This is a 30 Day OTP Challenge I found on deviantart. Obviously my chosen OTP is Johnlock, so enjoy my 30 days of short one-shots!


Day One: Holding Hands

John will wake from his dreams frequently feeling as though he is suffering from a nightmare. His heart burns with flames of grief, his stomach churns with the desire to vomit the pain away and his eyes burn; yearning for just one decent, dreamless night's sleep.

It has been six months since Sherlock…

He is still no better. Nothing matters anymore. Nothing makes sense. He can barely bring himself to get out of bed or eat a full meal, and Mrs Hudson is worried sick about him. Harry comes over sometimes but he doesn't respond to her.

He doesn't respond to anyone.

He still sleeps though. Badly, yes, but in his sleep Sherlock is still alive. The dream of which he sleeps for is repetitive; he has been experiencing it over and over since Sherlock…

It's of both of them the day before it happened. They have just escaped the clutches of the brainwashed policemen (cheers, Moriarty) and are running through the night lit streets of London; sirens roar in the distance and the occasional flash of red-and-blue can be seen as they scour the streets in their cars, which mean that Sherlock and John have to stay hidden in dirt-clad alleyways and vacant side-streets.

"Take my hand!"

And he does. He always does. Since when has Dr John Watson denied Sherlock Holmes of anything? In reality his hands were covered by those damned leather gloves he always wears, but in the state of dreaming his hands are bare. They feel warm in his own; full of something that has been vacant from John's life for too long. Hope. A promise of happiness and companionship; thrill and excitement. Everything John wanted he found in Sherlock Holmes…

And then he wakes up.

His dreams are never nightmares, yet he wakes from them as though they are simply because that time – running handcuffed from the police with his only real friend – was the first time John Watson held Sherlock Holmes' hand.

And it was the last.

Whenever he wakes he feels sick with grief, yes, but the feeling of Sherlock's hand still lingers in his own. And that is why, despite the insomnia and overwhelming urge for emptiness, John Watson still allows himself just a few hours of sleep every night. For those precious moments - when Sherlock's hand is in his own - make the loneliness go away, even if it's for a little while…