John Watson hated the seaside.
Ever since he was a little boy, before even Rory had been born, and his parents had promised to take him and Harry to visit and it had poured with rain the whole time they were there.
He hated it for other reasons as well.
He hated that he had to wear swimming trunks to go into the freezing water, and the way people stared at his scars from the war.
He hated the fact you had to wear water-shoes because of the sharp stones rather than the tropical sands.
He hated the scruffy donkeys that never stopped braying, and were seemingly purposefully led past him every time someone rode one, to slap him in the face with their swishing tails.
But it wasn't him who had suggested the trip to the seaside.
And it hadn't been Sherlock either, even though he seemed to be content just to sit there and deduce various facts about his fellow seaside-goers.
It had been John's little sister, Elsie.
Elsie loved the sea.
She loved to swim and dive in and out of the rolling waves.
She loved being outside generally and any sort of sport gave her great pleasure – much like her two older brothers.
Being active made her happy, and when Elsie was happy, so was John.
And as he watched her diving and splashing in the freezing waves of Brighton beach, grinning joyfully, he thought he might just begin to like the seaside for her sake...
(And then a large wave broke over him and he went back to being bitter...)
