Just A Game [Teenlock]

Chapter Six: Hangovers Galore

A/N: This is a story. Anything said does not reflect my views on characters created by the BBC and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

*

Tap tap tap. Tap. Tap tap tap. Tap.

Sherlock knocks on his own front door with a wide grin, glancing again briefly at the sliver Ford in his Jeep's parking spot. He had a key, but it was just so fun to mess with his brother that he couldn't pass up this opportunity.

They hear footsteps pad down the stairs and to the door, pausing momentarily before opening said door.

Mycroft stands in just a grey t-shirt and a pair of soft grey jogging bottoms, clearly just out of bed. His hair is pointing in all directions but despite his appearance, his eyes are cold and annoyed as he stares.

"You got drunk, on a Thursday night..." Mycroft trails off, crossing his arms and giving the three, obviously hungover, students on the front doorstep a stern look.

Sherlock slyly high fives Jim behind their backs, offering his brother a grin.

"Yes, we did" He answers at normal volume, despite his throbbing headache.

"And now, you're ditching college to recover" The older Holmes mutters in a tired voice, stepping back to let them in the house.

Jim and Irene enter first, easily moving to the living room and laying over the furniture like it was their second home. Which, in a way, it was. Jim woke up here as many morning as he did his own home, if not more and Irene was like the daughter that Mrs. Holmes never had.

Sherlock steps in but doesn't follow them just yet. Instead he turns to face his brother.

"While we're here, let's discuss why you're ditching college" The smirk on his face is completely victorious and arrogant.

Just as Mycroft started to turn red, a door is opened upstairs and there's a whining shout of "Myc!"

Now completely red faced, in both anger at his brother and embarrassment, Mycroft glares and turns to the stairs.

"Stay out of our way, brother" Mycroft hisses the words before he jogs up the stairs  and into his bedroom.

Laughing to himself, Sherlock enters the living room. Irene was already passed out on one sofa and Jim was barely awake, laying on the other.

Sherlock lifts his friend's legs before sitting and replacing the legs on his lap.

Jim doesn't protest, just gives a sleepy smile. Before long all three of them are asleep, spread over Sherlock's furniture

~

"One hundred?" Jim mumbles around a mouthful of cereal as the recently awoken Sherlock shuffles into the kitchen, hair a state and his clothes a crumpled mess.

Jim is eating Mycroft's cereal, Sherlock notes with a smile.

Irene, who was sat beside Jim with her own bowl of cereal, pulls a disgusted face at the Irish boy's actions before she too turns to face her curly haired friend, also wanting to know if he got to 100 last night.

Sherlock leaves them hanging while he collects a bowl and a spoon. He then sits on the opposite side of the island to them and prepares them a small bowl of cereal. His, not Mycroft's.

"Well?" Irene prompts, huffing at Sherlock's mysterious attitude.

Sherlock decides to just tell them, too tired and just not in the mood to be his normal cheeky self.

"One hundred" He nods, annoyed with himself for not feeling excited.

Why isn't he excited? He should be. He was excited when he went up to Michael, he was excited when Michael suggested they got a room and he was excited when he first woke up and they came here to sleep some more.

"No way!" Irene genuinely looks shocked, confusing Sherlock.

They were at a party, he had a wild card and alcohol in his system, is it really a shock he got laid?

"You actually got John in bed?!"  Jim asks, equally as shocked as Irene.

"Who said anything about John?" Sherlock snaps, remembering that horrid angry feeling he got last night.

Both Irene and Jim exchange an extremely brief worried glance before Irene is back to smirking and Jim is back to eating cereal.

"Well, someone woke up at the wrong end of the sofa" Irene muses.

Sherlock simply huffs and turns to pushing his cereal around the bowl until it turns to mush.

"Irene's in the lead so far then with six points, then me with five and a half, then Sherlock with three points" Jim speaks aloud as he adds it all up.

"You only slept with that Abby girl last night" Irene frowns, thinking Jim was cheating and adding points to himself.

"She hadn't had her cherry popped" Jim smirks "She has now"

Irene scoffs. "Lovely. So you're only half a point behind" She mumbles something else, likely an insult as she looks down at her cereal.

Seems she'd enjoyed being at the top for once so soon into the draw and for so many days. Usually at this point the person in the lead changed up to three or four times a day.

Jim opens his mouth to stay something when there's a knocking on the door, loud and urgent. There's also the sound of a females voice shouting Sherlock's name.

"Molly.." Sherlock murmurs before bolting up from his seat and rushing to the door.

The tall boy yanks open the door to see Molly bent over, panting heavily as Michael gently rubs her back. Seems no one went to college today.

They both look up as Sherlock opens the door. Before either can say anything a blonde girl appears at the end of the drive and smirks at them, calling Molly's name in a taunting voice.

Sherlock let's Molly and Michael into the house before he steps out onto the front doorstep and returns the smirk.

"Ah, hello, number 68. Jade, right?" He keeps his tone light but it's not hard to tell he's annoyed.

She clearly was too stupid to catch the fact Sherlock was close to ripping her head off as she stops in front of him and twirls her hair, trying to give a sexy smirk.

"You remember me?" She purrs just as Irene appears behind Sherlock.

"Oh, look. It's the Little Swan"

Jade seems to back track then and she takes a step backwards, her hands coming up in surrender. Sherlock smirks, he'd heard all about the stunt Jade had tried to pull with Molly in the changing rooms.

Irene steps out of the house and around Sherlock, crossing her arms.

"Didn't I warn you about screwing with my friends?"

Jade nods, slowly walking backwards now "I wasn't trying to hurt her, I just wanted to ask her if Michael was her boyfriend"

"Michael's gay!" Michael's voice calls from inside the house.

Sherlock chuckles, biting back a comment about how that sweet innocent boy is most certainly into men.

Irene raises an eyebrow at Jade, condescending smirk firmly in place. Sherlock hadn't seen a girl look this scared of Irene in a long time and he was fighting back a grin.

"Answer your question?" She hops off the doorstep, eyes fixed on the dancer as she moves closer to the retreating girl.

"Uh, yeah, it does. Okay, bye then!" She gives an enthusiastic wave before all but running back to her car.

"You know" Sherlock says, out of the blue "Sometimes it's bloody hard work being a slut"

Irene stays silent for a moment, staring at her handsome friend in disbelief. Sherlock Holmes.. admitting something was challenging?! That was a shock and three quarters. Rare was it he found things challenging, never mind admitted it!

"Um.." is all Irene an really say before Sherlock turns and heads into the house, murmuring about checking on Molly.

All thoughts of Sherlock behaving oddly go from her mind and before she even makes the conscious decision to move her feet, Irene rushes into the house in panic as she heads for Molly.

She finds the quiet Science student sat on the sofa, her face in Sherlock's large hand as he inspects her and drills her with questions as if he were a walking health and safety form.

Molly let's out a strangled noise, trying to push Sherlock's hands away to assure him she's perfectly fine.

With a chuckle at the scene, Irene leaves to go make them all tea.

Jim enters the kitchen to help. They both stay silent, prepping the tea and getting lost in their thoughts. Irene had no clue as to why Jim was oddly silent but her mind was on Sherlock's odd behaviour.

First, she'd put it don't to lack of sleep and a hangover but now she wasn't so sure. She'd seen Sherlock hung over before and this wasn't like that. He was.. different. She didn't even know how.

Maybe it was just her hung over, throbbing, head that was causing her to imagine things.

God, she thinks, more sleep in definitely needed. And tea. Tea sounds good too.

When she returns with a tray full of tea, milk and sugar, Sherlock was sitting on a different sofa to Molly but continuously sent her worried looks, to which she sent small smile back.

Michael glances at the tray and smirks "Having a tea party are we?"

Sherlock chuckles and shuffles forward to begins pouring tea into the various cups on the tray. He passes each out in a clockwise circle, allowing each person to add their own milk or sugar.

A few moments of tense silence pass once they all had their tea in hand.

"Sherlock Holmes!" Mycroft's voice comes from the door way.

They all turn to see Sherlock's older brother stood there. The front door just closing as his boyfriend leaves the house to no doubt go home in time for his parents to believe he went to college.

"Awh, did we miss ha--"

"Why are there so many people here, Sherlock?" Mycroft cuts him off, dragging a hand through his hair and sighing in defeat.

Sherlock holds up his cup a little higher, grinning from ear to ear as he did.

"Why, we're having a tea party, dear brother!"

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" Jim adds with a smile.

Mycroft scoffs at them. "Kids" and then with that Mycroft wonders off back up stairs.

Molly and Michael glance at each other before collapsing in a fit of giggles. Jim was just staring down into his tea and slowly stirring it with a spoon. Irene was watching Molly and Michael with raised eyebrow. All the while Sherlock just sat there, wondering why he wasn't feeling the usual surge of pride he did when toying with Mycroft.

Sherlock Holmes was confused, and he didn't even know about what.

Well, one thing was sure. His head was throbbing.

Soon after they all take headache tablets, they put on the TV; deciding to just relax on their day off.

At first, Sherlock had expect Michael to be awkward about the fact they'd slept together or maybe even assume they were more then a one night stand like many had before.

He was surprising cool with it all actually, and even flirted back if Jim or Sherlock sent a comment his way.

Somewhere into the third episode of The Simpsons Michael had fallen asleep with his head on Jim's shoulder and his feet on Sherlock's lap. Neither had the heart to move or wake the sweet boy.

~

"John! Don't go!" Mary practically whimpers the words as she holds the covers close to herself, covering her naked chest.

John was at the end of the bed, his sister's spare bed in his sister's spare room which was technically his, rushing to put his trousers on. He was in dire need of a shower but right now he just needed to cover himself from his lying, cheating, scheming ex's view.

His head was beating as if he had his own person drummer instead his skull and he was fuming, to put it simply.

"For God sake, Mary. You know how I get when I'm drunk!" He sends her a glare before pulling on a soft grey T-shirt. "Who the hell even invited you?"

"I'm on Irene's 'party' list" Mary boost, her lipstick smeared lips curling up into a smirk.

"Ugh" John scoffs, wiping his lips before bending down to pick up what he assumed was Mary's outfit.

He throws the clothes onto her lap and turns towards his bedroom door.

"I expect you gone by the time I'm done showering"

John was very pleased to find out that the skinny blonde had disappeared by the time he'd emerged smelling of green apples and lemons.

Dropping his towel, John slides on a pair of black boxers before crossing the room and opening his heavy dark blue curtains. He also opens the windows, wanting the smell of Mary and sex out of his room.

He even goes as far as searching for and spraying some of his sister's sickly perfume.

He changes all the sheets and debates between burning the old ones and simply washing them. Within minutes John is at the end of his back garden, throwing the sheets on a pile of hedge trimmings his dad was planning on burning for Harriet.

How Harriet ever got so lucky, John'll never know. She was 20 (she'd been the youngest in her school year and was two years above John. Meaning she'd been out of college since August) and she had a house with three bedrooms (one of which she gave to John), a beautiful girlfriend, Clara, a decent job and their parents did her gardening.

"Lucky cow" John mutters, sliding the backdoor closed.

"Who is, Johnny?" Harriet's voice asks from behind him.

Turning, he sees his sister and Clara sat at the breakfast bar. Harry winces, obviously hungover. John found it reassuring that she had been cutting down on the drinking then. If she had a hangover to same extent as John then it was a good sign she hasn't become accustomed to hangovers.

Clara seemed to have a small proud smile on her face too.

John joins them at the breakfast, picking up a banana from the fruit bowl sat between them.

"You are. Dad does your gardening, you've got Clara" He smiles at other girl. "and this lovely house"

"You'll have that too, John. When you finish college that is" Harry smiles at her little brother before raising her cereal bowl and drinking the milk.

John pulls a face at the slurping noise but Clara just smiles fondly.

When Harry puts the bowl down she starts talking again, acting as though she haven't just sounded like a dying pig.

"What were you doing out there? Treating the neighbours to a glimpse of your body?" Harry teases, referring to the fact John was still only in boxer shorts.

John scoffs "Yeah right. I put some sheets out for Dad to burn"

"So it was Mary I saw leaving?"

Clara turns to John then. "Mary? I thought you guys broke up"

John groans, putting his head to the cool counter top. "We did. She somehow got me in bed.. But I doubt with the alcohol I was practically swimming in last night, I was thinking about everything she did"

Clara gives him a sympathic smile and reaches over to rub his shoulder soothingly. She'd been the biggest help when he was all down in the dumps about Mary cheating on him, various times.

Harry stays silent for some time, not sure how to comfort her brother.

John sits up straight again, sending Clara a small smile before peeling his banana.

"Where the hell did all that drink come from last night anyway? I swear we didn't buy that much" As he speaks he glances towards the bin, which was filled with empty bottles and cans.

Clara suddenly turns from comforting to irritated.

"That would be your new friends. Irene, Sherlock and Jim. They also invited like 50 other people"

"One of which was Mary..." Harry adds.

John shrugs. "They were just trying to liven up the party. We all had a good time, right?"

Harry nods and smirks while Clara gives a quick shy nod and blushes. John smiles at them but says nothing.

"You seemed to have fun grinding on Sherlock last night, too" Harry's smirk widens.

John's eyes practically bulge out of his head, coughing around the banana he was trying to eat. He glares a bit, knowing she'd waited for him to put it between his lips.

"You like Sherlock?" Clara questions, innocently "I thought you weren't even sure if you're bi...?"

"I'm not" John snaps before throwing his banana away and heading up stairs.

On the way he glances at the clock. 14:32. Well, he guesses that means no college.

John slumps, a bit disappointed in himself. He'd promise his mum that he wouldn't drink a lot and would get to college in the morning after the party.

He shrugs then as he enters his room. "Oh well. Like Maxxie Oliver said, fuck the future"

"You watch too much TV!!" Harry's voice calls from near the stairs.

John smiles and gives a single laugh before falling down on his fresh sheets.