I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 101 : Allons-y Alonzo !

"A treasure hunt ?" repeated Greg, suspiciously.
"Yes !" his  partner nodded enthusiastically. "It's like a walk but your steps are  guided by clues you find by resolving some riddles, puzzles and  enigmas."
"I know what is a treasure hunt Mycroft Holmes." retorted  the detective in a smirk. "No my question is : are you, Mr the British  Government, proposing me to take part in a treasure hunt."
"Wasn't that obvious in the sentence 'Do you want to join me in a treasure hunt' ?" chuckled the auburn.
"Well,  it was worth asking for a confirmation." retorted the policeman. "You  can at least admit that a treasure hunt is quite unlike you."
"That's  not true ! I love this kind of things ! Actually I've done one by night  at the British Museum a few years ago and I think I never had a better  time in a museum since then." replied the elder Holmes, half offended by  his lover assumption.
"And why tonight ?" wondered the inspector, smiling at his boyfriend's enthusiasm.
"Because  it's been exactly four year today that I had my first dinner with you ?  Is that enough ?" answered the official, handling the other man his  coat.
"I think it may be a good enough reason yes ..." retorted Greg  slowly, as if he was still thinking about it before winking to his  husband and pecking him on the cheek.
"Allons-y Alonso !" chuckled the younger man, seizing his lover's hand and hauling him outside of their house.
"No car ?" remarked the detective, surprised
"And  why not a helicopter ?" laughed Mycroft. "Come on dear, it's a chase,  it's by foot ! What have you done of your childhood ?"
"Cluedo and Monopoly ?" replied the detective, following the auburn on the pavement.
"Dull. Cluedo is too easy and why playing with false money ?" snorted the official, turning right on Bayswater Road.
"Sorry, not everyone can be a genius prick al the time ..." chuckled the DI, pulling his tongue out.
"Ah ... Commoners ... Aren't they sweet ?" the elder Holmes asked, rhetorically.
"What are we looking for exactly ?" wondered Gregory in a smile.
"Red envelopes. As far as I know the first one must be somewhere near here." answered Mycroft, looking around him.
"There, on the tree in the park." the policeman exclaimed, pointing toward a red square on a tree, fifty yards away.
"Hmm ... Good eyesight. I take back what I've said on commoners." the auburn nodded approvingly.
"You'd better yes." the DI snorted as they were heading to the tree.
"Oliver along the water but far from the Thames." Mycroft read as soon as he had opened the first envelope.
"That's kinda cryptic actually ..." remarked the inspector, having a second look at the message.
"Oliver, a famous Oliver in London ..." the elder Holmes voiced his thoughts.
"Oliver Twist ?" the policeman suggested.
"Gregory  you are a genius !" exclaimed the auburn, kissing his quickly on the  lips. "Oliver indeed spent some time around the Serpentine embankment !"
"Okay  let's go !" smiled the detective, proud of being of some use, even if,  unlike his partner, he would have been completely unable to remember the  places Oliver Twist had visited.
They quickly joined the Serpentine,  in the middle of Hyde Park where after a couple of minutes of sneaking  around, Greg found the second envelope, once again a cryptic message  that at first didn't seem to make any sense.
"The modernist dreamer take a racy bet" he read, wondering if it was another reference to literature.
"Modernist dreamer ... Probably end of the 19th then,  what do you think ?" guessed the elder Holmes, granting himself a nod  from his husband. "So ends of 19th dreamer who take a bet no one believe  in ..."
"Mineas Fogg !" smiled the yarder, the name of the protagonist of the Jule Verne's book he had read in year 8 suddenly coming back to him.
"Yes ! Philéas Fogg ! You are good at this game !" the auburn approved. "So it must be the Reform Club than !"
The  two men strolled down the Serpentine to the end of the park than made  their way through Mayfair until they reached Pall Mall. The February  night was cold but at least it wasn't raining and if it wasn't for the  few tourists looking for a restaurant, they could had had the impression of having the full city for themselves.
"May I ask you who've put that together ?" wondered the detective after a few minutes of silence.
"Anthea. I've asked her to set up a treasure hunt but I had no idea she was that good in cryptology and London-based literature." Mycroft answered quietly.
"Well, it looks like she has one more talent than you were off ..." smiled Greg.
"Oh  she got many more I'm sure." grinned his partner. "Do you know she can  make a fantastic lemon-flavoured sponge cake ? It's to die for."
"And an endless supply of red envelopes apparently." chuckled the DI, pointing out to another red square fixed on a lamppost a few meters away.
"The duality sometime is set in small green dots." read the elder Holmes, looking rather intrigued by the message.
"She's good ... She is really good ..." nodded the yarder. "Duality, duality ... Okay, that's quite surely Jekyll and Hyde no ?"
"Indeed. But green dots ?" replied the official. "We can't say that Stevenson is that precise about the locations he used ..."
"She probably found a map online or something ..." suggested Greg.
"No, no cheating Mr Lestrade." Mycroft snorted gently. "But oh yes ! You are definitely a Genius ! A map ! What is green on maps ?"
"Forests ?" the yarder tried.
"Yes  and in central London there is so many of those ... Parks Gregory ! Parks  ! She is referencing to a park. And she say small dots, which means  it's not the scene in Hyde Park she is talking about."
"That makes sense to me, yes ..." agreed the policeman.
"So lets see, a park, near here, small ... I know ! Berkley Square Gardens !"
"Let's go then !" smiled the inspector, amazed by his husband knowledge.
The  next message was composed of only three words "Dorian and Basil" but  was, for both of them much clearer than the three first one, immediately  referencing to Dorian Gray and his friend Basil Hallward,  Mycroft deducing that it might have something to do with the time  Dorian run into Basil on his birthday, near Grosvenor Square.
A few minutes of walk later, the auburn was proved right by the discovering of another red envelope hidden between two plant in pots. Once again the message only contain three words "Mrs, Hugh, Evelyn." and without  Greg's love for Virginia Woolf's work they could have stayed stuck  quite a while on it. Instead, the policeman lead his husband to St  James's Park Station were Mrs Dalloway was trusted to have ran into Hugh Whitbread and stopped to talk with him about the bad health of his wife Evelyn.
They  ran around London for two more hours, trying to decrypt some quite  though enigmas leading them from Westminster Bridge to Charing Cross's fictional platform and the Tate Modern before finally being led to the London aquarium, near to the London Eye, by the last envelope.
As  they were wondering what was supposed to happen, they finally spotted  Anthea, waiting for them, elegantly sat on a bench in the shadow. They  made their way to the young woman who was beaming, apparently very  pleased with herself.
"I thought you'd never achieve it ..." she chuckled as soon as they were close enough to hear her.
"I have to admit that you've set the bar incredibly high. Very good job indeed." Mycroft complimented her.
"Thank you sir. I hope you had a great time." the personal assistant smiled thankfully.
"Oh yes we had. But if this is a treasure hunt, where is my treasure ?" remarked the detective.
"I see you won't be fool like this Gregory." the PA snorted lightly. "Well I hope you like the submarine life ..."
She  nodded toward the aquarium's door that had just opened, inviting the  two men to enter the building before disappearing. As he had done a few  weeks earlier with the London eyes, it seems that Mycroft, or actually  his team, had privatised the aquarium, a small dinner table having been  installed under a globe from which the two men could admire the  impressive white sharks as they were delivered their starters. The  bluish light of the place combined to the unusual silence of the usually  crowded aquarium was giving to the inspector the odd feeling of being  out of space and time.
"You seem preoccupied darling." the elder Holmes remarked after a few minutes.
"Hmm  ? Oh no, I'm just thinking." replied his partner. "How many people in  the world actually have had this kind of opportunity to eat surrounded  by giant sharks ?"
"Not much, that's for sure." smiled the auburn, grabbing the other man hand and placing a soft kiss on hit. "Do you like it ?"
"Even  more than that. It's surreal, magical." nodded the policeman, looking  at the official right in the eyes. "Four years on and you never cease to  surprise me Richard Mycroft Phillip Holmes."
"You inspire me." the auburn tenderly smiled, blushing slightly.
"You know why I have waited six dinner before taking your hand ?" Greg asked, curious to know if his husband had deduced that.
"No." denied the latter, clearly speaking the truth.
"I  was afraid you were trying to seduce me only to extend your power but  then I've seen you accepting this little orchid and tucking it in your chest pocket as if you had let down your armour, your usually strict three-pieces suit." explained the yarder.
"All  that for a flower ? If I had known I could have come on the first day  with a flower-crown !" the elder Holmes chuckled softly before leaning  over the table to place a tender kiss on the so attractive lips of his  detective. He had no idea how long this love would last but all he could  thought about was how magical those last four years had been and how happy he was now in regard of the state of loneliness he was in before he admitted to himself his love for the man that was now sat in front of him.