Sherlock sat in his chair hands steepled under his chin. Was John's birthday really so close. It didn't seem like that much time had passed. Between the most recent case or as John has been calling 'The Inexplicable Matchbox' and the normal craziness of life in 221B he must have lost count of the days. To be honest that happened a lot though and Sherlock couldn't understand why John was so annoyed. People put so much importance on birthdays. Sherlock didn't see the point and anyways how old you were really didn't matter. Ability is what mattered. And what was worse he was expected to go to a dinner party. With people. Why John thought he would want to do that...
His chain of thought was broken by a loud knocking at the door. Sherlock stood up and walked over to the door and opened it ending the infernal knocking noise "Most people go away after a few minutes." He said to an obviously annoyed Greg Lestrade.
"Sherlock I texted you I was going to be coming over." Greg responded as he entered raising the video camera.
"Why are you here with that Lestrade you know I find pictures and videos of myself frivolous and a waste of perfectly good time I could use." He said walking away, picked up his phone, and noticed the text from Greg he missed while he was thinking.
"Yes you might, but John doesn't and I think you owe him because you aren't going to his birthday dinner party." Lestrade said in his stern yet caring, fatherly, manor.
"No I don't. He knows I don't go to dinners or parties." Sherlock muttered. "Besides nobody likes me at diners. I'm too," he paused here to add emphasis, "much of a freak if I recall correctly from the last diner I went to." He was referring to a Christmas diner party Lestrade had dragged him to a year before he met John.
"Yeah, but John doesn't seem to mind you for some reason. For Gods sake Sherlock the man has managed to live with you and not kill you for this long just do a short video." Greg was starting to get sick of this. It was such a simple request, but bloody Sherlock Holmes was too important to make a birthday message to his flatmate who was one of the most caring men Greg had ever met and instead of caring for people who could care back he cared for bloody Sherlock Holmes who didn't give a shit.
"Greg I am much too busy thinking. Something I find people should do more often." He responded sharply sitting down in his chair.
Greg ignored Sherlock and proceeded to set up his tripod so it could see the fireplace and the edge of Sherlock's chair.
"Greg I said I'm not doing it." Sherlock said exasperated.
"And you aren't getting any cases until you do this so get to it. I don't have all day Sherlock." Greg stared at Sherlock showing him he meant what he said, and it wouldn't be the first time he took away Sherlock's cases.
Sherlock rolled his eyes. "Fine."
"Good." Greg responded as he finished setting up the camera and as it set up it binged three times to say it was recording, and Greg moved over and closed the curtain behind Sherlock's back.
"Was that supposed to happen – the light going down?" Sherlock asked as he turned to face Greg who nodded at him. "Yeah, okay."
Sherlock walked so he was on camera. He started thinking about what he would say.
"Oh, er, mmm. So, what do I, what do I, what d'you want me to do at the end?" He asked as he looked behind the camera at Greg "Shall I, um ...? Smile and wink. I do that sometimes. I've no idea why. People seem to like it – humanises me." He remembered doing that when he met John. Yeah that would be good. He turned away in thought.
" Fine. Whatever." Lestrade just wanted to get this over with.
" Why am I doing this, again?" Sherlock asked turning to look at Greg again hoping he'd just give up.
" You're gonna miss the dinner." Greg said slightly shocked, slightly exasperated.
"Of course I'm gonna miss dinner. There'll be people." He said to Greg as if he was an idiot. Which he was.
Sherlock turned away thinking for a second then turned back looking at Greg. "How can John be having a birthday dinner? All his friends hate him." He said his hands starting to move, and although Greg didn't like what Sherlock said he smiled because Sherlock was starting to get into it.
"You only have to look at their faces. I wrote an essay on suppressed hatred in close proximity based entirely on his friends." Sherlock looks at Greg his face going from slightly proud to thoughtful. "On reflection, it probably wasn't a very good choice of gift." He composed himself and looked directly at the camera for a second thinking then up at Greg. "What was my excuse again?"
Greg rolled his eyes at Sherlock. "You said you had a thing."
"Ah, right, yes! That's right. A thing." He said as if the memory came back to him.
"You might wanna elaborate." Greg said pointedly.
"No, no, no. Only lies have detail." Sherlock said to Greg. Greg shrugged and shook his head. Sherlock looked into the camera thinking.
"Right, I just ... I need a moment to, um, figure out what I'm going to do." He said softly starting to pace again, but only goes one time before turning back to the camera. "Okay."
He turned and did another few steps before turning back to the camera. "Okay, I'm ready now." He said as he sat down in his arm chair.
"Hello, John." Sherlock smiled knowing John liked it when he did that. "I'm sorry I'm not there at the moment. I'm very busy. However, many happy returns." He smiled then thought for a second. "Oh, and don't worry. I'm going to be with you again very soon." He winked and smiled again. Then he looked up at Greg. "How's that?" Sherlock asked the smile leaving his lips.
"Well it's good enough." Greg said smiling and turning off the camera.
"I'm done right?" Sherlock asked as he looked over at Greg.
"Yes you ungrateful git you are done." He said taking down the camera and tripod.
Sherlock slipped back into his mind palace, and when he came out found Greg was gone and John had gone to bed hours ago. He started an experiment forgetting almost immediately about the video and the dinner party focusing on his calculations about how to survive a fall from the roof of Barts.