John always leaves before Sherlock's even awake. They were lucky when Ian got older and slept until well after John left for work, so Sherlock got to sleep in instead of be up with the baby. Not that he'd mind or anything.
Today John left early and made a ton of noise while getting ready, so as soon as he left, Ian woke up.
"Daddy?" Sherlock heard right next to his head.
"Mmmm," Sherlock grumbled.
"Daddy?" Ian whispered again.
"What?" Sherlock impatiently snapped.
Ian doesn't answer and Sherlock thinks he left, but soon after Sherlock heard,
"Daddy?"
"What?" Sherlock yelled this time.
"Will you play with me?" Ian asked in the tiniest voice he could muster.
"Jooooohn!" Sherlock bellowed.
"He left," Ian replied.
"Go away then."
"Dad told you to stop telling me to—"
"Jooooooooohn!" Sherlock shouted again.
"I told you he left."
"Go eat something or something."
"I can't open the fridge."
"Why not?"
"I only weigh thirty-six pounds."
"Joooooohn!"
"He's gone, Daddy."
"Humf," Sherlock humf's and opens his eyes. Ian's standing staring at him, his long black hair in his bright blue eyes. "Damnit," Sherlock says and gets out of bed.
He slaps on a nicotine patch and follows Ian to the kitchen.
"What do you want?" he asks.
"Oatmeal."
Sherlock makes oatmeal and Ian eats nearly all of it. After, Ian leads Sherlock back to Sherlock's bed and turns the TV on cartoons. Ian hops around while Sherlock checks his email and blog.
After a while, Ian lies on the bed and slowly falls asleep. Sherlock finally notices after twenty minutes, and he can't get Ian to wake up. Sherlock looks at the patch on his arm; even one has his energy level up. He knows he can't go back to sleep if his life depended on it.
"Damnit!" he says, pulling at his curls. He sits and waits for Ian to wake up, which is two hours later.