Unknown Variable
Over the time they had lived together, there were a few phenomena that Sherlock had observed about John Watson.
One: John almost always made both of them a second cup of tea when Sherlock asked for another, but he would only drink a couple of sips of his own and let it go cold.
Two: Whenever Sherlock fell asleep on the sofa after a particularly long session in his mind palace, he would awake with a blanket tucked carefully around him.
Three: John would spend 6.8 minutes in the shower on average, though there were certain days that took him a good four minutes longer.
Four: John would often buy them Chinese food on Friday nights when they didn’t have a case, and he would bring it into the salon and watch something mindless on the telly. Sherlock would inevitably end up watching with him, pointing out the inaccuracies of the movie and eating far more than he normally would, while John would have 2.7 beers. By the end of those evenings, John would often nod off, sometimes with his head on Sherlock’s shoulder. Sherlock always felt something strange twisting in the very center of him, watching John sleep. He would almost always fall asleep there as well, the warm body next to his own.
For some reason, all of these things— which would have seemed dull to the extreme about any other person— were actually interesting phenomena to Sherlock. Particularly number four.
Sherlock tried changing the elements of the fourth observation in order to isolate the variable that caused him to feel… whatever it was that he was feeling. He tried dictating what they watched, or getting the Chinese food himself, or buying Thai instead. The nights still ended the same way, and he felt the same blooming warmth in his chest as he drifted off to sleep.
One Thursday night, John was reading a book in his chair, with his cold second cup of tea next to him. Sherlock was perched in his own chair, his fingers steepled over his lips, watching John.
In order to change the fundamental element of phenomenon number four, Sherlock would have to remove them from the flat. He had attempted to change all of the other variables, and the result had always been the same.
“I propose we go out to eat tomorrow night,” Sherlock blurted out.
John glanced up, his eyebrows rising to his hairline. “What?”
“Instead of Chinese and whatever inane programme you were planning on subjecting me to tomorrow night, I would like for us to go out to dinner. Together.”
As Sherlock waited for an answer, his heart started pounding for some reason… which was utterly absurd.
”Um, okay. Sure.” John went back to his reading, his lips twitching upward into a small smile.
Satisfied, Sherlock went over to his violin and played one of John’s favorites.
