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Sherlock entered the room, his expression exhausted and worried. "Her fever isn't going down..." William smiled at him. "It takes a while, you know? You should get some sleep, I'll be looking after her."
"You're just as tired as I am." Sherlock sat next to his husband and held his hand. "Not really. Besides, I'm used to taking care of a sick child. Louis was fragile, you know? I could never get a full night's sleep. I would always wake up to check if he was still breathing." Although said with a smile it was a painful memory. Sherlock was already used to his coping mechanism and the way he brushed everything off with a smile. "I miss my honest and lazy husband."
"It was the hormones!" William blushed as Sherlock smirked in victory. "One of us should go to sleep," William sighed. "Because she'd go and get herself into trouble as soon as she's feeling better. I just think we shouldn't both be asleep during that." It was to be expected. For the better or the worst, she was just like them. Clever, a little too clever, and easily bored. That was why they were both overprotective of her because she had to stay the way she was. Innocent and happy. "I won't let her have the same childhood as me." William had once said as they both sat next to a window, watching the rain and drinking a suspicious amount of wine.
"Fine, but don't get mad at me after she blackmails me into buying more candy!" Sherlock finally gave in and started walking back to their bedroom. "My my, do you have any secrets worth blackmailing, Mr. Holmes?"
oOo
"Sherly, can I have some of your drink?" Melody asks as soon as Sherlock comes back with their drinks. She was excited about traveling on a train for the first time; but 15 minutes later, she was already bored and looking for new forms of entertainment. "You won't like it, just drink your milk chocolate*. Here's your tea, Liam." William silently thanked Sherlock, enjoying the interaction between him and their daughter, already guessing who would the victor be. "But I want to try it! You seem to like it."
"It's bitter. You hate bitter." Sherlock looked at William. "You're enjoying this, aren't you." He whispered. "Yes, I wonder if you can stop her." William laughed and Sherlock smirked.
"Please? Sherlock?" Melody insisted again. It was another habit she had picked from William, changing from 'Sherly' to 'Sherlock' whenever she was more serious. But she used it way more often than William, since for a child at her age, when she didn't know everything or anything, almost all the inconveniences were serious. "Fine, here you go." He handed her the cup and sat back.
Melody looked at the cup happily. The smell was a bit strong for her but she didn't hate it, at least not as much as she hated the smell of cigarettes or alcohol. (Which is why her parents stopped both drinking and smoking. She had the nose of a detective and you couldn't fool her with any amount of perfume, so they just stopped it all together.) She took another look at the dark drink, closed her eyes, and took a sip. As soon as the cursed thing touched her tongue she understood why Sherlock's been smirking when he handed her the cup, it took all of her strength to swallow it and not cough.
"It's called coffee, it's an adult drink. Do you like it?" Sherlock leaned closer and took the cup from her. "You didn't put sugar in it on purpose," William said, barely holding his laughter. "You're really mean!"
"I... I didn't mind it. It wasn't as bad as you made it out to be!" She finally collected herself and drank almost half of her milk. Yes, she still wasn't tired of sweetness. "Well then, would you like to drink the rest of it?" William teased and Sherlock chuckled. "No thank you..." Melody sulked. "You guys aren't playing fair."
"Yes, I'm sorry." William patted her head and pointed at the magazine laid next to her milk. "But don't worry, I'm sure you'll be having such a great time once we reach London that you'll forget about this." Melody giggled in response. "Liam, you said we're going to meet your brothers. Do they look like you?" William tried to think of his brothers. It had been years since the last time he met them. Although he had kept an eye on Louis and exchanged letters regularly (Thanks to Moran who visited even more ever since Melody had said her first words) he had never been directly involved in anything.
It made him feel like a coward.
He had thought this through many, many times. His plan was to die and leave it to the people to make a better world for themselves, now that they had a glimpse of it. But after living and traveling to so many countries with Sherlock 'It wouldn't have been nearly enough' was the only thing he could say. And that was why, unlike what he had Moran telling Louis and Albert, they weren't living a quiet cottage life somewhere.
"My younger brother, Louis, looks more like me than Albert nii-san. I think you'll like them both!" And he knew Melody would like them, who wouldn't like his brothers?
Melody turned to Sherlock. "What about Sherly's brother? What kind of person is he?"
"Why do you only care about Liam's siblings' faces, but for mine the personality is the important part?"
"because there's no way I wouldn't like Liam's brothers. Isn't that right, Liam?" She giggled. She was going to ignore the existence of the word uncle the same way she did with dad.
Sherlock laughed while glancing at William, who was deep in thoughts. For a long time after they ran together, William had nightmares and a general sense of uneasiness surrounding him. But it all went away as soon as they found out about the baby, as if he had found a purpose, the Lord of Crime was back. They had seen many people in kinds of miseries a person born in their homeland could not have imagined. They saw children dying because of their parents' ignorance, innocent people being sacrificed for false beliefs, and greater evils than they could've possibly imagined. "I want to show this baby the world, and I don't want them to see it this filthy. I don't want any other child to get hurt either." William said at the night they burned an entire cult to the ground. And Sherlock couldn't say anything against it.
After Melody was born, William had become quieter and more observant. He smiled at most things but kept his thoughts to himself, only sharing if his husband was around. A child such as Melody (Or any other normal adult) would not find the former Lord of Crime's thoughts entertaining.
Sherlock found them amusing, though.
oOo
Melody already knew something was weird about her family as soon as she started having thoughts. They traveled a lot and they had a lot of fun, but something was always off. Moran was always at their destination before they arrived and sometimes Sherlock went ahead as well. It was as if they were trying to get Melody there the last, like someone cleaning their house before the guests arrived.
She had to look for herself to find out what the cleaning was.
She learned reading in English and French around when she was three and was allowed to travel short distances on her own after she turned five. She found her first clue by accident; while reading a book, she discovered a newspaper in between the pages. She picked up the book because the name Sherlock Holmes was similar to her Sherly's name and it intrigued her. She didn't expect to discover William's face on the front page. The man on the paper wasn't the Liam she knew, he was called the lord of crime and was described as a dangerous criminal. He and the detective died together, it said, so she didn't have a hard time putting the pieces together.
'But Liam is the nices person I know.' She had thought. 'There's no way he just murdered innocent people!'
And it turns out, he hadn't. As she dug through, all of the people William had somehow caused to vanish were awful humans, scums that didn't deserve to live. There was one case of him publicly murdering a seemingly good guy, but Melody refused to just take what those newspapers said. She spent a week, digging through everything she could find until she finally ran out of books and newspapers. She needed actual reports.
"Moran, please take me somewhere I can investigate more." She said to a bookshelf, already knowing Moran was spying on her. The fact that Moran was there meant William already knew what she was doing and hadn't stopped her. "Uh... actually," Moran came out. "That guy said to bring you home if you said that. He's gonna talk to you himself, I think." Moran seemed very uncomfortable, almost ashamed to be found out.
William's first words to her were a simple "good job". It wasn't new or rare, but it felt different. She had done something because she wanted to and not because she was told to do (Or not to do, which she always did out of spite) and it felt really good. "Melody, can you listen to my selfish request?" William sat her down on his lap and stared into her eyes. "I promise I'll let you investigate more when you're a bit older, but not now. If you can listen then I will take you somewhere so you can find out everything all on your own. And you won't need Moran to take you anywhere." Melody didn't think twice before agreeing. She was already sold when William said it was a request, but the payoff was also very good.
"And please remember this," Their foreheads touched and Melody felt something was different about William's eyes, compared to everyone else she knew. "As humans, we aren't worthy to judge other humans. Sometimes we have to because we have the power and nobody else will, but that doesn't make it right. You shouldn't take it upon yourself to put people into good and evil categories. But some of us have to, and we carry all of the sins of the sinners we erased to make the world better. That doesn't make us better than them, and we aren't heroes. I want you to know that and don't idolize it. I want to look at it realistically, not as something your father did, are we on the same page?"
Melody stayed quiet, thinking about what William said, the tone in his voice. she had never thought killing bad people to be a bad thing, but her thoughts were stuck on that one case.
And now she was heading towards London to find more answers.
oOo
"Hello! my name is James Bond. Nice to meet you, little lady." James was the one who greeted them at the train station. He knew, they all William was well and alive, they all knew he had a child and was happy; seeing him in person was another experience, he had to focus on the smaller version of William so he wouldn't cry. 'But she really does look like him! I thought Moran was exaggerating.' he thought. Still, she seemed like a sweet spoiled little princess and James didn't hate children either. He sat down to match her eye level and offered his hand.
"I don't know if it's nice meeting you, though. I've heard a lot about you, Mr. James Bond. Liam says you're very capable. But I have to see that for myself. Oh, and I don't just take anybody's hand." She giggled, lifted her skirt a bit, and greeted him properly, but didn't take his hand. "I wonder what has Will-kun said about me," James looked up at the parents, both looking away and holding back laughter. William finally calmed down. "She isn't usually like this," As they spoke, Melody was already running towards the carriage. "She just thinks you're cool. I think she's trying to intimidate you. Anyway, I trust you've been doing well." They shook hands so easily, as if it hasn't been years, and James felt relieved.
"Yeah, you seem to be doing well. Melody! Don't just run!" Sherlock just ran after Melody. he knew she would immediately go after the first interesting thing and get lost. Not that he knew any other 13 year old who got lost on his first day in London. (Mycroft was the one getting scolded instead of that particular boy)
"I was going to say; I would've never imagined a day seeing Sherlock Holmes running after a child, but he did jump off a bridge with you." It was weird, the way he could joke about it and William laughed at it. Was it just the way time solved problems or had they succeeded in what they wanted to do? "He does seem to be more cautious than I am. I used to take care of Louis, but our ages were pretty close and we got into dangerous situations together. I suppose he has more of an eye for it." Sherlock came back with a sulking Melody. He did end up catching her just before she disappeared into the crowd following a guy with a funny-looking uniform.
oOo
Their arrival at the new Moriarty state was different. Melody dropped her arrogance (mostly because she was bored of acting tough) and greeted everyone normally. But as soon as she saw Louis she decided she didn't want to let go. So ten minutes later, Louis had to seat there with Melody on his lap and watch as everyone gave his brother tight hugs and instead, take the win in which his nephew wasn't as attached to anyone else.
She did look like William. Maybe they both would've grown up differently, joyful and fearless, if they were born in a different situation. Which reminded him, "Nii-san, you've been doing some things, weren't you?" He was vague and tried (and failed) to look angry. He couldn't be angry at the brother he missed so dearly. But William had to take him seriously.
"Your gaze is scary, Louis!" William giggled. "We have a lot of time, I'll make sure to talk about it properly. I promise." William seemed calm about it and Louis decided to let go as well.
On the other hand, Sherlock and Moran were wondering if they should jump out of the window and hide in the basement somewhere.
Another person who tried desperately to draw Melody's attention was Mycroft. He showed up with a scary face and a teddy bear taller than Moran, blushing softly as soon as Melody greeted him so politely. Of course, Melody wasn't a nice child. She saw how people wanted her attention and she refused to give it to them. "Thank you, uncle Mycroft," She didn't feel easy calling him just by the name. "But I can't accept your gift. I'll just take your feelings... Or whatever." the last part did accidentally escape, but they did the trick.
Mycroft Holmes left and came back an hour later, with a bunch of rare books and an even bigger bear. Melody was generous enough to give him a hug for that.**