Like many things in Dr. John Watson's life, it all began because of Sherlock Holmes.

One day in 1886, Watson was rifling through his old notebooks where he had recorded their, by then, plentiful adventures.

"Holmes!" Watson suddenly exclaimed with a chuckle, "Take a look at this!"

The melody that had been swirling around their sitting room came to a sudden stop. Holmes frowned distastefully at the interruption, but he deigned to open his eyes and grace Watson with his unamused gaze.

His melodramatic pause went unappreciated as Watson continued, "It's our first case! I'd forgotten about this old thing, but oh, how could I have?"

Finally he glanced up at the still irritated Holmes. His grin fell away, and for a moment Holmes felt a twinge of guilt, but it was Watson's own fault for interrupting him with such sentimental nonsense. Holmes was about to say as much.

"You don't have to look so disappointed," Watson said. "It was our first case, that's something worth remembering! And quite the case it was too…" He flipped through a few of the pages, letting the memories flood his mind.

"Routine," Holmes scoffed, but Watson ignored it, already consumed by his reading.

Holmes turned on his heel, putting his back to Watson, and pointedly returned to his music with a much louder and sharper tune.

"You know-" Watson spoke suddenly, interrupting his concentration once more.

"What?" Holmes asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I was just thinking that it - our first case, that is - would make quite the novel," Watson replied, put off by Holmes's response and likely a little offended.

Holmes lowered his violin and turned to face him with a scowl. "A novel for what? You're no author."

"I suppose I could try and write it up…" Watson said, taken aback.

"And get it published in The Strand too, I take it. Maybe it'll even get famous. You could talk to that friend of yours, Doyle, about it. Between his fairies and your novels you'd be a perfect pair." With that, Holmes went upstairs in search of some peace and quiet.


Note: This story was edited in July 2018 for cross-posting on Archive of Our Own.