Merlin was rocking his head and strumming his fingers in rhythm to his rock music as he attempted his chemistry homework. If it weren't for the fact that the knocking interrupted the beat of the familiar song, he wouldn't have noticed the knock on the door at all.
"Merlin?" asked a quiet voice. "Are you there? It's Freya."
Merlin's face flushed when she said her name. He dropped everything and answered the door a little too quickly. Freya pretended not to notice and smiled at the sight of him. "Hi," she said sweetly.
"Hi, Freya," he answered, returning the smile and gesturing for her to come inside his dorm room when he came back to his senses. His blue eyes always got lost in her dark brown ones whenever he saw her. "Would you like to borrow my jacket?" he asked at the sight of her shivering in her pajamas. "You look a little cold." He was already placing it around her small shoulders before she could answer yes. Their hands touched momentarily as she looped her arms through the sleeves as he held the jacket in place, causing him her to blush as he smiled nervously.
"Thank you, Merlin."
He loved the way she said his name.
"Any time," he said gently. "Looks good on you!"
"Oh, sure," she said laughing. "Fits like a glove!"
"What? It does!" he replied, returning the laugh when she rolled her eyes. "So," she said, curling up on the couch by the window, her knees up against her chest, "what are you up to? I hope I'm not interrupting anything important," she said at the sight of the stack of papers on his desk.
"Nah," said Merlin, running his hand through his ruffled jet black hair. "Not due for another week. I just wanted to get a bit of a head start since I'll be at the game tomorrow."
"Oh, that's right! Arthur's finally starting! I almost forgot," said Freya.
"Were you planning to go tomorrow?" Merlin asked. He smiled when Freya nodded eagerly. "Great! We should go over together.—I mean, Morgana and Gwen were planning to go to the game, as well. It might be fun—to get the gang back together. We haven't seen too much of you since midterms."
"Yeah, sorry about that," said Freya. "It happens every semester: I'm in paper crunch-time every week once the middle of October hits. The curse of the English major," she explained.
Merlin smiled. "What you taking now?" he said, sitting next to her on the couch.
"A medieval literature course," she said.
"Practical," Merlin teased winking at her.
"Oh, very much so," said Freya with a small laugh. "Everybody else prepares for the zombie apocalypse—"
"It's a legit threat, Freya!" returned Merlin. "Let's be serious!"
Freya laughed then said seriously, "I think renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson would beg to differ."
"Pssh," scoffed Merlin. "What does he know about the world?"
"Quite a lot!" said Freya with a hearty laugh. "But as I was trying to say before you interrupted me—" she stuck her tongue at him, "—I'll be prepared when the real stuff goes down: like when the Green Knight comes threatening to chop my head off!"
"No!" said Merlin hugging her protectively. "He'd have to go through me first!"
Freya chuckled. "Thanks for the chivalry." Closing her eyes and bringing her hands to his chest, she continued, "Glad to see it's not dead after all."
Merlin pulled her in closer, rested his chin atop her head, and stroked her hair gently. "At the core, chivalry is just treating people decently and taking care of those you love."
Freya turned her face up toward him. Her face was pink from blushing when her gaze met his, losing herself in the sea of his blue eyes. "What did you say?" she asked quietly.
"I...said…" started Merlin, switching the gaze from her eyes to her lips, continuing the thought with a kiss. He sighed when he pulled away, and put his forehead against hers. One arm was still hugging her; the other was cradling her head. Her eyes were still closed when she rested a hand on his cheek. She felt calm, although her pulse was racing, and answered his kiss with her own. They didn't pull apart as quickly this time.