Mycroft noticed John first, and beckoned to the others to follow him as he walked towards John. Sherlock immediately sat down next to John, in the middle. Greg took the seat opposite John, and Mycroft sat down next to him, leaving the two inside seats for the older couple.
"Well this is a nice place, how did you find it John?" Mrs. Holmes asked, picking up and inspecting the thin menu.
"My boss told me about it, do you like it?" John responded, a little shy.
"Oh it's lovely John, and again thank you, you really didn't have to. I'm glad my boy's found such a gentleman." Mrs. Holmes gushed. Sherlock blushed and moved his hand to cover John's underneath the table. John smiled and squeezed Sherlock's hand, picking up the menu with his other.
"Please, eat anything you want, I have more than enough to pay, and I want you to enjoy anything."
"Thank you dear," Mrs. Holmes said, and the others looked up and nodded, but John noted that everything they ordered was on the slightly cheaper side of the menu. John got the chicken parmesan, as recommended by Angelo, and the Vinci guy brought them complimentary fresh buns. Even after their meals were served, John saw Vinci looking at their table, he was always in sight and whenever John caught his eye the man just smiled and held two thumbs up.
While happily eating, Mycroft and Greg talked quietly, as did Sherlock's parents. John turned to Sherlock, who was picking at a baked potato. "Am I doing all right?" He asked, faint worry strained his voice.
"Relax, you're doing great." Sherlock reassured John, giving his leg a squeeze. The rest of the dinner went by pretty quickly, with easy chatter and laughter and stories of a younger Sherlock and Mycroft, which Greg and John particularly enjoyed.
"One time! One time Sherlock..." Mrs. Holmes snickered before continuing, "One time when he was about six, he cut off half his hair, with safety scissors mind you, to see how long it would take to grow the length of the other side. My, we had to take him to the hairdresser and even it out, and clean it up. That was a right mess on the floor. He looked so funny, I have a picture at home!" She was giggling, as was John. Sherlock was bright red.
"It was an experiment, I didn't know that hair continuously grows. No one told me." Sherlock said quietly. "Awe, but it sounds so cuteee," John sarcastically said into his ear. Sherlock scoffed. "Please John, cuteness is a…" He was interrupted by a shutter of a camera click. Vinci popped out of nowhere and gave a big smile.
"Just a picture to go on our wall of customers. Sorry if it took you by surprise, we like it to be authentic." Vinci chirped, and slinked off with one last look at John. Everyone was mildly stunned, but shrugged it off and continued their meal. Once everyone was finished, a waiter came around and cleared the plates. "Any desserts?" The Italian man asked. John looked around the table, questioning with his eyes. When he received no affirmation, he turned back toward the waiter. "No thank you, just the bill please." John said, and the waiter departed after a short bow.
Not long after, the folded leather bill arrived. John flipped it open and inwardly sighed. It wasn't so bad though, and John felt good. John slipped enough cash, plus a generous tip for good measure and stood up.
"Um, I hope you all had a good meal," John said. "It was lovely, thank you very much John." Mrs. Holmes said, Greg nodded and Mycroft said "Yes, thank you John." Mr. Holmes smiled and shook John's hand. The party filed out of the restaurant, leaving behind the bright lights to a dark, chilly evening, a full moon and a sky full of stars. Sherlock's parents headed towards the parking lot, followed by Mycroft hand in hand with Greg. John stood at the entrance, staring at the sky, breath fogging.
"You coming?" Sherlock asked. John broke out of his trance and turned to an expecting Sherlock. "Oh, yeah, sure." John took his boyfriends hand and headed to the car.
The next morning, Sunday, John woke up with dread. Sherlock was dozing beside him, and John slid out, trying not to wake him. John scurried over to his school bag and unzipped it, pulling out binders and writing utensils, all while muttering curse words. The sun was just peaking over the horizon, John plucked a pencil and his science binder from the now mess on the floor. He scrambled over to Sherlock's computer and turned it on, trying to set up a work station.
The logo spun and moved in the way it does when starting up, John rubbed the sleep from his eyes and turned his notebook to an empty page. Typing into the search engine about certain elements, their properties and such frantically, John didn't realize Sherlock had got up and moved to behind John's shoulder. John jumped when Sherlock touched his shoulder, spinning around and sighing when he realized who it was.
"Oh, hey." John smiled before turning back and continued to write. "What's wrong?" Sherlock asked. John breathed, "I forgot we have that science project due tomorrow, I haven't even started." John put his head in his hands. "Are you done?" He added. Sherlock nodded, "I worked on it when you were at football."
John nodded and sighed, Sherlock started rubbing his shoulders. "It's alright, let's grab some breakfast then I'll help you. Don't worry, you'll get it done."
John relaxed a bit and stood up. "You're the best," he said. Sherlock smiled a little and gestured toward the door. "C'mon, let's get some food."
John walked downstairs to a sleeping house, silent except for the pots and pans Sherlock was clanging together trying to get them out of the cupboard. John sat at the table while Sherlock cooked up eggs and toast. John rushed to eat, and impatiently waited for Sherlock to finish, who seemed to be taking longer on purpose. As soon as he finished John grabbed his plate, threw it in the sink and rushed upstairs. Sherlock caught up to him and said "Every hour, you'll take at least a ten minute break. With the two of us working we should be finished in a couple hours. Relax," John was stressing, and his head started to hurt.
"No, I can't relax, if I fail then Mr. T will call my dad but I haven't been home and he hasn't tried to find me and I'm going to fail high school and not go to university and be a homeless guy and die of some disease and-" John was talking so quickly, frantically waving his hands in paranoia. Sherlock interrupted him, loudly yelling "John!"
John froze. Sherlock, upon realizing the rest of the house was still asleep, lowered his voice. "John I know you're stressed and worried, but panicking won't do any good. Now breathe, and we'll finish this in no time." Sherlock slowly wrapped his arms around John and rubbed his back in a soothing gesture. John went sort-of limp, leaning heavily against the taller guy. A few minutes later John exhaled loudly and said "Okay, let's do this."
Sherlock let go and pulled the beanbag chair over to beside the desk. John plopped down in it while the other sat in the office chair. "Take your already made notes and sort them according to the designated categories, then write the paragraphs corresponding to each element. I will conduct further research for the one's you have not yet looked up."
John smiled and silently took the papers.
