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John, Sherlock and Archie walked through the joint front door of 221A and 221B after a slow day, there’d been no cases so far so they’d decided to go for a walk with Archie.
John waved an empty Starbucks cup around as he ranted while Sherlock gave an amused smile. “-I mean once was bad enough, but twice! I mean what are the odds? It’s bloody me-” he was cut off by Mariana opening her door.
“What's going on?” she asked.
“Look!” John half yelled exasperatedly as he thrust the cup towards Mariana. She inspected it and read the name on it.
JONK
She laughed “again?”
“I know right! Who’s even called Jonk? How are there two people on this earth who think Jonk is a name? I mean come on!” John carried on as all three of them laughed. Sherlock was the first to speak as the laughter died down “No new cases yet?” he asked, it had been a whole week since anyone had even submitted a case, John hadn’t even bothered to record audio.
Mariana shook her head “It’s so hot even the criminals have taken a break.” she paused to check her phone “Oh! sorry I’m going out to meet a friend” she explained as she checked her bag and walked towards the door, she stopped and looked at John “You should braid your hair John, it’d help with the frizz” and with that she left.
John frowned as the three went upstairs “is it really that noticeable?” he asked himself only for a “Yes.” to come from behind him. “Thanks mate…” he chuckled as he took Archie's lead off, the dog promptly went to drink a good helping of water before laying on the couch.
John looked in the mirror in the living room, playing with his now just past shoulder length hair.
“Mrs Hudson's right you know” Sherlock pointed out as he walked in.
“She’s call- you know what? It's too hot for this argument. How would you know anyway?” John asked, looking at Sherlock’s short messy hair.
Sherlock shrugged, “I know a lot of things.”
John paused for a moment before pointing out “It doesn't matter anyway, I don’t know how to braid hair. I’ve never had hair this long before.”
Sherlock sat forward “I know you haven’t, but I know how to braid hair if you’d be interested.”
John blinked “You can braid hair? Why?”
Sherlock gave his usual ‘this is a dumb question’ sigh “Because, Watson, I used to have long hair and it was an invaluable tool to maintain it.”
John smiled at the mental image of Sherlock with long hair “Why did you cut it so short?”.
Sherlock took a moment to think about the question and then shrugged “I didn’t like getting my hair cut as a child, it was a sensory nightmare, so I grew it out. When I was in college I realized I could cut my own hair, so ever since I’ve done that.”
“Makes sense” John agreed, silence fell over the room for a few minutes as John brushed his hair without much success before he finally huffed and gave up. “You can braid my hair.”
Sherlock's eyes lit up “Really?”
“Yeah, it's worth a shot.” John replied and with that Sherlock leapt out of his chair and ran to his room. John wondered how his flatmate had so much energy in the heat but before long he returned with a brush and spray bottle. “Could you sit here?” He asked, gesturing to his chair.
“Wait, you want me to sit in your chair? I thought that was forbidden.” John asked, remembering the lecture he got the last time he sat there.
“Well, it’s the perfect height to get to your hair.” Sherlock explained before adding to himself “and you're not wearing that awful cologne for once.”
John chose to ignore the fact he heard that last bit and sat down, he was always surprised at just how comfortable the chair was. Sherlock set to work spraying leave-in conditioner into John's hair and brushing it through, it felt sort of relaxing as Sherlock somehow knew how to brush without snagging any knots painfully.
They sat in a comfortable silence until Sherlock was partitioning the hair and he spoke up “Why did you grow out your hair, Watson?”
“I thought you would have deduced that by now mate” John replied.
Sherlock hummed “I have ideas I’ll admit but I’m rather curious as to your explanation.”
“I’ve never actually thought about it, I guess I was sick of having it so short in the military and by the time I’d finished rehab for my leg I’d not had a haircut in so long that I decided to just let it grow.” John explained thoughtfully “Does that match up with your ideas?”
Sherlock was now carefully braiding his hair, it was both surprising and not at all how gentle he was being. “Not entirely.”
John sat waiting for him to elaborate but it never came. “and what is different?” he prompted.
“Oh! Well I had thought it might have been a good sensory difference between in and out of service. A reminder when you see or feel it that you're no longer there and that might have helped your PTSD” Sherlock explained as he neared the end of John's hair.
John gave a small chuckle “You might be right there mate, at least subconsciously.”
Sherlock hummed in reply “thought so.” and started tying a hair band around the end of the braid. “The long hair suits you anyway.” He remarked absently but before John had any time to think about that comment he said loudly “Done!”.
John got up and looked in the mirror to see a neat french braid, to his surprise he actually really liked how it looked on him and wondered if Sherlock looked just as good with his ‘I bet he did’.
“Is it satisfactory, Watson?” Sherlock asked as he worked Johns hair out of the brush.
John turned around smiling, “Yeah mate, I love it, you’re really talented. Thank you”
Sherlock blushed ever so slightly “It was my pleasure, if truth be told I’ve missed doing this.”
“Well, maybe I’ll ask you to do my hair more often then.” John said.
“I’d like that.”
— A few hours later —
Mariana knocked on the door of 221B, ready for their weekly ‘work drinks’. John answered.
“Hi Mariana, Sherlocks just doing… I don’t know what actually.” John laughed and shook his head in amusement.
“Hi John, I- Wait did you actually take my advice? I didn’t know you were so good with hair” Mariana asked, noticing John's hair.
“Ah, actually Sherlock did it for me.”
“Really? Sherlock braided your hair?” Mariana asked in disbelief.
“Yes, I did” Sherlock replied, appearing behind John and startling him “Jesus- Sherlock”.
“Apologies Watson.”
“It looks really good, I’m impressed. Actually a bit jealous” Mariana complimented.
John chuckled, “At this rate you’ll be the company hair stylist.”
Sherlock shrugged as he walked past them down the stairs, he called behind him “I wouldn’t mind that actually.”
John and Mariana looked at each other in supprise and followed him to The Visitor.