A/N: Omfg hi to anyone reading this! Cami here. This is a mer!lock AU, as well as my very first submitted fan fiction. (It's honestly more of a drabble.) Reviews are extremely appreciated! My tumblr (otterly-johnlocked) is always open for a prompt, nearly any ship! Enjoy~
Sherlock Holmes had never expected to be back aboard a ship, let alone the captain of a ship. With the recent issues with substance addict and jailhousing, he expected to spend years behind bars. But due to some help—unwanted help, he would add— from the elder Holmes, he had been released within only weeks. Mycroft had given him funding, a ship, a crew— and a quest. It did in fact appeal to Sherlock, the proposal from his brother: to find and capture merfolk. They had always been creatures surrounded by myths and legends. Sherlock hated myths and legends. He preferred cold facts and science to frivolous fantasies.
And it was now, sailing into water near uncharted, that Sherlock wasn't bored for the first time in years. It was near moon-high that the waters around the large ship started to churn. Flashes of silver and gold, copper and bronze, red and blue, everywhere. Soft sounds rose from the unfathomable deep. Sounds designed to lure unfaithful men to their watery doom.
At the moment, only Sherlock remained on deck. He had sent his crew away after idiotic attempts to join the singing sirens in the blue sea. Their calling voices didn't effect him; he had no desire or lust for the creatures milling purposefully around his boat. He only had an intense curiosity and want to understand their minds.
There was a specific flash of motion that caught the ship captain's eye. Brilliant gold scales arched out of the water to cover a magnificent crimson finned tail. It was extremely rare to see mismatched scales and fins, and often times it made for an unsightly appearance. But this, this is beautiful. The creature's tail disappeared from sight moments later, leaving Sherlock wide eyed, leaning over the railing. This was the specimen he wanted. He had to have that one.
He called his crew up once again, commanding a search and hunt for the described merperson. It was not to be harmed in anyway, and kept alive until they reached the mainland again. Final orders given, the search began.
It took days of capturing and returning, but finally Sherlock saw it again. Barking out swift orders, it was easily netted and hauled aboard. What met Sherlock's eyes wasn't what he was expecting. A young female with long beautiful hair and soft skin perhaps, or even a burly male with a powerful tail. No, what he saw wasn't at all what he expected.
With a horror-struck and frightened expression, the most beautiful thing Sherlock had ever seen sang plaintively to its—his—friends in the water below, caught hopeless amid a tangle of nets and ropes. Eyes bluer than blue itself stared at Sherlock with a mixture of confusion, fear, and, oddly enough, curiosity. Yes, a powerful curiosity indeed. It seemed nearly as interested in Sherlock as Sherlock was in him. Darker blonde hair topped his head, framing a rather delicate face. Narrow shoulders and a strong torso, the merman's neck and wrists were decorated heavily with necklaces and bracelets made of the most spectacular pieces of seaglass the captain had ever seen. Slowly, he approached the trapped merman. Gingerly taking one hand in his own, he examined the slightly green tinted webbing between his fingers. In fact, there was a slightly green tint to his cheeks, almost like a blush.
Looking back at his eyes was Sherlock's downfall. Beautiful as they were, they held a horrible misery that grew by the second. His soprano toned song had lulled to soft, whimpering noises. He was terrified, alone, and desperate, speaking to Sherlock with pleading eyes, begging to be let go. And, to much his own surprise, Sherlock walked away.
"This wasn't him," he said quietly. "Keep searching."
The crew was shocked— Sherlock had made a mistake? They shook heads in dismay as they lowered the ropes back into the water. Splashing ensued as the trapped merman set himself free, bolting off into the distance. He did stop short, suddenly, and looked back. Upon the ship was the human with the pretty black curls and silly feathered hat. That human had let him go because he saw John's heart. And John wished with all that heart that he would one day find a way to give him that heart.