Reunited (Merlin)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Warning/s: None that I can think of.

Disclaimer: Well, I obviously own Merlin, considering that Freylin is my OTP so OBVIOUSLY I KILLED HER OFF WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT

A/N: Wow. Two updates in two days! (It won't always be like this.) I have mock exams starting tomorrow and since I was revising all day today, I figured I could take a break and this is what form it came in.

It wasn't even light in his room, but as soon as he opened his eyes a crack, the hammering in his head intensified and a new pain stabbed him directly behind the eyes. He groaned and rolled over in bed, the cover getting caught around his waist and revealing his chest to the cool night air, let in through his open window.

Merlin frowned. His window was open. He never opened his window. He untangled the covers from his body and sat up properly, rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hand.

"Gaius?" he wondered out loud, with his eyes still fixed on the small window above his table.

"Not Gaius," a voice from behind him offered. Merlin started and attempted to roll over simultaneously, and as a result tumbled out of bed, losing his duvet in the process.

His eyes hurriedly adjusting to the darkness, Merlin stood up and squinted at the figure slouched calmly in his chair, one leg crossed over the other. Her shins were bare – at least, Merlin was presuming it was a 'her' due to the shape of her legs – and she was wearing a bedraggled red dress that just about grazed mid-thigh.

In the dim light and his poorly-adapted eyesight, she looked familiar but still too difficult to fully make out. She spoke again, "Don't you recognise my voice?"

Oh. Of course.

Merlin fainted.

LINE BREAK

"Merlin? Merlin!" someone was calling. He could feel soft hands on his face, stroking his cheeks, caressing him softly. With a great effort, he climbed out of the void in his mind, clawing himself back to reality, and peeled his eyes open – to see Freya.

She smiled, a sweet smile, a smile he had not once forgotten and had missed every day since he saw it for the first time so many years ago, and said, "Hello again," choking on tears that were forming in her eyes.

"Don't cry," Merlin said gently yet absent-mindedly – after all, his dead girlfriend had just appeared in front of him in the middle of the night...and he was naked.

He quickly glanced down and was relieved to see that either gravity or Freya had placed his blanket over his waist, and decided not to ask to save his dignity. Freya had lain down next to Merlin on the floor – where presumably he had fai-collapsed, he told himself firmly, he had collapsed- and was crying onto his shoulder.

Merlin shushed her, stroking her back, as he tried to sort out the situation in his head. "Freya," he said quietly, so he didn't alert Gaius to anything going on (him lying naked on the floor with a scantily-clad woman crying next to him probably didn't make a good first impression – or a faintly rational one), "we need to talk – can you sit up?"

Freya gave a shaky nod and allowed herself to be helped into a sitting position. Merlin massaged her back as she took gulping breaths and murmured pacifying comforts until she had regained control of herself.

Merlin guided her onto the bed, and crouched next to her, carefully brushing the tears from her face. "Sorry," she laughed a little, "just overwhelmed, I guess."

"It's okay," Merlin said gently, straightening. "I'm just going to get some clothes on," he informed her, slipping over to his small wardrobe with the cover clutched firmly around his hips. He pulled his usual nightclothes on and settled himself next to Freya on the bed, tossing the duvet over them both.

"Shall I start from the beginning?" Freya asked, sliding her arms around Merlin's waist.

A/N: I have to go revise now. Such fun.