Part 8: link

    Gwen gets to her door and steels herself for the third degree. She opens the door to find Morgana perched on the sofa like a queen. She looks Gwen square in the eye and says, “Slut.”
    Gwen blushes, laughing at her friend’s teasing. “Oh, it’s much worse than that,” she says and flops down on the chair, head leaning back.
    Morgana’s eyes widen and she says, “Oh. My. God. You’re in pag-ibig with him!”
    Gwen rolls her head to the side to look at Morgana, saying, “Is it that obvious?”
    “Well, let’s see. You’ve spent the last…” she counts on her fingers, “eighteen hours together, including spending the entire night at his house and return in a blissful stupor wearing his shirt. Was he that good?”
    “It’s madami than that. Yes, the sex was good. Great. Fantastic. Best I’ve ever had. But there’s so much more to it. I can’t explain it. It’s all so fast; both our heads are just spinning trying to figure it out. You know me. You know I don’t do things like this.”
    “True. But you did. Twice.”
    “And kind of another time in the shower.”
    “Gwen!”
    “I know. He says he never goes this fast either.”
    “They all say that.”
    “He wasn’t just saying that.”
    “How do you know?”
    “I told you. I can’t explain it. I just do.”
    “So?”
    “He has to work until Tuesday noon. I’ll see him again then.”
    “It’s probably good that you’ll get a little break from each other.”
    “I don’t know, maybe,” she doesn’t look convinced, though. “We totally understand each other, Morgana. You should have seen us at his apartment. It was like we had been together forever, married for 50 years.”
    “Except for the sex.”
    “Except for the sex,” she repeats, agreeing. “It’s like I’ve been looking for him my whole life. Only I didn’t know it until I found him. I never realized that there was a piece of me that was missing until I saw him.”
    “Just be careful, Gwen. I don’t want to see you hurt again,” Morgana says, face now serious.
    “I know. But I truly never felt this way about Lance.”
    “I know. I can see that. Really, I can.”
    “Morgana?”
    “Yes, love?”
    “Thanks for the toothbrush.”
    “It’s still at his flat, isn’t it?”
    Gwen grins and stands up, walking back to her bedroom. She pops back out quickly and tells her, “Merlin asked for your number,” before scurrying back to her room to change out of her palda and into some shorts. She leaves the sando on.

    Arthur enters the firehouse at eleven fifty, greets the men on their way out and the few that are there for the susunod shift already. He takes his bag up to the bunkroom and drops it susunod to his bed. Then he flops down on it, throwing his arm over his eyes. He sighs and lies there for several minutes, thinking of his Guinevere. My Guinevere, he thinks, realizing he is already placing her in his mind as his own.
    A minuto later, Merlin walks in, puts his things down and sits on the bunk susunod to Arthur. “Did you get any sleep last night?”
    “Oh, we slept all right,” Arthur says, not lifting his arm.
    “We? She stayed all night?”
    Arthur removes his arm from his face and turns to grin at Merlin. He looks like the cat that got the canary. “Just dropped her off on my way here.”
    Merlin stares, mouth open. “Who are you?”
    Arthur sits up and faces him, laughing. “I know! I never do things like this. She's just... different. Magical. I don’t know, something. She says she's not this way either. We've both Nawawala our minds.”
    “Well, of course she'd say that,” Merlin says.
    “No. She's not just saying it. I'm sure of that.”
    “How?”
    “I... don't know. It's like... we're somehow connected. Like we always have been and it just... took us a while to find each other,” he says, haltingly, trying to find a way to verbalize his feelings in a way that his friend can understand. “I don't think I was complete until I met her, you know?” He is looking at his hands, picking at his fingernails.
    “No. But I'm trying. You know what you sound like, don't you?”
    “A crazy person?”
    “No, you sound like you're in pag-ibig with this woman.”
    Arthur looks up at Merlin, his face serious. “I am.”
    “Does she feel the same way?”
    “Yes.”
    “You didn't...”
    “I did. So did she.” He sighs. “It's all just so weird, but in a really, really good way.”
    “When you ladies are finished making out, lunch is on,” a voice calls from the doorway.
    “Thanks, Wayne.” Arthur calls back, then turns to Merlin. “I’m starving.”
    “I'll bet you are,” Merlin laughs.

Part 10: link