Fiction: Tell Me a Story

[aurora_boreali]

Title: Tell Me a Story

Rating: PG

Pairings: John/Sherlock

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2,000

Summary: Sherlock is eight years old and sick in bed. His mother's writing him a story. Sherlock's future relationship with John Watson is implied. Romantic slash can be inferred from the context, but feel free to read as friendship only.

Comments

[shouldboverthis]

That was exquisite. It actually made me tear up. It is exactly the kind of childhood that I picture Sherlock having--intelligent parents who are sometimes baffled by their brilliant sons--no big angst. And that parallel--just, just perfect. All of the details, I can't even describe how much I love this.

"hygenic books=sanitized" *snorfle*

(Babbitt, actually all Sinclair Lewis, were revelatory to me growing up, although I wonder if Brits can fully appreciate the kind of Puritan, great Plains mentality it describes.)

It was as if his mother had just locked heaps of brightly colored Christmas parcels inside a closet and had hung the key up just out of reach. Now, how to get that key?

[aurora_boreali]

Tears? Exquisite? Oh, my. Coming from you, dear, that means the world. I can't say I've thought a lot about Sherlock and Mycroft's childhood. I'm not an angst girl and I don't see either of them as "damaged" adults, so maybe that's why I wrote it like I did. A whole lot of my own life went into this; far more than I'll ever admit. This was just an exercise to describe Sherlock at a time when he did believe in heroes. Just stumbled upon Achilles/Patroclus when looking for heroes an eight year old Sherlock would admire, and, seeing the obvious similarities, started down that rabbit hole. Glad it worked. Thank you for the very kind comments. I'm not deleting this from my inbox for a long, long while.

[shouldboverthis]

I'm a bit obsessed with their childhoods, for some reason, and I do picture it like this, upper middle-class (so many have them living in castles) with busy parents not alcoholic fathers, or cold mothers. Yes, they don't seem that messed up, or messed up in that way in the show to me.

(and I did suspect we were seeing a bit of aurora there ^^)

[mialoco]

What a beautiful story of innocence, beauty and a love so deep and pure that it takes a child to understand. I can so see Sherlock being that little boy. That last sentence...I can't even...um...yeah.

[aurora_boreali]

I'm very glad you liked it. And I admit to being fond of the last sentence too. It's the only "languagy" part of the story--the rest is "thinky". Thank you for posting such kind words.

[pony_rocks]

Beautiful!

[aurora_boreali]

Thank you very much!

[verityburns]

Oh, that was really good - lovely and enjoyable plus interesting and educational. Tough combo to pull off, but you did it beautifully and I can really see this as canon, a hint as to why Sherlock accepted John so readily into his life... he'd been waiting. Love it.

[aurora_boreali]

You wrote some really gracious things but, honestly, all I remember is that Ms. Verity Burns herself said that something I wrote could stand as Sherlock canon. Damn. Off to turn cartwheels! Thank you so much, sugar. *hug* Means the world.

[hecateb1]

Lovely. And that thing about the sanitized books, I find that most of the time, it's the adults that are scandalized about the content, much more than the kids, it's no wonder Sherlock would go about searching that key

[aurora_boreali]

I liked the idea that Sherlock's mum was interested in shielding him from the cruelty of loss rather than violence or adult relationships. And while all kids want to know what's forbidden, I imagine Sherlock would be especially keen. Thank you the lovely comments.