Thanks to jnicweb for giving me the idea and for beta reading!
"I need scales."
John was met with the phrase early in the morning, just after coming down from his room for some breakfast. Sherlock was sitting in his favourite armchair, looking into nothingness.
"Sorry?"
"Scales."
"Of what kind?"
Sherlock exhaled loudly and fell silent. John ate in peace, but after a pretty long while, when he was going through the door to the street, he heard both from the window and from the upstairs: "Or flakes. What about flakes?"
John thought a little, because he didn't really want Mrs. Hudson to hear the first thing he wanted to say. Then, he cried back.
"Can I help you somehow?"
He would rather like to hear the blessed silence he was answered with in reply to his requests not to play violin at three in the morning.
In the evening, after he came back home, John heard about flakes many times, but still had no idea which kind of flakes Sherlock needed. He never liked corn ones and obviously couldn't need some snow in the middle of May. On the other hand, there were scales (for weighing things) in the kitchen. Maybe Sherlock needed fish? He didn't say it, or anything else containing "I need".
Till the next day, when he appeared to be sitting on the sofa and muttering: "I need a bow."