The next moment would be considered to be one of the most amazing and iconic things that John had ever witnessed. Sherlock's eyes were widened in shock as he stood up from where he had been sitting and dropped the violin to the floor, causing a cringe-worthy sound that only could've meant that he had smashed the bridge. Luckily, Mrs. Hudson hadn't been in the room or else she would've lost her usual calmness over the dropped (and ruined) instrument. But something had been awakened in the detective's mind, an odd feeling that seemed very distant to him. The sudden mental freedom caused for an outburst of emotion- watery drops of salted tears ran down the sharp cheekbones and further down the face of the detective. He had always been known to remain impartial and never have much of an emotional reaction to any situation.
"Sherlock, are you alright? My God, you're crying. What the hell is going on?!" John began to spatter all at once.
"What are you boys doing up here?" Mrs. Hudson said, peeking in through the door after hearing the doctor's shouting.
"He's bloody crying! Have you ever seen him do that?!"
"No, never. Gosh, Sherlock, what happened?"
"I told him that the reason we escaped Moriarty this time was because the passcode to stopping a bomb from killing us was when I said 'I love you' to him. Now look at the result!"
"Stop shouting, John, you're not helping. As a doctor, you should be very calm right now since this is an extreme situation."
"I don't care if I'm a bloody doctor! I've never seen him look like such a mess! How do we fix it?!"
"John." Sherlock finally said hoarsely.
"What?" He replied in a grumpy tone.
"Do shut up. I don't know what's happening to me and you pretending like I'm not here isn't going to help anything."
Mrs. Hudson left the room, closing the door behind her so her boys could figure out their predicament.
"What? All of a sudden you begin to express your feelings and now you're crying? No...that sure as hell is not Sherlock Holmes."
"Explain why Moriarty would do that."
"Why should I if you already know? You're a clever detective, it's your job. Figure it out, even though I know you already have."
"John, I don't know. Honestly."
He sighed, "Fine. Because he could hold it against one of us and knew it would turn him into a wreck. I just assumed it was supposed to be me since I'm the doctor who works with the people and has a child with a wife he's separated from."
"So now Moriarty's going to use your words to get people against you?"
"Yes. And since you've turned out like this, he'll undoubtedly continue to prove that we're like this."
"Like what?"
"In a relationship with each other. Or that you actually have tears to cry in certain situations. Basically, getting people to not come to us for help."
"Explain how people avoiding us would be bad? I don't see the negative side..."
"You might not, but I find interest in talking to a variety of people."
"Great, sounds like an issue for yourself to get over since I can't help you there. And the first outcome isn't the worst, people already talk."
"Yeah but, you kno- people..." John stopped himself, not being able to come up with a decent response.
"What?"
"Fine, if you're alright with pretending that we're in a relationship, then let's try that. It'll be using Moriarty's theory against him since he thought we would be upset over it. Let's make it look like his idea backfired." John shrugged nonchalantly.
Sherlock only nodded, not sure whether he was okay with the use of pretending or relationship throughout John's explanation of his plan. His mind was too boggled to think over it much, so he simply answered with his head to please the doctor. The doctor who would fake being in a relationship with him in order to get a psychotic criminal angry. Nothing about the plan seemed to be a guaranteed success for the two men. Knowing Jim Moriarty, there would definitely be unforseen twists awaiting everyone.
John thought about it a bit longer before announcing that their "relationship" would be released to the general public in a few days. Specifically on the day of Molly Hooper's funeral where all of her closest friends and remaining family would be gathered. Both men had a negative gut-feeling about it, but continuously agreed in order not to insult each other's opinions and thoughts. They had managed to think of a few ground rules for their plan to be successful-
1. Always pretend to be in a relationship in front of anyone.
2. Nobody, not even Mycroft or Mrs. Hudson, could know that it was a bluff.
3. No flirting or awkward stares at other people (rule completely meant for John).
4. Go on actual fake dates to make it more believeable.
The rules were to always be followed and under no circumstance be disregarded. Not until (as John put it) Sherlock decided that it was far enough since he was the more logical one in scheme-type ordeals. Only a few minutes later, John had fell into a state of unconsciousness in the seat where he had been sitting. Sherlock stood up, looking down at his accomplice, and wiped the trails of former tears off of his face as he went back to the bedroom.
The detective had no will to change clothes, nor bathe, at the moment so he fell face-forward onto the blanket-covered mattress. He flipped his body over to allow his nose to breathe more easily throughout the rest of the night and fell into another world, where he could escape the confusion of the real one he was forced to live in. The return of his emotional side was both a blessing and a curse- he could finally show people that he wasn't just a machine or lab experiment (as some had proposed), but now he had deep weaknesses that would be so accessible to his enemies for blackmail.
