Possibly, I'm Insane

Title - John Watson's Twelve Days of Christmas (14/14)
Author -earlgreytea68
Rating - Teen
Characters - Sherlock, John, Mrs. Hudson
Spoilers - Through "The Reichenbach Fall"
Disclaimer - I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. 
Summary - It's the holiday season. John Watson needs money. Sherlock Holmes needs something else.  
Author's Notes - I honestly intended this to be a quick little ficlet. And I suppose it *is* quick by my somewhat ridiculous standards. I swear, I start out everything I write thinking, "Oh, this'll just take a couple of chapters," and then *this* is what happens: I finish posting a Christmasfic sometime in February. I suppose I could have waited until next holiday season to unleash this on all of you, but by next holiday season we'll have new Sherlock (right? RIGHT?), so we won't need gifts like this fic as much. (I hope.)

Anyway, I thank all of you for reading. You have been a delight. I tried to post this fic as quickly as possible so that it wouldn't be ridiculously late in the year when I finished, so it went up pretty much as I was finished writing it and thank you for dealing with a product that was maybe somewhat less polished than I usually produce. Thank you to dashcommaslash for helping me with that, poking through the mess, which frequently I hadn't even read through myself before I sent off to her. Because I posted so quickly, I have fallen abysmally far behind in responding to comments. Someday I will catch up, but, until that joyous day, please know that I am reading and taking delight in every single comment, and I *am* working on getting back to you, I swear!

I had never posted a fic while it was being written before, and I'd kind of always wanted to try it, and this was very fun. The idea for the plot was a very vague one in my head--I actually didn't come up with the Twelve Days of Christmas gifts idea until I got to the chapter where Sherlock takes John to meet Perdy--and it was kind of fun trying to make it up as I went along and being unable to go back and change things. Sometimes people had such lovely ideas about what could be coming next that I was like, "Damn! I wish I'd thought of that!" So there's not nearly as much Moriarty plot in this fic as there could have been, but that's because I am *lazy,* and all of your ideas about how Moriarty might come back were all good ones. Of course, if I'd done more of a Moriarty plot, I would have finished this fic in July sometime...

Thank you to all of you who contributed Christmas trope ideas as I was writing. I think I hit almost all of them that were suggested to me! I seldom write fics (I hope) where the characters are *so* *incredibly* *stupid* for *so* *long* about what's going on between them. (Okay, Sherlock is currently being a bit thick in the Schoolboy Saga about how much John loves him, but Sherlock is also very *young* in the Schoolboy Saga.) Anyway, it's actually really hard to come up with halfway decent justifications for why characters would spend so long not seeing the obvious. No wonder those Hallmark Christmas movies are all, like, 70 minutes long (with commercials), because it's hard to keep coming up with obstacles. But, ridiculous misunderstandings aside, writing this fic at least gave me a new appreciation for things like the trope of an ice skating lesson, or a gift from Santa, or hot chocolate by a cozy fire, or mistletoe. Those tropes all became tropes because, once upon a time, they really, really, really worked. And, sometimes, it turns out, there really is no need to reinvent the wheel. 

Early on a reader said something about John Watson reaching an epiphany in this fic, and part of me still wishes I'd called this fic John Watson's Epiphany. Other than that, though, I think I'm pleased with how it came out, and I hope all of you are, too, because it really was written for *you.* VERY BELATED MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU! AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT! :-)

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13

( Coda )

Title - John Watson's Twelve Days of Christmas (11/14)
Author -earlgreytea68
Rating - Teen
Characters - Sherlock, John
Spoilers - Through "The Reichenbach Fall"
Disclaimer - I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. 
Summary - It's the holiday season. John Watson needs money. Sherlock Holmes needs something else.  
Author's Notes - Thank you to dashcommaslash for poking through this for me!

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

( Chapter Eleven )

Title - John Watson's Twelve Days of Christmas (1/?)
Author -earlgreytea68
Rating - Teen
Characters - Sherlock, John
Spoilers - Through "The Reichenbach Fall"
Disclaimer - I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. 
Summary - It's the holiday season. John Watson needs money. Sherlock Holmes needs something else.  
Author's Notes - Here in America, we have these terrible holiday movies that play pretty much constantly through December. They are all startlingly simple and straightforward--quirky girl and quirky boy meet under quirky circumstances, fall in love, and discover the True Meaning of Christmas--and they are all filled with a tremendous amount of Christmas tropes, like holly and mistletoe and cute little children and even cuter pets. I was watching one a few weeks ago and thought, Wouldn't it be fun to write a terrible holiday film starring John and Sherlock? 

And here it is. It's only half-written at this point (I just started it ten days ago! I'm working as fast as I can!), but I wanted to start posting it before the Christmas season was entirely over. 

Because this is stupid and silly and I wanted it be a no-pressure Christmas gift for my poor betas and Britpicks who I otherwise swamp with stuff, it's unbeta'd and un-Britpicked. I tried to be good about looking up UK Christmas traditions, but I've probably failed in places. If it's little things, let me know. If the entire premise of the fic makes no sense, well, I guess that's a risk you take with crackfics like this one!

I hope all of you celebrating had an absolutely wonderful holiday!

(Also, this story is completely unconnected with John Watson's Twelve Things Happy People Do. I just couldn't resist the similar title.)

( Chapter One )