Chapter Text
Sherlock noticed something was off the second Mycroft walked in the door. He noticed how his brother was lighter on his feet, seemed simultaneously more and less tense, and already started to deduce what was up with him.
“It can't be that you enjoyed the classes.” Sherlock hummed. Mycroft and him were laying on mycroft's bed. The older of the two was doing homework while the younger stared at him. “I highly doubt you made friends..” He watched his brother tense, “or maybe you did..”
“We're not exactly friends, but he's nice to me at least.” Mycroft mumbled, he couldn't be bothered to hide it from Sherlock. Besides, what was there to hide, somebody had been nice to him, it wasn't a big deal. “He's on the football team, he helped me with drills.” Mycroft hated how fond he felt remembering something that happened only a few hours ago.
Sherlock watched every little twitch and movement on his brother's face. He couldn't hide the look of horror when he put the pieces together. “Mycroft! Gross! You're acting like a teenage girl!” Sherlock fussed as he scrambled off the bed like it was contagious. “Gross! You're gross!” The nine year old made dramatic puking noises. Mycroft simply rolled his eyes.
“Don't be dramatic, Sherlock, besides I've seen you eyeing the boy down the street.” Mycroft groaned as he sat up. Sherlock went pink when the boy down the street was mentioned, grumbling about it not being the same. “Listen, me and Greg are Just friends. I doubt anything will happen between us so just forget about it.”
Sherlock didn't seem convinced, staring at Mycroft with a staggering amount of suspicion. “If he hurts you, tell me. I don't trust him” The nine year old said in an all too serious tone. Sherlock overprotectiveness was endearing, if not a little scary due to his track record of blowing things up.
“I'm not defenseless, brother mine, I can handle my own.” Mycroft said with the smallest of smiles. The younger boy huffed but relented. “Now if I may, I need to finish my homework.” the older boy said as he returned to the geometry homework that he was almost finished with.
Sherlock didn't mention anything for two weeks, only shot mycroft glares when he mentioned ‘his new friend’ to their parents. Everything was going so well until the boy down the street knocked on their door with his grey haired babysitter in tow. Sherlock had been the one to open the door, beaming with excitement when he saw his friend. He hadn't even noticed the babysitter until he spoke up.
“Excuse me, you must be Sherlock. I'm friends with your brother, does he happen to be home?” The grey haired stranger said as he knelt down to the ten year old height. At first Sherlock stared at him, but then he schemes. He had been so bored, but now he had the perfect opportunity to bug his brother.
“Mycroft is in his room, Sir. Up the stairs, second door to the left.” Sherlock said innocently. The teen fell for it, muttering ‘good kid’ as he ruffled Sherlock dark curls and rushed inside. Sherlock smiled almost evilly. “Come along, John, we've got some chemistry to do.” He said as he tugged the blond boy inside.
Mycroft thought he had at least three panic attacks when his door burst open and Greg was standing there. He tried his best to calm down quickly but there was no way to hide his initial response. “Hi, John wanted to come over to play with Sherlock and I need geometry help badly.” Greg explained quickly after noticing how badly he startled mycroft.
Mycroft took a moment to process everything. “Oh- okay. Come sit then, but please knock next time, or tell me that you're in my house.” The Holmes said as he sat up on his bed and made room for Greg to sit.
“Sorry, Mate. I'll knock next time.” Greg said apologetically. He said carefully on mycroft's bed and started digging through his backpack. “We've got our first major test in math tomorrow and I'm nor ready. Thought I might as well take you up on that offer.” He said as he pulled out his math review that had only one problem solved on it.
Mycroft looked over the review, a bunch of algebra review questions and some basic proofs,easy enough. “I can help, but I'm not responsible for your test grade.” Mycroft said with a small smile.
For quite a while they sat there, working through every problem together and slowly but surely Greg was doing them by himself. Mycroft was acutely aware of how close Greg's hand was to his, how close they were in general, and how it had been too quiet downstairs. They went unbothered until Sherlock was knocking on the door and stuck his little head in. “Oh brother dear and Mr. Greg, come see what me and John have done, pretty please.” Sherlock said way too sweetly. Mycroft knew his brother far too well to fall for it, but before he could say anything, Greg was already up. Mycroft followed with his anxiety growing as they entered the kitchen and he saw the chemistry set he knew too well.
“Greg, pour this in there!” John said in between his giggles. Sherlock pulled his friend far away from the set and even Mycroft hid slightly behind the counter, feeling helpless as he watched Greg stepped up to the set.
“ah, you a chemistry fan, Sherlock? This is pretty neat.” Greg said with his beautiful smile as he grabbed the vial and carefully poured it into the tube. It couldn't have been seconds later when it erupted into a small fire, and let out enough smoke to cover Greg. Sherlock was laughing almost manically as Mycroft grabbed their mini fire extinguisher that they had just in case of these scenarios. Greg had stumbled back from the force of the smoke, desperately trying to rub it away from his eyes. Once the fire was out and Sherlock had been sent to his room, Mycroft turned his attention to Greg. Getting him a towel to wipe away some of the ash. What he wasn't expecting was for Greg to start laughing as he wiped his face.
“Oh my god,” Greg muttered as he almost laughed himself to tears. “I thought the rumors about your brother were made up, but no, he's the real deal.”
Mycroft felt so much better at that. He thought that Greg would have been scared away, intimidated by his brother, but no, he was happy. “Yes, well, he's always like that. I'm sorry that he did that to you.” Mycroft said softly as he wiped away some of the ash, in an oddly intimate fashion. “You should probably go home and take a shower. My parents will be home soon anyway.” He said softly. Greg nodded with a soft chuckle.
“I probably should, I'll go grab my backpack then. Have a good day, Myc.” He said with a smile. Mycroft cleaned up when he heard John and Greg leaving out the back door as the Holmes parents entered through the front.
Mycroft felt oddly content, the way Greg dealt with Sherlock was quite endearing. Everything was quite endearing aut the other boy. Mycroft smiled to himself as he sweeped up the rest of the ash.
The next day, he received a test after first period:
Greg: I passed my text, thank you for the study help <3
Mycroft needed to know what that heart meant.