Falling For You

Brother Mine

"Good morning, Brother Mine," Mycroft said as Sherlock stumbled into the kitchen after having a late night cuddling and kissing John after their date.  Sherlock saw his brother and rolled his eyes.  He opened the refrigerator and skipped past the head to the milk.  He started to pour himself a glass when Redbeard bounded up the stairs with a smile on his face.  He wagged his tail and tried to climb up Sherlock's legs, and Sherlock bent down and scooped him up into his arms.

Then Sherlock remembered that his brother was in the sitting room and sitting in John's chair.  Sherlock rolled his eyes and held Redbeard closer to his chest.

"Stop staring," Sherlock begged with another roll of his eyes.  He walked over to the sofa and held the small puppy in his lap, gently stroking it behind his ears.  Mycroft tried to think of what was going on and how Sherlock managed to find a dog identical to his previous one, but he decided that he really didn't care all that much.

"Sherl-"

"It's rude, Mycroft," Sherlock reminded him.

Mycroft took a deep breath and looked at his younger brother who had already grown so attached to the pup.  Mycroft didn't understand what was so enticing about caring anyway.   Sherlock already had John to look after with them being a couple and everything, and now Sherlock had a dog to take care of too.  When Sherlock was a child, things were different.  His mum and dad would take care of Redbeard, but now that he was supposed to be an adult but he wasn't any more mature, Mycroft had to wonder who would take care of it.

"What did you name it?" Mycroft asked softly, his voice about as delicate as it would ever get.

"Redbeard," Sherlock replied, not sure why Mycroft was suddenly being only a tad short of caring.

"Fascinating," Mycroft jeered.  

Sherlock huffed in reply, seeing that his usual brother had returned again.  An unfortunate silence consumed the room.  Sherlock wished that John was awake and would come relieve him of Mycroft duty, but he didn't have the heart to wake him up.  He knew that he would have to deal with some things on his own, and Mycroft was usually that thing.

"Why are you here, Mycroft? Is it to mock my newfound human tendencies?" Sherlock wondered.  Sherlock leant over and allowed Redbeard to wiggle back onto the carpet where he started to run around playfully.

"No," Mycroft replied as Redbeard tried pawing his way up Mycroft's leg.  Mycroft stared at the dog in fear and then at his brother.  "What's it doing?"

Sherlock chuckled at seeing his brother's fear.  He wasn't aware that his brother got scared.  "It means he likes you," Sherlock said, his usual frown returning to his face.  Looks like he's the only one."

"Oh do control yourself, Sherlock.  We're not children anymore," Mycroft hissed.  

"Yes because when we were children you brutally murdered my best friend.   Tea?" Sherlock asked, jumping up from his spot on the leather sofa.  

Mycroft had enough of this and raised his voice.  "I did not kill him!  It was-"

Interesting case.  Need you. -Lestrade

Without another word, Sherlock walked back to his room with Redbeard trailing behind him to get ready to investigate a case.