Merlin pushed her glasses from her nose to her forehead and sighed. The computer screen in front of her displayed the essay she had been working on the entire weekend. It was the first of many for the term, unfortunately for Merlin, but she enjoyed her modules and the subjects she was studying. History had always fascinated her in school but she found her stride in literature as well. Merlin was hoping to combine the two into a double focus sort of thing but it was only her first year and was testing the waters in both subjects. This meant lots of reading and paper writing in the mean time.

She glanced over the last paragraph of her essay and declared it complete. Saving the document, she snapped her laptop shut and stuffed it into her book bag. Merlin glanced at the watch on her slender wrist and pursed her lips at the time. It was a quarter to midnight. She had been at the library for over five hours editing. It was definitely time to call it a night. She wandered out of the stacks, down a few flight of stairs and exited the building through a cloud of smoke produced by a few students on their cigarette break. Merlin coughed in protest.

It was a chilly night in England but the stars were as bright as ever. Merlin absent-mindedly stared at the sky above her as she walked, paying little mind that she might be wandering in a less than straight path on the pavement. Before she knew it, she ran smack right into somebody's chest. There was a loud oof emitted from each party and Merlin stumbled backwards.

"God, I am so sorry," She quickly apologised and then took in a sharp breath once she realised who she had crashed into. "Prince Arthur, Ooooh I am so very sorry."

The prince let out a small chuckle. "It's no matter. I don't blame you for star-gazing. They're quite nice tonight."

"Hmmm indeed," Merlin said quietly, trying not to stare at the prince. She knew he was attending her university but had never gotten close enough to see him in person. In the dull glow of the street lamps on the campus he looked quite handsome. He was also very tall, muscular looking and had wonderfully blond hair. Merlin was pleased to see that the photos in papers and magazines didn't lie.

"I-do I know you from somewhere?" Arthur said after a beat of silence.

"Oh yes, don't tell, but I'm actually Superman," Merlin said, leaning towards Arthur. "The glasses are a clever disguise. But good on you, nothing get's past his majesty." Merlin winked and grinned. A little voice in the back of her drowsy head told her that poking fun at royalty probably wasn't the best line of conversation but Arthur was smiling with her.

"That's funny. I didn't know Superman used a female disguise," Arthur replied, his eyes quickly examined Merlin's face, narrowed then darted away. "It was a pleasure bumping into you, Superman, but I should be off as it is quite late."

"You as well, your majesty," Merlin bowed her head a bit and hitched the strap of her book bag further up her shoulder. Prince Arthur cut around her after smiling again and she watched him walk away, his figure darkening into the distance.

Merlin was too tired to rummage for her room keys so she held out her hand over the door handle, muttered an incantation. Her fingers tingled as her magic surged through her to the command of her incantation. If anyone had looked at her eyes, they would have noticed them flash from blue to gold momentarily: an unfortunate give-away for sorcery. She heard the lock tick and she opened her door. Before she was able to step through the threshold, the door across the hall opened and her friend Gwen poked her head out.

"Lin! I've been texting you all night," Gwen hissed. "Where have you been?"

"Library," Merlin muttered. "Hang on; have you been waiting by your door until I returned?"

"Not the point," Gwen said opening her door to enter the hall. She was in her pyjamas with her brown, tightly curled hair pulled back into a neat bun. "I have to talk to you."

"Can it wait until morning?" Merlin sighed.

"Not really," Gwen rolled her eyes. "I'm having a major crisis."

Merlin raised an eyebrow and gave in. "What with?"

Gwen waved for Merlin to follow her into her room. Gwen's room was warmly lit by a few candles and her desk lamp. She pointed to her desk, specifically her printer which was flashing red on its display and a half mangled paper in the feed.

"You seem to be good at fixing things." Gwen said with a sigh. "What luck, of course, my printer would jam the night before this bloody essay was due."

Merlin dropped her book bag beside her and bent down to examine the printer. She took hold of the paper that was jammed and gave it a good tug. It ripped out, leaving half of it still jammed in the machine.

"Why don't you call someone with tech experience?" Merlin stood up and faced her friend.

"The guy on duty at the library is the weird one who smells like fish," Gwen scrunched her face. "And he always flirts with me."

"You could have used your feminine whiles to get him to fix it," Merlin pointed out.

"Yeah, but then I would have to lug it to the library," Gwen protested. "And can't you, you know...magic it to work." She said the last part in a hushed voice. Gwen was the only on at the university who knew about Merlin's big magical secret. Merlin had accidentally ousted herself during the first week of classes. The two had become fast friends over freshers week and on the day of the incident they were enjoying tea in Gwen's room. Gwen accidentally hit a glass of hot water off her desk and instinctively Merlin stopped it from happening. This resulted in the glass and water being suspended in midair. Merlin, of course, panicked and the glass and water reanimated, crashing to the floor. Gwen reacted totally opposite from what she had anticipated. Instead of running off, she let out an ooooh and began asking about what she had witnessed with amazement.

"I live next to a real life sorceress" Gwen had said with glee. "That is so wicked."

"Wicked, sure, but hard to keep a secret sometimes," Merlin replied ruefully. In the end, Merlin was happy she had someone she could practice magic around.

"I'm not going to magic away all of your problems," Merlin crumpled up the half of the paper she had ripped from the printer. Gwen stuck out her bottom lip in protest.

"Please," Gwen pleaded.

"Fine," Merlin said. "But this won't happen often."

"Thank you, Lin," Gwen smiled. Merlin lifted her left hand over the printer and sent a surge of magic from her hand to the broken machine. It bumped and sputtered, eventually spitting out the chunk of paper stuck in it and the display shown green again.

"All better," Merlin grinned at her friend. Gwen happily hugged her and thanked her again for her services. Merlin wished Gwen a good night and shuffled into her own room and promptly fell into bed out of utter exhaustion.