WARNING: This chapter and the next might be too fast for most of us, but I do have a reason for doing so. Also, it will return to the comfortable pacing at Chapter V.

A/N: Thanks so much to those who has been bearing with me until now! Please continue doing so! Special thanks to those who reviewed so far and those who added me and/or the story to their favorites!

DISCLAIMER: I WISH I own Merlin

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CHAPTER III: Recollections

IMPERIAL COLLEGE

A few days had passed since then, but Merlin managed to keep her sanity. Thankfully, they were approaching the weekend which meant they were going to have a little break from school. And in Merlin's case, stay at home and avoid further encounters. She mechanically watched her classmates involuntarily stretch in relaxation.

"Ah~ It's finally the weekend! I can finally watch Bradley James on the internet again!" A random girl said, apparently not allowed to goof off during the weekdays. Her other two companions nodded excitedly in agreement. Seems like the guy's going to be their topic in the weekend…

She remembered the blonde guy and his fan girls.

"Who's this Bradley James, anyway?" She whispered at Lance who just blinked at her. She didn't really try to find out anything about that maniac that night since she already formulated her own conclusions. Also that scientific-I-don't-need-to-bother-over-trivial-things part of her wasn't curious enough... but another—a bigger part—definitely was.

Unfortunately.

Lance looked at her, surprised. "You've been here for almost a week and you still don't know him?"

"Why would I?" She retorted, not knowing why it seemed as if it was a given fact that she would have. Lancelot stared and propped his chin on his knuckles, staring at her even more.

"The guy's real famous, you know. He's the top rising star in the country right now."

"He is…?"

"Yeah, he's a good actor but he seems to have a lot of issues regarding his utterly arrogant attitude. He had a lot of enemies in the industry due to it." He told her, getting Merlin to look at the ceiling in recollection. She thought that the maniac she met was arrogant… but to the degree that he got enemies…?

"He's linked to a lot of women, too." He added, making her scoff involuntarily. Images of the wild fan girls popped up and she concluded that if anything, he'd be afraid of them.

"Merlin?" Lance asked in both puzzlement and anxiety at his companion's reactions. Even if the guy had a huge fanbase, Lance did not like the idea that Merlin would join them.

"You sure do know a lot about him." She answered. He winced.

"Ah… There's something about his fighting style that I see in many of his works. You can say I'm a fan of that." He admitted, somewhat embarrassed. She smiled,

"Why are you so embarrassed, anyway?"

"I don't know. I just thought that maybe you'd…" He muttered taking a glimpse of her. "…Think it was stupid." Apparently, he wanted to learn some moves, himself.

"Why would I…?"

He looked away, shrugging. "…No reason…"

"Hmn. And Lance?" She called, taking him out of his awkward daze. "How's your mother's shop going along?"

Lance's mother just opened a new shop and needed all the help she could get. It was the reason they hadn't hung out after school since then. She offered to help them sometimes, but Lance said it was still so small and he'd allow her to do so when it got a little bigger.

"It's going great. Her cookies are the best-sellers." He grinned proudly at her getting her to grin as well.

"No surprise there." She commented considering she just ate it earlier during lunch. Then Lance's facial expression turned serious.

"I wish the shop would get bigger in no time. Is that selfish of me?" He stated, Merlin knew that he wanted to say something.

"Well, of course not. It's your mother's shop after all. Why would you feel that way, anyway?" She questioned, perplexed at his thought process.

"I was thinking that I wanted you to hang out the shop sometimes…"

"I've been offering help for days, now."

"Well, yes… but that's because it really is quite embarrassing to have so many people manage such a small shop and we know you had your own workload…" His voice drowned every word and he was unconsciously scratching his cheek in the process.

"… I thought we'd be…able to go out during these past few days more so I didn't really mind… Besides, I don't want you to help out… just hang around with us…?"

"Really Lance, what are you so embarrassed about?" She asked with an eyebrow raised. The boy sighed at her obliviousness.

"Who knows…"

…

"You know, he's totally different around you. He's usually a lot more upfront than that." "What's your secret?"

"Pardon?" She asked, because she knew he was sociable though she was pretty sure she was no exception. The girl just looked at her, hands on hips, as if she was an idiot. Her. An idiot.

"You seriously don't know?"

"What?"

The girls just gape, and then shrug. Whatever.

Merlin just palmed her face, thinking this must be a British thing.

…

It was after classes that the two had officially bid their farewell, agreeing that she'd go to Lance's house the next morning just before parting ways.

"Bye." He replied when she said something similar and gave her a kiss on the cheek. It became a habit for him now, it seemed. After she watched him leave she looked around to decide what to do next. It was Friday so she decided to walk around.

She found herself in front of the Victoria and Albert Museum again. She stared at the building for an instant but then decided to go in. They were a lot of exhibits she wasn't able to see due to Lance's unexpected phone call. She found herself ending up in the medieval section again. But this time, there was someone else.

She ignored the other person and begun looking around. She thought that'd it would be another peaceful moment of browsing when—

"It's you!" The other person suddenly yelled (or vehemently whispered, rather). Her whole back shot straight at the sound of his voice, but she quickly gathered herself and frowned at the sudden noise and interruption he was making. So she decided to ignore him… for a few moments, anyway.

'Don't acquaint yourself with this maniac, Merlin. You already had enough trouble with him as it is.'

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" But she did. By God she will.

There was just something so unnerving about this man that her scientific brain could not quite place. The uncertainty was something she did not appreciate.

She gestured to turn when she felt a massive hand on her arm and turned her around.

Her frown turned to a look of surprise—and so did his—when they realize they were a mere inch apart, close enough to feel each other's breaths. And even hear each other's heartbeats.

Something—things, no, everything—about this was so familiar and it felt as if they knew what to do by instinct.

He stared at her and his shocked expression softened and he leaned down. She found her eyes closing…

When both their eyes widened at the realization of what they were about to do, they immediately stepped away from each other with their backs literally to opposite side of the room, aghast. "WHAT THE HELL—" She muttered, still feeling how close his was to touching it, covering it just in case.

"W-What's wrong with you?" He exclaimed. "Y-You dare kiss me—" "HEY!"

She turned away, really not knowing what to think other than get away from this person as soon as she could. Was she that type of woman? To kiss random men just because they were a little good-looking?

And what the hell is with her heartbeat? SHE COULD BARELY HEAR HER OWN THOUGHTS.

NO. Nononono—

"Don't you ignore me—" He said, about to pull her again when his hand stopped just before their skins touched, realizing he may just get electrocuted again. But then he realized, why would he be conscious of doing this to some random woman he literally met off the street?

So he held her arm anyway, to stop her from so rudely walking away from him.

Meanwhile, Merlin could swear her nerves are popping out, and she could no longer hold all the annoyance in.

Her face contorts to one of annoyance and she whipped her head to him, completely ignoring the way her gut flipped at the renewed proximity. "SHUT UP!" She yelled, but Lady Luck was not on her side today. Staff members seemed to have heard all the noise and didn't look pleased at all.

And so, they were kicked out.

...

Outside the building a certain brunette was stomping angrily. "Damn you. First you waste my time, and now you even ruined my reputation!" She vehemently whispered at the maniac, though without looking at him. He was wearing a black wig, large scarf, and huge glasses much like Lance's.

"You ignored me! No one ignores me!" He replied just as vehemently. Her eye twitched.

"You are as arrogant as they say." She commented as she tried to walk away from him, making his expression change into a serious and solemn one. This caught her off-guard and for an instant she could only stare.

"What are the other things that you heard about me…?" He asked, using a tone that caught Merlin by surprise. Again.

"Things." She mumbled, looking for a place to hide from him.

Bradle's face hardened. He noticed her attempts to get away from him and felt a surge of annoyance flow through him. He thought that it was because of his pride as a famous actor, but he realized how wrong he was when his body moved on its own and pinned the unknowing girl to the wall.

"Hey!" She shouted pushing him away while looking around. She did not know why there are always so few people around when he did this. The maniac just stared onto her eyes, obviously shocked as well.

"W-What's wrong with you?" She asked, but this time no longer trying to push him away. There was just the look of despair in his eyes that she did not want to turn away from.

"I've been thinking about you since the day I met you, and I don't know why." He muttered with a deeply frowning face. Merlin just stared at him, not knowing what to say. He bent his arms to get closer to her, closing the distance between them to only 2 inches.

Like before she was so sure there was just something familiar about all of this—like this happened before, many many times.

His look, his frown, his breath… She felt an odd longing for something that she had lost. She knew that the boy also had the same feeling. He was leaning down again and this time a part of her just wanted to let him do what he wanted.

But still.

This wasn't right. Not until she knows for certain what this is.

So she covered her mouth, and the part his lips touched burned.

Bradley breathed heavily and he gulped, as if it will make this easier for him. It feels like his lips were aching for her soft ones. It was odd, he had never wanted to kiss a girl before and now he was hungry for it.

But she looked at him—pleading for him to stop, and his heart stopped both in pleasure of seeing this side of her and his guilt as a supposedly decent man.

"…sorry." He said, stepping back and scratching the back of his neck.

"Yeah."

His eyebrows rose and he turned to look at her. She was just standing there against the wall, looking down, and his shoulders slumped in relief. "Glad you're not running away."

Merlin didn't answer. She didn't want to say she wanted to do the same. "We should talk." She said without looking at him, and she leads him to a bench nearby, where they'd sit themselves at the opposite sides of the chair.

She played around with the ring hanging on her neck, feeling its form beyond the textile of her shirt that covered it. It was barely helping her calm down, but at the very least she wasn't panicking too much.

He turned his head sideways to look at her. "Hey." "Why don't we try? Just this once?"

"What?" She yelled though mostly to herself because she was considering it, even before he asked. She called it scientific curiosity. But… No. "I'm not about to out give my first kiss as an experiment."

His eyes widened at this, eyebrows rising. "You're first kiss?!"

His disbelieving tone struck a nerve. The rude bastard. "Not everyone are linked to multiple people of the opposite sex!"

His face hardened and he turned away, crossing his arms defensively. "You were the first one I wanted to kiss though."

This made her turn to him, wide eyes, and he did too—not realizing he said that out loud. He turned to a tomato then, but she didn't react. She refused to.

Unconsciously, she rubbed her ring a bit more. Like it was a magic lamp and she could wish for herself to poof out of this place then and there.

Neither of them spoke for a long moment of silence and she can see with her peripheral vision that he was occasionally looking at her, thinking of what to say next. She was too, though nothing came.

Finally, he broke the silence. "What is it with you and that necklace?"

"Oh this?" She asked, revealing the ring as nonchalantly as she could, pushing his earlier words at the back of her head. "It's a family heirloom of sorts. It gives me comfort."

"I see…" He muttered but his eyes focused on the ring, almost narrowing, and he scooted next to her. She wanted to place her palm on his face to push him off, but he looked genuinely studying the ring, with an expression akin to a scientist studying his experiments.

"What?"

"I've seen it before."

Now that she thought of it, why was he in the medieval section?

"You were interested in the dark ages, too?"

"Ah. Well. A bit." He paused, looking somewhere past her. "Though I was there today because of a role. I was doing research."

"I see." She then looked up to the sky. "Too bad you were so noisy you got kicked out then."

"Tsk."

She grinned. And he did too, relieved it wasn't as awkward as he feared. He then resumed on looking down on the oddly alluring ring. He pointed at it, rather carefully, and looked at her. "May I?"

She blinked, but she did undo her necklace and hand it over to him. Merlin thought it was another strange thing, as she almost never let anyone else see—let alone touch—her precious ring. So she only looked at him and watched him study it with unexpected amounts of interest.

She noticed too late it was on her hand when she felt the metal already through. "It looks good on you." He said, touching her hand. She blushed but she quickly paled when he raised his hand and bit the tip of his own finger, allowing a drop of blood to ooze out.

There was a glint in his eyes that told her he was almost acting out either by pure instinct or robotically. "What are you—"

He allowed the blood to touch the gem and she was about to punch him for defiling her favourite thing when—

It glowed.

It really freaking glowed.

And—they'd realize as they stare into each other's orbs—so did their eyes.

Their eyes widened further and they opened their mouth for shocked curses, when they felt a massive jolt of painful electricity coming from where their hands touched, travelling to every inch of their body, and ending up in their heads.

It was easily the most painful migraine both of them experienced.

And it was so painful and quick that neither even had the neither time nor energy to utter anymore than tortured grunts, and their heads just bent down to deal with the sensation. And the moment they opened their eyes and looked at each other, there was an understanding: as barrages of images occupied and flooded through their heads.

Memories.

And—though they do not see all of them at once—they were memories that lasted a lifetime.

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END OF CHAPTER III

Coming soon:
CHAPTER VI: Camelot
A former King and his best friend would trigger memories of their past lives.

REPLIES TO ANGELS

Evil E. Evil - Aw, shucks. First time I heard that, haha. Thanks for the compliment~!

kasih1990 - Here it is! Hehe. Thanks for the comment!

A/N: For those who didn't know, Bradley James is a real person. Ask Dr. Google! hehehe

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Thank you so much for reading this far!

Please review. :D