Sherlock and Olive wander Tesco for about five minutes before he blurts, "So why do you want to break up with Lane?"
She sighs. "How on earth can you tell that?"
"Last night you were hardly touching him, hardly looking at him, hardly bothering to include him in conversation. If you had a fight, he'd be acting similarly, but he was oblivious to it. He was trying to be near him but you were pushing him away."
"Can't I just…want space?"
"So much space that you're planning to dump him. Why?"
"Because I…" Olive sighs. "I did something bad."
Sherlock stops in the isle and stares at her. "What?" he skeptically asks.
She absentmindedly picks up a box of noodles and pretends to read the label. "I, uh, kissed Paris."
"What?!" Sherlock yells so loudly that the three other people in the isle stop to stare.
She quickly sets the box down. "Shut up, you lunatic!"
"Why did you do that?! How could you?! When?! Why?! How?!"
Olive rubs her eyes. "I don't know, about…about a week and a half ago, I guess. I don't know!"
"Why?!"
"Why? What do you mean, why? Because I like him! And he likes me too."
"But…but Lane…"
"Oh shove it. You don't even like Lane."
"I don't think he deserves—"
"What? Someone like me who has feelings for other people while dating someone?"
"I don't think he deserves to be hurt. Being cheated on hurts."
"How would you know? Watson's never even looked at someone else."
"My mother cheated on my father. It hurt him."
"Well, I haven't been married to Lane for over twenty years."
"So that excuses your actions?"
"I don't know!" Olive cries.
Sherlock shakes his head.
"You're really upset with me right now, aren't you?" she asks.
Sherlock nods. "I am."
"Are you upset with Paris too? Taylor's mad for him. You think this won't hurt her?"
"Of course I'm upset with him, too. But he's not the one here right now, is he?"
Olive sighs. "I'd better go."
"I think that's best."
She moves to leave the isle, then he calls her back.
"The party's for John," he says, implying that she's still invited to the party.
She just nods, then leaves the isle.
Sherlock wants to confront Paris now, to tell him his actions are not okay, but Paris is at work. Instead, he drops off all the baking supplies at Paris's house and leaves to meet Lily and Jenna.
The decorations take two hours to buy because the girls can't agree on anything, then what they do agree on, Sherlock hates. Eventually they all settle on everything being blue and green, like streamers and hanging balls of fluffy tissue paper, blue and green plates and napkins, but they decide on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cups. Even Sherlock liked those, so they bought a bunch and packed it in Lily's car so she could take it over to the Holmes residence.
By the time Sherlock gets home, it's two in the afternoon, so he thinks it's a good time to get his plans with John started. He decided to do all of John's most favorite things around the city, and that will keep them out of the house until seven.
First on the list is the London Sea Life Aquarium, where Sherlock and John both loved as kids. They both get equally excited over it now, so when Sherlock said, "Want to go to the aquarium?" John nearly jumped in his seat in the cab.
Sherlock is happy that John is so pleased with this plan. He thought John would question why Sherlock wanted to go out, but Sherlock knows John isn't in any mood to ask questions when there are plans to do something fun. When they arrive, John grips Sherlock's hand tightly and they make their way in.
They spend a lot longer than Sherlock thought they would here, for by the time they exit it's already five o'clock. He had more plans than this and what they can squeeze in for the next two hours, but that's no matter. John seems happy anyway.
"Hungry?" Sherlock asks as they exit the aquarium.
"A bit, yeah."
"Well, why don't we go down to that little café you love and we'll get an eclair."
John's eyes widen. "Really?!"
Sherlock smiles. "Unless you don't want one."
John grips Sherlock tighter and yanks him down the street.
After the snack, Sherlock decides they've only got time to do the last thing on the list, so they walk only the short way they have to go to the entrance of the London Eye.
John smiles widely up at the giant attraction. "This, Sherlock? Really?"
"Yes, John. You love it, I happen to love it, why not?"
John turns to Sherlock, still smiling. "I just…I feel spoiled today. What's going on?"
"Nothing," Sherlock lies, wanting to wait until later to apologize for missing his birthday. "I just want to have a nice evening with you."
John leans over and kisses him. "I love you, you know that?"
"I do," Sherlock says. "And I love you, too."
John smiles again, then pulls him over to wait in line.
The ride is wonderful. Sherlock always loves it, he can never believe it only takes a small amount of money to witness one of the most beautiful things in the world (the entirety of the London at once), and John is enjoying it an equal amount. He holds Sherlock close, their fronts pressed against the glass to get the best view possible, and Sherlock feels content with this forever. John's arm secure around his waist, the entire city below them. It's amazing.
"If this was a romcom," John says after a while, "You'd be proposing right now."
Sherlock laughs. "Please John, to propose I'd take you somewhere more wonderful than the aquarium."
"We love the aquarium."
"Just trust me," Sherlock says. "It'd be somewhere perfect."
"This is perfect," John says, pressing a kiss to Sherlock's shoulder. "You're perfect."
"As are you, my love."
"And," John whispers, kissing the side of Sherlock's neck. "You're very sexy, too."
Sherlock chuckles, John's lips tickling him. He turns his head towards John and motions to the other people in the car. "Later, John."
John grins, then kisses Sherlock's lips once and falls back to his own side.
Sherlock is jittery the entire way to his house. He's nervous that the decorations won't look right, he's afraid the food won't be right, he's fearful that nobody but their usual friends will show up. Declan had texted ten minutes ago saying everything was ready, but Sherlock still can't be sure that everything is perfect.
They turn onto their street and Sherlock sends Declan a text saying where they are. His leg is shaking, and finally John reaches over to place a hand on his knee.
"Sherlock, what's going on?"
"Nothing. Everything's fine."
"You've been acting weird since we got in the car. Do you…do you not want to go home?"
"No, I do, I'm ready to go home."
"Look, if this is about…at the Eye, when I kissed your neck and you said—"
"No, no," Sherlock stops him. "No, of course it's not like that. I, well, maybe later we'll talk about that again, but for now, that's not…not it."
John eyes him, not believing that everything is okay. But there isn't time to question it before they're at the house.
Sherlock darts out of the car and John slowly follows.
"Why're the lights off?" John asks.
"Everyone must be out."
"Oh…okay…"
Sherlock takes a deep breath while unlocking the door, then ushers John inside and shuts it. That was the cue for Declan to turn the lights on, so a second later the lights go on and everyone is standing around. They shout "Surprise!" and John nearly screams.
"What the…hell…"
Sherlock frowns. "Actually, I…well, I forgot your birthday. And I thought…we might be able to celebrate it today, so—"
"So you threw me a surprise party."
"Well, yeah."
Suddenly, John grabs Sherlock and plants a long kiss on his lips. Sherlock is so shocked that he can't kiss back, he thought John hated it the second the lights were turned on.
"Hey come on," Declan says next to them, "Lots of other people deserve thank you kisses too."
John parts laughing. He looks so surprised and happy that Sherlock can't help but follow the laughter.
"This is amazing," John says as Declan leads them through the crowd of people.
A lot of people showed up, which is equally as surprising as the party itself. Music starts from somewhere near the dining room, everything is decorated beautiful, the island is covered in food, and on the stove is a beautiful cake.
"We've got music, obviously, the sitting room is set up with Just Dance, we have games like Twister, which…I don't know why."
"Because it's awesome!" Harvey adds.
They all laugh.
"Lots of food, drinks, and Paris made this delicious looking cake."
John shakes his head in disbelief and turns to Sherlock again. "You did all of this?"
"Well, like Dec said. I had a lot of help."
"Thank you guys," John says. "Thank you all so much."
He takes turns hugging everyone, then Harvey moves the cake from the stove to the island. "Can we cut this now? I'm dying to eat it."
Everyone laughs, then Declan lights all eighteen candles. Then everyone sings (they change the words to 'Happy late-birthday to you'). John blows out all the candles at once, then Harvey gets to slicing the cake and handing it out.
The party is amazing. It lasts all night and everyone has a blast, even Sherlock. They have dance battles on the game (which Sherlock is very good at), they eat lots of food, get fairly drunk, then finally John and Sherlock stumble upstairs while everyone staying over passes out downstairs.
"I can't seem to feel my eyebrows, John," Sherlock mutters as John's trying to undress him for bed.
John laughs and reaches up to touch Sherlock's face. "They're still there."
"And my teeth…they feel absolutely humungous."
"Leave it to you to be able to use words like hu-humb—that while you're drunk."
"I'm not drunk."
"You are so drunk."
John shoves Sherlock over to pull his jeans off. Sherlock sprawls on the bed.
"Why are you taking my clothes off?" he asks.
"So we can go to sleep."
"Are we going to sleep naked?"
John rubs his eyes. "I don't feel like I can find pajamas right now."
"I want to, John."
"Want to what?"
Sherlock gets up and starts yanking John's clothes away. "I want to sleep naked."
John giggles. "Alright."
Finally, after elbow jabs and a bit of scratching, they're both naked and falling into the bed.
Sherlock doesn't know what comes over him. Well, he does, it's lust, and he hasn't felt it in months.
"John," he practically moans, pushing himself into John's arms. "Touch me."
John places his hands on Sherlock's back, but doesn't move. "Sherlock, no."
Sherlock shoves John onto his back and straddles his waist. "Please John, I want it. I want you."
"You're drunk."
"I'm…" Sherlock isn't sure what he is, what he is going to say, so he dives forward and presses his lips to John's.
"Mmm, Sherlock!" John cries. "Stop, I'm not going to have sex with you while you're drunk!"
"Why not?" Sherlock asks.
"Because that's wrong. In a while, if you're still up for it, we'll talk about it. But not tonight."
Sherlock feels too tired and his mind is spinning too much to argue. He falls off John with a soft thud, but John scoops him up and holds him close.
"I love you," John whispers. "So much. Thank you for today."
"It was fun," Sherlock admits. "I'm sorry for forgetting your birthday."
"You didn't even have to apologize anyway," John says.
Sherlock kisses his forehead. "I love you."
John sighs contently and snuggles deeper against Sherlock.
With his mind racing and no control over what comes out, Sherlock blurts, "John, had I asked you to marry me today, would you have said yes?"
"Of course," John says without missing a beat.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Oh," Sherlock says, quickly carting this moment away in his brain's storage to remember tomorrow when he's sober. "That's…good to know."
"Go to sleep now, my drunken idiot."
Sherlock laughs. "It hasn't been that bad."
"No, it has. I think Brady recorded you on his phone doing…what was it? Blondie? On Just Dance?"
"I didn't do Blondie, I did Kylie Minogue," Sherlock argues, sounding offended.
John laughs. "My mistake."
Sherlock huffs.
"Again, go to sleep."
Sherlock shuts his eyes and this time does fall asleep.