I wrote this for the AO3 1 million celebration and decided to put it up here because I found it really entertaining.
Sherlock would never admit it, but he followed John's blog. Not as religiously as some people but sometimes, when he was getting bored he'd look it up. Contrary to his vocal remarks about it, he found it flattering. As he'd told John during their first case That's the frailty of genius: it needs an audience.
Looking back on it, maybe he shouldn't have read the comments, especially on the case where the two had to pose as a couple. But how was he to know about the group of people who liked to imagine them in a relationship?! Actually the term was "shipping" but he didn't know that term at the time.
He was in the living room, staving off the inevitable boredom by reading said blog post and comments when he ran across his first reference to the "fandom".
"John, why does it seem like there is a dedicated following of teenage girls whose main job is to comment on how cute of a "couple" we make?"
"What? Where do you see that?"
"Your blog."
"Oh." There is no surprise in John's voice. "You've found the Johnlock shippers."
"The John-what what? I know you are capable of basic English. Please use it."
"Well, to put it simply, Johnlock is a way to refer to us as a couple. John for me and lock as the last part of your name. "Shipping" is... uh, how do I explain it..."
Sherlock is surprised. John seems to have knowledge of a subject that he doesn't know about. It is especially alarming as this subject deals with him. And John, his brain added as an afterthought. "By the context, I assume "shipping" is being a fan of two people in a relationship?"
"Yes! That's exactly what it is."
"And how do you know about these terms. I'm assuming that only a very few know them."
John's face got that cute little lost look that Sherlock adored. Adored? Where did that come from. No, I do not adore John's face. "Why do you think only a few would know that Sherlock?"
"Really John. How popular do you think "shipping" is? I mean, what would they do other than post inane comments on blogs and such."
John let out a small chuckle, "Sherlock, shipping is very popular. It happens in so many different fandoms-"
"Is that another of those words? Fandoms?"
"Yes, now let me continue. I myself ship Ten/Rose from Doctor Who."
Sherlock harrumfs.
John continues. "Yes I know. It's another stupid TV show. Still, fans don't just post comments, they write stories called fanfictions, draw fanart, cosplay as characters. It's quite impressive what they do."
"And how popular is this "Johnlock"? It can't be common, this whole fan's doing things isn't that common !"
"And this is where I prove you wrong, Sherlock. Greg, Molly, and I all ship Ten/Rose. I know Greg also ships a slash pairing, gay couple, from Doctor Who, but he won't tell us yet."
"And what does that prove? Only that three people that I know ship one pairing doesn't mean that it's popular."
"Fine. Here, take a look at this site. It's for posting fanfictions, fanart, and others things dealing with many different fandoms."
"AO3? What does that mean?"
"Archive of Our Own. Now look at the banner: Celebrate AO3 reaching one million fan-works. Now tell me fan-works and shipping isn't popular."
Sherlock was speechless. How could he have forseen this? "Ok, I concede to your point. But still, how popular is Johnlock?"
A small smirk appears on John's face. He types in "Johnlock" into the search bar and hits enter. "There, 27001 works in Sherlock Holmes/John Watson."
I had hoped to finish this in one day, but I ran out of time so the rest will be posted a little later. Expect some smut and Sherlock's complete loss at how to deal with the revelation that there are stories of him and John shagging.