It was priceless.
John couldn't believe his eyes, but even his shock couldn't stop him from snapping a few pictures on his phone.
The two of them had been walking home after lunch at Angelo's when John had spotted a lone child sobbing. He thought it a bit strange that there was a child left alone on a London street, and was considering walking up to ask him if he knew where his parents were when he noticed that Sherlock was gone.
Sherlock was now crouching down and talking very seriously to the child who was maybe five years old. The child had tear stains on his cheeks but was now otherwise very happy, clinging to Sherlock's coat sleeve. John inched forward, trying not to spook them, wanting to hear what they were saying.
"And you say you last saw her here?" Sherlock asked.
"Yes. I remember the buildings." The boy nodded, and then cast his eyes up at John, nervous at the stranger's approach.
"Everything alright here?" John grinned down at his boyfriend who looked more serious then he had ever looked at the scene of a murder.
After all a good murder made him joyful to the point of giggling.
"Thomas has lost his dog, Blair." Sherlock replied curtly. "Thomas this is John. He works with me."
"Mr. John, I hired Mr. Sherlock to find Blair, will you help too?" Thomas asked, puffing up his chest slightly and standing on his tiptoes in an attempt to look more grown up.
"Well of course I will." John grinned, noticing how Sherlock took the boy's hand as he stood.
"He's run off from home to find her, so we also need to keep an eye out for his parents." The detective stated calmly.
"I have my phone, couldn't we try to call them?" John asked, not exactly eager to be the strange man picking up a random child and touring London with him.
"No! You can't! They told me I couldn't look for Blair! I have to find her first!" Thomas pouted, clasping Sherlock's hand with both of his, practically hiding behind the tall pale man's leg.
"It should be simple enough. There's various areas to search for tracks as well as plenty of witnesses. He only lost her yesterday so she couldn't have gotten far and knowing dogs she probably came back to this area to look for her master." Sherlock smirked. "Don't worry, John. Easy."
John rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the dull pain in his leg.
Easy he said. I wasn't expecting to walk the whole of London today.
After a rather unsuccessful search the tired search party took refuge on a park bench. John offered to go get water and snacks, thinking that even though Sherlock never ate, a small child would certainly need something. It had only taken a few minutes to find some water bottles and granola bars, and he was already walking back now. For a second panic struck him as he realized he couldn't see Thomas, and he almost started running towards Sherlock to ask how he could possibly lose a child within the space of five minutes when he saw the small head poking out of Sherlock's coat.
Sherlock had undone his coat and pulled Thomas close to him so that one side of his coat would drape over the boy, who was currently dozing, his nose and cheeks pink from the cold air.
"Who knew that the infamous Sherlock Holmes had a soft spot for children?" John teased as he joined his boyfriend on the bench. Sherlock graced the comment only with an annoyed grunt, but his eyes held a spark of mirth. John gave him a few minutes to recover before returning to the topic.
"So...think you'd make a good father?" He asked innocently.
"I don't think thumbs in the fridge is exactly childproofing." Sherlock remarked dryly.
"True, true..." John chuckled, looking down at the sleeping child.
"However...it would be interesting to see how such a role would affect us and our relationship..." Sherlock's eyes flicked up towards John, who blushed slightly and grinned.
"Well we better help this kid find his dog, because I'd like to get home and I'm sure his parents are missing him." The doctor stretched and went to wake Thomas up. Before he could, Sherlock lifted the child up and started off again, leaving John chuckling and grinning widely behind him.
The door swung open revealing a young looking woman with red swollen eyes and tears streaking down her cheeks.
"Yes? Can I help you?" she sniffed, and John gave her a kind smile.
"Yes, actually, are you Thomas's mother?" He asked, and the woman gave a happy and excited sound actually clasping her hands together in joy.
"You've found him?" She grinned with relief, peering around John to find some sign of her child.
"Yes, actually, he was looking for his dog." John stepped aside so the woman could see her son, who was finding some great amusement at how Blair was trying to leap up and lick Sherlock's face. Sherlock, however, looked at the dog with disdain.
"Tommy!" The woman cried out and ran out to scoop her child into her arms where a tearful reunion occurred, all the while the dog barked and ran about the two of them with it's tail wagging.
"I told you not to go looking for her without us! You had to wait!" She scolded and Thomas pouted.
"I had to find her. Mr. Sherlock helped me! I was really careful! I did detective work to find her and I used de...de...deductive reasoning!" The boy insisted, stumbling over the confusing word with some effort. Both John and Sherlock had to grin at the kid using one of Sherlock's key phrases.
"Thank you both so much, really, thank you." Thomas's mother shooed Blair inside the house and turned back to smile at the two men.
"No trouble. You have a bright son." Sherlock said coolly, apparently distracted by something in the distance and not making eye contact with anyone.
Thomas squirmed free of his mother's arms and ran up to embrace Sherlock, reaching only his legs.
"Thank you, Mr. Sherlock, you're a good friend!" The child squeaked. John noticed a softening in Sherlock's eyes that would probably go unnoticed by anyone but him, and he laughed quietly to himself. The detective awkwardly reciprocated the hug.
John couldn't resist taking another picture.