The third day, it seemed, Basil had learned when Sherlock had his evening tea and came trotting out as the late night kettle whistled.
"Ah, there you are, Basil! I was hoping you'd come back." The detective smiled, eager to share his day. "I saved England today." He hummed. "Well, just Parliament and anyone in the direct vicinity of the bomb I stopped from going off, so I saved most of London, though, they are, arguably, one in the same." Holmes prepared his 'friends' tea, set them both on the table and responded to his squeals with a simple. "You're welcome." as he took his own seat. "Good news, though, I got John to forgive me. Promised him I wouldn't tell anyone how I got him to, but it was quite funny."He giggled. "Oh, and my parents came by today." A long sighed. "Promised to ring them more often. Mother may find a way to hold me to that." the mouses squeaks received a chortle in return. "I suppose they are, aren't they? Oh, well." Sherlock broke another biscuit up for Basil but the mouse had wandered away and was climbing onto the iPhone not far from his setting. "Oh, no. Wouldn't want you to damage that." The little guy stared up at his dark haired host. "No, I don't believe you would do anything on purpose, but accidents happen."
squeak.
"Oh, fine. Here. How about this?" He opened up the keyboard app on his iPhone and the rodent climbed aboard and began carefully applying his weight to the digital keys. "I'm pretty sure I neglected to tell you about John having grown a mustache. It was terrible. But, it seems he saw reason and shaved it off." Another small chuckle escaped his lips and his face crinkled. "That's good, want me to write it down for you?" The offer was given with a smile at the small mouse,who appeared to be stomping out a tune that only made sense to him.
"I play the violin when I'm thinking. Are you doing the same?" Sherlock could only interpret the rodents glance as an affirmative. "What kind of mouse problems could you have?" Now, he imagined the new expression was a dirty look. "Quite right, I don't like to talk about what I'm thinking when I'm playing, either. Sometimes, its to do with sentiment and things of that nature should be worked through privately anyway." He took a long sip of tea and watched the mouse attempt to figure out the keyboard some more. The animal appeared to understand a certain amount of pressure applied to the screen would create a pleasant noise. "Music is a great thing, Basil. It does wonders! You should learn how to dance."
"You seem quite clever for a mouse…. would you like to meet my other friends?" There was no way his new flatmate would possibly refuse, so he continued on."I should teach you a few social niceties. Granted, its not exactly my area, but I was raised well enough and John has been invaluable in that area. So, where should we start?" Tapping his foot, the mouse seemed very focused, having abandoned his new instrument and inched toward Sherlock. "Well, I guess it would make sense to start with how to greet. Since you can't speak, you won't have to learn much." Did the mouse express concern or worry of some sort? "Oh, don't worry, people talk too much anyway. You're lucky you met me first or who knows what sort of chatterbox you'd have ended up with." The detective broke only to roll his eyes and sigh. "Mrs. Hudson, for example. Just endless babbling about nothing important whatsoever. Anyway, I think we should maybe try shaking hands. Yes, that could work nicely. I shake hands a lot. Thank goodness for gloves, there's an abundance of execrable hand washers out there. Its a bit disturbing, actually. But, at any rate, if you don't mind, your paw, please." As the mouse adjusted onto his hind legs, seemingly in understanding of the request, and the human gently took the mouses paw between two fingers so he could move the paw in an up and down motion for a few moments before releasing it. "There we go, quite easy, don't you think? Would you like to try again?" Thoroughly convinced Basil's squeak was an affirmative, he repeated the motion.
It was obvious Sherlock was pleased with himself and throughout the evening, he and Basil "practiced" shaking hands. "You'll really like John. He's a stand up guy, I mean, well, he's friends with me, of all people, so… if that tells you anything." There was a bit of a fuss of brown fur on the table. "Well, its nothing to get upset about! I'm just saying that I am….not well received by the general human population…. how many times must I tell you this?" Basil began cleaning his fur. "Ah. New people make you nervous? Don't be nervous. He's kind and, well, if he can make an attempt to understand me" heavy sigh. "He'll definitely be open to someone like you. You don't exactly do much to irritate people, do you?"
squeak.
"Oh, thats normal mouse behavior, though. Its extremely foolish of anyone to simply hate a creature based on how it fulfills its base survival instincts. Honestly, I've never had problems with your people. We've seemed to always have an understanding." Looking at the time as he finished his mug and debated having another, he saw it was nearly two in the morning. "What do you say, Basil? Shall we call it a night, or have one last cuppa?" The mouse merely trotted over to his saucer and looked up expectantly. "Very well, we'll finish this kettle and then I really must go to bed. Lots to do tomorrow, what with my resurrection being public knowledge now and all. I suspect I'll spend most of the day dodging phone calls and texts from my brother." Sherlock prepared his friends saucer with a certain level of notable affection and gave the tiny thing that most would call a pest a brush with his hand. "See, Mycroft made the mistake of inviting our parents to a matinee of Les Mis and has been trying to pawn it off on me ever since." He paused to snicker and roll his eyes as well as take a breath. "He made his own bed, don't you think?"
squeak.
"Absolutely, I knew you'd see it my way. It was his ridiculous idea…. I'll also expect to see John and Mary again tomorrow… that's something to look forward to...and I think Molly might be bringing….Tom over." Basil paused from his munching and looked up at Sherlock. "Don't be silly, I just want her to be happy. She's a very good friend and she deserves it and I'll not be so presumptuous as to assert myself in her romantic affairs. It's simply not my place to tell her what makes her happy and what doesn't." The little mouse adjusted and cocked its little head. "Of course not, I told you that… but it's not my business at all. Anyway, eventually, you'll meet them all."
squeak.
"Well, John was an army doctor. He got shot in Afghanistan, developed a psychosomatic limp and that's when I met him…. Jeff Lestrade I met first. John had trouble believing this about me for some reason at first, but there was a point in time where I was… seriously reliant upon certain illegal substances. That's how I met George. I was high and approached him to help him with a murder investigation. He was one of the people that helped me become more independent from the drugs I was taking. Sometimes I still miss getting high, but such is the life of an addict…. that's why I have to solve crimes. It seems to illicit the same response in me that the drugs would."
squeak.
"No, I don't know why. There's a police sergeant named Sally Donovan that likes to believe I get sexual gratification out of solving murders and showing people how oblivious they can be."
squeak.
Sherlock's face wrinkled.
"What? No!" He scoffed. "That's not the case at all, I was just sharing her opinion because it was funny and shows just how they must see me. Inappropriately excited about a new corpse or something equally as gruesome in their opinions." Basil walked over to the detective and climbed up his arm to perch on his shoulder. "Well, you're pretty affectionate once you get to know someone, aren't you?" Sherlock reached up and brushed his new companion for the second time that night. As he finished his tea, he thought to himself that rekindling his old friendships and making a new one was definitely the best homecoming he could have had.
In the next chapter, Sherlock introduces John and Basil to each other.