Title: Five Things
Author: wihluta
Fandom: Sherlock (BBC)
Characters: John/Sherlock
Rating: PG 13
Wordcount: ~ 530
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Notes: Written for the fan_flashworks "five things" challenge.



There are five things Sherlock values more than anything. He does not rank them in any specific order in his mind, but those are the things he is convinced he cannot live (comfortably) without. The list used to contain only four items for a long time, but recently Sherlock has had to amend it and add a fifth. He finds he doesn’t really mind.

Item No 1: smartphone.
He is currently using a BlackBerry - as John informed him recently - but he’s not too hung up on the make. It just so happens that this type of phone is most useful for his needs and therefore it’s the one he’s using. Once they come up with a more suited version he will be more than happy to swap.

Item No 2: violin.
He’s been playing the violin for as long as he remembers. Most of his fonder childhood memories are centered around him and his mother playing on their respective instruments in the sun room at the family estate. It’s also the one thing he has on Mycroft that his brother is unable to do (better than him). Mycroft doesn’t have the ear for music.

Item No 3: tea.
Well, he is British after all.

Item No 4: blue bathrobe.
Which, admittedly, is a rather odd item to categories as ‘necessary’ for his personal comfort, Sherlock knows. He’s not usually emotionally attached to anything. He keeps things that are and/or might be useful to him - and to most people that makes him look like a hoarder, but Sherlock knows better - but he is generally not bothered about having to replace or discard anything or anyone.
The blue bathrobe, however, is a different story. There is nothing special about it, no sentimental memories or otherwise pointlessly emotional history attached to it. John sometimes looks at him strangely when he finds Sherlock sat on the sofa, sewing up a new tear or darning a burn in the bathrobe, but he never asks. If he ever did, all Sherlock could say to explain this irrational attachment is that it is comfortable.

Item No 5: John.
The revelation that John has become one of the Things He Cannot Live Without comes as a complete surprise to Sherlock. He has never considered anyone as indispensable, on the contrary, the less people he has to deal with the better. And yet, somehow John has wormed his way into Sherlock’s routine, his head, his life and made himself quite at home there.

In fact, if Sherlock had to choose, he would gladly give up items one to four entirely if that meant he could keep John. Of course, Sherlock would never have to choose - not if John sleeping next to him, nose buried against Sherlock’s shoulder, is any indication.

Sherlock checks the messages on his phone, composes a few lines of notes in his head that he will later play on the violin, pulls the dark blue hem of his sleeve down against the chill in the bedroom and thinks longingly of a cup of tea.

“Later,” he whispers to himself and continues to watch John sleep.