trashchildren | For Joan

"Not in here," she assures him. "It would be in the living room, maybe the kitchen. If at all. I'll ask. If there are any I'll have him take them out."

Ted relaxes a bit at that. He would have had some pretty strong words with Sherlock if that was the case. As for the rest of the apartment... It would be something he could deal with if it was necessary, but he'd like to feel comfortable in his own home. Being watched like that is less creepy if he knows about it, but even so it's kind of weird.

"Can't he just put them at the entrances like a normal people do?" he questions.

"I'm sorry," she says, playfully blinking in mock disbelief. "Did you just ask why Sherlock doesn't act like a normal person?"

Really, the question answers itself.

"Just because he's not a normal person doesn't mean he can't occasionally do things normal people do," Ted argues, but he's smiling with amusement.

"I think the operative word here is occasionally," she says with a sage nod, eyes playfully narrowed.

Ted only grins and kisses her cheek in response. She's got a point. But he appreciates Sherlock being a little strange. It's more interesting that way.

He heaves a big wistful sigh and looks up at the ceiling. "Do you miss watching me manage a soccer team as much as I miss doing it?" he asks, musing.

"I don't think I watched you manage all that much," she says, leaning her head against his shoulder. "A little during the investigation. And a little on TV. I'd love to see more." She reaches for his hand. "You should get back to it."

"You're right," he says seriously, sitting there for a second.

"...I'll go turn on the PlayStation." He gives her a quick smooch on the forehead, then lets go of her and gets to his feet, going to get the controllers. And obviously very pleased with his stupid joke.

She chuckles, shaking her head. He's so corny, and she loves it.

"I don't think I've played a video game that wasn't made sometime in the 90s," she remarks as he goes to turn everything on.

He does miss the team, and be absolutely wants to go back to it soon, and he very much appreciates her support and concern. But sometimes you just need to be a little silly.

"Really? There's been a lot of good ones," he says, bringing two controllers over to the bed in case she wants to try. Though if she's not used to modern controllers at all, it might take some adjustment, especially if her fine motor control isn't currently optimal. "I haven't actually had time to play this properly yet though, I was mostly just setting it up earlier."

"My brother and I used to play," she says, accepting the controller. Sher turns it over in her hands, examining it. "Then one time there was a clue hidden in an old video game you could only find by winning the game."

"Wow, you do end up doing a lot of different stuff during investigations, don't you?" he notes with a smile. "I've played less than I'd like, and probably more than I should," he says with a chuckle, then starts up the game, looking over the options.

"You never know what might come in handy," she says. She looks up at the TV and watches him going through the menus. "I guarantee you at some point we'll encounter something related to college football, or Kansas City barbecue, and you'll be the key to cracking the case."

"I'll look forward to saving the day," he answers cheerfully.

He picks career mode, and.. "You can play as the manager?" he says with surprised delight. He clicks through, and ends up in a character customisation meny. "You can design your manager? I can play as me?!" He's obviously excited. If the coach thing falls through, he could probably make a career as a let's-player, with his level of enthusiasm.

Joan chuckles, loving seeing him like this. She sits back, the controller in her hands but without her fingers in the right positions to play, and watches him interact with the game, finding it far more enjoyable than watching the TV.

Ted fiddles with the character customization, trying to make himself, and frequently asking Joan for her opinion, with questions like 'does my nose look like this or this?'. Eventually they do end up with a pretty good similarity.

Then there's assembling the team, and Ted chatters with her through all of it, and then all through the first match too. He's pretty bad at it, but it's fun. Then he goes to figure out how to do versus matches, so they can actually play against each other.

She loves how he's including her, even as he's playing. She's known plenty of people who would get wrapped up in the game and not even pay attention to anyone around them, but that's not Ted. Of course it's not. Ted is as always open and welcoming and seems to want more than anything to share the experience.

As he looks into setting it up to play against each other, Joan looks at the controller and tries to figure out how it works. "I'm going to really suck at this," she says. "I have no idea how this even works." She leaves unspoken her concern about being physically capable.

He is playing to entertain her as well. If he was just playing for his own sake, he'd do it while she was asleep or working.

"That's alright, I'm pretty terrible too," he says with a chuckle.

He starts a match, but rather than just trying to compete, he starts talking her through the different buttons (at least as much as he's picked up so far), and letting them both just run around vaguely, trying things out and practicing without any concerns regarding the score, both of them making a few goals in the process. ...He's basically coaching her in virtual soccer.

And it's amazing. She loves it when she gets to be the recipient of his coaching talents. He's so good at it. She knows he gets a lot of hate, people thinking he's crap because Richmond struggles. But she knows firsthand that he's phenomenal. He just has an uphill battle at Richmond, and one that he's always taken on with enthusiasm, dedication, and kindness.

She loves him so much.

Slowly she starts to get better, and it occurs to her that this is good therapy for her fine motor skills.

"Alright, wanna do one where we actually try to beat each other?" he suggests, once they both actually start to somewhat consistently do what they mean to do.

"Let's do it!" she says, giving him a sideways grin. Joan loves good-natured competition, even if she's fairly sure she's going to get her butt kicked.

Ted grins back happily, and starts up the match. There may be a little bit of an ass-kicking, but it's definitely not one-sided. He's not amazing either. And he's giving her compliments every time she manages to stop him or take the ball, and he's absolutely delighted when she gets a goal against him.

She's having an absolute blast, grinning from ear to ear, laughing at their mutual fumbling, and complimenting him right back for all his good plays. When the game is over she puts down the controller and practically pounces on him, kissing him enthusiastically.

The pounce catches him by surprise, and he still has the controller in his hand when his arms automatically go around her as he kisses her back with a sound of happy surprise.

He smiles into the kiss, fumbling a little to put the controller down safely while still kissing Joan, then wrap his arms around her. Eventually he has to come up for air. "Didn't know beating your girlfriend at a sports video game could have such a positive reception," he comments, laughing.

She laughs as well and kisses him again. "Didn't know being beat at a sports video game could make me feel so loved," she answers, grinning and nuzzling her nose against his. She kisses him again, touching his cheek, then carding her fingers through his hair, the desire to be physically affectionate particularly strong at that moment.

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