The only bad part of winter, Sherlock decided, was colds. After their romp in the snow the day before, he and John had both gotten sick. Mummy blamed it on being outside too much, but Sherlock didn't think that was quite how it worked. But Mummy had agreed that as long as they were both sick, John might as well stay with Sherlock, so they could keep each other entertained.
"Ah-CHOO!" Sherlock sneezed loudly, then sniffled. "That's not how a knight moves, John," he explained through a clogged nose. He'd been trying to teach John chess for almost an hour, and he still wasn't catching on.
"But he's –achoo!- on a horse, why can't he just go anywhere?" John asked, sneezing in response. Sherlock shook his head.
"Because, that's not how it works," Sherlock insisted. When the maid came up ten minutes later with their medicine they were still arguing, only now it was over a jigsaw puzzle. "No, Mary, we don't need any medicine," Sherlock tried to order. She ignored him, and dosed them both with awful cough syrup and made sure they swallowed it. She gave them each a cup of chamomile tea, which Mummy insisted was good for them, but Sherlock only liked it with lots of honey, something John always made a face at.
When Sherlock started pouring the honey into his tea, John sneezed suddenly, making Sherlock squeeze too hard and squirt honey all over the tea table. That made John start laughing, and once John had started laughing, Sherlock had to join in. A moment later John decided to try and style Sherlock's curls with the spilt honey. Sherlock didn't take well to this, and decided to try and paint up John's jumper with some of the tea. When Mycroft came in, sent by Mummy to 'see how those boys are getting on' he found them rolling on the floor of Sherlock's playroom, honey covering them both with tea stains on the carpet. With a longsuffering sigh he got them both bathed and the room cleaned up. Then he sat them both in bed with strict orders to not move. So naturally, the moment the door had closed behind him, they began building a blanket fort. Colds might be no fun, but having one with a friend was enough to make up for it.