A/N: Hello all! Thanks for the reviews last chapter, I was really nervous but I'm glad everyone thought it turned out ok. More fluff and case-ish things to come, and I hope I do a well enough job on that. Anyway, thanks for reading! Please review!

Dawn takes John's phone away that evening, and she tells him he can't go to Sherlock's house at all, so John doesn't see Sherlock until the next day at school.

"Where were you last night?" Sherlock asks instead of a greeting.

"Grounded," John answers, shutting his locker and turning to Sherlock. "No phone for a week."

Sherlock looks in disbelief. "For what? For what she did to you?"

"No, for shouting and for what I said to her."

"So…grounded from what? Your phone, that's it?"

John shakes his head. "I can't hang out with you for a week."

Sherlock groans.

"Only a week," John tries. "She didn't take my laptop away though, so we can Skype."

Sherlock sighs.

John pats his shoulder. "The week will fly by."

Sherlock's already tired of the grounding before the day ends. Often times during the day he'll text John little reminders for himself, like 'Clear the dirt from the downstairs loo sink.' or 'Buy more rubbing alcohol.'. He sends them to John because he can count on John to remind him of these things.

And it's entirely too inconvenient that John doesn't have a phone. Instead he sends John emails, but he always likes getting the messages in reply that say things like 'Why is there dirt in the sink?' or 'You just bought rubbing alcohol like a week ago, what do you do with it? You know you're not supposed to drink it, right?'

Sherlock is a moping mess by the time they're walking home from school. He clings to John as if he's never going to see John again, while John tells Sherlock about his mother saying she's ok with their relationship. Sherlock still sulks, and John has to tell him he'll be fine.

"You'll be fine. By Sunday I'll be able to go over again."

"That's so far away!"

John laughs. "You never give me this much attention when you actually get to see me."

Sherlock throws his arms around John's shoulders and buries his nose in John's hair.

John laughs harder. "Stop, stop! You're fine."

They arrive in front of Sherlock's house and stand facing each other, their hands linked between them.

"I'll see you later," John says. "Get on Skype at eight, ok?"

Sherlock nods.

"We can watch a movie," John says.

Sherlock nods again.

John rubs his arms. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

John leans up and kisses Sherlock lightly and slowly.

"See you at eight."

Sherlock nods. "See you."

John kisses him one more time, then turns down the street to leave.

Sherlock gets into the house and unhappily hangs his coat at the door. He wanders into the kitchen for a soothing cup of tea he very much needs, and sees his dad already making one.

"John's leaving?"

Sherlock nods and goes to the refrigerator. "He's grounded."

"For?"

"For shouting at his mother."

Clement nods. "But…did they talk?"

Sherlock nods and turns to his dad, taking the offered tea cup. "He said they talked and she said she's alright with he and I. John said it's alright now, whatever that means."

"Well, that's great," Clement says. "Right?"

Sherlock nods. "Of course."

Clement steps forward and takes Sherlock in a hug. "I'll always love you no matter what, Sherlock. You know that, right?"

Sherlock hugs back, which he rarely does without being told to. He takes a deep, relaxing breath, then says, "But you love me more than you love Mycroft, right?"

Clement laughs and lets him go. "I can not answer that question."

Sherlock grins and takes his phone out. "That's a yes."

"Who are you calling if John's grounded?"

Sherlock's smile grows. "Myc? Dad just said he loves me more than he love you!"

Clement darts at him, but Sherlock runs away. Clement throws a dish rag at him and Sherlock laughs as he runs up the stairs.

At eight, John says goodnight to his mother and races upstairs to his computer. He quickly logs in to Skype and waits, but Sherlock doesn't appear online. John frowns, wondering if Sherlock forgot.

John decides to waste time waiting for Sherlock, so he checks his email and all of his social networking sites. He quickly grows bored, then remembers to check Sherlock's new work email.

He smiles widely when he sees there are three emails from real addresses (but frowns when he sees ten from anonymous emails).

He opens the first one and reads:

From harvluc Hey Sherlock, it's Harvey Lucas from school. Jenna told me about how you found her earrings last week and I was wondering if you could help me out. My favorite pair of sneakers have been stolen. I know, weird right? I have no idea who could have taken them, and it's kind of fucked because they're a shitty pair of Chuck Taylors. Sorry for my language, I'm wound up now. Give me a call if you are interested in helping.

John laughs at Harvey's language. He doesn't really find this case extremely interesting, so he moves on to the next email.

From lilyfox2013 Sherlock Holmes! I know haven't spoken since like primary school but I need your help! Someone keeps sending me threatening emails and I don't know who. They happen at school, and they're very creepy. I've told the school but they've said they can't do anything about it because they're anonymous. This is a stretch, but I'd appreciate your help. Thanks! xoxo Lily

John saves that one, thinking he can kill two birds with one stone and just look into getting Sherlock's emails checked out while they get Lily's looked into.

The last is from an email he wouldn't expect; it's from Vince's best friend Perry. John thinks about not even opening it up, but the subject says Help! so he does.

From pwolf5 I really need your help, man. Today I was kicked off the lacrosse team because I was caught cheating. The thing is, I wasn't cheating. Then, at least. Sure I have before, but I've never been caught, which is how I'm absolutely positive I didn't cheat. I don't know how, but someone else had the same exact research paper as me. I know I wrote my paper, and they won't even tell me who mine matched. Anyway, I just really want to be back on the team but nobody will give me a chance. I need your help finding out who stole my paper. If you can help, find me at 3:40 Tuesday afternoon in the library. Thanks man. –Perry Wolf

John taps his chin as he's reading, and he doesn't even notice the Skype ringtone through the computer until he's finished with the email.

He answers the call, but continues thinking.

"What?" Sherlock asks. "What are you reading? Did we get another email?"

"Three, as a matter of fact."

Sherlock grins. "Excellent."

John forwards the emails to him one by one so they can discuss while Sherlock's mind is focused on only the one they're discussing.

He starts with Lily's. They talk about what John was thinking; looking into Sherlock's while they look into Lily's.

"I'm sure I could deduce who is doing this," Sherlock tells him.

"Yeah, but we can't go around accusing people if you're wrong."

"I'm never wrong."

John rolls his eyes. "Well, let me do this my way and ask someone to hack the network. She said they're at school, too."

Sherlock nods. "If you must."

John ignores him, intending to end the argument. "Alright, next," he says, then sends Sherlock Harvey's email.

"Oh," Sherlock says as he opens it up. "Harvey."

"Yep," John replies, rereading it.

"Why would someone steal a, quote 'shitty pair of Chuck Taylors'?"

John laughs. "I don't know."

Sherlock leans forward and rests his hands in front of his face. "Well, I could very well take this one. Easy, like Jenna's."

"Sure," John says. "Now…here's the last one…"

Sherlock looks confused. "Why do you say it like that? Is it from Vince or something?"

"Uhm…" John clicks send on the forward and Sherlock's eyes grow wide as he receives it seconds later.

"Oh, it might as well be," Sherlock says. "Forget it, I don't want his."

"Just read it, Sherlock. It sounds genuine. He needs help."

Sherlock sighs. "Fine."

They're silent for a minute while Sherlock reads it. When he's done, his eyes flick back to John. "What do you think?"

John shrugs. "It's up to you, love."

Sherlock leans forward again. "Someone is bound to have had access to his paper before he turned it in. Perhaps a jump drive or an email?"

"Unless he just printed it as soon as he finished it."

"Why would he do that, not have a backup?"

"Because it's Perry and the paper was probably written well enough for him to squeeze by with a well enough grade to stay on the team another week."

"Very good, John." Sherlock pridefully says. "That's exactly what whoever stole it would think. If they were planning to cheat, that means they weren't determined enough to write their own, which means they aren't a very good student themselves. They'd take it from someone who matches their intelligence level, that being Perry their level is barely average enough to squeeze by, as you say. Who in that class matches Perry's intelligence level?"

"That'd be your old class, right? Who else was in that class?"

"Vince," Sherlock quickly answers.

"He'd be a guy to cheat from his best friend and not care enough that his best friend got in trouble."

"Yeah, but Vince is also on the lacrosse team, isn't he? Why would Perry be kicked off and Vince wasn't?"

"How do you know Vince wasn't?"

"I think even Perry is smart enough to see that if he was kicked off the team and his best friend was kicked off the team, it's pretty clear that his best friend stole his research paper."

John nods. "So? Gonna meet Perry tomorrow or not?"

"Yeah," Sherlock says. "Now I'm interested."

John smiles. "We're not watching a movie tonight, are we?"

"Well, we could watch a movie and I could not pay attention while I think, or I can call Harvey."

John laughs. "Alright, call Harvey. I'll see you tomorrow."

Sherlock smiles. "Ok. Tomorrow night I've got to spend the night at Mycroft's, so I don't know if we'll be able to Skype."

"Why do you have to spend the night at Mycroft's?"

Sherlock makes a disgusted face. "My parents are going out for their anniversary."

John nods in understanding. "Ok. See you at school then. I'll talk to Lily and tell her the plan, and I'll find someone who can hack the network."

"Excellent," Sherlock tells him. "See you soon."

"I love you!"

Sherlock pauses as he's about to end their call. "I love you too, John."

John smiles, blows a kiss, then hangs up.

Sherlock does call Harvey immediately after he hangs up with John.

"Hello?" Harvey skeptically answers.

"Harvey, it's Sherlock."

"Sherlock, my man! How's it goin'?"

"It's…fine," Sherlock uncomfortably answers. This is why I text, he thinks. "I got your email and I'm interested in taking your case."

"Brilliant!" Harvey enthusiastically replies. He goes on to repeat to Sherlock everything in the email, including the vulgar language.

Sherlock asks him the same questions that he'd asked Jenna; if anyone has problems with him, if anyone's ever said anything about expressing envy of the shoes.

"Nah man," Harvey says. "They're a ratty old pair, dude. Nobody's ever, like, asked where I've gotten 'em or anything. And I haven't seen anyone wear them at school, I thought of that."

"Well done," Sherlock sarcastically says. "If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. We'll talk at school."

"Thanks, man. I really owe you one!"

Sherlock says goodbye, then hangs up. He checks the clock and sees he was only on the phone with Harvey for a few minutes, and that he could try to Skype John back, but then he just as quickly thinks about Perry's case. So instead, he begins writing up a list of the kids in the class he was in. They're all suspects by now.

He falls asleep on his notebook not long after. Clement finds him and removes everything from his bed, including his shoes, then lets Sherlock sleep the whole night.