Home - A Series of Johnlock One Shots

[001] In the Asylum Where They Raised Me

john watson sat cross-legged in the darkness of his bedroom. his head was pounding, and he swallowed, realising his mouth was filled with a disgusting taste. he soon identified that to be phlegm as he cleared his throat and felt something come up. using his right hand, john reached from his bed and to the bed side table.

as his hand reached for the string of the light, he tugged on it and looked over at it. the light now illuminated the whole room, and the warmth of it lit up johns features. sitting beside the lamp, was a box of tissues, and from that box, john pulled a tissue. he cleared his throat into it, proceeding to discard it in the bin beside the bedside table.

as the tissue hit the bottom of the bin, a cough erupted from him. and as he finally snapped out of the daze he was in, he realised that flowing throughout the flat was the loud sound of a song. the sound bounced off the walls and snuck under the creak of the bedroom door. light crept through from under, creating a tiny source of light, but without the lamp, it wasn't useful.

his eyes snapped up from his hands, which held another scrunched up tissue. he looked from left to right and now focused on the song that was echoing throughout the flat. he stood up, though shaky.

as the door of his bedroom opened, his eyes began to scan the halls. and he was now able to hear the lyrics that rippled through the hall:

you wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.

so all your friends can sneak into my house with all the cobwebs.

i'm always drunk on my own tears; isn't that what they all said?

as john added up what was happening, he realised that his roommate, sherlock holmes, was having one of his episodes where he just listened to music, was unresponsive and completely and utterly silent. this often happened with the infamous genius; it was probably an issue with his mental health, and that was why john was always persistent with himself to ensure that he never prodded at it.


with his movements full of caution, john approached sherlock and sat opposite him at their small table in the corner of the room. he now took a second to analyse what was wrong, and as he did so, he felt his eyes settle ahead of him and he took in the boy in front of him. even when bothered, he appeared to be so.. calm?

his eyes locked on the darker haired boy for a few seconds longer before he stopped himself from the focus that he held on the temporary infatuation. "sherlock, mate, are you okay?" he asked, his tone laced with a thick tone of curiousness. to reply to that, the raven haired boy simply responded with a grunt, to say no. his head was hung low. this was the worst state that john had ever seen sherlock in. but, he continued to talk to him, rambling was what usually helped sherlock.

"the music you had on was a bland choice, taylor swift? i didn't think you'd like taylor. i always imagined that you'd be more into the sort of classical music that often gets associated with being a genius like you." he paused, looking for a reaction from the other boy, and a small smile had just tugged at his lips. john took this as his signal to carry on. 

"i also associate you with the piano, sherlock. god, if you had the patience i think that you would've been phenomenal at piano. i'm good at musuic, y'know. just not the piano. i'm better at the electric guitar and acoustic. thats precisely why taylor swift isn't my cup of tea." another, short but still as worrying, grunt came from sherlock. the silver haired boy now angled his face to look between the raven's hands, and he took in his features once again. his gaze drifted up and down his face and set on his lips, which had now formed a big smile. this was a hint that what he was doing was the correct option.

"though, taylor is acoustic music, but i listen to more original things. you know that already, i can't even leave the flat without my walkman. but you've never actually heard my mix tapes, yknow, the long ones that i play when i've got a headache?" the mans words were working, because the other man now had absolutely no sign of sadness, his hands moved from his face and he looked at john, listening intently.