The rest of their week goes by uneventful. Since Sherlock doesn't have to go to Oxford, they do spend every day together. They do experiments and John bakes Sherlock cookies, plus they spend time in the snow and try not to get colds.
Almost a week after Christmas, on New Year's Eve, John goes over to Sherlock's house early in the morning. Sherlock told him to be there by eight, and John happily complies.
Clement throws the door open when John rings the doorbell. "John!" he cries.
John looks stunned. "Uh, yes sir?"
Clement pulls John into the warm house and John immediately hears classical music. "He's been at it all night," Clement explains. "He hasn't given that record player a rest yet. Shut it off and you'll be a hero, John."
John laughs and takes his coat off. "Sorry, sir. I thought it was a good gift."
"Oh it is. In moderation, it's fine, perfect for him even. But it hasn't stopped all night!"
"Ok," John mutters, heading to the den. "It'll be off in a tick."
John goes into the room to see Sherlock on his back on the floor, staring at the ceiling with the record player next to him. He's holding his own violin over his chest and a cup of coffee in his other hand.
"Sherlock, love?" John ventures. "You ok?"
Sherlock's head drifts to the side to look at John. "Miserable," Sherlock mutters.
John sees his face fully now. Under his eyes and nose are red and he's terribly pale. John notices that his nose sounds plugged, too.
"Are you sick?"
Sherlock sighs and turns his head again. "Unfortunately."
John can't help but laugh. "You haven't slept? You've got to sleep!"
"Can't," Sherlock says. "Too uncomfortable."
John sighs. "Come on, you big baby. Up to bed."
Sherlock lets John pull him off the ground. John shuts off the record player.
"Thank you!" John hears from the kitchen.
He laughs and takes Sherlock upstairs.
"Are you hot?" John asks him.
Sherlock shrugs. "You tell me."
John rolls his eyes. He touches Sherlock's cheeks and forehead. "I think you've got a fever. You feel cold?"
Sherlock nods.
"Get under the covers," John instructs. "I'm going to get some vitamins."
"John!" Sherlock cries as John goes to the door.
"What?"
"I feel awful, John."
"I know. I'll be right back."
"Wait," Sherlock stops him again. "Come back."
John goes back to the bed.
Sherlock gets up onto his knees and wraps his arms around John's neck.
John tries to pull away. "Get off, Sherlock. You're sick."
"Come on John," Sherlock tries. "I'm not sick, come on."
John laughs while pushing Sherlock away. "You're disgusting! Get off!"
"I want you John, please!"
John manages to get Sherlock off of him and pushes Sherlock onto the bed again. "I'll be right back."
Sherlock pouts. "Hurry!"
John quickly leaves and rushes downstairs. He finds Clement in the kitchen and tells Clement what's going on. "I think he's got a fever," John explains. "Vitamins, orange juice, soup? Probably just a little cold, but—"
Clement places a hand on John's shoulder. "John," he laughs. "I've been a father for twenty-four years. I know how to handle sick. But you need to get out of here. Wouldn't do well with you sick right after him, would it?"
John sighs, knowing Clement is right. As much as he doesn't want to leave Sherlock, even more than that does he not want to be sick. "Alright."
"Go say goodbye while I get his tea and juice ready."
John nods and heads upstairs.
"I've got to go," John whispers to Sherlock's sleeping form. "I'll check on you, ok?"
"Hmm? Why?" Sherlock slurs.
"I don't want to get sick, love!"
Sherlock pouts.
John kisses his cheek. "I love you, ok? Rest easy."
"Love you," Sherlock says.
John rubs his back once, then leaves.
John doesn't want to stay home alone all day, so after a while he calls Brady. Brady tells him that a group of them are going ice skating and that he'd planned to call John anyway, so John agrees to hang out with them.
He meets them at the skating rink at one o'clock, just as Brady said to. Brady's already there with Jenna Darling. John is shocked to see her with Brady. Brady's his best friend, and he's a nice enough guy, but he's usually far too shy to talk to any pretty girl at school.
But they're close and flirting with each other, and John's seeing both of them even acting bashful together. John's glad they look so happy, especially after seeing Jenna so miserable after her case.
"Hey you two!" John greets as he approaches.
"John!" Jenna cries, attacking him in a hug. "Where's your other half?"
"Oh, he's sick," John tells her. "And I definitely didn't want to pass up on an opportunity to see Brady ice skate."
Brady blushes and looks at his shoes.
"Are you bad at this, Brady?" Jenna asks, chuckling.
"I've gotten better!" Brady tries. "I've been practicing!"
John laughs and pats his shoulder.
More of their friends join, including their other best friends Lyle and Joseph. Both of their girlfriends, Sam and Lauren, are present as well.
"I feel like a seventh wheel," John says as they rent their ice skates. "Everyone's coupled up and I'm just…here."
Jenna laughs and wraps an arm around his shoulder. "I invited a few friends, too. If one shows, you can pair with them."
"And if it's a guy who in no way wants to ice skate with a boy?"
"I only invited girls," Jenna explains. "You wouldn't mind hanging out with one of my girlfriends, would you?"
"Of course not," John says. "I just feel like I'm tagging along with the couples."
"Someone will come," Jenna tells him, then takes her turn in line to get skates.
After skating three laps around the ice with Jenna and Brady, John spots another girl from school. She's a girl he's seen Jenna with a few times, mostly since the stuff with Amy went on.
Jenna spots her at the same time, then she grabs John's hand and pulls him to the entrance of the rink.
Jenna hugs the girl before really greeting her. "So glad you could make it," Jenna tells her. "We haven't seen each other all break!"
"I know!" the girl cries. "It's been far too long, honey!"
Jenna grabs John and pulls him to her. "You know John, right? John Watson, from school. John, you know Alex?"
John gasps in realization, having not remembered her name. "Alex, of course! How are you?"
Alex smiles warmly at John, then Jenna pulls her onto the rink, too.
John and Alex skate behind Brady and Jenna for a few laps, but after a while they break away and skate alone. They talk about school and Alex's football team, and John tells her about how he watches football.
John can tell Alex likes him, or else she's really good at acting interested in him. He doesn't see himself as a charmer, or that he leads people on (honestly, he's never even had the chance to 'lead anyone on'). But Alex obviously likes him.
That doesn't mean he's any less polite than he would be with anyone. When Brady asks if Jenna wants a hot chocolate, John asks too. He buys her a cup, with whipped cream, and she beams at him. He politely smiles back.
They sit at the table next to Jenna and Brady to drink their hot chocolate.
"So, do you like ice skating?" John asks.
Alex nods. "I love it. I used to come all the time as a kid, but not so much anymore. What about you?"
"I like it alright," John says. "I always wanted to try it when I was younger, but I never had a chance."
They continue talking about ice skating, then about movies, then about music. They find that they have a lot in common, and Alex just appears to be more smitten with John.
Finally, Brady and Jenna ask if they want to go see the newest Disney movie, so John is glad that they'll have at least two hours of not finding out that they have more in common.
They get into the movie theater and the girls sit in the middle of the boys. John doesn't mind not sitting next to Brady, but he does wish Sherlock was there.
About halfway through the movie, John feels Alex's fingers brush his. He doesn't think anything of it, he assumes it was an innocent accident, so he doesn't call attention to it. However, a minute later, John feels her fingers again. He glances at her hand, seemingly innocent next to his, but then she completely slides her hand under his and intertwines their fingers.
John clears his throat and pulls his hand away. He continues to look at the movie screen, but out of the corner of his eye, he sees Alex lean towards Jenna.
"Oh, fuck," he hears Alex whisper (loudly) a second later. Then Alex leans over to him. "Sorry, John. Jenna just told me that you're gay."
He chuckles. "I'm not really gay," he whispers.
"I thought men who date men are gay," she tells him.
He doesn't really feel like giving her a sexuality lesson in the middle of a Disney movie, so he lets her comment slide. "I do have a boyfriend, that much is true."
"Why have you been so nice to me then?" she asks, genuinely curious, and a little disappointed.
"Because it's nice to be nice to people," John explains. "You're really cool and I'm glad I got to hang out with you today."
Alex slides her arm into his and squeezes. "You too, John. Thanks."
After the movie, they have dinner. John feels that Alex is much more laid back without the pressure to impress him, so they have more fun than they'd previously been having. He's glad their misunderstanding was cleared up.
John walks home after dinner and decides to call Clement to check on Sherlock.
"He's feeling a lot better," Clement tells John. "If you'd like to come over, you can. I doubt he's contagious anymore. And I made far too much dinner if you're hungry."
"I just ate, actually, but I will be right over!"
John hangs up with Clement and rushes over to Sherlock's. Clement escorts him to the den, where Sherlock is back to playing his records as loudly as possible. He does turn the volume down when John arrives, though.
"Are you sure you're not hungry?" Clement offers again. "I made spaghetti."
John isn't really that hungry, but spaghetti sounds good. "Sure, I'll take some!"
Clement smiles and leaves the boys alone.
"How are you feeling?" John asks, pushing Sherlock's hair out of his eyes.
Sherlock winces at John's cold hands. "Fine," he says.
"You look better. Did you rest?"
Sherlock nods. "I only just woke up."
"Good," John says. "You needed it."
Sherlock nods again. "What did you do today?"
"I went on a date."
Sherlock's eyebrows fly up and he stares at John.
"I'm kidding!" John laughs. "I hung out with Brady, Jenna, and Jenna's friend Alex."
"Alex? Male or female?"
"A quite lovely female, if you must know."
Sherlock nods. "She didn't stand a chance."
"She did try to hold my hand."
Sherlock glares.
John grins widely.
Sherlock rolls his eyes and directs his attention back at his discs.
"You really love these?" John asks.
"Oh yes, John. I really do. Listen to this," Sherlock grabs a different disc and puts it on. He closes his eyes and contently smiles as the tune starts with high violin cords.
"Wonderful, love," John says.
"Wait, it hasn't even gotten to the best part."
They listen through the whole song, Sherlock grinning widely when his favorite part plays. John kisses Sherlock's jaw.
Clement serves John his second dinner and gives both of the boys juice. Then he leaves them alone once more.
Sherlock starts another disc while John begins to eat. This one has a lot of piano, and John wishes he could hear Sherlock play something like it.
"You know," Sherlock says. "One day…"
John takes a drink of his juice and thinks maybe Sherlock is going to say one day he'll play a tune like this for him.
Sherlock continues. "…I'd quite like to suck you off to one of these songs."
John snorts so hard that juice shoots out of his nose.
Sherlock just grins.
They continue to listen to the records nearly all night, until Clement goes into the den to remind them that it's New Year's Eve. The boys had almost forgotten, so they join Clement to watch television at midnight.
Clement shares a bit of champagne with the boys. John drinks his happily, but Sherlock sips at his and makes a face.
At midnight, they kiss, even though Clement is with them. But Clement takes his phone out to call Mycroft. He explains that Mycroft is getting ready for the Time Square celebration with Sherlock's cousin Brook. After Clement talks to Mycroft for a few minutes, he hands the phone to Sherlock and they talk for nearly half an hour. John doesn't mind, of course, he doesn't mind talking to Clement.
John leaves a while later. He kisses Sherlock lightly before he leaves, and tells Sherlock to rest well.
John falls asleep quickly when he gets home, thinking about what a great (if not a bit awkward) day he had. He hopes Sherlock feels better tomorrow because he wants to spend the day with him (hopefully listening to records while Clement is out of the house). Then John thinks about what to get Sherlock for his birthday, and thinks of a great gift.