A/N This one is less concentrated on the specific dynamic between Sherlock and John, and more about 221b Baker Street as a whole.
Thanks to MapleleafCameo, innenlebenaussenwelt, Hummingbird1759, johnsarmylady, Natalie Nallareet, and total-animal-lover
Disclaimer I don't own Sherlock or any associated characters, events, etc.
XLVI. Family
Both Sherlock and John have been raised on conflict—to different degrees, obviously, but when it came down to it, the fact was that both of them had rather unfriendly relationships with their respective siblings. And perhaps that's what causes them both (one more openly than the other) to so treasure the family dynamic that fills their daily lives now. They have each other, of course, but that's only the core of it—the vitally essential core, yet still something that wouldn't be quite as meaningful without the rest, everything else that surrounds it.
The flat, for one thing, has far more meaning than anyone ever acknowledges. It's a home, a familiar, cozy home that holds, amongst the scattered, half-frosted human limbs, messy stacks of microscope slides, and bullet-ridden walls, an undeniable sense of domesticity, of security. It's somewhere for them to return to at the end of the day, always relieved to take in its slightly musty but still warm scent—all three of them, even that who's so often overlooked.
After all, Mrs. Hudson really is the thing that binds them all together, in the end—she keeps her boys from ripping each other apart, she puts up with their noisy arguments from upstairs and brings them tea and biscuits when they didn't have time to get lunch while out at work or investigating a particularly intriguing new murder. She adores them both, and they her, like a mother, or even a favorite babysitter—a special friend, much closer than that landlady, and certainly not the housekeeper that she's so often mistaken for.
John, even being the newest addition to the dynamic, is an absolutely essential part of it. He's the most responsible of the three of them; he's always the one to make sure that the fridge is stocked (something that Mrs. Hudson would take care of, if only it didn't make him feel so guilty) and that the rent bill is paid down to the last cent (once again, their landlady would find a bit of error excusable, but he'd never let such a slip-up cross his mind). And, more than anything, he puts up with Sherlock—his fuse is the longest of all theirs, and it's extremely rare that he'll really get angry.
And, of course, Sherlock is at the very center of it all. His fiery, passionate existence is what pulled them all together in the first place. John owes everything to him, and the truth is that Mrs. Hudson does as well; if not for him, she'd probably still be stuck with that horrid Floridian husband. As childish as he may behave, the other two love him enough to hurt, and they know they do, even if such a thing so often escapes his notice. He cares for them in return, too, but that's a fact that he tends to be even more ignorant of.