a simple kitchen knife. Then he releases them from the meeting and goes to work not bothering to keep tabs on the mission, he knows his men’s capabilities and no matter how talented Sebastian may be nobody could escape from all of them.

Approximately four and a half hours later Jim gets the call he’d been awaiting and silently slips out of his office where he’d been grading papers and begins to walk towards the property Sebastian is being held at. Upon his arrival he takes a gun from one of the men guarding the hooded prisoner and dismisses them all after a quiet conversation with the men’s leader about the casualties. Then he sits backwards on the chair in front of Sebastian so that he can look at the bag over the man’s face.

Then in a rare moment of worry, Jim hesitates, he doesn’t know what to say. He worries that whatever comes out of his mouth won’t be on Sebastian’s mark. It’s rare for someone’s soulmate to be linked with somebody else but it does happen.

Before Jim can pull himself together Sebastian speaks, “I know that you’re there you might as well say something already.”

Words fall out of Jim’s mouth in a response not at all planned by the criminal, “Well, Sebby dear do I have a preposition for you.”

They both freeze at his words, Jim in worry and Sebastian in shock then the cop snarls, “Leave it to me to be kidnapped by my soulmate.”

Shrugging Jim replies, “Yes, well, it happens. By the way I’m told you did a marvelous job with my men. If there hadn’t been so many of them I’m sure you could’ve gotten away. As it is you managed to break Simon’s leg and shoot Jonathon in the shoulder.”

“Who are you,” Sebastian demands, “What do you want with me?”

“I already told you. I’m making you an offer. An offer to join my kingdom, we always could do with another sniper in our midst and I do believe you’d be very fun for me to have around.”

“I can’t just give up being a cop and join a mob or whatever this is,” Sebastian said sounding like he’d resigned himself to a fate of policing.

“First of all, not a mob those are so classless, this is a criminal network, I plan crimes for people like a, consultant shall we say, second, you can just quit and tell people you’re writing another book.” Jim says.

“What if I don’t want to join,” Sebastian asks holding his head up higher than it had been.

“That’s irrelevant because you do want to join us,” Jim says, “I can tell from your body’s posture that you at least want to know who I am and you won’t turn me in.” “Does that mean you’ll unhood me now?” Sebastian inquires his head tilted to one side.

“Goodness no, not until you make a decision,” Jim informs him standing up and walking over to the sniper. Sitting in his lap he continues, “And of course joining us has its benefits.”

“What would I do, in this so called network?” Sebastian mumbles as his resolve weakens from the presence of his soulmate.

Grinning Jim replies, “You’d be my second in command, I know you’d be great at that colonel. Also you’d be a sniper for any of the more difficult targets.”

“When would I see you?” Sebastian asks as Jim pushes up the burlap and places wet kisses up his neck.

“Every day, I have a spare room for you,” Jim mutters against Sebastian’s warm neck.

“I’m in, I’ll do it,” Sebastian gasps as he slides his hands up to his lap to grasp at Jim’s firm buttocks.

“Good boy,” Jim says as he wrenches off the sack on Sebastian’s head and kisses the other man’s lips.