Need - Elementary fanfiction
Title: Need
Fandom: Elementary
Rating: G
Length: 337 words
Content notes: Character study of S1 Sherlock. Also for "Drugs" on my bingo card, and the "discover" prompt from
100fandoms .
Author notes: I spotted Elementary recently on Netflix, thought it could be fun, and watched most of Season 1 in a week! Still working on it though (I am unsure whether to be grateful or annoyed that Netflix doesn't tell you "hey, this is vanishing" before it does!), so please no spoilers for the end of Season 1 or later seasons :)
Summary: "Humans are hungry creatures, Sherlock knows this. Conflicting messes of wants and needs and desires."
Humans are hungry creatures, Sherlock knows this. Conflicting messes of wants and needs and desires, snarled and tangled and often baffling even to the ones experiencing them. Part of his job, part of what makes him so good at what he does, is his ability to read these things, to map them from people’s body language, their habits, their choices. And most of the time (most of the time) he can see his own wants and needs with the same clarity.
For instance, he knows he needs his detective work. He doesn’t need drugs - he wants them, yes, when work is too slow and his brain feels like it’s running madly in circles for something, anything, to do; or when he can’t quite crack some puzzling case and that artificial clarity is so damn tempting; but he doesn’t need them. He’s done with that.
He doesn’t need - or want - a sober companion, either, he’s sure; but he gets stuck with one anyway. And - well. Maybe he doesn’t need Watson, but it is good to have someone to listen to his deductions. Someone who, unlike Angus, can actually talk back. She isn’t just pretending to listen, either - she pays attention, she wants to hear his reasoning, she even offers her own. He still doesn’t need or want a sober companion, but he does want (need, even? He’s not sure, and he doesn’t like being unsure) a listener. An apprentice, maybe, he thinks as he sees Watson’s investigative skills improving, as the time for their companionship is drawing to an end… A partner, he finally realises, and is relieved beyond measure when she agrees.
(Friends are something Sherlock long ago decided he neither wanted nor needed. Associates, informants, sources, yes, but not friends. And this doesn’t change that, he tells himself. This is only logical - Watson clearly wants to be a detective, and he is better with her. Puzzling, but ultimately the reasons why don’t matter. They both want - need - this partnership, and that is reason enough for it.)
Fandom: Elementary
Rating: G
Length: 337 words
Content notes: Character study of S1 Sherlock. Also for "Drugs" on my bingo card, and the "discover" prompt from
100fandoms .
Author notes: I spotted Elementary recently on Netflix, thought it could be fun, and watched most of Season 1 in a week! Still working on it though (I am unsure whether to be grateful or annoyed that Netflix doesn't tell you "hey, this is vanishing" before it does!), so please no spoilers for the end of Season 1 or later seasons :)
Summary: "Humans are hungry creatures, Sherlock knows this. Conflicting messes of wants and needs and desires."
Humans are hungry creatures, Sherlock knows this. Conflicting messes of wants and needs and desires, snarled and tangled and often baffling even to the ones experiencing them. Part of his job, part of what makes him so good at what he does, is his ability to read these things, to map them from people’s body language, their habits, their choices. And most of the time (most of the time) he can see his own wants and needs with the same clarity.
For instance, he knows he needs his detective work. He doesn’t need drugs - he wants them, yes, when work is too slow and his brain feels like it’s running madly in circles for something, anything, to do; or when he can’t quite crack some puzzling case and that artificial clarity is so damn tempting; but he doesn’t need them. He’s done with that.
He doesn’t need - or want - a sober companion, either, he’s sure; but he gets stuck with one anyway. And - well. Maybe he doesn’t need Watson, but it is good to have someone to listen to his deductions. Someone who, unlike Angus, can actually talk back. She isn’t just pretending to listen, either - she pays attention, she wants to hear his reasoning, she even offers her own. He still doesn’t need or want a sober companion, but he does want (need, even? He’s not sure, and he doesn’t like being unsure) a listener. An apprentice, maybe, he thinks as he sees Watson’s investigative skills improving, as the time for their companionship is drawing to an end… A partner, he finally realises, and is relieved beyond measure when she agrees.
(Friends are something Sherlock long ago decided he neither wanted nor needed. Associates, informants, sources, yes, but not friends. And this doesn’t change that, he tells himself. This is only logical - Watson clearly wants to be a detective, and he is better with her. Puzzling, but ultimately the reasons why don’t matter. They both want - need - this partnership, and that is reason enough for it.)