Sherlock preferences

Mycroft oneshot - assignment

A/n - hello! Yes, I know, I'm a terrible person! I couldn't focus all this week because of exams but in here now so... Ta-daaa?
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The echoey clicking of your shoes as you tapped against the floor filled up the office like a rough swell of water. The otherwise silence was sickening as you awaited your boyfriends appearance. The office was smaller than Mycroft's. Nothing grand. Just a small red armchair behind an intimidating desk, piled high with intelligible papers and images of crudely drawn, dead faces picked out of courtrooms. There were five other people in the room besides yourself, two women and three men, many of which you had never seen before. All faces instantly turned with prompt alertness as Mycroft appeared at the doorway, accompanied with a shallow cough to signify his presence.

"I suppose you are wondering why I have gathered you here." He spoke formally as he strode in, the crisp lines of his suit crinkling slightly, deviating from their pressed position with each authoritative step. You couldn't help but grin as he walked... Nobody spoke a word.
"I have been observing my staff for a few months now... You six have been specially selected for a chance of a promotion."
A few eyes lit up in the small crowd, the most striking pair belonging to Athena.
Athena... The Greek goddess of wisdom and war... She certainly acted like it...

"I will place you into pairs randomly to see how you work both as a team and as individuals. Today, you will be solving a case I have made up for you. Each pair will be given a case file containing information which is limited but still sufficient to solve the crime... Got it?"
He raised his eyebrow authoritatively and leaned forward, placing his hands on the desk. There was an unsynchronised sea of frightened nods. The silence was unsettling.

"Amy and Harold... You are a pair. Michael and Jeremy, you are also a pair... Athena, you are with (y/n). Everyone take a case file. All I can say now is good luck... Your future is in your own hands now..."

You were, initially, slightly unnerved by how coldly Mycroft had been with you. You soon, however, understood that this was a professional setting and no favouritism would be tolerated... That would just be childish...
The three groups parted ways and as soon as Mycroft was out of sight, Athena harshly grabbed your wrist and yanked you close to her face. Her breath on your cheek was unsettling and you couldn't help but feel a slight haze of fear creep under you skin
"Don't ruin this for my you little pig... That promotion is mine do you hear?"
You swallowed nervously, nodding just so she would unclasp her iron fingers from your shaking arm.

- 2 days later -

You and Athena had been slaving away in the office, barely sleeping. You yawned as you held onto a piece of paper attached to the file. You scanned it thoroughly, asking yourself what you were missing...
"What are you doing?..." Athena pried snobbishly as she folded her arms, raising one eyebrow with a patronising flicker.
"I'm solving the case... Like he said...."
Athena took two more steps forward, slamming her hand down onto the desk in front of you, taking the paper you held with it, pinning it like a knife to the table.
"Why did he have to choose you?..." She sneered, crumpling the paper beneath her hand.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, come on! You're his girlfriend! Of course he would pick you for the assessment! If i had been paired with Michael, I would have solved this thing a day ago! You are stupid! You know that (y/n)? You're just a pretty face on an empty head... I don't know what he sees in you... You couldn't solve this case if you had all the time in the world. You are worthless!!"

"What's going on in here?" Mycroft shouted, bursting through the door, agitated by the commotion. His face drained to a milky white as he saw Athena's hand round your neck, thrusting you up against the jutting corner of the desk. She instantly let go as she heard him.

"(Y/n)! Precious! Are you okay?" You hunched over, coughing violently as Athena watched with the devil in her eyes.

"Yeah precious! Did the naughty girl hurt youu?" Athena mocked as she waltzed out of the office before Mycroft could stop her. Mycroft knelt by your side, attempting to place his hand on your cheek but you lurched away. Your head was spinning and you felt like you were going to vomit. As hot tears danced down your cheeks, you fled. Not looking back even when Mycroft called your name...

- at home -

The 'close encounter' with Athena left you Shaken. Her words had cut you like a knife and forced you to contemplate every single one. Were you stupid? Did you even matter to Mycroft? What does he see in you?... You ate as you pondered these toxic thoughts. You grabbed the closest thing to you and began to unwrap it. The cold, sticky pastry of a pop tart stuck to the roof of your mouth, it was unsatisfactorily sickening but good somehow. You didn't even flinch as you heard the flustered slam of the front door. Mycroft soon appeared in front of you, looking down at the sticky mess he knew he had created.
"So?..." You asked, painfully, biting into another pop tart and purposefully maintaining a steely glare with him. "Why did you put me with Athena?..."
Mycroft scratched the back of his neck and sighed:
"(Y/n), I admit it... I can see how some of this could possibly be my fault-"

"Some of it??!" You cut him off harshly, a tear beginning to claw the back of your throat, redenning it with tense pain. "It was ALL your fault mycroft! You know how judgemental she can be! Why did you assign us together?? WHY?!"

Mycroft looked at the floor, kicking a few pink icing crumbs across the marble tiling in shame. You wiped a burning tear from your cheek, crying out in a mixture of anger and self-pity as you hurled the jam-covered foil packet at your boyfriend.
"She ripped a hole in me Mycroft! And now I'm filling that hole with fucking pop-tarts are you happy??"
Mycroft forced you to look up, the tears in your eyes looked like a resin glaze, glimmering with a kind of fluid chatoyancy. He wiped a few crumbs from the corner of your mouth with his thumb before raising you slowly up off the floor, he could feel your legs limply quiver as the tears made your diaphragm spasm. You were slightly hesitant to embrace him; the thought that he had been so careless with your pairing still nagged at the back of your brain. His warm and desperately ashamed smile soon irradiated this thought, however, and you let yourself melt against his side like butter melting onto warm toast. You were simply meant to be together. The care and all round gentlemanliness of his touch urged you closer to him, his hands sifting over the shallow curvature of your sides
"I really am sorry. I don't know what I was thinking"
As he spoke, he began to sway gently with you in his arms, like a docked boat willed in and out by the punctual swells of supernatural tides.
"Mycroft... I'm sorry... I can't let things like that get into my head... I need to be stronger... For you..."

"No, no, no... Precious... Don't ever change a thing about yourself for me, do you hear? I'm not worth it and you are perfect as you are."

"You most certainly are worth it Mycroft Holmes" you grinned slightly as he raised his intelligent brow and sighed, the pressures of the day flooding out of his lungs like the purging of cloudy water from a bath. Athena's words still flitted in and out of your mind like a moth to a lamp but Mycroft's touch hazed them somewhat. Your two bodies continued to intertwine for a few more brief, endless moments; the sound of the wind whistling in the distance and the taste of jam on your lips.