Authors Note: HEYO! XD Please tell me what you think; I would love to know XD I own nothing and no one, apart from the following: Fredrik Jones, Theodore Wells.

JUST SO YOU KNOW: This is my FIRST attempt at Sherlock and Johnlock - please be kind!

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ALSO: I made up middle names and first names for certain characters, just so I had something to work with ^_^

SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT, BUT I'M IN UNIVERSITY!

Chapter 9

Sherlock

3 MONTHS LATER - March 2015

The Easter Holidays for 2015 was Monday, March 30th until Sunday, April 12th. Two weeks without dreadfully dull teachers, two weeks without mind numbingly stupid peers... It sounded like pure bliss!

Plus, I would be able to concentrate on my experiments.

Well, that was how I thought it would go - two weeks of uninterrupted experiment time. I should have realised that, with the Watsons, things would never go as I had planned. This was how I found myself, on March 30th, being taken into town by all four Watsons...

They said it was a family thing...

I tried getting them to leave me at the house, tried saying that they would enjoy their time far more without me. Mr and Mrs Watson - sorry, Geoffrey and Philomena - refused to leave me behind. They had, apparently, decided that I was as much a part of the family as any of them.

I didn't know how to react to the statement. I had never felt like part of a family, not even when Mycroft used to be on my side. Not even when Sherrinford was still, well, himself. Those two - and Mrs Hudson, of course - were the only ones that ever made me feel loved, even with what little time I spent with them. But, even then, I never felt like part of a family. I didn't know how to act as part of a family!

Somehow, John noticed my - slight - distress. He had pulled me aside, once his parents and sister had walked out the front door, asking if I was alright. I don't know what made me do it, but I explained to him my thoughts. John just smiled gently, hooking his arm around my shoulders in a friendly way, telling me that no one knew how to act as part of a family. He told me it was instinctual - it came naturally, when you were with the people you were meant to be with.

In a strange way, I suppose it made sense.

Over the months, most things John explained to me made sense - especially when it came to social situations and things I wasn't familiar with. He had become a translator of sorts, rewording things in a way I would understand them. John had, in many ways, become me rock.

Since my diagnosis, few people had been informed. The school, obviously had, both my ADHD and Aspergers going into my medical record. John's parents, as well as Harry, had been informed, since I was living in a house with them twenty-four-seven. I had told Mrs Hudson, the woman deserving to know just as much as anyone else... They had been the only ones to know - my 'parents' wouldn't care; Mycroft would be just as cruel as when we were younger...

No one else needed to know.

The Watsons and I had gone to a rather quaint cafe for lunch. I wasn't familiar with the place, never really eating out before coming to live with them. As always, John would help me out, gently nudging me along if I was starting to cross some social boundary I shouldn't. That was, usually, when it came to interacting with a person who wasn't used to my behaviour - unlike the Watsons.

Sitting at the table, neither Geoffrey nor Philomena tried to force me into a conversation, however, they did make sure I would contribute every now and then. They both wanted me to feel included, yet comfortable. The topics would never surround anything hard - nothing like politics or the like - but always about something that was going on with one of them, or something they had read...

It was all just so chatty; meaningless. Was it strange that I loved it?

Usually, when I had zoned out of the conversation, I would look around wherever we were and try and deduce people. This situation was no different. I would watch the people in the cafe with us, I would watch the people passing by - Geoffrey and Philomena always made sure we had a table by the window, wherever we went, just so I could do this. I just watched, picking up little details about them that no one else could.

"Discovered anything interesting, dear?" Philomena asked, quietly.

Snapping back to focus, I found all four Watsons looking at me - not staring, never staring, just casual glances that were never forceful. They would back off if I didn't want to speak, yet they would listen to whatever I had to rattle off.

"No really; just more of the same." I shrugged, picking at the sandwich on my plate. "Affairs, military officers on leave; the same old boring thing."

"I'm sure someone interesting will walk past one day." Geoffrey chuckled. "You never know, my boy, soon you could close up that case you've been working on by looking at someone's shoes."

I had been brought into another case for Scotland Yard. Locked room murder type, a real brain tickler. It had been going on for months and the Yard had only brought me in a week and a half ago! Honestly, these people had no idea of when to bring someone in!

"I don't know about shoes, Dad." Harry laughed. "Maybe occupation, or tan line. "

"Imagine a killer tanning salon worker." John mused.

"That's it!" I grinned, scrabbling for my phone.

It should have occurred to me sooner! It was one of those things that was easily overlooked - something I shouldn't have overlooked! But, as always, John managed to nudge me ever so closer.

"John, you are a genius!" I declared, punching in DI Lestrade's number, hoping that he wasn't taking time off...

"I am?" John frowned.

"Of course you are, don't be an idiot!"

"How am I?"

Rolling my eyes as I waited for the phone to finish ringing, I turned to the blond next to me.

"Tanning! The skin was far more tanned than it should have been, especially that long after death! It was odd, but I thought nothing of it. He hadn't been on holiday, the tan wasn't at all natural, no tan lines anywhere..." I rushed. "What I didn't think of was a tanning salon! The worker, John! The worker was the last person to see this man alive! If I'm right, which I am, there should be evidence on his jacket cuffs! Oh, yes, very clever! Unfortunately for them, not clever enough!"

It was that moment that Lestrade picked up. I didn't give him a chance to start talking, just telling him everything he needed to know, repeating it once or twice, just to make sure he had heard. I spent five minutes, if that, on the phone with him.

I practically scoffed the sandwich as soon as I had gotten off the phone with Lestrade. I always felt hungry and tired after finishing a case, something I just had to get a handle on.

We had all left the cafe shortly after I made the call, where I promptly passed out in 'my' armchair the moment I sat down...

By the time I woke up, it was already six in the evening.

John was the only other person in the living room with me, once I woke up. He was sitting in his own armchair, reading The Hobbit for the fifth time since I had been living in the house. He only looked up from the worn pages when he heard me start to move, placing his bookmark between them and setting it down on the table. He smiled, handing me a glass of water - this wasn't the first time I had passed out after a case.

"Maybe, next time, try and make it to your bed." John grinned. "Sleeping in an armchair can't be good for you."

"It wasn't as if I was asleep for long." I countered. "I take it I have no choice but to eat tonight?"

"Right as always! Don't think anyone would let you pass it up, not now you've finished the case."

"Wouldn't expect any less."

It was the end of the first week off when 'Monthly Movie Night' came around.

Quite literally, every month, the Watsons would all gather in the living room, move all the furniture and spend an entire evening watching as many films as they could, most of the time falling asleep whilst one played.

I had only recently started to join them - New Years Eve, if I remembered correctly, going on early into New Years Day.

Well, I say ' join'... John decided to make it his mission to introduce to me any and every film I had never seen. It was a rather long list... It was only because, that night, they were going to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show and I had, in passing, asked what it was. So, John being John, dragged me down onto the nest of blankets they had all made, making me sit and watch. To be honest, it was a rather good movie... Strange as fuck, but rather good. And the songs were catchy.

I had come to look forward to Movie Night. It wasn't like anything I had ever done before - obviously.

We would watch everything from Disney, to musicals, to romance, to horror, to action... Whatever the genre, as long as one member of the Watson family enjoyed it, we would watch it.

Funnily enough, I didn't like mysteries... Well, no, not 'funnily'. The deductions they made were completely absurd! I much preferred the cases I got to work on. Of course, after my revelation of not liking mysteries, John decided that we would not watch them anymore - or, at least, we would rarely watch them.

What I did like, however, came as a surprise to many of us.

I never thought I would be one to like musicals. It's usually the same sort of thing - girl meets guy, girl and guy fall in love, shit happens, everything gets resolved, they live happily ever after. I never thought it would be my kind of thing.

I seemed to forget the main aspect of a musical - the soundtrack. The songs, the music... It was something I never took into account.

So, when Harry decided one night to put Les Misérables into the DVD player and it began playing, I was immediately captivated. And, surprisingly for me, not just by the music... I liked how it wasn't the typical guy-meets-girl shit. I liked how you got the back story; saw the character development. Whilst I do believe it's stupid to imprison someone for stealing bread, I liked it.

This night, however - this March night - they decided it was my turn to pick.

I picked to watch a musical, the question was: which one? Harry had, kindly, laid out every musical the Watsons owned, letting me take my time to choose the first film of the night. I had, immediately, taken out the ones we had already watched, recognising that they had all probably seen them hundreds of times and, for a lot of the films laid before me, were only re-watching them because I had never seen them. So I decided on one we hadn't seen yet. I read the back of each case, getting the general gist of the movie itself, before I made my choice.

RENT - that was the musical I had picked. It sounded interesting and it didn't disappoint.

I liked how you weren't just landed with one story line.

I liked how you actually had characters that were a part of the LGBTQ+ community.

I liked how the two gay couples weren't side characters.

I liked how it was about a real problem that real people had faced. It made a bigger impression that way.

Plus, they didn't do the fairytale ending where everyone lives happily ever after... They made it about real life - they didn't find some magical spell to fix everything. They stayed true to life.

And, come on, who doesn't like sassy?

Thursday, April 9th - halfway through our second, and last, week of Easter - Harry decided it was time we spent some time together.

And, by we, I mean: John, me, Harry herself and Clara, her girlfriend.

Her excuse was that it would be nice for all of us to hang out, to have a day to just fuck off and enjoy time out - especially since both Geoffrey and Philomena had been called into work.

I had met Clara before - John's birthday being the first time. Each meeting had been short, not much time for the two of us to speak to each other all that much. This day would be the first time. I was just grateful Harry and John would be there! If I had been by myself, I wouldn't have known what to do. I mean, I could barely hold a conversation with Harry, Geoffrey or Philomena, and I had known them since the end of August!

John, yet again, was the anomaly. I had known him for the same amount of time, yet I could speak with him easily - we had to be told to stop talking, a lot of the time! Though, usually, that was during class... Not the best time to be talking, but the majority - if not all - of our teachers were completely useless!

But that wasn't the point!

Clara had met up with us outside some shop or another. The girl had her dark hair in a pixie cut, purple clips holding her fringe out of her hazel eyes. She wore this pink floaty dress that came just above her knee - obviously a favourite of Harry's, if the way she was staring at Clara was anything to go by... She seemed to have this permanent smile on her face, yet somehow it never seemed forced - her face was honest, portraying each emotion as she felt it. It was great, easy for me to interact with her on a social level.

Just never get her angry...

I had only seen Clara angry a couple of times, both times because of something someone would say about Harry, John and, surprisingly, even about me. It was surprising only for the fact that, even after such little time, that she cared enough to be angered about comments made about me - not because such comments had been made. Clara turned into this demon when she was angered - no joke; if Clara was angry, you got the hell out of her way!

Thankfully, that side of her only came out when extremely provoked. Out of the two, Harry was usually the hot tempered one, unsurprisingly.

Anyway, again, not the point!

Day out!

There wasn't any plan we were sticking to - it was, pretty much, just us spending the day together, having fun. Or, at least, that was how John had explained it to me. He also said that it was a good way to get to know someone, something which made me doubt that this was just a random idea Harry had - honestly, if they wanted Clara and I to interact more, you think they'd just invite her to the house at a convenient time!

But it was too late for that, we had already taken this step.

I didn't expect for us to be out for, about, five hours. I mean, we barely did anything. Sure, Clara had dragged us into many shops and we stopped for lunch, but it didn't feel like five hours!

It felt so much shorter...

Only when I realised this did I think that, yes, I actually had enjoyed my time out in public. With people. Socializing.

For years I had been, admittedly, terrified of doing just that. Forget the fact I had no one to hang out with, but the fact I would be around a very large number of people scared me. That was why I had spent so much time locked in my room, back at my parents' house. I didn't want to go out, I didn't want to be around all those people!

But I had fun.

Harry, Clara and John had taken my mind off of it all, my attention solely on the three of them. Well, for the most part. I, of course, did my usual deductions of people, even continuing the routine of letting them know what I had found - when asked. I even showed my abilities to Clara, considering she had never seen my mind at work... And, well, you know, she asked. She had been shocked, of course she had - I didn't expect for her to react like John had - but she took it far better than Harry, that was for sure.

"How do you do it?" Clara asked, eyes wide as we walked her home. "How does it work?"

"I notice things others overlook. And, from these things, I can figure them out." I shrugged.

"No, I mean, how did you learn? Is it something you can learn?"

And that stopped me.

I had never thought about if you could learn how to do what I could.

I had never stopped to think about how I could do it.

I frowned, pushing my hands into the pockets of my Belstaff, turning my face into my scarf.

"That is something I don't have the answer to." I muttered. "I have always been observant, pointing out things no one else ever could. So, I suppose I never learnt. Nor have I tried to teach anyone, or know of anyone who has been taught."

It made me wonder if what I could do really was just a party trick. Could it have been something someone had taught me? Could it be that, maybe, someone had taught Mycroft and, with him being my older brother, I subconsciously started to copy him, thus training myself of how to read people? Was my 'special power' really all that special after all?

SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT - I'M IN UNIVERSITY!

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