Chapter Text
The color bloomed beneath his fingers. He didn’t remember it being such a bright scarlet. How was he going to explain this? He had promised John that he wouldn’t let this happen again. Yet, here he stood, the evidence staining his shirt.
Sherlock scrambled for a rag, his scarf, something to stop the flow. He couldn’t do this to John again. The disappointment in John’s eyes, the way his voice shook last time Sherlock had made the wrong choice. Sherlock’s head turned as he heard the footsteps on the stairs, John’s voice asking Rosie about her day at school. Oh no! He couldn’t let the little girl see him like this.
Sherlock gently wrapped his coat around him, trying his best to avoid staining it with the now tacky fluid. He would stand tall. He would be brave. He wouldn’t let his family see him like this.
John reached the top of the stairs. Rosie ran to him with her happy cry of, “Sh’lock!” and she pounced on him for her hug. John stared in horror as his daughter pulled away covered in the acrylic paint that clung to both her and Sherlock.
“You managed to grab red instead of pink, didn’t you?” John sighed.
All Sherlock could do was nod in shame, as he hid his face in Rosie’s curls.