She led him out the door and across campus to the art building. "I am truly sorry about him. He… well our father taught him to be better than everyone else. Do you have an extra shirt?" She eyed the huge stain with distaste.
"Did he not teach you the same thing? And yes thank god Frey was going crazy this morning. Hold on," he slipped into another small café and found the bathroom quickly. He, very sadly, replaced his shirt for another and ran back to Morgana.
"Much better and oh yes, but I repress is because I know it drives him crazy. That is why I'm usually so reserved and laid back, though it half kills me." Morgana looked around gloomily.
"I think there is a big difference between taking on leadership and putting yourself above everyone. They do not always go hand in hand, it just depends on how you handle your leadership abilities. Which you very well possess, seeing as how you took control back there." Merlin ended with his goofy smile, which made Morgana glow with happiness.
"Well Merlin, you do sound very wise indeed." She grinned back and pulled him the last leg into the art hall. Well it seems we are off to a very good friendship, they both thought at the same time.
The class they went to was huge. There were tapestries and paintings lining the walls, along with sculptures and other odd assortments of, Merlin assumed student made, pieces. Their professor sat in a high back chair with a large dark wood desk in front of her. Merlin vaguely recognized her from the orientation, Nimueh. Her pretty blue eyes were bright, in contrast with her almost deathly pale skin and long dark hair. Merlin smiled as she rose from her chair.
"Hello, I am professor Nimueh, please take a seat anywhere." She gave them a kind smile, but her eyes did not match her voice.
"Morgana le Fay." Morgana held out her hand and Nimueh took it. "This is Merlin Emrys." Merlin nodded and smiled, but he was filled with ice cold dread when he thought he heard Nimueh say "I know."
"Ah yes Merlin Emrys, Kilgharrah has spoken very highly of you," Her eyes were cold and dead. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," he thought to himself. Nimueh winked, and that just made it worse. He put on his best smile, unknown to him it was his goofiest. Nimueh shooed them away to find a table. Merlin dragged Morgana as far away from Nimueh as he could, claiming he loved the light by the window, on the other side of the room. They plopped down on metal stools and began to wait for class to start.
"So are you being mentored by Kilgharrah?" Morgana asked suddenly. Merlin nodded. "And you know Gaius?"
"Yea he is an old friend of my mother's and he let my sister and I move in with him for a while. Speaking of, do you know of any jobs on campus? Seeing that your brother "owns" this school." Merlin gave her a sly look, which made her laugh.
"Actually yes. The coffee shop at which you just entertained us all is hiring, and they would love to hire someone who would deal with Arthur." Morgana smiled at him.
"Ya think Morgana? Morgana is a mouthful, how about Morgs?" Merlin asked hopefully. Morgana nodded, eliciting another goofy grin from Merlin. "Morgs it is! Anyway, yea I'll go there after classes." Morgana couldn't answer due to the fact that Nimueh had stood.
"Okay, it looks like most of you are here, so we are going to start. I'm Nimueh, or Nim if you prefer, and everyone is going to take some paper and in this class period I want you all to show off your skills. I want to see where we are starting and where we can go with each of you. Put your names on the back. Use any medium you wish. Good luck!" She ended with a smile and returned to her desk. Morgana's eyebrow rose.
"That's it?" She questioned Merlin. Merlin shrugged and grabbed two pieces of paper from the middle of the table. Morgana took a small metal case out of her bag and opened it. Merlin looked over and saw that Morgana had stuffed the most drawing pencils possible into the tiny case. "Feel free to use one," Morgana said with a smile. Merlin returned her smile, damn they smiled a lot. He took a 5H graphite pencil and they both set out to their drawings, laughing and giggling occasionally (mostly about Arthur). And that is where Arthur found them, when he came looking for Morgana. Her head snapped up at the sound of his voice.
"Hello Professor Nim." His voice rolled across the room, smooth and authoritative. "If I could please intrude, I must speak with my dear sister." Nim smiled and blushed lightly.
"Of course Arthur dear, how could anyone refuse you," she purred. Arthur smiled and sauntered over to their table, only to stop dead in his tracks, when he saw Merlin. His eyes were glued to Merlin's hand, where Morgana's pencil rested in the crook of his finger. He was broke from his reverie when Merlin couldn't contain his laughter any more. His laugh was loud and goofy, with his grin stretching from ear to ear. When he finished, his smile refused to leave his face. He turned to Morgana, who laughed.
"It has been a long time since I've laughed," turning back to Arthur, "That was bloody nasty. Flirting with Nimueh?" His eyebrow rivaled Gaius's.
"I don't have to answer to you," Arthur snarled turning to Morgana. "Father is coming into town tonight to have dinner with us. We need to meet him at 5 o'clock at Leon's"
"Hah coincidence, my sister and I will be there as well. Maybe we will see you there," Merlin interrupted with a smile.
"Oh! Maybe you could join us?" Morgana asked. Arthur's jaw dropped, literally.
"We couldn't, it was Frey's first day of school and I want to talk to her about it. We haven't had a lot of time together, moving in with Gaius and all."
"What?" Arthur was taken aback with that. "You live with Gaius? You're the nephew he told me about?"
"What? I'm the only male who lives with him, but nephew?" Merlin's face shifted and twisted into a scowl. "Nephew," he whispered to himself.
"Uh… okay, Morgana meet us for dinner please, and look nice," he finished lamely. He gave Merlin one last distasteful look before leaving.
"Merlin, did you not know you were Gaius's nephew?" Morgana prodded. Merlin shook his head.
"I don't even know if I am. My mum died a while back, so I really don't know." Merlin focused back to his drawing. It was a huge dragon, brown and gold, and… old? Merlin didn't know how, but this dragon was familiar, from his dreams. He knew the dragon was old and wise and never very helpful. But in the dream the dragon was family.
"It's amazing Merlin," Morgana said breathlessly. Her eyes were wide with awe. Each line was light, but clearly showed the basic figure, and then slightly darker shadows and appendages. He smiled and glanced down at hers. Merlin was taken aback. It was a man. Tall and dark, surrounded by a giant castle. It was mostly greyscale, but there were shots of gold and red threaded through the entire piece. It was so much like the dreams he had had.
"Holy crap Morgs, that is beautiful. The gold and the red are perfect!" She blushed crimson.
"Thank you Merlin. I have stacks of papers filled with this style." Morgana gave him a shy smile.
"Okay please put your name on the back and stack it on my desk before you leave," Nimueh called from her desk, not bothering to look up from her sketching. Merlin jumped to his feet and gave Morgana a smile.
"Well I must be off to Calculus. But I will see you in history," he said curtly, before half running from the class. That had been one embarrassing moment after the other as soon as Arthur had arrived, but the main thing, Gaius's nephew?!
Calculus passed slow and easy. Merlin had always been fine when I came to math. It came easy, plain and simple. History on the other hand was interesting. Professor Kilgharrah spoke as if he was really at the feast of King Arthur's name day, which he began to talk about after a careless student brought up food. Merlin was beginning to find Kilgharrah very puzzling. He would never tell you the answer to your question, instead making you more frustrated and having to think to figure it out. In some ways it could be slightly endearing, but sometimes… no. Morgana made small comments and tried to make Merlin smile and laugh as much as she could, but it wouldn't bring Merlin out of his daydream. She was beginning to worry for her new friend. Friend. She thought to herself. Having a friend is new. I opened up to him so easily. There is just something about him.
Nothing she did worked. When the class ended, he bid her polite farewell, telling her he hoped he would see her at dinner, and dashed from the room. He went straight to the café and asked if they were hiring. Upon seeing who it was, the store manager began buzzing excitedly.
"No one can ever handle Arthur. You are definitely the person we've been waiting for!" She giggle when he grinned, and blushed when he laughed. "I'm Aithusa! It's nice to meet you!" Her long silver hair bounced behind her.
"And you as well," Merlin shook her hand and smiled again.
"Can you start Thursday? We can work out a set schedule then, but how about 5:30 am?"
"Sounds perfect!" He politely shook hands again and left the café. It was still only 4:30 pm so he started a trek to find Gaius. He had a lot of explaining to do.
