Sherlock advent drabbles :D

Today's word is: Umami

It's around about half past six in the evening when John hears Sherlock call up the stairs, "Dinner's ready, John!"

It takes John a moment to put the sentence in context. Sherlock providing dinner is a rare thing indeed. After all, he hardly acts as if he needs food most of the time. John presumes he must have gone out and purloined a free take-away from somewhere or other.

What John doesn't expect is to come downstairs to find two bowls of steaming, home-made spaghetti bolognese sitting on the table with Sherlock standing proudly beside it.

"You..." John is momentarily lost for words. "You cooked."

"Yes," says Sherlock as if he's addressing an idiot. He sits down at the table and gestures at the other chair. "I was hungry."

"You cook," says John. "You can cook." He pulls out the chair and sits down in a bit of a daze.

"Of course I can cook." Sherlock looks mildly affronted. "It's not that different to chemistry, you know."

John pauses, his hand halfway to picking up his fork, suddenly suspicious. He looks at Sherlock. "There's nothing strange in this, is there? Eyeballs, body parts, that sort of thing?"

"John," says Sherlock with reproach, "I would hardly waste good body parts by letting you eat them." He twirls up a forkful of pasta and puts it in his mouth.

"Of course not," mutters John. He stares at the dish in front of him, then tentatively picks up his fork and takes a bite.

He's greeted by something that tastes very much like spaghetti bolognese. In fact, more than that, it's a very good spaghetti bolognese.

"This is good," says John, chewing. He takes another bite. "Very good." He looks up at Sherlock. "I take it back. You're a good cook. This is delicious."

Sherlock looks insanely proud of himself. "That'll be the monosodium glutamate," he says.

John swallows. "What?"

"It's the byproduct of an experiment I'm working on," says Sherlock dismissively. "I thought it would be a shame for it to go to waste."

"Right," says John, putting down his fork. "What experiment, exactly?"

Sherlock beams.