Merlin was not at his brightest in the morning, nor was he at his quickest. The best thing about his move was definitely the short way to campus - no more having to account for an extra couple of hours if the train was late or the traffic horrid. Just a walk of twenty minutes at the most, and he was at the science building. Really, he should be grateful enough to swear eternal service to the house of Pendragon just for that. However, a thing he definitely was in the morning, regardless of gratitude, was grumpy. So when he was desperately trying to butter his toast at seven AM while feeling like he was in a trance, the sight of Arthur sauntering out of his room casually, with no shirt on, and smiling, he was hard pressed to feel particularly grateful. As if he could sense the annoyance felt on the other side of the room, Arthur turned and grinned wider.

"Morning, Merlin!" he laughed, "You look absolutely terrible."

Merlin grunted.

"I have an exam today…" he explained, his voice muffled by the residues of sleep which refused to let go.

"…So you decided to stay up until four revising. My, aren't you just a cliché of an idiot student."

He did not deign to respond to that with anything other than a mumbled, grumpy sound, which appeared to amuse Arthur greatly. Merlin eyed him with contempt as he strutted around, making himself a sandwich by the looks of things. Merlin had always been suspicious of men who walked around with their shirts off in front of other people, seemingly without a care in the world. There was something unnerving about that kind of confidence, almost disgusting. He had to admit, alas, that Arthur had no reason not to be confident in showing off his torso, and somehow this made his tendency to lounge around in his boxers all the more irritating. It was as if he was rubbing it in - 'Look at me, Merlin! This is exactly how attractive you will never, ever be!' Oh, great. Thanks for that.

Toast in mouth, Merlin grabbed his bag and hurried out the door.

"Good luck on the exam!" Arthur called out behind him.

"Hnkh," he spluttered through the bread, his rather pathetic attempt at a thank you.

The test was manageable, fortunately. Whatever the lack of sleep had done to his mood was made up for by the reward for the work he had been doing while neglecting the seductive call of his soft, warm bed. By the time the exam was over, he was in a much better mood. As the swarm of chemistry students got up to leave, he found Gwen quickly enough and headed out with her to the lecturer's last announcement.

"Oh, and your papers from last week are graded. The hard copies have been put up on the shelf by the office, you can pick them up by student ID number."

"That's quicker than usual," she remarked.

"He must have sped through," he agreed, "Like a race car."

Merlin's paper was nearly at the top when they got there. He flipped it open to the last page, not bothering to look through it; right now he was interested in the overall score, not the details.

"An eighty!" he exclaimed, pleased.

"Oh, well done," said Gwen as she looked through the stack for her own, "That's a First, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is."

He put the paper down in his bag, relieved. It was not that he tended to get bad grades, he just always feared that he would. When he looked back to Gwen, though, his paper left his mind completely. She had found her own one at last, and was staring at it dumbly, seemingly in shock.

"What is it?" he asked, concerned. When she didn't answer, he forced his head over her shoulder to see what was on the paper. His worry instantly turned to glee.

"A hundred," he read out loud, "A hundred percent!"

As he said this, it was as if Gwen returned to reality. She looked back at him, her open mouth spreading into a grin.

"This calls for celebration!" he bombastically announced as they left the building. A few other students were giving him disapproving looks, surly students coming in for ten o'clock lectures, not yet having left the state he himself had been in when he arrived. He pitied them, but the glory of Gwen's outstanding success demanded his attention at the moment.

"Celebration? Aren't you taking this a little far?" she asked, smiling.

"Nonsense. Nobody gets a hundred, you've achieved a fucking miracle," he insisted, "Let's go buy you coffee. Tell me you're not just dying for a cappuccino!"

"Merlin, I'm low on cash at the moment, I am not sure I can afford to -"

"I'm buying," he interjected hastily.

"You're going to buy me coffee?"

"Well, you deserve it, that's my point! And I've got a job now remember? It's up to me how I spend those money."

It was true, he had recently managed to find employment stacking shelves at a supermarket some afternoons of the week. His company in the job was two angry looking teenage girls and one confused man who seemed to have trouble speaking English, so it didn't seem like it was going to be the most fun he'd ever had, but the extra cash was very welcome.

"Oh, alright then," said Gwen finally, and Merlin pumped his fist in the air victoriously.

"Yessss!"

Gwen shook her head over him, but she did so amiably, and he was sure she was very glad to be bought a nice coffee.

As they waited for their coffees, Gwen set herself up for some teasing by asking one simple question.

"How's Arthur?"

Merlin grinned wide.

"Why would you ask after him, I wonder?"

"I, er." Gwen was not cursed with the easy blush that overcame Merlin whenever he felt slightly awkward, but she had tells that he could read just as easily. And that embarrassed smile was one of them. "I just, you know, he's your flatmate, it's polite to ask, isn't it?"

"Hm, yes. Morgana's my flatmate too, though. Why are you not asking after her?"

"Because I see her all the time," the slight panic in Gwen's voice belied the logic in her argument, "I know how she is doing much better than you do!"

Merlin raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Fine, fine. Arthur's fine."

"Good. I'm glad."

There was a brief silence before he asked her, his voice more serious now.

"I just don't see what the problem is. I know you, Gwen. You obviously like him, he obviously likes you…"

"Does he, though?" she interrupted.

"Well - he kissed you, didn't he?"

She sighed, staring off out the window, seeming the very image of someone in deep contemplation.

"If only it were that simple. He's so hard to read. One moment he likes me, the next…" she shook her head, "I just don't need that kind of ambivalence in my life right now."

"Hm," said Merlin. He didn't quite know what else to say. To him Arthur read perfectly, but maybe there were things Gwen saw that were invisible to him.

He decided to go for a physical gesture rather than words, which proved disastrous, as his attempt to put his hand on her shoulder only resulted in him hitting a waiter, who he hadn't spotted until now, in the shoulder. As a result, the coffee they had been waiting for - which the waiter had been carrying - was knocked over and spilled on the table.

"Oh God!" said Merlin, "I'm so sorry!"

The waiter, as well, was apologising profusely.

"I'm sorry, sorry, oh dear, let me get this…"

An exemplary professional, he had a cloth in his apron pocket, seemingly just for such an occasion.

"Really, we are sorry," Gwen insisted on Merlin's behalf.

"No, no, it was my fault, really," the waiter said, looking up at her from wiping the table clean, "I should have the balance to withstand a little bump."

"That's - that's perfectly fine… Lancelot," she said, evidently reading his name from his badge.

"Please, call me Lance."

There it was again, that little involuntary smile. Merlin watched the scene unfold with great interest and amusement.

"I'll get you some new coffees right away…" said Lance, letting the sentence hover in anticipation of a name to add to the end.

"Gwen," she hastily filled in, "Short for Guinevere."

"Guinevere."

As Lancelot walked away, Merlin smirked.

"Well!" he said, "Wasn't that taken straight out of a romantic comedy? I didn't know things like that happened in real life!"

Gwen buried her face in her hands.

"Looks like Arthur's got competition."

"Shut up, Merlin."

Now he was genuinely laughing.

"And how can you say you and Arthur weren't meant to be? You even sound like him!"