"Argh!"John growled as the shopping bag handles dug into his hands. Paying the cabdriver wasn't going to be easy. After a few minutes of embarrassing pocket fumbling, John managed to pay the cab driver and attempt to unlock the door of 221b Baker Street. Upon entering the hallway of the flat John was greeted by a strange silence. This worried him as for the last few years you could hear the ruckus from miles away. Dragging the heavy bags up the stairs to the flat John could hear the faint sound of someone snoring lightly. Pushing the inner door open slowly with his foot John looked cautiously around the flat before settling his eyes on sofa which contained two very worn out individuals. Sherlock was wearing one of John's ties around his head accompanied by a makeshift cardboard sword. John remembered when Mycroft told him about Sherlock wanting to be a pirate when he was younger. Nestled into Sherlock's side on the sofa was a little stripy pyjama clad mess of dark curls, also with a makeshift sword tucked beneath his arm. Leo was his and Sherlock's little boy, they had talked about children since he'd seen his sister's little girl at his cousin's wedding. Of course Sherlock wanted to use his sperm, he'd spouted on about passing on his intellect and needing another genius in the world. Eventually John gave in and they found a suitable surrogate and Leo, so named because of the constellation in the sky at his time of birth, was brought into the world. He really was the spitting image of Sherlock with his untidy mass of dark curls are piercing blue eyes. John has been transfixed in the doorway and had forgotten he was holding the shopping until one of the handles broke sending tins of soup rolling across the floor. The noise of the tins hitting the wooden floor only mustered a stir from the sleeping beings on the sofa. John sighed and began picking up the spilled shopping. After rescuing the tins and placing all the shopping in the relevant cupboards John sat down in his usual chair and picked up the papers, he wondering what on earth they had been doing while he was out shopping to tire them out this much.

"Sherly! Sherly!"

"Not now Leo I'm busy"

"But Sherly PLLLLEEEEEEAAASE!"

Sherlock turned away from his microscope to see what all the fuss was about. Staring up at him was his little boy carrying a cardboard sword a little longer than himself.

"Please can we play pirate Sherly?" Leo looked up at his daddy with big, blue eyes and tried to hold his sword above his head. But toppled over and had become a little heap on the floor by Sherlocks feet. He sighed and went to pick his son up from the floor, this ended up more difficult than anticipated as Leo kept swinging his sword at Sherlock's head. Plonking him down on the sofa a little too hard causing his curls to fall over his eyes,

"If we are going to play pirate, we need to do it right."

"PIRATES! PIRATES!" Leo shouted, clapping his hands. Sherlock ventured into his and John's bedroom in search of acceptable pirate attire. He settled for two of John's old ties to use as bandannas. Grabbing another piece of cardboard he fashioned it into his own sword, of sorts anyway. Sneaking out of the bedroom with the bandanna-tie pushing his hair back he lept into the living room."avast ye little matey!" Sherlock yelled pointing his sword at his son and throwing the other tie towards him. The rest of the morning was spent climbing the curtains and walking over the sofa playing pirate battle. It was pushing 1 o'clock in the afternoon when Sherlock noticed a few short yawn escaping his baby pirates mouth. Grabbing his little boy by the waist and chucking him over his shoulder he sat both of them down on the sofa and put the kids TV channel on. By the time the title sequence to some brightly coloured blobs educational show had ended he could feel Leo snuggling into his side and drifting off. Sherlock yawned and realised that he too was absolutely knackered, it wouldn't hurt just to close his eyes...

John heard some movement over by the sofa and looked up from his paper to see Leo hop off the sofa and stand holding his sword, rubbing his eyes.
"Hey little pirate, did you have fun looking after Sherly today?" John asked as his little boy trotted over to him and raised his arms. John lifted him up and placed him on his knee,
"Can I have a look at your sword?" Before he could utter the last syllable he got the cardboard sword shoved in his face.
"Wow it looks like a proper pirate sword" Leo giggled and prodded John with his sword.
"Johnny, can I wake Sherly up with my sword?" The little boy looked up at John with a big cheesy grin on his face, John loved seeing him with this look it was same look that Sherlock had when he was really into a case. Except when Leo smiled it was because he could misbehave and get away with it.
John let him off his knee and let him run off to get Sherlock with his pirate sword. A couple of seconds later there was a loud grunt from the sofa and John looked over to see his little pirate climbing up Sherlock's shoulder and stabbing him with his sword.
"Come here you" Sherlock said and grabbed his son by the legs and tickled him into submission. "Johnny's home Sherly! Look!" The little boy thrust his sword in the direction of John who got up and walked across the room to sit next to Sherlock. "Afternoon John" Sherlock said sleepily running his fingers through his messy hair. "Afternoon" Sherlock's hand was replaced by John's in his hair as he placed a small kiss on his cheek. Sherlock proceeded to wrap his arms around John's waist and pull him closer. After a few minutes of cuddling on the sofa something crashed loudly in the kitchen followed by a little whimper. "Sherlock, I think your son has found your test tubes" Sherlock groaned and slowly slid off the sofa to see what had happened in the kitchen. Sat on the floor next to a pile of smashed test tubes sat Leo.
"I'm sorry Sherly" He said with tears filling his eyes. Sherlock looked down at his little pirate and picked him up away from the glass.
"It's okay Leo, but I've told you to stay away from the kitchen unless I say so" Wiping a fallen tear from his son's cheek. "Time for bed" Sherlock said carrying him out of the kitchen and into his bedroom. Since he was already in his pyjamas it was only a case of finding his blanket and tucking him in. Or so he thought. After wrestling with him to get the cardboard sword away he finally gave up and let him cuddle it. Before Sherlock turned out his light a little sleepy voice said.
"I love you Sherly" "I love you too"