AN: Well this was supposed to be a chapter for my another story 'Braided with love'. I wanted to write something about the Holmes siblings' childhood. But then it developed into something else entirely.
So,well this is part -1. I was actually planning another part or two, but now that I have written the first part, I'm having doubts as whether to continue it or not... So yeah, please do read and tell me what you think. And I also don't mind criticisms; but yeah, please keep it constructive instead of outright negative. :)
NON BETA'ED AND NON BRIT-PICKED. I apologize in advance for the mistakes present.
*Brolly=Umbrella
Disclaimer: I do not own Mycroft Holmes. Eventhough I surely wish I did.
STORY TAGS : Mycroft is awesome!, Third Person POV, Lots and lots of umbrellas, Crofty was a super intelligent three year old!
SUMMARY: The untold life story of one Mr. Mycroft awesome Holmes featuring his family,his brat-ish brother,his job and ofcourse his beloved umbrella/brolly. Part-1 is a Kid fic.
THE UMBRELLA MAN
PART-1
It all began thirty five years ago, in a small town hospital situated in the outskirts of London. The nurse had just handed over the cleaned and wrapped, brand new and slightly wriggling bundle of joy into the hands of the ecstatic parents. The baby had a slight hint of silky soft, dark brown hair on top with chubby red cheeks and huge beady dark brown eyes. Those lovely beady eyes were currently struggling to keep itself open, trying to catch a glimpse of the whole new world.
...
The parents, Connemera Virginia Holmes and Alastair Alexander Holmes who even though were best suited for each other, both in temperament and intelligence, sadly never actually felt they were suited for a family life together. Their marriage was done in accordance with the wishes of both their wealthy and illustrious parents who did not want their bloodline to end with their only daughter and only son, respectively.
But all that changed when a pair of tiny grabby hands caught both their little fingers together, gave the world's most adorable tiny yawn and went to sleep. From then on nobody could find a better understanding dad and husband than Mr. Holmes and a more loving and caring mother and wife than Mrs. Holmes.
And that is also the day when tiny little Crofty showed a glimpse of what his future would hold… That one day he would be the cementing factor which would hold an entire common wealth from breaking apart.
…
His parents are to blame for his obsession with the umbrellas too.
Most cribs have something hanging from its roof to distract and amuse the babies. The dangling, hanging from top of his crib, were a dozen shiny, multi-coloured umbrellas! And those chubby little hands were always in a mission to grab one shiny blue and gold one.
His parents came to know about this obsession when during teething, the six month old would shun all the teething toys and still try to grab the umbrella to chew on it. And being the wise parents they were, they immediately bought and gave him many umbrella shaped chewables to chew on, making the baby gurgle with happiness.
…
Later when he was around three years old, he observed that some kids had safety blankets, some had teddy friends and then a certain few had invisible friends, but he; Mycroft Holmes aka Crofty, did not have any of those. But then he did always have his umbrella for company, though.
So when on the second day in the new school where the the three year old was put along with the four year olds due to his above average intelligence, he found that his brolly was his only company. And that is also when he realized that his simple blue and gold umbrella could be used as a weapon of intimidation against bullies.
So when Victor and Jamey tried to mock him for being so small and young continuously for first two days and tried to take away his beloved umbrella from him, he had enough of it. So he stood up to the big boys and pointed his umbrella carefully that it was just an inch from each of their noses and said, "I can poke you with this if I want. But mummy said good kids don't pick up fights. But next time if you pick on me, I will really poke you and also tell my mummy about you two. And you know what? Bad children don't get sweets."
He earned a 'there is a monster behind the curtains' – level scared face from the two big boys when he said the last words about not getting sweets. And very deservedly at that if you ask Mycroft, because what could be worse punishment in this world than not being able to eat sweets when you want!
But then as bad luck would have it, their class teacher, Ms. Johnson came in that precise moment when he was just lowering the umbrella from the faces of the kids. And seeing the scared faces of the kids, she gave poor Crofty quite a chastisement and took away his beloved umbrella. She told that she would give it to him tomorrow only if he brought his parents with him, to the tremendous joy of the big bully boys.
That day he had learnt quite a few other lessons too. He learnt that he should never trust chance or luck as some call it; no matter how many times their parent's friends told his parents that he was their lucky charm. He also learnt that he should never show his weakness to others be it tears or his love for his dear umbrella. Because showing emotions made people take advantage of him. And he never wanted to be taken advantage of, ever again.
So that night when he remained as stoic as a three year old can be, his parents knew something changed. So when they sneaked into their son's room after he had slept, to read a letter(written in pencil) which was still on the table, they knew he was going to follow his father's footsteps in future. Because the only way the little boy could have learnt to write such a letter, was by keenly observing his father while he worked.
Mrs. Holmes then gave a small peck on to her proud husband's lips before walking up slowly to their son. She then gently moved the hair from his forehead and placed a loving peck there, with her husband just behind her, beaming at both of them with love and pride.
...
Next day when the three year old turned up in front of staff rooms without anyone accompanying him, the attention of all the teachers present in that room were on him. He then gingerly walked up to his class Miss and handed over the neatly folded letter. At first Ms. Johnson thought that it must be from his parents, but once when she saw it, she understood it was otherwise. And by the time she finished reading it, she had the same look that was on the faces of his parents. She felt proud knowing that one day he surely would be a great person. She beamed at him and patted his head, returned his beloved umbrella and asked him to go to the class. But he refused to take the umbrella with him, saying that he would collect it before leaving home that day. The wise teacher agreed with a smile at the brilliant three year old.
Later back in the class when their class teacher called the two bullies separately after the end of the first session, he knew what he did was right. And that was the day he realized that instead of dealing with a problem crassly in front of the crowd, dealing with the higher authority in private, always earned better results...
His teacher had shown the letter written in his childish squiggly handwriting with words far beyond the vocabulary of any three year old she had ever known, to everybody in that staff room that day. Although admittedly there were few spelling mistakes and other errors, it was the essence of that letter that touched everyone's heart. And even today it is still preserved in some dusty old text book of hers as the first attempt at bureaucracy by one of her, from then on favourite student. Little did she know then that his father was actually the real British Government personified at that time and that he too was on an express way to be an even better one, one day real soon...
The letter was
"Good evening Miss,
I did not poke Jamey and Victor. They were bullying me from yesterday. They said I was tiny and fat. They even tried to take my brolly from me. I love my brolly. It is my best friend. And I know we should always defend our friends, mummy had said that to me last Wednesday while she read me a story. I am sorry I did not come to you before and tried to scare them myself saying I would poke them and that they would never get sweets. I understand what I did was bad. I am really sorry Miss. Please don't break my brolly because I was bad.
- Crofty.
Place: my desk
date : 5.06.78 evening"
AN: Your thoughts?