John had woken up earlier in the morning than he usually did due to a painful nightmare. When he turned to the other side of his bed to check the hour, he determined the sun would be rising in the next hour or two, so he decided to go ahead and start his day.
By the time he took an extremely long shower, got dressed, fetched the paper, and made a pot of coffee, Sherlock had awoken and walked into the main living area.
"I made you some coffee, by the way. It's on the counter." John said, not taking his eyes off of the paper.
"How'd you know I walked in? You were reading the paper and all of the doors were open. I didn't make a sound."
"You're not the only one who can make observations."
Sherlock glanced over the mug of coffee and waved his hand over the top to observe the scent.
"Two sugars?", he asked.
"As always." John flipped to the next page of the paper.
Sherlock let out a grin that was much wider than he'd prefer to admit. He was actually happy that John was reading the paper because his smile made him look rather foolish.
There was a brief pause before Sherlock spoke again. "John, I'm confused about something."
John set his paper down and looked Sherlock directly in the eyes. "Would you mind repeating that?"
"Why?"
"Because I'm afraid that I'll never get to hear you say that again."John began to darkly chuckle, but Sherlock did not find it as humourous as his companion.
He sat down across from John at the table. "This isn't a joke! I really need your help."
"Alright, Sherlock. What is it?", asked John, stirring his coffee.
"How would one go about showing someone that they care about them?"
"You're kidding, right?" John almost began to laugh again. "You don't have a caring bone in your body."
Sherlock was about to make a rude remark, but he decided it would be best to ignore John's snarky comment. "Would a gift of some sort show affection?"
"I suppose so."
"Alright." Sherlock got up from his seat and approached the door.
"Why are you so concerned about this anyway? Sherlock, where are you going?"
Sherlock did not return to 221B until many hours after John went to bed. However, John did wake up from another nightmare as he did the night before. When he turned to check the hour, he saw a box sitting on his nightstand.
"What the hell?", he thought to himself.
When he opened the box, he found a very expensive watch that he's had his eye on for a couple of months. It was a steel watch with a gold plate and black dials. He had never seen anything like it before. Everyone knew how dearly he wished for it.
After he took a moment to admire the watch, he looked over at the box and noticed that there was a note sitting beside it. It read: "Thanks for the coffee."
John looked up at the ceiling to reflect what had just happened and slowly fell into what would be a very peaceful sleep.