I do not own the series "Sherlock", nor the books about Sherlock Holmes or James Bond, though the latter two are in the public domain, and I mean no copyright infringement.

Sherlock stepped in the door to 221 B Baker Street with his usual flair, though he hardly felt like it. He had gone on a 64 hour chase after a kidnapper who had snatched eight children at four separate locations throughout London. In the end they had found only seven of them alive, one five year old being lost to a broken neck (interrogations as to what had happened was still ongoing) and Sherlock felt a hundred years old.

He didn't eat or sleep during cases, and now all he wanted was to eat a big bowl of comfort food and crawl up in his big comfy bed for at least 24 hours. That wasn't likely, though. He was far too weary too cook (he could cook, he just chose not to) and Mrs. Hudson was out - gone to gossip at Mrs. Turner's place, no doubt - so he would just have to...

The smell stopped him dead in his tracks as he entered the flat he shared with John Watson. The doctor had been to the surgery all morning - with his tremor gone, he now occasionally stepped in for emergencies - and thus had not joined him on the chase, but now he had obviously returned, sitting in his chair with a bowl of something which smelled wonderful and checking his phone messages (from Mycroft, no doubt).

As Sherlock entered, John looked up and smiled. A genuine, welcoming smile, not that of someone who humours someone else because it's their job. "Hello. There's food on the stove, grab a bowl. I heard about the case. You should sleep, you must be tired".

If someone had told him six months before, hell, if someone had told him that morning, that Sherlock Holmes would find himself feeling welcomed and at home, be grateful to be pampered (and not even by Mrs. Hudson) Sherlock would have deduced they'd had too much to drink. But the fact was, that for the first time in a long time, Sherlock suddenly found himself feeling genuinely welcome; at peace, even. Life truly was strange.