8th September

It was a Saturday morning when both Will and Merlin were waiting at the Platform at Ludlow Station for the train to arrive, Hunith waiting with them.

"Right, Merlin, one of you call me when you reach Manchester, and then give me another ring when you get to the university, that way I know you're both safe."

Hunith would always go into one of these 'phone me to make sure you're safe' rituals, even went they went to college. Is was good of them to know that she cared unlike some parents. "It's alright mum. We'll be fine."

"Both of you be good. Oh, and you'll never guess what?"

Both of them turned around to find a very excited Hunith gripping onto the magazine that she had brought with her, which she bought from the post office the day before for the journey. "What?"

"Read this article whilst you wait for the train."

"Mom, we're not reading one of your girly magazines!"

"No, you'll like it." Something was up, and by the way she had a huge grin on her face, this wasn't going to be pleasant for the lads, it read... 'Young actor Arthur Pendragon is saying goodbye to fame for a few years after being accepted at the University of York…'

"Arthur is going to be at the same university as you pair." Hunith squealed at the thought of Arthur being in the same gang, if that's what they called them these days, with Merlin and Will.

"It doesn't mean that he's doing the same degree as us Hunith." Will suggested, briefly glancing at the article in front of the pair.

"Yes, it does, keep reading." So Merlin and Will actually did take the time to read some of the article, which mentioned, '… It is believed that Arthur, instead of focusing on drama, will be taking a joint honours degree in Sport Studies and Mythical History, two subjects which he is interested in.'

"Damn it!" Merlin looked up to the clouds as his first uni day now had a giant raincloud over them pouring down with Arthur, aka Merlin's worst nightmare.

Noticing Merlin's pain, Will thought it was a brilliant idea to begin the teasing. "Ah, Merlin's crush is going to be in the same group as Merlin!"

"Shut up!" Merlin scoffed, throwing the mag back at his mother and returning to minding his own business, now with a million thoughts of Arthur in his mind.


"Ladies and gentleman. The train about to arrive at Platform 1 is the 10:18 Arriva Trains Wales Service to Manchester Piccadilly. The train will consist of four coaches." The intercom spoke above them, as they looked to one side, the train within distance of the platform.

Hunith hugged both Will and Merlin and said her final goodbyes, and that she would see them at Christmas and reminded them not to forget to ring her whenever possible. The lads lugged their luggage onto the train, placing the suitcases into the luggage rack, and then finding a row of seats to sit for the two-hour journey, giving Hunith the final wave as the train left Ludlow.


As they arrived in Manchester five minutes earlier than expected, Will woke up to a slightly mortified Merlin, as Will had fell asleep roughly an hour into their journey on him, where Merlin was trying to read his novel in almost inaudible peace. Grabbing the luggage and heading for the doors, both boys knew that they had a matter of 15 minutes before the train to York would depart, and therefore needed to locate the lift within lightning speed.

Luckily as they stopped at the platform, the lift was literally a few metres standing in front of them, so it was literally make a run for the lift. They had arrived at Platform 5 and needed to get over the other side onto Platform 6 to catch the train, which was already at the station, and by the looks of things, already contained a few people across the five carriages it held.

About five minutes later after much dodging and tugging along bags and suitcases, they were huffing and puffing as they made it to the train, and now were in seek to find a place to drop the luggage and find a decent table.


Will was walking where he found an empty table and decided to sit there, leaving Merlin with the bags. Placing the suitcases in securely, Merlin walked down the aisle to join Will, when he collided with a student, trying to find a seat.

"Oh, I am sorry for knocking you. I'm one to be clumsy!" Merlin began.

Merlin had bumped into a young lady, average in height and looked around his age with long dark hair, who was trying to reach to place her bag onto the racks above them. "No, don't worry. It was my fault." The young lady replied.

"You seem to be having trouble putting your bag up on the rack above. Would you like some help."

"If you wouldn't mind. You're much taller than me." Merlin indeed was taller than the young lady, whilst Merlin was about 6 foot, the young woman couldn't have been more than 5 foot 5 inches tall.

"Not a problem. I'm guessing you're a York student."

"Not until I arrive there and confirm my presence."

"Hold on, we better sit down before people moan that we're blocking the way."

Both sat at the table with Will, Merlin next to him and the young lady sitting near the window opposite Will.

"Sorry, my name is Merlin Emrys and this is Will Dempsie."

"Nice to meet you both. My name is Guinevere Jensen, although most just call me Gwen." Gwen reached over and shook Merlin's hand first, followed by Will's.

"Nice to meet you Gwen. What are you going to be reading at Uni?"

"I'm majoring in Mythical History and doing minor in Biology."

"Interesting. I'm doing Mythical History and Alchemy. Will here is just doing History."

"Well at least we're all doing something in common. So do you pair know each other, like college friends or something?" Gwen had noticed that the pair had arrived together as when she boarded the train and had put her luggage away, she saw the pair running down the platform to the doors of the train together, so she knew that they were at least acquaintances.

"We live together. Will parent's died when he was young, our mothers were lifelong friends, and because my mother didn't want poor Will here to go into foster care or be put up for adoption, she took him in as her own son. We've been living together for about 12 years, so we're more like brothers than anything."

"Oh right, your mother sounds a good person. My brother Elyan already studies at the university. He's moving up to the second year and will be going up to York next weekend. It gives a chance for us lot to settle in. I'm from Chester, how about you?"

"We're from Ealdor."

Gwen's happy face soon turned into a puzzled one. "Where the hell is that?"

"It's in Wales on the Worcestershire border. This is the third train we've been on today, the first from Ealdor to Ludlow, then Ludlow to Manchester, and now Manchester to York."

"You must be exhausted then."

"Well, I'm not sure about Will here..." Merlin turned to Will and nudged him in the side for sleeping on him earlier "...who managed to get a kip on me earlier on but I sure am."


So conversation started quickly when another student stumbles up to their table, searching for a seat.

"Erm, excuse me lads and lady, do you mind if I sit here. Damn train is filled up with too many of us students already!"

"Of course not, park yourself." Gwen addressed.

The lad seemed to be, based on his previous address, another student, probably going to York as everyone on his train seemed to be going there, where this student seemed a little older than the three of them, probably around 21 or so, but was still a fresher.

"I'm guessing you're all Yorkers then."

"Yep, struggling to climb our way north." Will added, knowing exactly what this lad was on about.

"I'm Gwaine Macken. And you?"

Before anyone had the chance to introduce themselves, Gwen went all high-pitched with delight. "Oh my god are you from Ireland? It's alright, I just adore Irish accents." Gwen squeaked.

"Yes, I'm from Dublin." By the looks of Gwaine's face, this wasn't the newest subject that Gwaine had faced.

"Sorry, I'm Guinevere Jensen, you can call me Gwen though, and this is Will Dempsie and Merlin Emrys."

"Lovely to meet you all."

"Let me guess you're doing Mythical History as well?" Merlin prodded, since as everyone he had met so far or knew, was doing a form of history.

"Actually no, I did think about it though. No I'm doing Archaeology with Sports Studies."

"Ah my brother Elyan studies Sports Studies, he's going to his second year."

"How does he find it?"

"He enjoys it, but like all subjects it's tough and challenging."

"Hmm, ok. Since I've introduced my destination to everyone, let's hear all yours."

"We're from a place called Ealdor in Wales, and Gwen here is from Chester."

"Sounds awesome. Ealdor sounds like some random village in the middle of nowhere."

Gwaine's answer wasn't news to the guys, but it did make them chuckle. "Haha, yeah you could say that. It is a village, but it's on the border of Wales, just off the Worcestershire border, but yeah, not many have heard of it."


A good hour or so later, the quad arrived in York. Thankfully for them, the shuttle bus had already started to run, dropping students to the uni from the train station. Whilst they're waiting for the shuttle bus to arrive, the four continue talking, only this time on one particular celeb, as Gwen pulls out her magazine, reading the article and showing the rest of them.

"Anyone heard about Pendragon starting here?" Gwen randomly asked.

"Oh the princess?" Gwaine replied without thought.

"He an actor." Will contributed

"I know that, but he always acts like he's a royal or something, so I call him a princess."

"Well, you better not catch him hearing you." Will continued, even though he'd have to remember that one for whenever he had the chance to meet Arthur.

"Likely chance I'll see him since we're both taking Sports Studies according to the article in Gwen's mag. What would he do to me? Lock me up in the Tower of London dungeons and throw away the key?"

"I don't the Tower of London has any dungeons, probably more likely whoop your arse through a physical game of boxing or something like that though." Will stated further.

"Well I think he's gorgeous." Gwen egged on.

"Well that makes two of you." Will teasingly added, knowing that Merlin would draw attention soon after, Merlin knocking his book into his face at the remark, glaring daggers at Will.

"Why, you think the same?" Gwen seriously thought that Will had an interest in Mr Pendragon Jr.

"No, not me, Merlin! You should have seen him a few months ago!" Now Merlin was definitely glaring daggers at Will and badly flushing.

"Why? What happened?" Through Will's words, Gwen thought that this was an interesting tale to be told, and Merlin looked to Will and gave the impression of 'oh god, please don't tell them', but like Will would take any notice.

"It was back at the end of March on a Saturday morning. I was already downstairs eating breakfast and Merlin's mother was watching some cookery show. Merlin came downstairs and started moaning about the TV, nonetheless he began to watch it. Hunith mentioned that the guest celeb was someone of his own age, who had applied to York aka Arthur. Throughout the show, gradually he got closer to the screen, and by the time it had finished, he was inches from falling on his arse."

Gwaine was listening in on the conversation, completing a crossword whilst waiting for the shuttle bus, and couldn't help but laugh. Poor Merlin. "Haha! Ah Merlin's got a crush on Pendragon!"

"Will you lot shut up about it? Okay, so I find him attractive, so what?" There, Merlin had admitted it, so that they couldn't plod him on afterwards, trying to out it.


By the mid afternoon, all four had arrived into the University of York, and had been welcomed by a number of staff, going through a number of procedures such as confirming their details. By 4pm, the group had gone through the basic procedures, with the final students arriving and going through the same process.

The group had received all the documents that they needed and were waiting for the keys of their residences. Gwen was the first to get hers, which was placed in the Tregor House. Will was placed in Fyrien, Merlin and Gwaine following the same house as Gwen. Will departed from the group, adding Gwen and Gwaine's phone numbers to his mobile for future reference, because for Will, as soon as he had made friends he weren't going to lose them, and went in search for his house.

The remaining three walked to Tregor House, which was above five minutes off campus. The house was relatively large and detached, with a garage and driveway for those who drove, and was on a street belonging to the uni. Searching the house for the number of rooms, there were three rooms with two beds in each, meaning the most that could be in the house were six. Every student had been assigned a room, having a roommate with them. Gwen was in Room 1, Merlin in Room 2 and Gwaine in the third. One woman was already in the kitchen, putting away some of her possessions.


"Ah, fresh meat! Welcome guys!" The woman spoke up, attracting everyone's attention.

"Sorry, I thought this house was specially for first year's?" Gwen replied, the first to notice. The woman placing her possessions away clearly didn't look like a first year student, but then again a first year student can be anyone from the age of 18 and over, maybe she just didn't look her age?

"It is. But I've been here for three hours already, and have already unpacked upstairs. So it's nice to see some newbies. My name is Freya Donnelly."

"Oh right. I understand you. My name is Gwen, this is Merlin and this is Gwaine. Are you the only one here so far?"

"Yes, I thought the others would have hurried up, they must be coming from a far distance."

"So, where are you from?"

"I'm Northern Irish, from Belfast. And you?" As if that wasn't a far enough distance from York.

"I'm from Chester. Gwaine is from Dublin and Merlin is from Ealdor in Wales."

"Nice, so we're all from different countries. Gwen, I've left you the bed by the window since we're sharing. So, do you all know each other?"

"We met on the train in Manchester, and thank you. Anyway, I'm off to unpack, we can chat later."

"I think we all should before the other two arrive."

"Of course, I'll be down here if you need help, and we've got the shopping list to figure out once everyone is here and unpacked the majority of things."


Everyone had gone upstairs, minus Freya, to unpack his or her suitcases and bags. Gwen found her room to be fairly large and ridiculously tidy for someone who had already unpacked. Gwaine found the large open space of his room to be an advantage, and decided to bag the bed by the window. As for Merlin, he took a tour around the room first, before deciding which bed to take, the room being much larger than his and Will's back at Ealdor.

Each room appeared to have a small bathroom with it, so that early mornings weren't as busy with everyone waiting for the shower. Also in the room were two beds with end tables, two wardrobes, a desk and chair and television. Merlin started out moving his toiletries into the bathroom, leaving the rest until later. Just as he was about to pick a bed, there was a fumble with the door, probably his new roommate trying to ease himself in. That's when the door suddenly flung open and whacked into Merlin, a noticeable 'ow!' coming from Merlin as the other barged in with his things.

"You stupid idiot! Why didn't you open the door? Couldn't you see I was having a game to open up!"

"I was in the bathroom unpacking. I've barely been in here five minutes. Anyway, what about me? You whacked me in the head!"

"I'm sorry if doors aren't transparent, oh and I hope you haven't picked a bed."

"No I haven't. I was waiting until my roommate arrived and then we could make a decision. So which bed do you prefer?"

"Hmm, I like a view and need air, so I'll take the window."

"Fair enough."

Okay so Merlin lied about the whole picking bed situation, but he was initially going to pick the other bed anyway, and thought he let that one out, there would be even more debating. The roommate could have been anyone, but no, it had to be bloody breathtakingly bliss but irritable Arthur Pendragon.


Both took their beds and began unpacking, the bruise now properly forming on Merlin's head. Arthur knew that even though he was one of his generations, if not the most famous celeb of it in Britain, this was time to be himself and be normal, just like the rest of his own year and beyond. So to try and make a good impression on his roommate and not be an ass, he grabbed a cloth, some cream and a towel and went to the bathroom, soaking the cloth up in warm water.

"Hey! Came you come here a minute?" Arthur tried to ask his roommate as politely as possible, but not knowing his name wouldn't help much.

Clearly Merlin was not in the best of moods, but then again when a door has just been whacked into your face, no one would be, but asked what for anyway. "Why, what's the matter now?"

"I need you for a minute!"

Merlin dropped his pair of jeans with a sigh and went to the bathroom, only to be faced with a warm cloth on his head and a smiling Arthur, who used his arm to press Merlin into him, one arm reaching up around as if he was hugging, but pull his fringe away from his head, and using the other hand to place the cloth on his head.

Merlin was a little shocked when Arthur grabbed hold of him and placed the cloth on his head, being straight in contact with a toned body. "Arthur! What are you doing?"

Arthur decided to point out the plain obvious. "Trying to help! Now stay still!"

"How is this helping?" To Arthur, Merlin came out a stupid question, but for Merlin, how was being embraced and treated by probably the most glamourous guy Merlin had ever laid eyes on going to help him at all with continuing on during the day without blushing or anything worse.

"It will reduce the swelling! Now please calm down!"

Merlin forced himself to stay, relaxing into Arthur as one hand was applying the luke-warm, almost cold cloth to the head, and the other had now moved to around Merlin's waist, Merlin's head leaning into Arthur's right shoulder, something both were currently enjoying, but weren't going to let the other notice that.

"There, that's better. Now let me just apply the cream and I'll let you go."

"I'm not a child!" Merlin retorted.

"I never said you was!"

Even though Merlin was snapping back at Arthur, Merlin found the position and Arthur to be warm, and to be fair, didn't want to let go, but that was to remain hidden. As for Arthur, Merlin was everything that Arthur could possibly ask for when one first meets another, Merlin was thinner than Arthur, and when relaxing into him, he seemed the sort of person who you could just wrap your arms and cuddle for endless hours, and those cute ears, could Merlin not be anymore adorable?


"Now one thing, you know who I am, you mentioned my name so you obviously know, now who are you?"

"I'm Merlin, and I know your name, if that's what you mean by knowing you."

"Ha, you're the wizard!"

"Well done, you caught me!" Merlin thought he would just out himself right there as to being a sorcerer, knowing that Arthur clearly wouldn't see it.

"It was a joke!"

Of course Arthur didn't see, enabling Merlin to lie for the second time that day. "I know it was."

Arthur then, even though he had finished clearing Merlin up, still had held onto him for a few more minutes, liking the position that he was in. Arthur, from the minute he laid eyes onto Merlin, knew that there something different about him compared to every other student who he'd already met or his student fans. A tall, pale young man, probably the same age as him, with dark hair, striking dark blue eyes and cute ears, who wouldn't find him tempting? Arthur was sure for one thing, somehow Arthur will find a way to win him over.


Finishing packing the final items, Freya called everyone downstairs to the kitchen table, where a jotter pad and a pen was already there in the middle with the title of 'shopping list' underlined. The lads went down to greet the remainder of the household, who were waiting for them to join the party.

"Right…" Freya began , "Welcome everybody to our first House of Tregor meeting. We might as well kick off with introductions, and then get to work after. My name is Freya Donnelly, I'm 19 and I'm from Belfast. I will be studying English."

Gwen followed on. " Hi, I'm Guinevere Jensen, everyone calls me Gwen, I'm 18 and I'm from Chester. I'm majoring in Mythical History and doing minor in Biology. "

Then the other new student spoke. "Hi, my name is Lancelot Du Lac, I'm also 19, people call me Lance though because it's more modern, and I'm from Southampton. I'm doing joint honours in Sports Studies and Law."

"Fancy name Lance. Afternoon guys and lasses, I'm Gwaine, I'm 20 and I'm from Dublin. I'm combining Sports Studies with Archaeology."

"Hey guys! My name is Merlin Emrys, I'm 18 and I'm from a village called Ealdor in Wales. I'm doing Mythical History with Alchemy."

Finally, they got around to Arthur, which to many, he didn't need an introduction. "Hi, you all probably know me, but I'll introduce myself anyway. My name is Arthur Pendragon, I'm 18 years of age and I'm from London. I'm reading Sports Studies and Mythical History."


Freya then continued from where she left off. "Right, now that we all know each other, we need food and the shops are open for about a couple more hours and we need food. So we need to do a list. First of all, does anyone actually drive?"

"I do but I've left my car in London as I came up by train, so I'm afraid I can't help," quoted Arthur.

"I drive. My car is parked outside the house." Lance commented.

"Brilliant. You're our chauffeur then. Secondly, is anyone vegetarian or vegan, or has major allergies such as nuts or milk?"

"I'm a veggie." Merlin commented.

"That makes two of us then. Right, we can't spend too much as we don't have a lot of room to put things in, and we don't have too long before the supermarket shuts, so we better get a move on."


Later on that night, the shopping was complete and Merlin finally managed to call his mother, to find that Will had already phoned her earlier on. Good old Will. Will had then popped over after dinner at his house to see Merlin for a bit before going back to his house, talking about his housemates Morgana, Percival (who liked to be called Percy) and Leon.

Even though many wanted to experience the nightlife before classes would begin in two days time, everyone was too exhausted from the journey to even bother step outside, so the house called it a night and departed to their rooms.


"What did you mean when you said you knew my name?" Arthur asked Merlin as they were getting into their beds, having finally packed away their things before dinner. Arthur decided to leave his lamp on in order to talk to Merlin, before clicking it off.

"Well you said that I knew who you were, and I replied that I knew you're name, if that it was you meant. Read between the lines Arthur!"

It took Arthur some time to understand exactly what Merlin meant, but he finally got it. "You don't know who I am?" But surely everyone knew who Arthur Pendragon was?

"Well, until last March, I had never heard of you before. Sorry if that's a bit of a shock but it shows how much I care about the TV. It was only because my mother had some cookery show with you on that I found out about you. I'd heard of your dad before and by the way, you're a rubbish cook!"

"You'd never heard of me once?"

"Nope!"

"Well that helps I suppose, it means I'm on the same level as you and feel more normal around you, like I'm nothing special."

"So you're saying I'm nothing?"

"No!" Clearly Merlin had taken this the wrong way, and Arthur needed to say this in a way that Merlin would understand. Arthur leaped out his bed and went over to Merlin's, sitting so that they we're close enough but he wasn't invading Merlin's personal space and hugged him as a way of saying sorry.

Arthur tried to hug Merlin, but Merlin was pulling back. Maybe Merlin wasn't one for hugging. "Sit still a minute Merlin."

"Arthur, I don't need a hug." However Arthur knew different.

"Yes you do. That was rude of me. I know I'm far from normal in your eyes but trust me I'm trying. What I meant was that outside in the big bad world, everywhere I go, you get girls running up to me to sign autographs and pictures and having my photo took. Then you get the middle-aged women doing the same, bless the little old grannies though. Then you get the men shouting at you in the street, being told to get off their TV sets because their wives won't stop staring at my presence or that they can't get their daughters away, which I shout to them that if they don't want to see me then don't turn the TV on. Some men just clearly don't like me so in a way I never get to be myself." Arthur usually never gets to speak about his life in this tone, then again, Merlin is the first non-celebrity almost friend he's ever had.


By now Merlin had stopped trying to resist and just let Arthur hug him and hold on to him, and was actually interested in the conversation that they were having. "So coming to university would allow you to be yourself?"

"Well I hoped. I had paparazzi chasing me this morning out of London as I was driven up to the train station. Then I never got any rest on the train coming to York. Then since arriving at the uni until I got into the house and bumped into you, staff were treating like the prince of England, students asking for the usual. Since I've been near you and the rest of this household, I've truly been myself."

"What like a prat?"

"Oi you idiot!" Arthur nudged Merlin at the comment, both now with a smirk on their faces, which turned to grins after that, both of them couldn't help themselves from laughing.

"Get some sleep Arthur."

"Oh alright then. Call me a prat again and I will tickle you until you beg for mercy." Arthur broke away from Merlin and climbed into his own bed, pulling the duvet and blanket up to his neck.

"Like hell." Arthur lay on his side and directly spoke to Merlin.

"I like you Merlin, you're different to everyone else, so thank you. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Arthur." Then the lamp went out, and all was silent, other than two lads trying to get comfy in their new beds.

As Merlin turned to sleep that night, he remembered the words that Arthur had told him, the fact that he was liked, which he thought one word, 'Good.'