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The first time fire came into William's life, it took away so much from him; his parents, his home, his childhood innocence. It had even almost taken his little brother.
The second time it came though, it brought him Sherlock.
William woke up feeling warm. For a few seconds, lying there in the darkness of his room, he wondered if he had perhaps forgotten to turn the heater off before going to sleep. But it was still late September, nowhere cold enough to have the heat on in the first place.
He opened his eyes fully, reaching for his bedside lamp, and that was when it hit him.
The smell .
It wasn't William's first encounter with it.
It had happened only a week after his ninth birthday. William had gone to sleep in the room he shared with his younger brother and had woken up coughing and unable to breath properly. He would love to claim that that night was a blur in his mind, but William remembered every single detail about the night his childhood house burned down.
He remembered how hot he was, how he couldn’t seem able to take a proper breath, how disoriented he felt as he tried to lead Louis out of the room and find the rest of his family, how the smell had seemed to follow him everywhere afterwards no matter how many times he had scrubbed himself raw in the shower.
It wasn’t something that he had ever wished to experience ever again, yet there he was, waking up to the smell of fire for the second time in his life. The universe sure had a cruel sense of humor.
As William tried to find his way to the bedroom door to check if the fire had reached his apartment, he heard voices, seemingly coming from the corridor outside.
Firefighters.
The relief was immediate. The firefighters hadn’t arrived quick enough the first time when William’s childhood house had caught fire at the outskirts of the city, but clearly living in a cramped apartment building in the middle of London had its advantages.
Even as he opened his bedroom door and realized the fire was dangerously close to his room and blocking the front door, William tried to keep his calm. Someone was about to come check his apartment and find him.
He quickly closed the door behind him and fell to the floor close to the window, once again cursing the fact that it was one of those stupid ones that didn't open properly. He covered his mouth and nose as best as he could with his shirt and tried to focus on staying aware. The thought of getting up to grab his phone that he had completely forgotten about in his panic crossed his mind, but he decided against it, deciding that it wasn’t worth the effort.
Right as he started reconsidering his decisions until that moment and cursing the fact that he hadn’t even tried to yell out for help (William wouldn’t realize just how out of it smoke inhalation had made him until he found himself in a hospital), his door abruptly opened.
A firefighter in full turnout gear bursted into his room, yelling something that William didn’t quite catch before rushing towards him. Strong hands grabbed his shoulders, helping him sit up.
“Hey, you’re okay. I’ll get you out of here,” this time he heard the man say as he moved him around, probably in an effort to assess his state. William nodded and only lightly protested when he was carefully picked up from the ground and carried outside.
“You doing alright there, mate?” The fireman asked an indefinable amount of time later.
William felt fresh air hitting his face as he coughed. He still somehow found himself answering with his own question, “What are the statistics of someone being in a house fire twice?”
A muffled laugh came from close to his ear. “Not your first rodeo, I’m getting?”
William wasn’t quite sure what one could reply to that, but he didn’t really get the chance to think about it too much. Before he could exchange any more words with that firefighter, he was being handed over to the paramedics of the scene. He never even got the chance to properly see the face behind the oxygen mask.
While his apartment being declared unsafe to live in for the near future and a lot of his stuff burning down wasn’t ideal, William tried to see the positive side of the situation; no one had died in the fire of his apartment building. He could take material loss, no matter how inconvenient it was.
Scratch that. As William stood in the middle of a clothing store with his younger brother trying to decide which kind of clothes were the most necessary in the first step of replacing almost his entire wardrobe, he really cursed the universe for making him go through this.
“How many pairs of trousers did I even own before?” he wondered aloud, checking yet another pair of black trousers. A few suits had been the first thing William had bought after the fire, not wanting to show up at the university he worked at with Louis’ or Albert’s ill-fitted ones, but most of the rest of the clothing he had been using during that first week was borrowed from his brothers. Although neither of them complained about it, William didn’t want to go on like that for long.
“I feel like one more is fine,” Louis replied, taking the trousers out of his hands and putting them in their shopping basket. He turned to walk towards a different section of the store. “We should go look for a few jumpers too, it’s getting cold.”
William followed behind him, but got distracted along the way by a nice maroon dress shirt that probably shouldn’t be on the top of the list of the most necessary clothes to buy. He stared at it longingly for a few seconds, though he eventually decided to be practical about it and go on with his life without that shirt.
He decisively turned to start walking towards Louis again when he almost bumped into someone.
“Oh sorry,” the man said, taking a step back. Something about his voice and the width of his shoulders felt awfully familiar to William.
“No worries,” he replied, but didn’t make a move to step away and go find his brother. At that moment, he wasn’t quite sure what made him stay.
The other man seemed to be in a familiar state. William momentarily wondered if they would just stand there and stare at each other until Louis came to drag him away, when the stranger spoke.
“Hey, I know you. You’re the guy who asked me about what the statistics of being in a house fire twice are!”
Perhaps, not that much of a stranger after all. The more he spoke, the more William recognized his voice. The mortification didn’t take long to hit after.
“It seems like I made quite the impression.”
“Oh, you sure did!” He snorted, but something about his mannerism didn’t make William feel like it was unkind. “I even tried to look it up afterwards but I couldn’t find anything about it online. I’m afraid I still don’t have a real answer to give you.”
“I appreciate your dedication nonetheless,” William replied, a genuine smile finding its way on his face.
“I did hope I’d have an answer for you if I saw you again.”
William raised an eyebrow. “Were you hoping to see me again?”
“Well, your question and your pretty face piqued my interest, what can I say?”
There was no question about it, the man was hitting on him. Was it a good idea to flirt with the firefighter who saved his life? William didn’t really care at that moment considering how gorgeous the man across from him was. If the universe had brought them back together, then it couldn’t be that bad.
“You’re bold,” he said with a smirk. He liked that in man. “Do you hit on people you’ve saved often?”
The fireman laughed. “Not really. I know others who do it a lot, but I don’t usually think it’s a good idea.”
“And you think it’s a good idea now?” William challenged him.
“What were the chances of us running into each other like this again?” he posed his own question instead of replying. William couldn’t help but be satisfied by his answer. Of course he didn’t know him enough to be able to tell for sure if he was telling the truth or not, but William was confident enough in his abilities to judge character that he felt like he could trust him.
“Indeed. I can’t say I imagined I’d see you again.”
“Well, since odds were in our favour, what do you think? Will you let me take you out for dinner this weekend?”
William failed to contain his smile. “Shouldn’t you tell me your name first?”
“Oh right!” The man exclaimed before extending his arm for a handshake. “I’m Sherlock.”
“William.” He let his hand linger in the other man’s hold for a second too long. Something about his touch was weirdly comforting. “I’m free on Saturday.”
“Great, then I’ll—”
Before Sherlock could hand his phone over to him, Louis chose that moment to appear.
“William? Weren’t you coming?” He asked, throwing a not so subtle glare towards Sherlock.
“Oh you’re here with your brother?” Sherlock asked, seemingly oblivious to the energy Louis was directing at him. His hand hovered in the air, unsure. William reached over and grabbed the phone himself.
“Give me a moment, Louis,” he said calmly to his brother. William was unfortunately often the victim of unwanted attention by both men and women that Louis was used to jumping in to help him out of situations that he found too awkward to get out of himself easily. But this time, William was certainly not looking for an out.
He quickly added his number into Sherlock’s contacts and handed the phone back to him. “There you go.”
“Thanks, Liam! I’ll leave you to continue your shopping.” He turned to glance at Louis who was mouthing the word ‘Liam’ before he directed a bright smile to William. “See you on Saturday!”
“See you.”
William continued to smile stupidly as the man walked again. It took Louis elbowing him for him to look away.
“What was that? Did you know that man?” Louis asked with a frown.
“Yeah, he’s the firefighter who got me out of my apartment.”
The frown remained on Louis’ face. “Does he ask for the number of every person he saves?”
William couldn’t help but laugh, endeared, by his brother’s reaction. “I sure hope no.”
He didn’t really know Sherlock, and the way they met was quite unconventional, but something about him really made William think that the obvious spark between them could develop into something more.
With a few more reassurances for Louis, he turned back to the maroon button up shirt. He figured he had a good enough reason to buy it now.