Three years.
Thirty-six months.
An eternity.
It was finally over.
Sherlock had finally completed the task that had made him fake his death. He was finally able to return to the place that he had longed to be. He missed Lestrade and the Yard and the cases. He even missed Anderson and Donovan. His life was just so dull without having them as sounding boards for his insults. He had missed the flat and Mrs. Hudson but most of all his flatmate.
Sherlock felt a bit scared which was absolutely preposterous. He had wanted to go back for so very long and now that he could he was afraid to do it. Taking a breath he opened the door and walked up the stairs avoiding the squeaky step.
He turned the knob to the door and it opened. 221B was as he remembered. Nothing much had changed besides the fact that his experiments had been cleared away. Other than that everything was the same.
John was there watching something on the telly.
Sherlock waited in the doorway. He had three highly probable scenarios for what would happen next. One John hits him and tells him to leave. Two John hugs him and then hits him or vice versa. Third John passes out, wakes up, and then hits him.
John did none of them. He just stood from the chair and smiled at him.
Now that Sherlock could see all of John he could see that his friend had lost an unhealthy amount of weight and that he hadn't been taking care of himself well and he looked so fragile.
"They told me to give up on you. They said you were dead and never coming back."
Sherlock looked at him not sure if he should say something.
"I did for a while. Give up on you I mean." John said feeling guilty.
Sherlock could hardly blame him for that. Before he even realized what he was doing Sherlock had crossed the room and pulled him into a crushing hug.
John was startled at first but then he hugged him back.
"What restored your faith in me?" Sherlock asked softly as he hugged him.
John laughed a bit. "Fictional characters."
Sherlock pulled away and looked at him.
"I watched a lot of telly while you were away and one day I saw an old Star Trek rerun. I rented the movies and Spock's death scene reminded me of how you…died. It was scary how much it did because I remember that you reached out to me and just like Kirk with Spock I couldn't touch you in the end. But Spock came back to Kirk so with so many similarities in how we both lost our friend I hoped that we would also be similar in getting back our best friends."
Sherlock smiled then a thought crossed his mind. "If I'm Spock, and I will admit I have quite a bit in common with the character, and you're Kirk-" he paused at John's look of disbelief.
"You two are quite similar. Charismatic, trustworthy, easily gaining others trust, can break rules when deemed morally acceptable, lots of women, blond, height in comparison to others-"
"Okay I get it." John laughed.
"As I was saying then if I am Spock and you are Kirk does that make Lestrade McCoy?"
"Well you two do like to argue and he is divorced." John said giggling.
"Would that make Mycroft, Sybok?" John asked.
Sherlock thought for a second. "Well he is kind of fat."
Suddenly John's phone beeped. "That would be Lestrade he drags me to the pub at least once a week so I don't waste away. Wanna come along and give him a scare?"
Sherlock smiled widely. "Oh God yes."
