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I’ve known you since I was a child. I used to follow you home after school. You never knew I was there, I don’t think you even knew I existed. I was poor and got into your school because of my grandparents money. You were a rich, posh, bastard who wore suits to school every day and carried an umbrella around like a security blanket, I never figured out why.
I admired you from afar and walked away when you turned to me. The other kids made fun of you behind your back but were too intimidated to do it to your face. My friends teased me because I was obsessed with you but couldn’t bring myself to talk to you. I knew you by the age of eight and you were ten.
I remember your brother was holding onto you and wouldn’t let you go the third year I was there. We were so young then and Sherlock was only three when I first saw him. You were so embarrassed that day the other kids teased you to your face, I know because I beat up some kid for calling you a name I can't even remember. I was so angry that they couldn’t see what I saw, even back then without talking to you I knew you better than anyone else.
You were so smart and focused as we grew up and I always envied that, I struggled through every one of my classes to keep up with you.
I didn’t say a word to you until high school and the only reason I did then was because I ran into you. Literally, I was running through the halls and hit you head on then fell on top of you, I was so embarrassed I wanted to die. At that point we both got teased and were called so many different names I couldn’t keep track.
I knew I was gay by the age of fourteen but didn’t entirely accept it until I was seventeen. I had dated girls to try and get over you in high school it disgusted me to my core so I stopped dating. I never knew what you identified as, it wasn’t something anyone talked about -no one knew I was gay- and you never dated anyone. I didn’t know what to think and soon enough we were in our last year and I was afraid I’d have to say goodbye to you forever.
I introduced myself properly three months before school ended and made a right fool of myself. You had laughed, introduced yourself and gave me your number, it was the best day of my life. We texted back and forth for hours that night about things I can’t remember and planned a day to meet at the park.
It was odd seeing you dressed so casual but I adored you even more for it. We talked as if we’d known each other our whole lives and wandered around the city. I didn’t know if you liked me or even cared who I was but every second I spent with you, I realized how much further I fell for you.
We graduated and you were to be sent off to college, I worked as hard as I could to follow you but I didn’t get it. The day I got a letter saying I was rejected I cried for the first time since I was six and it lasted ages. I remember visiting your house and Sherlock comforted me while I waited for you to come home, he was so smart even as a kid, sometimes I find myself missing his hugs.
I said goodbye to you and was sent away to my own college on scholarship a few days later. I went through the motions of life as if I was dead, unable to move on from your absence. We talked every night but our schedules didn’t match up and I would fall asleep too quickly. I was so secluded, I didn’t make any friends and I thought sometimes the only thing keeping me alive was you.
Those years passed by in a blur the only things I remember where the holidays I got to see you.
Eventually I graduated, you told me you wouldn’t be able to be there, I was so crushed and didn’t want to go to the ceremony. My parents convinced me to and I almost died when I saw you in the crowd. After it was over I remember having to hold back tears as I hugged you so tight it must have hurt.
That night you stayed and I took you to the garden behind my flat, we walked around talking about everything we missed. You gave me a graduation present which was the black chain bracelet I had seen in catalogs but it was far too expensive for me to get, I still wear it even now. I looked at you and started to protest but you kissed my cheek and said it was nothing.
I went back home and you went back to college to finish up the few years you had left, then I bought my own flat and we went on.
I figured out where I was going and applied for Scotland Yard they never messaged me back so I assumed I didn’t get it. I called you crying and drunk for the first time in my life but you were in classes so I left you a message, you never told me what I sent you.
I got a call a few weeks later, apparently I got accepted for the intern position at the Yard, I never got the letter. You came down to see me that day and I was so excited I kissed you. I freaked out and you kinda did also but then you smiled and kissed me back. I didn’t know what to do and you didn’t either we were both so awkward and unsure it was terrible.
We went on our first date that night and you held my hand and opened up doors for me as if I was a woman. I teased you for it and you just smiled and called me ridiculous nicknames.
You left and we continued on, I started work and you went back to school, we talked whenever we could and met up for birthdays and anniversaries.
Less than a year later you graduated, I came and watched and almost cried again, we celebrated and I gave you a new fancy umbrella cause yours had broken. You still keep the umbrella in the glass display case in the dining room.
You came home with me and we made love for the first time it was awkward weird and bloody amazing. You moved in with me and you got a job at some top secret agency with someone you met while in college, I found it very odd but I was so proud of you.
We got our husky puppy; Luna, a year after and Sherlock came to visit us almost all the time after that, he loved her although he wouldn’t admit it.
You proposed to me on our five year anniversary and got me this beautiful black band. We both cried that night.
We married a year after that with both of our families presence, we had Sherlock marry us. He had become so close in our lives there was no other choice, he also wouldn’t take no for an answer. It wasn’t the best wedding in the world and so many things went wrong but it was ours and I loved it.
We got both got promotions and had our ups and downs and slowly learned how the other worked. We got a house together upstate with our own money and it felt amazing having something of our own.
It’s now been twenty-five years since I first met you, sixteen years since I first spoke to you, fourteen years since I first introduced myself, twelve years since you first kissed my cheek, nine years since we started dating, four years since you proposed and three years since we married. I’m thirty-three and your thirty-five. Sherlock is twenty-eight and I give him cases at the police station, I still work at, all these years later. Luna is 8 and still the best pet out of her and the two cat twins I can’t tell apart.
I have loved you for twenty-five years and have kept track of all of that for so long, so I wouldn’t forget. I don’t want to forget a single moment of our life together. You are my rock, my home and my life, I love you with every fiber in my being. Happy Anniversary Mycroft Holmes, you might not know this day exists but it’s the day I laid eyes on you for the first time. I love you and can’t wait to see what I can add next to this list.
~Gregory Holmes-Lestrade <3