All my life

Aged 9

He can still remember their first case. They'd stumbled into it completely by chance, and John had been amazed when he solved it on the spot.

They'd been sitting in Science, John's eyes fixed on the board, Sherlock's eyes fixed on John.

Sherlock hated what they were doing at the moment. The Universe. Who cared? He thought to himself.

John liked it though, and so Sherlock just sat there, occasionally writing something down so he would get full marks in the test, as he almost always did. Partly because he knew what the teacher would put in it (through deducing) and partly because he always remembered everything the teacher would tell them then just delete it after the test.

'John,' Sherlock whispered. 'I'm boorreedd.'

John looked at him briefly before smiling and patting his knee. 'The lesson finishes soon.'

Sherlock groaned and threw his head back. 'But it's so boring-'

'Mr Holmes.' The teacher said, rubbing his forehead (tired (possible hangover?), crush on English teacher, only doing this as experience, maybe cover for something, detective, police?) 'Please tell me what's so important?'

Sherlock hadn't really played up in class since last year, after he had left. He preferred keeping a low profile, sitting at the back of the room, ignoring everyone. He tried not to annoy anyone, just fade into the shadows, repeating to himself, alone is good. Alone protects.

He had even tried to ignore John through the whole summer holidays after it happened, partly to hide his bruises, partly because he had decided if he never grew attached to anyone ever again, he wouldn't be so upset when they left him, because ultimately, everyone did.

Unfortunately six weeks without John had been even worse than the pain that Mycroft had left him so he had scrapped that idea almost immediately, going to John's house and saying he had been ill, and John had believed him without any questions.

As a result of Sherlock now not even making attempts to talk to anyone, John and Sherlock had become even closer, and many people thought it was unhealthy. Mrs Watson, however, said it was absolutely fine and Mummy didn't care so no one made any efforts to separate the two of them.

John often said that Sherlock was much too interesting for him to have any other friends which always made Sherlock feel really, really good. No one really said they liked him anymore, not since Mycroft had left.

Sherlock had told John about Mycroft leaving, of course, because you always tell your best friend everything, and John had sworn never to say anything to anyone else.

'This topic is boring.' Sherlock replied, prompting a snicker from John. 'It's far too easy.' Just because he tried to keep a low profile didn't mean that he wasn't still 'sassy'. That's what Harry Watson called him. 'Sassy Sherlock Holmes'. Harry was nice, Sherlock liked her, even though John said a lot of their family were a bit angry because she had got caught up with a group of girls who drank and stuff and because last year she had come out as a lesbian. John and his mother had just shrugged it off, apparently, but Mr Watson, John's dad, had sent an angry letter from Afghanistan saying it was just a phase.

Honestly, the whole concept just puzzled Sherlock. Why would you want to have a relationship with anyone? His mother and father hated each other, his mother had been having an affair with their butler, Siger, since Sherlock was a baby and his father took out his frustration by beating them all up and anyway, exposing yourself in such a way as to engage in a relationship with someone was only something idiots did.

He didn't understand what the issue was with Harry being a lesbian, anyway. So what if she just liked girls? Sherlock had known for years that he definitely didn't like girls and was perfectly alright with it. Not that he ever wanted to participate in a relationship with anyone, but if he did it would be with a boy.