Chapter Text
“Ah ha! I knew you were moping.” Sherlock’s words break the silence of Mycroft’s living room.
“I am most certainly not,” he answers, endeavouring to find a dignified tone despite the indignity of being spied on with his waistcoat unbuttoned and an incriminating box of chocolates lying half-empty at arm’s reach.
“You most certainly are,” his infuriating brother insists.
Before Mycroft can object, this time more vehemently (it’s a matter of principle, after all), Sherlock interjects: “Are you trying to deny that you were listening to Schubert?”
Mycroft clamps his mouth shut, deciding not to dignify the observation with a response.
“Brother mine,” his snotty sibling continues in an unbearable singsong voice.
Drastic measures are apparently required to stop him from grating on Mycroft’s overwrought nerves.
“If I have been moping, as you so elegantly put it, it is no one’s business but my own.” There, the case of his midlife crisis is closed. “Please close the window on your way out.”
Sherlock huffs, sounding bored: “Just woo the man and stop pining, will you?”
It is Mycroft’s turn to scoff at Sherlock: “Have you graduated from a consulting detective to a provider of relationship advice, my dear?”
“I am the one who is currently in a satisfying relationship,” his brother replies snidely, rolling his eyes. (Mycroft does not deign to reply.)
Fortunately, it seems that Sherlock has finally had enough entertainment at his expense. “Cheer up, brother, his 45th birthday is coming up.” The gleam in Sherlock’s eyes could make lesser men run for cover. “Just the right moment for a grand gesture, don’t you think?”
With that, Sherlock finally leaves him to be.
Mycroft contemplates putting the Serenade back on (that would be the 11th time he listens to it) but reconsiders. Perhaps his exasperating brother is not wholly wrong – Mycroft has allowed himself to wallow long enough.
Desperate times require desperate measures – it is time to do what he does best: to plot how to secure his target. Mycroft might not have the upper hand in terms of looks or personality, but he has various other qualities, not to mention nigh unlimited resources.
He'll be damned if he lets himself be bested by Sherlock.