Anonymous asked: Sherlock and Mary taking Baby Watson to aquarium and she loves the otters because they remind her of "Uncle Sherlock" She says this out loud. Molly giggles and Sherlock protests. Molly giggles harder.
Scarlett and Edmund were supremely unimpressed with the zoo, but Isabelle was bouncing with excitement. She had just turned three and the twins were almost two, so the excusion had been planned as birthday outing for both the Holmes and the Watson familes to enjoy. Unfortunately an emergency at the clinic had kept John and Mary from joining them, but Molly and Sherlock had assured their friends that it would be no trouble to take the three toddlers by themselves.
Luckily Scarlett and Edmund's boredom had resulted in them falling asleep in their double-stroller, so that reassurance actually turned out to be true.
They had made their way from exhibit to exhibit in relative peace, with Izzy holding tighty to Unca Lock's hand while Auntie Molly maneuvered the stroller with her usual expertise. The five of them came to a stop in front of the otter exhibit, Izzy begging Unca Lock to pick her up so she could see better. The enclosure was half aquarium, and they had prime positions in front of the clear glass tank where half a dozen otters were currently cavorting.
Izzy chuckled and clapped her hands, pointing at one otter in particular that was making lazy figure eights in front of them, as if entertaining the young human was his only goal in life. He made a face that reminded Molly of her husband in a particularly thoughtful mood, and apparently Izzy agreed because she giggled and said, "Look, Unca Lock! He in his mind place, just like you do!"
Sherlock pulled a sour face; the otter paused in his underwater perambulations to swim closer to the glass, and Molly could have sworn the creature made the exact same face. She stifled a giggle of her own, but couldn't hold it in when Izzy tilted her head up to study her godfather, then looked back at the sleek, brown-furred animal who now had his paws raised up under his chin. "Yeah, he you, Unca Lock," Izzy pronounced, causing Sherlock to give her the modified version of his patented 'glare of annoyance' that he'd learned to tone down where the children were concerned.
"No, Isabelle, he does not. He is an otter, and I am a human being. We look nothing like one another excepting the fact that we have two eyes, two ears, a nose and a mouth," he said.
Izzy frowned and looked back, but the otter had swum away. Molly, however, had been tracking its movements and guided the pair of them to where it was now perched on a rock, grooming itself. "I dunno, Sherlock, it does bear a striking resemblance to you in one of your blacker moods," she murmured, smirking as he turned an outraged glare at her.
Izzy bounced in his arms and pointed at the otter as it flopped on its back, its head resting on the downward slope of the rock and all four paws splayed out. "Unca Lock take a nap onna sofa!" Izzy crowed, and Molly could hold it in no longer. She burst into laughter, and Izzy joined her. The more aloof and disapproving Sherlock looked, the harder his wife and goddaughter laughed…especially when the otter rolled onto its side and squinted at them as if it, too, disapproved of the comparison.
The merriment at Unca Lock's expense only ended when the twins finally woke up, cranky and demanding ice cream.
Their expressions were nearly as grumpy as that of their father — and the otter, who finally turned his back on them as if disgusted by the foolishness of humans and waddled off to the sleeping area.
