Title: Return

Rating: K+

Wordcount: 221B

A/N: So, a few months after I decided to write them, I'm finally beginning to post these 221B Sherlock drabbles. These will mostly be about Sherlock and John and the (mostly imagined) relationship between the two, but there'll be gen as well, and drabbles that focus on other characters. Feedback is appreciated, but not as much as the enjoyment you get from reading these!

When Sherlock appears in front of John for the first time in three years, unnecessarily proclaiming that he's alive, he receives a bleeding nose.

It isn't the first time that John has punched him (although it is the first time Sherlock hadn't expected it) and, if Sherlock is honest with himself, he wouldn't even mind if it isn't the last time he receives a bleeding nose by John's hand. Because John punching him means that he is alive, and that John's alive, and that they both know it.

This punch is, however, the first punch that's followed by tender ministrations, including tissues, Dettol, and a small, gentle kiss of apology that makes Sherlock's physically painful return to 221 B Baker Street completely worth it.

"If you kiss me every time you punch me," Sherlock mumbles incoherantly through the wad of tissues still pressed to his nose, "then I might have to give you reason to punch me more often."

"I'll have to remember not to make a habit of it, then," John says, but his voice is only a little frosty. "For your own sake."

And Sherlock smiles, because it's this exchange that tells him they'll be okay. John's lips twitch upwards too, and Sherlock knows that John knows. Sometimes it's hard, but you can always fix things that are broken.