Merlin flopped onto his bed, letting out a long sigh. His family had just moved to a small town in the middle of nowhere and he was not looking forward to starting a new life. In his old town, he had friends and a life, here, he had nothing. Suddenly, there was a soft tap on his window. Merlin groaned and pushed himself up, looking across the room to see a boy with sandy blond hair grinning at him through the window. Merlin, intrigued, stood up and opened the window.

"Hello!" The boy said happily, "My name's Arthur Pendragon, what's yours?"

"I'm Merlin, how did you get here?" He asked tiredly.

"I'm your neighbor, I came across the roofs!" he said, gesturing behind him at the two slanted rooftops that very-nearly touched.

The boy grinned stupidly at him, "The house you moved into has been empty for years! I'm so glad someone finally moved in!"

Merlin sighed quietly and invited him into his room, still stacked with boxes. "I haven't gotten to unpacking yet." He said dully.

Arthur cocked his head, looking at Merlin, studying his tired face. "Cheer up," he said, clapping his hand on the smaller boys shoulder. "You're going to love it here!"

"Yeah," Merlin said disinterestedly, "I'm sure I will." He sat down at the dusty desk in the corner of his room, drawing absentmindedly in the dust.

Arthur paused for a moment, looking at the moping boy. He was shorter than himself by a few inches and he had messy black hair. He wore a red t-shirt and he had a brown, worn, leather jacket on over that. In the dust, he was drawing what appeared to be a dragon. Merlin must have been used to drawing them, as he hadn't looked down at it once. Arthur quickly turned and raced back into his house.

"Great job Merlin," he murmured to himself, "you already managed to push away the first person you met." He pulled his hand away from the drawing and leaned back in the chair, thinking about his old home.

After a few minutes, Arthur leapt back through the open window, surprising Merlin.

"Huh," he said, "I thought I had scared you off."

Arthur shook his head, "I, uh, I brought you something." He said sheepishly, "Call it a welcome gift."

Merlin looked at the suddenly sheepish boy. Arthur bulled his hands out from behind his back and passed an unused sketch book over to Merlin.

"I saw you drawing," He said, pointing to the dust dragon, "I thought you could use some paper to draw on." Merlin looked at the cardboard covered sketchbook, there was a bow hastily tied with a ratty shoelace on the front. Arthur could see him visibly become more invested in what was going on after he passed it over.

"Thank you," Merlin said earnestly to Arthur. "Hey, when does school start around here?"

"Not for a long time, it just ended a few weeks ago. I f you want me to, I could show you around town tomorrow if that's convenient. I've got no plans tomorrow."

Merlin nodded eagerly, "That sounds like a great idea." He could tell that this was the beginning of a great friendship.