Written because arosesong on Instagram ships Merlin and Molly Hooper and got me on board with it.

Title: a song lyric from Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

Post season five of Merlin, probably sometime post Reichenbach and post Sherlock and John's reunion, but pre Arthur's return.

First two parts- First meetings. Second part- Molly already knows about the whole "Merlin came from Camelot a long time ago" thing.

Merlin was crossing the street when he fell in love again.

The moment he lay eyes on her, he knew. With her cute little lips and happy smile, her beautiful eyes and pretty hair, he wanted to hold her and make her his.

Of course, the fact that he was a wizened old man at the moment kind of hampered things, but that could be fixed.

Molly Hooper was at a party when she fell in love again.

It was some charity dancing event that she had only gone to because Sherlock was going. The consulting detective complained to her at Bart's that John was forcing Sherlock to accompany him, and Molly had decided to go since her only plan for that weekend was to take her cat to the vet.

She stood alone at the edge of the room in a pretty maroon dress and diamond earrings, sipping a small glass of fruit punch. She noticed a man coming toward her out of the corner of her eye, weaving through the crowd of slow dancers.

He had strangely tired, twinkling blue eyes, prominant ears and cheekbones, and dark black hair. He was tall, but probably not as tall as Sherlock, and he was wearing clothes slightly more formal than the rest of the people around him. His lips twitched up in a smile as he got closer to her, and Molly felt herself blush slightly. He was beautiful.

"Hi," he said cheerfully when he finally stood in front of her. He offered a hand for her to shake. "I'm Merlin."

"Like the bird?" Molly blurted at she shook his hand.

"Yeah," he replied with a grin, "like the bird."

Suddenly feeling like she'd said something foolish, Molly decided to quickly introduce herself. "I'm Molly Hooper," she murmured shyly as the music stopped and the DJ picked out another slow song.

"Nice to meet you, Molly Hooper," Merlin said, trying out her name. He seemed to like it, because he offered her his hand again and bowed slightly, peering up with a mysterious smile on his face. "May I have this dance, fair lady?"

"U-um," she stammered, "sure." She placed her drink on the table next to her while inwardly berating herself for not sounding very confident. Merlin tugged her out onto the dance floor quickly and put his hands on her waist. She took the cue to put her hands on his shoulders. Merlin was even more beautiful up close.

(Unbeknown to her, Merlin was thinking the same thing about Molly.)

"So, what brings you to this event if it's not a date?" Merlin asked curiously after a moment or two where they figured out how the dance worked and tuned themselves to it.

"Well, I didn't really have much to do this weekend, so I thought I'd come along." Molly said, hoping she didn't sound too much like a loser. Apparently Merlin didn't think she was, because he smiled at her.

"Same here. I've had to learn how to keep myself busy for a long time, so I go to random events and do all sorts of jobs." Merlin told her.

"What kinds of jobs do you do?" Molly asked.

"All sorts of things. I was a professor at a college for a while, and I tried being a car mechanic, though that career ended along with the Chevy I caused to explode." Merlin gave a wry sort of smile as Molly chuckled. "What do you do?" He asked.

"Oh, um," Molly paused, fishing desperately for something to say. What if he thought that working at the morgue was strange or weird and didn't want to dance with her anymore? She couldn't resist those blue eyes, though, so she gave up and just went with the truth. "I work in the morgue at Bart's."

"That sounds interesting," Merlin said, looking a little startled, but not at all disgusted. Encouraged by this, Molly started to tell him more.

"I do postmortems, and, um, every once and a while Sherlock will come to me and ask for a body to work with."

"Who's Sherlock?" Merlin asked blandly, though Molly thought she detected a faint hint of concern in his voice. Concern for what?

"He's over there in the- Oh my god, is he dancing with Dr. Watson?!" Molly gasped a faintly as her heart cracked a little. Sherlock was dancing with John with a hint of a smile on his face, and John was flushed with embarrassment, but it looked like it was all he could do to keep from grinning.

"Huh. I guess that's a surprise, then?" Merlin asked, and Molly turned back to him. His easy smile and inquisitive expression made her heart mend a little. She didn't need Sherlock when there was a perfectly polite, courteous man in front of her who was interesting and attractive. He also seemed more relaxed. Whatever had worried him moments before was gone now.

"No, not really. In fact, this guy from forensics came by one time, and while he was there, he mentioned that the division of NSY that Sherlock works with were betting on how long it would take for the two to get together. I just didn't know he was, you know, gay. I thought they were just making things up. But I think my subconscious mind knew, I guess." Molly murmured halfheartedly. Well, at least she could finally try getting over her crush. It was worse when Sherlock was single and there was still that .00009% chance the relationship she wanted could happen.

Merlin seemed to notice her glum mood. "Hey, erm, Molly-"

"Yes?" She looked up at him curiously. He was so tall!

"I was wondering..." He paused and bit his lip. She waited patiently for him to finish. He opened his mouth once more. "I was wondering if you'd like to have coffee."

Molly blinked in surprise. He was asking her out. Merlin, the handsome fellow who could probably have any girl in the room he wanted was asking her, Molly Hooper, out for coffee. She opened her mouth, shut it, and opened it again. Merlin looked crestfallen, thinking her silence meant a refusal, and she immediately sought to fix that.

"The Attendant? At two o'clock tomorrow?" Molly blurted.

Merlin perked up and beamed at her. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll be there."

"Arthur!"

Merlin bolted upright, panting, trying to figure out where he was. This wasn't his bedroom, and this wasn't this bed. Why was he on a couch? And what was with the cat mewling displeasedly up at him and pawing at his face?

"Merlin, are you all right?"

Merlin turned his head towards the doorway where the pretty voice came from. It was Molly, barefoot, with her hair down and wearing one of his bigger shirts.

Ah. That's where he was. Molly's house, on Molly's couch. This fuzzy thing on his lap was Molly's cat, Tobias.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm alright. Sorry for waking you." Merlin rubbed a hand on his face. Arthur was dying again, and there had been nothing he could do about it in the dream, just as he hadn't been able to do anything about it when it had actually happened.

"Do you want a cup of tea, love?" Molly asked gently, noticing his lie.

"No, I don't want to bother you. You can go back to bed."

"I'm not tired anyway," Molly said, moving toward her kitchen, and Tobias leapt off of Merlin's lap to follow her, mewling for food. "I'm making myself a cuppa, so it's no bother."

"Oh, alright," Merlin said with a faint twitch of the corner of his lip. Molly was such a sweetheart. It was one of the reasons why he loved her.

"What did you dream about?" Molly asked with an even tone as she made tea.

Merlin stiffened. "Arthur. He was dying again."

She paused, fed Tobias, and then continued making tea for the two of them. "I'm sorry. Was it his...real death, or a death you prevented in real life, but this time in the dream it didn't work?"

Merlin swallowed and put his head in his hands again. "Real."

He didn't know how long he sat there, he only knew that at some point he heard the clinking of the tea cups being set down on the coffee table and Molly ease herself next to him on the sofa. She leaned in next to him.

Merlin wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in close, resting his chin on her head as she wrapped her arms around his middle and snuggled in next to him. He ran his fingers through her hair, blinking away tears.

"It's been so long," he whispered, choking back a sob, his breath coming in short gasps.. "He was my best friend and my king and then he was dead and he hasn't come back and he won't come back and-"

"He'll be back," Molly said soothingly. "It may be a long time from now, or it may be tomorrow, but he'll be back. Freya said he'd be back, didn't she?" Molly nuzzled his chest and squeezed her arms a little.

Merlin took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," he began, but Molly interrupted him.

"It's okay to be upset. I'm here." She looked up from his chest and smiled sadly at him, and Merlin started to cry. "I'm here," she murmured over and over again. "It'll be okay. I'm here. I'm here."