Consorting with the Enemy (Alexis/Hamish)

The first day of 6th form was going well for Hamish. He'd had three lessons so far, and the last lesson of the day was his favourite, biology.

Hamish supposed he got his love of science it from both his dad's. But if he'd grown up without a hint of enthusiasm for the subject Sherlock probably would have disowned him, besides, all those chemistry sets they had brought him would have gone to waste, not to mention the interesting body parts Sherlock regularly brought back from the morgue. Consequently Hamish couldn't help but develop a fascination for the subject, which had no doubt lead to him getting the best marks in the whole of his senior school for the subject in his exams the year before.

Following a few of his mates down to the science lab, Hamish hoped that maybe in this class they would be able to sit with whoever they liked. He hadn't got much of a chance to hang out with his friends over the summer break, not with the serial killer who had completely stumped Scotland Yard, forcing poor Greg to call in Sherlock.

As they walked into the biology lab there was a collective groan as they're new teacher, a greying lady, ordered them to stand at the back so she could sort out the seating plan. It was Sod's Law of course that Hamish ended up half a mile away from anyone he knew and on a desk at the back with a girl he didn't think he'd met before.

"Er, hi, I'm Hamish" he introduced himself as he got out his books.

Alexis ran a hand through her dark hair with an impatient sigh, waiting for the rest of her classmates to arrive and therefore have the lesson started.

It wasn't surprising she was first to class again, as it was usual for her to do. Most students would be catching up with each other and asking about what happened over the summer, whereas Alexis didn't bother. She was sick of it, hearing every other girl gossip about where they had gone on holiday and everything they'd done.

What was the point? She didn't think it was necessary to talk about something so ordinary. It wasn't relevant in any way.

She was relieved when the teacher gradually showed up a few minutes late, shortly followed by everyone else who would be in her class this year. She had just come from maths, undoubtedly her favourite subject. Biology, she liked too, and chemistry wasn't so bad either.

Alexis stood at the back of the class with the rest of her classmates once the teacher instructed to do so, disappointed she'd have to sit beside someone whether she liked it or not. Normally, she'd sit by herself. It was easier to concentrate, and there was no one to ask her questions if they got stuck and annoy her.

She took her seat when her name was called out, delving into her bag and pulling out the books needed. Alexis barely noticed the boy who sat on the seat next to her, not entirely interested. After a few weeks he'd get tired of her, just like everyone else.

"Alexis," She muttered, giving him a light smile out of politeness. "Hi..." Her face fell back into a blank mask, focusing on the teacher for further instructions.

The girls reply got drowned out by the nattering of the class followed by the teachers call for silence and Hamish didn't ask again. The lesson started and he became acutely aware that his deskmate was doing her best to ignore him.
He felt a little twinge of annoyance at her, which really was ridiculous, but he couldn't get over it. They were going to have to sit next to each other all year, she could at least be a little more friendly. Maybe she's just shy, he thought.

He'd just finished drawing a diagram of the mitochondria (which of course he could draw from memory already, so the exercise was pointless) and he sat back in his chair to wait the few more minutes it would take the rest of the class to finish, and noticed that the girl next to him had finished as well but was, as stubbornly as ever, ignoring him.

"So, your favourite subject is maths." he stated, without letting his gaze stray from the projector screen at the front of the classroom.

Alexis listened intently as soon as the class fell silent and their teacher began to explain their first task, already looking forward to it. She enjoyed school, whether or not she was popular. She liked people to leave her alone, therefore she could be left to her own thoughts without some moron bothering her.

She finished quickly enough and waited, bored again, watching as the rest of her classmates continued with their work. Alexis completely blocked out the boy beside her, hoping he would take the message and leave her alone.

Unfortunately he didn't, although the next comment that came from him surprised her. What did he say his name was again? Henry? Harry? She hadn't been paying attention properly. It had sounded strange though. Nothing you'd usually hear.

Alexis spun round in her chair to face him when the teacher was too busy sorting out, by the looks of it, paperwork, flashing him a dark look. "And how would you know anything about me exactly?" She asked coldly, her eyes narrowing suspiciously as she waited for his answer.

Hamish was a little taken aback by her response. Of course, people were likely to be offended by his deductions when they were personal secrets- he'd learnt that soon after Sherlock had started teaching him and he managed to correctly inform his primary school class that their teacher she was having an affair.

But this was hardly much of a secret. She had the newest model of Mathmatica graphing calculator half hidden under her notes for godsakes. It had only been out a few months (he'd seen an add in his dad's New Scientist magazine, he didn't keep on top of the calculator market- honest) and it already looked well used.

"I don't know, I observe." he smirked.

"Mine's biology" he added a moment later wiping the smile off his face and turning for the first time to look her in the eye. She was giving him an almost glare which should have been slightly threatening but somehow wasn't on her face.

Alexis raised an eyebrow questioningly when the boy replied, momentarily thinking it over. He observed. It wasn't the type of answer she expected. Still, she didn't see any point in having a conversation or argument with him.

"Right." She responded, turning back round on her chair to face the board, uninterested. They still hadn't been given anything else to do, meaning she was stuck to talk with him, which was clearly something Alexis wanted to avoid.

She stayed silent, giving him quick glances whenever she felt like it. Alexis loved to make people feel uncomfortable around her, which was what her fathers tended to do around clients and others they were dealing with, mainly at meetings. They preferred people to be afraid of them and used it as an advantage. They seemed to rub off on her. Especially attitude wise.

"What else can you 'observe' about me?" Alexis eventually decided talking would be best to pass the time and her growing boredom, so she decided to find out more, curious to see what else he knew about her.

She was obviously unphased. Hamish felt a twinge of annoyance creep back into his stomach. Normal people were surprised, shocked, a little amazed even by his deductions, but he was beginning to think that maybe she wasn't your average girl. It had bounced off her like it had been a comment on the weather.

There was a thick silence between them for a little while longer as they both sat waiting for the impossibly slow class to finish before the teacher moved on. When she finally did speak again, her question sounded awfully like a challenge to Hamish, and one he would happily take and win.

"Lots." he said with a grin, turning to look at her properly and letting his gaze fall over her, collecting data. He wasn't like Sherlock in the way that observations happened naturally and spontaneously. He had to look for them, join the dots with logic and years of practice rather than just sheer intellect..

He took a deep breath and let himself be immersed in his thoughts before beginning.

"You took the tube to school this morning and then walked across the park from the station taking the route past the grandstand. You have two- no three cats- enjoy reading and your music taste is out-dated. You stayed up last night and only got 6 hours sleep at the most. You were anxious about school this morning and argued with your mum more so than usual, oh, and you have a nervous habit of biting your nails."

He paused a moment, catching a breath and looking for more of the little clues that gave a person away. He caught her eyes wondering if he'd been right about everything so far but he couldn't tell; her expression was completely blank.

"This summer you went on holiday, no where hot, not your average holiday destination. South America maybe? You have no siblings and live with your parents who aren't around much, always working hard so you do a lot of the house-keeping even though you've got probably got domestic. So you're wealthy but not sploit in anyway. Interesting."

Hamish looked up again quickly. Maybe he'd gone too far this time in trying to provoke a reaction and she was about to strangle him or something, but she was still seated which he took as a good sign.

"Oh," he reached over the desk for her timetable which lay underneath her books, "and your name is Alexis Moran." he smiled back at her slightly gingerly, bracing for a barrage of something that was due to come his way any moment now.

((ahh mini essay, hope Hamish hasn't come across too creepy :/ ))

Alexis waited expectantly as the boy seemed to be observing her again for hints and clues. It didn't make her entirely comfortable, as she wasn't used to people staring at her for so long. She didn't particularly like it. Although she enjoyed the attention at times for boasting and bragging about different things, or herself, Alexis didn't like to be examined as much.

She listened intently to his observations, engrossed about the much information he could pick up just by her appearance. A few minor mistakes, although the rest was precisely correct. She only lived with her fathers, no mum. It didn't bother her, as she enjoyed their company most of the time - apart from arguments of course.

Alexis automatically looked at her nails at the mention of her usual habit, and quickly hid them. "North America." She corrected him, remembering it well. Again, it had been a business trip, and her parents had refused to let her stay behind because she was 'too young' and it was 'dangerous' for a criminal's daughter to be wandering about London on her own. Not that she would get caught anyway. No one knew her.

Again, he had made another small mistake about not being spoilt. Jim spoiled her rotten actually, and as she was an only child, she would basically get whatever she wanted. He normally bought her clothes, accessories, equipment for school or other things she hardly needed. Whereas Sebastian preferred to take her places, or teach her how to use a gun properly if it was ever necessary to defend herself in a dangerous situation. These only happened when they weren't working all the time.

Alexis watched him take her timetable, tempted to snatch it back. She hated people touching her things, but she didn't so much as open her mouth. Clearly she hadn't put down 'Moriarty' down instead, as Jim didn't appreciate his identity given away. So she had to use her father's surname, as it wasn't as suspicious. Moriarty wasn't a common surname, and therefore people who might have heard of him, might suspect something.

"You're like a detective then." It wasn't a question, though Alexis was more interested in him than she had been before. She gave a light smile in return for the first time, hiding her sudden excitement about the probability of him being a detective.

Hamish's head spun a little; she'd just smiled at him, and it was definitely was a lot nicer than her scowl.

"Well, kind of. Assistant Consulting Detective; my dad's the detective though." he smiled back, wondering if that title sounded a bit strange. By now the class had finally finished and the teacher was moving on, but he wasn't listening to her long-winded explanation of the functions of mitochondria.

"How did you know detective though?" he asked, intrigued. He'd been termed 'creepy', a mind reader or psychic, but she'd gone for detective straight away.

"Your dad is a detective too?" Alexis asked in amazement, fascinated by that one, simple fact. To others, it might seem boring and all they did were help the police solve crimes, but it was much more than that, as she knew herself.

It didn't matter if he was an 'assistant'; a detective was a detective, assistant or not.

"Daddy knows a lot about detectives," She responded with another brief smile, guessing she might end up liking her new biology partner. "I watch a lot of documentaries and read about them too."

Alexis considered his next question, taking no time to think about it and answered immediately. "Oh, that's easy. Detectives examine people in a certain way when they are finding information. It looks almost as though they are in a hypnotic trance. The concentration was clear on your face, and you weren't blinking, which is common. The only thing moving was your eyes when you were trying to figure me out."

She took a quick glance at one of his textbooks when she had finished explaining, noting his name was Hamish Watson. She'd make sure to remember that.

"Oh okay, what does he do?" Hamish asked, surprised at what seemed a genuine interest in what Sherlock and he did. He felt himself blush a little at the description of him deducing, was it really that obvious?

The lesson started to wrap up and the teacher announced a joint project they'd be assigned for the first 2 weeks of homework. Hamish initially groaned a little at the thought of group work; he was a tolerant enough person but working with others on academic tasks really was not his strong point. He usually ended up giving up on them and doing it all himself, not to mention having countless arguments with friends over such things.

However then she revealed that they would be working with the person they shared the desk with, a 'getting to know you' task as she called it. Perhaps this wouldn't be such a drag after all, he thought hopefully.

"Looks like you're stuck with me." he said to Alexis with a half smile as they packed their books away.

"He's a... businessman." Alexis answered quickly, knowing she shouldn't give away what her dad really did. Both of her parents actually, as they were criminals after all. Except no one would knew that. Which was a good thing.

She regretted it when the teacher mentioned a project - it wasn't very appealing to her. Alexis preferred doing things on her own, not with someone else. They would only delay everything and make it worse.

Although hearing that it would be with Hamish, her mood brightened slightly. Working with a detective, she thought, figuring it might not be too bad. He seemed smart, and could hopefully work with her all right.

"Looks like I am." She agreed with a small smile, slipping the rest of her books into her bag.

They made their way out of their way slowly out of the classroom and Hamish decided to take the plunge. Admittedly it wasn't exactly a big question, but for some reason it felt as though he was asking her on a date or something.

"Hey, do you have a free first thing tomorrow morning? Because if you have nothing on it would be cool to start on the project, get it out the way." he asked, trying to convince himself this was definitely not anything like a big deal. "I could meet you in the library?"