I haven't updated in so long and I' really sorry. I've had so much work to do and I've had absolutley no time. But I'll try to update once a week from now on.

The name Sherrinford seems to be a fairly common name chosen for one of Sherlock's relatives however if I have stolen it from someone in particular I am very sorry. My Sherrinford s my own and is not based on anone elses Sherrinford's

"But why do we have to go?" whined Nemeth. Her eldest brother, Sherrinford, looked at her in exasperation.

"Because mother and father wish it." he snapped, "That should be good enough for both of you." he added, noticing that Zachariah was wearing his 'thinking about arguing' expression.

"But I don't want to go." Nemeth moaned in the tone that usually got her her own way. Zachariah nodded emphatically in agreement with his little sister.

"None of us want to go, mother and father included." Sherrinford hissed in reply, "But we have to. Count yourselves lucky we only have to visit them at Christmas."

"If we were lucky we would not have to visit them at all." Zachariah commented darkly.

"It is not fair." Nemeth complained. Sherrinford and Zachariah both ignored her.

"They don't want us there either, so would it not be better if we just didn't go?" asked Zachariah opting in favour of rational argument as opposed to whining.

"It's not Fair!" Nemeth repeated, stamping her foot again.

"And it's such along way to go for just one week. We would have a much better time at home." Zachariah continued sulkily.

"It's not FAIR!" shrieked Nemeth, throwing her stuffed toy at Sherrinford, incensed that no-one was paying attention to her.

"Will both of you just be quiet?" yelled Sherrinford. "We're going and that's that. So stop going on about it."

"When are they getting here?" asked Sherlock miserably. For once he wasn't bouncing around the house making a nuisance of himself; instead he was sitting quietly with his nose pressed against the window staring at the driveway.

"I don't know." Mycroft sighed. He was sitting next to Sherlock his gaze also fixed on the driveway. Mycroft knew that he should be spending the precious free time left before the arrival of their cousins productively. But he was too miserable. He remembered the last time his cousins had visited: after they had left Mycroft had been glad for a full fortnight that Sherlock was his brother. And then Sherlock had set fire to the nursery completing shattering Mycroft's brief gratefulness for Sherlock's benign (in comparison to his cousins) character.

"Why are they coming?" Sherlock muttered dejectedly. Even the tempting scent of ginger and the promise it brought of gingerbread - one of the few foods Sherlock showed any real interest in eating - did little to improve Sherlock's mood. Mycroft wasn't sure if the question was addressed to him or to a higher power but he answered anyway.

"To teach us that family are best kept well-away from oneself. And unfortunately Christmas is traditionally a time for family and so naturally our family feel obliged to honour tradition and have deigned visit us."

"I think we should start a new tradition." Sherlock replied unhappily.

"I completely agree."

I'm sorry I'm going to have to give up with this for now. I'm so tired at the moment (as in literally falling asleep over my laptop every five minutes as I'm typing tired) that I think it would be better just to leave it and go to bed. I would have just left it but I felt guilty that it had been so long since I've updated.

If there are any mistakes or anything that doesn't make sense feel free to point them out. I think I'm too tired to write coherently.

I'll try to get part 2 out as quickly as possible.

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and thank you very much for reading.