Author's Note: Hello! I almost forgot what last chapter was… I guess I've blocked Dialogue: The Chapter from my memory already. You all said very kind things about it and I appreciate it great. I'm still going to mock it, though. Haha. A little explanation is needed for this chapter… It's a little shorter than usual because I've had a migraine for about a week now and it's only just started going so I wrote this all today. If it wasn't done I was going to take an extra day. ALSO I had another idea but ovejalucifer poo-pooed the idea and said she didn't think it was well time I made her come up with a replacement idea. She gave me the basic outline, like a skeleton and I filled it with organs and meat and stuff. See, I'm not making much sense. Migraine. Anywho, it turned out okay but if you don't like it blame her :P ;). Please read, review, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: Clearly I don't own Sherlock. The show is the baby of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, while Sherlock Holmes itself is the creation of Arthur Conan Doyle.

The First Late Christmas Gift

Anthea lay on the bed in the cream and white room staring at her phone. She hadn't meant to stay over in the big empty house again last night. She had been planning on leaving all night. First it was going to be after she made sure Mycroft had some dinner, then it was going to be after they played poker, then it was going to be after the movie she was watching ended, then it was going to be when Mycroft went to bed, then when her next movie ended. She ended up falling asleep during that movie. She woke up on the couch with a sore neck and a blanket draped over her meaning Mycroft had wandered downstairs and found her asleep at some point. It seeming stupid to go home then she went to the cream and white room to sleep until morning. She'd leave after breakfast she told herself.

Breakfast had come and gone. Anthea was still here, fully dressed, sitting in what had once been her room in this house. She was currently looking at the weather app on her phone and musing to herself. The app said it was supposed to be a clear day today. Between the rain and the snow, a nice clear down was very rare this winter. It might be nice to try and get Mycroft out of the house and to clear his mind today. Instead of using his treadmill maybe it would be a good idea to go for a walk together. Nothing could match walking around the streets of London with a coat on and a warm drink in your hands, in the company of someone you… well, someone so close to you. There was no downside to this. Even if Mycroft chose today to be dramatic and to moan about being dragged out of the house, that wasn't a downside it was entertainment.

Anthea jumped spritely off the bed and wandered off in search of Mycroft. He was still sitting at the kitchen table from this morning with his laptop open and a newspaper to the side. He looked like he might be working but on a day like today Anthea knew he was more likely working on a personal project.

"Hello." Anthea chirped as she sat down in the seat next to Mycroft. He glanced over his shoulder at her and smiled. It was a fake smile, of course, but there was just a little bit of a twinkle in his eye.

"Hello." He replied in his melodious voice. He was starting to look a lot better in Anthea's eyes. The genius was starting to look more like himself. He looked sharp and well groomed, and held himself with that arrogance of his once more. He still looked lost, his eyes deep pools full of nothing but grief and mourning. But this was okay – he felt like he had some control back and it showed. Anthea's lips pulled into a tiny smile as she looked him over. He quirked an eyebrow at her and her smile grew.

"It's a nice day today." She announced. Mycroft's brow furrowed as he focused on the screen.

"And?" He asked in a sarcastic singsong tone. It made Anthea roll her eyes.

"And," She began he sentence. "We should go for a walk." Mycroft lost any focus he had on his laptop and turned to Anthea.

"A walk?" He scoffed.

"Yeah." Anthea nodded, almost laughing. Mycroft clicked his tongue.

"My dear, I don't need babysitting." He snapped.

"I'm not babysitting you!" She was a little bit but she also wanted to be there for him. She could at least help one of these weird awkward geniuses hold their lives together. "You like to go on walks, I like to wander around London. It'll be fun."

"Fun?" He repeated with disdain dripping off his tongue.

"We'll just wander around, get some food, and look at some bookstores. It'll be kind of like our walk when we went away together." Kind of, not completely. There were many missing elements to make it exactly like that special memory. Mycroft made a show of sighing heavily.

"I suppose it could be mildly entertaining." The man was such a drama queen. "Better with you than the company of myself."

London itself seemed brighter today. It was as if the brief moment of sunshine had dried up the old city's bones and allowed it to feel warm for the first time in months. The people on the streets seemed happier, the children seemed louder (much to Mycroft's chagrin), and the employees at the shops seemed more relaxed. Although it was past Christmas and as someone who worked in retail during university Anthea could complete understand why the shop workers might be more relaxed with that big day passed them.

"So James wants to give the baby a 'J' name." Anthea made polite and friendly chatter as they walked down the streets.

"Dear God, no." My practically spat. Anthea turned to give him a smile.

"Yeah, that was Jamie's reaction too." She said. Relief crossed Mycroft's features and it filled Anthea with a bright warmth as she chuckled and looked where she was walking again. "She asked him why he was trying to punish their unborn child."

"Thank heavens your little friend has a bit more sense than that idiot we call an agent." As Anthea laughed again her hand automatically searched out and took hold of Mycroft's hand. It surprised them both as they both stopped walking for just a second. Anthea was shocked with herself. She hadn't intended to do something so intimate. She was about to take her hand back when the long warm fingers wrapped around her hand and Mycroft said nothing as they kept walking. If felt too nice, too comforting, too perfect to stop it now. So they kept walking hand in hand.

They walked past the window of a music store and Anthea had to stop to look. In the window were white busts of long dead composers. It was the like you only ever saw in movies, the kinds that rich men had sitting on top of their pianos. Anthea gasped and laughed under her breath.

"Wow, Mycroft," She whispered. "Look at those."

"Busts." He hummed like he was putting up with a child's petty amusements.

"I wonder which composers they are." Anthea mused as she looked across the faces standing in line looking like a Mount Rushmore for musicians.

"Why on Earth would I know?" He scorned.

"Because you play their music and I know you'd be nosy and need to know their life stories." Anthea replied.

A beat.

"Beethoven, Mendelsohn, Bach, Chopin, Haydn." Mycroft listed the names, pretending to be uninterested. Anthea looked up at Mycroft with bright caring eyes.

"You love Chopin, don't you?" He pulled a face.

"No." He sneered.

"Well you play him a lot." She smiled. Mycroft pursed his lips.

"I suppose. No more often than Sherlock plays Bach or one of Mendelssohn's violin concertos." He tried to play it off dispassionately. Then there was that flicker – that brief all-encompassing grief that filled those deep eyes. "Which reminds me…" He nodded to the door of the music store and walked in with Anthea right behind him.

The store smelt of vinyls and Anthea was instantly in love. While the window was a shine to kings who came long ago the inside was devoted to more recent stars. Posters for rock and roll movies hung on the wall behind the cashier and The Beetles played over the speakers. They sold mostly instruments but a corner of the room was a small box full of vinyls. Robbie would love this place. Letting go of Mycroft's hand Anthea wandered over to the box to see if she could find maybe an old Radiohead album to play on Mycroft's record player one day.

"Can I help you?" The man behind the register asked the… couple.

"Sheet music and manuscript paper." Mycroft answer in a short curt tone.

"Down the back." The man gestured to the back of the store with his thumb. Mycroft wandered in that direction without so much as a thank you so Anthea smiled apologetically at the man. Not finding anything to her particular interest in the records Anthea began looking around the store. She looked at the brass instruments, looked down the French horn. She looked at the two violins and smiled sadly at herself. She strummed the acoustic guitar lightly with a stroke of her index finger. Then her attention was brought back to the busts. They were ridiculous. They were these extravagant things that no one ever owned. They were over the top and not at all something you expected to see in real life. All this reminded her of a particular individual in her life that she hadn't bought a Christmas present for out of anger and sadness. Anthea walked up to the counter with her friendliest person in place.

"Hi." She hummed. "I think I want one of those busts." The man raised his eyebrows, eyes full of humour.

"Really?" He asked with smile. Anthea bashfully nodded.

"Late Christmas present for that weirdo." She nodded towards the back of the room as she spoke in a hushed tone. The man laughed. "I like to get him weird gifts and this is both weird and perfect. He and his brother are kind of virtuosos… In many ways."

"He's lucky to have such a nice girlfriend." The man joked. The colour and feeling dropped from Anthea's face. She almost spluttered out a no to correct the man but she didn't have the heart to do so. So what if this shop worker or store owner believed they were dating. They had… "Which one?" He asked, coming around to the other side of the counter to stand before the shop window with Anthea. Anthea bit her lip and hummed to herself.

"He said one of them was Chopin. I think he'd like that one. Which one is that?" The man looked nervous.

"I don't know." He admitted. "They have barcodes underneath that says. They're pretty heavy though." Anthea stared incredulously at the man.

"Fine." She hissed out a breath. "I'll check this end," She pointed to the right. "You start over there."

They didn't have to move too many heavy busts to find the right one. It was the second one Anthea checked. She was so relieved she almost lost grip on it and let it go sliding to the floor. She caught it just as it left her grasp however and relief had never felt so good. She paid for it and went to wait outside for Mycroft.

Mycroft's face dropped as he spied the bag on the pavement next to Anthea's feet.

"Oh no." He moaned, a light little bag in his own gloved hand. "You didn't." Anthea crinkled her nose and grinned brightly. She picked up the heavy bag with two hands.

"Merry Christmas!" She sung as she handed it over to Mycroft. Mycroft took the bag from underneath and held most of the weight against his chest. He looked down his long nose and peered into the bag with a critical eye.

"What am I supposed to do with the head of a dead man?" It was an absurd but valid question. Anthea sniffed a laugh.

"Put it on the piano where my candelabra was." She replied happily. Mycroft's lip pulled up into a small snarl.

"I'd much rather the candelabra there…" He spoke in hushed tones more to himself than to Anthea. She heard it though, and she didn't quite know what to make of it. Her grandmother's candelabra was one of the things that he had a problem with the day he kicked her out. It was one of the things that had apparently proven how she had encroached on his life. Why would he rather that out.

"It doesn't have to be there." Anthea tucked a curl behind her ear. "I think it would look great in a lot of places. Like your home study."

"Or the Diogenes office." Mycroft offered. Anthea took a breath in and perked up.

"It would look great in the dungeon." She agreed. "It goes with the Bond villain motif." Mycroft's mouth pulled into a tight-lipped smile.

"It's impractical, strange, and a tad out of date…" The genius listed. "It's the best Christmas gift I've received in years." Anthea's heart felt like it was doing backflips in her chest. Mycroft leaned in and gently place a kiss on Anthea's cheek. If her heart had been doing backflips before it was lying face ground on the floor now. "Thank you for being absolutely outstanding during this time, Ali." If possible, Anthea melted into Mycroft's eyes as she gazed into them.

"I…" She drifted off, unsure as to what she was going to say. She looked down to the dirty pavement. That wasn't true, she knew exactly what she was going to say, she just couldn't find the strength to say it. Then she thought of all those wonderful things the genius had said while drugged. About being the wind, and the sun, and the jewel… She looked back up. "I'm never going to leave you in the dark, Mycroft." Something close to comfort and ease flickered in the deep steely blue orbs of the genius and the tight smile fell into something softer and far more natural.

"You know, my dear." He looked at the street sign above her head. "Should you stay over again there is no reason you should sleep on the couch or in the guest bedroom…" Anthea looked at her shoes and bit her lip to stop from smiling. The beautiful part about that statement was how innocent it was. This was not a man trying to hook up with an ex. He probably had no interest in that at all. This came from a different place within the brooding genius.

"I don't know about that… We'll see…" She answered. He shifted the bag into one hand, freeing up the other. Anthea took hold of it, intertwining fingers around his long musician fingers. They continued to walk home.

Or rather they walked for five minutes until Mycroft refused to walk with the heavy bust anymore. So they called Walter and waited for him in a crowded coffee shop, sipping warm coffees in takeaway cups.

Author's Note: How was it? If it was good that's thanks to me and if it was bad that's thanks to Camila ;). I'm pretty with the final product given that I wrote it in a few hours. I hope you enjoyed it and please let me know. Thanks to our guest reviewers from last chapter; PinkFriday28, Madalina, ovejalucifer, Guesswho, and B. Thanks to all my readers I love you all so very much. See you in five days!

Oh! I started work on TAB stuff. I don't know how long it will take but I started!