Nobody Knows My Heart Like You

223 Baker Street

Danielle came back to her flats with a surprisingly light heart. She knew she should feel heavily insulted, hell anyone else in her position would have slapped Sherlock silly.

Yet he wasn't insulting her out of malice of distaste, the young landlady saw them as statements of fact. Mrs Hudson was a kind person, with an kinder heart. She wouldn't let just anyone live in her flats, just like Danielle wouldn't just anyone live in her's.

Sherlock was a curious one. Danielle wondered how he did it, how he looked at her and saw her past. What gave her secrets away? What was obvious, what was difficult?

Danielle had the entire afternoon to ponder on it.

==NKMHLY==

She walked back into her flat, staring at it in its entirety as if for the first time.

It was a small ground level flat. There were dark purple walls, hardwood floors, and dark wood furniture. She had some photos on the wall. Some weird artsy things, like favorite book quotes or black and white pictures of lakes.

Danielle Nolan had fought for this flat. She'd worked for years, saving up enough to buy the house. She didn't accept much help from her father and siblings, mostly because they hadn't known she was house searching.

It'd been nothing short of a miracle getting a flat in central London. Her family barely believed it when she came out to them. There had been a big party (Danielle still thinks there was a dent in her ceiling from a wine cork) that her whole family came to.

A year and a half later, their father died.

Her pets demanded her attention, knocking her out of the stupor of her father's passing. Her puppy ran up to Danielle, happy that she returned after a short time. She reached down to brush her puppy's fur.

Little Erika was labrador mutt, the little white patches of fur probably meant it was part a beagle. Danielle never checked in the fourteen months. Erika was certainly an energetic puppy (though she was getting rather big these days).

Nightwing was hiding around her couch. He was a bit of a drama queen. Danielle had found him on the streets in one of those boxes you see, with little abandoned kittens inside. Danielle had liked the black kitten, and the cat felt similar (hopefully).

Erika had been a present from Lilly, her baby sister at nine years her junior. Lilly was, in Danielle's words, the daughter their mother always wanted. Lilly had a twin brother, Felix, who was closer to Danielle. This made a bit of a rift between the siblings. Her puppy was a gift after they came to an odd sort of truce.

The reformed bond between the sisters made Danielle smile fondly. It turned curious when she remembered that Sherlock knew that.

Danielle went over to her small kitchen. She hadn't properly cleaned up from baking the biscuits. She got to cleaning the dishes, while making Erika and Nightwing lunch.

As she poured their lunches into their feeding bowls, Danielle paused. The bowl we're both plastic, both white, both with blue painted on names for each pet. She knew they both had matching blue collars. She loved her pets, like Sherlock had said, which was why Danielle had scratched both of them before running over to 221.

She had hugged her dog, which probably got fur all over her pants. Nightwing had been more of a cuddle on her shirt. Probably hard to notice against the dark purple.

Danielle felt a bit proud she had figured that out. Less so when the two animals ran into her legs for their lunches.

She didn't feel very hungry. To be honest, all Danielle felt she could eat was a bag of crisps. There was something interesting going on next door, separated from her only by walls and the Speedy's cafe.