"You're soaking wet!" Freya exclaimed as Merlin rushed into her candle-lit corner of Camelot's siege tunnels.
"The heavens just opened! Gaius thinks I've finally lost it, coming out in this weather," Merlin grinned, removing his neckerchief and wringing it out, but not before placing a carafe of water and a linen package in front of Freya on the floor.
"What is it?" she queried, bending down to open it, trying to hide the smile that had blossomed on her face at the mention of the storm and the appearance of his collarbones.
"Sorry I couldn't find strawberries, it doesn't seem to be the season…" he trailed off as she revealed some winter apples,
"Oh, thank you Merlin! I love apples too," Freya beamed as she enveloped him in a hug, both of them stiffening after a moment at the unexpected intimacy of her embrace, she who had been afraid of all human contact just a week before.
"Can I just sit with you for a bit?" Merlin said, dispelling the moment of awkwardness with his beautiful smile, "Arthur's been working me like a pack mule today,"
"Of course Merlin," Freya gestured for him to sit down on the softest patch of floor. Blissfully ignorant of this token of gratitude, Merlin plonked himself down, slinging his satchel from his shoulders.
"I brought extra candles, and old goblet and a blanket," he listed. "You didn't have to go to all this trouble Merlin! Why are you being so good to me?"
"I told you, because I like you; because you're different."
After that they sat quietly and shared the apples at Freya's insistence, though she noticed he left the reddest and plumpest for her. Their companionable silence brought a small twinkle to Freya's eye as she recalled her mother's old adage – 'a good friend is someone you can talk to, a best friend is someone you don't need words to talk to.'
Merlin interrupted her train of thought: "What are you smiling about?" he lightly teased.
"My mother," she replied simply, his eyes clouding over in concern, but clearing again when her expression remained untroubled.
"A happy memory then?" he confirmed, to which she nodded and then yawned; a sudden wave of exhaustion hitting her. "I'd better get going," Merlin stated, already springing up.
"Merlin!" Freya almost shouted, stopping him in his tracks. He looked so comical, half-suspended between sitting and standing that her request came out of her mouth before she had had to summon the courage to ask it: "Would you stay with me tonight?"