The Dragon's Companion

Disclaimer:

I do not own BBC Sherlock.

Notes:

Basically there are people who are creatures. They can look human but can make certain animal features of theirs appear/disappear at will to blend in with ordinary humans. There's prejudice between humans and creatures so they generally hide what they are.

Chapter 10

It had turned out that when Janine had hinted to him not seeing all of Meliora's creature self...she wasn't exaggerating. It seemed the more he learned the more embarrassed he was at how little he actually knew. For one, creatures had a total of three forms. In one they could look completely human (human form). In another they were what the general population of humans believed creatures to truly look like (mid form). The last form was their complete creature form, a form that as far as most humans were concerned was merely a myth as only creatures and human life mates were allowed such knowledge. Meliora for instance, appeared as a wolf. It was explained to him though that due the not only what Sherlock was but because of his size that they would all have to go on holiday somewhere secluded so the consulting detective could show John what his dragon form looked like. John was a little overwhelmed seeing as he'd only discovered he was Sherlock's life mate the day before but because Sherlock appeared excited even though Mycroft was the one who made arrangements for them, he didn't argue. Besides, it would be nice to go on holiday. And he'd never gone somewhere with Sherlock without it involving a case. Not like this at least. Still, whatever he'd been expecting he really should've seen it coming that their housing would come in the form of at least a mansion but this went even behind that. This was...and he was not exaggerating, a literal castle that appeared built into the side of a mountain. He was surprised to see Sherlock's form change the second they were all indoors.

Sherlock turned toward John to reveal the bright ethereal eyes returned, followed by sharp fangs. Dark scales went up the side of his neck and behind his now pointy elf-like ears, blending in with his dark curls.

Janine and Meliora watched a wide-eyed John as the consulting detective took off not only his coat but his dress shirt.

The scales on his neck went across his shoulders, a line down his arms and around his wrists and over his hands where his nails had thickened and curled slightly. The scales also completely covering his back where two large webbed wings appeared folded and tucked in.

John looked down Sherlock's body to see the scales curling around his torso but not touching his chest or stomach.

Meliora, who had also changed to her mid form just grinned and ran past him, her knuckles brushing against the scales on his arm as she pasted, "You're it!"

The dragon blinked before his lips curved up into a small smirk. He turned around and took off after her.

John raised his brows with a slight frown.

The other human shook her head with a smile. "Those two." Turning toward John she said, "Guess we'll have to find our own way around here until they're done with their game."

"Do they play like this often?" Because this was the first time he'd ever even heard of it, much less seen it. He hadn't thought Sherlock would be the type to play such a childish game. Then again, wasn't that what chasing after criminals was? A dangerous game of tag?

While their life mates were off playing John and Janine explored the castle. The first floor was discovered to hold the kitchen, a dinning room, a living room, a library and two locked doors. Upon traveling up the stairs on one side they found out the library continued and the other door was, again, locked. Walking across to the other side of the second floor revealed several bedrooms of which only three were found to hold any personal items. Obviously these were the rooms of the Holmes brothers and their parents. It was only upon realizing that they hadn't seen their life mates since the two had run off that they had no clue as to where the wolf and dragon had went.

"Nice den," was all Meliora could say upon entering the Holmes dragon lair. The ceilings probably weren't high enough for flight in his creature form but it was more than enough space for his mid form. The area was otherwise very vast and wide. So much so that while the area was well lit she couldn't really tell how far the multiple dragon-sized hallways went. She briefly wondered if it was a dragon-sized version of the human side of the castle and nearly snorted at the thought of Mycroft the dragon sitting on a dragon-sized toilet, holding a dragon-sized newspaper and giving her one of those 'do you mind' looks with a slight tilt of his head. Of course then the thought of Sherlock in his dragon form doing experiments with perhaps some safety goggles on his head and swirling the contents of a beaker in one of his claws came to her and a short laugh escaped her.

Sherlock raised his brows at her but didn't ask.

John spent the night in Sherlock's room, sleeping beside the consulting detective who was sleeping on his stomach with one wing stretched out over him. But when he woke up the following morning his life mate had disappeared. He made his way down the stairs and into the kitchen but saw no sign of the dragon. After making some coffee he discovered Sherlock was neither in the dining room, the library or the living room. He returned to the kitchen to find Meliora in mid form, cooking breakfast. "Have you seen Sherlock this morning?"

She didn't glance up from the pan but replied, "Disappeared this morning did he?"

"Er, yes."

"Hm," she hummed. "He's probably-"

"Good morning," Janine unknowingly interrupted as she opened the door, walking up to Meli and placing a kiss on her neck.

She gave a low appreciative growl before turning away from the food and capturing the woman's lips in a kiss. "Morning," she whispered huskily, lips forming a crooked grin as they stared into each others eyes, smiling.

John cleared his throat.

Jan blushed, "Oh, hello John. I didn't see you there."

"Clearly," he murmured to himself.

The wolf shot him a brief glare before turning her attention back to the pan of bacon and eggs.

"So have you seen Sherlock this morning?"

The woman frowned as she took a sip of Meliora's coffee. "Sorry, no." She glanced at her wolf, "Meli?"

She turned off the stove and started separating the food onto four different plates. When she was done she placed a kiss to her human's cheek, "I'll go get him."

"I guess we'll have to set the table then," Janine said, smiling at John.

Meliora was not surprised to find a large dragon in the den, sulking over his failure. She shook her head. "Couldn't get it on by yourself then?"

He snorted, turning his head to glare at the offending object.

"I'll help you put it on later. Besides, you won't exactly fit in the kitchen like this."

The dragon turned his head to look at her.

"Don't give me that look," she told him, glaring. "I know full-well it takes more energy to maintain creature form." At his continued stare, she growled, "I am your Alpha and I demand you change back and eat breakfast with us!"

The large dragon shrunk down almost in the blink of an eye until he was back in mid form again though...completely naked. "I can hunt if I get hungry," he scowled at her even as he pulled his underwear and pants back on.

"You'll attend to your life mate Sherlock Holmes or so help me-"

"What's wrong with John?" He cut her off, suddenly looking worried.

Her expression softened and she sighed, "Even I know better than to leave my life mate alone at meal times even if I don't eat more than a cracker. It's considered bonding time. You're supposed to provide for him Sherlock. Tell me you are at least aware of that."

Sherlock frowned slightly. "I am...still growing accustomed to the idea." To a degree he already did. He already did his best to protect John both physically and emotionally but the rest... the rest was new to him. Providing meant keeping John happy. With the exception of bringing John on cases and making sure John ate he wasn't really sure how to accomplish this. He had proposed that they date but as he himself had never been on one (despite his fake relationship experience) he was unsure how to proceed in that aspect. But dating made John happy so he would try. The only other thing he could think of was sex but that would have to wait until they were ready to be officially bonded as he didn't think he could resist making John his otherwise. Still, the question lingered in his head. What could he do to make John Watson happy?

John didn't actually expect Sherlock to show up in the dinning room and if he did it was probably only to have a cup of tea. Well, Sherlock did come. And he did have tea. However, he also ate breakfast with only a sigh to show his displeasure at the situation.

"I suppose since Sherlock's not going to explain his eating habits that I'll have to do it for him," Meliora said as she also took her seat at the table.

The human man frowned. She had his attention.

"Creatures have a vast variety of different diets. The big difference is is how often we need to eat and why. I personally need to eat at least one meal a day. Sherlock only needs to eat once a week. We can eat more than that obviously but we don't need to. However, if we are using our creature form we require more than that. Depending on our creature and if we are in mid form or full creature form we could go from simply eating a little more to a lot more. For instance, since I use my mid form quite regularly I only need two meals a day. For my creature form that would rise to three meals a day. Not really that big of a difference."

John nodded in understanding.

"But for Sherlock's mid form he is required to eat four times a week and for his creature form I'd say he'd need to eat the standard human three meals a day."

"Unless I eat a cow," the dragon interrupted with a slight smirk.

The black-haired wolf rolled her eyes. Her pack mate really would go hunt down a cow just so didn't have to deal with eating so often.

"A cow?" John asked, brows raised in disbelief.

"Well I suppose pigs would do in a pinch but I don't particularly care for the taste of the mud they like to roll in."

Meliora nodded. She didn't much care for the mud either...or the thick wool of a sheep. But you can't always be picky when it comes to survival. Jungles and forests held better prey. Less fluffy and more fun to hunt. "Depending on how much time he spent in full creature form he might not have to eat any more than he does in mid form." Then she shot Dray a look to remind him of what they had just discussed earlier. She looked away when he at least appeared to be slightly cowed...er, no pun intended though a cow did sound quite fabulous. Or anything she could catch from a hunt. She'd have to ask Sherlock later.