Cuts

Chapter 9

It’s been a week since I had met Mycroft. He got me the flat and I was ready to go back to school soon. I had been going back to Mycroft’s house each day. I would meet him in the morning and he would feed me breakfast. We would go to his work and while he worked, I would read, write, or do summer work for school. We would eat lunch in his office and go to his house at six each day. He would feed me dinner and then he would send me home. It was nice to have a route with him. I didn’t know how to thank him. Every time I tried to thank him he would brush it off.

One morning I was eating breakfast with Mycroft and saw he didn’t have any food. I had never noticed that he never ate breakfast. “Mycroft?” I ask softly.

            “Yes?” Mycroft answers without lifting his head.

“Why don’t you eat breakfast?” I ask.

He stops reading his newspaper and looks up, frowning. “It doesn’t concern you Miss Mullen.” He says. He had found out my mother’s maiden name and got my name changed. I was still getting used to being called it. 

“Yeah I know, but isn’t breakfast the most important meal of the day. Isn’t that what you told me when I refused to eat?” I say and smile.

He frowns at me. “Just eat Miss Mullen.”

“Nope.” I cross my arms. “Not till you do. I want you to eat a full English breakfast.” I say.

He frowns and has a slight fear in his eyes. “No. I do not follow the orders of little girls.” Mycroft says.

“Not a little girl and I won’t eat till you do.” I say and smirk. I knew he wanted me to get better and to eat so he would have to. He sighs and tells the cooks he would like an English breakfast. I grin and see him frown at me. The cook brings out his breakfast and I smile at the cook. The cook leaves and I see Mycroft looking at his plate with hate. I slowly get up and move over to him. “Mycroft?” I ask softly.

He looks up at me. “What?” He asks.

“It won’t bite.” I joke. He frowns more.  “What is it? Why don’t you eat?” I ask and place a hand on his shoulder. He tenses up and sighs.

“Sit down Miss Mullen. I am about to tell you something only mummy, dad, and myself know.” He says. I nod and sit down. “As a child, I was a fat little kid. The stupid people in my class would make fun of me because of my weight and my intelligence.” He says.

“Intelligence? What were you a lot smarter than the other kids?” I ask.

“Of course I was.” He says and rolls his eyes. I laugh. “I was living in a world full of goldfish.” I look at him confused and he shakes his head. “I was deduce people and they wouldn’t like what I told them.”

“Deduce? What is that?” I ask.

“It is where I can notice things about people most people wouldn’t.” He explains.

“Deduce me.”  I say.

He sighs. “You won’t like what I have to say.”

“I don’t care. I want to see what you know about me.” I say and smile.

He nods and looks at me for a minute. “You don’t wear any make-up because you really don’t care about what others say, mostly because you don’t care about yourself. You dye your hair sometimes, mostly brown, probably to match your sister’s hair to fit in. You are shorter then Irene and heavier too. People pick on you for your weight even though it is nothing major. Just a little over weight.” He says and looks at me.

I grin. “Wow.”

He frowns at me. “You aren’t mad?”

I shake my head. “Why would I be mad? It is all right.”

He smiles and pats my hand. “You aren’t fat by the way. Don’t let your sister rule your thoughts.”

“Only if you don’t let those stupid goldfish rule yours.” I smile and pick up a piece of bacon off his plate and eat it. He laughs and nods. He picks up his fork and starts eating. From that day, I would sit closer to Mycroft. I trusted him to help me. Of course there were our bad days. When he wouldn’t eat or I would ignore everyone. Those were the days that my sister was in my thoughts. Those were the days that I would cut.

“Mycroft.” I ask.

He looks down at me. “Yes Ardaigh?” He called me Ardaigh which was rose in Irish. My middle name was Róise, which was an Irish name and meant rose. I smile at the term of endearment.

“Does Sherlock comment about your weight a lot?” I ask and frown.

He sighs and wraps his arm around me. “He does it to get a rise out of me.”

“Still, it isn’t right.” I say.

“I know. That is why I want Irene out of your thoughts because what your siblings say can hurt a lot more than what other people say.” He explains.

I nod and snuggle into him. “I won’t let him talk about you that way.” I tell him.

He laughs. “If you can, I will be amazed.” He holds me close. We finally get to his house and ‘Anthea’ gets out. “Time to go inside.”

“I don’t want to move.” I pout.

He sighs. “Are you implying that you want me to carry you?” I nod and grin up at him. “Never going to happen.”

I laugh and get out of the car. “It was worth a shot.” We go into the house. “Have you ate tonight? I text ‘Anthea’ sometimes to make sure you are eating.”

“Oh I know. I did eat. Are you hungry?” He asks.

“No. I’m just tired.” I say and yawn.

“Go to your room then.” He says.

“Yeah no. I can’t. We have movies to watch!” I yell and run to the living room. A couple years back, Mycroft told me he had never seen The Notebook or any real movie. So, I took it as my personal mission to introduce him to all the good movies in the world. I would come over every Saturday and watch movies. He never said anything, but I knew he enjoyed it. I run to the movie cabinet and grab the fifth Harry Potter movie. He sits down on the couch and gets the cook to pop popcorn and bring up drinks. I lays down on the couch with my head in his lap, our usual positions. He starts playing with my hair as the movie starts.

I wake up later. All the lights are out and I feel something under my cheek. I look around and notice I was laying my head on Mycroft’s chest. He must have laid down during the movie and pulled me with him. He did this sometimes. No one but I knew that Mycroft Holmes, the British government, liked to cuddle. I smile and close my eyes. I was still tired.