Charlotte hesitated for a moment. She already had a mate in mind.

"Sherlock," she finally said. "He will be acceptable."

Bree blinked at that. Twice.

"Okay," she said, managing not to ask any questions. "I'll have to let John know."

Charlotte just raised an eyebrow at Bree. She knew her partner wanted to ask questions; Charlotte could hear it in Bree's tone.

Bree shook her head a bit. She'd take care of things first, and then indulge her curiosity.

So, Charlotte got called up for breeding, countered by saying she got to pick who, and then picked Sherlock.

Can't imagine she was pleased about being called for breeding, John replied. Then he paused and really looked at the message. Really? She chose Sherlock?

I know, it surprised me too, Bree texted back. But she said that he would be acceptable. So as long as he doesn't throw a hissy fit about it, we should be set.

I'll talk to him. There was no reason for Sherlock to refuse the mating, as far as John knew. I'll let you know as soon as I have an answer either way.

Great, thanks. I'm going to go ahead and get a start on the paperwork in case he says yes. Bree had already pulled out the appropriate paperwork, so that she'd be prepared. And this way John wouldn't have to do it.

Great.

"Sherlock," John added aloud to the dragon. "Bree just contacted me about Charlotte. It seems she's been called for breeding."

Sherlock tensed a little. He did not like that.

"And?" he prompted, because he knew there must be more, or John wouldn't be telling him.

"Bree tells me that Charlotte requested to choose her own breeding partner," John said, watching Sherlock carefully. "Apparently, she chose you."

Sherlock blinked. All of his planning and considering and trying to choose the perfect gift for her, and she was jumping straight ahead. No wonder females were so infuriating.

But he was pleased to have been chosen.

John watched Sherlock's reactions. Sometimes the dragon could be infuriatingly hard to read.

"Is that alright?" he asked.

Sherlock nodded. "Yes, I suppose," he agreed. He was going to pout about that for a while, though.

John raised an eyebrow briefly.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. "I thought you would have been pleased that she chose you. Haven't you been trying to court her?"

"That's just it. She's skipping everything." Sherlock scowled a little. Trust a woman to throw such a wrench into his plans.

"Alright, Sherlock, you might have to explain your thought process to me," John said carefully. "I'm not sure I understand."

"John. What have we spent the past few weeks practicing?" Sherlock knew that just explaining it would only prompt more explaining, so he'd just get John to see it his way.

"I understand that you want to court her, Sherlock," John said. "The fact that she chose you as her partner should be a good sign, right?"

"But she's skipping over the courtship!" Sherlock grumbled. "And there is no guarantee this is anything but a mating."

"You'll still have the chance to court her," John said gently. "Just treat this like an isolated mating. That's all it is. Everything will go back to normal afterwards and you can resume courtship, yeah?"

Sherlock grumbled but didn't disagree, instead flopping over on the couch again. He could do that. Probably.

At least he could give her the gift he'd found.

Sherlock is alright with the idea, John texted to Bree. Miffed that his courting of her is happening all out of order, but he didn't object to being her mating partner.

Great. I've got the paperwork just about done, so I'll give you a copy too. When do we want to set this up for? At least Sherlock had agreed, that was good.