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“Congratulations boys! Case closed.” Lestrade said as John and Sherlock walked into his office with him at Scotland Yard, placing their case reports on his desk. “I think you two should go home now and clean up.” “Thanks Greg. Pub Friday as usual?” John asked Lestrade. “Absolutely. Well as long as a case doesn’t suddenly come up.” “Of course. I’ll see you tomorrow then. John said as he turned around to leave the office. “Make sure you text me when you get another case.” Sherlock said as he too turned towards the door to follow John out. “Always Sherlock.” Lestrade said, laughing lightly as the 2 men left his office. The cab ride back to baker street was silent, both John and Sherlock too tired to talk about anything. John was lost in thought though, thinking of a way to do something nice and romantic for Sherlock when they arrive home. They had been working on the last case for a week with practically no sleep, and as a result they had gotten on each other’s nerves and had multiple fights, so John wanted to make it up to Sherlock, he just wasn’t sure how. They were both too tired and dirty to go anywhere, so any plans came up with would have to be things that they could do at home. After having spent at least half of the day at the dump sifting through rubbish and sludge they were covered in dirt and muck and smelt horrible. John had already decided that tomorrow, after he had gotten some sleep, he was taking every single item that both he and Sherlock were currently wearing to the dry cleaners to make sure that they were properly cleaned, however tonight he was going to have a bath and then go straight to bed. Even in his state of exhaustion, john suddenly sat bolt upright in the cab as an idea had occurred to him. His sudden movement caught Sherlock’s attention, dragging him from his own thoughts. “Is something wrong John?” Sherlock asked, concern etched all over his face at the thought of anything being wrong with his boyfriend.“Nothing, I just had a thought is all.” John replied. Satisfied that John was fine, Sherlock smiled and went back to staring out the window, thinking. John leaned back in his seat and started to think through his idea. He would be able to do something that both men needed whilst also being romantic and making up for the way they had been fighting for the last week. As they were both so dirty, John had decided to draw them a romantic bath that they could have together. They had now arrived at Baker Street, where Sherlock paid the driver before they exited the cab and entered their flat. It was almost too much effort for John to walk up the stairs to flat 22B in his state, but the thought of a relaxing bath gave him the motivation he needed to make it. Once they reached the landing and entered the lounge, John turned towards the bathroom, surprised to see Sherlock walking straight into their bedroom and walking towards the draws that contained his pajama’s. “What are you doing Sherlock?” John asked, sounding as though he was too tired to actually care. “I’m going to bed.” Sherlock stated matter of factly. “No, you’re not Sherlock. You are covered in filth and are having a bath before you go to bed.” Sherlock looked like he wanted to protest, but the look John was giving him clearly said that he was not to argue. “Fine” Sherlock said, like a child that had been told he was not allowed something that he wanted. “I’ll run the bath and call you when it’s ready okay?” Sherlock nodded so John headed into the bathroom. It was always strange to John the way Sherlock acted after a long case, but he was used to it by now, so it didn’t bother him anymore. You see, when Sherlock and John had been working a very long case with no sleep, the sleep deprivation had some weird effects on Sherlock. Most of the time he started acting like a petulant child and John had to either force him to do things or do them for him. Which is why he is now in the bathroom by himself running a bath and pouring bubble bath mixture into it. Once the bath was full John stood up and got undressed before stepping into the bath and settling into the bubbles. It was nice and hot, but not too hot and so relaxing. He nearly fell asleep as soon as he sat down in the perfect water. “Sherlock” He called out, remembering that he was meant to calling him in when the bath was ready. “Sherlock! The bath is ready!” Sherlock entered the bathroom a moment after John second call and stopped dead in the doorway, looking extremely confused. “I thought you said you were making me a bath.” He stated. “Just shut up and get in the bath Sherlock.” John said and watched as Sherlock instantly obeyed him for once. In a minute Sherlock was sliding into the bath with John, but as soon as he was fully seated, he started to complain as normal. “This bath is too damn hot!” “This is why we can’t do cute things. You complain too much.” “It’s not complaining if it is true.” Sherlock stated. “It’s not too hot Sherlock, so just deal with it. Now come here.” “Why?” Sherlock asked, looking quite perplexed. “So I can wash you.” John stated exasperatedly, he was too tired to try and deal with normal Sherlock. Sherlock still looked annoyed about the water temperature but he no longer argued about it, instead moving around and placing his back against John’s chest so that John could slowly rub soap over him in a relaxing way. It was so relaxing that Sherlock nearly fell asleep as the feeling of John rubbing the block of soap over his body felt like a massage. John made sure that he took his time, slowly tracing ever inch of Sherlock’s body with soap until all of the dirt and grime of the day had been removed, then slowly rinsing the soap suds off with water. When he was finished John had to nudge Sherlock to wake him up as he was starting to doze off from his state of complete relaxation. Without using any words though, Sherlock just turned around and nudged John for him to turn around as well so that they were now sitting with John’s back to Sherlock’s chest. It was Johns turn to relax now as Sherlock started to rub the soap all over his body until every inch of him was clean. As Sherlock poured the water all over John to clean away the soup bubbles, John nearly fell asleep himself due to the relaxing feeling of the water. The two men stayed in the bath until it had gone cold, still sitting with Sherlock’s front to John’s back. They were both so relaxed together that they actually fell asleep cuddled up like that in the bath. John slowly woke up when he felt that water was no longer warm, and he had to wake Sherlock up as well as the temperature of the water didn’t seem to bother him enough to wake him up. They were both completely exhausted by now, despite their bath time nap, so they very slowly dried the water off of themselves and walked to their bedroom before crawling into bed together, without bothering to put any pajama’s on, where they fell asleep again almost instantly, cuddled up together with Sherlock lying on John’s chest. John’s final thought before he drifted to sleep was ‘thank god this case is over.’ It wasn’t until roughly 6pm the following evening that they both woke up, had something to eat, and went back to bed to sleep through another night.