Starving; A Sherlock Fanfic

Explainations

John's POV

It was late in the afternoon when Sherlock and I had finally settled down into the living room. I was reading the paper, something I didn't get the chance to do earlier, while Sherlock was sitting messing with a jar of honey and a vile of... Something. It was oddly quiet for an afternoon at 221b, and it felt strange given the events that had been going on over the past few days. Even the tension in the air and all but disappeared. It was nice to say the least. Quite honestly I'd been wondering if our lives would ever go back to normal, well, as normal as our lives could ever be.

At about five o'clock, Sherlock finally got bored of his... Experiment?

"You know what I could really go for right now?" He broke the silence.

"A good murder? An escaped psychopathy? Another literal elephant in the room?" I responded, naming all his usual things he wished for when bored.

"While that would be quite fun, the elephant was really rather an inconvenient situation and an extraordinary hassle to remove, and actually," He jumped up from the floor, "I was going to say coffee."

"Well there's some in the kitchen if that's all you wanted."

"No, that's no fun! Let's go somewhere, come on!"

"Really? You want to actually leave the flat and go somewhere that doesn't involve a case?" I asked, surprised, "Are you up to something?"

"Oh, come on, I'm not always conspiring behind your back!" He in mock offense, "I just want to go get coffee!"

"Mhm... fine we'll go, but the second you start being all... detectivey we're going home."

"Of course." He said, already pulling his coat on.

Within twenty-five minutes, we were waiting outside as the cab pulled up. We both climbed into the car as Sherlock told him the address of the coffee shop. I had no idea where we were going, and I still wasn't completely sure this wasn't another one of Sherlock's tricks to drag me into investigating another lead for one of his cases. This was normally what was happening whenever he suddenly got excited over something and wanted to get out of the flat.

Finally, we pull up to a little café with "Robin's café" written on the window in bold, glowing letters. Sherlock paid the driver as I got out and stretched. Once the cab drove off we walked in to what I assumed was Robin's café, and sat down at a booth near a window. The setting sun was glaring through the window and casting shadows on the table.

The seats were stained and had stuffing sticking out of rips in the fabric. In fact, almost every seat in the place looked the same. Likewise, the paint on the walls had chipped away in some places, revealing drywall beneath the pinkish-tan paint. The tiles were broken and even taped down with duct tape. The place really did look run down. Of all places he decided to go here?

"Sherlock?"

"Hmm?"

"Why... are we here? Like in this building, I mean it's kind of..."

"I have no clue. I looked up coffee shops near us and it was the first that came up"

"Seriously?"

"Yup."

There was a pause in the conversation as I watched him pick up the menu and study it for a second, squinting against the sunlight.

"So you just wanted to leave the flat?" I rolled my eyes.

"Yes? Why? Is that a problem?"

"You never want to leave unless it's for a case!"

"Well I wanted to."

"You're up to something."

"No I'm not!"

"You're always up to something!"

We were interrupted by the waitress before we could continue our argument. She looked to be in her early 20s, with short, dark brown, hair and tan skin.

"Welcome to Robin's café, I'm Natalie, I'll be your waitress, what are we getting today?" She pulled a notepad out of her jacket.

"Just coffee, thanks." Sherlock muttered absent-mindedly

"Two chocolate muffins too, please, thank you." I added, scanning the menu quickly. Sherlock glanced up, giving me a look of annoyance.

"Okay, I'll be right back with that." She smiled.

I waited for her to leave before I turned back to Sherlock, who seemed to have become very invested in something on his phone. The sunlight made it seem as if half of his hair was bleached lighter than the other half. Thankfully, it wasn't because it wasn't a good look on him. Actually... okay, it was sort of adorable. Soon enough, the waitress returned with coffee and two muffins. She muttered something along the lines of 'enjoy' before leaving again.

We sat in silence for a while longer. Sherlock picked at his muffin, glaring at it like it had just insulted his mother, taking breaks to continue typing on his phone. I had picked up my phone and starting reading an article on some new dangerous internet trend or something. Finally, he put down his phone and stared at the table with his hands folded in front of him. I noticed and put my phone down as well.

"Sherlock?" I asked softly

"You wanted to know why I brought you here?" He questioned and I nodded in response. "I wanted you to know why... why everything. Why I'm like I am and everything that's happened and... And I'm not extraordinarily skilled at talking about this sort of thing, I'm good at figuring things out not explaining them. So please just... just bear with me while I attempt this." He took a sip of his coffee and scrunched up his face in disgust before adding more sugar. He sighed and ran his hands through his hair.

"I'm listening, Sherlock, just try." I said reassuringly. He nodded and closed his eyes.

"It started when I was fifteen..." He began.

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Hey, I did it! I wrote something!  I think I'm going to try updating on Sunday or Monday, depending on how quickly I can write and edit the chapter. A bit of an explanation, if you didn't read the chapter before my latest update, you by no means have to. It just goes into detail on Sherlock's past with relationships and mental health and stuff, which is what I had him explain at the end of this chapter. Obviously, I'm not going to tell you that you have to read it because it may be triggering to some readers, but just know it goes into some pretty dark stuff that John will now know about!