Thank you for reading~ Especially those who reviewed, fav'ed, subscribed, and added this to their communities. ;D

DISCLAIMER: I WISH I own Merlin.

…

CHAPTER IX: Lancelot

Merlin ignored her History teacher for a moment and looked at the window. It was already Friday, a few days since she last dreamed of her past life. She found it odd since before the Morpheus incident, she dreamed of Camelot practically every night.

She looked to her side, and stared blankly. Another odd thing that day was that Lance had especially larger eye bags. There was a new tension between them now, and she couldn't seem to find the reason why.

She sighed...

Out loud.

"Is there anything you're willing to share, Ms. Mitchell?" The teacher asked irritably.

"Not really, Ma'am." She replied bluntly. Why would she, anyway? They'll all think she's insane.

The teacher (and everyone else) stared at her for a moment, only to find her blinking obliviously at them. It was the teacher who sighed this time. The old woman shrugged and went back to her discussion.

"Psst." Came from her right. It was Lance. He held out his hand and pointed at her right pocket. The pocket that contained her mobile phone.

A moment later, it vibrated.

"What were you sighing about?"

"Anomalies."

"Ah.." He replied, but didn't push any further. He usually did, that's how thoughtful Lance just was.

"What about you? What are you thinking about?"

"Aberrations."

"I"

"…"

"I'll tell you later."

"OK"

…

ROOFTOP
LUNCH

They were eating alone that time, Lance thought thankfully. The other two had projects due that day and they needed to do some polishing. Lance was thinking as to how to tell the weird things happening to him to Merlin without her telling him he's crazy, but nothing came.

"Lance? Mind telling me now?"

"You'll tell me I'm insane."

"Again?" She replied jokingly and added, "It's fine though, I'm much more insane than you are."

Lance chuckled for a moment and then blushed at the advent that he would have to tell her his dream. He dreamed that he was traveling towards a certain palace he recalled calling 'Camelot'. And he saw a boy in its outskirts, and it had striking resemblance to Merlin. He even remembered watching the boy, about 40 meters away from him, as he nonchalantly picked up mushrooms with an odd sense of amusement. The dream ended there.

He sighed to himself. Who dreamed of his crush as a boy, anyway? He wondered how she would interpret the dream – she could be offended or simply deduce that he's in love with her and then think he's gay. At both possibilities, he suddenly got more anxious than ever.

"Hey." Merlin's call pulled him back and the next thing he knew there was a palm waving in front of his face at the rate of 30 waves per second. He flinched.

"I'm sorry, Merlin, but—"

"You can't tell…?" She continued, cutting him off. He nodded reluctantly earning himself a sigh from her. "Fine. But you owe me a whole box of cookies as payment for unsatisfied suspense."

He laughed both in amusement and relief. She's such a nice girl...

"I'll give you one-and-a-half."

MITCHELL RESIDENCE
Later that night

Sigh

Merlin was sitting on her bed, with pillows surrounding her, as she held out her phone to her ears. "You sound tired." She commented worriedly to the person on the other line. "I guess. They were rushing the shooting since we, apparently, were delayed by a whole episode."

"Are you alright? You should get some more rest."

"I will. Only a few more episodes and my workload will decrease dramatically."

"That's good to hear… Don't push yourself too much, okay?"

"Aw… you sound just like a wife already."

"Bradley." She stated sternly. How could he joke around when she's so serious?

"I'm not joking. We're soul mates, so yeah… we're practically married." He replied bluntly getting blood to rush up to her face. She kind of missed the Bradley when she first met him – shy. When he's flirting like this, she's the one being pushed to shyness.

"You're blushing aren't you?"

"Shut up." She muttered and he laughed heartily. She smiled at the wonderful sound of it, and she decided to talk about a topic she's been thinking about for a few days. "And what about the 'starting-over' proposition?"

"Well, you can always think of it as a friendly joke."

Touche. "Any new dreams, Bradley?"

"No… You?"

"None."

"I wonder what happened?"

"Yeah. I'm really itching to find out how the hell I fell for you. You must've used some kind of potion on me."

"Hey! I'm not the one who could do magic." He scoffed. He would not admit that he's the one who fell first.

"HA! No way I'm going to use that on you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's self-explanatory, don't you think so?"

He sneered. "Just wait. I'm going to make you fall head-over-heels for me." He stated as if he was just about to do so. She chuckled at this, as if it was the most ridiculous thing.

"Let's just see about that."

"Want to bet on how I made you fall for me?" He offered confidently to the point where you would think he knew something.

"Sure. I bet you either illegally used a love potion or brainwashed me." She grinned, certain he flinched in annoyance.

"I say you fall for my charming good looks and amazing fighting ability."

"You wish…" She muttered and then added, "What's in it for the winner?"

There was a little pondering silence on the other line. A minute later, he said:

"The loser has to follow one order from the winner."

"Okay… But nothing perverted, okay?" She joked, sure that he wasn't—

"…"

"HEY!" She exclaimed, aghast.

"I was kidding!" He yelled, laughing awkwardly making her flinch.

"Pervert." She muttered irritably a moment before she separated her phone from her ears.

"Mer—"

And so, she hung up on him.

…

Bradley James groaned loudly and hit his beautiful head onto the wall. What the hell was he thinking? Offering something like that? No it wasn't the offer. It was his unintelligible reaction to her condition. Did he really want that subconsciously? Maybe he did, it was normal right?

No, it's not. Not for Merlin.

He had a number of girlfriends before, but he never loved any of them. And he didn't think he'd ever feel for any other woman like he felt for Merlin. He did that to most of his girlfriends, but never before had the thought come to his mind when he thought of Merlin. He was satisfied with just being with her– especially now that they could only speak over the phone…

And now she hated him.

Darn it.

Then several minutes later: A text came.

'I don't hate you.'

And he grinned like an idiot.

CAMELOT

OUTSKIRTS
5TH C.A.D.

Merlin walked for about an hour to get there. It was rather unfortunate that the mushroom could only be found either on the outskirts of Camelot, or in the outskirts of the neighboring kingdom… so naturally, she was forced to feel thankful that it was just an hour of walk away from home.

She was carrying a huge basket that she was supposed to full with all those small mushrooms, and sighed. She was going to have a sore back after this.

And hence in order to make her job easier, she decided to hum. She was quite proud of her voice as her mother and Will always complemented her for it. Although she doubted her talent sometimes since they were the only ones who actually heard her sing since she sung with her female voice.

Her silent humming was interrupted by the sound of huge wings flapping.

It was a large who-knows-what. It was an odd and scary sight. It was a creature bigger than the largest horse she had even seen. It had wings, a body of a lion, and a… beak?

'What the– ' was the last thing she thought the moment it approached her. It was too quick that all she could do was step back. Step back again, ducked, and squealed.

She was scared. Her intuition was telling her that the monster was definitely trying to kill her, and no amount of taming would do. She couldn't die here obviously, Arthur was still a prat and it wasn't her destiny not to change that.

She had to think of something, and paused at an idea. Magic?

But sadly she did not know any magic that could hurt something so big.

She stepped back again to avoid its claws and then an instant later a man ran in front of her and skilfully waved the sword at the creature. He hit the bird. But it was the sword that broke.

"Run! Run! Run!" He shouted at her and firmly grabbed her arm. They sprinted to the nearest log and hid there. They didn't breathe until they heard the creature fly. She let herself get a few liters of air before thanking the stranger.

"You saved my life… Thank you."

"It wasn't a problem. It was good that you managed to hold out for that long, sorry I was late on moving."

"What?"

"I was only several meters away from you when it attacked. I was shocked for those few seconds, I suppose. Sorry."

Merlin chuckled. "Why are you apologizing? It's inappropriate. I'm Merlin, by the way." She said, and lifted her hand to gesture a handshake. He smiled and shook her hand.

"Lancelot." He uttered weakly… and then he fainted.

…

Merlin stared at her saviour's sleeping figure worriedly. Despite Gaius's competence, the man's fever simply wasn't going down. She sighed and took the warm cloth in his head and replaced the lukewarm fluid with an ice cold one. He flinched as soon as the cold fabric touched his forehead but relaxed eventually.

"Is he alright, Gaius?" She asked for the nth time that day.

"Yes. His fever will go down soon. Relax, child." He replied to the girl who just brought home a much heavier person with her from the outskirts of the city. He knew she used magic, but as to how she went unnoticed still bugged him.

"How'd you get him here?" He questioned his worried protégé.

"Magic, of course." She replied a matter-of-factly.

"I know that. But how'd you get no one to notice you?" He pressed. Merlin stared at him for a moment, thinking whether she should tell him or not.

"I… found a hidden passage under the palace." She mumbled. Gaius blinked at this but it was followed by a smile.

"I see… just how many have you found?"

"A… few…" She answered, looking away… sweating buckets.

"Ah…" He smirked. Merlin was such a bad liar.

"Don't push your luck though."

Merlin chuckled and stared at Lancelot.

Luck, Eh?

…

Lancelot woke up feeling fresh and on a soft couch. He thought he was dreaming, frankly, considering the last thing he remembered was falling unconscious due to all the pain… and shaking a feminine-looking boy's soft hands.

Wait… Maybe he's…dead?

His eye widened at the realization and he frantically looked around. He couldn't have died; his dream hadn't been fulfilled yet. It was dark, not like heaven. The room was full of books, and didn't really look neat overall. No one screaming for it to be hell, and also no one working their asses off working to be a purgatory.

He sighed in relief. He wasn't dead after all; the boy from the forest probably helped him in some way or another. He looked around again, but this time more carefully, for the boy. There was no one in sight.

He sighed and rested his head to the chair's armrest again to ponder. He remembered—or dreamed–-of the mushroom-collecting boy singing to him as he slept. He smiled at the remembrance of how nice his voice was as he heard him hum. It was a feminine voice, but he knew a lot of young boys like that. Sure, Merlin was way past puberty but he really didn't look too much into it.

He stared at the ceiling for a while, and soon enough he decided to stand up and rudely look around for him. The first place he decided to look into was a room a few steps above. He silently walked towards it and carefully turned the knob.

And there he was—sleeping so peacefully. He let out a breath of relief. The boy was alright, after all, and he was the one who brought him here.

But before Lancelot could turn around, Merlin shifted positions getting his blanket to fall down. Lancelot smiled and walked deeper into the room to cover the boy from the cold. Just when he picked the coverlet from the floor, he saw that the boy stir again.

"Mother…" He mumbled with a smile, getting Lancelot to give out a light chuckle at his adorableness. By the time Merlin stopped sleep-talking, he just finished covering her up properly.

"Good night, Merlin." He whispered softly, not having any idea why he felt like doing so.

"May I have a hug, Ma…?" Merlin stated seemingly half-asleep. Lancelot did not want to wake him up so he reluctantly decided to do what he wanted. It didn't sound so bad to him, anyways.

Then he realized how rude (and embarrassing) it would be, so he decided to shake the thoughts away. He stepped back only to be attacked by guilt when Merlin started sleep-talking again.

"Mother…" She said, but this time with more longing. 'He must miss her…' He thought sympathetically.

"Mother…" She called again getting him to automatically go closer. He let his knee rest on the bed and he leaned over. He gulped and let the boy wrap his arms around him. But thankfully, he wasn't very strong so that Merlin's arms and his shoulders were the only things that touched.

He stared at the boy, now that his face wasn't even 3 inches apart from his.

There was just something so feminine about him. He acted, talked, and reacted like a boy—but for some reason he felt otherwise. He flinched at the thought and gently pulled away from the slumbering figure under him.

"Night, Mum…" He muttered, Lancelot smiled fondly.

"Night, Merlin." He said and carefully stood up. But when he turned around he saw an old man holding a rather dangerous piece of wood.

"What are you doing?" Gaius asked in a demeaning tone of voice. Lancelot frowned at the misunderstanding.

"I didn't do anything with him, Sir." He replied sternly, but sadly the context didn't give the same message. Gaius was going to yell at him but saw Merlin move. He gestured for them to talk outside, but he never took his guard –or his wood—down.

"I was looking around… and I saw his room. His blanket was on the floor so I decided to put it back with her…"

"That fond 'look' in your eyes had nothing to do with it?" Gaius asked almost sarcastically, but noted how the man addressed Merlin. He did not know that she was a girl just yet. And Gaius preferred it that way.

Lancelot flinched at the statement, but he didn't really understand what he was trying to say. "He's my savior, sir. Anything I could do for him I will do."

Gaius saw the honour in the lad, that he wasn't planning anything bad to Merlin. And he did save Merlin once before… so he let his protective side slide down for a while and go back to sleep.

"Go back to sleep lad." He ordered, tense shoulders deflating a little. "Merlin would rather see you healthy again."

LONDON

MIDDLETON RESIDENCE
Present

Lancelot woke up having the weirdest delusion ever. His earlier vision was continued, and it was as if he was watching some sort of an unbelievably realistic dream. It still didn't explain why he suddenly realized he as in love with Merlin all those days ago getting him to act awkward around her.

He was attracted to her the first time they met but it was not yet so deep. Waking up one day with all the strong feelings for your best friend wasn't exactly a walk in the park. He had to fight hard with himself otherwise he'd do something to steal her away from her current boyfriend – whoever the lucky bastard was.

And if she didn't look so happy, maybe he really would have.

He sighed in exasperation and decided to try and interpret his dreams. He wasn't no Freudian psychologist but he tried nevertheless… maybe he was so desperate to have her that he dreamed of actually getting her. If that was so maybe he should go back to sleep—

But how could you dream of the love of your life as a boy who was emitting a huge amount of pheromones!

Pheromones.

His eyes widened.

'Was she cross-dressing?' He mused in surprise (either that or he's actually a gay), not that he understood what use that realization would have.

Not yet, anyway.

But whatever it was—a dream or anything else—He knew he would find out. Eventually.

.

.

END OF CHAPTER X

Coming soon:
CHAPTER X: Love Square
Another knight enters the ring and Gwen finds herself falling for someone.

REPLIES TO ANGELS

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