Tears
It's really not that he can't cry.
He's cried plenty.
As an infant, all he did was cry. Cried because he was hungry, cried because he was tired. Typical infant cries.
As a toddler, he cried because the dog jumped on him. Or because Mummy said no to playing with her really pretty shoes.
As a six-year-old, he cried because Mycroft stopped pretending to be his first mate.
As a pre-teen, he cried because they were mean.
As a teen, he cried because he found relief.
Finally, as an adult, he was all cried out. Instead of tears he had scars, and he didn't feel the need to make any more of either.
"You can cry, you know?" John softly says, his head resting next to Sherlock's on his plush pillow. "It's ok if you do. Hell, it's healthy if you do, it's—"
"I haven't cried in twenty years," Sherlock says. "I can't."
John rubs his side. "You will, Sherlock, and when you do, I'll be here."
Sherlock just looks at him.
John leans over and smacks a kiss to Sherlock's cheek.
Two weeks pass. Two weeks since the funeral. Two weeks since Sherlock, next to his big brother, carried their beloved grandfather through a church. Two weeks since John said he could cry. Two weeks and he still hasn't.
The pain is there, of course. The sadness. The childish understanding that Grandfather won't be at Christmas dinner. The realization that the lone birthday card won't come right after. Grandfather always knew exactly where Sherlock was on the day of his birthday, and to this day Sherlock doesn't know how. The year before John, Grandfather had the card delivered to Sherlock's jail cell.
"It's ok if you cry," John keeps telling him. He presses a kiss to the puffy frown and starts dinner, saying nothing more about crying or funerals or death. He doesn't have to say it for it to cloud Sherlock's mind.
A month gone now. Everything is tedious, everyone is annoying. The cases are uneventful and even John is providing zero entertainment. He makes dinner and pushes Sherlock to eat, but other than that he isn't very useful.
He invites Sherlock to watch that stupid movie about the zombies; the funny one. The gore is interesting and the humor is at least tolerable, so Sherlock sits next to John and listens while John laughs and watches what only John is able to laugh at.
"Come on," John nudges his shoulder. "I love this movie. It's comedy gold!"
Sherlock just blinks in his general direction.
John shakes his head and turns back to the movie.
He gets thirsty towards the end. John gets up to start the kettle and Sherlock stares blankly at the not-so-funny comedy.
John returns minutes later. He's holding two mugs of hot tea and doesn't see Sherlock's shoe on the floor. He steps on it, causing him to trip. However, he doesn't just fall to the ground; he does a turn that looks like a dance move, lifts his arms to save the tea, twists, then falls to the ground.
"Ahh, fuck—" John mutters.
A low, rumbling chuckle is heard from the sofa.
"Don't you motherfucking dare laugh at that," John demands.
The chuckle expands, slowly turning into a full laugh.
By the time Sherlock is doubled over on the sofa dying from laughter, John is turned over on the ground laughing into his arm.
John finally climbs off the floor as Sherlock's laughter is dying down. A few chuckles are still heard here and there.
John sits back on his heels and looks at Sherlock. He notices Sherlock's red cheeks and the tears falling from his eyes.
"Oh, Sherlock," John sighs, then climbs onto the sofa.
Sherlock wraps his arms around John and pulls him close, continuing to cry into John's shoulder.
"There, there," John mutters, patting Sherlock's back and stroking his arm. "You're alright."
Sherlock nods and sniffles. "Thank you."
John smiles and kisses his head. "You're welcome." John begins to laugh again. "I think."
This causes Sherlock to laugh again.
Tears included.
A/N: I haven't written this story in forever, and for that I apologize. The prompt of 'tears' was given by an amazing follower, badwolf92myers. I've got a few more prompts to do, so this will be updated more. In the meantime, I do suggest reading my current Teen!Johnlock AU called Meant to Be and my now-finished Teen!Mystrade AU called Being 16. Thanks for reading, please review!