Nero approached resolutely to his parents whilst they were revising the evidences of a murder. Since they didn't pay attention to him, Nero stood on tiptoes and shoved his little chubby hand between Sherlock and Irene to put a piece of paper on the table: it was a note written with the distinct handwriting of primary school teacher.
"Nero, we're working!" Sherlock complained "We can't play with you right now."
"I don't want to play, dad, I bring you a letter from my teacher." The child explained. "I think he wants to tell you something…"
"Of course he wants to tell us something." Irene spoke in a quiet voice as she passed the note to Sherlock. "You've been hiding this from us for nearly a week. Why didn't you say anything?"
"I thought you wouldn't find out…" He whispered. blushing and giving Irene an innocent look. "But… today… he asked me if you could go to the meeting and… and I had to tell him that you didn't know about the meeting yet."
"Well… we'll talk about this after the meeting. Now, go back to your room until your father and I finish our work."When Nero was in his room, Irene found Sherlock looking at her with the note in his hand.
"I don't understand" He mumbled. "Why…"
"Shh… let's continue with this."
The next day, as soon as Nero finished his classes, Sherlock and Irene were waiting by the door of the classroom.
"Why are we here?" Sherlock asked quietly. "This is boring. We know our own son better than his teacher does, so he can't say anything we don't know…"
"We do. But, you know, teachers like to control everything." She answered in the same voice. They both stared at Nero, who was sitting on the floor eating a biscuit and reading a book from his father's collection.
The teacher, a young man with a friendly smile, leaned out of the classroom.
"Mister Holmes and Miss Adler?" he asked widening his shiny smile even more. They nodded. "You can come in and sit here." The teacher pointed at two chairs before his desk. "Nero, why don't you sit on your desk and do your homework?" Nero did what he said without saying a word. "He's a good boy. And smart, he's one of the smartest students I've ever had…"
"Of course he is smart." Irene cleared her throat when Sherlock interrupted and he smiled politely. "I mean, thank you. Please, continue."
"Well, I was saying that he's a good boy. However," he lowered the volume of his voice "we've had a little problem with him lately. It isn't very serious -it's a very innocent thing indeed, he doesn't want to hurt anybody- but some parents have come to complain about it, so I think is important for you to know and talk to him about this issue." He waited for Irene and Sherlock to react, but as they remained silent, he continued. "Nero has been telling 'scary stories' about crimes. And he says they are real."
"Probably that's because they are." Sherlock looked confused " We are detectives, he wants to be a detective. What's wrong with that?"
"Mister Holmes, these children are seven years old, most of them are still afraid of the dark, if Nero tells them these stories… "
Sherlock was going to protest again, but he gained himself speaking glance from Irene that said "shut up and agree, don't spoil this. Just nod and act like a responsible father". She said to the teacher that they understood and they would tell Nero to be careful with his stories.
When they arrived to their home, they did what Irene had promised.
"Okay." Nero agreed "But I just told one or two stories because my classmates are boring and silly and they didn't like my stories."