Chapter Five: A Safe House

Saturday Morning

Morgana couldn't remember when she'd last slept so deeply. As she started to wake, she slowly became aware of the sun on her face and a hand wrapped lightly around her wrist. She opened her eyes to see Merlin staring right back at her.

"Why are you holding my hand?" she asked suspiciously.

He smiled. "Thought it was the best way for me to be alerted to your magic if it got out of control."

"And?"

"All quiet."

"Yeah. I slept really well. What about you?" She noticed that he still hadn't removed his hand.

He shrugged. "I got just about enough, I suppose."

"Sorry. That's my fault, isn't it?"

"No, it's fine, but I do think we should start to get ready now though? I would feel much happier getting you somewhere a little safer."

She nodded and reluctantly pulled away from him, starting to get out of bed. "What's so special about your place then?" she asked.

He got up slowly, stretching as he looked around the room. "I have my own defences set up there."

"Magical ones?"

"Yes."

She nodded. "You go ahead and use the bathroom first whilst I get some food ready."

Merlin simply nodded and the two headed off in opposite directions.

Once they'd both eaten and showered, Morgana collected a few things up in a bag and deliberately ignored a couple of messages on her mobile phone before leaving the flat with Merlin. When they reached the entrance hall, he grabbed her wrist again in order to check her magic and, for one reason or another, the pair left the building hand in hand.

~o~0~o~

"Here you go," Merlin said, ushering her into a small, unremarkable terraced house in the poorer part of town.

"Oh, this feels... different," Morgana commented as they entered the long, narrow hallway.

"Yes, you can probably sense the magical shields I've put up here."

"It feels very strong, though," she said. "Isn't that likely to get noticed?"

"Only by another Silver sorcerer."

"So, the street detectors won't sense anything in here, even if I really lose control?"

"Just as long as my blocks are stronger than your magic." She looked at him nervously and he gave her a half-hearted smile. "I'm fairly certain we're safe. Better here than at your place, anyway."

The house, she noticed, was very sparsely furnished although it was spotlessly clean and decorated in pale, neutral shades. Merlin immediately showed her into the second room on the right – the old dining room – to find it bare except for one table, four plain chairs and a large, wooden chest. There was something else missing she realised, although it took a moment for her to work out what it was.

"There's no electricity in here," she said. "No modern fittings or fixtures at all."

"No, and that's very deliberate, of course."

She nodded. "I'm not the only one who short-circuits things then?"

"It's the way the magic detectors work, of course," Merlin explained. "All lifeforms emit small amounts of natural electricity, but sorcerers give out more than most."

"And those of us with a lot of power...?"

He nodded. "This room is clear of anything which could cause issues, and lit only by camping lights which don't seem to be a problem. I would have used candles but naked flame can sometimes be an issue too, depending on the individual sorcerer. We've some natural light coming through the window but I've blocked much of it, as you can see. Best to keep as far away from prying eyes as possible."

"Yes, I can see that," she said with a large sigh. "So, what's the first step?"

He raised an eyebrow. "We get rid of that Gauntlet."

"Really?"

He nodded and moved quickly towards her, gently taking her wrist and focusing on the mechanism. There was a faint buzz and click and the bracelet quickly came loose.

Morgana sighed deeply with relief. "That feels so much better."

"Good. Just remember to keep yourself nice and calm. Now, sit on this chair and think about... fluffy clouds or a gentle song or... actually that's a good idea..."

Merlin scurried out of the room, returning a few minutes later with a small CD player which he then set down on the table. He pressed a button and smiled as it started to play ocean sounds.

"Lovely," Morgana said, sarcastically. "But that's still electrical, even if it isn't plugged in."

"Yes, it'll serve the extra purpose of being a monitor. If it survives our lessons you'll know you've done it correctly."

"But you want me to use magic whilst it's in this room?"

"I want you to control your magic. Using magic in itself doesn't cause a problem... look."

And to her amazement and awe, Merlin held out a hand right next to the CD player and allowed a flame to dance on his palm. The soothing sounds continued to play without the slightest jump or crackle.

"So, it's not reacting because...?"

"...because I'm not allowing my magic to go there," Merlin replied. "I'm keeping most of it inside me and releasing the rest of it in a different direction."

"But last night you told me not to keep it inside."

"That was because you were wearing your Gauntlet. If your internal magic increases or builds up it'll react – that's what it's designed for. What you managed to do yesterday was bypass it. You pushed the magic straight towards me without going through it."

"And so it should be much easier now it's gone?"

"Which is the whole point, of course." And with no warning, he came over to her, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into a close embrace.

"Merlin!"

"Right, let's get those emotions of yours bubbling and see what happens."

She glared at him. "Well, you'll certainly get me angry if you do something like that again without permission."

He smirked, still holding her close. "Anger's fine too, although let's see how long that lasts, shall we?" And he kissed her, far more deeply than he had the night before.

Despite Morgana's determination to prove Merlin wrong, her annoyance appeared to dissolve and passion quickly took over. However, even with that lack of control and the fact they both quickly started to get carried away, she was still able to retain enough focus to remember that this was actually a lesson and that all her magic should be focused away from the CD player. So, she pushed it towards Merlin and over him, mentally imagining the player was behind a wall.

She was almost disappointed when he pushed her gently away, breathing heavily.

"T-that's good. You did that exactly right. The only problem is..." He gulped in a huge lungful of air.

"What?"

"I'm going to have to adapt your Gauntlet I think. Get it to work as a magic absorber, much as mine does, but..." He shook his head. "It's really not going to be easy. Your magic is wild."

"Wild?" she asked, offended.

"It's strong and it's..." He waved his hands around wildly, trying to find the right word. "It's like a force of nature. Elemental... Yes, it really is very much like my magic, just with hardly any control placed on it."

She arched an eyebrow at him and folded her arms, not entirely sure that description was complimentary. "And tell me, Merlin, are you going to keep using these lessons as an excuse to seduce me, or might there be some other way that you can test my magic?"

He grinned sheepishly, his cheeks turning very pink. "I'm sorry, that was only suppose to be a little kiss but..."

"But?"

"When you push all that magic towards me it's very... intoxicating and I admit I got carried away."

"Even more of a reason to do something less... stimulating perhaps?"

"All right, but I'm not sure it'll feel any different really. Your magic does things to me, Morgana, as do you. I'm just going to have to schedule a few breaks for both of us, I think."

"When you say 'breaks'?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ah..." Merlin's cheeks coloured further. "Yeah... perhaps, but there are complications with... ah, masturbating, as you've probably found out for yourself by now."

"A cold shower perhaps?" she teased.

He gave her a look which was probably supposed to be annoyed but actually appeared slightly amused. "Okay, let's try something smaller and calmer then. You're right that it's a good idea to try to quieten your magic down now. Here, this is probably something Gaius has tried with you."

He fished out a small marble from his pocket and put it on the table.

Morgana sighed. "Yeah. I'm supposed to give it a little push."

"And nothing happened when you tried before?"

"No."

"Well, either this is too small and delicate for you right now and we'll get the same result, or the fact that your magic is now free will let you move it. Of course, the other possibility is that you could end up smashing it to pieces."

"I doubt I'd be able to do something like that on a first go."

"If you pushed as hard as you did when you were kissing me just then, then you might. At the moment it appears to be all or nothing with you, so I want you to try and find that feeling you had when we kissed. That magic."

"I remember how it felt, like a small light right here..." She placed a hand just under her breasts and Merlin nodded.

"Good, that's correct. Now, here's the real trick. You need to recreate that feeling and draw the light up by yourself. Once you've got it, you just have to push as you did before, but this time, very, very gently."

Morgana initially struggled to find the light again. She knew how it felt and what it 'looked' like but didn't seem to be able to discover it on her own. Merlin moved forwards then and held her hand, stroking it gently as he gave her a few words of advice. His touch sent gentle shudders through her body and it was only then that she felt as if she was close to succeeding. As much as she was reluctant to admit the effect he had on her, she decided to take advantage of it and focused on his touch; on his eyes and his lips and the thought of their earlier kiss. The light started to grow and she took a hold of it and tried to move it gently towards the marble.

The pair both jumped off their chairs as the ball was hurled across the table and slammed against the opposite wall.

"What? Was that me?"

"Yes." Merlin moved towards the wall and grinned. "Well, the good news is that you didn't smash it."

"Why?" she asked walking towards him. "What happened?"

For an answer he simply pointed and she stared in shock on seeing the marble firmly embedded in the plaster with only the smallest amount of glass sticking out from the plain wallpaper.

"Oh."

"It's good though," Merlin reassured her. "You consciously used your magic for a specific task for the first time. Even yesterday you were only able to push the power generally in my direction without giving it any real purpose. Today though you wanted to move the marble." He laughed loudly. "And you certainly did!"

"But that's still not good enough, is it?"

"No, it needs to be gentler and a lot more controlled, but I didn't expect you to get there on the first try. It is a good start though," he continued as he saw her crestfallen expression. "Now, shall we try again?"

Saturday Afternoon

"You biggest problem is patience," Merlin complained a little later on. "Or lack of it."

"And you're not exactly making it any easier," she complained.

"Me? What did I do?"

"Oh, I don't know," she grumbled. "How about, kissing me without asking and making me repeat things over and over when it's obvious I'm tired and struggling."

"This sort of thing can't happen instantly, Morgana. Like any skill it requires repetition and lots and lots of practice."

She pulled a face. "Yeah, well, I need a break. I need to sleep."

"It's the afternoon!"

"I don't care. This is exhausting."

He sighed. "Fine, let's put this Gauntlet back on and then you can take a nap in my room."

"What? No..." She pulled away from the metal band as if Merlin were offering her a poisonous snake to stroke.

"You've started to fully understand and realise your magic, Morgana and, until you've developed a little more control, you will need to keep wearing this and I will need to monitor you."

"And how long will that take?" she asked. "I have to go into work on Monday."

He frowned, nodding. "I'm hoping that, if we work really hard, we can get you mostly stable by then."

"And I'm sleeping in your room because...?"

"Because it's also fairly well shielded and sparsely decorated – for much the same reason."

"I thought you said that your magic was under control."

"Most of the time, but it's nice to know I've extra protection up there, just in case."

She smirked, moving a little closer. "Just in case you get... frustrated?"

He licked his lips and nodded. "As I said before, that sort of activity is a problem for most strong sorcerers, and I suppose I should give you some advice about that too at some point."

"Now that does sound like an interesting lesson," she said with a cheeky smile.

"Well, I was only going to mention..."

"Yes...?"

Without really thinking about it, Morgana moved forward to kiss him. Merlin responded wholeheartedly and, for a while, things became heated again, ending up with Morgana pressed up against one of the walls and Merlin's hands firmly on her hips.

A sudden loud crash had them pull quickly apart and look around the room nervously but, fortunately, only one of the chairs had fallen over.

"We really mustn't..." Merlin stuttered. "You're not ready for that sort of... stimulation yet."

She smirked at him. "Spoilsport."

"Anyway, I thought you said you were tired."

"I am and I do think I'll find all of this easier to master once I've had a nap."

Merlin showed her up to the room and then wandered off but, not long after she'd settled into the large double bed, he came back and, without a word, started to get in next to her.

"What? You're sleeping here too?"

"I really do need to keep a close eye on you – just in case your have a bad dream or something." She glared at him. "I've no other agenda here, Morgana, I told you. Right now 'that' would probably be even worse than if you had a nightmare."

"But perhaps a little more pleasant?"

He smiled but didn't answer, simply taking her right wrist gently in his hand and lying down next to her.

Morgana had to admit she was confused about so much regarding Merlin. Obviously he fancied her, and the kisses they'd shared had been far better than she'd expected but, even considering the fact that they had far more in common than she'd thought before this weekend, she still wasn't certain how she felt about him. She also kept wanting to tell him off for constantly ordering her, randomly kissing her to help her control her magic or that they'd be sharing a bed whether she wanted to or not.

However, what was really bothering her, was the quiet voice inside her that was rather pleased by this turn of events.

~o~0~o~