Merlin breathed out a groan of frustration, as he shook his head and scribbled vehemently across the latest test he was grading. He blushed and had to laugh at himself, too, when he noticed the girl sitting across from him at the library table was covering her face, failing in trying to discreetly hide her amusement. She rested her chin on her hand, smiled, and asked, "You're a T.A., aren't you?"

"Oh, yes!" Merlin replied, grinning widely with false enthusiasm as he held up the reddest exam of all.

"I knew it," the girl said quietly, rolling her eyes. "You looked too frustrated by the stupidity of man not to be."

"Well, I hope my ever-diminishing spirits, hopes, and dreams for the children of the future have kept you entertained this past hour."

"Indeed, they have," the girl replied, chuckling quietly.

"I'm Merlin, by the way."

"Freya," she replied, outstretching her hand to shake his.

"Freya," he said softly. "I like it. That's not a name you hear every day."

"It grows on you, I guess…Merlin," she teased. His eyes crinkled as he laughed at the comment.

"OH MY GOD, SHUT UP AND JUST ASK HER OUT ALREADY. SOME OF US ARE ACTUALLY TRYING TO STUDY HERE," said a desperate looking blonde in the corner, wide-eyed and livid, surrounded by textbooks of every subject.

"Shhh! You're in a library!" retorted Merlin in a whisper louder than was necessary, tapping his pointer finger to his mouth to further emphasize his point.

"Oh, I give up!" said the blonde, picking up his books to study elsewhere.

Freya's face was buried in her hands, trying not to burst out laughing. "Wow," was all she could say. "That's a new one."

"Yeah, sorry, I hope he didn't, uh, make you feel uncomfortable. Nor I," said Merlin, his face now flushed with embarrassment.

"Oh, no, no, no!" reassured Freya. "I just mean that Arthur's not the type to study. At all! He's in one of my classes. We have a final tomorrow, and I could swear that he still had the saran wrap on his textbook during the review today!" Merlin's eyes crinkled again as he laughed. His cheeks heated when he thought of how attractive she was to him. "Hey," he said, still smiling, "I know we're technically both still busy, but would you want to take a study break?"

"Well," said Freya, "as interesting as the prefrontal cortex and cerebellum are to the human mind in terms of their influence on human psychology, I would love some peppermint hot chocolate right about now. This library is freezing!" she said, covering her hands with her sweater to emphasize her point.

"Hot chocolate it is then!" replied Merlin, standing up and gathering his tests, his mouth turning into an exaggerated frown of disgust as he held up an exam and thought back to that student's essay. "Really, Freya, you would not believe some of the things people believe about history."