Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin, but Morgana owns my heart. . .

CHAPTER 1 - Dreams

Morgana douses Merlin with a bucket of water and he jolts awake. He notices his hands are hanging from the ceiling with a rope tightly wound to his wrists.

Morgana greets Merlin with a sarcastic tone, "Good morning."

"Is it?" Merlin answers back in his sarcastic tone. It has become comfortable for Merlin to address Morgana with exactly how he feels for her. Unlike in Camelot, where he has to constantly follow the social rules of being a servant, he likes the freedom he has to be able to openly talk to Morgana any way he likes.

"Oh, don't be like that. We have a lot of catching up to do. After all, I haven't seen you since you condemned my sister to a slow and painful death, thwarted my plans to take over Camelot, and forced me to live in a hovel," she responds angrily.

"Could you do me a favor, could you? Let Arthur know, he still thinks of me as an underachiever, but I'm quite proud of those accomplishments," he answers proudly. "I can die happy." In Merlin's mind, he has accepted his fate. Now that Morgana has him defenseless, he is ready to accept her revenge on him. In a sense, he wants to atone for almost taking her life repeatedly by giving her the reigns to his life.

"Oh, you're not going to die. Oh, no. I'm not going to make it that easy."

Merlin's eyebrows furrow as he tries to figure out what Morgana just said. Surely if she is to torture him, he might consider trying to escape. He knows that he can easily overpower her by using his magic. But that would reveal himself to his mortal enemy. The damage she can do with that information can be catastrophic for Merlin. "The only way this will work is if I kill her here," he thought to himself somberly.

Merlin watches Morgana as she walks towards a bucket of water and picks up a washcloth. He examines her as she begins dousing the washcloth with water, and silently laughs at himself for ever thinking that he was attracted to this woman that is now confined to a lowly hovel. Nonetheless, even in her raggedy clothes, he still cannot help but to think how poised and ladylike she carries herself. "Can I ever bring myself to kill this woman?" he thought.

Morgana interrupts Merlin's thoughts, "You know, there's one thing I don't understand, Merlin," she says while proceeding to clean Merlin's wound. "You're Arthur's servant, nothing more. Yet, time and again, you've proved yourself willing to lay down your life for him."

Merlin looks questioningly at Morgana as she cleans his wound, "What are you doing?"

"Have you never seen Gaius clean a wound before," she answers maliciously.

"All right, I know what you're doing. What I don't know is why," he responds back. He notices how close Morgana is to him while she works on his wound. He looks at her hands working on his wound, and notices how much it's changed from a hand that exudes nobility to one that's of a servant. His eyes are then drawn to look at Morgana's, and he marvels at how green and enchanting they are. He remembers how often he would get distracted talking to Morgana because of how drawn he was to her eyes.

Morgana grabs his face suddenly and he is disrupted of his thoughts. "I believe I asked you a question first. Why are you so loyal to Arthur?" Morgana's face has gotten closer to Merlin, and he is distracted by her lips. He snaps himself out of his thoughts.

"I don't expect you to understand, Morgana. You have no sense of duty, no sense of loyalty," he answers. Merlin starts to feel uneasy as he senses Morgana's anger. He starts thinking if he should indeed use his magic to break free at that moment.

"You're wrong. Don't think I don't understand loyalty just because I've got no one left to be loyal to," she responds bitterly.

Merlin looks at her closely, only mere inches separate them. He still cannot stop thinking about how beautiful he thinks Morgana is, even in her current state. He tries to fight his thoughts because it sounds ridiculous to him. But the thoughts do not stop. He begins thinking of the past, the things he could've done, the things he could've told her. He remembers the countless hours he put in just to pick flowers for her. Going out deep into the forest to find the flowers that she likes most. Urging Gaius to create more sleeping potions for Morgana so he has an excuse to see her at night. He thinks to himself, "I'm about to die or be tortured to death anyway, then what's the difference if she kills me now for acting on past emotions?"

Without a second thought, Merlin closes his eyes and takes the plunge. He dissolves the inches of separation between his lips and Morgana's. Morgana accidentally drops the washcloth as Merlin's kiss surprises her. Eventhough Morgana has had a lot of suitors during her time as Uther's ward, she has never been kissed. She cannot believe that her first kiss would be with the man standing before him. It takes her a second to realize what is going on before she angrily breaks off the connection.

"What do you think you're doing?" she says furiously. "Why did you kiss me?" She is almost yelling.

Merlin stays silent and revels in the kiss. He is in his own world and doesn't notice Morgana screaming at him. He never thought that kissing her would make him feel this way. On one hand he feels that he successfully angered and confused his mortal enemy, and on the other, he feels happiness and contentment that he has fulfilled one of his dreams.

Morgana proceeds to place her hand over Merlin's wound as she incants a spell. Her eyes glow gold. She grabs Merlin's face again and shoves him as he falls unconscious.

This story has been on my mind a bit. When I saw this episode, I just heard myself screaming at Merlin "Kiss her, kiss her!" Did anyone else think they were physically too close? Clearly they needed to kiss. hehe

Look out for more updates. Note that I will update my other fic "Let Me be the One" first though. :P