Autumn: Three
Merlin felt awful. He groaned as his room lurched sickeningly to the right. His mouth was dry and his skin felt sticky, he desperately needed a shower. Moving slowly and carefully he rose from bed, wrapped his duvet around his shoulders and wandered down the hall, keeping one hand on the wall to steady himself.
In the lounge, Morgana was sat on the black leather couch, a half eaten cheese toastie in front of her and a far off look in her eyes. She looked as bad as Merlin felt.
"Where are Lancelot and Gwen?" Merlin asked in a hoarse voice.
"In bed. Thanks for the money." She answered, taking another bite from her toastie, "There's paracetamol in the cupboard if you're feeling as bad as I am."
Merlin wandered forward and plonked down next to her. She dropped her toastie onto the plate and pushed it away, wiping her fingers on her pajama bottoms. Merlin lay back and opened his arms to her. She lay down too, resting her head on his chest, as he covered them both in his duvet.
"How was last night?" She asked.
"It was alright. You have to come next time, I can't handle them two alone." Merlin answered.
Morgana laughed and then groaned clutching her stomach.
"You know last night?" Merlin asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.
"Yes..."
"When you said Arthur had a girlfriend..."
"Yeah they've been dating for two years or something. She's a horrible person though." Morgana explained, standing up and taking her plate to the sink.
"Why?" Merlin asked eagerly.
"She's never liked me. My father likes her though, and trust me, if you knew my father, you'd know why that's a bad thing."
Merlin had a thousand more questions to ask, but they were all cut off when Gwen and Lancelot wandered in. Instead, him and Morgana proceeded to wolf-whistle. The two love-birds both blushed and muttered something about breakfast and shut up.
"Twister?" Lancelot asked, raising one eyebrow.
"Twister!" Morgana exclaimed.
"No." Lancelot said.
"No." Merlin repeated.
"Yes!" Gwen shouted, unrolling the spotted mat.
"What's the matter boys? Passing up the chance to get entangled with two pretty girls?" Morgana asked, her hands on her hips.
They had spent most of the day in their pyjamas. All of them had matching hangovers and a complete lack of motivation. None of them felt up to going to the Student Union for tonight's Fresher's event. Instead they decided to stay in and order pizza, and apparently play twister.
"I'll do the spinner." Lancelot said, grabbing the spinner before Merlin could, "Go on Merlin, you can go first."
Merlin pulled a face at Lancelot and stood at one corner of the mat, waiting for his directions. Morgana smirked at him and rolled the sleeves of her onesie up. Her black hair was scraped into a ponytail. She looked a lot better than she had this morning.
"I am the master at Twister." She said.
"Yeah we've all heard about your flexibility." Gwen mocked.
Morgana stuck her tongue out in response to the laughter.
"Okay Merlin, right foot red." Lancelot commanded.
Merlin obliged.
"Gwen, right hand yellow." Gwen obliged, bending so she could reach the coloured spot.
"Do not get yellow, I swear to God." Merlin muttered.
Lancelot spun the spinner. Merlin had one foot on green, one foot on red, one hand on blue and the other on yellow, in the middle of the mat. Gwen had both of her hands on red and her right foot on blue and was positioned just next to Merlin. Morgana however was somehow positioned underneath Merlin and above Gwen, in a very confusing position.
It was her turn now and if she got yellow, Merlin knew he'd fall, taking down Gwen on the way.
"Morgana..." Lancelot paused for emphasis, Merlin felt his legs grow weaker, "Left foot yellow."
"I'm gonna kill you Morgana." Merlin grimaced.
Morgana giggled, "If you land on me, you will."
She wiggled until her left foot was close to yellow. Inches away. Just as she stretched, her knee knocked up and smacked into Merlin's chest, causing him to yelp and drop. In the process he took down both Morgana and Gwen, each screaming.
Merlin clambered to his feet, rubbing his aching knees.
"Now that's over can we do something fun?" Lancelot asked, chucking the spinner so it hit Gwen.
Gwen picked herself up and shoved Lancelot, making him fall off the sofa. He laughed and clambered to his feet, reaching out to push her back.
"Someone stop them, they're flirting again." Merlin complained, turning the TV on.
"Says you." Gwen muttered.
"What?" Merlin asked, absent-mindedly flicking through the channels.
"You and Arthur, we all saw." She clarified.
Merlin stopped flicking through the channels. He turned away from the TV to stare at Gwen and Lancelot who were now both smirking. Morgana took a slice of pizza.
"What?" She asked, half amused and half disgusted.
"Oh you should have seen them. Arthur caressing Merlin's hair. The lingering gazing. It was like a romance novel." Gwen giggled.
"Or porn." Lancelot shrugged, only to be hit simultaneously by Morgana and Gwen.
"We didn't... It wasn't... He has a girlfriend." Merlin explained, heat rising up his neck.
Morgana suddenly gasped, "You did seem very interested in that fact this morning!"
"Because... Shut up." Merlin grimaced, turning back to the TV.
"Aw, I think you suit him." Gwen whispered.
"No, don't date him, he's an idiot." Morgana complained.
"I'm not going to date him! He has a girlfriend, can we just stop talking about it?"
"So you do like him, then?" Lancelot asked.
Merlin rolled his eyes and glued his eyes to the TV, not really seeing what was on it.
"Silence is incriminating." Morgana whispered.