Ch1

It was a typical cloudy day in London. The roads were busy with cabs and tourists, and the residents of 221b Baker Street were bored. John sat, tapping at his computer while Sherlock lied on the couch, mumbling incomprehensible strings of who knows what. Their previous case had just been closed, and the two men had absolutely nothing to do.

"John, did you get a new girlfriend?" Sherlock groaned from across the room, peering out the casement. "You need to warn me before you have people over!"

John only smirked, knowing that this wasn't even half the reaction that his flat mate would have when he found out who this woman actually was and what she was doing here.

As if on queue, the doorbell rang and John anxiously jumped up to greet their visitor. He opened the door to a young woman in her early thirties. As soon as she was in John's sight, he swept her off of her feet into a tight hug.

Kate hadn't see John in five years, easily, and once she had told her cousin that she would be moving to London, he had insisted that she stay with him and his infamous flat mate, Sherlock Holmes. She had reluctantly given in to his request, only because he had offered. She didn't want to become a pain, something that she feared would happen.

Kate and her cousin walked back into the inviting flat, John carrying Kate's bags as he only saw proper and had once again insisted.

"Sherlock, this is Kate. She'll be staying with us for a while."

The consulting detective quickly looked over the woman standing in his living room.

"Since when have we agreed that your girlfriends could stay with us?"

John laughed and set down Kate's bags.

"I may have left out an important detail. She's my cousin, Sherlock, not my girlfriend."

Sherlock felt foolish that he hadn't noticed the resemblance earlier, looking her over once more to see that it was actually quite obvious looking. The woman had John's light brown hair and chocolate eyes. She was short, standing at only about 5'2, another similarity between her and John. Still, for John's sake he decided not to judge her just yet. He assumed that he wouldn't like her, but with her being the cousin of his only friend, he decided he'd judge her more critically later, if there was a later, which in the case that he got his way, there wouldn't be.

"No John, she's not staying with us. We didn't talk about this," he muttered, remaining monotonous and without expression.

"Sherlock, she is staying with us. She's just arrived in London and we will give her a warm welcome!"

"You know how I am with people. This won't work out well and we both know that."

"Kate isn't just any normal person, she's my little cousin, and she's staying with us. That's final."

"Fine," replied Sherlock, immediately returning to peering out the casement as if nothing had ever happened.

Meanwhile, Kate was still just standing there, not quite sure how to react to the situation that had just played out in front of her. Of course, she loved John, but Sherlock just seemed… difficult. Kate was a kind, mostly honest, and overall likable person, but befriending her cousin's flat mate seemed like it would prove to be more than difficult than she had been expecting.

She would get through it though

After all, she was Katherine Watson.