I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 45 : French lover.

"No Mycroft ! You can't avoid lunch at my parent's place !" said the detective, rather crossed.
"But darling, I've got an awful lot of work to do !" the official defended himself, showing the huge stack of files waiting on his desk.
"No Myc', it's Easter Sunday, you come. It's supposed to be bank holiday anyway." retorted the DI, pushing his husband out of his private office.
"But Greg ..."protested the auburn.
"You're worst then the kids ! Come on, put your shoes and let's go !" concluded the yarder, not amused at all.
Mycroft gave up, understanding that he couldn't win and chose a pair of shoes in the cupboard. In the Holmes family, Easter never had been important, not that any other public holiday actually were, and the official, if it wasn't to his husband, would have acted like if it was any other day. But Hugh and Vera Lestrade had invited them, like they invited their son every year, and apparently it was for them an important tradition as it was for Greg.
Trying not to look cross at his partner for not allowing him to do what he wanted, or actually needed, to do, Mycroft sat in the passenger seat of the inspector car and turned the radio on. "Friday night and the lights are low / Looking out for a place to go / Where they play the right music / Getting in the swing / You come to look for a king / Anybody could be that guy / Night is young and the music's high / With a bit of rock music / Everything is fine / You're in the mood for a dance / And when you get the chance" Chuckling to himself at the musical choices of his boyfriend, the auburn searched for a news radio.
"Why are you laughing ?" wondered Gregory, in a better mood than a few minutes earlier, driving out of the alley and joining the London traffic.
"Disco? Seriously darling ?" giggled the auburn, stopping on the weather broadcast of Sky News Radio.
"I have to admit that Wagner every morning on my way to work is a bit too much ..." retorted the detective in a smirk.
"You know there is literally a world between Wagner and disco ?" wondered the elder Holmes, laughing genuinely.
"And you know I'm not the in charge of the songs that are played on the radio are you ?" replied the policeman.
"You can still change the radio ..." suggested the official, grabbing his sunglasses in the glove box.
"I have a total faith in you for that don't worry ..." retorted the other man, pulling out his tongue. "Could you please give me mine ?" he then asked, talking about his own sunglasses.
"Not if you are that rude with me."smiled Mycroft, before giving his boyfriend what he was demanding even so.

"Greg !" exclaimed Mrs Lestrade, hugging her son tightly.
"Hello Mummy." replied the man, placing a kiss on her cheek. "Where is Dad ?"
"In the garden, god knows what he is doing again ..." sighed the old lady before lifting her grandson from the floor and kissing him on both cheeks. "Hello Alden!"
"Hello Banma !" giggled the young boy, smiling genuinely to his grandmother.
The woman put him back on the floor and he escaped through the open door, running to join his grandfather in the garden. Mycroft placed a kiss on his mother-in-law's cheek, smiling heartwarmingly to her. "Good morning Vera." he said pleasantly before following Mrs Lestrade inside, taking off his jacket and hanging it in the corridor, alongside his husband's coat. Even if he would have preferred to get done with his job at home, he was decided to enjoy his day, knowing that there was no way of escaping it anyway.
A table had been displayed on the lawn of the garden and the family took place around it, the official strapping his son on his high chair before sitting beside his boyfriend. Hugh Lestrade poured them all a glass of wine and they toasted to Easter while the little boy was toying with the straw of his orange juice brick. His father helped him understand how it was supposed to be used while Hugh turned to Greg. "It's really a pity that the children can't be here today ..." he commented.
"I know ..." the detective sighed. "They were supposed to but Eleanor said to the judge than I was always bringing them back late and this bast.... baboon decided to suppress this weekend from the planning ...".
"That's unfair !" exclaimed Vera. "They are your kids too, they shouldn't be divested of their father for so long !"
"I know, but what do you want me to do ? Eleanor is an attorney, she knows what she is doing ... At least I should have them two weeks this summer ..." he answered, shaking his head slightly.
"So, how was Swan Lake ?" quickly asked Hugh, trying to change the subject, seeing that it was painful for his son.
"Really good. Those young dancers are really talented." replied Mycroft happily, placing his hand on his lover's lap in a comforting gesture.
"Yes, very interesting and well choreographed." added Greg, smiling again. "How about Belgium ? You haven't told us about it !"
"It was pleasant, but all these French ! It unbelievable !" exclaimed Vera before her son even had finished his question.
"Vera, they are not French, they are Belgians too ..." sighed her husband, glancing an amused look to the two other men caught up in an uncontrollable but silent laugh.
"No Hugh, Belgians speak Flemish !" retorted the old lady, very sure of herself. "Well, so I was saying, Brussels is very nice, apart from all those French then, but the best is the seafront. All those cliffs and sand dune. Breathtaking."
The three men were now laughing frantically, unable to stop themselves, tears in the corners of their eyes, exchanging amused looks one with another.
"What's so funny ?" wondered Mrs Lestrade,curious.
"No, nothing, it's Alden who've done a silly face." fabled the elder Holmes, bitting his lower lips to repress himself from laughing.
Looking suspiciously at the three men, Vera raised on her feet and entered the house to pick up the first course, letting the others burst into a new laugh.
"You are ... an abominable ... liar ... Mycroft Holmes ..." commented Greg between two laughs, placing a kiss on his husband's cheek.
"Boys shhh, calm down, there's the French's lover coming back ..." Hugh warned them, seeing his wife stepping out from the house.

Restraining himself from laughing,the auburn tried to change subject. "Uncle Rudy say hello. I've seen him last week and he was wondering if you'd like to come visit him at his countryside cottage one of the next weekends ?"
"Oh, that's very kind of him !" smiled Vera, turning to her husband who avoided looking at her eyes not to start laughing again. "Isn't it Hugh ?"
"Yes. Yes of course it is !" he answered, his eyes focused on the plant he could see at the right of his wife's head to avoid laughing again.
"Well, I'll give you his card so you can arrange all that directly with him. But he will be delighted, I can assure you that." concluded the official before helping himself of the plate Lestrade's Mother had just brought from the kitchen.
"I didn't knew you had seen Rudy last week." remarked Greg to avoid the conversation going back to Belgium as he had seen that his mother was ready to open her mouth again.
"Really ? Well it was last Thursday if I recall. He had some business to do at the Diogene Club apparently so he popped in my office at tea time, I must have forgotten to tell you about it." replied the elder Holmes, swallowing his mouthful.
"Can I ask you a question Mycroft ? Because there is something I don't really understand." wondered Lestrade senior. The auburn nodded before the old man resumed. "Why have you got so many offices ? I mean, you must certainly have what we could call an official office,but you keep talking about the Diogene Club and all that, I don't really understand, to be honest ..."
Smiling at the confusion of his husband's parents on the subject, the official tried to explain the situation. "In fact I do have an 'official' office, at the Cabinet Office in White Hall but I prefer to avoid it when I can, the building is full of people spying one on another for living, it's hardly a place to keep the secrets secret isn't it ? The Diogene Club, on the other hand, is an old gentlemen club where discretion is the main word. My family hold an office there since Reginald Holmes was appointed at the place I am right now by George IV himself. But actually, most of the high-ranking officials like me have an office out of the administration they are supposed to work for, that's the only way of avoiding everyone sharing the same tea trolley believe me..."
"Your family is occupying the same position since George IV ? But that was in what, 1820 ?" remarked Vera, surprised.
"1823 to be perfectly exact. But yes, it's pretty much the same position, few changes of course, but overall quite the same duties. 8 monarchs and 6 Holmes later, here I am." confirmed the auburn, smiling. Even if he sometime despised his job and the family pride of the Holmes,he couldn't help feeling proud of this kind of fact. "The job run through the family from the father to the eldest son."
"You won't force Alden into your silly secret position if he doesn't want to, I've warned you ..." the detective told him in a grin.
"No, never. Whatever, I don't think that this kind of secrecy will be possible in 20 years. Now the people want to know what is going on in their government and with internet and all the laws that have been voted those last years, the shadow is nearly over ... I might be the last of the dynasty, for better or for worst, I can't say." retorted Mycroft.
"Really ? I thought we would always need people acting in the shadow to deal with all what the people don't want to see." questioned Hugh, his mouth full.
"I thought that to, but from what I can observe, there is less and less things people don't want to see apparently. And it's making the government sick that some people like me deal with matters they aren't even advised of. I guess that in 20 years or so, the secret service will deal with the one or two things that will have to remain in the shadow and the advisers like me will be gardening and playing fondly with their grandchildren, somewhere in a cottage in Sussex and their sons will be brilliant lawyers or doctors." smiled the official, running a soft finger on Alden's cheek.
"Lady Smallwood will be damn bored then ..." chuckled Gregory.