- 8 years later -

Stepping into a new classroom every year always put her in the most wonderful of moods. It was the end to a beautiful summer and time to start fresh with a new group of little ones, this time as opposed to assisting, she was the teacher and this was something Morgana could feel very good about. In fact she had her own teacher's assistant coming in shortly – a Ms Thomas.

Morgana drew all the curtains and opened all the blinds of the windows that covered an entire wall of her class room. She wanted it to be bright and welcoming for the little 4 and 5 year olds when they came running in. Just as Morgana was writing her name on the chalk board a "M-i-s-s-" there was a knock on the door. Thank goodness her assistant was early because she still wanted some time to go pick flowers to put in the vase she had sitting on her desk – it would add to the overall appeal of the room, she thought.

"Hi, I'm…"

"Guinevere!" Morgana shouted in happy shock "but what are you doing here? Don't tell me…"

"Ms. Thomas" Gwen said, putting out her hand for Morgana to shake "I'm your teaching assistant. What a small world! I am so happy to see you Morgana."

Merlin had just got off the plane and was so tired, he really couldn't wait to get back to his mums house and sleep for a week. He was starting his Job at Lance's Dance Studio next week so if he wanted, sleeping for a week would be possible.

His last 6 years in America had been amazing but he had missed Camelot, coming home felt right.

"Merlin!" His mum said when she saw him for the first time in 6 years

"Mum" Merlin said hugging her "I missed you"

"You have got so tall, I am sure you have lost weight too, did they not feed you in Madco?"

"Mum" Merlin complained, he had spent the last 6 years travelling around America assisting in within various Dance companies, his most recent had been MADCO "It's fine, you know i have high metabolism"

They drove back home and by the time they arrived back Merlin was fast asleep in the passenger seat.

"Merlin, we're home sweetie" Hunith said nudging him awake

Merlin got into the house and fell straight to sleep on the sofa for a few hours.

"Do come in, come in Gwen." Morgana motioned for Gwen to enter the room.

"How have you been Morgana? I am so impressed, you are officially a teacher."

"Oh you know, I've been very busy but very happy. And you?" Morgana asked making her way over to her desk.

"I have been great. I'm excited to start the work year. And your brother?" Gwen asked with a smile.

"Arthur is busiest of all, probably making more money than the rest of us. So how is…everything then?" Morgana was sure Gwen knew what she was alluding to. She knew Merlin was overseas working at his dance career, which she was both proud of him and envious for. She hadn't spoken to him since 11th year and the break up but hoped he was doing well. At least he was far away, oceans away, so she didn't have to think about how awkward the whole situation was with him – he was her boyfriend and twin brother's best friend for a good part of her life.

"Well, my family has been good, school was great, my summer was amazing…" Gwen said "Oh, Merlin is back in Camelot."

Morgana nearly collapsed but managed to make it look as if she'd planned to sit down. She started to rearrange her desk "Oh?"

"Yes I've been speaking with him regularly. He's back home…doing really well."

"Oh, Merlin," just saying his name out loud again felt kind off odd in her mouth "that's good to hear." As she said this with a slight grimace she contemplated whether or not she should be centering her stapler at the top of her desk, putting it in the upper left hand corner or throwing it across the room in a fit of confusion; she settled on the upper left hand corner.

"Merlin, It's the phone for you" Hunith said, Merlin came into the hallway and took the phone off her

"Hello?

"Merlin! It's me"

"Gwen!" Merlin said happy, they had stayed in contact since school, texting and emailing but they hadn't heard each other speak for 6 whole years "Oh my god! How are you?"

"I'm great! Really great! look Merly, i need to tell you something ... I am doing teaching assitance at the Infant school and i am working in ... In Morgana's class ... I kind of let slip that you are back in town"

"What? You kidding? So she and Arthur both know i am in town"

"Well, Morgana does, which means Arthur probably will do by tonight"

"Oh god, not good, Me and Arthur haven't spoken since we fell out in year 11 and Me and Morgana haven't spoken since the breakup"

Merlin and Morgana broke up a week after they left school, After Arthur and Merlin's fall out at the start of year 11, it all built up and mixing it with them not seeing each other as much when they left school it led to a bad break up.

Merlin was walking up to the local tesco minding his own business when suddenly he bumped into someone, who also was obviously minding their own business.

"Ow!" Merlin said and looked up, Stood there was one of the two people he really hoped to avoid more than anything "Arthur?"

Arthur looked at him for a moment before his jaw dropped

"Merlin Emrys?" he asked shocked "Hi ... Oh my gosh, i thought you were in America, being a dancing superstar"

"I came back, i am working at Lancelot's from next week as a choreographer, America was brilliant but i wanted to be back home" Merlin said slightly smug at the fact he'd been in America

"Wow, well ... It's been great to see you, i'd love to stay and chat but i have to get back, i may be the boss of Pendragon estate agents but i have a big board meeting soon with some people who's company we are buying" Arthur said outsmuging Merlin

ouch, 1-0 to Arthur, Merlin thought to himself

"Well good to see you too Arthur, Tell your sister i said Hi" Merlin said and walked off, regretting straight away that he'd just told Arthur to say Hi to Morgana from him.

A few days passed since Merlin and Arthur had bumped into one another.

"Do you really miss her that much?" Gwen asked as they sat on the sofa at Merlin's house eating pizza and watching bad tv

"Yer, i really do, i tried to push her out of my mind when i was in America, but in reality she is all i thought about, I've been with woman while in America but none of them made me feel the way Morgana did, She was the first person i ever slept with, the first person i ever had such strong feelings for"

"Oh the first time you had sex" Gwen laughed remembering the day "Wasn't that the time you got dragged out of Morgana's room afterwards in just your boxer shorts by Uther"

"That was it" Merlin said half laughing "He was fuming, mainly because neither of us were 16"

"Good time, Good good times" Gwen laughed

"Gwen, it's just not fair" Merlin sighed "I really missed you guys, I missed you, but i couldn't be here, i needed the space to get over myne and Arthur's fall out and myne and Morgana's break up but now coming back it's just reopened them wounds ... Me and Arthur talking the other day when i saw him ... It made me realise what i missed out on for the last 6 years, i lost such a good friend and such an amazing girlfriend"

"Oh baby, don't worry, It will be okay" Gwen said and hugged him

Ever since Gwen mentioned to her that Merlin was in town, Morgana had been on look-out. And by look-out – never before had she appreciated the idea of being a ninja so much. She didn't go as far as dressing in all-black body suits, but she had been managing to stay alert and aware of all of her surroundings everywhere she went. She also started to wear more dark green, not because it was Merlin's favourite colour on her but because she felt it helped her blend into the scenery better as she walked to and from school each day.

Morgana had done her very best to consume every bit of spare time decorating her class room, cleaning her apartment until it was spotless and she'd even taken up origami (which she was failing miserably at but trying all the same) anything to keep her mind off of Merlin. During class time she would learn bits and pieces of information about him from Gwen. She kept it very casual but would perk up when Gwen mentioned which dance company Merlin had worked for and when, if he was dating anybody – that sort of thing. She also began to value the constant needs of 4 year olds all that much more, anything to keep her and Gwen on task and not on the issue of when they'd inevitably end up seeing each other.

"Lance! I really need to talk to you!" Merlin said storming in the office after a difficult session with some 14 year olds "These kids have no respect for anything!"

"Mate, you worked at MADCO for 18 months! Its going to feel different, these kids don't have the same experience as the American kids you taught"

"You don't say! They are useless ... Literally"

"Just give them chance Merlin! These are English kids, you have to be patient with them"

"Ok fine" Merlin snapped and turned to leave

"Merlin" Lance stopped him "What is going on? You okay? You seem a bit ... Not Merlin"

"Mate, you haven't seen me in 6 years, how do you know that i aren't like this these days"

"Look Mate, i know you are passionate about dancing but you aren't like this Merlin, what is going on?"

Merlin hesitated then looked at Lance

"It's Morgana ... I haven't even seen her yet, but being back in Camelot is hurting me, knowing she is here too"

"Merlin" Lance started and sighed "Morgana was your first love, the first one you had sex with, that is a bond that is not easily broken and it will never be easy to see her, there is no point in getting yourself so worked up about something so trivial"

On this particular day Morgana decided to take a small detour through the mall on her way home. She hadn't really much to shop for but figured that getting herself lost aimlessly browsing through aisles of clothes and shoes and jewellery and the like would keep her mind off of the stress of the job and her love life. It's not like she hadn't been dating guys since Merlin, it had been years after all but it was never really the same with anybody else as it was with him and she couldn't get that thought out of her mind. She spent more money than intended but figured this was a day for splurging on herself after all the hard hours she'd been putting in at the school. She hadn't paid much thought to what she was buying, but made sure she would leave the shopping mall feeling accomplished with a good 7 bags on her arm.

Struggling on her way out the main doors, Morgana caught a glimpse of a tall, dark gangly man making his way towards her, head bent down towards the wind. Her immediate response was to spin in the opposite direction and run into any place with the slightest bit of cover. She found herself in something like a Starbucks which suited her just fine.

"Merlin, good to see you! The regular?" said the man standing behind the counter as the door behind her chimed open for the second time. "And for you miss?"

Morgana began to search the list wildly looking for absolutely anything that she would be able to say without stumbling over all her words at once. She settled on "just an espresso please" because she thought it sounded posh and she was able to squeak those words out rather fast.

"Morgana? What are you doing here? I thought you didn't drink coffee. Wow I guess I've missed out on a lot." Merlin said far too calm for Morgana's liking, making his way over to her. His gym bag was thrown nonchalantly over his shoulder in a way that Morgana also thought was far too casual sexy for her to handle at that moment.

Now, the fact that she never drank caffeine and considered some juice too sugary for her energy intake was not something she planned to through into conversation with Merlin. Instead, she very clumsily attempted to toss 4 bags over her shoulder in as much of a laissez-faire fashion as she could manage.

"Oh! Merlin! Wow, so good to see you. I heard you were in town!"

Merlin scratched just above his eyebrow, a subconscious nervous habit Morgana had always picked up on.

"Yeah, I just got back not too long ago really. Ran into your brother even."

"Oh, Arthur?" Of course he meant Arthur, Morgana thought to herself, my goodness he must think I've turned into a real idiot, try to say something smart Morgana, try.

"Yeah." Merlin added.

"One espresso and one decaf black tea with milk" said the café worker as he placed two cups on the counter. Morgana raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips into that smug expression Merlin always found oddly seductive yet he knew she was subtly making fun of him.

"The dance studio I work at is across the street. I'm already a regular. I come here most nights after…"

"Oh yes," Morgana looked out the window only to see the "Lance's Dance Studio" sign blinking at her. Idiot, idiot, idiot she thought. "Well I guess I better be going then, early mornings, and I do work with kids and all." Morgana casually chugged her entire espresso and threw out the cup so that she wouldn't have to walk home with it.

"You must have really built up a high caffeine tolerance then, eh" Merlin chuckled.

"What, oh yeah totally, just needed that for the walk, I'll pass out as soon as my head hits my pillow." The realization that she would be up for hours now was slowly sinking in. Something about seeing him just standing there so close to her, in Camelot, in a casual café just seemed so normal – like he was supposed to be there and never left. She couldn't help smiling at him.

As Merlin paid for what ended up being both their coffees – as Morgana had this kind of spastic cuteness about her when she got frazzled which she must have been looking at all the shopping she'd been doing, she'd completely forgotten – he couldn't help but smile at her. He really had missed her.

"Perhaps we should get – "

"Let's go out!" Morgana burst out.

" - together sometime." Merlin finished.

"Meaning, like to catch up you know." Morgana attempted to save what had just been an attempt to force herself to super casually ask him to hang out as a friend.

"Yeah, like for drinks or something."

"Perfect."

"It's a date!" Merlin said "well you know, not a date, a…"

"Oh no, no" Morgana laughed in a slightly uncontrollable manner "a friendly sort of date thing." She said, her face ending in a kind of weird grimace.

"Yes, like friends catching up."

"Right."

"Right." Merlin struggled.

"Okay, that's great. Saturday?"

"Saturday it is."

Morgana high tailed it out of there, only managing to get two of her 7 bags stuck in the glass door on the way out. She smiled as she tugged them ferociously out of the way causing the door to chime another 3 times. And then spun on her heel and made her way home.

Merlin turned up at 7 on the dot, He was wearing his black jeans and a plaid shirt, his favourite blue plaid shirt. Morgana always did like blue on him. He tried his best to look smart but not overly smart, This after all was just 2 friends catching up, nothing more.

He knocked on the door of the flat and waited, the door opened and he saw Arthur smiling back at him

"Hello Merlin" Arthur said

"Arthur ... Erm ... Hi"

"I knew it would be you she was going out with tonight, she wouldn't tell me but i knew"

"What ... What are you doing here? do you live here too?"

"No" Arthur laughed "Just being the protective big brother"

"You are twins!" Merlin snapped

"Well, i was still born first"

"no you weren't" Morgana shouted from the kitchen

"Ok, so fine, I am being the protective twin brother" Arthur said

Morgana walked over to the front door, she was wearing a just above the knee length skin tight green dress and knee high boots, Merlin looked her up and down and dreaded his desicion to go on this date, it was going to be torture, pure torture.

"Make sure you go home loser" Morgana said walking past Arthur

"You ready?" Merlin asked Morgana

"Yer" Morgana smiled up at him

"You look like a class A whore" Arthur whispered just loud enough for Morgana, but not Merlin, to hear

"Go die in a fire" Morgana whispered back "Love you bro"

They got in Merlin's car (It was actually his Mum's car but Morgana didn't have to know that) and drove down to the restaurant.

"So Morgana, how has things been for you?" Merlin asked when they had ordered their food

"It's been good, i got my teaching degree at last and finally have my own class, which is good" Morgana said and smiled over at him "It's a bit far off from my original life plans but it's a career that i am enjoying ... How was America?"

"It was brilliant, it was just great travelling around, seeing what it is like in American dance academies and the passion and effort they put into what they love, it is so different to here ... I came back cause i really want to make them have the same passion here too, I think if you want to do something you should pursue it and put as much passion into it for how much you love it and want it in your life" Merlin said then started to realise he'd gone on a tangent and was near enough talking about his feelings for Morgana

"You are so different in some ways but then you start talking about dancing and you are just the same Merlin deep down, with the love and passion for his future and dancing"

"It's a shame you stopped dancing, you were always so good at it" Merlin said smiling over at her then realised he was starting to flirt, this was supposed to be 2 friends catchig up, stop flirting.

"Not as good as you. You have always been amazing at it, since we were in reception class and we had to do dancing for school shows"

"When Arthur sulked for hours cause he had to dance and couldn't pick it up?" Merlin said laughing

"Yes, That will make me laugh for years ... He still sulks cause i make him watch Strictly come Dancing when we're home"

"does he still have a grudge that i went into dancing?" Merlin asked

"Yes, don't tell him i told you though"

The next morning Merlin woke up and turned to his side to see Morgana fast asleep, he didn't know how he'd managed to but last night Merlin had driven Morgana home and then ended up in bed with her, he'd promised himself not to end up in this place but it had happened.

She stired and her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him

"Morning" Merlin said and leaned down to give her a kiss

"Merlin" Morgana said and sat up "We can't do this"

"Do what?" Merlin asked worried raising an eyebrow

"This ... Us ... It hurt too much when we broke up, it's just going to open up a wound that neither of us want opening again" Morgana said, the hurt clear in her voice

"Morgana ... i do want this, So much! Breaking up killed me, 6 years in America didn't help heal the wound at all, and coming back made it all worse again, i need you back in my life ... come on Morgana"

"Merlin ... No, it can't happen" Morgana insisted.

Merlin pulled the covers back and got up, starting to get dressed Morgana looked over at him

"I am sorry Merlin" she said

"Oh okay, You're sorry, that's fine. I don't get it Morgana, you were okay for us to be together last night when we had sex 5 times but now it's morning ... What changes over night? Or did you just want a bit of fun for one night and thought oh i know, i will break Merlin's heart all over again!"

"Merlin, it wasn't like that ... Look, i still want to be with you for christ sake, but we know how hard it was last time, With Arthur and you not being friends it was awkward and then we knew we wouldn't see one another much because of college ... Both of us working will make it more difficult ... I am sorry Merlin"