There were few little things that Sherlock Holmes was confused by. Of all things. . .text emoticons had to be one of them.

It started on a Tuesday. Well, actually, today was Tuesday, wasn't it? Bored on his couch, contemplating a case or just losing his mind. Either way, that's not relevant. What is relevant that John sent him a text.

Rolling his eyes, Sherlock was never one to answer his phone unless he was the sender. Deciding to amuse his flatmate, the raven reached over and grabbed his mobile sitting besides his untouched tea mug.

[ John: 12:03 ] Going to be late for tea. Don't wait up. 😀

Now, Sherlock didn't particularly care for the text. What he did care about, however, was the little head at the end of the message.

What was that?

Brows rose in confusion, heterochromatic blues and light greens stared into the depths of his mobile screen. Confusion washed over him.

Why on earth would John ever want to send him this . . monstrosity?

It was beneath Sherlock to give into his natural human error curiosity, but he had to find the truth behind this..thing.

[ 12:15 ]: What on Earth is that..?

John replied sooner than he'd expected. Only causing more confusion. It was just like John to do this to him, too.

[ John: 12:17 ]: It's an emoticon. It's what the kids use these days. They're for comical relief, or something along those lines.

His answer only caused more questions than answers. Why would anyone want to send things called "emoticons"? They didn't even make sense, let alone be required in the context of which he'd be conversing with others!

[ 12:20 ]: That's completely idiotic. Why would anyone want to use them?

[ John: 12:22 ]: Sherlock, they're just for fun. Don't be a critic. Just try using one. It's not going to kill you, after all.

Only wanting to further amuse himself (or John, perhaps?), he replied. After staring in confusion for more than just a few minutes, he randomly selected one. Not even knowing the power that would be unleashed from it.

[ 12:25 ]: 💩

John didn't reply. Either out of sheer irritation of the random emoji he had selected, or he was just too busy to continue the conversation. Well, whatever. It honestly didn't matter to him, because Sherlock was actually..amused?

Sherlock had found amusement in something that didn't revolve around murder or crime scenes, or even the decaying body parts in his fridge. John could breathe a sigh of relief that he managed to get the sociopath off his back for a little while. Sherlock would be quite busy trying to understand the intricate power of the little tiny faces in his messages.

What John doesn't realize, was that he unleashed a storm. Unfortunately for everyone that Sherlock knew (which was rather extensive, mind you,) was smack dab in the middle of it.

Whether they had any idea or what was to come, or not.