A/N: I'm participating in the Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2017 again, which means I'll be posting a story every day written for a special theme. Today is day 1, and the theme is "First Meeting". Please review if you enjoyed this!
WHO ARE YOU
"Who are you?" Sherlock Holmes stood in the middle of his lab, where he'd just found a young woman sitting in his spot.
"Molly Hooper," she introduced herself, "I just transferred here. Who are you?"
"Sherlock Holmes. Well, Molly, you are sitting in my spot. This is my lab."
"It didn't say it was occupied online." Molly looked down.
"Everyone knows it's my lab, so they don't make a reservation."
She shrugged. "It's a fully equipped lab, Sherlock. We can work here together."
Sherlock looked angry. "I am going to call my supervisor."
"Go ahead." Molly turned around and walked over to the microscope. Sherlock knew he'd lost this fight, so he went to another part of the lab, pouting. His supervisor stopped by later that morning, just before class started.
"Sherlock, I see you have met Molly Hooper! Isn't she charming?" He asked, "Molly transferred here from Harvard, she's their most promising medical student."
Molly smiled. "Thank you sir, but you are giving me too much credit."
"Your supervisor at Harvard told me so. They were really sorry to let you go. Go, take your spot. You will be Sherlock's lab partner for now on."
Sherlock looked like his day couldn't get any worse. "She's going to be my lab partner?"
"Yes, yes," The professor turned around, "Today will be fun."
Sherlock doubted it. Their fellow students couldn't believe that Sherlock was actually working with another person, but ten minutes into the seminar, Molly and Sherlock had started fighting. Molly was used to how things were going at Harvard, and Sherlock didn't appreciate that very much.
Their professor, on the other hand, saw the creation of a new prize-winning research team. "Hooper, I need to talk to you," he told her after the seminar.
Molly stood still. "What's wrong, sir?"
"You and Sherlock are going to be part of my research team." Her professor was really, really excited. Molly's excitement seemed to decrease by the minute.
"I do not think that is a good idea, sir."
"Why not?" He asked, "You two are my best students, and you are clearly challenging each other."
Molly chuckled. "We only fought for fifty minutes, sir."
"That doesn't matter. Fighting can lead to great research."
Molly shook her head. "I have another meeting now. I see you tomorrow."
The idea of having to work together with Sherlock Holmes kept Molly Hooper awake that night. She was worried her professor might actually act on it. She wasn't the right fit for Sherlock. He was handsome, she couldn't decline that. But her years at Harvard taught her that a pretty face doesn't make up for a lack of intelligence. She shrugged and tried to shake the thought of Sherlock off. "Just stop thinking of him, Hooper! He's totally out of your league. And you hate him," she told herself.
She turned around, fumbling with her sheets.
"Are you okay, Molly?" Her dorm-mate asked.
"Yes, I'm just having a fight with my sheets," she replied. She'd actually forgotten about her new dorm mate.
On the other side of campus, Sherlock Holmes was unable to sleep as well. There had never been anyone before who had challenged him like this. Not his first case, nor any of the cases that came after had been this hard to solve. Molly Hooper was his new case. Who was this girl? She said she'd gone to Harvard, yet she didn't speak with a full American accent. She sounded rather British. His clock said it was well past three in the morning; Sherlock realized he might not get enough sleep because of this Molly girl. He reached for his pack of cigarettes and lighted one. As he took a drag, he concluded that he liked her. He disliked her when she tried to surpass him, like today in the lab, but she deserved a chance. Just like his brother had given him this chance, by helping him to get into this university, far away from their parents. When he decided he'd smoked enough, he put the lights out and closed his eyes. This semester was going to be interesting.
Even though they both decided they appreciated each other, did not mean they were willing to put their stubbornness aside and start working like a team. In the following weeks, they set the lab several times on fire because they forgot they were using a burner since they were too busy fighting about their research. The dean decided the two were too dangerous together to use the lab alone, so he'd asked their supervisor to supervise them every single time. Molly and Sherlock shut their mouth when their supervisor was near since they both realized this was an extraordinary chance for their future careers.
After they'd published their first article on particles, Sherlock asked her out on a coffee date. Molly gladly accepted his invitation.