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"Why do you look so morose?" Albert had only just stolled into the office of Mycroft Holmes, and immediately knew something was off.
"I don't. I'm not." Mycroft's voice was stiff. Albert knew tht tone.
"You know better than to hide from me. I can always tell what you're really feeling, and there's no denying you're upset." Albert shook his head disaprovingly.
"Will you leave the matter to rest if I ask you to?" Mycroft tried.
"Mycroft Holmes, you know I love you too much for that," Albert frowned, walking closer to his grim lover.
"Well then," Mycroft sighed, looking anywhere but at Albert. "I am grieving somebody."
"Oh how horrible!" Albert exclaimed. "I am sorry for your loss."
"They are not dead," Mycroft clarified.
"Oh."
"For a long time in my life, I had been lonely," Mycroft started. "You know this."
"Yes, I remeber you telling me of your younger days," Albert replied.
"Yes," Mycroft nodded. "It was the sort of lonliness that eats at you constantly from the inside. I was never alone, of course, but more so that even in a room full of people I was invisible."
"Have you been feeling that again?" Albert asked. "You know I'm always saying that you should make more friends-,"
"I never had any close friends," Mycroft interupted. "And I am certainly not the type of person that people think to check in on. I was certain at that time that my life would be like that for ever. Miserable."
"Oh my darling," Albert pouted. "I know that you no longer feel this way!"
"Let me finish, yes?" Mycroft raised an eyebrow, waiting for Albert to nod beore continuing. "I thought I would be miserable forever, but then I met a person who I could truly talk to for hours. He was there was there when I felt lonely. He was somebody I could turn to when I had nobody else. He even understood my sense of humour, and understood the complex things about me that no one else daared to look at. After a while I even stopped feeling like I had to earn a place in his life. He became my best friend to whom I'd tell things that excited me and left me vulnerable to rejection."
"Are you trying to make me jealous?" Albert couldn't help but interupt. Mycroft chose to ignore this and instead carried on his little narration.
"Lately, however, he seems like he is always physically there but really somewhere else entirely, and I can't help wondering if I'm becoming inconvenient and annoying."
"If this man really makes you feel safe enough to be yourself around then you wouldn't have to shrink yourself," Albert huffed, clearly annoyed at this mysetery person. "That is why you have me- oh." The realisation only then hit Albert. Mycroft was talking about him. He was grieving Albert- well, the version of Albert that made him feel chosen.
"Oh god, Mycroft," Albert muttered. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine."
"No, it isn't," Albert answered immediately. "Look, I don't know if I can fix what's broken, but I know that I can start with what I can control."
"You don't have to. It's fine, I understand that your Lord of Crime business needs you."
"I don't give a shit," Albert scoffed. "I want to take you to dinner tonight, with all of my wits about me. I will be all yours, I promise."
"I believe you," Mycroft said in return, finlly looking at Albert, who smiled gently at him. "I missed you Al."
"I missed you too."