I haven't updated in a long time. I suck, I know. And I left you all on a really, really sappy fluff chapter. I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry.

I want to make a shout-out to Pwnie3 for catching the Clara Oswald reference! She'll be in this chapter again, but I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm bringing her back after that, yet. I'll do stuff like that now and then, though. This isn't a crossover story, but I might make allusions to characters from other BBC shows in the future.

11/19/13 UNEDITED

AN: I don't own any of this stuff from anything I may mention. I'm just a fan.

1 Month

About a month after Morgana's concert, I was sitting at the dinner table, leaning back in my chair with my eyes closed and my feet up where I knew my green-eyes, raven-haired flatmate would not want them. I was trying to see if I could cook dinner from the other room without looking, and I had a feeling it wasn't going to end well. I did it anyway, though, because I was bored. That was when Arthur dropped a stack of some 15 books on in front of me. I almost fell backward out of my chair. My eyes flew open.

"Go ahead, break the table, why don't you?" I drawled sarcastically. My king was standing over me, glaring like he used to when I would miss a spot of dirt on his armor. He wasn't due back from the library until after Morgana got home from school. He was supposed to be catching up on his history, for lack of a better word for the events that took place between his lifetimes. Past and future were confusing terms when it came to my perplexing flatmates.

"Merlin. Why didn't you tell me about this?" he snapped.

"Tell you about what?" I asked, confused, and examined the book at the top of the stack. I froze. No further clarification was necessary.

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Arthur put his hand over the title, forcing me to look up at him. He raised his brow in a demanding, wordless question.

"You should put those away." I ignored his glare. "Morgana hates seeing them." If she was in any of those tales, she was always written as the antagonist, the villain, the baddie. It invalidated her plight and demonized her cause. Understandably, she hated it. We both did.

Ignoring me now, Arthur poked my forehead accusatorily. "You're famous." He stated.

"So are you!"

"Of course I am. I'm King Arthur. I've always been famous, and I always will be. You're in these books, too, though. Everyone is. How? Why?"

I sighed. "Look, after you died, I started to go downhill. A few years before Gwen, you know… died," I eyed him carefully. His wife, my best friend, was a sensitive subject for him. He seemed stable, so I continued. "I was drinking in this tavern. A scribe recognized me. He'd grown up with the druids, so he knew all the stories. He knew all about Camlan. I was low and drunk, I got loose lipped, and I told him your story. He wrote it all down, and everyone wanted to read it, hear about it. The stories rode to fame on your legacy. Obviously the details got changed over the years, and new, fake stories were written. I don't even recognize them any more, and I lived them. The Legends of King Arthur are famous now, but that's all they are these days. Legends."

He pursed his lips, then opened his mouth to say something, but that's when we heard the key in the door. Panicked, I ripped Arthur's jacket out of his hands and threw it over the books. My eyes flashed over to the door and I muttered a spell under my breath that would make the lock stick.

The door shook, and Morgana knocked. "Merlin? Are you in there? The door's stuck."

I picked up the books and shoved them into the king's arms. "Your room." I hissed. "Now."

He hurried off to his room as I said. There was no denying that it was his room, now. I'd officially moved out of it a week before. My few possessions were now in Morgana's room in a box. She and I shared her bed still, and there was an unspoken rule around the flat that we didn't question whether that was weird or not.

When Arthur and the dreaded books of legend were out of the room, I hurried to get the door. Whispering another spell, I fixed the lock and pulled it open. She was standing there before me, confused. "Sorry about that. I'll have a look at the lock later tonight." I pulled her into a hug and kicked the door shut."

She smiled that brilliant smile that I loved so much when I released her. "It smells good in here. What's for dinner."

I frowned. "Erm, I'm not quite sure." I took her hand and led her into the kitchen. "I was trying to make Shepard's Pie, but…" I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall as we examined the damage. Mashed potatoes were smeared on the counter around the dish that was supposed to hold the meal. The sliced carrots were in the sink and I had somehow managed to embed the peas in the wall.

"Magic?" she asked.

"Magic." I confirmed.

She sighed with a smirk. "Right. Again. You clean up, I'll make pasta."

I smiled. "Deal."

As we finished up our work, Arthur poked his head in.

"You've been quiet." Morgana noted. "Have you been here this whole time?"

"Er, yes." Arthur nodded. "I was in my room. Reading."

"Reading?" she laughed. "That's out of character. Reading what?"

I could see the fear in his eyes. He'd taken me seriously when I'd said she'd set him on fire. Thankfully, his clot-pole nature came to his aid. "My word, Morgana, that was rude. You know what? I don't think I'm going to tell you." Making a face, he snatched the television remote off the counter and retreated to the sofa. I imagined him a tail between his legs as he walked away, like a dog that didn't want to be kicked. Within seconds, the Downton Abbey theme song was playing in the other room. He had become quite attached to Maggie Smith's character. There was no end to the fun Morgana and I had mocking him for it in the late hours of the night while we laid in bed.

The next day was a Saturday, and I was up at the crack of dawn. I woke Arthur, dressed and fed him, handed him a small wad of cash, and promptly kicked him out the door to return his library books. I'd bargained with him to stay out all day. I'd spent the last month training him to act and look like a normal citizen of the 21st century, and I finally believed he was ready for a day in the city on his own. Besides, I needed him out of my hair today. It was Morgana's birthday, and an Arthur-free day was a gift to her in itself.

I whipped up her favorite breakfast — Nutella-covered chocolate-chip pancakes, yogurt parfait, and coffee — and brought it to bed on a tray. Breakfast in bed may have been more than a bit cliche, but she loved things like that.

My Saving Grace was still asleep, so I set the tray down on the beside table and sat next to her. I reached out and ran my hand through her hair, gently stroking her back as I did so. Even sleeping in sweats without her hair or makeup done, she was still the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Her eyes slowly fluttered open and found mine. Ethereal green, still striking me to the ground every time I saw them.

"Merlin?" she muttered, her voice thick and raspy from sleeping. "What time is it?"

"Half-past eight."

She sat and leaned back against the headboard. Her eyes moved around the room slowly as she returned to the world of the living. Eventually, they landed on the tray beside her, and she beamed. "Is it my birthday already?"

I grinned and handed her the tray. "Happy birthday, Morgana." I rolled over to my side of the bed and settled next to her. Then I pulled out my phone — a Christmas gift from Morgana — and scrolled through my texts. "I planned out your whole day. Clara will be here to pick you up at noon, at which point you will spend the better part of the day shopping with your friends. You'll be needing this for that." I pulled a roll of cash — my tips from the last two weeks — out of my pocket and placed it on her tray. Her eyes widened, and I smirked. She grew up under the care of a king and I still somehow managed to make her feel spoiled. It must be the second childhood spent without parents that made it possible. I would never stop trying to make up for not have found her when she was little. The thought that she was suffering in a world that I also existed in and I didn't do anything to help was just as painful as 1000 years without her in the world. "When you lot are done with that, you'll head over to the bar where I will be ready and anxious to wait on you and your three best friends, hand and foot." Normally, I would spend all day with her, no matter what she and Clara wanted to do, but Ben was out of town that night and I had to cover his shift. This was how I was making up to her. "After I get off work, you and I will go to the London Eye, since we've never been, and then we'll come back home and watch movies until we fall asleep. How does that sound?"

I looked down at the girl I loved and she was smiling back at me with that smile I knew she saved just for me and Aithusa. It was the one that said everything that I had only just figured out how to say. She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek before resting her head on my shoulder.

"It sounds perfect Merlin."

That afternoon, I was serving a band of regulars when the girls showed up. Leaning against the bar, I just had to smile. The four of them were laughing as they removed their coats. The place was fairly quiet, but warm, and the whole scene felt just like it had that night, the first night of my new life, when Morgana had finally found me. The only difference was that they were laden with shopping bags.

My favorite sorceress glanced over my way and I smiled, waving. They set down their haul and took their seats at the bar, and I began putting together the same drinks that they always ordered. I placed the drinks on the counter and took a seat beside the birthday girl. "So, how was shopping?"

"We had fun." Morgana smiled. I could tell she was having a good day.

Clara butted in with, "And she just can't wait to try it on for you! Right, Morgan?" She turned her head to Morgana and winked. "All of it."

Morgana's cheeks went beet-red and she kicked a shopping bag behind her. My face flushed, too, when I saw out of the corner of my eye that it was a Victoria's Secret bag. I coughed and turned away from Clara. I met Morgana's eyes in the mirror, like I had that first night, and she mouthed 'Sorry' with an apologetic shrug. I smiled back to let her know it was no big deal.

"Merlin…"

I froze. Someone had whispered my name. My eyes flashed around. "Did you hear that?" I asked Morgana.

She took a sip of her drink. "Hear what?"

"Merlin…"

I stood up and looked around. "That!"

Morgana narrowed her brow and smiled nervously. "Emrys, I don't hear anything." Confused, I spun around, and then suddenly she grabbed my arm. "Merlin." I turned back to her. Her eyes were wide, startled.

"What's that, now?" Clara asked.

I ignored her. "Did you hear it?" I asked Morgana.

"She talked to me."

"Who?"

She simply held my gaze, and I understood.

"We have to leave." I told the girls. I waved to Alec, our newest employee. "I have to go. Can you handle things on your own?" He nodded, and I grabbed my coat. Ben wouldn't be happy that I was leaving Alec in charge, but he'd let it go if I let Morgana explain. He was a bit too fond of her for my liking, but she didn't mind, and it was terribly useful at times, so I let it slide. Scooping up Morgana's shopping bags, I handed led her to her car.

"Merlin…"

After what felt like 200 years, we were in the countryside, waiting. Then we saw her. A brilliant white form, reflecting the light from the moon, rivaling it in brilliance, appeared over the trees and landed. The ground shook under her enormous weight.

Aithusa opened her enormous jaws and, for the first time in her life, spoke. "He has returned. He has told me, 'The Warlock must find her.'"

Beside me, Morgana wept with joy.

"Merlin…"