Sherlock sat in his chair, drinking tea and reading his newspaper, while John put on his coat and prepared to leave. He was going out for a bit to….do something. Sherlock couldn't remember what-it wasn't important. The important thing here was that John was going out. If he hadn't decided to leave 221B on his own accord, Sherlock would have been forced to invent a reason for him to do was vital that John be absent from the apartment for a few hours-it was vital to Sherlock's plan.

Barely a minute after John had left, someone knocked on the door. Sherlock opened it, to reveal a very excited-looking holding a large bag standing in the doorway.
"He's gone-said goodbye to me at the door-he doesn't suspect a thing!" she said gleefully .
"Yes, -I believe that was the entire purpose of hiding this plan from him and not saying a word in his presence- It was so that he 'doesn't suspect a thing.' " Replied Sherlock, a hint of impatience in his voice.

Mrs Hudson entered the flat quickly and went straight to the kitchen. She set the bag down on the table and began pulling out its contents. "Now I got everything you need" she said "a cake tin, some piping bags,nozzles,sprinkles,chocolate,whipping cream," she called out as she pulled out all these ingredients. "And the recipe of course.I picked something really nice and easy-considering it's your first time baking and all-didn't want you to have any difficulties."
Sherlock snorted slightly with derision "Mrs Hudson, as someone who is fully aware of his intelligence and capabilities, I wholeheartedly believe that I can manage to mix flour with eggs and sugar and then cover everything with cream."
"Oh don't be so sure about that, dear" muttered under her breath. She finished getting out all the ingredients and turned towards Sherlock. "Right! Let's begin!" she said, smiling.

Sherlock, who up till then had been shifting around impatiently, turned towards and stood straight. "Okay, so first we have to measure out all the ingredients.I assume you have a measuring cup?"
Sherlock handed her one from the cupboard.

"Okay, so you can measure out all the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder) while I mix the eggs, butter and sugar-all right? After measuring it out, you need to sift it-it's important you that so that we don't have any lumpy/grainy bits in the batter."

Sherlock nodded, listening intently to every word she said and then moved towards the kitchen counter. He slowly picked up the packet of flour and put some of it into the measuring cup, gradually adding more as he carefully measured it out. He wanted to make sure he did everything right. Not that he doubted it of course-he was Sherlock Holmes-he solved the most puzzling of mysteries and caught the most dangerous of criminals-making a cake was certainly not the most difficult thing he'd had to do. Nonetheless, he had to pay attention. This was, after all, a type of scientific experiment -precision was important.

, who had a lot more experience than Sherlock, finished beating mixture and turned towards Sherlock to look at how he was progressing. Watching him be so precise and careful with his movements, couldn't help but giggle softly. Sherlock heard her, and looked up at her, one of his eyebrows arched. "Is something funny, ?" he asked, still bent over the counter, the measuring cup and packet of cocoa powder still in his hands.
"Oh nothing, Sherlock-I just think it's so sweet of you do something special like this for John on valentine's day!" she said, smiling.
"Oh." Said Sherlock, the look of impatience on his face was replaced by one of slight surprise and discomfort. "Well, I just thought that this being our first Valentine's together, John might expect me to arrange some sort of a present for him. Not that I hold any value to this day, of course!" he added hurriedly, "It's nothing but another unnecessary commercialised holiday that social convention dictates be filled with pink roses and fluffy stuffed ," he said slowly "If a small gesture on my part is what makes John happy,then who am I to deny him that." He finished, and stood there, now very visibly awkward.
, very moved by his tiny speech, said "Oh Sherlock-that just might be the sweetest thing I've ever heard-it's surprising it came from you! John Watson is a lucky man."
"Right." He replied, had now had enough of this gooey emotional talk-they need to shift their focus back to the cake. He cleared his throat, and said "Now can we please get back to work?"
"Yes, yes, of course! Are you done with all the dry ingredients?"
Sherlock sifted the small portion of flour that was still remaining and nodded.
" , now we have to mix everything together. Now most people just put everything in and whisk it-that's perfectly all right of course-but I prefer folding it in-it just gives it that little bit more fluffiness! Right so, you add in the dry ingredients bit by bit, and I'll fold it in-all right?"
Sherlock replied in the affirmative and then did as she instructed him. After they were done making the batter, they poured it into the cake tin and put into the oven
"Now what do we do?" asked Sherlock.
"Now, we "ll take 20 minutes to bake." Replied .
"Right"
"Maybe we can have a cuppa while we wait? I'll put the kettle on."

*ding!*
"Ah! That's the oven! It's done!" said excitedly, getting up and walking quickly to the kitchen. Sherlock shot up from his chair and followed suit.
"Okay, we have to check if it's done," said , carefully pulling the cake out and inspecting it "It looks all right, but just to be sure...Sherlock,hand me a tooth pick." He did so .Hudson took it and poked it gently into the cake, and then slowly pulled it out.
"It's clean! The cakes perfect!" she exclaimed joyfully.
Sherlock, relieved, smiled ever so slightly. "Brilliant." He muttered softly.
and he then spent the next hour making the chocolate icing and then decorating the cake with tried writing "Happy Valentine's Day John" with the piping bag, but failed miserably, and then left the job to after yelling frustrated at the cake for several minutes.
When it was finally done, they put the cake in the fridge and cleaned the kitchen-it was important that they leave no trace of their activities lest John suspect anything. Sherlock thanked for her help, and then she left, leaving Sherlock to change out of his robe and into something more appealing, and then wait for John to return.

John entered the apartment to find Sherlock in his usual position in front of the window, playing his violin. He heard John come in, but feigned nonchalance and continued to play-he needed to act natural.
"Hey, Sherlock" said John, taking off his coat "what'd you do while I was out?"
"Oh, nothing out of the ordinary. It was quite a boring day." He replied, supressing the weird feeling of anxiety and anticipation that was rising in his stomach and continuing to 'act natural'.
"Right, well, I got us some dinner on the way back, so-I'll just go clean up a bit and then we can eat."
"Yes, you do that."
As soon as John was out of sight and earshot, Sherlock dropped his violin and dashed to the kitchen. He carefully pulled out the cake from the fridge and set it on the table. He spent a moment contemplating whether he should bring out some candles as well, and was almost about to do so, when he stopped himself midway-he was acting ridiculous. Candles were absolutely unnecessary-or were they? Maybe he should light some. In the spirit of romance...no! What was he doing?He was getting all... fuzzy feeling in his stomach seemed to be affecting his brain as well-he had to stop it!He forced himself to stop flitting around and stand straight in front of the table,his hands clenched behind his back to stop them from moving around restlessly.

After a minute or so, John came out, picked up the bag of food from the chair where he had left it and walked towards the kitchen, his eyes cast into the bag as he inspected its contents.
"Right, so I got us both some pasta and garlic , well, Angelo insisted on giving me some chocolate because today's Valentine's Day. Now I know you don't like that sort of-" He stopped dead in his tracks, as he finally noticed Sherlock standing there with the cake in front of him.
"Sherlock..?" he said-his eyes flitting between Sherlock and the cake in confusion, his face full of surprise.

"Err..." began Sherlock. What was happening?!Sherlock always had a reply for everything-he was constantly talking, whether people liked it or not. But now, when he needed to, he found himself at a loss for words. He blinked several times, trying to clear away all the strange emotions that seemed to be filling him. "Focus-FOCUS!" he yelled in his mind. He cleared his throat, and then finally managed a weak, uncertain "Happy Valentine's Day John."
John was speechless-he was still having trouble understanding what was going on. "You bought a cake for Valentine's day?" he asked, the disbelief in his voice very prominent
"No, actually," replied Sherlock "I baked help from ." He looked at John, slightly and strangely fearful of his reaction.
"You baked it?" said John incredulously. He couldn't believe usual train of rational thought turned into shocked incoherent noise as he tried to digest the fact that Sherlock Holmes, the most unromantic man on the planet, had just surprised his boyfriend with a romantic gesture on Valentine's day.
"Oh Sherlock" he said softly, weakly moving towards the table.
"I...I really don't know what to say"
Sherlock's eyes widened-John didn't like it-he had messed up.
"John, I'm sorry, I thought you might like a small surprise today-I was obviously mistaken-I let sentiment rule my head. I apologise, I didn't-"
He was cut off midsentence by a now emotional John "Sherlock you tosser!" he said, brushing away his stoicism and forcing himself to say what he was about to "I didn't like it-I loved ," he said, taking a breath "This is, without a doubt, the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me." And with that, he pulled a very surprised Sherlock into a tight hug. "Have I ever told you that I love you?" said John, holding him tighter.
Sherlock, who up till now had been caught in a quagmire of confusing emotions, finally let go of the breath he hadn't even realised he had been holding. His face broke out into a smile as he laughed softly with relief. "I love you too, John" he said, burying his face into John's ,taking advantage of Sherlock's lowered stature,kissed him gently on the 's smile widened,and he,unable express his affection in words,tightened his arms around him.'Ouch,' said John,laughing "I can't breathe any more Sherlock" he complained,his eyes twinkling, but refused to let go of there they stood for a long time, locked in an embrace that neither of them was willing to pull out of.