John rushed into the lodgings at Baker Street, arms overflowing with plastic cases and a larger, laminated white box as he kicked the door closed and ran up the stairs.
He smiled almost sadly at the lamenting detective, who took a break from staring at the wall to glance over at the clearly eager man. "Look what I got," John said, smile growing wider and happier. He had picked up a console and a few games for next-to-nothing from one of the patients at his private practice and was excited to see if it would somehow coax Sherlock out of his case-deprived depression.
"Dull little games?" Sherlock asked before noting how absolutely ecstatic John was at the prospect of sharing the games with him, and he remembered several lectures on empathy and putting yourself in other people's shoes and sighed as he added, "They look like they could be almost fun."
John's smiled turned off, sighing as rested the contents of his arms on the ground and sat down before them. He clawed open the taped together box and plugged the white console into the television set, "Come on," he pleaded, unconvinced that Sherlock was actually going to join him in what he had planned, "It will be fun," his smile returned as he held up a plastic case which featured a fat Italian plumber clad in red overalls, before trying to lure him in "A princess gets kidnapped, and you spend the game looking for her assailant" Sherlock groaned, but gave his half-hearted consent as he rolled and flopped off the couch to join John on the floor.
Blue light danced across the room as the TV was flicked on, then the intensity of the light dulled in the dark room as the console was pressed into life and both players pressed start. Unsure of how the controls work, Sherlock mashed the buttons and John chuckled and leaned against his shoulder as the detective's on-screen character yipped, jumped, squatted, and ran.
The night carried on, and Sherlock finally got the hang of how to manipulate his slender, green, and mustached plumber. The boys laughed, groaned, yelled, and playfully knocked themselves into each other as the screen flickered and light danced across their generally-smiling faces.
Lives that were lost during battles with falling and rising stone blocks were swiftly regained in long stretches of grass filled with easily defeated brown mushrooms and quickly crushed red and green turtles. The evening raged on, a few snacks were eaten and far too many cups of tea were shared, the dishes littering the carpet around them. By the time the blue light was not only emanating from the screen, but peeking out from behind the skyline, the princess was found in the castle and was retrieved from the spiky-shelled villain.
John yawned, smiling up from his newfound spot on Sherlock's lap, "That wasn't too bad, was it?" he asked, receiving only a small, closed-mouth smile and a light thanks. The men retired to their bedroom, sleepy from their virtual adventures. They hoped that the couple hours of sleep they would gain would be sufficient for what ever the dawning day had in store for them.