Notes: I think Sherlock, John and Mary are great together as they are - John and Mary as a couple and Sherlock as their friend - and I'm sure Sherlock is pretty happy with this situation because he wouldn't be interested in anything else anyway.
But just because something is a little out of character, doesn't mean, that it's not fun to read and write these stories anyway..
My stories are a like public television: they fade out when things get serious...
Sequel to "Unwise, brother mine!" and same universe as "We CAN dance all tree!".
Story: "Mrs. Murray told me she read about your case about The Purple Woodpecker in the newspaper. She was very impressed." Mrs. Holmes said, while she sat down after making sure everyone had gotten everything they needed.
"Mhh," Sherlock mumbled, while sipping at his tea. "John wrote about it quite extensively, that's why it got so much attention in the press. They just had to copy his blog to fill a page."
"I got three North Korean spies arrested last week." Mycroft said spreading strawberry jam on his mother's homemade scones.
"Vicar Pattison asked me if you could help him find out, what happened to the 34 £ that were missing from the offertory last week."
"He miscounted when he counted it the first time, there was nothing missing at the second count." Sherlock answered.
"He will be happy to hear that, he worried that someone within the church's staff was stealing."
"I prevented an attack on an US-army base in Yemen yesterday!" Mycroft said.
This time his mother at least reacted to what he said. "How come no one of my friends ever gets to know about your achievements, Mycroft? It's so nice to be proud of my sons, but people always just ask about Sherlock."
"Because our publicists work on keeping the things we do a secret. Contrary to Sherlock who keeps his 'publicist' blogging about when he goes to the loo!"
"I don't keep him blogging, he does that on his own. I would prefer if he wouldn't."
"Oh, Sherlock, don't make John stop blogging. He wrote so wonderfully about how you found out what happened to the nun in Reading. He really captured how brilliantly your mind works!" their Mom said.
"Sherlock has an affair with his best friend and his best friend's wife at the same time!" Mycroft blabbed out.
Sherlock stared at his brother. Everybody else stared at Sherlock. Even his father, who up till now seemed completely absorbed by his scone and didn't even seem to follow the conversation, had looked up now.
"Mycroft, you..." Sherlock had difficulties to breath. Mycroft had sounded exactly the same when he used to tell their mother when Sherlock had blown up his mother's flowerpot with his experiments or when he had smoked secretly.
Sherlock's eyes went from Mycroft to his mother. He wasn't sure what would come next. It was hard to estimate how their mother would react to any sexual escapades of one of her sons, because there hadn't been any up to now. There hadn't even been any girlfriends - or boyfriends for that matter - to approve or disapprove of.
"Is that true?" She asked, a number of unhappy wrinkles appearing on her forehead.
Sherlock nodded, looking down, wringing his hands in his lap. He realised that he behaved exactly like the kid whose mother asked if the big brother's accusations concerning broken flowerpots and secret cigarettes would be true. But how should he behave differently? He felt exactly the same.
"I mean literally at the same time!" Mycroft added. "Sherlock spends the nights with both of them together!"
Their father followed the conversation by looking from one to the other, his impression slowly changing from disbelieve to more and more... impressed.
"Oh..." his mother said. The wrinkles on her forehead seemed to loose depth. "So they both know?"
"Yes, they both know, of course they do! They aren't unconscious, when we... meet."
"You made it sound like he was cheating on both of his best friends with each other!", she said to Mycroft. "But you don't, do you, Sherlock?"
"No, I don't! They... We all... They both decided they wanted it... Together..." Why the hell was he telling this to his mother?
She looked at him musingly. "And you...?" she asked softly, "I hope you want it, too?"
"Of course I do, I never do things I don't want to!"
"No, you don't...", she said. "But do you want it like that, Sherlock? To be a visitor into your friends marriage? I would so hope for you to have a real relationship with someone one day." She looked really unhappy.
"It's not like that." Sherlock felt like he was trying to talk himself out of being gated for blowing up flowerpots or smoking. "It IS a real relationship. I'm not just an addition to their marriage. This is not just a compromise because they don't want to split up for me or because I don't want to destroy their marriage. I wouldn't want just one of them. I want both of them. And they do, too. We want it like this!" He looked at his mother to find out, what he could say to end this topic, as soon as possible. He saw how her worried look had softened with his words. He knew what she wanted to hear. "I'm... happy!" he said. "We're really happy, all three!" He realised that what he said wasn't just what his mother wanted to hear but that it was the truth.
"How nice!" his mother said with a happy smile.
"He has sex with two people at the same time!" Mycroft tried again, although he was aware that his mother must have gotten that by now.
"But he has sex at all!" his Mother said. Sherlock couldn't believe this conversation was really happening - in his presence none the less. "I had started to worry what I did wrong since none of you seemed to be able to have intimate contact with anyone, but obviously you are," she smiled proudly at Sherlock. "You just had to meet the right person... persons. Right, Sherlock?"
He nodded hecticly. That was really true, even if he still hadn't any urge to share this with his mother. His only comfort was, that this conversation certainly didn't go the way Mycroft had imagined it either.
"They are really nice, both of them! I'm so happy you found them, Sherlock! Oh, you should invite them for tea sometime!"
"Mother, this is all pretty... new!" Sherlock hurried to say. "I don't think we have reached the stage yet, where they need to meet my parents!"
"Oh, I think you should!" Mycroft got up and padded Sherlock's shoulder when he passed him. "They have been here for Christmas when they still were just your friends, now that they are the prospective son- and daughter-in-law, the happy Watson-Holmes-family should have tea with Grandma and Grandpa Holmes at least twice a week!" Mycroft left the kitchen. Through the window Sherlock saw him getting outside and lighting a cigarette.
Sherlock turned towards his mother. "You know there is no legal way to get married with three people in this country, don't you?" he asked, hoping to get her smile a little less enthusiastically happy.
After a few seconds he wished he could turn off his deduction skills. Then he wouldn't have known that she didn't look forward to a possible wedding, but that she had just started to process the position her son's relationship might give her towards little Rosie Watson. The rage he felt towards Mycroft couldn't have been more intense if his mother's reaction might have resulted in him being cut out of the will instead of the enthusiasm she deployed now.
A few weeks later it turned out that Mary and John considered it a really fair deal to have tea with his parents from time to time when that brought them such a reliable babysitter as "Grandma" Holmes turned out to be.
A few months later John and Sherlock were just measuring the rooms in 221 c to plan the furnishing of the child's room, when Sherlock got a text from his mother: "Mycroft just told me John, Mary and you are moving in together. Congratulations! Your dad and I decided we'll buy you three a nice sofa!"