Bourbon and Bitters

Ingredients: 

2 oz Straight rye whiskey (100 proof /50% alc./vol.)

1⁄2 oz Luxardo Apricot Albicocca Liqueur

1 dash Boker's bitters

Serve in a highball over ice.

Felix can keep up with James just fine, thank you very much. He can even keep up with Q, who can hold his liquor remarkably well for a little wisp of a thing. But he does like a little sweetness with the burn of the alcohol. The warmth of the apricot warms his heart in what can be a cold, cold line of work.

We had to improvise a bit on the apricot and the bitters with was on hand. I guess this is a California distillers variant?

It’s a ritual, and there’s nothing overtly sexual about it.

It’s just that Greg is there, throughout, observing every detail; the slow undoing of the image Mycroft chooses to project.

Leather - Commission for @egmon73 

This one goes with this one of Mycroft. The idea is that both Greg and Myc have pictures of each other that has something about the other they really like. For Greg, it’s Mycroft’s ginger beard. For Myc, it’s bad-boy Greg in leather. 

I want to thank @camillo1978 for her help in suggesting edits. I worked hard on this but it had so many tiny minute things to change that made a big difference. It was a challenge to find what to improve. 

I put a bit more effort into this for Em than I strictly should have, but it was a nice distraction from other things to focus on. I liked pushing the boundaries, at least.  

Art Tags (ask for on/off list):

imagine sherlock stealing mycroft’s phone and installing the app on it, uploading a profile for him. he gets the phone out of mycroft’s coat and back in without him noticing. (rosie is a great help in that regard. it’s so much easier to pickpocket mycroft these days.)

imagine greg, on a friday night, being wound up by his colleagues in the pub about his permanently single status; them pushing him to install the app. his new constable’s just got engaged to a lass he met through it. it sounds like a stupid idea to greg – how can you know if you want to go out with them when all you’re looking at is a picture? – but he’s a good enough sport to let them push him into installing it. he can just delete it later anyway

imagine a case that takes sherlock and john out of london, and mycroft’s worried for his brother, so greg finds himself haring off after them. he has no idea mycroft’s there too

even if it’s ridiculous (and the local police aren’t best pleased to have a met detective rocking up on their patch), the hotel greg’s been booked into is gorgeous. he hasn’t slept this well in months. he has a run every morning and starts taking long, relaxing baths.

he finishes a book, for the first time in months.

one night he’s sitting in the bar – john and sherlock have buggered off somewhere (probably to do something horribly dangerous) and greg’s savouring the last of his glass of whisky before bed

it’s idle curiosity. he opens the app. he plays with the settings. he wonders what his colleagues would say if they knew he’d checked the third box (‘anyone’, instead of ‘women’, or ‘men’) after ‘looking for’.

the photos cycle, endlessly, and you just swipe – left or right, no or yes. it’s hypnotic after a while, and the strangeness of it (the basic nastiness of a yes or a no based on looks alone) fades away –

left, left, right, left, hesitate – left, right, right, left, left, left, right –

fuck.

oh, fuck.

that last one was…that was mycroft.

fuck.

cold realisation runs down greg’s spine.

it’s nothing, though, to the bone-deep shock of adrenaline when he looks up – eyes wide, hand tugging at his hair – and sees mycroft holmes, legs crossed in an armchair next to the crackling log fire

and he’s looking

I know some people are upset with me and don’t trust me. I know some people think I need a hazard warning. For what it’s worth, I don’t set out to write angst. I write hope against all odds. I write about brave people who keep going. Doesn’t matter how bad things get - happy endings are always possible. 

I’ve been trying to put it aside, but it’s now dragging me to a halt. That’s not fair to the readers who trust me and enjoy my stories. It’s not cool for me, either. I love writing - I don’t want to dread posting something. I don’t want to sit staring at a blank document all day, feeling like I’d better keep it fluffy and breezy this time or else. 

Chapters: 4/5 Fandom: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade, Mycroft Holmes/Lestrade Characters: Mycroft Holmes, Greg Lestrade Additional Tags: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Established Relationship, mystrade, Established Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade, Feet, Comfort, Love Summary:

Often times it is the little things that let you know you are loved.