This is a modernized, AU-ish version of Enola's reunion with her brothers, should it have happened in modern times. I'm afraid it may be a little OOC, but hopefully you guys enjoy it anyway. Feedback would be great! Thanks!:)
None of the three people in Enola's little band particularly enjoyed discussing their families, and so they simply didn't do so. It actually wasn't hard to avoid the topic when all three already knew the basics of each situation.
Enola had just turned eighteen, but still considered herself to be on the run from her two older brothers who, following the rather untimely disappearance of their parents four years ago, would've liked to see her in a boarding school, never mind the fact that she'd managed online classes and graduated just fine, thank you. Marquess Tewksbury Basilwether, sixteen, had left home around the same time Enola had, fleeing from an emotionally abusive environment and parents who had never bothered to search for him for fear of the public finding out how very imperfect their private lives were.
Lady Cecily Alistair was the eldest of their group at twenty, and a runaway the same as Tewky and Enola. However, she had left behind the insistence of her conservative parents twice – the first time when they desired her to start preparing for a life in the Convent at sixteen, and the second when they decided when she was seventeen that if she didn't desire the Convent, they would marry her off. She'd met Enola and Tewksbury – who had become an immediate duo upon their first meeting (a kidnapping that was another story entirely) – on her first escape, but had returned to her parents for a year until her marriage was brought up. This Cecily had declared was the final straw, and had run away once again. Enola and Tewky, hearing of her disappearance, had hunted her down and welcomed her as the third in a new rendition of the Three Musketeers.
They called themselves this only because of Enola, who didn't like the comparison that the other two thought more appropriate – her to Sherlock, Tewky to John Watson, and Cecily to Mary Watson.
And so their lives had gone for the past three years.
Although Tewky's family had never looked for him, and Cecily's family had given up on finding her alive, Sherlock Holmes – if only Sherlock Holmes – still sought for his much younger sister from time to time. Whenever a tip would chance to come into Scotland Yard every so often, it would renew the brother's vigor for his search – it had become something of a pet project or hobby for him, Enola suspected – and the trio of young adults would be forced to change aliases, and sometimes even residences. A "close call" happened perhaps twice a year – just often enough to keep Sherlock interested, unfortunately – but there seemed to be a sort of as of yet unspoken question hanging between the three nowadays.
Since Enola had just turned eighteen, she was legally an adult; therefore her brothers couldn't force her to do anything she didn't want to do. The question that needed to be answered was whether or not she would reveal herself to Sherlock and Mycroft, or were they to do as Cecily had already done and make the choice to continue to live this "one step ahead of the game" lifestyle? It wasn't that the three weren't fond of the most-recent tiny one-bedroom apartment they'd procured, or of their current aliases. These aliases required enough acting that it was sometimes fun, and reduced a number of questions, so long as they made sure they appeared to be older than what they actually were.
With their similar blond hair and hazel eyes, "Benjamin and Abigail Thomas" (Tewky and Cecily) were siblings, and "Hannah" was Benjamin's wife. This part of Enola's cover had, of course, come from a very amused Cecily who had pointed out – correctly, as much as Enola and Tewky sometime hated to admit it – that such a connection explained away the fact that dark-haired, gray-eyed Enola was obviously not a blood relation of either of the other two.
The dynamic that the three concocted was one that they had used the past two times that they had procured new identities – so it had been employed for over a year – and somewhere along the way, a grain of truth began to appear in the lie. Despite the two-year (oft-ignored) age difference, Enola and Tewky became quite a bit closer than they might have otherwise been, to the point that the rings they wore for the sake of their covers became a thing that they rather enjoyed having. The deal had been sealed – an actual relationship had been begun between the duo – when, during their last "close call" with Sherlock the two of them had pretended to be on a date and had kissed rather thoroughly to embarrass him into looking away. Cecily had been thoroughly – even to the point of childishness – thrilled with this turn of events.
And she even managed to bring it into her solution to Enola's concern when they finally did get around to talking about appearing to the Holmes brothers.
"My brothers…" Enola said thoughtfully, choosing her words carefully, legs slung across Tewky's lap, staring into her tea as they sat on the apartment couch together across from Cecily. "My brothers still believe me to be a child. They're not going to be content to think of me as otherwise unless they're met with irrefutable proof."
"I should think your age would be enough of that, don't you?" Tewky asked.
"Not for them," Enola said, shaking her head, mouth twisting ruefully as she added, "Besides, Mycroft is the British government, remember? If there's a way for him to put me under his thumb legally, he'll find it."
"Well," Cecily spoke up brightly, the idea coming to her as entirely logical – although that was in part, Enola supposed, to be blamed upon the way that the older girl had been raised. "What if you were considered to actually be already under another man's thumb? Wouldn't that solve the problem?"
"It would have to, yes," Enola agreed. "Why does that matter, though?"
Cecily shrugged, sobering a bit as she seemed to realize the significance of what she was about to suggest before she said, "You and Tewky could just get married."