trashchildren | For Joan

Ted and Joan have spent a significant amount of time together over the past couple days. Joan is happy with how things are going. She feels very comfortable with him, and he seems to feel comfortable with her. What's more, their ways of looking at the world seem to complement each other remarkably well. Joan has the eye of a detective, taking note of details that others might miss, whereas Ted has the eye of an optimist, framing everything he sees in the most positive light possible. Joan feels they're opening each other's eyes to a wider world they wouldn't have necessarily experienced without each other.

The day of the karaoke arrives, and in the morning Joan is unexpectedly called in on a case. She texts Ted to let him know, and promises she will take time that evening for karaoke. She suggests he come by 221B Baker Street and they can make their way to the bar together.

When Ted arrives, Joan herself has only been home for a few minutes. She lets him in and leads him to the living room.

"Make yourself comfortable. I'll be just a minute."

She hurries upstairs to change.

It's been very easy falling into a comfortable rhythm with Joan so far. Perhaps too easy, if they're going to try to take things slowly. Ted's feelings towards her have grown faster than he expected them to, but he wants to makes sure that's not just rebound feelings of having missed being in a relationship.

But she really is a remarkable woman, and Ted is constantly impressed and delighted by her. He's had a spring in his step all week, even if he hasn't told anyone why -- which is actually a little bit of a challenge for Ted, since he really wants to gush about Joan. Beard has probably guessed though. Maybe not that it's Joan specifically, but that there's someone.

And, well, it will probably be obvious by the end of the evening, at least to Beard. Even if Ted is perfectly fine with keeping a professional distance in public, he knows he's not very good at reigning in his looks of affection.

"Yeah no, take your time," Ted he answers cheerfully as Joan excuses herself, and he wanders around and looking at titles of the books in the bookshelves to entertain himself in the meantime.

The apartment door opens and slams shut.

"Watson!" Footsteps hurrying closer. "The hair analysis confirms my suspicion that..."

Sherlock rushes into the living room...and freezes to see a strange man there.

"You're not Watson," he says.

Ted turns around with curious surprise at the man's voice. When he states the obvious, Ted gives a shrug and his usual perky smile of greeting.

"Hi, I'm Ted Lasso. You must be Sherlock," he says cheerfully, giving a little wave that he turns into an offer of a handshake. He hadn't expected to get to meet him today, but he's very happy to.

Sherlock doesn't take the hand. He narrows his eyes at the man, his expression conveying analytical distrust.

"Theodore Lasso," he says. "Coach of AFC Richmond. Watson assisted in the case involving your players." His eyes narrow further. "You're the man she's been seeing."

Joan hasn't told Sherlock anything, but even the harder-to-read detective has been obviously happy in ways that Sherlock had already deduced meant she had a romantic interest. Sherlock just didn't expect it to be him.

Ted pulls back his hand when it becomes evident Sherlock's not taking it, but he doesn't seem bothered by it. From what he's heard about him being difficult to get along with, Ted's not expecting a lot of niceties, but he's fine with that. Joan has a very high opinion of him, which means he must be a good person.

"That's right," Ted agrees. He's not sure if Joan has told him, or that's his own deduction, but either way, it doesn't seem like it's a secret.

"Thanks for waiting," Joan says, coming down the stairs. "I'm..."

She sees Sherlock, and swears inwardly. She had hoped that the detective would be busy enough on the case that he wouldn't be returning to Baker Street until later. So much for that. She looks from him to Ted, and sees that the meeting has apparently gone exactly how she expected it to - Sherlock suspicious and Ted still flawlessly friendly.

"I see you've met."

Sherlock nods, his eyes not leaving the coach. "I take it this is the engagement you had tonight."

"Yes," Joan says, moving to Ted's side and giving him a reassuring smile. "I'll be back in a couple hours. Is there anything you need from me right now?"

Sherlock finally looks away from Ted and at his partner.

"The hair analysis confirms that the hair on the sweater our victim was wearing belongs neither to our victim nor our perp."

"So it can point us toward who actually owned the sweater."

"So it would seem."

"Good. When I get back we can go over profiles." She looks at Ted. "Shall we?"

Ted waits patiently, looking between the two with mild interest. He actually finds it kind of exciting to see them at work, even if he has no idea about the context. But then he probably wouldn't enjoy the context very much anyway.

"Yes, absolutely," he answers Joan when they've finished their conversation. "Nice meeting you," he says to Sherlock, and he actually means it. Whatever impoliteness Sherlock exhibits, Joan seems perfectly capable of handling it - not a surprise. Ted looks forward to having an actual conversation with the man sometime.

Sherlock is a little taken aback, the sincerity wholly unexpected and foreign to him.

"And you," he says.

Joan sees that and blinks. She has seen many people meet Sherlock for the first time, and no one has ever flummoxed him like that, nor have they walked away with a smile. It's so very Ted, and her heart is warmed, feeling proud of this man she's quickly falling in love with.

Once they're in the hall and the door is closed behind them, Joan turns to him, throws her arms around his neck, and kisses him firmly.

Ted makes a noise of happy surprise, his arms automatically going around her as he kisses her back. It's still in that stage where he's surprised by it every time, and he very much enjoys being surprised, especially by something as nice as a kiss.

"What was that for?" he asks curiously, once they've pulled apart again. She hadn't greeted him so enthusiastically when he'd arrived a moment ago.

She loves how happily surprised he is, how much joy he gets from being with her, from being kissed by her. She beams up at him, her arms still loosely around his neck.

"You're amazing," she says. "And I'm just so lucky to be with you."

With everyone else, Sherlock has a barrier. Joan loves Sherlock, so when the people she's seen inevitably hate him, she's wound up feeling conflicted, unhappy with Sherlock, unhappy with her date, unhappy with her life. It's one of the many reasons she's avoided getting romantically involved. But it's not like that with Ted, and she's just so happy and relieved and proud.

Ted glances down shyly, always so giddy to get compliments like that from her. He almost feels like an impostor sometimes, she has such a completely positive opinion of him. He worries that eventually she'll see that he's only human, that he gets angry or frustrated like everyone else, and then the shine will wear off. Like eventually she'll fall out of love with him just like Michelle did.

But he tries not to worry about that.

"Well, likewise," he answers fondly, and gives her another kiss. They're not gonna be able to be so open about their affection for the rest of the evening, so might as well take advantage while they can.

She knows that he's human, knows that there will be a time when he's angry or hurt or tired, and won't be nice and friendly and positive. That happens with everybody. She hasn't known him long enough to be sure, but she believes that if and when that happens, it won't be that she's suddenly seeing his true self. She'll be seeing a good man in pain, and she hopes she'll be able to be there for him.

She kisses him back, taking her time, since they won't be able to do this once they leave the building. It's been increasingly difficult to keep her affection hidden and to be with him without so much as holding his hand. She suspects they may need to have another conversation about that soon.

When the kiss ends she steps back, letting her hands run down his arms and squeeze his hands before letting go entirely.

"Let's go."

Ted nods in agreement, following her outside. He stuffs his hands in his pockets so he won't be tempted to take her hand again.

"I think that went rather well, by the way," he adds, nodding his head back towards the apartment, indicating his first meeting with Sherlock. "He didn't even say anything inappropriate. And he said it was nice to meet me," he says, smiling playfully.

It's honestly a better introduction than he's had to quite a few people who have ended up being lovely people and even friends.

"You surprised him," Joan notes with an answering smile. "There aren't a lot of things that really surprise Sherlock. But you definitely did."

It will be interesting seeing how they relate to each other going forward. How Ted will respond the first time Sherlock tells him to give Watson more orgasms.

Joan slips her hand into her coat pocket as well, to keep herself from threading her arm through his.

"So, who's going to be at karaoke tonight?"

Ted's not even sure what he did that was so surprising. He was mostly just polite, and not put off when Sherlock wasn't polite in return. That's not even something he has to try to do, that just comes naturally.

"Rebecca and Beard both said they'd be there," Ted answers. Rebecca had taken a little bit convincing, but it's gotten easier to get her to come along to things like this than it used to be at least. "Sam, probably. Nathan might come along but he doesn't usually sing. Keeley will definitely be there, which means Roy will too, but I don't think you've met either of them. You'll love them though. Well, you'll love Keeley," he says with a chuckle.

Joan would guess that the fact that being kind just comes naturally to him, rather than being a tactic toward some ulterior motive, is exactly why he surprised Sherlock. Sherlock is cynical about human nature, and it's very hard to be cynical in the smiling face of Ted Lasso.

"It will be nice to see Coach Beard again," she remarks. "The others, too. You have a great team." She glances at him. "Do they know I'm coming?"

"I mentioned it to Beard. It's not really an exclusive event or anything like that, people bring friends. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, you know, announce it ahead of time," he answers with a shrug. Ted isn't necessarily great at doing things sneakily, but he's trying, for her sake. "Oh, speaking of Roy, he makes about as good a first impression as Sherlock does, but don't worry, he's a good guy. He's just got... very angry eyebrows. And, well, attitude."

Joan is really good at being sneaky, seeing as it's literally her job. But she's definitely is feeling the tension in keeping their relationship secret. She doesn't necessarily want to shout it from the rooftops, but she does want to hold his hand in public. And have his friends and his team know she's his girlfriend.

"Noted," she said about Roy. "I have a lot of experience handling guys with attitude. Sherlock keeps me in practice."

Ted chuckles warmly. "Yeah, me too. Took Roy a while to warm up to me. Called me Ronald McDonald first time we spoke," he shares with a grin. Obviously not exactly an insult he took to heart. "But I got a lot of that attitude first time I came here. Just had to give people some time to actually get to know me."

"Ronald McDonald," she scoffs teasingly. "Well that's totally unfair. I mean, come on. You're nothing like Ronald McDonald. He doesn't have a mustache." She playfully flashes her eyebrows at him.

"Seriously, though. I'm glad people got to know you. I'm guessing they are, too."

Ted snickers at her teasing and nudges her a little with his elbow. It's probably the constant smiling that was the main comparison. Ted might be blithe, but he's also self-aware.

"Yeah, so am I. And now they'll get to know you too," he says with an excited smile. He's obviously looking forward to that.

Oh, that excited smile makes Joan blush a little. It's been a long while since someone was eager to introduce her to their friends. And since they're not publicly a couple, she knows its not him showing her off to make himself look good. He actually sincerely thinks she's someone cool enough that they will enjoy knowing.

"I'm glad to get to know them," she says.

Joan wonders if at some point she'll get to introduce Ted to her friends in New York. To her parents. To Oren. And then she tries to remember when the last time was that the idea of taking someone she was seeing to meet her family even occurred to her.

It doesn't take them too long to get to the karaoke place, and while not everyone is there yet, people have already started drinking a bit, though no one has started the karaoke yet.

Pretty much the moment they walk in the door, Beard shows up out of nowhere and hands each of them a bottle of beer. As usual with his supernatural ability to predict what Ted needs and when he needs it. Beard gives a respectful nod of greeting to Joan.

"Thanks, coach," Ted says with a chuckle, giving an amused look to Joan before taking a sip.

Joan blinks in surprise as Beard hands them their drinks. It really is uncanny. She gives him a smile and a "thank you," then glances at Ted with raised eyebrows, impressed.

As they move into the room, Joan looks around, recognizing people she talked to for the case here and there, smiling at them and raising her beer in greeting.

For Joan

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