Author's Note: Thank you for all the wonderful feedback last chapter. I am so happy you all seemed to like it – I was quite happy with it. Just a short chapter for you today. Up until late this morning (I post late at night) I couldn't choose a chapter idea out of three. I started writing about 12pm-ish and, well, it turned out pretty decent considering it took me that long to choose a focus. Anyway, 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 Time He Met Robbie

Mycroft and Anthea were sitting on either side of Anthea's kitchen bench eating breakfast. It was just toast with some butter – Anthea was in desperate need of going shopping and she wasn't really a breakfast person anyway. She knew Mycroft always had at least toast in the morning so whenever she was aware that he was coming over now, Anthea would make sure to have some bread just in case he stayed over.

He'd stayed over her house a very minimal amount of times, but it seemed as if the pair had been spending more evenings spread out across their places now. Giving Mycroft a key seemed to urge him into feeling like less of an outsider in her place, he'd started popping by more often then. The big change seemed to come when they began sleeping in the same bed. The once a week stay at his house on a Friday or Saturday night seemed to evolve into Saturday and Sunday night, with the occasional random week day at hers. This week it had been Friday night.

It was weird, kind of. This time they spent together, they almost didn't spend it together. Last night she'd watched a movie and talked on the phone with Jamie while Mycroft was either reading a maths book his mother sent him, or he was doing something on his laptop, last Sunday at his she'd gone out for a few hours with Mary and then came back and did her nails in his backyard while he was in his study. They didn't even see each other until dinner. But having the other person around, just being in each other's space. It was more than enough, it felt so comforting. It felt so much like a home Anthea had long forgotten. Loneliness wasn't not having someone to talk to, loneliness was just not having someone around. It was the presence she enjoyed – it was knowing that he was around and was okay being around her. It was great.

But then there came another issue. The issue of when just sharing a space wasn't enough, but when you actually needed to get the other involved in your life. With Mycroft that was difficult, and with what Anthea wanted him to get involved with… She knew there was a high chance of failure, she was expecting it. It would disappoint her to no end, but she expected it. If they were together, then Mycroft just had to be involved in these things, no matter how distasteful they were to him.

"What is it?" Mycroft's voice drew Anthea out of her thoughts. She raised her eyebrows and looked across the bench to see Mycroft glaring at her rather than reading his paper.

"What's what?" She asked. Mycroft rolled his eyes, most likely at what he deemed the slow speed of an average mind.

"You're thinking so hard you're about to give me a headache." Anthea sniffed a laugh as she placed down her piece of toast. She would have laughed properly if she expected better results from what she was about to say. Anthea tucked a curl behind her ear, frowning to herself, as she stared down into her mug of coffee.

"Oh, well, Robbie is in town for the next week for work and visiting his brother." Anthea tried to keep her tone light and casual, busying her hands by moving her plate to the side. Mycroft pursed his lips.

"And?" He asked in his neutral tone.

"I'm having lunch with him on Tuesday." She looked up slowly to meet his gaze.

"And?" He urged her. Anthea swallowed her breath.

"Now that we're dating, I think I'd like you to meet him." There, she said it. It was out in the open, the big issue. Mycroft had met Anthea's makeshift sister, the most important person in her life. Now it was time for him to meet her brother, who may come and go in her life, who might not be in the top ten best people in her life, but whom her love and friendship with has never wavered – even if they don't see each other in years. Robbie, who got her through college when she moved to London and Jamie stayed back home.

"Oh." Mycroft hummed in a surprisingly unbothered tone. His eyes fell back down to the newspaper resting on Anthea's counter. "No."

She knew it was coming, she had expected it. It still didn't stop Anthea's heart falling to the pit of her stomach as the cold wave of disappointment crashed onto her. She looked down at her cooling toast and inwardly sighed. Mycroft's eyes drifted back up to her face, and she could feel the judgement. She tried to smile as she shook her head, assuring him that she wasn't mad.

What is it all kids hate to hear from their parents? 'I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed…'

"I expected you wouldn't be interested." She shrugged. "I deluded myself into thinking that since it's me you might just do it anyway." Silence fell as Mycroft continued to stare at Anthea. The man sighed, straightening his posture in his stool, and folding his hands together on top of his paper.

"I've met Jamie, Anthea. I deal with her for your sake, and I can't stand her. Robbie is an ex-boyfriend, much like Tim, and I couldn't stand him either. Why should this be any better?" Anthea pursed her lips, her eyes narrowing.

"Because he's important to me." She almost scoffed.

"A man you broke up with? Twice, if I'm not mistaken." You could just hear the derision dripping from his tongue as if he were talking to his brother. Anthea wouldn't let it bother her though, she wasn't mad. Not really, anyway, just sad.

"Myc," She sighed, pushing her hair behind her shoulders. "I've met your family. I don't have family, my oldest friends are my family. Robbie's fixed my computers for me, he helped me when I had my first car accident. The week after I dumped him I called him to help get this giant spider out of my place. He was my big brother for a few years." Her big brother that she sometimes let get to second base… Mycroft had the respect to actually listen to Anthea while she was talking, and he had the curtesy to look like he understood where she was coming from. That was better than a million other reacts she could have possibly got. But then he looked down to his paper, meaning he'd dismissed the idea.

"I'm sorry my dear, but no. I'm not wasting any more of my time than I need to on goldfish." Anthea sighed. She got off her stool, picked up her plate, and dumped the toast in her bin. She didn't really eat breakfast, anyway.

"So…"She sighed, falling back onto her stool. She felt deflated, but she had knew it was coming. There was no reason to take it out on Mycroft. "Did you want to come with me to the bookstore today?"

"That sounds achievable."

Looks like it will just be you and I on Tuesday. – A.

No problem, Ali-bear! Your guy is far too interesting and intellectual to listen to our dumb chatter ;). – Robbie.

That's not far from his reasoning, actually. – A.

No really, Al, it's cool. You told me he likes his space. That's totally cool. – Robbie.

Al. Yeah, it's for the best. He'd eat you alive. – A.

Good thing there's a lot of me ;). – Robbie.

One last chance. Anthea was going to give Mycroft one last chance to stand up and surprise her. It was the day before she was to meet Robbie for lunch and she'd decided – when the right moment arrived – to try and prompt Mycroft one more time to change his mind. She hadn't tried to since the initial conversation, but that didn't mean she hadn't secretly wished for a change of heart, however unlikely she knew it to be.

Mycroft emerged from his office and walked right over to their coatrack. He pulled his coat off and began sliding it on, as Anthea started to save her documents, she already knew what he was about to say.

"Ready for lunch, my dear?" And there it was, as he straightened up his tie and pulled at the collar of his suit.

"Mm-hmm." Anthea hummed, "Just locking up." She waited for the screen of her computer to turn black before scooping up her handbag and transferring her phone into it. She walked over to Mycroft as the man took his umbrella from the coatrack. "Speaking of lunch," Anthea added as she took her own jacket and began to put it back on. "You remember that James is working for you tomorrow so I can have the day off?" Mycroft's face fell stony, and his eyes cold.

"You are quite aware that I haven't forgotten." He griped. "Why are you bringing this up?" Anthea wanted to rub the rising tension out of her forehead.

"I don't know." She uttered with already dwindling energy. She almost wondered what the point in trying was again. It always had to be his agenda, even when he did something nice. "Maybe because I know your parents really well, and I help babysit your fully grown brother?" She couldn't even muster up enough sarcasm to give that statement the oomph it deserved. Mycroft took a deep breath as he cocked his head to the side, leaning on his umbrella.

"Your point?"

"You've only met Jamie."

"And your Uncle." A frown automatically fell onto Anthea's face and she waved Mycroft off with flick of her hand that had far more anger in it than she intended.

"He doesn't count." She barked. Anthea took a moment to look up to the ceiling and shake the negative emotions from her being, sending her curls dancing around her back. "Robbie's not a brilliant mind, he's of average intelligence and he's a little loud, I understand that he's not your type of people." She shrugged as Mycroft watched her. "But he loves different people, and he'd never judge you or Sherlock for being you."

A pause.

For a moment Anthea thought that she might have had an effect on Mycroft, that she might have gotten through to him. Maybe he could see that this was important to her, or maybe he'd stopped judging someone he'd never met so harshly.

"Your parents, I would have forced myself to go to countless dinners with." Mycroft spoke earnest, stepping closer to Anthea. "I'll stay at Jamie's wedding until you want to leave only because you've known her since you were small." Anthea was already mentally holding up the white flag of surrender. She knew she'd lost again. "Isn't bad enough the people I am forced to socialise with thanks to you and Sherlock?" Anthea didn't know what to say or what to do. She shrugged and shook her head at the same time, shutting her eyes as the disappointment set in.

"That's the thing about caring for people, isn't it?" Her voice was flat. "Sometimes you do painful things for their sake." She opened the door, ready to leave for lunch. "Lives ending and hearts breaking aren't the only reasons why caring isn't an advantage, is it?"

Anthea spent the later part of the morning walking around London with Robbie. The topic seemed to be relationships and how everyone they knew were apparently reaching the age where they were settling down. They talked about Robbie's girlfriend, Mycroft, Robbie's brother's boyfriend, Jamie's fiancé, John and Mary, and how two people they knew from university who hated each other were now getting married. Anthea had totally called it. She might have even told the guy that he'd end up dating her one day. Robbie wondered when did everyone turned into adults.

After that they walked to the little café near work that Anthea adored. She wanted coffee more than anything, and she knew that their food was fantastic. They also had all day breakfast, and she remembered that Robbie had a weakness for French toast.

"Ah man, I love French Toast." Robbie exclaimed, proving Anthea's point, as he looked through the menu. The pair were sitting at one of the tables outside where you could watch all the busy people on the street passing by and just listen to their conversations. "Cate," the new girlfriend "makes pretty good French toast. She loves cooking."

"Mycroft likes it." Anthea hummed, already eyeing the chicken Caesar salad. "But he can't have it often, he's a bit of a yo-yo dieter." Robbie sniffed, it noise somewhere between laughing in humour and scoffing in derision.

"Well done to him, hey." He laughed, widening his eyes. "I don't have the strength for that."

"You've always been into food." Anthea rolled her eyes. Robbie's grin grew from ear to ear as he leaned forward.

"Remember that time you baked chocolate cupcakes that were actually surprisingly good?" He laughed through his toothy grin. Anthea leaned back in her chair and shook her head.

"I think you asked me to marry you."

"Hey, I was pretty drunk." He leaned back also. Anthea quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Are you going to ask Cate to marry you over her French toast?" The brunette teased.

"I'll have to try her cupcakes first." Anthea actually snorted when she laughed, causing Robbie to laugh. Suddenly Robbie's laughter stopped as he focused on something behind Anthea.

"Tall guy in a suit and holding an umbrella." He nodded in the direction he was looking. "Isn't that what your genius looks like?" Frowning, Anthea twisted around in her chair to look behind her. Surely enough there he was. Mycroft Holmes, jacket over his black suit with red details, wearing his black leather gloves, clutching that stupid umbrella, walking towards them as calm and suave as ever. He'd done it, he'd actually shown up. How on earth had he pulled through once again? What had changed his mind?

"That's him alright." Anthea mumbled. Mycroft nodded to Anthea as he approach. Both Anthea and Robbie stood up to greet him. "Hello?" Anthea asked, as Mycroft stroked her down the arm as a somewhat affection greeting.

"Hello, dear." He hummed, taking off his gloves on hand at a time in swift practiced movements. "I apologise for the time," He looked over to Robbie "Not all of us can take the day off to visit with a friend." He mocked Anthea. She rolled her eyes but couldn't get rid of the small smile forming on her lips.

"Um," Anthea flicked a curl behind her ear. "Myc, this is Robbie. Robbie, Mycroft Holmes." A very faint look of derision forming on his lips from both nicknames – he was trying to hide it – Mycroft nodded in greeting.

"Yeah, I heard you don't like my name." Robbie laughed, fluffing up his dyed black hair. He didn't even try to shake Mycroft's hand, probably remembering the story of when Mycroft refused to shake Tim's hand. "You can call me Robert if it bugs you so much. My dad does, and half my customers do." Mycroft's eyes flickered over to Anthea's face. She nodded faintly. Steel eyes returned to Robbie as Mycroft sighed.

"If don't mind." He faked a smile. Robbie laughed and held his hands up.

"Not at all." The three of them sat down, with Anthea swapping seats to sit in between them.

"Robbie and I have just been talking about friends and the like." Anthea smiled at Mycroft, placing her hand on top of his. The warmth she felt just having him here, to meet one of the longest surviving people in her life. It was too nice. It was surreal. He was really trying for her and it was great to see. This was not to benefit him, this was for her benefit.

"Oh?" Mycroft asked, only a small amount of superiority seeping though. Anthea was proud.

"Hey, Mycroft, tell me," Robbie leaned forward once more. "Is Jamie still really annoying?" Mycroft's face fell as he clicked his tongue.

"Please don't get me started, we'll be here all day and I have a meeting in an hour and a half." Anthea rolled her eyes, laughing under her breath. Of course they'd get along over that topic.

"I just hated her loud voice." Robbie snarled. "It's like hey it's three in the morning, quiet down, the whole campus can hear you."

"That laugh sends a shiver down your spine."

This was not what Anthea had expected.

Author's Note: There you go. I hope you like it, it's been on my list of ideas for quite some time now. I should let you guys know that the voting for the 2000 review Myc chapter is now closed, and when I have some extra time I'll start writing it. Thanks to our guest reviewers from last chapter; Guests x3, Corrine, Khari2, Nana, bgeiner, Wink, Wheezzy8, Louise Pond, Bibliophiler, sunandstars, ovejalucifer, and EggsBenedict. Thanks to all my reviewers. See you guys next chapter.