Of Locks and Keys

Sherlock Holmes grew up with his mother talking about the romantic notions of things like ' the key to love' and 'the key to someone's heart.' He never knew what that meant, he never cared to know what it meant, until he saw John Watson.

The key to John Watson’s heart was a silver coloured metal thing that most decidedly did not look like a key, no matter what the conversations he’d overhead said. It was tied snuggly to the zipper of his Superman backpack with a cord that was just long enough for the blonde to set his backpack on the ground beside him and unlock the skates from his trainers. Sherlock had deduced this fact from the way that John talked about the skates—proud to own them, was very careful in their treatment—and the fact that they were ranked as his favorite possession (which was close enough to being someone’s heart, surely). So, all Sherlock had to do to get John to love him back was get the key; how hard could it be?