Mycroft considered pressing the issue, but he had already gotten far more personal than he had ever intended. This was dangerous territory and there was too much risk. He needed to leave. Needed to think without being observed.
"I see you are living reasonably well," he said. "Neater than usual."
"Cleaner than usual as well."
Mycroft nodded. He looked over at the small kitchen table, cluttered with mismatched glassware filled with varying amounts of solutions. "Bit difficult to store your experiments here. Why not use the laboratory?"
"I do, on occasion. I just prefer to work at odd hours. It suits me."
"I see. Well, perhaps next time I will give you more notice. Or perhaps you will choose to grace us all with your presence. Till then,"he gave a short bow and headed out of the flat.
At home, he concluded his actions had affected his brother (perhaps on a subconscious level) far more deeply than he had previously imagined. He phoned a colleague who posed as an inspector from the Department of Weights and Measures. The official had insisted that Dr. Michael Stamford dispose of the "defective" beakers and "outdated" centrifuge immediately, even though the instructor had insisted there was not a thing wrong with them. As soon as he left, leaving replacement equipment in his wake, Stamford sighed, and offered the old equipment up to the tall, thin man in the suit jacket who came in fairly regularly. They struck up a conversation about idiotic governmental regulations.
Next, Mycroft began to research the city's CCTV system in earnest.
Re: FILL 7b/? Plausible Deniability (TW: underage, child abuse, incest, dark!mycroft)
"I see you are living reasonably well," he said. "Neater than usual."
"Cleaner than usual as well."
Mycroft nodded. He looked over at the small kitchen table, cluttered with mismatched glassware filled with varying amounts of solutions. "Bit difficult to store your experiments here. Why not use the laboratory?"
"I do, on occasion. I just prefer to work at odd hours. It suits me."
"I see. Well, perhaps next time I will give you more notice. Or perhaps you will choose to grace us all with your presence. Till then,"he gave a short bow and headed out of the flat.
At home, he concluded his actions had affected his brother (perhaps on a subconscious level) far more deeply than he had previously imagined. He phoned a colleague who posed as an inspector from the Department of Weights and Measures. The official had insisted that Dr. Michael Stamford dispose of the "defective" beakers and "outdated" centrifuge immediately, even though the instructor had insisted there was not a thing wrong with them. As soon as he left, leaving replacement equipment in his wake, Stamford sighed, and offered the old equipment up to the tall, thin man in the suit jacket who came in fairly regularly. They struck up a conversation about idiotic governmental regulations.
Next, Mycroft began to research the city's CCTV system in earnest.