Like Wire (A BBC Sherlock Fan Fiction)

[seventeen]

//flashback//

Sherlock distances himself from his older brother, this was Mycrofts request and Sherlock is pleased - he does not want to be shepherded by his irritant of a sibling on his first day at his boarding school.

Everyone else seems to already have friends, which dims Sherlocks mood slightly but not so much to destroy the optimism he focuses upon the day. He knows he is different - cleverer and darker than his fellow peers - but he is concentrated on making friends, which was something he had struggled with during primary school.

Two girls. Bullies. You can tell by the way they walk, the way they swagger. They've spotted their prey. A new year 7, all alone, who looks different with his hair and his especially smart outfit.

They stand, though older than Sherlock they are not much taller - lacking in intimidation.

"Hey Kid, we like your hair,"

Their hands root through Sherlocks curls, pulling tugging. It hurts.

One of the girls finger nails are yellowing and her teeth are stained with - ah yes - tobacco. She's got bruises coating her arm, fresh bruises made purposely over the last 6 weeks.

The words they speak begin crawling up Sherlocks skin, soaking into his brain - he will have to see the damage caused later.

The other one - oh, this is good - has a crush on the girl that smokes. Her pupils are fully dilated (and not from drugs, Sherlock knows the difference), she stares admiringly up at the girl to her right and when she presses her wrist against the top of Sherlocks head, Sherlock can feel her particularly quick pulse vibrating through his skull.

"You shouldn't smoke," Sherlock warns, "If you get into that stuff you might end up like your Dad," In synchronization Sherlock and the girls eyes flick to her bruised arm and then they meet in an icy silence, until Sherlock turns to the other girl, "does anyone know?" he asks her.

"What?" She snaps back and Sherlock waits for her crush to look away so he can mouth 'gay' to her and wink proudly.

"Amber," the first girl hisses, "this guy is a stalker,"

"Why do you know so much about us?" Amber spits nervously.

"I'm just clever," Sherlock shrugs

Amber and her friend proceed to walk away, but the nameless girl scurries back up to Sherlock, more like an admiring and curious child than a bully.

"He died," she tells Sherlock, there are tears brimming in her dull brown eyes, "my Dad,"

"So? Look at what he did to you," Sherlock replies, untroubled by this new piece of information.

She looks shocked and maybe even a little bit enraged.

"He was still my Dad!" She exclaims.

"Right..."

"Do you even care?" she asks Sherlock, visibly annoyed now.

"Not really," He truthfully answers, "your jerk Dad died, okay. People do that - they die,"

One girl. A bully. You can tell by the way she walks, by the way she points. By the way she screams 'psycho' at the top of her lungs and runs off with a recording of Sherlock.