Title: Joan's Never Tried This Sort Of Thing Before
Pairing/s: Joan/Sherlock.
Disclaimer: Inspired by cybersappho's Tumblr post about Joan and Sherlock negotiating a D/s scene for the first time.
Summary: The BDSM thing's a little new.
Joan's Never Tried This Sort Of Thing Before
…So, understandably, she's a little curious. 'Curious', as in, peer-reviewed papers with full citations on the subject. 'Curious' as in casual interviews with women who look like they could take out Sebastian Moran. 'Curious', as in browsing reviews for things she should "Not Be Looking At In A Public Library, Miss."
Sherlock thinks the amount of effort Joan puts into researching BDSM before they actually try it is ridiculous. It's sex—a fascinating kind of sex with a rich culture and intriguing roots in evolutionary psychology—but sex, nonetheless. He focuses on its science; ignores the emotional implications of it, buries the scalding memories of aftercare that burn with submerged embarrassment.
But Joan has the 'stay-awake-all-night-studying', 'forget to eat' thoroughness of a surgeon, and she's held beating hearts in her hands before. It's impossible for her not to feel the similarities—impossible, also, to forget the fear that comes with. Two entirely different scenarios, one gnawing, eating thought: If I mess this up, I could kill him.
So Joan's stubborn and thorough and delicate and by-the-book: she holds Sherlock's heart in her hands and teaches herself how to be a surgeon, a doctor; makes herself forget how to be a lover, a friend. There will be time for that after. (Maybe that's what scares her the most.)
When Sherlock complains that she's "Wasting time, Watson, I am not so fragile", she tells him, "Shut up. We do it this way or not at all." Sherlock frowns and sulks but does as he's told, dragging himself to the bookshelf to grumble about what confusing order Mrs. Hudson has arranged his materials in today.
(It's not till later, when he turns to see Watson patiently reading article after article on her laptop, that he realizes Joan's already the best Dom he's ever had.)
fin