A companion piece for Fan, featuring kid!lock. For I'm Nova, because without her, I never would have written this!
"Mycroft?" Sherlock clambered up onto the bench beside his brother, tugging Mycroft's sleeve for balance. "Mycroft, what are you doing?"
Mycroft sighed softly, closing his eyes. Of course his little brother would insist on following him, even all the way to the park. Ah, well. While he was here, he might as well teach him something. "I'm observing, Sherlock."
"What's 'bserving?" One pudgy hand pushed back golden curls, the bright eyes underneath fixed on him.
"That's o-bserving, Sherlock, with an o," Mycrodt corrected. If he was going to do it, first he needed to know how to pronounce it. "Say it again."
"O-bserving," Sherlock repeated obediently. "What's observing, Mycroft?"
"Observing, in its simplest form, is looking at people," Mycroft began, all too aware of little grey eyes looking adoringly up at him. "However, it is also far more than that. To observe is not just to see, but to notice. If we take that man over there as an example," Sherlock's gaze followed his pointed finger to a man across the park from them, "what can you tell me?"
To any outside observer, it would have been a comical scene; the older boy, no more than twelve, sitting on the bench, his little brother beside him, both staring quite seriously out across the park. To the two boys, of course, this was a very serious matter, one that demanded all due attention.
"He's got a brown coat," Sherlock finally said, brow furrowed. "And he's walking really fast."
"Why might he be walking fast?" Mycroft prompted.
"Because he's late?" He looked up at his brother, and received a nod of approval. A beaming grin lit up his face. "You do one, Mycroft, you do one!"
"Alright. See the woman over there with the little girl? Well..."
As Mycroft explained his observations to his brother, who was soaking up every word, he had no idea that this moment, and this lesson, would be the foundation for what his little brother would one day become - the World's Greatest Detective.
