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Mycroft has a very expressive face. Molly doubts he realizes it, but he does. When he takes his medication, that many more emotions flicker across his face, and Molly is determined to see each and every one of them. It doesn’t take long for her to set up an itinerary, and then she’s off to observing her partner, for a kernel of an idea has planted itself in her mind...
Emotion 1: Happiness
Molly finds this one to be the easiest. All she has to do is set up a little date for them on one of the morgue slabs, just 3 sandwiches from the canteen and a battery operated candle. It’s satirical at the same time as it is completely serious, and Mycroft loves it whenever she sets something like that up.
When he walks in, he briefly shows confusion before he realizes what’s going on, and his lips pull up into a smile, and his eyes wrinkle around the edges ever so slightly. His smiles don’t show teeth, they rarely do, but Molly can tell the smile is genuine nonetheless. He sits across from her, that smile still on his face, as he takes one of the sandwiches. “Nice date,” he says with a grin.
Molly laughs lightly and takes in everything about his face for later use. She’ll want to look back on him this happy for ages afterward.
Emotion 2: Sadness
This one wasn’t hard at all, seeing as Mycroft and Molly had Friday night as a standing appointment for their dates, and they were planning on having a Disney movie marathon. The very first one Molly put in was Up. She couldn’t help but observe Mycroft as he watched the opening sequence with Carl and Ellie.
Ellie was in the hospital, and his eyes had glazed over with tears and his face looked completely blank except for the deep frown on his face. Molly paused the movie and gave him a tight hug. “Do you want me to skip ahead?” she asked.
He nodded.
Emotion 3: Concentration
This one happened accidentally. Molly and Mycroft were happening to have a quiet night in, and Mycroft was reading a book while Molly wrote up her latest thesis. She happened to glance up at him and smiled at the look on his face. Mycroft's entire face was drawn into a tight frown, and his lips were pursed just enough that if anyone else looked at him, they wouldn’t see it. His eyes flickered across the page so fast Molly was surprised that he was actually processing what the words said.
Just as quickly as Molly got to see the deep concentration on his face, it was gone as he looked up with a smile. “Can I help you?” he teased.
“Probably,” Molly said with a smile. “But I’m not saying how.”
Mycroft chuckled and went back to reading.
Emotion 4: Anxious
Molly and Mycroft were on a date together out in public. Anyone used to looking at Mycroft could tell he was anxious. He kept worrying his lip and his eyebrows were knit together, giving him a puppy-like sense of fear. Molly couldn’t bear to watch Mycroft in that much discomfort, and put her hand over his, rubbing her thumb over his knuckles. He gave her a small but grateful smile, and seemed much more comfortable the rest of the date.
Emotion 5: Serenity
Serenity was something Molly never expected to see on Mycroft’s face. When his mind was firing on all cylinders, he always looked...well...he didn’t always look serious anymore, but he still did most of the time. But the first night Molly stayed over at Mycroft’s, she got to see him just waking up in the morning, eyes half-open, and a sleepy smile on his face. “Have I ever told you you’re pretty?” he mumbled.
Molly giggled and nodded. “Several times, yeah.”
All of his muscles in his body were relaxed and Molly would have sworn this was not the man that she had seen come into her morgue depressed and manic. If anything she thought this would be what he looked like when he finally died. “What’s got you looking concerned?” Mycroft asked.
“Nothing, I just never realized you weren’t much of a morning person, and it got me thinking,” Molly said.
“Mm. I think we can sleep 5 more minutes if no one minds.”
“I’d like that a lot,” Molly said, already feeling like going back to sleep.
Emotion 6: Surprise
Molly did this one just for kicks. She probably could have let it be and done other emotions on that beautiful face, but she needed one last model for her plan. So she decided to turn up unexpected at Mycroft’s job in her usual jumper and khakis, but with a small little cupcake for his birthday, and she was going to sit in his office chair if he wasn’t in.
Anthea gestured madly to go in when Molly walked up to her, meaning that Mycroft would be back shortly. Molly sat in Mycroft’s chair and leaned back, feeling like a Bond villain. Mycroft walked in and froze, his mouth slightly open, probably in the middle of saying something quietly to Anthea or himself. His entire body stiffened then relaxed in a fraction of a second. “Molly? Why are you here?”
Molly pulled out the cupcake. “Early birthday gift. I know you’re gonna be in a lot of meetings and my schedule is probably going to be taken up by Sherlock or someone equally insane, so I thought I’d give you a small thing now before your actual birthday present is done.”
“And my birthday present would be…?” Mycroft teased.
“Not for you to find out about yet,” Molly insisted firmly. “Enjoy the cupcake.”
“I will, thank you,” he said, giving Molly a kiss on the temple. “Now get out of my chair.”
February 12th came around, and with it Mycroft’s birthday. Both people ready to celebrate were very busy, but at the end of the day they managed to snag an hour together before one or the other passed out from exhaustion. They shared a pizza and Molly pulled out a slim rectangle covered in wrapping paper from her bag. “Happy Birthday, Mycroft,” she said with a smile.
Mycroft took it slowly and opened it, sliding his fingers under the seams and forcing them open. He was confused when a plain sketch book was revealed with Expressions...For Future Reference written at the bottom. He opened it and saw that every page had a drawing of him making a different expression on it. He smiled. “Did you draw these?” he asked.
Molly nodded. “I thought you might want to know what you look like when you make different faces, as a sort of baseline,” she teased with a smile to show she was joking.
Mycroft flipped through all the pages, a big smile on his face. “There are so many subtle differences in each of these!”
“Yeah, well, you have a very expressive face,” Molly shrugged. “The hardest part was doing it justice.”
Mycroft closed the book and looked up at Molly. “I love it,” he said. “You have no idea. It’s really reassuring to know I’m not a robot.”
Molly laughed and kissed him on the nose. “I’m glad, that took me several days to get it to the quality it is, and that was no easy feat.”
Mycroft looked down at it and grinned again. “Thank you. Really.”
Molly smiled bashfully and leaned into him. “Want to watch some Doctor Who ? I don’t have to go home yet.”
“Sounds good to me,” Mycroft said. “Would that qualify as concerned, concentrated, or enraptured?” he teased.
“If you’re anything like me, all three,” Molly said.
Mycroft hummed in approval and turned on the DVR to see what episodes he had saved.