Disclaimer: Merlin belongs to BBC

Warnings: domestic violence (from Morgana's part, poor Merlin), goofy (or crappy if you're particularly mean today) humor (that's the author's fault).

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Chapter 7

"Merlin!" Morgana exclaimed, astonished that the man that had performed magic in front of her mere seconds before was the very one that she was forbidden to see. So, that was his true secret, the one he felt so relieved when he thought she knew it. It all made sense, his actions under Gaius's guise, his smile, his stare, his humor, she was only frustrated that she hadn't figured out it was Merlin before. When he gave an explanation about the blood crystals and then obliviously showed he was wearing one, she saw it the moment he inclined she knew that the man in front of her wasn't Gaius. The old physician never looked at her like that, certainly never drooled in her presence, but she never expected that Merlin was the one teaching her magic. Damn it, she was confused! He had magic and had kept it a secret from her, he was using a magical item to go against the king's direct orders (she was in part angry at him for not telling her and glad that he took such risks just to see her and keep her safe, but she wouldn't show him for the moment). Her heart was beating faster and she was uncertain if she should scold him or hug him. She didn't have the time to decide, as he spoke:

"You shouldn't have discovered! Gaius will kill me! Oh, but he'll have to wait in the line, I think the king takes priority, then Arthur or you, I don't know. Guess Gaius will have to do with what is left of me." He smiled nervously.

She slapped his shoulder and he protested:

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"For lying to me!" She replied angrily, choosing to scold him. "When I told you that I knew your secret – and was wrong about it – you should have told me the truth!" She gave particular emphasis to the wrong part.

"Hey, I didn't lie that time! You just assumed that my secret was something different! It's not my fault that you did that!" He defended himself.

"To omit also constitutes a form of lie!" She countered and slapped his arm again.

"Ouch! Stop that! I'm a person, not a dummy for fighting practice!" He said, this time grabbing her hands.

"You are a liar, Merlin! How could you keep the truth from me?" Tears were beginning to form on her eyes, and she blamed her blasted hormones for such an emotional response.

"Please, calm down. If you keep being too loud, I'm sure you'll catch the guards' attention. I'm not even supposed to be here!" He pleaded to her and she nodded while sobbing.

"Thank you, for not contributing to turn my head into one of Camelot's exterior walls decoration." He said with a goofy smile.

Even though she was still mad at him, she couldn't help but giggle at his remark.

"Morgana, I'm sorry, but you have to understand. I didn't choose magic, it chose me. I was born with it. I came to Camelot seeking instructions from Gaius, because my mother knew him and was aware that he had knowledge concerning magic. I had trouble controlling it and Gaius helped me, but he also made me promise to keep it a secret, as did my mother." He paused briefly, looking into her eyes to make sure she was being soothed by his words. As she didn't protest, he continued:

"It's not as if I didn't want to tell you, it was that I couldn't. And I'm sorry for that." He pleaded for her to understand him, while releasing her arms from his grip.

She nodded and said: "I understand. Camelot isn't the most magic friendly place, so Gaius's and your mother's concern is justified." She smiled weakly at him.

"So, does this means that you have forgiven me? Will you please give me the blood crystal back?" He asked.

"No." She replied shortly and grinned wickedly at him.

"Morgana …" He warned.

"No, if you want it, you'll have to catch me!" She defied him, while grinning and running from him.

He didn't understand any longer what passed through her head. One moment she was about to cry, furious at him, and in the other she was playing with him? He wasn't sure if it that was an example of a pregnancy mood swing or he just was incapable of understanding women in general.

Anyway, he chased her around the bedchambers, hearing her giggle and chuckling himself. Their situation was at least bizarre, the mere fact that he was in her presence would already cost him his head (and other body parts before they took his head off his neck). He having magic in Camelot was only another cause for his imminent execution (if caught) and on top of it all, consorting with THE Lady Morgana, simply Uther's ward and the most beautiful woman on the land, would also be considered a grave crime. In short, he was a dead man still walking around, in this case running after the same woman that would most likely cause his death. And the most unbelievable thing: he has never been happier in his life than he was at that moment.

When he finally caught her, the two lost balance with his sudden movement and fell onto her bed with him on top of her, with a squeal from Morgana and a grunt from Merlin.

They were both out of breath and giggling to one another and, for a moment, they just stared to the others' eyes, slowly ceasing their laughters. It was supposed to be awkward, eyeing the other without saying anything, but the atmosphere definitely wasn't strange. It was quite the opposite, they both felt a pleasant feeling by being at each other's presence. Gazing at her eyes, lowering his sight to her lips sometimes, Merlin wondered if he should kiss her, but fear that he could upset her or make their situation even more complicated paralyzed him.

Morgana bit her bottom lip in an alluring manner, also wanting to seal their lips together, but she too was scared, she was afraid that he didn't feel the same way about her or that by doing so would only endanger him more.

So, for a long moment, they just stared at one another, expecting the other to make the first move, as if they were both bewitched at each other's sight.

In a lapse of self-preservation instinct, Merlin decided that kissing her would be a stupid thing, so he got out of her bed, facing the opposite wall and leaving her still laid on the soft mattress. When he did that, he instantly missed the proximity of her warm body and her enthralling emerald eyes. The only thing that he didn't know was that she was feeling the same way, tasting the bitterness after such a sweet moment, missing his nearness, his entrancing well shaped lips and his gorgeous sapphire eyes.

He cleared his throat and told her:

"We should be practicing erm … 'herbalism'"

"Merlin, stop, I already told you that you can speak freely here." She reprimanded him while keeping a soft tone of voice as she stood up.

"Fine, whatever name we give it, our purpose is for you to learn how to control your gifts." He said, still too much embarrassed (and unsure if he could contain himself and at the same time conceal his traitorous little guy that had risen from the realm of dreams when she bit her lower lip) to turn and face her.

As he heard her soft footsteps coming closer into his direction, he promptly went in the direction of the table and seated on a chair, almost falling in the process, which rendered from her the following question:

"What was that for?"

"Do you think only you can be spontaneous? I can be too!" He said, proudly of himself as he had hid his current state from her. She giggled and replied:

"You're strange, Merlin. You can rest assured, I don't bite." She teased and continued: "I was just going to give your crystal back, not hit you, I guarantee." She grinned at him.

"Here's my hand." He extended his hand and began pointing at his palm with his finger, in quick succession. "You can place it here." He mentally kicked himself again for acting like a dork in front of her, damn it, he always acted strangely when he was nervous. But she only laughed at his reaction, got closer to him (which increased his heart's speed rate), gave him the blood crystal and took a seat opposed to him.

He was about to put the necklace on again when she stopped him:

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to give you this lesson as Gaius, as was the initial plan." He answered.

"I don't think that your plan predicted me finding out your true identity, Merlin. I don't see why you should continue with it." She reasoned with him.

"If someone gets here and sees us together, I'm dead." He replied.

"But nobody will come in, I can guarantee." She countered.

"It's better to keep the appearances. If Uther comes in –"

"You can lock the door magically, so no matter who has the key, none will be able to enter." She interrupted him.

"Morgana, that's still risky …" He wasn't completely convinced.

"Since when having some sort of privacy is a bad thing?" She retorted.

"What is the real reason for not wanting me with Gaius's face?" He questioned her.

"Because it's weird! I already know that's with you that I'm talking to, that you're the one performing and teaching me magic, if you do that you'll ruin my mental image of Gaius!" She snapped and added dramatically: "Forever!"

"What, I'm not a bad impersonator of Gaius, you totally believed I was him, you even said I was funnier than him!" He retorted.

"I utterly couldn't believe you were Gaius, why do you think that I snatched your crystal? For whom do you take me for, Arthur? I was sure that you weren't him, Merlin. So, please, forget your 'plan', just stay as yourself during these few hours that we have lessons." She pleaded him, using her big round clear eyes to do so, to which he hadn't yet come to develop any sort of defenses against.

"Fine, as you wish, my lady." He bowed his head

For an instant, both of them were silent, probably thinking about what to say next. It was Morgana the first one to speak:

"When did you show signs of magic? How was it? How did you feel about it? How was growing up with magic?"

"As I said, I was born with it. Before I could walk or speak, I was already moving objects with my magic. I don't really remember when I noticed it was magic what I was doing, for me it was a natural thing to do, much like breathing." He paused and gazed at her big green eyes again, noticing that he had her full attention, so he continued: "Trouble followed me everywhere, sometimes because the neighbors saw me practicing magic or were suspicious of it, sometimes because the other kids wanted to hit me, but they always failed as I had an advantage, other times it wasn't even my magic that got me in trouble, but I'd always avoid more serious consequences with my gifts." He grinned in a goofy way.

"It must have been fun, growing up practicing magic." She replied.

"It was, but I had to leave Ealdor and my childhood when my mother discovered that Will knew about me having magic." He said, feeling a pang of sadness for his recently lost friend.

"Oh, Will, your friend. Wait a moment, you wouldn't have to hide your magic if he were a sorcerer too, so in truth you were the one that caused that whirlwind in Ealdor?" She inquired.

"Yes," He scratched his head and kept saying: "He told that to Arthur because he was already dying, to keep me safe." He lowered his head again and fought against a wild tear that would definitely fall if he didn't contain it.

"I'm sorry, Merlin." She said it sympathetically. "He surely was a good friend, I'm sorry that we couldn't do more for him." She added sincerely.

"Thank you, Morgana." He sniffed.

"I don't understand, Merlin. Why do you serve Arthur when you know he'd probably have you killed if he found out you're a sorcerer. Why do you serve him, even after he said those things about Will? I wanted to hit him and I wasn't the one he had actually wronged with those harsh words!" She exclaimed.

"Morgana, there's more in Arthur, deep inside all that pratness. He has proved that he'll be a good king in the future." He retorted.

"I know he has a good heart, Merlin, but he can't comprehend that persecuting people with magic is wrong! He believes in Uther's poisonous words! He repeats the same speech as a well-trained dog, regardless of the good experiences he had with magic!" She protested.

At that moment, he wondered if it was fine to tell her the rest of the truth, about his and Arthur's destiny. But Gaius had made him promise not to talk about that (well, he also made him promise not to reveal his true identity and look at the mess that came from that). Taking a deep breath, Merlin calmed down to make one of the most important decisions of his life: to be completely honest with Morgana and finally have someone like him, to whom he could be himself without any sorts of qualms; or to do as Gaius said and keep secrets from her. Oh, blast it, she was already carrying his child, probably sharing his burden was nothing compared to that, so he spoke:

"I'm Arthur's manservant to keep him safe, Morgana. I do this because of our common fate, he is the Once and Future King, prophesized to bring back magic to the land and lead Albion to a Golden Age."

She was shocked at his answer. Arthur, Prophesy, Albion, Golden Age? Who had said all those things to Merlin, and more, why did he believed it? The other thing, if what he said was true, how on earth would Arthur change his biased views concerning magic and not only stop persecuting those with it, but also restoring its former glory?

"But how? Who said that to you?" She asked him.

"The Great Dragon did. Gaius and the druid boy confirmed it." He answered calmly, as if he had simply given her a simple description of a random stoic object.

"What, the dragon bellow Camelot's foundations? And Gaius and the Druids confirmed?" She questioned again.

"Basically, yes."

Okay, fine, she was convinced that he was speaking the truth and that he had a lot of courage confiding in her, he could as well keep everything else, but his magic, a secret. So she decided to say:

"Thank you, Merlin, for trusting such important secrets to me." He smiled radiantly at her, which caused her heartbeat to increase and she proceeded: "I'll keep your secrets." And added teasingly "As long as you keep my owns." And she smiled at him.

"You have my word." He replied, satisfied and relieved that he had found someone to fully confide and be himself with. It was then that he noticed the warmth on his chest, he hadn't felt this way around anybody else, he suspected its causes, but was too much scared to actually come to a conclusion towards his own emotions.

"So, as you are here, telling me your deepest secrets, is there anything else I should know?" She asked him, smiling wickedly.

"There's one." He suddenly remembered and completely missed the flirty way she was talking to him. "You're a seer."

"What?"