A/N: This is a drabble that outgrew its boots :D I'm still not entirely happy with it but I never am, so enjoy!
Sherlock is afraid of the dark.
That's what John thinks anyway.
When the lanky detective is on a case its fine, he's perfectly happy to crawl through dark sewers and hide in small dark places. On several occasions John has found him folded up in the cupboard next to the sink in the kitchen, it's one of his 'thinking places' (along with John's wardrobe, under Sherlock's bed and in the corner of the lounge room under a pile of stuff.)
However as soon as the case is over everything changes. He often keeps John up late, talking or sitting in comfortable silence, whatever keeps John there longer. At first John had thought it was to keep away the boredom that he knew plagued Sherlock's every non-working moment, but too many times now though he'd come downstairs to find Sherlock curled up on the couch and every light in the flat on.
John thinks it makes him human.
Sherlock is afraid of the unknown.
This often takes the form of darkness in the world around him.
When the game is on it's fine, the fear is replaced, pushed to the back of his mind. The constant streams of data, people, places, faces, facts, things, wash out everything from his mind, everything but the game ignored.
However as soon as the case is over everything changes. The deep-seated fear of 'what might be there' in the dark plagues his mind every second it's in the presence of it. He finds himself keeping John up until the doctor is yawning loudly and his eyelids are drooping. The time when John shuffles off to bed with a sleepy 'fair well' is Sherlock's most despised moment of the day. As soon as John leaves the room the darkness seems to move in, hiding corners, creeping in boxes and over piles, slowly, closer and closer. Sherlock turns on all the lights in the flat but it seems to have little effect on the encroaching darkness and the unknown it holds. When the need for sleep overwhelms him he crawls up into the smallest ball he can and sleeps on the couch, directly under two lights.
Sherlock knows John thinks he's scared of the dark, but he doesn't tell him the truth.
He can't give up that little bit of human.
