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TW: mention of self-harm
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It was Saturday, and Sherlock and John were eating lunch on Sherlock's bed. John was sprawled across half the bed, and Sherlock was sitting with his legs crossed.

"I was thinking, on Monday, after school, we could hang out here and work on an experiment that might just manage to get us to solve the case!" Sherlock explained excitedly.

"Monday? After school? I can't do that?" John shook his head.

Sherlock's excited warmth seem to cool. "Why?"

"You know why," John said, "I got to work on homework with Mary."

"Oh," Sherlock said.

"Anyways," John said through a mouthful of his sandwich. "What were you saying about Sally?"

~~~

It was Monday and Sherlock was working on an experiment in his room.

Mycroft walked past Sherlock's open door. Yes, he was still there, because his winter break lasted longer than Sherlock's, don't think about it to hard. "Where's your boyfriend? What was his name...John? Where's John? Doesn't he usually do experiments with you?"

Sherlock didn't respond.

"Oh, I get it," Mycroft said, "You broke up. What happened? Did he cheat on you? Did you cheat on him? Were you going to fast? As in, where you being a little to romantic? You never seemed like the romantic type, but when we're talking about John Watson, well that's a different story isn—"

"Shut up!" Sherlock yelled. "Shut up shut up!"

Their mum called from the first story of the house, "Mycroft what did you do?"

"Nothing!" Mycroft called back.

Mycroft looked back at Sherlock. He shook his head. And he walked away.

Sherlock closed his bedroom door. He looked over at Redbeard, who was sitting on the bed, and who's tail immediately enthusiastically wagged, making a soft thump noise on the bed every time it hit the bed.

Sherlock smiled. He walked over to Redbeard and sat down on the bed, next to Redbeard. "Redbeard, you get me, right? You don't have to deal with brothers or people who you thought was your boyfriend, but turned out to now be dating a girl. You don't have to deal with that."

Redbeard did that thing where dogs smile and he licked Sherlock's face.

"Oh, gross! Redbeard," Sherlock laughed.

Redbeard didn't know what was happening and continued to lick Sherlock's face.

When Redbeard stopped licking Sherlock, Sherlock started to cry. Not because of Redbeard not licking him, but because of John.

"Redbeard, what would you do in this sort of situation?" Sherlock asked his dog.

Redbeard started to lick Sherlock's wrist. Sherlock stared at the scars on him.

"No, Redbeard, I can't," Sherlock shook his head. "Everybody says it's not okay. Granted, everybody is an idiot."

Redbeard flopped on to his back.

Sherlock laughed. He rubbed Redbeard's belly and laughed at the dog's little smile as he looked up at Sherlock.

Sherlock liked Redbeard. Redbeard didn't care how sociopathic or rude or annoying Sherlock was.

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