I obviously own Merlin... NOT.

Sleep is important. It makes everything clearer, thoughts are stronger, events don't blur together as much, and everything is just easier to understand. Usually, I like getting about ten hours a day and I think that's pretty awesome, right? When the events that I'm going to describe to you took place, I had just gotten out of college and was elated to finally be out of the school system. By writing a book or two while being still in school, self publishing, then promoting it shamelessly everywhere I went, I had gotten enough money to get a one way plane ticket from Baltimore, Maryland to London. The day before I left, I looked up available apartments and screamed at the price. Later, after calming down a considerable amount, I asked all of my friends if they knew of anyone in London and I finally came up with a result.

I dialed up the last friend that I could think of, waiting with baited breath for her to pick up. After the third ring, she finally answered.

"Yo. What up? I found a place that you would love, Elise!" From the loud background music, I could tell where she was.

"Another bar? Really? After last time when I ended up passed out on my floor in my own puke, I'm never allowing you to take me to ANY bars."

"Awwwww!" She whined. I could almost hear her childish pout. I clenched my teeth in annoyance. There was a slight awkward pause. "So, you're calling people up about finding an apartment buddy in London, right?"

"Yeah..." I was starting to think that calling Mary, the center for all types of gossip, was a bad idea.

"Well, I know a guy, but to get his name out of me, we're gonna have to meet face to face."

"So you're coming over here, right?"

"Nope. You gotta come to me. I'll wait for you in the bar called the Prowling Lionesses."

"No!" I was now starting to get frustrated. She wasn't listening to me!

"Uh-oh. You're breaking up."

"That's not-"

"Bye." She ended the call and I growled in anger. What the Hell? Ugh, I hated going to bars with Mary. Ever since I had met her in 6th grade when she got detention for sticking up for me and cutting the neck of her uniform into a low v-neck, she always managed to convince me to do stupid things. Afterward, she would tell my friends about my most embarrassing moments that, evidently, were never completely my fault. Sadly, if I wanted to go to London and live there to write my stories, I had to go to her. She was my last hope.

I grabbed my soft leather jacket and my keys, then headed out the door towards what I was sure would be a huge disaster.

I could hear the annoyingly loud music from about a block away from the club. My hopes of a quiet restaurant were gone in an instant as I saw Mary through the window. She was wearing very high heals, a short cut top with a low v-neck, and a mini skirt that her mother would faint at the sight of her wearing. She was texting on her phone and didn't even look up when I sat down right in front of her.

"I got you a cold beer." she gestured distractedly at the unopened bottle on the table, her eyes fixed on the tiny screen. When I looked at the label, my eyebrows shot up, surprised that she had remembered my favorite kind of beer. "Of course I remember!" she rolled her eyes, still not looking up from the tiny device, "I'm a good friend."

"You're also slightly narcissistic." I muttered and for the first time, her eyes painted eyes looked up from her phone and her thumbs were still.

"What?!" I sighed in relief, happy that she didn't actually hear me. That was when I saw the glassy look in her eyes and realized that she was drunk.

"Nothing!" I yelled over the blasting music and her eyes found their way back to the screen of her phone.

"Oh. Okay." She said and continued texting. I waited for her to stop for a good five minutes before I snapped. I couldn't take being ignored and having to be in this loud, obnoxious club. I grabbed her phone out of her hands and she finally looked at me, shocked at my actions and still in slight disbelief.

"We," I grabbed her hand and dragged her to the door, "are leaving."

"Wha-" I shoved her out the door and propelled her away from the club and towards a small sushi joint that was across the street. I ran to the bathroom, wetted a few paper towels, and washed her face off with cool water, making her slightly more awake and aware. "Oh!" she saw me clearly for the first time that night and I smiled at her bewildered look. "Hi."

"Hi." I sighed and wiped off her dripping mascara from her cheeks. "Now, about that roommate..."

"Oh, yeah." Mary grabbed her phone from my pocket and began texting again. "His name is Arthur Pen. Funny name to have in Britain, eh?" she said distractedly. I nodded but she didn't notice. "Yeah, he charges a fifty-fifty share. I'll contact him tonight and I'll tell him you'll be at the air port in two days at...?

"Five."

"Yeah, I was gonna get there!" She brushed her fingers through her hair and sighed, over-dramatically. Looking at the time, I quickly faked an emergency and ran from Mary. I never understood why I had ever become friends with her in the first place. She was insane!

The next day, I packed my bags and left to live in a hotel for the next day before I would be headed to the airport. Who would pass up a chance like that? A chance to get out of the house, move to an awesome city, and write awesome stories. Something that I had dreamed about since middle school. Well, the thing that I didn't anticipate was that my world could become stranger than my imagination.

I sat in the airport after going through the much less tedious British airport security, waiting for my new flatmate to come and pick me up. I tapped my toes to a catchy tune that I had stuck in my head before realizing that I had my sound canceling headphones in my bag, cursed at my stupidity, then put the head phones on and started to play the song. Without plugging the head phones in. That one small second of shame seemed to last forever when I was trying to plug the wire into my iPhone and I blushed furiously, brushing my hair behind my ear with my hand (one of my many nervous habits). Slowly, my mind sank into the patterns, layer and rhythms of the songs and was about to slip of into a peaceful sleep on the airport bench when...

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I jumped about an inch off the seat and must have squeaked like a little girl because when I paused the music, took the headphones off and looked at the stranger, he was, literally, rolling on the floor, laughing as hard as he possibly could. The stranger was handsome, tall and buff, just like the men in the movies. His blond hair stuck out in all different directions like he had just woken up, even though it was well passed noon. His well fitting red long sleeved shirt was really plain, as were his jeans. When he finally sat up, wiped a tear from his cheek, and opened his eyes, I was glaring at him with intense annoyance. His eyes were a beautiful shade of blue. All in all, he was very attractive, but I didn't care.

"Oh, that was a great one!" He sighed and composed himself. "A-Are you Elise Moore?" he said with an english accent.

"Yeah." I jerked my head towards him. "You Arthur Pen?"

He nodded, still grinning, and pulled me by my arm over to his car. Right before I got in, he looked at me and said, "I have a few rules about the flat."

"Yeah?" I asked, slightly interested. A strand of my dirty blond, long hair blew into my face and I tucked it behind my ear. "What are they?"

"Well, first," he sighed as the wind whipped his short hair, "no shoes in the flat. You have to leave them by the door mat. Second, no eating food outside of the kitchen. Third, no destroying the furniture. Four, don't go into my room. You might die from the stale smell and the messiness. Five, no pets. Six, no loud noises passed midnight. The landlord might kill you if he has to warn you to keep it down."

"Is that it?" I asked. "That's so easy. You are so much better than my parents. If we got anything in the carpets, we had to scrub it for about an hour until there was no sign that it had ever been there. Even a speck of dirt!"

Arthur laughed. "Wow. That must have been pretty annoying. I used to have a really good friend who would help me with everything. He was..." he trailed off into his own thoughts and dramatically looked off into the distance.

"Well, why'd you let him go, then?"

He looked at me, a dark expression sinking in to his face, and he opened the door for me, shaking his head. He promised that he'd tell me about it later, but I doubted that we would. It turned out that I was right. Every time I would bring up anything about his past, he would always divert the conversation. After my first week, I had a pretty good idea that he wouldn't tell me about it at all. It was his most well guarded secret. He talked about his buddies (Eliot, Gen, Percy, Gwaine ("Like the knight!" I had giggled the first time I heard his name) Leo, and Lance), his sister, Morgana, his father, Ulysses, and his mother who had died in childbirth. Sadly, every question about where he went to school or his teenage years were strictly off limits. Finally, I decided that there was only one way to get him to talk about this "really good friend" that he would never talk about. I would get him drunk enough that he could see double, then ask him about it. So, that night, I went out, did some shopping, got the mail (my paycheck was there and I still didn't trust Pen completely), dropped the bags of groceries, and was putting them away when I started my plan. I shoved a can in the cabinet and sighed in exasperation. Looking at the mail, I grabbed my check off of the pile and tore it opened, feeling the curious stare I was getting from Arthur. When I looked at the check, I didn't have to pretend to be shocked. My mouth dropped opened. I dropped the rest of the mail and gasped.

Arthur ran over to me, concerned. "Elise? What is it?"

I had to collect myself. "I-I-I've never gotten a paycheck worth this much money, before. I can't believe it!" I launched myself at my friend and tackled him to the ground in a big hug. "We are going to go out to celebrate this!" I got up and jumped around the flat.

"No, no, NO!" He laughed, leaning back on his elbows. "I don't drink on week nights! I told you that, already."

I pouted. "Well, I can't go alone!"

He rolled his eyes, sighed deeply, and got up. "Fine, but one of us has to be sober enough to get a taxi. I don't trust us to drive drunk."

"Fine. I'll be the one. Let's just GO!" I grabbed his arm and shoved him out the door, giddy with happiness and excitement.

When we got to the bar, it was slightly noisy, but not that busy. I guessed their lack of customers was due to the the day of the week. Usually, people don't usually come to bars on Mondays, I thought to myself. Well, at least it was busy enough for no one to notice us. We sat at the counter and he ordered some hard liquor and I just ordered a nice fruity drink. I began to slowly sip at my drink and he looked at me as if he was trying to figure me out.

Arthur held up his shot glass and said, "Here's to my friend who was brilliant enough to write a good book!" before downing it in one gulp. As the night went on, I got him several more of the same thing, but it was just enough that we still had quite a surplus of money, but he became VERY drunk and I saw my opportunity.

"Hey, Arthur?" He nodded, trying to not laugh at some stupid joke that he had just told. I sighed and finally spit out, "Can you tell me a little bit about your good friend from the old days?"

"Yeah. Of course!" His eyebrows scrunched together and his head fell forward as he thought. "You mean Merlin, right?"

I nodded, hoping that it was the right one. Arthur and Merlin? What was going on?

"Well, he was my servant. I AM the son of... the boss of one of the biggest corporate empires in the world." His words were very slurred, so it was kind of hard to decipher what he was saying, but I noticed that he had paused slightly before saying the last part.

"Really?" I lifted my eyebrow in curiosity, now truly intrigued. "What was he like?" Arthur tensed up, so I quickly clarified, not wanting him to realize what I was doing. "Merlin, I mean. Not your father."

Arthur sighed in relief and rolled his shoulders. "At first, I hated him. I was an arrogant prat and he was the only one kind enough to stand up for some random kid who happened to be my previous servant. I... beat him up and threw him in jail for harassment. Of course he was released the next day, but I didn't change until he refused to give in to my behavior. Finally, my dad hired him, and that was one of the best decisions that my dad has EVER made. He was kind and loyal. Not afraid to put me back in place and not afraid to give anyone a piece of his mind, no matter their status. A lot like you, actually, or at least that aspect of him was. He knew I could fire him any day that I wanted, but I couldn't. Not even when he annoyed the HELL out of me, I couldn't bare the thought of him not being there for me. Even though he never took credit and I never knew about it until right before our... parting of ways, he was willing to give up his life for mine, and was willing to sacrifice everything he owned save me from attackers." He stopped the story abruptly and spun around on his bar stool like a child on.

"Nope. No." I put my foot on the foot rest on the stool. I was NOT going to have him puking on me. It just wasn't going to happen. He pouted at me but I gave him a stern look and his pout gave way to a bright laugh.

"We were always getting into trouble, but no matter what, he would always be there to get me out of danger, even if it had cost him a HUGE amount of humility. Then as the years passed, we grew up and out of our childish ways but stayed very close." There was a long pause and he must have thought that he was finished until I prompted him.

"Until...?"

"I found out that he had been doing something illegal and I panicked. He explained that he was born with the burden and that he only did it to protect me, but I didn't believe him and I blocked him out, only allowing myself to see what he did instead of who he was. He never gave up on me. By the time I had realized my mistake... our paths had grown apart. The last words that I ever said to him... where 'Thank you'." Tears shone in his eyes and I felt bad for making him relive those painful memories, yet I could tell that he still wasn't telling me something. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and sighed, before falling off his stool and puking all over the ground.

"Home?" he asked as I wiped his mouth off with a napkin and cleaned up the puke for the manager who glared at me the whole time.

"Yes." I put the mop to the side and helped Arthur up. After putting on my coat (it was in he late fall and was already getting extremely cold) and shoving my friend into his, I looked back at him and smiled gently. "Let's go." I called a taxi and we were off.

Arthur passed out in the taxi which was very bad news for me. When we arrived at the apartment building I grabbed a wad of cash from Arthur's pocket and dragged him out of the car while the taxi driver looked nervously at me.

"Hey, lady? Do you need help?" He almost got out of the cab when I responded.

"No. I'm good." I smiled painfully. I was being crushed by the full bodyweight of my friend and was not coping with it very well. The taxi driver nodded in my direction and drove away as I fell to the sidewalk. Tears of exhaustion mixed with fear and anger blurred my vision until I could hardly see. How the HELL was I going to carry Arthur up to our upper floor room?

"Here, let me help." I jumped at the strange voice but was extremely grateful when the stranger lifted some of the pressure off of my sore, throbbing shoulder.

"Thanks." I gasped and together we managed to drag my unconscious friend into the flat and dump him on the sofa before the stranger scrambled out of the doorway and I was able to get a good look at him. It was obvious that he was homeless. He wore a blue neckerchief which looked like it was about to fall apart, and an old, worn out jacket that had several tears in it. His jeans only reached down to his ankles and I could see that his legs were starting to turn blue. The boy was only skin and bones; he looked like he might have been blown away with a good blast of wind. His big blue eyes were full of pain and wisdom, yet he still had the face of a 20 year old boy. He was shivering pretty badly from the cold and looked like he might not even last the night. His cheekbones and ears stuck out from his head, and his expression reminded me of a deer in the headlights of a car.

He turned to leave but I called after him, "Wait!" I ran to the door frame and I looked him in the eye. "Please, stay here at least for the night. You look like hell, and I like to get to know people who help me even when I don't ask for it. They usually are the best people that I know, so please stay."

He smiled sadly and said, "Ma'am, I really would not like to bother you any further-"

"Then accept the offer. I won't take no as an answer." I put my hands on my hips and tried to look as motherly as I possibly could. A bright, purely happy smile grew on the boys' face as he stepped hesitantly back inside the room, and I closed the door behind him, hoping that Arthur wouldn't mind.

"I'm Martin." The boy held out his hand.

"Elise." I shook his hand and smiled. "Why don't you wash up before bed. I'll make one on the sofa and I'll drag my friend into his room, alright?"

He nodded happily, then ran off to the bathroom that I pointed him towards and disappeared behind the closed door. Sighing deeply, I turned and dragged Arthur into his room which was the one closest to the kitchen, hoping that I could wake up before him and explain the situation before he freaked out.

Luckily, Martin and I did wake up before Arthur. Sadly, I couldn't stop him from freaking out. When he walked into the kitchen and saw the back of a boy that he didn't know's head dressed in his clothes and eating our cereal (which I had given him and I was standing next to the stove when this happened), he grabbed a broom and swung it at his head. I caught the stick right before it would have broken his skull.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I yelled at him. Martin jumped in surprise and scrambled under the table in fear and shock. "YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO ATTACK GUESTS!"

"I THINK HE DRUGGED ME LAST NIGHT!" Arthur yelled back and I blushed.

"No, you drunk until you passed out, remember the paycheck?" He nodded slowly. "The lack of memories was my fault and I'm sorry, but DO NOT TAKE IT OUT ON MARTIN!"

Arthur lowered the broom and, still glaring at me, looked under the table. All of the color drained out of his face. For one second, I thought he was going to faint. Martin slowly crawled out from under the table and the two boys started at each other silently for a good five minutes wearing twin expressions of shock and I stood still on the side, silently watching this exchange. Slowly, Arthur began to form a word that he thought that he'd never say again.

"M-M-Merlin?"

The boy nodded slowly and whispered his friends' name in fear and conformation. "Arthur."

I stared at the two boys', ready to brake up the fight that could erupt at any moment. Then, they did the one thing that I never expected to happen.

They hugged.

Arthur and Merlin. Wow. To tell you the truth, I just kind of stood there, my mouth hanging open, staring in shock at the two reunited friends. The funny thing was that their names were exactly like the ones in the legend. Even Arthur's last name was close to-

Wait. No, that wasn't possible. The two most famous noblemen from the fifth century could NOT be here today. Especially because they looked like they were the same age as I was. This really didn't make any sense, so my brain did the only thing it could do when it takes in too much information.

I passed out.

Hey guys! I know, you probably want more chapters for "Pits of Despair" or "Angels and Cannibals" and I'LL GET TO IT. Don't worry. I'm not abandoning them! It helps me with my writers block to write something else and now, I need to go!

Please review this story if you have the time and please feel free to say anything you want. I WILL LISTEN TO ALL SUGGESTIONS. If a bunch of people like this story and if enough people review it, I may write a second chapter. If not, this is staying a one-shot so PLEASE tell me if you like this.

Thanks for reading!
REM

Update: Alright, I will probably be continuing this a little later, but I want to finish my first Merlin fanfic, alright? Thanks so much!