Like a Fairytale

Forbidden Tutoring

The sun was covered in clouds, not rainclouds, but the ones that make the day seem like it will rain. It was also very chilly, making Sherlock take notice of the falling leaves on the trees and the grass turning an ugly shade of brown. It's not like there were many trees around though, it's quite rare to see one anywhere other than the park, but there a couple dotting around the pitch for scenic reasons or something lame like that. Once again he sat in the bleachers, waiting for their practice to be over and reading his book or finding particularly hard math problems in the book. It was fun to try to complete them mentally, which sometimes he was able to do, but in the end he usually resorted to copying it down. Mycroft could do even the most complicated math problems without moving a muscle, something Sherlock longed to accomplish, but as much as he hated to admit it Mycroft was slightly smarter than him. Only slightly. When practice ended Sherlock waited a little bit away from the gates, ducking away in the shadows when he saw the team emerging, just in case Anderson was feeling a bit aggravated today. John spotted him though, muttering something to the team and leaving the pack to join him.
"Hi." John muttered, looking a bit depressed for some reason. He had no reason to be depressed, all he had to do was look in the mirror and see that his beautifully golden hair was swished to the side a little bit and beaded with sweat. It made Sherlock really want to swish it to the right side again, but he resisted.
"So, how was practice?" he muttered lamely as they walked through the streets, embarrassed at his own stupid comment.
"Tiring." John muttered, kicking a stone rather aggressively into a gutter.
"You seem a little bit down today." Sherlock observed, but John just shrugged, as if he didn't really notice.
"It's been a long week." He decided.
"You can say that again. Now I actually have to get out and do stuff." Sherlock said with a shiver.
"You're not really one for getting out of the house are you?" John asked.
"Not at all, the less human interaction the better." Sherlock agreed, but he didn't add how he would gladly spend every second of his life side by side with John.
"Well I guess there's nothing wrong with that." John shrugged, but Sherlock picked up a tone of disapproval in his voice. Well sooorry Johnny, but not everyone can be as easily friendly and attractive as you are. They crossed the street and entered the park, sitting at their usual table and unpacking their papers as well as their dinners.
"So, we've got a test coming up then." John muttered.
"Do you mean here or in class?" Sherlock asked.
"Both, unfortunately." John sighed.
"You can manage, it won't take long and we can spend the rest of the time reviewing for the one we have next week." Sherlock assured, as if that deserved its own party or something. John just hunched over, leaning on his elbows so that his cheeks scrunched up adorably.
"I saw you actually worked in math, it's good to see that." Sherlock pointed out as he sorted out the papers John would need for their own mini review.
"Oh, ya, well the quicker I'm out of these math therapy sessions the better." John agreed, making Sherlock smile, however a little bit sadly. Of course these were going to end as well, when he thought it couldn't get any better, everything was going to end.
"Well I don't know how long she wants you to take these; it could be all year or only when you get your math grade up." Sherlock shrugged, hoping it was all year. "You better hope the other teachers don't take a leaf out of her book though."
"They can't get a tutor for all four classes can they?" John groaned, as if that very thought was absolutely revolting.
"I don't know, maybe. We'd be here all night though." Sherlock laughed.
"I don't even want to think that negatively." John admitted with a shudder. Sherlock could only imagine sitting on this bench at twelve or something, watching John stumble around his history work as the moon shined down on them. If only.
"So, you can do these problems I guess, or at least try them." Sherlock decided. "A little review." He had copied some problems down while they were talking, thirty or so in all and passed them over to John.
"How do you write so neatly?" John asked, googling at the writing with awe.
"I don't know, I just do." Sherlock shrugged, blushing a little bit as he had taken that as a complement.
"I didn't even know numbers could be written in cursive!" John pointed out. Sherlock gave him an odd look because numbers most certainly couldn't be written in cursive, but apparently his writing appeared that way.
"Just start working." he decided, biting into his sandwich Mrs. Hudson had packed for him. He watched John work for quite some time, occasionally looking at other things so that he didn't come across as a stalker, like a bird hopping around in the dirt and a couple of kids playing tag. One of the bigger ones had tagged too aggressively, sending a small little girl falling into the dirt with ear splitting sobs. Sherlock felt bad for laughing a little as she ran to her mom with tears flowing freely from her eyes. Sherlock had never cried about getting beat up, even in kindergarten it never bothered him, they were just lower than him and wanted nothing more to bring them down to their level. It wasn't his fault he was the superior mind, and he wasn't going to let stupid comments burst his bubble.
"I'm done." John said, handing Sherlock the paper to correct. He got only six wrong, which, for John, was actually extra ordinary, obviously something Sherlock was doing was right.
"Great, this is great." Sherlock decided with a proud smile. John returned it shyly, as if he thought it wasn't that big of a deal, but in Sherlock's eyes it was improvement of the best kind.
"I guess it's better than before." John shrugged.
"Yes, it way better than before, you've improved a lot." Sherlock agreed.
"Are you calling me stupid?"
"Only in every other subject." Sherlock shrugged.
"Maybe you should be a teacher when you grow up." John suggested.
"I wouldn't dream of it, the noise, the people, hateful." Sherlock decided with a hiss.
"Maybe you wouldn't be the best teacher." John agreed, obviously changing his mind after some thought. Sherlock nodded in agreement, finishing off the remainder of his dinner and putting all the papers back in the folder. It had been a quick and easy lesson, which was perfectly fine every once in a while. But John was hardly done with half of his sandwich so, much to Sherlock's delight, he didn't show any signs of going anywhere.
"So what's the plan for tomorrow?" he asked once his mouth was free of food.
"I don't know, what do you think?" Sherlock shrugged.
"There's no practice, so anytime works, do you want to just get it over with in the morning?" John suggested.
"Alright, ten o'clock, meet here." Sherlock decided.
"Sounds good." He agreed. Sherlock sighed, trying not to look too happy after the promise of spending another day with John, maybe longer. But still John wasn't getting packed, so Sherlock pushed a fallen leaf around the wooden table awkwardly, wanting to start a conversation but knowing how.
"You know what should I give you my number, just in case we need to clarify anything?" John asked, looking a little bit uncomfortable with the suggestion but shrugging it off. Immediately Sherlock's eyes widened and he couldn't stop the blush rising in his cheeks, but he stayed cool and just nodded. He did have a phone of course, the newest generation of IPhone available but he rarely used it, other than looking up facts or using the calculator it just sat on his desk and collected dust.
"Uh, sure, I don't have my phone on me though." He agreed. John pulled a piece of scrap paper from his bag and scribbled down his phone number, handing it to Sherlock with an awkward sort of smile. Sherlock took it eagerly, not wanting to look too excited about getting John's phone number but just tucking it into the pocket of his jacket, afraid to say anything if it came out as a croak.
"Should I uh, give you mine too, for the record?" Sherlock asked, suddenly worried it was a two way street.
"If you want to, you can just tell me who you are really; I'll add you to my contacts that way." John assured, making Sherlock's heart swell three sizes. He will be in John's contacts, and he now possessed John Watson's number, this was the first step to every relationship.
"Okay." Sherlock agreed after a small silence, making him blush even more.
"So, I guess I should head home, mom's not crazy about me missing dinner every night, she says it's a time for family." John groaned.
"Does your family know I'm the one tutoring you? I mean it could spark up some controversy, I never told my family." Sherlock asked, worried that the Watsons would knock down his front door with a shotgun.
"No, I'm not stupid enough to tell them that. They think I'm just going for extra math help, I never mentioned you." John assured.
"Ya, I did the same." Sherlock agreed. This was almost like a forbidden relationship, like Romeo and Juliet.
"I'm sure my dad would blow a fuse, I hate to say it but he's got it out for you guys, one mention of you or your company and he starts throwing things." John admitted. There were multiple things Sherlock could say to this, mostly bragging rights and insults of course, but he didn't.
"Al my dad ever talks about is stocks, we're not stupid enough to mention you guys around him either." Sherlock agreed.
"What if they walked in this gate right now?" John laughed, looking at the gate entrance.
"If they were together I'm sure one of them would be thrown under a cab." Sherlock guessed.
"My dad would uproot a tree and crush you with it." John decided.
"And mine would, with the help of my brother of course, would pull all of your limbs off, one by one." Sherlock agreed.
"I guess it's best they didn't know." John decided.
"Ya, it is." Sherlock nodded. There was some awkward silence, leaving Sherlock to imagine what the Watson family would do, or even his own family, if they found out the two of them were actually a couple. They'd have to run away to avoid their own executions.
"So I should be going, my mom will get all fussy if I'm late." John decided. Sherlock didn't want to point out that it was Friday night and parents should be a little more lenient, but the sooner he could get to sleep the sooner he could be with John the next day, so he nodded, getting to his feet and shouldering his bag awkwardly. He heard the paper with John's number crinkle a bit in his pocket, which made him worry the numbers might be illegible, this was the closest thing he had to a relationship and he didn't want to spoil it by asking for a spare copy. They walked out of the park together in silence until they reached John's house, parting through a crowd of business men, all grumbling about what Sherlock could guess was the economy.
"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." John decided, and Sherlock nodded.
"Bye." He muttered to John's retreating back, knowing his words hadn't been heard. He left the sidewalk quickly before the door opened, in case, as John said, his dad came out and beat him with a tree. It was actually kind of funny how alike their parents were and yet how different. If someone had united the companies, say two extremely in love boys that go against their family's rules, then they'd be making twice the money without the competition. And simply the idea would make the media go wild, they loved them separately for no reason at all, just because they were rich, but together they'd be like the no good Kardashians. Sherlock walked all the way home with a large smile on his face, this really was a nice day.
"I'm home!" he announced through the house, Redbeard running from the kitchen to jump up on him and sniff around, as if trying to tell just how close John had gotten.
"Good timing, come help Mrs. Hudson with the dishes!" Mrs. Holmes called out from somewhere upstairs.
"Wha... I don't even eat dinner here!" Sherlock exclaimed, throwing his bag on the steps to be taken up later.
"Now Sherlock!" Mrs. Holmes demanded, once again an annoying tone of finality in her voice. Sherlock groaned, slouching over to the kitchen to where Mrs. Hudson was hand washing the dishes. Half of Sherlock thought that she never used a dishwasher because she was too old fashioned and maybe couldn't figure out how, but the other half was convinced she washed them by hand so that one of the family could help. He grabbed a towel and dried the dishes with a scowl, not saying a word.
"So, how is school going?" Mrs. Hudson asked, raising her eyebrows to show that she didn't mean just school.
"Fine." Sherlock snapped.
"Any new friends?" she asked again. Of course she was after him pouring out his soul about his crush, and of course he would never tell her for the life of him.
"Of course not." He pointed out.
"How about this crush I've detected?" she asked as she scrubbed a big pot. Sherlock didn't know what had been for dinner that night, but it sure made a lot of dishes.
"I don't have a crush." He growled. There was a moment silence and Mrs. Hudson just hummed in disagreement, it wouldn't be that easy to shake her off of his tail.
"How about this kid you're tutoring?" she asked.
"He's fine." Sherlock sighed.
"Who is he?"
"It doesn't matter, some stupid kid, you wouldn't know him." Sherlock assured.
"Have you been helping him?" she asked.
"Of course I have, he's getting better already." Sherlock mumbled, not looking her in the eye for fear she'd notice his face getting hot.
"I'd expect so. You are a very smart boy Sherlock." She assured, making Sherlock groan more and speed up to get the dishes done. When finally the last one was put away Mrs. Hudson let him free, and he ran as if shot out of a cannon in fear of getting called back for more chores. Redbeard was at his heels, and only then did Sherlock remember the phone number scrawled in his pocket. He grabbed his bag and ran up the stairs, shutting the door and locking it, leaning against the wood and catching his breath. a