I've got this idea two days ago, shared it yesterday with people on tumblr and they seem to like it.

It's suppose to be a lighthearted fic, so let's assume that it takes place long after Sherlock and Molly sorted things out and are still friends.

Reviews (and prompts!) will be welcome!

The game is on

Technically it all started when John was watching certain movie on a telly… But first there was a 'violin incident'. Well, it's hard to call it an 'incident', since nothing big or catastrophic happened. However, it was one of the two catalyses of events that unraveled later.

So Sherlock was playing his violin. This time he didn't play any of his compositions, he merely settled for a well-known melody. This melody was Book of Love, and it so happened that every time when John was hearing it, he felt all warm inside and his eyes were quickly welling-up. And even though, Sherlock's performance lacked other instruments alongside with vocals, John couldn't help, but stop what he was doing right now, turn to his friend and let himself drown in the beautiful tunes of a classic. He even started sing the song in his head. Sherlock was marvelous – as always; he was able to bring out the emotion John didn't even know was there. His friend was truly a master of violin…

And soon enough John started crying. First there were just small tears in his eyes, then he sniffed and wiped them up with hand, but the new ones appeared, and as he was listening to Sherlock's play, he just let them fall down. Momentarily he spotted Mrs. Hudson standing in the doorframe and also crying. She looked at Sherlock with expression of softness and warmth.

But suddenly Sherlock stopped his concert with one sharp movement of the bow, harshly bringing both his friends to reality.

"Okay." He started. "What's with you two?" He pointed bow first at Mrs. Hudson, then on John. They both wiped their eyes immediately.

"And what should be with us?" John asked.

"You were crying. Why were you crying?"

"Because you were playing so beautifully." Mrs. Hudson explained. "Book of Love always makes me cry…"

"Me too!" John replied, turning to her with a smile.

For a moment Sherlock was only observing them in silence. Suddenly a flash of something, some kind of understanding, crossed his eyes and the detective put his violin in the case nearby.

"Well, I'm sorry." Sherlock said. "I didn't mean to make you cry."

"No, don't!" Their landlady quickly ran to him. "Please, play more."

"Mrs. Hudson," He looked at her. "I'm playing violin to help myself think. You both crying and sniffing your noses is distracting, so I would much rather avoid it. Now, excuse me," He turned towards his bedroom. "I need to think."

And he left the living room. John and Mrs. Hudson looked at each other. It wasn't the first time they've heard Sherlock saying something like that, in fact, considering his usual antics, it was rather mild. This 'incident' would probably be long time forgotten, if not the event that followed the next day.

It so happened that John decided to watch Lion King with Rosie; and it so happened that Mycroft was going to meet with his brother on Baker Street and bring him a case. So John was sitting before telly, his daughter on his lap, and Mufasa just has been thrown by his scheming brother, Scar, to his certain death, when the door was opened. Not paying attention to Mycroft entering their flat and the banter between Holmes brothers that emerged soon after, John immersed himself in the heartbreaking scene of little Simba realizing his father is dead. No matter how old John Watson was, this scene always got him, and as Simba was informed by his wicked uncle that Mufasa died because of him, the physician felt tears welling up his eyes. Rosie, who was too young to understand anything that was happening on the screen, saw his tears and quickly hugged him. He smiled to her and hugged her back.

"Lion King, doctor Watson? Really?" Mycroft's voice made John to pause the movie and turn his gaze away from the telly.

Both brothers just entered the living room. Once John turned to them Mycroft raised his eyebrows, before he rolled his eyes.

"Doctor Watson, I can understand you watching a Disney movie with your toddler, but crying?" He commented in an irritated voice.

"Well, Simba's father just died." John explained, wiping his eyes.

"So what?" Mycroft raised his eyebrows again. "I'm sure you've watched it multiple times, so you knew it will happen."

"Of course I knew," John replied. "but this scene always gets me, you know. Surely, you were sad when you've seen it too."

"We've never seen it." Sherlock said. "It came out, when we weren't children anymore, so there was no point."

"Besides, don't you feel silly to cry over an animated lion, doctor Watson?" Mycroft added, giving the physician one of his fake smiles.

John couldn't take it anymore.

"Okay, first of all," He stood up and faced them. "Lion King is considered one of the best movies in history. Secondly, even you two can't be so coldhearted and not cry for a fictional character. How about Bambi's mom?"

"She was shot by a hunter. It was bound to happen at some point." Sherlock said.

"John Coffey's execution?" Doctor tried again.

"Oh, please," Mycroft began. "all those people crying and sniffing… it was far too dramatic and far too disgusting."

John took a bit more time to think of a good example. Something which would suit much more Holmes brothers' tastes.

"Oh, I got one." He smiled. "That scene from Sophie's Choice, when they're taking away her children."

"Nope." Sherlock replied.

"This movie is overrated anyway." Mycroft pointed out.

"What?!" John spat. "This movie got Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA!"

"All three for Meryl Streep's role." Mycroft responded.

"Yes, because Meryl Streep is a gift to all humanity, you uncultured swine!" The doctor exclaimed.

"Said a man, who cried on Lion King." Mycroft retorted.

"It was Mufasa's death, for Pete's sake! Come on!"

"Any other examples, John? We're both in hurry." Sherlock pointed out.

John quickly ran out of examples. He looked at Holmes brothers, these two beings that always seemed to be dethatched from emotions and actually were proud of it. Of course, John knew it wasn't true, after all, he had seen human sides of both of them. Hell, he could recall instances when Sherlock was actually crying genuine tears… First on the roof of Barts, then in Sherrinford… And Mycroft was obviously capable of sadness too, even though he preferred to act like an Ice Man.

And right here and then John realized that he had never seen Sherlock crying tears of joy or melting mood; and he had never seen Mycroft crying in general.

"Well, if you don't have anything to add, doctor Watson," The older Holmes started. "I have meetings to attend to. Goodbye, doctor Watson, brother mine." He gave John one last smug smile and turned towards the door.

The sudden realization John had, alongside with Mycroft Holmes' general smugness awoke something in doctor Watson. Some kind of curiosity mixed with determination. And from these two emotions a plan has formed. John sat before the telly and, pressing play, sported a sinister smile. Yes, this is going to be interesting.

"Okay, we get it: Holmes brothers have problems comprehending human emotion." Sergeant Donovan said. "In other news: water is wet."

"Is there a point we are all here, today?" Molly asked.

These two, alongside with Lestrade, Anderson, Mrs. Hudson and Anthea were gathered in Molly's lab, where doctor Watson told them to come, because he had something important to discuss. Bringing all those people wasn't easy. Mrs. Hudson was not very eager to come to a morgue (even if John was telling her, they won't go to where the actual bodies are held), Molly, Lestrade, Anderson and Donovan assured him they were busy, and Anthea agreed to come only because John said he wanted to share some details about case he and Sherlock were solving for her boss. Nevertheless, he managed to find a way to bring them all in one place.

Now he only have to explain his plan.

"I'm happy, you've asked." He turned to the mortician with a smile. "Because," He came to the whiteboard covered with a big red cloth. "I would like to invite you," He caught the cloth with both hands. "into Make Holmes Cry Challenge!" He exclaimed uncovering the whiteboard.

Make Holmes Cry Challenge was written on it with big, black letters. With a wide, enthusiastic grin John looked around to see reactions of his guests. All of them blinked couple of times, staring at the whiteboard, like they weren't sure what it actually was.

"What?" Anderson was the first to voice the thoughts of everyone.

Doctor Watson regained his composure, cleared his throat and explained:

"Since Sherlock and Mycroft think they are so above such human thing as crying, we will show them they aren't so different than us." They were staring at him blankly, so he added: "Think of it as a science experiment, but fun."

Another moment of silence and finally Lestrade decided to spoke:

"I don't think it's very ethical, John."

"Yeah, you want to play with their emotions." Anderson pointed out. "That's not cool, man."

"See, I thought of that." John put his finger up. "First rule of Make Holmes Cry Challenge is this: The cause of the crying cannot be pain. So no hitting and no hurting their feelings. Redbeard is especially a low blow."

Everybody nodded with agreement.

"Besides, tears of joy or 'feels' are far more interesting. Why won't we aim more for these?" He paused to see their reaction. They were clearly listening to what he was saying. "And how about some creativity? I'm sure you can think of thousands of ways to make Sherlock and Mycroft cry without hurting them."

"Do you think, John," Molly began. "that Sherlock has ever seen What a wonderful life?"

"I don't know, Molly." John replied nonchalantly. "How about you check it empirically?"

She grinned, probably already forming a some kind of a plan.

"Still," Doctor Watson turned to the others. "Sherlock is the easy one. There are ways to make him emotional. It's Mycroft who's an actual challenge." He clenched his fists and spoke with even more passion than earlier: "And I don't know how about you, but I want to melt the fucking Ice Man in the sea of warm feels. Once I will end with him, he will be mushier than Mrs. Hudson with Rosie."

"Aren't you just trying to get back on him for saying that Sophie's Choice is overrated?" Donovan asked and John already looked at her with finger up.

"He came to my house…"

"And why I am here?" Anthea asked. "Aren't you worried I will tell my employer about your little contest and ruin it?"

"Well," He smiled to her. "I thought that you may find it exciting enough to join. Besides, you have a really stressful job, following people around. How about you add a little mischief to your daily routine, huh?"

He was pulling straws with this, but he hoped that this will convince Mycroft's personal assistant to join. She was looking at him with uncertain expression, but then gave him one of her mysterious smiles.

"How about this?" She began. "You and me will keep an eye on others, so Make Holmes Cry Challenge won't go out of hand? If you refuse, doctor Watson, I will inform Mr. Holmes about your plan and it will be over."

"Fair enough." John replied. "Better be safe than sorry."

"Well then," Her smile widened. "as long as you don't harm either one of them you're safe."

"So who wants to participate, hands up."

They were talking between each other for about twenty seconds and then everybody in the room put their hands up, which made John grin even wider.

"One last thing," He said once they put their hands down. "you will have to provide the proof that you managed to make them cry. Therefore you have to take a picture and send it to others and they will vote if it counts or not."

"Also someone should keep a score." Lestrade point out.

"Again, this will fall on everyone of us, once we decide if someone meet the challenge or not." John argued. "I will be writing down the votes."

"Seems fair." Donovan said. "But what if we get compromised? What if either Holmes brother find out about this?"

"Oh, don't worry. I have a perfect cover for all of us." Doctor Watson said.

And he told them. They were skeptical, but for the most part decided to roll with it, already sold on the whole challenge idea. Once he knew, they were all on a board, John took a deep breath and exclaimed:

"Let the Make Holmes Cry Challenge begin! May the odds be in your favor!"

They all looked at him weird and only then he realized that he just made a Hunger Games reference.

"I know." He sighed softly and waved his hand. "Just go, have fun."

He already knew he was going to have so much fun with this. The game was on!