December 24:th - Christmas Eve

It was Christmas eve. Mrs Hudson and John had had Christmas lunch together, while Sherlock opted out. He seemingly preferred to play his violin instead, much to the fascination of the relics. Excalibur, the Carpet and the Cloak had gathered around him, and he seemed more than pleased with their company.

During the afternoon they had the usual drinks with Molly and Lestrade, and after they had left John joined Mrs Hudson in the kitchen to prepare for dinner. He had confirmed that Doctor Strange - who of course was invited - would still be coming, and would still bake as he had promised to do, but that was all he had been willing to say about it. Mrs Hudson had tried to question Sherlock about what he would deduce about the situation, but he was either unsure or unwilling, because he said nothing either.

The Doctor was the first to arrive, coming straight into the kitchen after giving the silent detective a longing look. Doctor Strange's arrival a few moments later was announced with a slight crash as the cloak dropped everything it was currently doing to rush to him. "Hello" he greeyed his cloak, rubbing just under the collar as one would pet a cat "did you enjoy your playdate?" It didn't answer, too busy to wrap itself around him.

By then, they had all left the kitchen as a result of the disturbance, and Mrs Hudson, used to strangeness as she was from the TARDIS seemed unconcerned as she retrieved a collection of baked goods from the portal. Doctor Who stepped through it briefly to get the rest, and the two of them returned to the kitchen. John did not.

"John" Dotor Strange greeted, before they both took a step forward, suddenly kissing with fervour. Sherlock looked up at that, before he shrugged and turned on the other side. "Thought so" he mumbled, turning on his other side, immediately covered by his loyal carpet.

After that, dinner became a good-humoured, casual affair, with lots of tuttering from Mrs Hudson, lots of handholding from two of the doctors and quite a few smittened looks from the third.

"Why didn't you deduce this, dear?" Mrs Hudson asked Sherlock already while John was carving the turkey. "There was a lot of contrary data" Sherlock replied softly, a minute smile palying on his lips "besides, John did not want to be deduced - that was easy to deduce".

"Do you often heed people's requests not to be deduced?" Doctor Strange asked curiously. Sherlock met his eyes squarely. "Never. But John is my best friend, and this is obviously important to him. He's been happy, not snappish as dating usually makes him, and I would be the last to ruin that. If you hurt him, I don't care what dimension you hide in. I will find you and disolve both your eyeballs".

Mrs Hudson was about to reprimand him for this, but Doctor Strange beat her to it "please, that's not very creative. And be a bit more ambitious - they're one of our most easily disolvable body parts". Sherlock smiled dangerously "yes, so you will live through that and feel it. How many others do you think I can disolve before you lose consiousness?"

The Doctor was entirely silent as he had found the cake at this point, but John decided to cut in as Strange looked decidedly interested in continuing this line of questioning, and that was simply disturbing. Nice, because clearly light sociopaths and he got along well together, so that was an excellent sign, but still disturbing.

Sherlock stood by the window, playing what Mrs Hudson had specified on the violin. She was puttering about in the kitchen, still enjoying her now obvious triumph. The Carpet and the Cloak were playing tag again, using both the square footage and the hight of the room to host their game.

The Doctor had gotten out the old chess set from the bookcase and was playing against Excalibur. Mrs Hudson had fussed about how the sword - which now had gotten decidedly attached to John - would be able to play, but Sherlock didn't care. It obviously worked well.

The TARDIS was amusing itself in its corner by mimicking the twinkle of the Christmas lights. It looked like it had fun, but that was always so hard to tell with some people - and some magical artifacts, those Doctor Strange kept referring to as "relics" in his funny accent. Sherlock was not so sure why John looked so absurdly smittened every time the other doctor talked - to him, Strange sounded like himself but slightly deeper and with weird pronounciation. But John had always been a series of challenging riddles disguised in wholly jumpers.

John and Doctor Strange had taken Sherlock's usual spot in the couch and was making out like teenagers, but in Sherlock's judgement, this Strange man was far better than all the usual "girlfriends" put together. Besides, John was happy, and Sherlock had never been that bothered with "acting your age", from the start. So he just started another elementary Christmas tune to please Mrs Hudson, because she was partially right. It was not the only one, but it was a day they had to be kind to Mrs Hudson, and he had nothing else to do today - not until the carpet needed someone to play fetch with, anyway.

Maybe the cloak would join them - it didn't look like its own companion would be very playful with anyone but John tonight. Sherlock smirked, and drew his bow across the strings with just enough care. He might not care much for Christmas, but this was a good night nevertheless.

Happy Christmas everyone and here is the resolution! There will be a few more chapters though, so stay tuned! :D

I do not own anything you recognise - I don't even know where some of it is from!

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To the guest irene: thank you very much, and Happy Christmas to you too! :)