Replies:

Renaissancebooklover108: Haha, no Gwaine's not gay. Maybe I'll pair him up with someone soon. Thank you for reviewing!

MICKEY.G.B: Thanks for your review! The kittens were really fun to write, but I wouldn't suggest you get one if you have a dog. Felix the cat is my favourite kitten at the moment :)

Sakhr al-Jinni: I knew you wanted Aithusa to have some little baby kittens, so I'm glad this made you happy! Thanks for your review!

Merlinlovr: Thanks and maybe Mordred could do with a kitty companion? The plot twist will occur next chapter, but in the meantime I hope you like this one.

Gespav: I love writing conversations between Gwaine and Merlin, they're lots of fun! Hehe, the kittens were great fun, I kept getting distracted! I'd give you a real kitten if I could, but here's a virtual one instead. Here is the second date, (I hope it's okay) and there's some info on the surprise in the 'next chapter' thing at the bottom.

XXX

"I don't even know what half of the things are on this menu," Merlin complains, reading through the fancy dishes. "Here, look at this one. 'Romantic chicken with artichokes and mushrooms'. How can you have romantic chicken?"

"Perhaps they breed them," Morgana suggests, laughing.

"Do you think they have competitions? Who is the most romantic chicken?" Merlin plays along with the joke.

"Definitely. It's the height of society, darling," Morgana says in a falsely posh voice, earning a few irritated glances from the other diners.

"Of course, of course," Merlin continues, copying her accent. "And do remember, darling, that when one dines in a four-star restaurant, one must not slouch."

Morgana straightens her back against her chair, grinning at him. "Do accept my apologies, dear. I had forgotten our current surroundings."

"Are you ready to order now?" The waiter walks back to their table with a notepad in his hand.

"Yes. I'd like the spaghetti thing," Morgana specifies, pointing to the menu. The waiter peers over her shoulder to look at her choice, getting a sneaky glimpse of her cleavage at the same time.

"One spaghetti carbonara," the waiter says, scribbling it down. "What about you, sir?"

"Breasts," Merlin dead-pans, shoving his menu back to the waiter and wishing that looks could kill.

Morgana kicks his shin under the table, which was a rather painful experience as she was wearing high-heeled shoes.

"The Romantic chicken breast with artichokes and mushrooms," Merlin says, as though correcting himself. "Please."

"Right away, sir." The waiter scurries away, not looking back.

Morgana watches him go and waits until he's out of ear-shot. "You're so mean, Merlin."

Merlin huffs. "He was the one looking down your dress!"

"I was hoping it could earn us a discount," Morgana says with a pout, pretending to be disappointed.

"Well I'm awfully sorry to ruin your plans."

Morgana grins and brings him away from the previous subject. "What should we talk about?"

He shrugs, picking up a bread stick. "Whatever you want to talk about. Kittens, fancy restaurants, romantic chickens..."

"I'm afraid that Mordred's being picked on at school," Morgana tells him, worriedly.

"How come?"

"When I went to collect him from school a few days ago, there was a boy who kept calling him names. He tried to ignore it, but I could tell he was upset."

"Does Morgause know about this?"

Morgana sighs. "I don't think so. I'm getting the idea that she doesn't have much patience with him."

"I expect she's just tired. She looked dead on her feet the other night. And you're never very patient at the best of times."

"Shut up, Merlin. I think they could do with a holiday, to be honest. It's the summer holidays soon and I think they could both do with two weeks in the sun."

"Maybe you should tell her that," Merlin suggests, pointing the half-eaten bread stick at her.

"No! That would be rude!" Morgana insists.

"It wouldn't. It'd just be you helping a friend. It'd be nice."

"'Oh, hi Morgause. I noticed you're looking really tired lately, how about you go on holiday?' It's not nice, it's insulting! It sounds like I'm trying to get rid of her!" Morgana disagrees with him, raising her voice.

The couple on the table to their left shoot them a resentful look, clearly not impressed at their arguing. Morgana sends them one back and then stands from her chair, picking up her bag. Merlin stares at her.

"Come on, Merlin. Let's get out of here." She slips her jacket back on, smoothing her hair back.

"Wha-what?" Merlin stammers, mesmerized by her movements.

"I'm not a big fan of posh restaurants. Let's just get a burger somewhere."

"But I thought-"

"Would you like to order drinks, now?" The waiter is back at their table, confused by the situation. "Is there a problem?"

"No, we're just leaving. You can cancel the food order," Morgana replies. She grabs Merlin by his tie and hauls him up out of his seat. "Let's go, Merlin."

XXX

"Two burgers, please," Merlin says to the rather large woman in charge of the burger van.

"Do you want onions with that?"

"No, thank you" Morgana replies for both of them.

"You're a bit over-dressed, aren't you?" The woman looks them up and down, taking in Morgana's black dress and Merlin's shirt and tie.

"We're on our way back from a wedding. Got a bit hungry on the journey," Morgana says without missing a beat, taking the burgers from her and handing over the money.

"Good reception?"

"Wonderful. We really enjoyed it, didn't we?" Morgana turns to Merlin who looked more than a little confused.

"Yeah, it was great," he agrees, bewildered.

The woman nods, smiling. "Enjoy the food."

"We will, thank you."

"It's scary how easily you can lie to people," Merlin tells her as they lean on the bonnet of the car, eating their burgers. The car is parked in a lay-by on the motorway, the traffic whizzing past.

"I've had practice," Morgana says with a shrug. "I lie to lots of people, mainly because it makes life easier."

"Have you ever lied to me?"

Morgana hides a smile. "A few times."

Merlin raises an eyebrow. "About what?"

"Nothing important."

"I don't believe you," Merlin says in a sing-song voice that Hunith often used.

"That's fine. But I'm still not going to tell you."

Merlin looks at their surroundings. "You know, I think I imagined our second date differently to this."

Morgana laughs. "What's wrong with sitting at the side of the motorway eating a burger? And I was the one that walked out of the restaurant in the first place."

"I know. I'm just sorry it didn't go to plan."

"I'm sorry you didn't get your romantic chicken."

They both start giggling. "That's okay. I'm sure it wouldn't have been as good as this beefburger, anyway."

"Probably not."

They stay quiet for a while, the only sounds coming from the oncoming traffic that lights up the dark sky and the road ahead.

"You look good in that suit," Morgana compliments him, her eyes dark.

"Really?"

"Mm. It's almost a shame I'm going to undress you later," she says casually.

Merlin gulps nervously. "You're going to undress me?"

"If you're okay with that." It wasn't really a question.

"Uh, y-yeah. Definitely," Merlin stammers, his body temperature rising.

"Perhaps we can use this as a prop," Morgana muses to herself, fondling Merlin's tie. "I might tie you up."

"You're going to tie me up?" Merlin squeaks.

"Yeah. It'll spice things up a bit," Morgana says, as though this was a perfectly normal conversation to be having at the side of a motorway. "And I like being in control."

"That's fine," Merlin agrees without any hesitation at all. Gwaine's plan about having all the dominance in the bedroom could go to hell. If Morgana wanted to tie him up, then she could do so to her heart's content.

"Are you finished?" Morgana snatches him out of his thoughts, getting back into the car.

Merlin looks at the small part of his burger that hadn't been eaten yet. He throws it into the hedge at the side of the road; eating could wait. "Yeah, I'm just coming."

Before joining her in the car, he looks up at the sky, picking out the stars that flickered faintly. He smiles subconsciously, because for the first time in the past five months, everything is normal.

XXX

Or is it? Mwah-ha-ha.

Sorry this is shorter than normal, I had a bit of a mental block with this chapter. It's not really up to the usual standard, if there is one, but I hope it was still an enjoyable read.

I really enjoy writing these dates that they go on, so feel free to leave me a suggestion in a review!

Also, I go back to school in a week and three days, so it'll be one more chapter after this one and then probably not another for a while, because I'll be concentrating on getting back into the swing of mind-numbing education.

Anywho! Thanks for reading and adding this story to your follows and favourites! Please review to tell me your thoughts! :)

Next chapter: Alvarr makes a confession...