"Sherlock, breakfast was over six hours ago and you barely ate anything. You're eating." John gave him a Look.

"Are you going to make Mycroft send me to America again if I don't?" Sherlock asked sullenly, crossing his arms and settling on the couch with a scowl.

"That was not my idea, that was his, if you'll recall," John said. "And no. I'll just have to introduce him to Elena so he can tease you properly."

"You are a cruel man, John," Sherlock said, settling himself more firmly on the couch.

"I'd be worried if you didn't call me that at least once a week." John went to go see if there was anything edible in the flat.

Which, of course, there wasn't.

"Come on, we're going out."

"We just got back in," Sherlock said. "Why do we need to go out again?" He hadn't had time to properly sulk yet.

"Because you need food and so do I." John tossed his coat and scarf at him. "Come on, get up."

Sherlock gave a long-suffering sigh and got up, putting on his coat and scarf again.

"You could just leave me here, you know," he said. "Go out with Abigail. Isn't that what a boyfriend does?"

"I went out with her last night," John said, giving Sherlock a bit of a Look. "Besides, making sure my flatmate doesn't starve himself is equally as important."

The Look had no effect on Sherlock; he was used to them by now from just about everyone. Pulling a bit of a face, he followed John outside and waited for his flatmate to hail a cab.

John managed to get them a cab and directed the man to a place they went fairly frequently.

But it was just their luck that Elena and Abigail were there too.

Abby and Elena had decided that dinner out was a good idea, and had picked a local place that John had told Abby about. When the door opened, Abby glanced over and did a bit of a doubletake.

"Look who just walked in," she said, nudging Elena.

Elena looked and choked on her water.

"I thought we got rid of him earlier," she gasped, her eyes watering as she tried to get the water out of her lungs.

"You saw him earlier?" Abby asked, handing her friend a napkin.

Sherlock's eyes narrowed a bit when he spotted the girls.

"Oh honestly," he said, "haven't we already dealt with her enough for one day?"

"Unfortunately," Elena grumbled. "You could always pick another restaurant," she said sweetly to Sherlock.

"Oh honestly," John said, rolling his eyes. "Can you two not get along at all?"

Sherlock scowled. He hadn't even wanted to leave the flat at all, thank you very much. It was all John's idea.

"I thought you were going to stay home tonight," Abby said to John. "Change of plans?"

"He hasn't eaten in hours," John said, giving Sherlock a look that clearly said 'behave'.

Elena huffed and ignored him for her water instead.

"I see," Abby said. She glanced between Elena and Sherlock. "I don't think these two are willing to sit at the same table tonight, unfortunately."

"That's fine. We'll get a different table and I'll call you later." John smiled at Abigail before he tugged Sherlock off to a different area of the restaurant.

Abby nodded and let him go.

"So what happened today to make you so mad at him?" she asked her friend.

Sherlock let himself be herded to another table, and he promptly sat down so he didn't have to deal with anyone but John.

"I don't know. He's just... insufferable. He acts so high and mighty all the time. It's not even that he's a genius, it's that he doesn't like anyone else even remotely taking the spotlight and he doesn't thank people and he's an ungracious, spoiled twat." Elena scowled at her wine.

"Well, that went poorly," John commented as he sat across from Sherlock.

"You should hear the people at my job talk about him," Abby said. "Everything they hear from the news. They think he's the best thing since the discovery of King Tut."

"We should have stayed home," Sherlock said, scowling into his water glass.

"They would only say that until they met him in person." Elena rolled her eyes.

"Too bad. You're still going to eat." John raised an eyebrow at him.

"He hasn't behaved all that badly towards me," Abby pointed out. "A little abrasive, sure, but not too bad."

Sherlock just made a face and waved a hand at John. He would eat some if it meant appeasing his flatmate.

"You haven't spent prolonged amounts of time with him." Elena shook her head. "Let's talk about something else."

John nodded his satisfaction of that and settled in for dinner.