"What do you want, Sherlock?" Mycroft sighed impatiently, scribbling notes into a copybook.
"Can I play with you?" A six-year-old Sherlock entered the room, clutching a small plastic container. "Let's play deductions." Mycroft set down his pencil. His little brother could be very annoying at times, but if there was one thing Mycroft had learned from his years of babysitting him, it was to never, ever let Sherlock get bored. One only had to recall the time when Sherlock had set a potato on fire "just for fun".
"Fine." Mycroft gestured to the Tupperware. "What's in the box?"
Sherlock opened it, revealing some mismatched toys and junk. "I...found this at school."
"You mean you stole it." Sherlock's auburn curls bounced around as he shook his head but his eyes gleamed with a mischievous twinkle. "What have we here?" Mycroft asked, picking up a Doctor Strange comic book. He turned it over in his hands carefully. "The book is in fairly good condition, but the colors are faded. It's old, then. There are more recent creases on the paper and some stains. The owner of this book, who took so much care of it, would never spill anything on or fold the pages. That means it's changed hands, then. Probably a gift from a father or favorite uncle. Most likely uncle, as it's been out in the open. If it was from the father it would still be up on a shelf somewhere. Now, the occasion. This isn't just any everyday present or Christmas gift, this is a special collectible. Most likely a birthday. A milestone birthday. Basically we're looking for a classmate of yours who just turned ten and received this as a gift from his or her uncle."
Sherlock grinned. "Spot on. That was amazing!" Mycroft gave him a rare smile. He did like to impress Sherlock, after all, he was the smarter one. "My turn." Sherlock lifted a box of crayons out. "These crayons have been used for awhile. The box is old and the lid is missing. Most of the crayons are broken, especially the pinks and purples, but some of the broken ones are also sharpened. That means that those colors are used more frequently than others. The colors that fall into that category are pink, magenta, blurple—"
"Blurple?" Mycroft asked, amused.
"Blue purple. Blurple." Sherlock explained. "The owner of this box is most likely a girl, then."
"Wait," Mycroft disagreed. "You can't just assume the gender of someone based off the colors they like. That's sexist."
"Balance of probability," Sherlock replied, in an uncanny impression of Mycroft. He shook his head. "That's all I got. I'm stuck."
"Here." Mycroft took the crayons with his hand. "The owner of the crayons seems to have some anger issues. As you were kind enough to point out, most of the crayons are broken, but when you try to piece them together they don't fit. A lot of the wax powder has been disintegrated, which means that the user has applied a considerable amount of force upon them."
"Maybe they're just strong." Sherlock suggested.
"No, brother mine. Coloring is very useful as therapy, or to calm down, isn't it?"
"I guess you win the round," Sherlock said, carefully arranging the items neatly in the box. He promptly strode out of the room. Smart Mycroft, Sherlock thought, impressed. I wish I was as clever as him!