enarms:

it’s 1895, victorian england and homosexuality is illegal and john watson is together with sherlock holmes because who cares, sherlock’s a haughty idiot and a pain in the backside and the love of his life and john’ll do what he wants

it’s 2015 and homosexuality is no longer illegal and john watson is free to be with sherlock holmes and he is in love with him but they are not together because in the absence of external legal pressure, fear and homophobia have been instilled in him from an early age and he has spent his life wrestling with internalised biphobia, trust issues and a hatred of vulnerability likely all stemming from a similar childhood source and nurtured by his environment which has left him crippled in the face of his own emotional insecurity resulting in him choosing the safety of continued friendship over the risk inherent in asking for more