Chapter Nine: A New Game

Monday Evening

"Morgana?" Merlin gaped at her as she stood on his front doorstep.

"Why so surprised?" she countered coolly. "I told you I was coming over."

"Ah yes, you did, but I have to admit that I wasn't expecting the suitcase."

She rolled her eyes and pushed past him, dropping her luggage in the hallway. "I'm staying here for a bit."

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing's wrong. Why do you say that?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Ah, because I can sense the anger trying to burst out of you from here."

She glared at him. "I might be a bit... cross."

"A bit... Right," he said sceptically. "Perhaps you should take a shower, then."

"Good idea," she agreed. "I'm assuming it'll work well for any emotion?"

"Sure, scream away."

Morgana glared at him for that comment but didn't argue the point, simply taking her suitcase up to his bedroom before fishing out a few things and dashing into the bathroom. She waited until she was undressed and all the taps were running before opening the door just enough to be able to throw her clothes and Gauntlet onto the bed and then shut it firmly behind her.

There may or may not have been some screaming involved.

~o~0~o~

Morgana came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, to find Merlin sitting nonchalantly on the bed with a tray of finger food on the covers next to him. "So, do you want to talk about it?" he asked as he offered her a plate.

"About what?"

"About what got you so fired up today and why, three days after declaring we weren't even dating, you've suddenly decided you're moving in with me."

"I thought it best I was here, considering."

"Yes, that makes sense, but it doesn't really answer either of my questions."

She sighed, pulling a chair up in front of the mirror and starting to brush her hair. Now was probably not the right time to suggest she would need a dressing table in here.

"Uther welcomed a new 'guest' at the lab today."

"Guest?"

"That's what he likes to call his prisoners, yes."

She saw Merlin glare in the mirror. "You were there?"

"Yes. It was a young girl of fourteen, although she looked younger."

He nodded. "That doesn't surprise me. Puberty tends to kick-start a lot of people's magic."

"Yes, that was the age I started having my nightmares."

"I remember you saying. We need to talk about those at some point too."

"Why?"

"Assuming they only really started then and not when you were younger?"

Morgana frowned, trying to remember. "I'm not sure... I think I did only get them as a teenager. Certainly I don't remember having bad dreams before, not even as a child when I know they can be quite common."

He nodded. "We'll come back to that later then, as I said. Tell me about the girl."

"What is there to tell. She came in and Gaius tested her as Blue before slapping Purple on her."

Merlin winced. "Ah... you got to see that first-hand. Not pretty, is it?"

She shook her head. "It was horrible."

"But you kept your magic under control?"

"Barely."

"How?"

"I ran the Gauntlet under the tap as you told me to."

"Good." He paused, still frowning and Morgana came over to him, kneeling on the bed, still only dressed in a towel and took a greedy mouthful of the food on the tray.

"So, when are we going to rescue her?"

"What?"

"Well, you were saying something about using my security pass to organise a break-out at night time, and she seems a good a person as any."

"There are others on the list, you know?"

"Oh, right." She smirked slightly. "So who are we rescuing next?"

He looked at her sharply, as if trying to determine if she was serious or not. "You really want to do this?"

"Yes. I want to help. I want to join Eden. I want to make a difference."

"All right." He was quiet for a while, thinking hard. "Friday night," he said eventually. "That way, assuming we don't set off any alarms, it'll be less obvious the following morning. Gaius does sometimes check in on the sorcerers at the weekend but he usually comes in later and the main prison guards are less inclined to bother at all, assuming that Camelot will have it covered.

"Okay. I'll need more magic lessons before then?"

He shrugged. "That shouldn't be a problem if you're really staying here."

"If it's all right with you?"

He suddenly grinned. "Oh, so you are actually asking me then? I did wonder."

"Yeah, sorry I was... distracted."

"I noticed."

There was a long silence. "I should probably unpack then... if that's okay."

He smiled brightly. "I really am pleased you're staying, Morgana. I never thought it possible in my wildest dreams."

"Well, as I said, no matter our relationship or my feelings, it does make sense... practically. I really am worried about being at that flat without you around to keep me grounded."

"Perhaps but, apart from the random dream issue, most of your magical problems are likely to come from being around me." He licked his lips and stroked her bare leg with a long finger. "Then again, it's been a while since my magic has been seriously tested, so perhaps all of this will help me too." The rest of his hand joined the caress and travelled a little further up her leg.

She gasped. "Are we safe here in this room?"

"We'll move in a minute. Anyway, over the next couple of days, we really should move all unnecessary things from here into the spare room. That can be our dressing room and this one just for sleeping and..." He grinned. "It'll be easier to improve the blocks here when there's less furniture around which could be damaged." He moved forwards to kiss her and she responded, closing her eyes, whilst her Gauntlet starting to gently buzz.

She then felt the strangest magical warmth encompass her, even though she knew nothing had come from her. When she was released from the kiss she found herself in an identical position on the make-shift bed downstairs. Merlin smirked and started to remove his shirt. Grinning broadly, Morgana whipped her towel off and lay down naked on the bed.

"Wow!" Merlin exclaimed, scrambling up in order to remove his clothes more easily.

"Are you sure you can't teach me that spell yet?" she asked. "It looks like fun."

"The transportation one? No, not quite yet. It's pretty advanced and not something you want to go wrong." He was naked now and she stared at him just as hungrily as he'd been staring at her. He took his time going over to open the chest, the only thing resembling a cupboard down here, and then just stood there, grinning wickedly at her.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" she asked.

He grinned. "Transporting us down here used up a nice amount of my spare magic and it made me wonder what other... games we could play to help use our magic up safely."

"Games?"

"Hmm... we've already tried this without really thinking about it but, seeing I'm still all the way over here."

"Yes, but why are you over there. I'm getting cold and... oooh!"

Morgana was suddenly bombarded with a whole bunch of sensations, as if Merlin was lying next to her and caressing her. He started to move towards her then, circling the bed slowly until he was over her side and still smirking whilst his eyes sparkled with gold.

"Feel free to return the compliment," he said. "If you think you're able to, of course."

"W-what?"

"Perhaps it might be too much of a challenge for you?"

She glared at him, suddenly finding the ability to concentrate, despite the wave of euphoria still pulsating through her. Her gaze was automatically drawn to his erection but she moved her focus slightly to one side, imagining that she was caressing his inner thighs instead.

His sudden gasp reassured her that it was working as she'd hoped, and so she moved her attention to his hips next and then his lower stomach, just circling around where he really want to be touched.

"Two can play at that game," he said then, and she felt the same touch on her leg that she'd experienced upstairs. It was so gentle, little more than butterfly wings caressing the front of her leg, until the sensation also moved inside and very slowly upwards.

Morgana instinctively opened her legs, as if allowing room for his actual hand to reach her, even though it was only the magic, but just as she was about to scold herself for this apparent weakness, she saw Merlin's expression on watching her move and revised the thought. For good measure she moved her feet to face his direction and opened her legs even further, teasing him with a very intimate view. He took a mini step forward and then checked himself.

"First one to physically touch the other, loses," she declared, laughing as he pulled himself back, lips twitching.

He glanced at the clock, now showing eight pm. "We've got work in the morning, so it's a draw if we both hold out until nine."

"Deal."

~o~0~o~

"What's the time?" Morgana gasped as they both grabbed for each other at exactly the same time.

"Quarter to nine," Merlin managed to reply in between desperate kisses. "But it's a draw anyway."

"You definitely moved before me."

"Did not."

There was little reason for further foreplay, so keyed up the pair now were after forty-five minutes of magical stimulation and, as a result, the act itself was incredibly brief.

"Next time, I'm going to use my magic to make sure I last as long as possible," Merlin gasped afterwards. "And then I'll just keep making love to you until you beg me to stop."

"I can't imagine why I would do that," she retorted, throwing her head back in order get more desperately needed oxygen into her. "You'd physically run out of steam before you were able to cause me that much discomfort."

"I could use magic to increase my stamina too."

"So could I."

He laughed loudly and turned to kiss her. The earlier passion had now eased and the touches now turned gentle, tender even, as they lie naked on top of the covers.

"Hungry?"

"A little."

"A snack before bed then," he declared as he got up, wrapping her discarded towel around his waist and heading off towards the kitchen.

Tuesday Morning

Morgana woke up along and came downstairs to find Merlin talking on the phone in the kitchen with a mug of coffee in the other hand. He smiled at her, even though he was clearly focusing on the call, and pointed to the other cup indicating she should pour her own.

However, the sight had reminded Morgana that she hadn't checked her mobile phone for a while and had promised she'd keep it to hand. Gesturing to Merlin – because she really wasn't certain about trying to talk to him telepathically in this situation – she made her way back upstairs to the bedroom and rummaged in her bag until she found it. She pulled a face as she saw two missed calls and a text message.

"Bother."

Reading the query she quickly returned the call.

'Morgana, you are impossibly difficult to pin down right now,' Arthur complained the moment he picked up the phone.

"Ah yes, sorry. I'm afraid I just can't get used to keeping this thing on."

'You are so old fashioned.'

She ignored the dig. "I got your message about the meeting though. I'll be there at two."

'Good.' There was a pause. 'Are you all right? I mean, after yesterday.'

She sighed. "I suppose so. It was a bit of a shock, I admit. She was so young."

'I know.'

She heard the regret in her brother's voice and pounced. "Is that really legal though? She was clearly well under-age."

'The government make exceptions in the case of powerful sorcerers, and the parents are usually prosecuted too, if it's obvious they withheld information from the authorities.'

"But what about situations like mine? How do you know such an incident isn't an accident."

'Exceptions can be made, of course, but I understand, in this case, her outburst was definitely not an accident.'

"She's so young though. Surely it's not fair for her to be punished for her parents' mistake." She winced as she said it, not even believing that much.

'She didn't come to us directly, Morgana. She was at another facility which was trying to help her. When they couldn't cope she was brought to us.'

"I see." She felt a magical push and turned to the door to see Merlin holding her mug of coffee. "I really have to go now. See you this afternoon."

'All right. Please try to keep your phone on.'

"Yes, I promise."

"Arthur?" Merlin asked her.

"Yes."

"I take it we're keeping 'us' a secret from him?"

"God, yes. I don't plan on telling Gwen either, if I can possibly help it."

"Ashamed of me?"

She opened her mouth to reply to that but closed it again when she saw his smirk. "Why, Merlin? Are you saying that you want Arthur to know what you've been up to with his sister?"

He winced. "Ah, no. Probably not a good idea."

"So, who were you on the phone with?"

"I was talking to my contact at Eden and trying to find out who this girl of yours was. She's not one of ours, as far as we can tell."

"Arthur told me a little. He said she was at some other facility until they could no longer hold her. So it's possible her magic came out a bit earlier than this."

"That's helpful, thanks. We really do want to keep track of as many of these Blue prisoners as we can and, that way, we know who to prioritise."

"So, we can get her out on Friday?" Morgana asked.

"Probably not, as we've others higher up on the list. But I'll definitely try to take a look at her then. Maybe we can get her to tell us her background so we can see where things stand."

"And have you told Eden about me?"

He winced again. "Yeah."

"Why the face?"

"They're a bit suspicious. They're not sure if I should be trusting you."

"What? They think I've seduced you for information?"

He winced again. "That may have been suggested."

She smirked. "Did you tell them that you were the one who did most of the seducing?"

"I simply told them that I'd helped you to control your magic and that you were grateful." He shrugged. "I can see why they're concerned but, equally, they're weren't here to see just how close you were to losing control. It was absolutely vital that you were trained as soon as possible."

She nodded. "Is there anything I need to do at work today? Anything I need to 'borrow' for you or any information you require?"

Merlin smiled, moving closer in order to give her a gentle kiss. "All I'm going to need is for you to enter your codes, and possibly use your magic for one small thing."

"Oh?"

"We'll discuss it tonight and I'll give you a few new games to play downstairs. I've already got most of my instructions from Eden and so we'll start making plans to see how easy it will be to get this guy out on Friday."

~o~0~o~