Breaking the ice {Mystrade}

Chapter Fourteen - Lady Macbeth and Bagpuss Holmes

"One hot chocolate for you, and one soy-milk, vanilla Americano for you. Enjoy!" The young Italian waitress of Olivia's kitchen (who had come to be known to them as Cascata) elegantly placed the tray in front of the two men. Since their first encounter of the place, on a miserable day in Spring, the two had frequented the quaint little spot as often as possible, after work or simply in passing. Cascata and Mara, the daughters of Olivia, were always overjoyed to see them, partially due to a small sort of friendship that had ensued, and partially due to Mycroft's generous tipping. Mara (the elder of the two) often tried to make eyes at Greg, leaning over the counter and twirling a lock of her deep brown hair around her finger. However as the weeks trailed by, and the couple grew in front of them, Cascata came to realise just how slim Mara's chances with Greg were. She could see it; in the way Greg's eyes glowed when he looked at the auburn, when he bit his lip as the were talking, as he smiled his besotted smile.
Then one day, when the skies were a muddish grey and the coffee machine had broken, Mara saw them kiss. She wasn't supposed to - they were tucked away in a shadowy corner-table, up a small platform - but from the split-screen CCTV, she saw them kiss. Greg himself had made the move - small, chaste - if at that moment she'd blinked, she would've missed it. But a kiss, nonetheless.
The shock that was upon Mycroft's face in that moment was nothing compared to Mara, who ran into the kitchen, slammed the door behind her and shouted to Casceta
"GAY! They're GAY!"
"Sei stupidissimo, Mara. Who is gay?"
"Listen, listen, listen, listen, Mycroft and Greg! Gay! Kissed!"
"You did not know?"
"No!"
"Honestly Mara, you're supposed to be the older one... Yes, they are a couple. Buono, sí?"
"Sí, sí. But Cas, you let me flirt with him?"
Cascata just sighed, still fiddling with the coffee machine which downright refused to kick into life.

**
"Thank you, Casca dear." Mycroft smiled appreciatively.
"Anything else? Mama made oat cookies fresh this morning."
"Go on then." Greg grinned cheekily to Cas, who wandered back into the kitchen.
"Have your ever played that game where you tell two truths and one lie?" Greg asked, after eating a spoonful of melted marshmallow.
"I don't believe I ever have... How does one go about it?"
Greg thanked Cas as she brought the cookie to the table.
"Pretty self explanatory, really. You tell someone two truths about yourself and one lie, but you don't say which one's which. Then the other has to guess."
"I see."
"So... Err. Would you like to give it a go?"
"Well..."
"Look honey, I feel like I don't know enough about you - we've been together like this for weeks now. Could be fun, yeah?"
Mycroft gave him a slightly discerning look, but after a little contemplation (and a playful nudge from Greg's foot under the table), he asked Greg to go first.
"Okay... I broke my leg when I was four whilst pretending to be a bank robber; I skipped the fifth Harry Potter book because I thought it was too long; I... I realised - shall we say - the 'door swung both ways' when I was fifteen years old."
"The last is clearly a lie. Your blinking rate increased, you hesitated and this statement was largely different to the other two. The former two statements detailed specific moments of your life, the latter, an age. As an age is easiest to change to become a lie, that is why you chose it. You were in fact... 17, I believe."
"Trust me to forget your superhuman abilities..." Greg chuckled. "You're right of course. I was seventeen. Dishy lad caught my eye - made my girlfriend at the time horribly jealous. Your turn."
"Right... I once sunburnt through some striped blinds and Sherlock nicknamed me Bagpuss."
Greg made a noise which sounded far more like a laugh than the cough he tried to mask it with.
"Don't you start!" Mycroft sighed. "I once drank tea with Michael Caine and finally, not only did I play Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, I also performed a rather spectacular rendition of Lady Macbeth of 'the Scottish Play'."
"You drank tea with Michael Caine?! I'd do anything to have tea with Michael Caine!" The D.I. gasped, dropping his half-dunked cookie in his hot chocolate in the process.
"So would I." Mycroft murmured, smiling to himself.
"So you haven't met him... Hold on - so you played Lady Macbeth?!"
"A long time ago, Gregory. A long time ago."
"I studied Mac-"
"Mmph!" Mycroft intercepted the other with a nervous squeak - theatre had made him awfully superstitious about some things.
"I studied the - er - Scottish play then, years ago at school... Isn't there a part where Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to - erm - erase her feminity or something?"
"I can remember the entire soliloquy if you must ask."
"Then I'm afraid I must." Greg teased. "Go on!"
Mycroft sighed again.
"The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.
Stop up th' access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th' effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts -"
The D.I. nearly spat out his drink as he burst into fits of laughter. Mycroft simply returned a wearily raised eyebrow.
"And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief. Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark
To cry "Hold, hold!"

Greg helplessly tried to compose himself again, but he couldn't help but continue to giggle, despite the auburn's indifferent eye-rolling.
"It is a pivotal moment of the play, Gregory. I personally see it with the utmost sincerity." Mycroft joked, noticing how attractive laughing made the other man look.
"Impressive nonetheless... I can hardly remember a word of the play. Right, two truths, one lie... Erm... I've gone completely blank." Greg said, shrugging. "Can you think of anything?"
Mycroft took a long, calculated look at the D.I. The green ambience of the cafe was bringing out his lovely, brown eyes marvellously, and the sun through the front windows highlighted the little silver flecks in his hair.
"I can think of three. I think we should continue as we are; I think we should leave in a sexy black car; I think we should repeat what happened after the first time we came here." Mycroft smiled slyly, eyebrows raised.
"The lie had better be the first one."

A/N: Chapters are like buses. You wait ages for one, and then two come at once!
Thankfully I have actually planned the next few chapters, so if I can kick myself into writing as much as possible, next chapter won't take as long (I know, I know, I keep saying I'll post more frequently and then I don't, but for a while now I'll have a fair bit more time on my hands)
Thank you, thank you, thank you if you're still around reading this - it means so much to me.
Love, Ellie x