I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 195 : Christmas resolutions

Sunday's breakfast at the Holmes-Lestrade's  house was always a moment of great joy and family sharing and as  Christmas was now just days, nearly hours away, the children's  excitement was uncontainable. The dining room was shinning under all the  decoration that Jack and Aelane had suspended to every possible places  and a smell of gingerbread was coming out from the kitchen.

Mycroft  in his pyjamas was trying to spread some thick and sticky fudge on a  pile of crepes whilst the Lestrade children were banging their forks and  knife against the table making a great deal of a mess for that time in  the morning. Smirking at the sight of all that hullabaloo, Greg appeared  Alden hanging on his back and Aelane secured in his arms.

"Who wants some crepes ?" Mycroft announced in a cheerful voice, finally having won his battle against the fudge spread.

His  proposition was met by the kids with a general battle for the said  crepes under the half disapproving and half amused look of their  parents. That was in the elder Holmes opinion, what made a family. Not  blood, not even transmission or any of those rubbishes, only the  enjoyment of being together in the simplest things of life.

"I hope you didn't want any ..." the politician joked to his partner as they could only admire the inexistent leftovers.

"Nah, I'm fine." the detective smiled, accepting the warm cup of tea Michael had just offered him. "In fact I'll just go with some toast and jam."

"Toast and jam ? You never eat jam ..." the official reacted, genuinely surprised by his boyfriend's choices.

"Well there is a start to anything, isn't it ?" Greg shredded, grabbing a jar of strawberry jam made by his own mother. "In fact I've taken a big decision and I intend to stick to it."

"And may we know about that life-changing resolution of yours ?"  Mycroft teased him, having grown accustomed to the man's never kept New  Year's resolution of hitting the gym more and slashing his junk food  consumption.

"I'm going vegan." the detective announced, apparently quite proud of himself.

"Wait ? What ?" the elder Holmes nearly chocked himself on his butter and sugar crepe.

"I'm going vegan." the policeman repeated very determined.

"And that comes out of nowhere like this ?" wondered Sarah who had overheard the conversation.

"I've  read something in the Guardian a few weeks ago and it was terrible. Do  you know that sixty percent of the global biodiversity loss is due to  the meat industry ?" Greg explained, committed to defend his point of view. "Even  without taking into account the animal suffering in a global industry  such as this one or the fact that industrialization of animal farming  had resulted in them being less nutritious to a dramatic extent, the  sole fact of having to destroy the forest on an area as big as Yorkshire  just to produce the soy needed for the British livestock's industry  should already alert us !"

"Well, don't worry, the meat we have in this house is not industrial in any way." Mycroft tried to reassure him, perfectly understanding his partner's point.

"Yes but even then, it is not enough." the detective denied now quite heated up. "Sure,  it's better in the sense that you do not have too much animal suffering  and surely less deforestation but these beefs and pigs do still  contribute to global warming at an alarming level. I mean animal farming  emit more greenhouse gases than all the cars, planes and boats across  the globe but if everyone is ok  to say that we should be more careful about how we use our cars and try  to reduce our share in nasty electricity production, apparently only  very few peoples are ready to acknowledge the responsibility of our meat  industry."