Warnings: Not really any, kind of ooc Sherlock (but who cares)
Author's Note: Finally feeling like I have time to write and that the writing gods have been in my favor. This was a fun little one-shot to write. While I'm still trying to get back into my writing groove, this one shot definitely helped get some of the dust off my creative writing brain. So, thank you @my-dear-sweet-melody for requesting this one. I hope you enjoy it!
You weren’t sure how you’d been doing it: managing the day-to-day lives of two people who also happened to be good friends of yours, assisting Sherlock with cases, seeing things you’d never thought you’d see in your lifetime (both good and bad), juggling relationships, your own well-being and health, and time to relax. Although it seemed like you had less and less time to do the things concerning yourself. You knew it wasn’t healthy, but when you were thrust into the world of Sherlock Holmes, more important things came into play.
Sherlock was the first to notice how the stress was weighing on you. It was a total shock when he casually announced your current state to John. The moment the words of concern were uttered from Sherlock’s lips, the puzzle in John’s mind had been completed. With the help of Mrs. Hudson, the two men began to conspire to make life easier for their dear friend.
At first, Sherlock’s conscious decision to wash his dishes and put them away in the correct cabinets struck you as odd. Sherlock’s mind was usually too busy for such arbitrary tasks, and such magnificent brain power couldn’t be wasted on such a thing. Then came the tidiness of his experiments. You could swear you hadn’t seen a stray finger or eyeball dissolving in vinegar for quite some time.
When you had asked Sherlock about his new behavior, he shrugged it off with some wildly strange research idea he had come up with. You tried to follow along, but your brain began to hurt after a moment, so you opted to believe him instead.
Meanwhile, John took extra care to charge his and Sherlock’s devices. He knew no matter how brilliant Sherlock was, the man seemingly ceased to forget that computers, phones, and the lot needed to be charged via a charging cord and port. On the other hand, Mrs. Hudson made the note to prepare extra tea and biscuits to save yourself the trouble of doing that for Sherlock and John.
Now, you felt no need to question John and Mrs.Hudson’s new behavior. It was in character for them to do small things like that. However, you continued to question Sherlock; he grew tired of it. Why couldn’t you see that he cared for you, too? That maybe he cared a bit more for you than he should. He was growing weary of the excuses he made to your insistent questions when all he wanted to do was throw them up and tell you the truth. Truthfully, the truth was something he insisted upon. Sherlock always found it one way or another. Yet, he could only fib when you had a new query about his altered behavior. Was it hard for you to understand that Sherlock could care? That he, too, could be human?
“Sherlock,” you called as you sat on the couch, pouring over the current case. It was usually your job to organize each thing into its Sherlockian category to save Sherlock his brain power. However, when you opened the file, it had already been done. “Did I happen to organize this in my sleep?” You raised the file and peered at him.
Sherlock felt his mind conjure up the latest lie. Just before it left his mouth, he paused. He got up and marched to the window, where he began to gaze out onto the street below. He couldn’t lie anymore. He had to tell you the truth.
“I organized it,” Sherlock said.
You froze. Something was seriously wrong with the man if he was now organizing his own cases. “Sherlock, you never orga–”
“Why can’t I?” Sherlock’s voice grew tense. His eyes clenched shut, all while his back was still towards you. He wouldn’t dare look at you. He knew if he saw your eyes, he’d crumble and tell you everything, but everything was what you needed to hear. Everything was what he needed to say.
“I never said you couldn’t. It’s just,” you faltered, “…strange.”
Within a moment, Sherlock whirled around. His icy blue eyes began to thaw under your gaze. “I observed you have stressed: Your trousers falling to your hips instead of hanging snuggly on your waist, the dark circles under your eyes that only grew prominent by the day, the growing urge to sleep instead of join Mrs. Hudson for the weekly watch party of the latest soap opera,” Sherlock shut his mouth. He had said too much already; he shouldn’t say more, but his lips moved again. “I wasn’t the only one who noticed, John and Mrs. Hudson, too. We devised a plan to lessen the blow of our–my constant mess.”
As Sherlock spoke, you realized his words were only the truth. You had noticed you suddenly had more time to eat a meal, spend time with your favorite landlady, who was more like a mother, go on walks in the park with John, listen to Sherlock compose his latest piece, sleep, and live life as it should be lived. Amidst Sherlock’s rambling, you whispered, “Why?”
“Because we–because I care you for,” Sherlock choked.
Slowly, you remove yourself from the comfort of the couch cushions and find a place in front of Sherlock. You watch as Sherlock shudders from the touch of your hand on his cheek. “Thank you,” you said as a smile grew. “Thank you for caring when I forgot to take care of myself. Although…”
Sherlock frowned.
“…while I appreciate the sentiment of you organizing your own cases, John charging the computers, and Mrs. Hudson always preparing tea, I’d still like to be able to do my job. After all, the great Sherlock Holmes still needs to use his brain power to solve cases and save the day.”
Sherlock could only smile at that response for he'd give you anything you'd ask. "Of course. Of course, Y/N."
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You know sometimes I think the main problem with BBC Sherlock is the fact that they all genuinely believed their show was (or at least wanted it to be) better than any version of Holmes in the history of ever. Like, better than Doyle better. It’s as if they wanted to outsmart the guy who originally wrote the bloody stories?? Hence the convoluted, nonsensical plot lines where Moriarty controls everyone, apparently
Like I think fundamentally that’s why they get Holmes’s character so wrong - they said to themselves ‘we can make Sherlock so much *better*, ~ cooler ~ more modern’. The result is the complete reduction of his character. he’s significantly more boring as a consequence of his inhuman perfection, he’s excused constantly for treating everyone like dirt, and he lacks any and all of the compassion that he exhibited in the stories.
(And because I can’t help myself comparing, imo this is why shows that actually respect, understand, and like the og stories (*cough* Granada *cough*) do so well! They don’t buy into their own hype, they don’t believe they’re geniuses who can ‘do better’, they’re just trying to do a good version of a beloved character)
i don’t remember who sent me the ask because i’m too tired to look it up but Kate Bishop and BBC Sherlock is just. so funny to me right now.
Kate gets stuck in BBC Sherlock’s world because she’s on a multiuniversal nerd trip to visit as many Sherlocks as possible with Teddy and Billy
and she gets stuck in BBC Sherlock’s world because Billy and Teddy get yoinked back to their universe
Kate is like, well, fuck, aight guess i’m here
she meets Sherlock 2 seconds before Watson shows up sorry fam
they wind up rooming because why not
Sherlock sees her do something very other universey and Sherlock is ????
“you know what they say, once you eliminate the impossible whatever remains however improbable must be blah blah bleh”
“WHY ARE YOU QUOTING ME AT ME?”
“what tf are you sherlock holmes or smth”
“yes actually”
lots of glaring
Sherlock looks her up probably and asks why she’s pretending to be a fictional superhero
only he calls her a pseudo hero
AND THINKS HE’S VERY FUNNY
“have you heard the thing that there’s no fiction just nonfiction in the wrong universe?”
“i think i hate you”
kate complains CONSTANTLY that she’s not in elementary!sherlock’s universe
“why don’t you have bees?”
“where is joan”
“you mean your housekeeper ISN’T a tall beautiful trans lady who is a book expert”
“why can’t we live in a brownstone, i miss brooklyn, uuuggghhhhhhhhh”
Sherlock does the Thing about her phone and Kate informs him that she has hand tremors from her antidepressants and is clumsy as fuck so try again
Kate is ACTUALLY a PI so eventually they will have an awesome business
after they stop bitching at each other
they’re constantly trying to out-detective each other and all of Scotland Yard keeps a tally of who has better hunches/zingers
there’s a group chat for detectives to share the best ones
Sherlock and Kate are absolutely memed
Kate does the first episode shooting through the window thing but with an arrow and lestrade is staring at her, “so...you have a bow and arrow. but you didn’t--you didn’t shoot--you didn’t shoot him--”
“i’ve never seen that arrow in my life officer”
(”fuckin cops”)
somehow she is also with sherlock during the whole poison pill scene and she is NOT impressed.
“are you. are you for real. it’s. this is. this is iocane powder. a clever man would put the poison into his own pill, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the pill in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool so I can clearly not choose the pill in front of me.”
sherlock is BEGGING her to stop
at some point he gives her a piggyback ride
idk i just need them snarking constantly at each other and stealing each other’s scarves
