The Birth of a Great Friendship

Sherlock was heading towards the playground. The argument with Mycroft yesterday was swirling round his head, making him clench his fists angrily. Mycroft had asked once they got home, who the children were he'd been with,

"They're my friends." Sherlock had replied still feeling very happy, but Mycroft had considered him in a way which instantly took the smile from his face.

"Sherlock... Friends are, ah, complicated." He had started slowly. "People like us, we don't have friends."

"Well I do." Sherlock had replied stubbornly.

"No, we're different from them, Sherlock. You know this, and they know too. You never did fit in and you never will because they won't really let you, they'll never properly accept you."

"MAYBE I DON'T WANT TO BE DIFFERENT!" Sherlock had shouted at him then.

"I am just trying to stop you getting hurt!" Mycroft snapped back. "You're too young and naive to understand!"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Sherlock had shoved him then, his blood boiling.

"What's going on?" A soothing voice had interrupted them then, before Mycroft could retaliate. It was their mother. The anger was gone instantly and Sherlock ran to her, burying his head into her for comfort. "What's wrong?" She asked gently, stroking Sherlock's wild hair.

"Mycroft won't let me have friends." He had mumbled against her.

"Oh darling, don't you worry about your brother. Now, tell me about these friends." She said as she lifted him to her hip, she shot Mycroft a warning glance as he went to argue.

-§-

Sherlock angrily wiped his eyes as he reached the playground.

'I WILL have friends. Mycroft is wrong about them.' He thought determinedly. The playground wasn't too busy and as Sherlock glanced round, he couldn't see John anywhere. His face fell and he made his way to the swings, his brother's words ringing in his ears again. He sat on a swing, his head down, he felt dejected and he was angry with himself for not bringing a book to keep him company. Suddenly a pair of hands reached round and covered his eyes, fear jolted through Sherlock and he let out a cry.

"Surprise!" A voice rang out, the hands were removed and he turned to see John grinning at him.

"Don't do that!" Sherlock laughed and playfully shoved John.

"Sorry, couldn't resist!" He grinned and took the swing beside Sherlock. John noticed the slight redness to Sherlock's eyes, "What's wrong? You look sad."

"Where are the others?" Sherlock asked quickly changing the subject. John just shrugged,

"Not everyone can come here every day, maybe they had homework?"

"Don't you have homework?" Sherlock asked him. John gave him a mischievous grin and said

"Yeah but I'll do it later! I knew you'd be here." Sherlock returned the smile. "Tell me why you looked sad!" John insisted. Sherlock sighed

"I have a brother…"

"Don't worry, I have a younger sister. She's four. Urgh!" John exclaimed dramatically. "I wish I had a brother, want to swap?" Sherlock giggled,

"You don't want my brother."

"Well you don't want my sister!" John replied and they laughed together. "Maybe we should be brothers together and they wouldn't be able to bother us."

"Yeah! We'd show them." Sherlock replied happily. They sat together on the swings for a moment, both lost in their own imaginations. "What are we going to do today then?" Sherlock asked John after a while. He hadn't really got the chance to play with others before so he was uncertain.

"I don't know… hey do you want to come to my house for tea?" John asked suddenly. Sherlock bit his bottom lip and his eyebrows furrowed.

"I would have to ask Mummy, and she's not picking me up yet."

"You could use our phone to ring her once you get there?"

Sherlock shifted uneasily, he didn't want to disappoint his friend but he hadn't done anything like this before. He was worried about how his family would react, John noticed his hesitation."Do you know the number?"

Sherlock closed his eyes then nodded, "Yes, I remember it."

"Come on then! Let's goooo!" John tugged his arm and headed towards the gate a little, Sherlock lagged behind. "What's wrong? Don't you want to come?" He sounded sad.

"I do! I do! I'm just worried." Sherlock admitted, John trotted back over to him and clapped his shoulder

"Repeat after me!" He instructed "it's all fine."

"It's all fine."

"There, now come on!" This time John dragged Sherlock behind him regardless and soon they were running again. They laughed together as they ran, letting the energy flow through them. They made it very quickly to John's home, Sherlock realised he'd never been to that street before and repeated how they got there in his head so he'd remember it. Going up to the door, he dropped back again.

"What's up?" John looked back at him, his hand on the handle.

"Nothing." Sherlock replied and walked up beside him, they entered.

"Mum?" John called. "MUM?"

"Yes, dear? You're home early!" A voice called from inside the house. John turned his bright face to Sherlock and bundled him along in front of him.

"I've brought a friend with me, Mum! Can he stay for dinner?" They entered the kitchen and Mrs. Watson was busy with the washing. She turned towards the boys and Sherlock noticed how much John looked like her. She smiled warmly at him.

"Of course you can stay! What's your name?"

"Sherlock." He mumbled slightly,

"Oh! John was telling me about you yesterday! I wondered when we'd meet. John says you're very smart-"

"Muuuuum!" John complained. "He needs to use the phone to tell his Mum he's here."

"What's the magic word?"

"Pleeeeeeease!" John said with effort, his Mum seemed to be satisfied with that.

"Oh don't worry dear, you give me the number and I will ring her for you." She told Sherlock, he smiled shyly at her.

"Thank you." He said

"Oh, so polite! You could learn a few things from him, John." She ruffled her son's hair; he stuck his tongue out in reply.

"Want to see my room?" John grinned at Sherlock then. He nodded and they ran upstairs together.

John threw open the door proudly and walked in, Sherlock followed him closely. John sat on the bed and watched as Sherlock took in all the details.

The room was a fair size, its walls were painted a light blue. Hanging from the ceiling, which was covered in glow-in-the-dark stars, were a number of Airfix model planes. They were all different types, but mostly from WWI and WWII. The walls of the room featured quite a few framed photographs of John and his family. The room was tidy with the bed in one corner, a wardrobe and a chest of drawers were the only other furniture sitting along the opposite wall. A cream coloured carpet covered the floor and in the middle of the room was a rug shaped like a car.

"What do you think? I got the bigger room, because I'm the oldest." John was obviously very proud of this fact.

"It's very cool!" Sherlock replied, "I like your models!"

"Yeah me and my Dad do them together. I like planes." Sherlock nodded his agreement and moved to sit on the bed beside his friend. "Wanna play cowboys and Indians?" John asked him as he dragged a box from under his bed. Sherlock nodded again. John pulled out a feathered headdress and handed it to Sherlock. "You can be the Indian!" Sherlock pulled it over his curly hair and smiled. John put on a sheriff badge, a cowboy hat and got a toy gun. Sherlock received a tomahawk and a bow. "I lost the arrows. But we can pretend." John said sheepishly. They hurriedly set up cushions and blankets to create barriers to hide behind and 'shoot' at each other over.

Downstairs, Johns Mum shook her head as she listened to the war cries and the shouts of "pow, pow, bang!" which drifted through the ceiling. She could also hear the giggling that came from both boys, she laughed as well.

"Gotcha!" John shouted "You're dead!"

"Nuh uh!" Sherlock argued.

"Yeah huh!"

"Nuh uh!

"YEAH HUH! I'm the best shot in the entire West! Yeeehaw!" John cried victorious.

"I'm barely injured! You can't kill an Indian Chief such as me!" Sherlock shouted back from behind his pillow shield. They both giggled then.

"Can I play?" A voice interrupted from the door. Both of the boys poked their heads over the barricades to look.

"Get out Harriet!" John shouted at his younger sister. He walked over to her and tried to push her out of the room ruggedly.

"I wanna play!" She protested loudly and shoved back against John.

"No! You're too young and you're a girl. Go away!"

"John, be nice to your sister!" Their mother called up the stairs. John rolled his eyes and blew out his breath as Harriet looked pleased with herself. John stopped pushing his little sister and walked over to the chest of drawers. Both Sherlock and Harriet watched him curiously. He produced a small white box and walked back over to his sister.

"What' that?" she asked, eyeing the box warily.

"A SPIDER!" John lifted the lid and flicked the contents towards his sister; it was indeed a large spider. Harriet let out a high pitched squeal and ran from the room as fast as she could. John fell about laughing and Sherlock joined in. Once they had recovered John looked about but the spider was nowhere to be seen. It had been worth it though he thought gleefully; he'd have to catch another one for next time.

"Where were we?" John asked then and suddenly Sherlock barged into him and they wrestled. The battle would come down to hand-to-hand combat it seemed. They both fell over and rolled across the floor grappling each other.

"It's a tie! It's a tie!" John laughed when he'd had enough. Sherlock smiled and they disentangled themselves. Both of them lay side by side, out of breath, but with massive smiles on their faces.

"You're my best friend, you know that?" John turned his head towards Sherlock, Sherlock turned his bright eyes towards him and they were shiny with moisture.

"You're my best friend too. We'll always be friends, right?"

"Always." John confirmed.

"Boys! Dinner!" A call came from downstairs.

"Yeah!" John cried and got to his feet quickly. "Last one there smells like rotten eggs!" He ran out of the door and Sherlock tore after him. They reached the table almost at the same time, shoving each other as they went.

"Easy!" John's Mum scolded gently, they both sat down as she placed two plates of chicken nuggets, potato smiley faces and beans. "Now you had best eat it all, then there will be jelly and ice cream for afters." She watched as they both tucked in eagerly.

It wasn't long after they had finished eating that Sherlock's Mum came to pick him up. As the two adults chatted together about boring things, John turned to Sherlock, "Can't you stay a little longer?" he pleaded. Sherlock shook his head sadly.

"Don't worry, John. We'll have Sherlock around again soon. He's been a delight." His mum said gently.

With that they said their goodbyes, and vowed to see each other again. Sherlock went home and for the first time he felt truly contented. There was a smile on his face that he couldn't shift and it was all because of his best friend, John.