Winter Breaks (Johnlock/Teenlock)

6

What was probably the number one rule for Christmas was about to be broken by John and Sherlock.

This rule being, don't ditch your family.

"John, are you sure you don't want to watch Home Alone 2? It's your favorite," Harry said as she slid the DVD into the player.

"I...I'm not feeling so well, I think I'm just going to stay in my room for a while," John said while already walking towards his room.

"Oh, well, okay," Harry shrugged as Home Alone 2 started to play.

John sat in his room for an hour attempting to read Hamlet. Then he heard his phone make a notification noise.

Sherlock: operation pelican is a go

John: Alright, where do I meet you?

Sherlock: I can go behind your house, you don't have a house behind yours do you?

John: nope

Sherlock: that's what I thought

John pulled a satchel out of his closet and shoved his phone and a wrapped box into his bag. He slid into a Northface jacket. John's room was at the back of the house, with a window looking out to the backyard. He looked out that window.

The backyard of John's new home was about a yard wide and a yard long, and if it weren't for the snow covering it, there would be spots of grass on blank dirt, and towards the back there was an old attempt at a garden that the people living there before John must have started.

He saw Sherlock's recognizable figure climb over the fence bordering the backyard. John started to pull the window up and clamber out of his room. Sherlock helped John out.

"So where are we going now?" John asked.

"Good question, you can't go to my place, and we clearly can't stick around here," Sherlock muttured. "I have an idea."

The school must have been closed. The two went into the driveway and Sherlock unlocked the door to the building.

"Doesn't the school have security cameras?" John asked.

"None that they use, they have them, but they don't use them," Sherlock explained.

"So this is my new school, huh?" John asked as they wandered through the school.

"Yup," Sherlock said, popping the 'p'. "What's your schedule?"

John pulled his phone out. Luckily, he had taken a picture of his schedule. "Uhhh...history, maths, English, science..."

"Alright, lemme show you where your classes are," Sherlock said as he rubbed his hands together. "Right so your first class is history, right? So that c—"

"Sherlock, couldn't we just...have some time for each other?" John asked. "It's bloody Christmas, shouldn't we have some time to just...be friends?"

Sherlock thought for a moment. He sat down on the cold ground of the hallway. "Sure, John. What would you like to do?"

John pulled a gift out of his bag as he sat down as well.

"I—"

"...got me a gift for Christmas," Sherlock said without so much as a glimpse. "I know. I got you a gift too."

"Really?"

"Does it surprise you?"

John shook his head. "I mean, I didn't know if...I...you..."

Sherlock pulled a gift out of his pocket.

Sherlock handed the gift to John. John hesitantly opened the gift. Inside there was a notebook. It had John's name on it and was leather bound, with lined paper inside.

"Well this makes my gift look like crap," John said.

He handed Sherlock the gift. Sherlock opened it there was a box inside.

"Oh, thank you for a box, John."

"No, look inside the box," John said.

Inside there was a Halloween skull. On the inside there were numerous scratch marks, indicating that there had been some wires and things removed.

"You got me a Yorrik!" Sherlock grinned, holding the skull like Hamlet.

"What's a Yorrik?" John asked.

"The skull from Hamlet, it's what Hamlet named the skull," Sherlock said as he played with the skull.

"Oh, I'm more of a Romeo and Juliet sort of guy," John said. It was true to an extent. At least he had read Romeo and Juliet. He had only attempted reading Hamlet.

Sherlock considered it for a moment. "You do realize the whole story is about sex, right?"

"But they love each other!"

"A girl sees a hot boy at a party the boy isn't supposed to be at, they have sex, talk about love, girl pretends to die, hot boy dies, girl commits suicide," Sherlock said. "Just sounds like teenagers who made a mistake and lost their virginity to each other. Might I add they're thirteen in the story."

John made a face. "Well you've just officially ruined Romeo and Juliet for me."

"It's just the idea of love at first sight," Sherlock shrugged. "Which is only based on beauty, and beauty is only a social construct."

"I believe in love at first sight," John said.

Sherlock rolled his eyes. "Why?"

"That was how my parents met...my real parents, I mean. And I've experienced it," John said.

"Well, I don't get it. Nothing about the way someone looks determines whether you love them or not. They could be beautiful but an absolute asshole. They could be ugly but lovely. You have to meet someone before you love someone," Sherlock explained. He sighed, "That'd why people don't love me. And they never will."

John was quiet for a moment. And then he said, "People love you. I'm sure there are people who've cared about you ever since he...they met you, and hurt haven't worked up the courage to tell you 'I love you'."

"Yeah," Sherlock said. "Maybe. I doubt it though."

He didn't look like someone who no one could love. He looked like someone nostalgicly thinking about their a happy memory of a dead grandparent. Thinking about something bittersweet, but a bit overdone in the 'bitter' department.

He stood up. "Happy Christmas." And he walked away. He left John, sitting in a new school, with a Christmas gift.

When Sherlock as out of ear shot, John said. "Sherlock Holmes, I love you."