John walked into 221B with milk in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other, prepared for however this evening decided to go.
Sherlock glanced up from his computer for only a moment before returning to his blog of ash.
"You almost finished?"
"No."
"Sherlock, we're doing this. Tonight." A grunt. John sighed. "You're a grown man, you can't put it off forever."
The detective closed his laptop with a thud. "I've managed well enough so far." He reached for the milk, but the doctor moved it out of the way.
"This isn't experimentation milk."
"Is there any other kind?"
John huffed, hid his goods in the fridge, placed Sherlock on the couch, and put an outline of Europe—unmarked—on the coffee table.
"Fill out what you can."
"This is as ridiculous as the solar system, John. Knowing where—"
"That solar system saved a kid's life, remember? Knowing the countries of your own continent may come in handy as well."
Sherlock brushed the paper aside. Looks like vodka wins, John thought. "No point. If I find myself in France or Germany, certainly everyone else there is going to know it. There's no use in taking up space on my own hard drive for something ordinary people can carry around."
"Last night you said you'd try."
"I say many things to get you to shut up, John. Don't go reading into them."
"You can't fill out a single country, can you?"
Sherlock's face fell, only slightly, a child bent on proving authority wrong. He pointed on the map. "Home. I'm not that obtuse, John."
"That's Wales, you git."
He scrunched his brow, studying the map. "Oh. Well, right. That's, um…"
John sighed—again—and started filling out the names in bold, block letters. "Just download this into you mind palace, alright? Just in case. For me, hmm? I'll worry less."
"Why are you worried?"
"I'm not. But if something happened…"
"What? I get kidnapped and taken to Luxembourg? Please."
"I'm just impressed you know that's a country."
Sherlock rolled his eyes, spread his lanky body over the couch. "If I memorize this, will you let it go?"
"Of course."
"And I get that milk?"
"No. Geez. It's for breakfast."
"I don't eat breakfast."
"I do. And you should."
He groaned. "Fine, I'll memorize. No more mention of geography, please."
"Not a word." John coughed and moved to the kitchen. "Until the test next Tuesday."
"What?"