A Different Kind of Love

by The Wordsmithy

John is in love with Sherlock. Sherlock loves John, too, but it's not romantic in nature. But does it really need to be? (Platonic Johnlock, plus exploration of a headcanon I have regarding Sherlock's romantic abilities or lack thereof.)

John Watson was in love. Or at least he had thought he was in love. It was the only way he could explain his sudden attachment and fascination with the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes. Everything about Sherlock – his incredible mind, his lovely face and body, his life's excitement, his altogether engaging and compelling personality – it attracted him. It intrigued and compelled him. John Watson had fallen in love-at-first sight with Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes, however, had not reciprocated. In one of their first conversations, he had said that he was married to his work. This deterred John only slightly. Certainly the man wasn't entirely incapable of love? All he needed was the right person to make him realize he could love. Sherlock had taken an unnatural interest in John as well, and that was promising, but it hadn't taken the turn that the army doctor had hoped for. He'd put out various hints throughout their relationship, and he hoped Sherlock would have taken them. Other people certainly had. They'd seen their relationship as what it wasn't but what John wanted it to be. Sherlock Holmes was oblivious. Sherlock Holmes was not in love, nor would he ever be.

The strange thing was, this didn't disappoint John as much as it should have. The revelation that the amazing man wasn't going to reciprocate was a dull shock, but it wore off when the doctor also made the revelation that they still shared an amazing relationship. Sherlock took him along on his cases – no, he didn't take him along. They worked as equals, with John Watson being every bit as responsible for solving the cases as the consulting detective. In turn, he made sure Sherlock looked after himself, and when Sherlock ignored his own needs or failed to get along with the rest of the world, John helped him. Theirs was a wholly remarkable kind of symbiosis, and although it wasn't romantic, it was an amazing and beautiful twist of their combined fates that they should have it. So what if Sherlock's love for John wasn't romantic? Sherlock loved John, and maybe it didn't matter all that much as to what kind of love it was.

John Watson was in love. So was Sherlock Holmes. They were, in fact, in love with each other. It just wasn't the kind of love most people thought of.