Day 3 prompt: Fruitcake


After hitting the post button for his latest reply on John's blog, Sherlock eyed the foil wrapped package, complete with red bow, sitting on the coffee table. With his eyes never leaving the package, he set the laptop on floor and sunk more into his chair with his elbows on the arms of the chair and his fingers steepled in front of his mouth.

It only took a few seconds for Sherlock to observe that whatever was wrapped in the foil had at one time been warm but had cooled after it was wrapped. The shape suggested it was a loaf of some type. Bread maybe. He needed to find out for sure.

Springing out of his chair, Sherlock quickly made his way to the sofa and sat down in front of the package. He picked it up and gave it a sniff. It smelled slightly sweet. Not bread then. Or at least not a normal white loaf of bread. He found one of the edges and peeled back a bit of the foil. Sherlock was met with the sight of a golden brown crust, dots of red which could be cherries, and dots of pale cream which looked denser than the red. More than likely they were nuts.

Intrigued, Sherlock unwrapped more of the foil. It definitely was some sort of loaf cake. He had an idea of what it was, but of course needed confirmation. He hopped up and retrieved a knife and napkin from the kitchen. Sitting back on the sofa, he completely unwrapped the loaf, cut a small slice from the middle, and placed it on the napkin. He popped a small bite into his mouth and sat back against the sofa as the flavors flooded his taste buds. The loaf was exactly what he thought.

Smiling in satisfaction, Sherlock finished up the slice he had started and sliced another piece. The two slices were devoured in less than five minutes. Needing some tea to finish it off, he set the water to boil then went back to the coffee table. He pushed the two halves of the loaf together and wrapped it back up neatly in the foil and replaced the bow.

Sherlock was seated in his chair five minutes later drinking his tea when John walked into the flat arms laden with shopping bags. "Finished your Christmas shopping, John?"

"Almost. Get me a cup of tea while I drop these in my room." He held out his arms full of bags and then gave a shiver. "It's gotten cold out there. I need to warm up."

Without replying, Sherlock made John a cuppa, set it on the table next to his chair, and topped off his own cup of tea. He just sat back down when John re-entered the living room.

"Thanks for the tea," John said as he picked up the warm cup and sat down heavily into his chair. "When I'm done, I need to walk that," he pointed with his head to the foil package on the coffee table, "down to Mrs. Hudson. One of the doctors at the surgery passed them around. I'm not a fan of the stuff so I thought I'd give it to Mrs. Hudson."

"Leave it here," Sherlock said as he picked up his laptop from the floor.

"I'm not going to let you experiment on it." John took a large gulp of tea and set the cup back on the table.

"I'm not going to experiment on it. I'm going to eat it."

John wasn't convinced. "Really. You're going to eat it? I can barely get you to ingest anything other than tea and coffee most of the time."

Sherlock raised his eyes from the laptop and met John's. "I eat."

"When was the last time you ate?" John asked.

Sherlock remained quiet.

Nodding in satisfaction, John got up to retrieve the foil package. "I better get this out of here now." When he picked it up, one side fell slightly. "What the…" John said as he set it back down on the table and stared at it. "It's definitely shorter than it was when I placed it here earlier." After opening the foil he saw the loaf had been cut and a bit was missing from the middle. John raised his eyes to Sherlock.

Sherlock, who had been watching John closely since the moment he got up, smiled shyly. "See."

John laughed heartily as he re-wrapped it. "Figures. The man who barely eats anything actually loves fruitcake."