***Author's Note***
"Only the children know what they are looking for..." -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
Readers wondered what young John and Sherlock were like. Here's an excerpt/flashback from another chapter. You can read the whole thing over on AO3. I won't be posting it here because I'm co-authoring it with a friend, and only half the chapters are technically mine. Anyway, I hope you enjoy...
"Does it hurt?"
"Not so bad. Not any more." John climbed up onto a rock and sat down. He stripped off his shoes and socks (mum made him promise to wear them when he went out to play, but she hadn't made him promise to keep them on), and crossed his right ankle over his left knee. Beside him William crouched down to be eye level with his foot.
"You cried." William stared at the cut on the bottom of John's foot. It was bruised and there was a little bit of dried blood. Aunt Tilly said they were stitching John's foot just like she had stitched the tear in his jacket, but John's foot didn't look anything like the neat, almost invisible stitches he had imagined. John's stitches were big, and black, and ugly. And they looked terrible and wrong.
He really wanted to ask John if he could touch the stitches...
William looked up at John when he realized his friend hadn't replied. He furrowed his little brow and studied John's face. The other boy was looking down at his hands, and his face was very red. Not sunburn red, but the type of red you turn when you've done something wrong. "Are you embarrassed John? "
John nodded his head. "Yes... Harry called me a baby." He looked up at William, and sniffed. "I'm not a baby. I tried to be brave, but it just hurt too bad."
Scrambling up next to John on the rock, William knelt beside his friend. "Can I tell you a thecret?" Eyes wide, John nodded. William leaned in close to whisper in his ear. "Before you found me, I thought no one ever would... I cried too. A little bit."
"I didn't know that." John blinked in surprise. "I don't think you're a baby. Being all alone makes me sad sometimes too."
William leaned against John's shoulder. "And I think you're the bravest boy in the world. You're braver than my brother Myc, and he's big... And boring."
John giggled. "My sister Harry is big and boring too. I wish I had a brother instead."
"It's not fair! I wish you were my brother." William pouted.
"Okay!" John grinned. "We'll be the best kind of brothers because we will be best friends too!"
"But, we don't live at the same house like brothers are suppose to. We don't live near at all." William tried to keep up his pout, but he couldn't stop his mouth from smiling.
"Uhmm... Oh, I know!" John looked around them. "This can be like our home. Every summer we can come up here, and this will be our place. Just for us."
"Really?" William clapped his hands. "And when we're bigger we can find some grown-up place that will be just for us."
"But every day. Not just during the summer."
"Yes!" William jumped down from the rock in his excitement, and accidentally bumped John's sore foot. He froze and stared at the stitches. "Thorry, John... I didn't mean to..."
"It's okay." John smiled conspiratorially. "The doctor said I mustn't touch the stitches, but I already did... Do you wanna?" He held his foot out toward William.
"Can I?" William clapped his hands again and dropped down to his knees. When John nodded, William cradled his foot carefully with one hand, and ran just the index finger of his other hand lightly over the cut. "It's so... Weird." He wrinkled his nose.
"And ticklish." John squirmed and covered his mouth to keep the giggles in. William considered testing just how ticklish John's foot was, but instead patted it tenderly, and gingerly guided it down.
"Did... Did you see where it happened?" William motioned to a group of rocks down below.
"No... I came up the other side."
"Some of your blood is still there." The two boys stared at each other.
"Really?" John glanced down at the rocks.
William nodded. "And... There were bugs crawling," he gestured wildly with his hands, "all over it. It's disgusting."
"I..." John giggled. "Gross." William nodded again. And grinned. John abandoned his shoes and socks and they scrambled down the rocks together.