Hey there guys!

So before anyone asks why my other two stories aren't updated, the details are on my author profile. If any one can't be bothered to look there, then I'll just say: My two stories are both on hiatus.

Did that achieve a dramatic effect? :P

I promise to have them both updated either this week or next week, definitely before Easter. But I'm drowning in school work right now, plus I'm stuck with some bits. You patience will pay off, promise!

Anyways, this is something very different. So far I've worked with a Scandal in Blegravia, but I decided to do a bit of an AU. It may not be to in character, but it was a really fun and different idea, and I wanted to toy with these particular characters a bit.

Enjoy xxx

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She sat there, completely naked. Her hair was tied back in an eloborate way, which complimented her face nicely, her eyes were still the same colour blue as Sherlock remembered; bottomless, sparkling with that hint of mischief. Her lips were ruby red this time, and not a natural pink. Her eyes were outlined and her lashes were curled.

She was smiling at him, one eyebrow raised, almost as if she was daring him. He was looking back coldly, wondering what he should do.

Tell John?

No, he and Miss Adler had begun a new game, and the past didn't count. She was the successful and skilled dominatrix and he was the cold and clever detective. A small, yet possibly essential part of them was still preserved, but they had both changed.

Drastically, it would seem, at least in her case.

And so Sherlock stayed cold and emotionless and detached. He told himself it was for the sake of the game. He told himself that he didn't want John caught up in the middle of this.

But the things he told himself weren't quite true. They contributed to his number of reasons to act cold, certainly, but there was something else, something different and much, much bigger.

By acting cold, he could pretend like he didn't remember the past, as if it had all slipped away. Years and years of memories and recollections, intense feelings and amusing encounters.

They meant nothing now, and that's what Sherlock told himself.

But it was hard.

Looking at her there, naked, smiling suggestively, only triggered memories he didn't want to relive.

He closed his eyes, trying to clear his mind, needing desperately to focus.

All that existed right now was this room in Belgravia, with the naked dominatrix, the unknowing and unsuspecting army doctor, and the case that needed to be solved.

Nothing else.

He looked at her again, and saw that she was now happily chatting with John. He smirked inwardly.

John wasn't allowed to know. Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler were strangers, two simple individuals whose paths in life had crossed in Sherlock's quest to solve a case.

To John, she would remain Irene Adler. And right now, she would remain Irene Adler to Sherlock as well.

But he'd seen her before, of course he had. Irene Adler, then known as Irene Adele Aikins, his classmate in primary school, friend in Grammar school and the first and only girl he had ever had feelings for.

And now also a professional and skilled dominatrix, in whose possession was some revealing photographs of a member of the British monarchy.

He needed to focus.

The Irene he had known no longer existed. In her place was a determined and dangerous woman, not afraid of anything. A woman who showed no weakness or vulnerability, a woman whose eyes were like ice, cold and blue, hard and still. The expression in them would not shatter and crack to reveal the warmth and honesty within, and Sherlock shouldn't expect them to.

After all, he was now the emotionless detective, his eyes just as blue and cold as hers.

The encounters and memories of the past stayed in the past, buried there, and never mentioned.

Sherlock an Irene might just be able to fool themselves into thinking they were forgotten.

How stupid of them.

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Like it? Love it? Hate it?

Please tell me what you think! I do want to continue this (though I just realised that it might work as a one-shot…)

Tell me if you want more chapters. I already have a basic outline of the first half, and I really look forward to writing a younger Sherlock and Irene; the dynamic between them is so interesting.

Please tell me what you think! Thanks xxx