Chapter Text
Merlin looked down at the paper in his hands then up at the doorways he was walking by—404, 405, 406, 407 . . . ah 408. He let go of the handle of his rolling duffle to open the door.
He was taken aback at the sight that met his eyes. One half of the room had no décor, while the other was decorated in shades of deep green and black. A person- a girl, judging by the long wavy hair and hoop earrings -sat on the other bed, facing away from him. She wore headphones and was jamming to whatever music she was listening to.
He walked into the room and dropped his suitcase and duffel. The girl jumped and turned around, her eyes widening. She yanked he headphones off and said, “Hi, can I help you?”
Merlin stared for a moment, thinking hard. This building was Albion U’s first experiment with co-ed dorms. But as far as he knew, roommates were still supposed to be of the same gender. And this girl was definitely not male. Ergo, something is wrong here. “Hello, I’m Merlin. This is my room?”
“I’m Morgana. And this can’t be your room—it’s mine.” She got up and walked closer to him.
Damn, she’s gorgeous. Nearly-black hair, ethereal jade eyes and pale skin . . . wow. “That’s what it says on this paper here . . .”
“Let me see that.” He handed his room assignment paper over. She perused it with interest before saying, “Looks like you’re right. But how can we be roommates?” She marched over to the desk on her side of the room and picked up a piece of paper from it. After she picked it up, she came back to Merlin. “Here, look.”
She handed him her paper and he looked it over. Sure enough, she’d been assigned to this room. He scratched his head, pondering his next words. “So what do we do now? Obviously we can’t both stay here.”
“It says here . . .” she pointed near the bottom of the paper, “’for questions or concerns, see your Resident Assistant.’ Ha! The RA of this building happens to be my older brother, Arthur.”
“Okay, I guess we go see your brother then. Can I just leave my stuff here?”
“Sure. It’s got no place else to go, right?” She smiled at him.
Whoa. Her smile nearly knocked him out, but he chuckled and replied. “Right. Got what you need?”
She grabbed a purse off the desk. “I do now. Let’s go.”
They left the room and Morgana locked the door behind them. Neither said much as they walked back down to the first floor and found the RA’s room. She knocked on the door and yelled through it, “Open the door you great prat!”
She kept knocking obnoxiously until the door flew open and a blonde guy about Merlin’s height stood there glaring at Morgana. “Shut up, sis, what do you want?”
“Well, Arthur, since you asked so nicely, this is my roommate, Merlin.”
“Roommate?”
“Ah, yes?” Merlin replied.
“That’s impossible,” Arthur declared.
“Not so, brother mine. Take a look.” She handed both of their papers over to Arthur.
He took them and stepped back from the door. “Come in.” He gestured to the loveseat he had in lieu of another bed; Morgana and Merlin sat there. Arthur sat at his desk and laid the papers next to each other. He glanced between them for several moments before turning to look at them. “Well, someone screwed up colossally, but I can’t do anything about it here. You’ll have to go to the housing office to straighten this out.”
Morgana groaned. “Are you kidding me? Do you know how busy they’ll be on a day like today?”
Arthur got up to hand the papers back to his sister. “I know, but there’s no way both of you can sleep in the same room. This has to be fixed today.”
“Right,” Merlin agreed.
Morgana’s head turned and her eyes narrowed at him. “What’s the matter? Am I not good enough for you?”
Merlin knew he’d really stepped in it now. “No—I mean, yes. You’re good. Great even. Gorgeous and definitely my type, but the rules . . .”
“Oi, mate, you’ve done it now,” Arthur interjected.
“Your type, hmm? You’re not so bad yourself.” She eyed him with interest before turning back to her brother. “Arthur, are you sure we can’t sleep in the same room?”
“Not as roommates, no. But if you hook up some other time, that’s none of my business.”
“Okay then.” She stood and turned to Merlin. “Come on, roomie, let’s go straighten out our housing situation.” She reached out a hand and pulled him up.
“Thanks,” he said with some surprise at her strength.
They both thanked Arthur and left his room. Fortunately the housing office wasn’t far. Unfortunately, it was a zoo. Parents and students milled around the place, talking to each other, on their phones or to the personnel at the desk. Fortunately they had a “take a number” system, so Merlin pulled one and they found seats close by each other.
Conversation was difficult, but they managed. They shared their chosen courses of study and family information. And they still had enough to time to share various likes and dislikes before they finally got to talk to a person at the desk.
It turned out that whoever had gotten Morgana’s application had inputted her into the system as “Morgan.” She, Merlin and Arthur had missed that on her paper. The system defaulted to “male” for her gender, so she was put with Merlin. They both rolled their eyes at this but accepted the profuse apologies. Interestingly enough, the system had also mistaken a male “Taylor” as a female so there were now places for both misclassified people to go.
Their helper worked the system so Morgana was the proper gender and assigned to the other room. The male Taylor was assigned to Merlin’s room and all four disgruntled freshman walked away happier than they’d entered.
Merlin and Morgana headed back to Merlin’s room, where he offered to help repack her things. She accepted gratefully. They chatted a bit more as they worked and it didn’t take long before they were both standing near the door with Morgana’s things on the floor around them.
“Well, thanks,” she said. Then her hand darted out to the mobile he’d placed on the desk. Before he could say “hey,” she’d started dialing a number. The other mobile on the desk rang and she snatched it up to end the call. “Aaaand I’ve got your number.”
He tried to snatch his phone from her, but she dodged him while typing something on it. When she finally tossed it back he noticed she’d entered her info into a new contact form. He just smiled and shook his head. “Well thank you,” he replied.
And with that, he picked up a box and a bag to help her down two floors to her new room. After they’d put her things down and met her new roommate, Gwen, she walked him to the door. “Don’t be a stranger,” she said, then impulsively kissed him on the cheek before closing the door.
Merlin stayed rooted to the spot for a minute or so, surprised at her audacity. And her brilliance. “I won’t,” he told the door before turning around and walking back to his room.