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Sherlock Holmes stood in a queue with hundreds- possibly thousands of other parents and their children. Kids all around them were jumping up and down and screaming their heads off. He recognised at least a dozen different accents, a dozen more different languages, and they were all saying the same thing…
“I want to see Mickey Mouse!” Amelia exclaimed. The seven year old Watson stood between Sherlock and her father, holding both of their hands as she too jumped up and down. Her eyes were lit up with a kind of anticipation he had never seen in them before. It was as though she were getting the next ten Christmases of her life all in one day. “And Belle! Can I see Belle Daddy, please?!!!!!”
His partner threw him a look, a look that clearly said his patience was already tried.
And they hadn’t even entered the park yet.
“I change my mind,” Sherlock announced. “Let’s go to Spain instead. I’ll even take Hawaii. Please John!”
“Too late,” John mumbled as they finally reached the security line and were practically pushed by the crowd into the park.
It was all they could do to not keep Amelia from bolting on the spot.
“Amelia!” John announced, pulling his daughter back toward him. He knelt on one knee in front of her, the way he always did when he was trying to make her see how serious he was. “Now remember what I said?”
Nodding, Amelia chimed:
“Don’t run off!”
“And-?”
“If I get lost, find a cast member!” She recited with a grin. “And give them Daddy or Sherlock’s number.”
“Which is?”
She recited both of their mobile numbers, and Sherlock found himself biting back a proud smile. It still amazed him how much Amelia grew up year after year. Now she could dress herself, pick up her room on her own, make her own sandwiches. She practically planned their whole itinerary for their day at Disneyland Paris.
“Perfect!” John said, giving her a hug before standing up and turning to his partner. “You okay?”
“My stomach hurts,” Sherlock whined, feigning a child-like voice as he clutched his hands around his waist.”
John stole a kiss to his cheek and murmured into his ear:
“This was your idea, and you’re not getting out of it.”
They trotted like sheep through the packs of tourist making their way through to the attractions. Amelia pulled out her map, which she had carefully colour-coded with highlighters which attractions were most important and least important to visit. When they arrived to her first choice- a roller coaste-r Sherlock stopped. At first he froze at the sheer sight of the crowds that stood before them. There had to have been at least fifty people waiting to ride this ride alone!
“What’s wrong?” John asked.
“Too crowded,” Sherlock muttered.
With a snort, John replied:
“It’s Disneyland Paris, Sherlock, it’s not a place to go if you want to avoid crowds. Come on, let’s get in the queue.”
He couldn’t help but to think that his partner seemed just as excited as Amelia to be here. John tended to live his life through his daughter, and if it meant the world to her to be able to ride rides and “meet” all of her favorite book and movie characters then he would do everything he could to make that happen. For that reason only did Sherlock follow them into the line, but with every step closer to the ride the more the pit in his stomach grew bigger. When they were close enough to see other riders being loaded onto the ride, Sherlock knew he had to speak now or face the consequences…which wouldn’t be good.
“John,” he whined, tugging at his boyfriend’s arm.
John turned to him, clearly annoyed that he was still making a fuss about the ride.
“What?” He sighed.
Sherlock hesitated…how could he ever explain this without being made fun of for the rest of his life?
“I…I have a really bad headache. I think I have a migraine, and I’m afraid the ride will make it worse.”
He held his breath, immediately regretting his choice of lie. John frowned at him, studying his eyes, clearly doubtful. Of course he shouldn’t have told a medical lie to a doctor.
“That’s weird, you don’t usually get migraines,” John said.
“Yeah well…it’s probably the crowd. And noise. And smells.” Sherlock said, holding his hand to his head. “I think maybe I should just go sit down.”
“What?!” Amelia exclaimed, suddenly interested in their conversation. “You aren’t going to ride with us??”
She pouted, and the disappointment on her face made him feel like the worse person in the world.
“Sherlock…” John began. He stepped in front of his daughter so that she couldn’t butt into their conversation as well. “I know when you’re lying to me. Why don’t you want to go on the ride?”
Sherlock knew the only possible way out of this was to tell the truth, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not when he was surrounded by dozens of kids decades younger than him who couldn’t wait to get on the ride.
Suddenly John’s eyes narrowed, and Sherlock swallowed nervously. He had been found out.
“You’ve never been on a roller coaster before, have you?” John asked.
“Don’t be daft!” Sherlock said, forcing a laugh. “Of course I’ve been on a roller coaster.”
“Oh yeah?” John challenged. “When?”
His mouth hung agape; he was trapped. Then his partner’s hand fell on his arm and squeezed it. John offered him a kind, understanding, smile, and at last Sherlock finally felt like this might turn out okay.
“It’s just…they’re not natural!” Sherlock said. “It’s too jerky and violent. People get stuck on these things, you know, for hours!”
“It will be fine,” John assured him. “It’s a children’s roller coaster! People ride these rides hundreds of times a day. And besides, you’re not alone: Amelia has never ridden a roller coaster before either.”
Sherlock’s eyebrow shot up: he hadn’t even considered that. He obviously knew they had never taken the seven year-old to an amusement park before, but somehow it hadn’t clicked that she was in the same boat that he was. On cue Amelia stepped in front of her father, who wrapped his arms around her.
“You’re not scared?” Sherlock asked her.
Grinning, Amelia shook her head.
“I was a little bit at first,” she admitted, “but then I saw all the other kids going! And I want to be able to tell all my friends that I rode the roller coaster!”
His boyfriend shot him a grin and teased:
“Don’t you want to be able to tell all your friends you rode the roller coaster to?”
“We are never telling anybody about this,” he mumbled.
“Please Sherlock!” Amelia begged, grabbing onto his arm as she jumped up and down. “Please come with us!”
As he looked into her pleading eyes and looked over to his boyfriend, who was glaring daggers at him that read please do this or I’ll never let you forget you were too afraid of a children’s ride at Disneyland, he knew what he had to do.
“Fine,” he sighed.
In the end the roller coaster was…frankly just as jerky and uncomfortable as he knew it would be. But it was by no means scary or intimidating. Truthfully hearing Amelia bursting with laughter the entire ride and seeing the smile on his partner’s face was enough to make him grateful that he had given in.
“Can we go on the Pirates ride?” Amelia asked as soon as she hopped off the roller coaster.
This time Sherlock grinned at John- now pirate stuff, that was right up his alley.
“Only if you swear to not go on and on about how historically inaccurate it is.”
“Promise.”
He spent most of his ride opening and closing his mouth again once he saw John glaring at him.
Amelia, of course, loved it.
And she loved the gift shop even more.
He heard John groan as soon as they got off the ride- this was the part of the trip they had been dreading the most, exiting each ride through gift shops full of toys and candies Amelia would spend all day begging for.
“Ohhh! A sword!” Amelia exclaimed, running up to a display of plastic swords.
“Great,” John grumbled as he chased after his daughter. When they caught up with her John bent down to his daughter’s level and said sternly: “Now remember what we talked about before the holiday?”
Amelia’s face fell, and Sherlock almost felt heartbroken for her. Almost. He had to remind himself if he gave into her puppy dog eyes after every ride they’d blow all of their savings on toys.
“We have to wait and buy toys at the end of the trip,” she sighed.
“I promised I would buy you a few things,” John reminded her. “But if we bought something at every ride we couldn’t carry everything!”
She pointed to a sign above one of the registers.
“It says we can have it sent to our rooms!”
His partner stood up and sighed:
“Why did you have to teach her to read so well before coming to bloody Disneyland?”
Sherlock knew it would do no good argue in front of Amelia, and he really didn’t want a fight to bring down the mood so early into their day at the park. He thought quickly, trying to think of what would have made him feel better as a child.
“You know, Amelia, Dad and I have seen a lot of things we want too,” Sherlock told her. “But all of the toys cost a lot of money. So we have to decide…would we rather go on holidays or spend money on toys?”
Amelia looked confused for a long moment, and he wondered if that was too complicated of an example for her. But then she grinned.
“Holidays!” She replied, though he hadn’t actually expected an answer.
“And we have the Disney Store at home,” John pointed out. “We only have a couple of days in the parks, so how about we do as many rides as possible and shop for toys at home?”
“Okay! I wanna go in the Haunted House!”
John grabbed her hand just in time before she could take off without him. His boyfriend sighed and Sherlock laughed; he couldn’t help but to be reminded of their days of running around London together. The parks were easily just as exhausting.
By midday they ended up taking turns going rides so one of them could give their feet a rest. They had early dinner reservations at a place where they could apparently meet characters- suggestion from Molly, of all people, who pointed out they’d save time from having to stand in queues to meet them in the park. He and John were leaning on each other, both already yearning for bed, while Amelia was still bursting with energy and practically jumping up and down as she recounted all of her favourite things in the park.
“I still can’t believe Mycroft managed to get us reservations here,” John sighed as his eyes hungrily scanned the fancy French restaurant that was apparently impossibly to get into normally. “This place was booked up through next year online!”
“Mmm,” Sherlock simply replied, struggling to keep his eyes open as he held Amelia in his lap. “What time are we starting out tomorrow?”
“We agreed on seven.”
Judging by the bitterness in John’s voice and the stone cold look of non-amusement on both of their faces, they could both guess they would not be leaving their hotel at seven in the morning.
Amelia loved the restaurant. She ate a hamburger that cost three times what it would have back home, but the look in her eyes as all of her favorite fictional characters swarmed the room around her was worth every exhausted, overpriced, crowded moment of the trip. Even John was all smiles as he snapped photo after photo, pausing for more than one shared photograph with his daughter. Sherlock had a sneaking feeling that John was secretly entertained by seeing some of his own favourite childhood figures “in real life”. He had admitted to Sherlock on top secret terms that he was a massive Captain Hook fan as a young boy…leading, of course, to a ridiculous argument about “real” pirates versus cartoon ones.
That night Sherlock gladly collapsed in bed, relishing in his own exhaustion. Beside him John sighed happily as he buried his head into his pillow and hugged his duvet, looking as though he could lay there for days. Sherlock couldn’t help but to smile as he reached down and brushed his fingers through his lover’s dark blonde locks.
“What?” John teased, sensing he was deep in thought.
“It just makes me happy to see you so happy,” Sherlock admitted. He swallowed hard, glancing over at his partner’s daughter, who was sleeping soundly in her own bed. “And to see Amelia so happy.”
A smile brightened across his boyfriend’s face.
“Me too,” he replied. Rolling over, he reached up and ran his hand through Sherlock’s curls. A shiver ran up his spine; something about feeling his partner’s fingers in his hair instantly sent a feeling of warmth in his body. “Thank you for doing this with us. It really means a lot to me- and to Amelia- for us to be able to do a family holiday.”
To Sherlock, taking this trip was a strong reminder that this is my life now. He was accepted as part of the Watson family. The first few years of Amelia’s life were such a blur of shock, exhaustion, sadness, fear, doubt, and a constant laundry list of things to do that he and John just powered through it without giving much thought as to who they were as a couple- as a family.
Now the question was an elephant in the room.
Most days, once again they tended to just get through day by day without allowing much time for such deep thinking. But at times like this, Sherlock had to wonder…where was this going? How deeply entwined in Dr John Watson’s life was he going to become? How deeply entwined was he allowed to become?
“I know you’re more than a bit out of your element here,” John confessed quietly, bringing his hand to rest on Sherlock’s cheek, “but you’ve been amazing, truly and utterly amazing.”
His lips slammed against Sherlock’s, embracing them in a warm kiss. Sherlock felt his body relax, deciding that he didn’t need to be so worried about definitions when they were all so happy with how they were. They fell into bed, regretful that this was neither the time nor the place for them to do anything more than kissing.
“We should call it a night,” John sighed, though his desperate eyes revealing that he craved more of Sherlock.
Sherlock nodded and settled against John, wrapping him closely to his body. His partner turned off the light and for a few long silent moments they lay there, trying to allow sleep to overtake them. His own muscles ached, reminding him of his days of constantly running around solving cases. Lately his days revolved more around making lunches, Amelia’s school schedule and monitoring play dates. He knew if he just allowed himself to do it he could close his eyes and sleep until morning.
Yet instead of sleeping he stared at his partner’s shadow in the darkness, let his hand rest against his chest so he could feel his lover’s heartbeat.
And then, in the dark silence John suddenly announced:
“I’m getting a photo of you and a character tomorrow if it’s the last thing I do.”
Eyes going wide, an anxious feeling crept up Sherlock’s throat. He had managed to be in only two photos so far as he could be the one offering to take pictures of John and Amelia, but his greatest fear of this trip was that he would find himself posed next to one of those…fur creatures…and the image would be shared around the internet.
And most horrifically, shown to his brother.
“You wouldn’t!” Sherlock gasped.
A mischievous grin crossed his lover’s face even as he lay with his eyes closed shut.
“Oh, I would.”
A week later they were at Sherlock’s parents’ house, passing around photographs and souvenirs. His parents proudly wore their Mickey ears- naturally Mycroft refused to have anything to do with his. When his brother had opened the box with the ears in them his eyes had widened in disgust and he tossed the box away, like he had opened it to reveal a giant snake.
“Grandma, look at this one of me and Goofy!” Amelia exclaimed, bouncing her way over to wear Mrs Holmes sat.
Sherlock’s cheeks turned a slight red-hot as his mother’s twinkling eyes met his own; it had only been recently that Amelia had started referring to his parents as her grandparents. He supposed they were the closest thing she would ever have to grandparents- John’s parents weren’t alive- but it still felt odd. Clearly his mother didn’t mind, she had totally embraced her appointed grandmother role.
“Oh sweetheart, that’s adorable,” his mum grinned as she hugged Amelia.
A small, grateful, smile lifted from his own lips. He couldn’t be more thankful for how welcoming his family was of John- of his relationship with John. It was like this was all totally natural, like it was always something that was meant to be.
“And here’s one I thought you’d all like to see,” John announced, a mischievous grin on his face.
A pit fell in his stomach- John had sworn he wouldn’t!
“Oh Sherlock!” His mother exclaimed when John handed her The Photo. “Oh love…”
She couldn’t even say anything about it. That’s how embarrassing the photo was. To his horror the photo was immediately passed on to Mycroft next, and his brother’s face immediately burst into a grin.
“Oh I think this has the perfect place on the mantel, right here.”
Sherlock’s face melted and his shoulders shrunk as the photo of Pluto pulling him into a hug was placed right next to a Christmas photo from when he was six years old. The blasted dog had practically forced him into a hug once Amelia stepped out of the queue, and John finally had his chance to get a photo of him with a costumed character.
His partner playfully grabbed him, forcing him into a hug, and Sherlock muttered:
“I hate you.”
His lover was all grins as he pulled away and whispered back:
“No, you don’t.”