221B Recs

Title: The Case of the Unexpected Guest
Author: codswallop (AO3)
Characters: Lestrade, Sherlock & John
Length: 5615 words
Rating: Gen
Verse: BBC Sherlock
Author's summary: Written for the kinkmeme prompt "Lestrade finds a pet bird at a crime scene, but he likes birds, so he delivers it to Sherlock and John rather than having it euthanized. Sherlock is fascinated."

Reccer's comments: As a favour to Lestrade, Sherlock agrees to take care of a peculiar piece of evidence – a little pet bird. Sherlock takes a liking to it, though he pretends otherwise.
If you’re looking for something amusing and sweet, this is the fic for you.


Excerpt: “Young birds require a lot of care, don’t they?” John said, peering over Lestrade’s shoulder at the cross-looking little bundle. “And shouldn’t it have, I don’t know, a cage?”

“No more care than Sherlock takes with one of his experiments. And it can’t fly yet, so you can keep it in a box with a towel in it for now. It needs hand-feeding every few hours, but it’s not hard to do--my Gran used to rear them.”

John looked doubtful. “Just for a few days--you’re sure? What sort is it, anyway?” He stretched out a tentative hand, and the bird made a small angry sound and clamped its beak onto his fingertip. “Ouch!”

“Agapornis,” Sherlock said, striding over and placing the edge of his forefinger against the creature’s breast; it stepped hesitantly up onto the offered perch, fluffed its pinfeathers, wobbled a bit, and appeared to fall asleep. “Agapornis roseicollis, to be precise, if I’m not mistaken. Lovebird. My grand-mère used to keep them, too,” he explained defensively to the other two men, who were now sporting matching sets of raised eyebrows. “Useless things. Noisy. Messy. Amusing specimens for dissection, though.” He raised the bird up to eye level and tilted his head at it, looking thoughtful.

“He won’t,” John assured Lestrade. “He wouldn’t. Well. I don’t think.”