De-stressing

John didn't mean to sigh quite so loudly as he dropped his coat on the sitting room floor, but it came out loud enough to break the near silence of their flat.

"Oh!" Sherlock looked up from his microscope. "You've had a bad day!"

John looked across the kitchen at him. "... Yes. I'm not sure why you sound so excited about it, but, thanks for that." He ignored picking up his coat in favour of heading into the kitchen for a nice, hot cuppa.

"Well, obviously it's... unfortunate that you had a time with the hypochrondriac woman, but also good that she's decided to switch doctors so that you don't have to deal with her anymore," Sherlock rattled off smoothly.

John didn't bother to ask how he knew that. "Yep," he said instead, opening the cupboard. "I guess."

"But it's additionally the perfect atmosphere for an experiment that I heard about earlier," Sherlock continued. The other shoe had fallen, then.

John blew out a breath. "Not today, Sherlock. I'm really not in the mood." He pushed an experiment aside and reached for his favourite mug. "Any experiments that you want-"

He came to a sudden stop when Sherlock wrapped his arms around him.

In an honest-to-God legitimate hug.

John blinked rapidly. "Uh... Sherlock?"

"According to the random facts app I have on my phone, as well as just about every website and news outlet having a slow day, it's National Hugging Day," Sherlock explained. "Apparently hugging's good for de-stressing, are you feeling any particular difference in your mental state?"

John shifted. "Uhh... I'm..." He turned his head, looking up at Sherlock. "You're serious."

"Indubitably."

John stared at him - he was serious, he could see the determined curiosity that came with a case in Sherlock's eyes - for a moment before laughter edged its way to his lips. "Come on, get off me," he said, pushing at Sherlock's shoulder slightly. "You clot."

Sherlock took a step back, lips twitching into a smile. "So, it does work then."

"What?"

"You smiled. Compared to the ghastly obnoxious sigh from when you walked in, it's an improvement." Sherlock flashed him one of those brief, bright smiles that John was pretty sure only he or Mrs Hudson were privy to before he turned away and headed back to his microscope. "It wasn't completely a waste of time."

John laughed to himself, pouring himself a cup of tea. "Well, great. Thanks for that, then, I'm glad I didn't waste your time."

"Oh, never," Sherlock said sarcastically, humour flaring in his eyes before they vanished into the eyepiece of the microscope.

John rolled his eyes. "Behave, Sherlock." He took his mug back into the sitting room and sank into his chair.

"Always."

"Which means never."

Sherlock chuckled without responding.

John shook his head slightly and reached for the remote. He must be crazy, saying that coming home to Sherlock Holmes was relaxing. But.

Oh well.

His life.

Something popped in the kitchen and Sherlock exclaimed and scrambled away from the barstool too quickly for it to be good.

... His life.

Happy National Hugging Day! Well, actually it was yesterday, since it just hit midnight for me, but I didn't know it was National Hugging Day until half hour ago so I wanted to write something and here we are! xD I like fluff. I'm sorry. (I'm not.)

I do not own Sherlock. Thank you for reading!