"Boys! Dinner is ready!" Sherlock heard his mother call up the stairs. The sound broke his concentration and he sat back in his chair. Sherlock shook his head at the half written essay staring back at him. I'm never going to pass this unit. He thought to himself. Who cares about the solar system anyway? Sherlock stood and stretched his limbs, waking his body from the position it had been in for the last hour and thirty minutes. Sherlock headed downstairs, following his mother's call. Just as he had closed his bedroom door, he was met with Mycroft.

"Sherlock. How was today?"

Sherlock huffed. "Ugh, please don't act like you care, Mycroft. You've never been any good with small talk."

"I'm perfectly good at small talk, Sherlock. It's just that you don't care for it." Sherlock grunted in response and stepped in line with his brother, walking down the stairs with him. Mycroft inhaled loudly. "What do you think it is today, then? Lasagna?"

Sherlock sniffed. "Seems so." He agreed. He looked up at his older brother and frowned, he still wasn't as tall as Mycroft. Sherlock didn't like that.

The two reached the bottom of the stairs and made their way into the kitchen. The kitchen looked rather clean considering their mother had slaved over a stove for the past forty five minutes or so. The dinner was all set out on the table ready, along with gleaming white plates and cutlery. The boys sat down in their usual places, leaving the head of the table for their father, who was currently not present. Sherlock looked down at the food that was presented in the middle of the table. Lasagna, lucky guess. He glanced at Mycroft across the table to see him smirking at the fact he's guessed correctly. Sherlock rolled his eyes at his brother's smugness.

Mrs Holmes dragged her chair back to join her children at the table, only to stop mid action. "Sherlock! You still have your uniform on." She stated and looked at him questioningly.

Sherlock noticed how Mycroft's head turned to stare at him. Sherlock smiled at his mother. "So I have, I've been so busy with my essay that I forgot to change." Sherlock looked at his mother innocently.

"That's okay. Take your blazer off though, I don't want you to get anything on it." There was a silence while Sherlock followed her instructions. "Now," she continued once Sherlock had finished. "Let's eat."


Once plates were empty and bellies were full, Mycroft was the first to speak. "That was lovely, mother. Thank you."

"You're very welcome Mycroft, it's a new recipe." She smiled while collecting all the dirty plates. "There's less fat in it, so you won't ruin your diet."

Mycroft frowned. "Wonderful." He commented flatly.

Sherlock stood and helped his mother clear the table, gesturing for his brother to do the same. Even though the Holmes family had more than enough money to hire people to cook dinner and wash up for them, they preferred to do it themselves. As Sherlock's grandparents would have said, "Being well off is not an excuse to be lazy."

As the table cleared, Sherlock grabbed a kitchen towel to dry the plates. "You don't have to, Sherlock. Mycroft will do that. You've got homework." Mrs Holmes dismissed her son, and Sherlock obeyed and handed the towel to Mycroft. Sherlock ignored Mycroft's protest and headed back upstairs.

Sherlock got back to his room and breathed deeply, closing the door behind him. The curly headed boy walked over to his school bag and dug his hand into it, rummaging through the books and pencils until he found what he was looking for. Sherlock grabbed his mobile phone and dropped down onto the bed. He realised he hadn't checked it all day. Sherlock woke the screen to see that there were no texts or notifications, there was nothing. Except for one little message, from someone named Mike Stamford. Sherlock frowned at the screen. That was weird, no one usually messaged him. Sherlock unlocked his phone and went onto the app to see what exactly "Mike" had to say.

*ONE NEW MESSAGE*

Mike Stamford: Hi Sherlock, I meant to catch you after chemistry but you were too quick haha! It seems that Mr Thomas has put us together for the project he gave us today, remember? Anyway, if you want to meet up any time during the week, that's cool. Just message me a time and day that suits you and I'll let you know!

Sherlock scoffed at the message and began to type.

Sherlock Holmes: Of course Mr Thomas would put me with someone less intelligent than I, but I guess there's no negotiating with him for this project. Let's get one thing straight Mike, you need to pass this class and I have the brains to do it, so why don't you just let me do everything on my own? I prefer to work on my own accord and, quite frankly, you're too slow to keep up.

Sherlock pressed send and tapped off the app to go onto Facebook. Sherlock never posted anything himself, but it was always entertaining to see what his pathetic acquaintances were gossiping about. Just as Sherlock began to scroll down his news feed, his phone buzzed, notifying him that he'd received a reply from Mike. Sherlock looked at the new message.

*ONE NEW MESSAGE*

Mike Stamford: As much as I respect your decision Sherlock, I think it's safer if we stick to the rules of the assignment and do it together.

Sherlock exhaled deeply and typed out a reply of "Whatever you wish" before pressing send. Sherlock didn't have the patience for stupid people. Sherlock dropped the phone next to him onto the bed, and he folded his arms and stared up to the ceiling. Bored, he thought. Sherlock's mind began to flood with similar thoughts.

Why is everything so boring? Is there more to life than this? Will something interesting ever happen? Sherlock sighed. Perhaps not.


"I'm home!" Mr Holmes called as he waltzed through the front door at approximately 21:39 that night. The man took off his coat and put his car keys in the 'key bowl', the loud clink filling his ear drums in the silent corridor. He paused. "Christine?" Mr Holmes called again.

"In here!"

He finally got the reply he longed for and followed the sound of his wife's voice into the lounge. Upon seeing her, he smiled and joined her on the sofa. "Hello, my love." He kissed her softly on the cheek.

"How was work?" Mrs Holmes asked sweetly.

"Not too bad." He stretched. "I have an awful headache though."

Christine eyed her husband, it being the first time she'd properly looked at him since he'd walked in. Her facial expression changed suddenly, going from looking concerned to being alarmed.

"I'm phoning an ambulance."


Mycroft sat at his desk, thinking about how different things would once he moved out. He sighed and rubbed his temples, overthinking would get him nowhere. Just as he began to stand, his laptop started to notify him that he had a Skype video call coming through. Mycroft grinned and clicked the 'Answer' button.

"Well hello there." Mycroft rested his head on his hands.

"I know I said I wasn't going to Skype you tonight, but if I have to even think about Algebra ever again, my head is going to explode."

Mycroft chuckled. "Oh that's quite alright, it's a lovely surprise. Besides, I don't exactly want your head to explode, Gregory. That would be quite unfortunate."

The other boy smirked. "You know," he began, "I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me!"

Mycroft blushed. "I've definitely said nicer things."

"I'm just teasing you!" Greg smiled. "No need to get all defensive, even if it is really cute when you do."

Mycroft coughed to force his embarrassment away and decided that it was time to change topic. "So when can I see you?"


Sherlock got up from his bed and headed to the bathroom. However, as soon as Sherlock opened his bedroom door, blue flashing lights caught his eye. Something was wrong. The curly headed boy moved quickly to the top of the stairs so he could see better. He spotted that the front door was open, and his mother was grabbing her coat. Sherlock felt an instant 'deja vu'. Euros. Sherlock shook the thought away, it wasn't her this time.

"Mummy!" Sherlock called down the stairs, and Mrs Holmes turned at the voice and met her son's eyes.

"It's okay, Sherlock." Christine spoke calmly. "I'm going to go to the hospital, it's your father, he's had a stroke."

Sherlock's heart stopped.

"Sherlock, listen to me. Everything will be fine. You need to stay here with your brother, but keep your phone on and I'll keep you updated."

Sherlock didn't respond.

"Honey, please.." His mother's voice faltered sightly.

Sherlock nodded. "Okay." His voiced cracked.

"I love you." She spoke once more and then she was gone.

Sherlock rushed to the window and looked out at the ambulance to see it hadn't driven away yet. The doors of the ambulance were still open and Sherlock could see his father lying inside. Sherlock stared down at his elder to see him lift his arm weakly, and wave up at Sherlock. Sherlock waved back frantically. The paramedics shut the doors of the vehicle and before he knew it, Sherlock was waving to an empty pavement.

Sherlock realised he'd been holding his breath, and he released it, panting. Tears had started building up in his eyes, blocking his sight. He stood still for a moment, replaying the scene that had just passed. Sherlock shook his head, what am I supposed to do? He thought. Suddenly, something clicked in his mind. Mycroft!

"Mycroft!" Sherlock shouted, practically sprinting down the hallway to his brother's room.

"Mycroft!"

"MYCROFT!" He arrived at his brother's door and pounded it with his fist. "Mycr-"

"What?" Mycroft opened the door quickly, causing Sherlock to almost fall into his brother's room as he'd been knocking eagerly. Mycroft took one look at his brother's face and his heart sank. "What's wrong?" Mycroft panicked.

"Daddy's had a stroke." Sherlock's voice broke, and with that he began to sob. He was unable to hold it in any longer.

Mycroft froze for a second, stunned at the news he'd just received from his younger brother. Mycroft wrapped his arms around Sherlock. "It'll be okay, come on now. Our father is the strongest man we know. Everything will be alright." Mycroft whispered into Sherlock's messy hair, trying to convince himself as well as his brother.

"Everything will be okay."