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Sally Donavon was the first person to mention the small dragon currently perched on Sherlock Holmes’ shoulder. She had seen the detective coming up to the tape and opened her mouth to ask why the man was had shown up, when she stopped suddenly. Sherlock stood before her and raised an eyebrow waiting for her usual rude greeting. The purple dragon curled protectively around his neck, over the scarf at his slight tensing.
“Afternoon Donavon,” he said when she still remained silent.
“Is that,” she began still half shocked, “is that a dragon?”
“Astute observation as usual.” Sherlock pulled up the tape and ducked under it. The dragon on his shoulder made a noise as it suddenly had to readjust its balance. Once Sherlock was at his full height it glared at him.
“Anything else Sally?”
“You have a dragon,” she said again but finally began to recover it seemed. She took a half step toward the man with a hand raised. “Could I...” she began, but trailed off and put her hand down. To her surprise Sherlock moved closer and gestured toward the dragon.
“If you must,” he said attempting to look rather put upon. The dragon just looked curiously between the two humans, not sure how to proceed. Sally smiled and raised her hand to the purple dragon. It smelled her hand, and gave Sherlock one last look before pressing its head into her palm. She made a little noise at it accepting the gesture and continued to pet the creature.
“’S warm,” she said surprised.
“Well he does breathe fire.”
“Oh, it’s a male?”
Sherlock shifted, “I am here to see a dead body Donavon.”
“Right sorry,” she pulled her hand away. The dragon looked disappointed at the petting coming to end. She continued to say, “Lestrade is in the building behind you. Third floor.”
“Thank you,” and he turned away from her and into the building.
“You don’t like her,” came a voice in his head, “and she doesn’t like you either.”
“Yes. Your point?”
“Oh I don’t have a point. I’m just wondering why you let her pet me then.” The dragon’s tail tapped at his shoulder and looked amused.
“She likes dragons,” Sherlock reasoned, “If I allow her access to you then she is more likely to be kind to me and thus not interfere with my case work.”
“Oh so I’m just here to look cute?”
“At the moment yes, now hush,” Sherlock said sharply as they came up to the landing. There, a gray haired man was talking to a thin brunette who he recognized as Lestrade and Anderson. When the pair saw them, Lestrade looked tired and the Anderson looked angry and personally insulted.
“Do you always have this effect on people?” Sherlock just ignored him.
“How did you get a dragon?” Anderson sneered.
“I didn’t ‘get’ a dragon,” he said walking past the man, “he chose me, that’s how it works.”
“Please,” the tech sneered, “why would a dragon pick you?” The said dragon turned toward Anderson and growled at him. A little bit of fire crept out the edge of his mouth. Lestrade stepped in between the two men and dragon.
“That’s enough.” he said calmly, “Sherlock can just go in and have a look at the crime scene.”
Anderson stepped around Lestrade, “I want don’t him on my scene, let alone a reptile.”
“It’s not as if he’ll cause any more damage than your lot could,” Sherlock shrugged and the dragon continued to look annoyed.
“It’ll get scales everywhere!”
“Hardly, he’s not molting, even an idiot could see that.”
“Gentlemen!” Lestrade yelled. The two arguing men looked in his direction. The Detective Inspector sighed. “Sherlock is here to look at the scene. That is not up for debate. And if he has a dragon with him then it’s going in with. Now can you two stop arguing before we have to deal with burn damage?”
Anderson stepped back confused, “Why would we have burn damage?”
Lestrade pointed his thumb at the pissed off dragon currently staring at the skinny man. The look on the man’s face perfectly conveyed his understanding that the “reptile” he previously insulted was in fact nature’s arsonist. With a smile Sherlock strolled passed the men and into the apartment.
“Body’s in the bedroom, got it cleared out for you,” Lestrade said following the detective.
As soon as they were in the room the dragon hoped off Sherlock’s shoulder and glided to the top of a bookshelf. Sherlock crouched over the body of a man and started muttering to himself. He pulled out a magnifying glass and the dragon watched lazily.
“So what’s the name?” Lestrade asked suddenly.
Sherlock stepped over the victims legs, “It’s your crime scene, I thought you were supposed to know that.”
“Oh stuff it,” he crossed his arms, “that’s Jamie Till. I was talking about the dragon.”
“Ah,” Sherlock paused, “You’re the first person to ask. It’s John.”
“Not that you’ve been exactly forth coming with it,” the dragon thought. Sherlock spared him a glance before returning to the body.
“John, I thought dragons went by fancy names like I don’t know, Gwendilin or Amethyst?” Lestrade crossed his arms.
“I knew a Gwendilin,” John sounded bored, “Bit of a tosser really.”
Sherlock spared the dragon a look, “I didn’t decide on the name, he came with it.”
“Guess that makes life a bit more manageable,” Lestrade said, “I have to ask,” addressing the creature on the bookshelf, “why did you pick Sherlock? Doesn’t seem like a dragon’s first choice.”
A little fire cracked in the dragon’s mouth and the DI wondered for a second if he’d upset him. Instead of launching off the top of the bookcase at his face, however, John crossed his forepaws and sent the detective inspector an amused look. Sherlock grumbled next to the corpse and suddenly stood abruptly.
“You know it’s not polite to talk about someone when they don’t know what they’re saying,” Lestrade said dryly.
“John was just informing me that he believes you are more perceptive then I gave you credit for,” Sherlock sounded annoyed, “I assured him that will change once he gets to know you. Still, most people tend to forget John is just as intelligent, or more so, than they are. He thanks you for talking to him directly. Now if you excuse me, my first priority is solving a murder not acting as a middleman in your conversation.”
“Uh, how can we . . .?” the detective didn’t quite finish the question in confusion.
“A pen and note pad should suffice,” Sherlock said absently.
Lestrade shrugged pulled his pad out of his inside jacket pocket and held it toward John. Instead of taking the pad, the dragon stretched out before jumping off the bookcase. He landed on Lestrade’s right shoulder then snaked around so his weight was across the Detective Inspector’s back. Lestrade sagged a bit at the sudden dragon weight. John was heavy for his small size. The dragon held out his right claw which Lestrade handed the pad to. John grabbed a hold of the pen with his other claw and wrapped his tail around the DI’s neck for counter balance. The tail loosened as John put one claw back on Lestrade’s shoulder and then tapped the DI’s chest with the notepad.
Lestrade took the pad and the dragon relaxed across his shoulder. One the top page John had written a single word, “Interesting”.
“Well, I’ll admit he is that,” Lestrade said and held the pad loosely in front of the dragon in case he wanted it again. Instead John just tapped his claws lightly against his jacket. He shrugged and just crossed his arms while they both watched Sherlock make another circuit around the body.
The consultant made a grunt before standing. John flapped his wings, almost hitting Lestrades head, before jumping off his perch. He landed on Sherlock’s shoulder and balanced carefully.
“He wasn’t killed here,” Sherlock said as John shifted closer to his neck. “You’ll want to check to see where he ate last. If it was his fiancée’s apartment arrest her, if it was a restaurant arrest his lover.”
Lestrade uncrossed his arms so he could put the pad back in his jacket. As he did so he asked exactly how Sherlock knew that.
“The stabbing was just an attempt to make that look like the cause of death. He’d already been dead for several hours due to the lack of bleeding from the wounds. Shoddy attempt really, his lips are blue and there are signs of poisoning,” Sherlock listed off. “One of the women in his life found out. Relationships, really, the day everyone converts to celibacy I’ll be out of the job. Call me next time with something interesting.”
“You know,” Lestrade started with a smile, “I was surprised you took this one. But then you probably just wanted to show off the fact John choose you, didn’t you.”
Sherlock blinked at him then started out the door saying, “Shut up.”
John’s mouth glowed with a laugh. “Told you he was cleverer then you gave him credit for.”