Sherlock felt his eyelids drooping and he forced them wide open again, staring at the solution in front of him that was gently simmering over the Bunsen burner.

He couldn't fall asleep now. He couldn't. He was working on... this... experiment...

"Sherlock, go to bed!"

Sherlock's head snapped up again, eyes wide open and focussing on the experiment in question in front of him. Right. Experiment. Stupid transport. Didn't want to sleep. Couldn't.

"I'm not tired," Sherlock retorted.

Oh, he was. He was exhausted. So exhausted. He wanted to go to bed. Curl up under his blankets, plush and warm and comfortable. Inviting. His bed was calling him, luring him into a world entirely unlike his own with their warm embrace and comforting scent...

"Liar. You're falling asleep over your experiment. Go to bed," John said.

Sherlock sighed testily and sat up a bit straighter in order to try and rouse his body into something that was more proper for experiments. He was going to miss out on details, on the reactions that could occur, if he didn't stop dozing off.

"I'm not sleeping."

"Not yet," John muttered, mostly under his breath.

He hadn't even brushed his teeth yet. Had a shower before going out, but he'd been at the crime scene and he felt slightly grimy from rooting through a skip. Wasn't necessary to bathe, but... He could probably manage mid-morning without starting to smell offensive. Besides, he'd had worse. He had. His Homeless Network sometimes rarely bathed and he spent nights with them, rarely...

"Sherlock!"

Sherlock snapped to attention again. "Stop yelling. I'm right here."

"You're falling asleep! You're going to set the kitchen on fire! Turn that off and go to bed."

Sherlock squirmed a bit on the barstool, trying to get comfortable in an otherwise uncomfortable setting. His back was aching from sitting here, not to mention that his backside had gone to sleep. He was starting to get a crick in his neck, too. So tired.

"I'm not sleeping," he repeated defiantly.

Part of him simply wanted to spite John and stay up all night (or, at least, until the good doctor went to bed himself). That was the childish part. The tired part was trying to coax the slightly childish impulse away. He hadn't quite reached a decision yet, so he'd continue the experiment in the meantime.

He leaned forward and rest his elbow against the counter, resting his head on his hand. It was actually mind-numbingly boring. There was nothing happening. It was so slow and it did very little for his mental state when he was already so tired...

His head slipped off his fist and bumped into the eye lens of the microscope nearby.

"Ow..." he muttered, rubbing the spot on his cheek where it had connected.

John's voice drifted from the sitting room. "What did you do?"

"Nothing," Sherlock retorted.

John sighed. "There's burn cream in the cabinet in the bathroom."

Sherlock bristled. "I didn't burn myself!"

"Maybe if you went to bed, you wouldn't be hurting yourself at all," John replied calmly.

Sherlock, nostrils flaring, reached for the gas to turn the burner off. He removed the solution and stood up, the barstool scraping the floor beneath him.

"Are you actually taking advice?" John asked, looking and sounding flabbergasted.

Sherlock turned his back to him, walking (as steadily as he could) back towards the bathroom. "No, I'm simply astounded that you keep bothering me and I'm annoyed by it, so I'm going to my bedroom."

John paused before laughing. "Yeah, okay."

"Really," Sherlock said seriously.

"Sure, sure," John murmured. "Good night."

"I didn't say I was going to bed!" he called, grabbing his toothpaste from the cabinet.

"I know you didn't," John replied calmly.

Sherlock just huffed and reached for his toothbrush.

He was asleep the moment his head hit the pillow; he didn't notice John fixing the blankets around him later on in the night, snoring quietly in the otherwise silent flat.

Kudos to Lily for the wonderful idea. :)

Because he really is that big of a child. We all know it. Oh, I'm so disappointed that we didn't get sleepy!lock this series, but drunk!sleepy!lock was pretty good, though...

I do not own Sherlock. Thank you!