Sherlock Holmes pushed the overcooked pasta around on his plate with his fork, not actually lifting any of it to his mouth and eating it. Truthfully, the only reason he came down for these stupid dinners was so he could get some extra time to see John Watson. Not that Sherlock ever spoke to him – oh he wished he did, but Sherlock never really spoke to anyone. He kept to himself and that was the way he liked it. This was why he was so scared to even say hello to John (he had calculated six possible outcomes and just about all of them didn't end well). Although John was in one of his two classes he took at university, he was always with friends, and well, Sherlock wasn't exactly the most popular person that everyone wanted to associate with and be around... Sherlock wasn't scared of John's friends – even though they tended to be the ones who picked on him most – he rather enjoyed when they spoke to him, spoke about him. It occupied him for a while and he took the opportunities to use his deduction skills in front of people and humiliate them. And it never failed to make him laugh inside at how brainless they were to keep on coming back to him when they knew that it would end with more than one of them being severely embarrassed at something Sherlock had deduced and that they'd never win while attempting to argue with the boy.

Sherlock flicked his eyes up from his now-cold-food to look across to John (he made sure he sat directly across from him, sitting at an angle where no heads would interrupt his view and they could see each other perfectly) but his gaze lasts for longer than planned. John was looking over at him too and their eyes fix for only a moment (2.8 seconds if Sherlock was counting correctly) until Johns face flushed a bright red and he quickly looked down. Sherlock smirked to himself when he got the reaction from John that let him know he had seen him looking at him. This had happened countless times previously to that night. They would catch each other staring just about every time they were in the same room as each other, and each time it would boost Sherlock's ego, for a second, giving him the confidence to debate going over and talking to him but he never would. Little did Sherlock know that John felt the same.

John had been in Sherlock's English class since they started their first year at uni four months ago. This was John's second class too. His other subject, the one he focused on most, was sports. At the age of seven John had realised he wanted to be a footballer after discovering he had a true, natural talent in the sport. Being in the same English class meant that John knew a bit about Sherlock. He knew he didn't have any friends and he knew that Sherlock Holmes was a very clever man indeed. John felt drawn to Sherlock. He felt seized by his puzzling and peculiar presence. But he had never spoken to him. John was worried about talking to the other man. He worried about what his friends would do; would they leave him for speaking to that "freak"? But the thing that panicked him the most was Sherlock's reaction. Whenever anyone else spoke to him he either seemed distant, like he obliviously didn't care about a word you were saying and he wasn't actually listening, or he'd make a fool out of you in front of dozens of people who would make sure to never let you forget it. So John thought it was best to wait for the right time to talk to him, when he was ready to take a chance in talking to the mysterious man.

Sherlock's other subject was chemistry. In his eyes he was aspiring to be something more practical and more fulfilling in life than John. Since a young age crimes and mysteries captured him and occupied him unlike normal things that would entertain children. Sherlock had always known that he had an amazing mind, one that worked uniquely from any other, and he always used this to his advantage. He could work people out from just a look, know their background, their life. He could tell what they were thinking, what they were feeling, what they knew and didn't know. This applied to John Watson too. Sherlock knew that he lived on campus, had one sister, parents were still together, no pets, played sports, tended to keep his feelings to himself, didn't really get on with his friends and felt he had to impress them – and that was all from one look the first time he walked into English class.

What Sherlock also knew was that the day was a Friday, and on Fridays John would always go back to his dorm room with his friends for a couple of hours, usually having a drink – going by the state of them on most Saturday mornings. Sherlock glanced at his watch. 18:16. That meant John and his friends were just about to leave and go back to John and David's room (the two friends shared). So Sherlock got up, dropped his fork and pushed the full plate of freezing pasta away, starting to swiftly walk back to his dorm, making sure to be ahead of John and his friends so they didn't bump into each other on the way to their separate rooms.