I don't own the character or Sherlock the show.
Sherlock Holmes, despite what everyone says does know how to love. The man who is married to his work and allows people to assume what they want loves in a way different from most. He loves his family is some vague way, Mycroft the acceptation to that, like everyone else but when he falls in love with a person. It is not due to their beauty (it does contribute in some way) or to their bodies it is to do with their mind.
There is a word that describes the love Sherlock Holmes has for a person he is infatuated with, a word for someone that raises his pulse and causes his pupils to dilate. The word is Sapiosexual and it is the attraction to one's intelligence. It is not surprising for the man whose most precious belonging is his mind, an object which is far superior to most, what else would he fall in love with.
The stunning lack of superior minds is what leads others to believe that Sherlock Holmes doesn't know how to love. But he does and the simple fact is that he has never come across someone with a mind as clever and attractive as his own, leaving him wondering alone with no companion, well apart from John who try as he might doesn't have the brain quick and fast enough to captivate Sherlock Holmes.
So when Sherlock met Irene Adler he was shocked (but in no way did he dare let her know), he had met a person, a beautiful women at that, whose mind which wasn't quite his standard was far superior than any he had met before. It only made him smirk when he realised this women as attracted to him, not in the fake charade she put up for her clients but with her heart. The silly mistake, letting her guard down around him but...
Sherlock realised that he would never forget Miss Adler the one woman who may every get him to fall in love. That's why he saved her, the sentiment that he pitied her for had infected him and he felt love for the first time, the love for another human's intelligence. So he saved her, kept the moan ringtone, which made him smile whenever he heard it and took the phone. The Sherlock left after meeting The Woman would have been frowned upon by a younger Sherlock, but it was a better Sherlock one who had been captivated and now in love.
You see Sherlock Holmes does know how to love, but in a different way from most a way which would be surprising to those who knew. But for most he appeared a heartless detective, married to his work and not interested in the love of women, or men for that matter. Not a man who could fall in love and did.
Hope you enjoyed, R&R if you enjoyed
