I am...So SO SORRY for leaving you guys on a hiatus that long. Literally I am so sorry. I'll try to make it up with lots of updates all at once, okay? This story got away from me a bit what with the long break between it but I'll try to finish it up and move onto stories I can write better. Thanks for continuing to read!

Considering his usual attitude, you'd expect Sherlock to have planned out his wooing of John expertly. However considering this was the first experience Sherlock had with romance he'd been reduced to pouting and staring, and don't think John hadn't noticed.

"Okay, what is it?" He sighed.

"Hmm?" Sherlock tilted his head, and then realizing he'd been staring at John instead of the book in his hands he quickly jerked his head back and resumed reading.

"No." John pushed the book back down, and gestured towards his face to indicate he wanted Sherlock to focus on him. "Seriously, what are you staring at. Something in my teeth? Some...some clue so small I can't see? Are you analyzing some speck of dirt on my jumper or something?"

"Please, John." Sherlock scoffed, covering his nervous attitude. "The only thing I can tell from your jumper is that your breakup is affecting you quite a lot as this is the second day you've worn that jumper. You either haven't noticed because you're distracted by your thoughts or you don't care because of your afflicted heart."

John blushed and averted his eyes with another angry sigh. "You didn't have to go that far."

"I can go further." Sherlock volunteered. "I haven't yet talked about the bags under your eyes or the hand wringing."

"Oh just stop it." John waved him away like he would an annoying fly and then made his way back to his chair. He grabbed his laptop and attempted to look busy, but it only took a minute for him to address the topic again. "You know you could be a little more sympathetic. I know it doesn't really matter to a man like you but to someone like me, being dumped only a few days ago and today being Valentine's Day...it's kind of a big deal."

"Why would I not understand?" Sherlock narrowed his eyes.

"Well you're...you know. You're you." John shrugged. "Me?"

"Yeah you. The man without a heart!" John chuckled playfully, but Sherlock did not feel like laughing. In fact he felt like the heart that John Watson doubted existed was cracking open. When he realized how melodramatic that sounded he sneered and no doubt John took that as the usual Sherlock reaction for 'stop talking your boring little thoughts are bothering me'.

John's phone gave a cheery chirp, a joy that neither man was feeling at the moment. John grabbed the phone and as he read the message his face lit up, Sherlock was too busy thinking to notice.

"Hey I...I gotta go out, okay?" John said, hurriedly shutting his laptop and trying to jam on his shoes. "Just don't get into trouble today I'll be back later."

"Mhmm." Sherlock answered without really hearing. John grabbed his coat and rushed out the door. If Sherlock had been paying attention he would have realized that John had just received a text from his former and now once again current girlfriend who wanted to give it another go. However because he was too busy remembering John's comment about his lack of a heart, he missed out on this vital information.

"I have to make John Watson fall in love with me." He said it as though he was testing the idea. He thought on it for a moment and then revised it. "No...I have to be better for John Watson." He nodded, that was it. He couldn't make the doctor love him but he could be better for him.

He grabbed his phone and called his informant.

"...Hello?"

"What do people do on Valentine's day?" He demanded to know.

"Sherlock...I'm elbow deep in a corpse can't this wait?" Molly sighed back.

"You're not going to find the shrapnel in his stomach the angle is all wrong. Now Valentine's day." Sherlock shot back. Molly sighed again, the sound rattling through the phone. She didn't bother asking how Sherlock knew what she was doing, she figured she better just give him what he wanted so she could get back to work.

"Flowers. Chocolate. Doing nice things for each other, its all very romantic if you have someone you love with you." She said longingly.

"That's moronic." Sherlock replied icily. "Why reserve one day out of the year for that?"

"That's not the point Sherlock." Molly shook her head even though Sherlock couldn't see. "Its just an excuse to make a show of it. To show them how much you love them."

"...And how would you do that?"

"I don't know, it depends on the person. You have to show them you know what makes them upset and what makes them happy."

Sherlock was silent for a bit and then he spoke again, his voice strangely nervous.

"I see...thank you..."

"Sherlock why do you need to...Sherlock?" Molly looked at her phone, he'd hung up on her.

"Why did I give you a second chance again?" John asked, leading Jessica up the stairs while she tried to reach around his hips to his zipper.

"I'm persuasive." She purred through red pouty lips. Though John was very attracted to her at the moment and he was remembering their good times together, he also couldn't help but wonder...why was he giving her a second chance? She broke it off three days before Valentine's Day on a whim...and now she was back? Maybe she just didn't want to be alone on Valentine's? John was never the kind of guy to sacrifice his respect for something like that but it had been so long since he'd had someone to really talk to. The only other person he could share his secrets with was well...Sherlock.

"You sure your flatmate's out tonight?" She asked.

"He told me this morning he was going out tonight to talk to his homeless network about recent crime." John assured her. "I wouldn't bring you back here if he was in." He laughed as he opened the door...

...opened it into an unfamiliar flat.

Everything had been cleaned up, everything. The experiments, the skull, the case notes, the old dishes had all been cleaned up and vanished. In fact the only thing that hadn't been put away was Sherlock's violin and bow sitting at an odd angle on the couch, almost as if they had been thrown there in a hurry, and sitting on the table in front of the violin was a plate of homemade candies.

John surveyed the scene, uncertain as to what it meant. He tried to employ Sherlock's methods of observation but his mind was too confused.

"Get over here, soldier boy." Jessica perched on the edge of the table, she noticed the chocolates and plucked one up to pop it into her mouth. "Aren't we going to have any fun?"

John didn't know if it was the shock of the clean apartment or the deductions he was trying to make about the abandoned violin and chocolates, but something ripped away any desire he had for sex, company, or conversation.

"You know what, Jessica?" He sighed. "I don't think we should give it another go at all..."

After cleaning up the mess Jessica had made of the newly cleaned flat John turned on the tv, content to zone out for the rest of the night and pretend the day had never happened. However he couldn't ignore the strangeness of the flat. Sherlock must have done it, but he never cleaned. John tried to make him all the time but he never did. What about the chocolates? Where did they come from? Mrs. Hudson maybe? And the violin, Sherlock never tossed that thing around so why was it lying so haphazardly on the couch? He wanted some answers, so he texted Sherlock a quick question.

He was surprised to hear Sherlock's phone going off not a room over.

"Sherlock? Are you home?" He turned off the tv and made his way back to Sherlock's bedroom. There was no answer so he knocked on the door and asked again. "Sherlock?"

"What?" Came the irritated and exasperated response. "I'm very busy. Don't you have some shagging to do?"

"Sherlock come on...you sound off, is everything alright?"

"I'm fine go away now."

John chewed his lip, it sounded to him like Sherlock had been...crying? Ridiculous thought, right? He'd never seen Sherlock cry before. It just didn't happen. Still...

He tested the doorknob, unlocked.

He tried to make his way quietly into Sherlock's room knowing that no matter how quiet he was the detective would still know he was there. Sherlock was laying on his bed, skull in his hands. He looked darkly at the bleached bit of bone as though he was waiting for it to say something. His eyes were red and puffy and he looked defeated.

Suddenly it made sense, John could practically hear Sherlock sneering and saying something like "Finally he understands." or "Brilliant, John. Only took you about twice the time it would take a five year old to figure it out."

"Oh god...Sherlock..." John didn't know if he was blushing or turning pale. "You...You wanted to..."

"Surprise you, yes." Sherlock said bitterly, still having a staring contest with the skull. "However as the man without a heart how could I have known that you would follow yours back to her? I was stupid, I won't let it happen again. I am sorry..." He really did sound sincerely sorry.

"No, don't be sorry." John sighed. "You shouldn't be sorry...I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought her back here...were you in the living room when we came up the stairs?"

"Yes."

"Oh..."

"Can you leave now?" Sherlock asked, covering his eyes with a pale hand. "I rather not be reminded of my embarrassment."

"Don't be embarrassed...tell me what you were going to do." John insisted.

"What?"

"Your plan to surprise me. Tell me what it was."

Sherlock blushed and set the skull aside on the nightstand next to his bed. "I was just going to show you all the songs I've written for you." He shrugged. "And I made you sweets. I know you have a sweet tooth...and I cleaned because you hate clutter and I stocked up on groceries so you wouldn't have to go out and then I thought maybe Angelo's?"

"That sounds lovely." John found himself actually smiling. Actually okay with the idea that his sociopathic flatmate was hitting on him...and doing a great job of it.

"I don't need your pity." Sherlock began to snap but John silenced him with a slow kiss on the forehead.

"Look I'm a little bit confused and distracted going from one date to another but...I'd like to be with you if that's okay, Sherlock." John smiled.

Sherlock however was not answering, he was too busy planning the rest of their relationship from this point till marriage and calculating the factors necessary for a perfect kiss.