Yaaaayyyy, time for a new chapter. I'm writing tonight because I have no homework at all. You'd think that with me doubling up on math (Geometry and Precalculus) and teaching myself computer programming, I'd have no free time at all, but that is incorrect. In fact, I have way too much free time on my hands, more than is healthy. Soooo, what to do with this free time, but write!

At 6 o'clock in the morning, they were still awake, having stayed up talking all night. After all the tense silences and conversations ending in fights, it was good to be friends again. Merlin looked at the clock in surprise. Where had all the time gone? In just a few hours, they would have to set out to find Arthur.

"It seems like we haven't had enough time yet." Morgana said, still whispering although the sun had begun to rise.

"I was just thinking the same thing." Merlin agreed.

"This may be selfish, but I don't want Arthur to come back and ruin this friendship that we're forming. At least not yet." By this time, Morgana had migrated to Merlin's bed, and they were both sitting cross legged across from each other, perhaps closer than they needed to be.

"It's not forming," Merlin said matter-of-factly, and Morgana looked shocked for a moment before he continued. "It's just coming back." She smiled, and he returned it until they were lost in silent staring contest of smiles. Her eyes were so green that it was easy to get lost in them. So, that's where all the time went...

When she blinked, he forced himself to look away. This was Morgana. He wasn't allowed to be staring into her eyes and thinking about how beautiful they were. He'd known her too long and they'd been through too much to try and complicate anything with inappropriate feelings now.

Morgana breathed a silent sigh of relief when Merlin looked away. She never would have had the strength to stop staring into his eyes, so filled with loss and suffering it was nearly overwhelming. Those eyes were a portal to the long and terrible past that Merlin had lived, and she found herself wanting to jump into them to change it, make it better. She hated herself for doing this to him. He said he blamed himself, but she knew it was her fault.

"Do you remember the first time you saw me?" Morgana asked seriously, imagining a life for Merlin that she'd never played a part in.\

"Of course," He remembered. "It was my first day in Camelot, and I entered to witness an execution. You were standing in the window, looking upset."

"I didn't see you there."

"I know, I was just a part of the crowd like always." Merlin gave a halfhearted smile.

"Not always," Morgana argued. "You were never just part of the crowd to me. Even the first time I saw you, across the ballroom, you were the only person I noticed."

Merlin was focusing all of his willpower on not leaning across the bed and kissing her. "I was just a servant."

Morgana chuckled. "Everyone knows you were more than that, Emrys."

"But that's not important," He argued. "I was a servant. Yeah, I was also a sorcerer, but that never made me any less of Arthur's servant. Maybe more so, actually."

"You were never just a servant to me, Merlin. You were the one person I trusted completely." She smiled, but his face fell.

"I'm so sorry I betrayed you." His eyes flooded with guilt.

"That's not how I meant it, Merlin. I meant that I loved you and trusted you and you were one of my best friends, and you still are." She inwardly laughed at the fact that their conversations always seemed to take a turn towards dark and serious lately.

"But I hurt you so many times."

"I've forgiven you, so now it's time you forgive yourself," She whispered, coming in close.

He didn't move away as he responded "Consider me forgiven." He smiled, and she responded with a smirk. It wasn't just any smirk, but the one that could bring entire armies of men to their knees. He fought even harder not to kiss her as he carefully studied the smirk. It was so near, only centimeters away. When had they moved so close together.

"I don't think it's that easy," She whispered, smile widening. At that, all his willpower dissolved as he closed the small gap between them.

Their magic collided in a fireworks-like display of light and dark, but neither bothered to look up, immersed in a world made only of the two of them. It was perfect, so many old memories and new attractions built up and crashing down for the first time in a thousand years.

Merlin hadn't been this free of guilt since Arthur had died, and he sunk further into that feeling, further into Morgana. It was so right, them together, and he found himself wondering why he'd never done anything about it before. Maybe if he had, things would have turned out better. But none of that mattered now because everything, every mistake, every death, every stupid self-fulfilling prophecy had led him to this moment with Morgana.

Morgana had initially been surprised by Merlin's kiss. When one hopes so hard for something, they never really expect it to happen. All this time, all these thousand years that Morgana had sat in Avalon, in love with the man who'd killed her, she never once imagined this was how it would turn out. She hadn't come back with any expectations; all she'd wanted was to give Merlin what he'd been wishing for all this time: the return of his best friend.

And now, here they were, falling in love in an expensive hotel room somewhere in London, any thought of Arthur far from their minds. They were so consumed with their long repressed feelings that neither of them noticed the explosions going on around them.

He is the darkness to your light. You will walk in his shadow. He is your destiny and you doom. All the prophecies so long ago written in the stars were rewriting themselves before the inattentive eyes of their subjects. The room was filled with bursts of light and shadow, and the air smelled vaguely of lake water. Stars twinkled brightly on the ceiling as if the two were outside, rearranging themselves to fit the new patterns and prophecies.

A great voice whispered from everywhere and nowhere. "When two great powers collide, there is no way to predict the future. Good luck Morgana and Emrys."

That was fun to write, if incredibly difficult. Make sure to follow and favorite and review.