"So Aisyah, one month after meeting this guy, decides to move in with him," grumbled Gwen as she painted tiny flowers onto her toe nails. "And now, I have to find somewhere else to live. In this city."

"I've told you many times that you can move in here. God knows what Uther was thinking of when he left me this monster of a house. Who needs this many rooms?"

Lifting her eyes from her toe, Gwen smiled at Morgana. "It's wonderful of you to offer but we've lived together before. I still shudder at the memories."

Morgana threw a cushion at Gwen. "It wasn't that bad."

Gwen merely raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "We can be housemates or friends. We can't be both." Poking her foot at Morgana, Gwen wriggled her toes. "What do you think?"

Bright daylight. Check.

Well, sort of. Bright daylight was at a premium but the fact that it wasn't raining counted.

Crowded place. Check.

Albion and Swan was a busy little pub near the central business district, swarming with people in crisp, designer suits. She glanced down at the paint stained jeans she had on and grimaced.

Escape route. Planned to the nth degree, thanks to her paranoid brother. If he had his way, Elyan would be lurking around the corner, spying. In fact, Gwen quickly peered round the corner, just to be sure Elyan wasn't there.

Bring a friend. She would have but Morgana bailed out halfway, citing an emergency at work. Gwen was pretty sure the emergency took the shape of a sexy, IT executive with swishing hair called Gwaine.

Gwen checked her watch again. Five minutes more. Her attention drifted to the people gathered in the pub. High flying business people, she thought with a trace of disapproval. That her potential housemate wanted to meet here suggested he was one of them. She should have told Morgana no except that she was desperate.

"Gwen?"

Startled out of her thoughts, she turned to see a tall, lanky man with a wide grin on his face. He was dressed like everyone else in the pub, only his tie was askew and his hair looked as if between sleep and lunch, it hadn't seen a comb.

"Hi!" She stretched out an arm, "you must be Merlin."

His grip was firm and warm. "Yup. Great to meet you. Shall we go in?"

"We'd be lucky to find a place to sit."

"It shouldn't be a problem." He started to push open the door, and without thinking, she stopped him.

"If you don't mind, how about we grab a sandwich and sit in the park over there?"

She expected reluctance or begrudging acceptance. She did not expect his eyes to light up and his smile to get even wider.

"Stop it!" He laughed later, after they had finished their lunch, as he crouched on the bench.

"I cannot believe you're afraid of ducks! You're ten times their size." She tossed another bit of bread onto the ground, leading to another feeding frenzy.

"Seriously Gwen. This needs to be a clause in our housemate agreement - no ducks or anything with sharp beaks."

"Don't you think you're getting ahead of yourself? I haven't even seen your place."

He chuckled at that. "You'll love it."

Gwen did love it. It wasn't as large or fancy as Morgana's but it was well-maintained, cosy and Merlin had offered her the use of the spare room as a art studio. For the amount he was asking for, it was a fantastic deal.

"Told you that you'd love it." Smugness emanated from Merlin.

"You cheated by throwing in the spare room." Then she narrowed her eyes. "What happened to your previous housemate?"

"He was a pain, an arrogant clotpole and had no idea how to pick up after himself. And those are his better qualities."

"You threw him out?"

"You could say that. It helped that the house he was building was recently completed." Merlin shook his head as if thinking about his ex-housemate was as distressing as living with him. "So, are we good?"

"I think so. Just the paperwork."

"Good thing Morgana is a lawyer. She can deal with all that nonsense. I'll inform her about the duck clause."

"Great." She watched Merlin as he pottered about the kitchen, making her the cup of tea he offered. Despite his fancy clothes, he seemed really down to earth, slightly dorky and full of sunshine. The complete opposite of Morgana. "So, if you don't mind, how do you know Morgana?"

Merlin's face grew red. "Ah, well we met at a magic show. We were the two poor sods pulled out from the audience to be chopped into half."

"Oh my god," Gwen gasped. "You're the person she had this -"

" - incredibly short and hot affair with? Probably." His cheeks were practically glowing.

"Ugh," laughed Gwen. "I might know too much about you now."

"Hey!" He said as he placed the tea in front of her. "We shook on the housemate thing. There's no turning back now."