* John isn't a fan of chocolate-covered coffee beans. Anymore. He was, right after a patient gave him an entire kilo for Christmas. John liked them then. A lot. They gave him energy. A lot. He could keep up with Sherlock. All the time. And he didn't need to sleep. Hardly at all. Then he had a twitch in his right eye. 24/7. And was so tightly strung Sherlock could have played a sonata. On his nerves. By the time John'd gone four days on eleven hours sleep, had repapered the bathroom twice, and tried, in his sleep, to shag Sherlock three times, John decided to give Anderson the rest of those coffee beans.
* Sherlock's as physically graceful as a dancer. Now. Yet at fifteen, when a growth spurt turned his body into an unruly mob of spindly arms and legs, he was forever tripping over his feet or rapping knuckles into other people's faces each time he gestured. No one then and no one now—except for John—knows that to combat this ferocious lack of grace Sherlock danced. For six solid months, with himself, alone, in his room. Yes, that sounds sad et cetera et cetera but the point is it worked, didn't it?
* A man named John is bound to be partial to solid, old-fashioned names and John H. Watson is no exception. As matter of fact if you're a bit starved for entertainment, ask the good doctor what he thinks of celebs naming their children Apple, Lark Song, or Moxie CrimeFighter. Be prepared to hide your smile and nod quite a bit because his answer will be long, involve a certain degree of swearing, and come with surprising hand gestures.
* Sherlock would not have expressed an opinion unless asked, you understand. But if John was going to trot out mythical children, that the two of them had mythically had, and all of whom required mythical names, then he really shouldn't have been upset when Sherlock—after thinking about it for a few days—told him the names he favored included John, Achlys, Dragon, and Daedalus.
* John can sort of lucid dream. He succeeds once for every ten attempts, but that's usually good enough. Before he and Sherlock got together the good doctor spent more time than he will ever admit to (ever) trying to get dream Sherlock into his bed. Instead they usually ended up on a submarine, riding a carousel, or running down a dark alley, for heaven's sake. The one time John succeeded in getting his flatmate horizontal and naked Sherlock was so damned bossy you just would not believe.
* While it's true that Sherlock doesn't envy his brother's power, and he doesn't give a fig that Mycroft is smarter than he is, and he's not jealous of his brother's money, better memory, or legion of devoted underlings (well maybe those, a little), it would be a bald-faced lie to say that Sherlock isn't wildly envious of one thing of Mycroft's. And that would be the nearly three entire centimeters of height he has on his little brother. Damn him.
* John knows how to get Sherlock's attention when he wants it. He doesn't use the ploy often, as a matter of fact he's engaged this particular stratagem only three times in the last two years, but it has worked flawlessly each time. If John wants to head to the bedroom and find himself trailed closely by a tall man breathing heavy on his neck all he has to do is go shirtless…and wear his dog tags.
* When Sherlock is overwhelmed by incoming data, he counts. It happens unconsciously, immediately, and semi-rarely. The first time he saw John naked? He got to just past three before he could act. The first time he saw a dead body? He counted to eleven before deductions began blazing like fire in his head. The first time John said "I love you"? Heck. Sherlock is still counting.
* John is quite possibly in love twice. Once with Sherlock. Of course. Duh. And the second time? With his own dressing gown. Yes, his dressing gown. His tattered, threadbare, what-color-is-that? I-don't-care-it-keeps-me-warm dressing gown. It's emotion-based, he knows it is, because actually the dressing gown isn't that warm and it's always been an ugly pea-green and yet for every year it moves through life with him John is that little bit more in love with it. Fortunately Sherlock doesn't care. And even if he did (but he doesn't) he knows how to put that bit of cloth in its place. Who do you think gets stuck on the wet spot?
* Ask Sherlock what color his eyes are and he'll tell you blue. Then he'll immediately walk away because he knows, he absolutely knows that the only reason you asked is because you find his peepers intriguing and you think they're grey but any idiot with, well, eyes can see that they're blue. Sherlock has seen grey eyes (once) and his are not so just quit it already.
* John has a photo of Sherlock as a toddler (contraband courtesy of Mycroft). In the photo Sherlock is no more then two, decked out in a white turtleneck, braces, and a great deal of surprisingly blond hair. The photo's most striking feature is the joy on Sherlock's round baby face. There is no guile there, no doubt or irascibility, no angles for god's sake. Frankly, if John's main purpose in life is to light the man's face with echoes of that child's joy then that's purpose enough.
* There's a photograph Sherlock found in John's wardrobe awhile back of John as a toddler. He's perhaps three, maybe wearing a tie, and sports a mop of straight strawberry blond hair. The part that pleases Sherlock is that the expression on the child's face is already so…John. It's a bit serious, sort of firm, definitely strong. It's a little exasperated, too, but he's about to smile, almost there, getting close. When a case has Sherlock uncertain to the point of distraction, he'll take inspiration from the remembered gaze of that little boy, who even at three was already so sure.
Irrlich thank you for the coffee bean idea. Thank you Caroline One for the idea of bossy dream!Sherlock, and Marie for the idea that Sherlock worked on being physically graceful. Thank you to zephyrrdragon who suggested baby photos and then linked to the now-much seen image of BC and MF as little boys (search for "benny and martin adorable cumberbatched" and it's the first link). I didn't know how this chapter was going to end until you did that! P.S. Yes, John's dressing gown is the same one Arthur Dent wears in Hitchhiker's. I just couldn't resist.
