I am not lonely [Mystrade] - BOOK 2

CHAPTER 214 : Are you ready for diner ?

Mycroft was humming happily to himself as he turned the key in the door of his mansion. The warmth of the summer evening was bathing him in the gold of the last rays of sunshine but the prospect of the peaceful weekend to come was not the only thing that was making him cheerful. He had just came back from the Palace from his daily visit to his sovereign and had been the first one to learn the good news that the Queen's doctor had given him her waiver, judging her fit for duty after nearly two months of convalescence. That helicopter crash was now long behind her and she was longing to take her well deserved Scottish holidays, by train this time.

He was a little surprised by the silence coming from inside the house, having expected for his husband to be back from work and laid on the couch watching the news like most evening but the detective had probably been held back at work for Go only knew what reason. He took of his suit's jacket and hanged it by the door before rolling up his sleeves and getting to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of fresh water.

The five kids were on holidays with their grandparents and the elder Holmes had taken pity of his parents in law having to take care of the five of them at the same time and had sent Michael along to give a hand as well as to thank him for all the good service he was to the family. They had been gone for three days and still had four to go before coming back burnt as crisps from Spain and the official had to admit that he was somewhat missing their presence and all the noise they would usually fill the house with.

Having refreshed himself, he decided to retreat to his study until his partner would make it home, having a little bit of tidying to do there. He pushed the door and was absentmindedly making his way to the desk when his foot hurt something he subconsciously knew shouldn't be there. He quickly focused back on the reality and lowered his glance on the object he just had encounter.

Before him was a large plastic gun in all kind of vivid colors that Mycroft had most certainly never seen in his house. Of course, it could have been on of the children's toy, that was the most reasonable assumption but the kids had been away for several days and that gun was definitely not in the room when the politician had been in his study last evening. And even if, as improbable as it was, the gun had been abandoned leaning against his desk for days without the elder Holmes noticing it, he was more than certain that none of his or Lestrade's children were the owner of such an abhorrent thing.

Curious, he grabbed the item and looked at it from every angle suspiciously until he noticed a little piece of paper in the barrel. He grabbed it gently and unrolled it, uncovering a small note redacted in his lover's handwriting.

"Husband,

I hope you still have a little energy after your exhausting day. I am hidden somewhere in the house with a Nerf gun, here is the other one. The loser cooks diner all weekend.

May the force be with you.

Husband."

Mycroft had always knew that his partner was a child at heart but he would never had expected something like this but, although he was surprised, he was not displeased in any way. He smirk and loaded the foam bullets attached to the gun inside in the magazine. Gregory may well have been a detective for decades and taken compulsory shooting lessons for all this time but the politician had a few cards up his sleeves that not even the policeman knew about. He grabbed his phone in his pocket and texted his husband to let him know that the game had begun before carefully slipping out of the room and standing silently against the door, listening carefully to any muffled noise that could come from around the house.

The birds were chipping in the distance but not loud enough to hide the discreet cracking of the flooring upstairs. The politician stood still for a little longer to make sure that it wasn't the sound of an ancient house cracking around but the muffled sound of something being lightly dragged over his head confirmed his instinct, the detective was hidding in a closet somewhere upstairs ans he was getting stiff of not moving.