Room 232, Saturday Afternoon

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Tony, wearing his dryer-fresh, newly-returned clothing, was lounging in bed on his stomach and browsing through spells on his laptop. After Thursday's Thaumaturgy class, he figured it'd be a good idea to learn some kind of shielding/bullet-proof spell. If such a thing existed.

The door was open.

[For one two! Conversation NFB.]

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[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Knocking on the door despite it being open, Merlin poked his head on into the room. This wasn't Arthur's room, after all. He didn't just barge on it. "Hello!"

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"Hey!" Tony waved. "You can come in. How's it going?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Much better now that people are back to being clothed," Merlin said with a grin. He walked on in, peering a bit at the box...thing Tony was looking over.

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Tony had the laptop open to the spell "Storms, Calming." What? It was like Wikipedia where you start browsing movie listing and end up reading about tea kettles.

"Clothing," Tony nodded. "It's very nice to have. I hope this means it won't be disappearing off people anymore. That was chilly."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"I hadn't had it happen to me, thankfully," Merlin said, reading it idly now. "Is this like that Wii?"

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"The laptop? Sorta," Tony said. "They're both a kind of computer, but laptops are more multi-purpose and Wiis are just for fun."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin frowned vaguely. "What purpose would this one have?" He asked, pointed to title of the page. "A game?"

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"No, it's-" Tony paused, remembering that the laptop had a glamour on it for non-wizards. "What does it look like to you?" he asked curiously.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"'Storms, calming'," Merlin parroted.

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Tony looked at Merlin. Then he looked at the screen in the peculiar sideways way that helped him see magic. The glamour - which showed a game of spider solitaire - was still in place. "Huh," he said. "So, not a bunch of playing cards."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Should there be playing cards on it?" Merlin asked slowly.

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"This computer's got all my magic instruction on it," Tony said. "The wizard who put that together also put a spell on it. It's a glamour to make it look like I'm playing a card game. Only wizards can see through it." He looked at Merlin and raised his eyebrows.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin got a look about him like a cornered cat. "It could just be a fluke."

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"It's okay if you are," Tony said gently. "It's allowed here."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"It doesn't matter what's allowed here," Merlin said, voice going loud without his permission there. He looked over at the open door, making sure no one was there. "Arthur can't know."

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"I won't tell him," Tony said. "Or anyone. I promise. Do you really think he'd turn you in?" He slipped off the bed and went over to close the door. Just in case.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"I trust Arthur with my life," Merlin said, low but no less vehement than before. "He's a good man, his father--"

Isn't.

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Tony nodded. He knew a bit about intolerant fathers. "Do you want to look at this? As long as you're here?" With a few gestures on the touchpad and clicks of the mouse button, he pulled up the "Come To Me" spell. "This is the spell I use to call things to my hand."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin looked away for a moment. He could already here Gaius lecturing him about being careless with his magic where anyone could find out.

He took a deep breath and, eyes flashing gold, there was a book floating in front of him. "I-- didn't need a spell to do this. I've always been able to."

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"Wow!" Tony said, impressed. "That's awesome! How do you do it? What else can you do?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"I--" Merlin slouched slightly at that. "--don't actually know. I have a book, but all the spells I've learned have been to protect Arthur."

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"You have a book? Here?" Tony had never seen a book of magic other than his laptop. "Does he need a lot of protecting?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin laughed, more out of exasperation than anything else. "You have no idea."

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"But how do you protect him without him knowing about your magic?" Tony asked.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Without letting him know he's being helped usually," Merlin said with a sigh.

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"So he doesn't even appreciate it? That sucks," Tony said.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"It's for the best."

Really.

"And I can't take his comments about me being a piss-poor servant seriously."

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"That's good, I guess," Tony said. They were interrupted by a knock on the door.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

After her workout and chat with Liir, Dinah went back to her room (clothes! beautiful clothes!) and reorganized her closet for a while. And feeling silly for hiding from the world, decided to go talk to someone she *hadn't* been embarrassed in front of, and pay him back for last week's doughnuts.

*knock knock knock*

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Tony closed the laptop and put the book Merlin had floated aside before he opened the door.

"Hey, Dinah!" he smiled. "How's it going?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin waved a touch awkwardly at her. "Hullo, Dinah."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah sighed, because this was just the way her luck went. "Hey, Merlin."

She smiled a little ruefully at Tony. "Um. Awkward. It's going awkward. I can leave." She didn't look at Merlin. "Come back later."

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Tony looked at Dinah, then Merlin, then Dinah again. "Did you guys have a fight I don't know about?" he asked.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"I didn't think it was a fight," Merlin said, giving her a slightly confused look. It had been more than a little awkward, but...

You just kept on, right?

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah put her hands to her face, then shook her head, hard. "Sorry. No, no fight Tony. I just kind of accidentally exposed my underwear to Arthur yesterday. And Priestly. And Merlin caught the tail end of the awkward after I was wearing Arthur's shirt for coverage and did I apologize for being all panicky and snippy to you yet?" she asked, finally taking her hands off her face to look at Merlin.

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Tony tried to repress a snicker. He mostly succeeded.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"She was wearing his shirt," Merlin told Tony helpfully. Well, he thought it was, but that was so far from being the case.

"You don't have anything to apologize for," He said, still avoiding Dinah's eye. He'd seen her underclothing. It was going to be a while before he could look her in the eye again. "Arthur assured me nothing happened."

Although, his exact words weren't quite flattering...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Which was enough to startle Dinah the rest of the way into the room, smacking Tony lightly on the arm as she passed. "Of course nothing happened! I mean, seriously. Arthur?" She snorted. "He gave me his shirt to keep me from freaking out, I think. Probably one of those guys who'll do anything not to see a girl cry. Which I wasn't!" she added quickly. "I just... was cold. Sheesh." She glared at Tony. "Stop. Snickering."

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Tony raised his hands in surrender. "Sorry!" he said. "I lost my shirt on the way back from the assembly yesterday," he offered. Of course, no one had been around to notice.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"You could have just explained that," Merlin pointed out. "Instead of storming off."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry about your shirt. At least you got left your pants," Dinah told Tony. Then spluttered at Merlin, "Are you kidding me? I did tell you! I was cold and dying of embarrassment and your prat of a boss was laughing at me and you wanted to know what happened! I was just way too spazzed out to be coherent!"

She took a breath, turning bright red again. "Not unlike now."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin reached over to pat her on the arm. "It's not as awkward as you think," He insisted. "It's certainly not the first time with Arthur's---latest---you know." A beat. "Not that you are! But I have been worked for him for a while now..."

That wasn't helping. At all.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

The first part of that had Dinah ready to punch him, but the second part just had her floored. "He-- you... wait. What?" She made a little time-out motion with her hands, then looked at Tony. "What?"

He was a guy. He could translate, right?

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Tony just shrugged and looked at Merlin. He was sooo not getting in the middle of this.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin gave him a dirty look for the abandonment.

"Nothing happened and we've all established that," He said. "I don't think we need to say anymore?"

Please please please?

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Okay. Yeah," Dinah said, still confused.

She was trying to imagine what the heck Arthur's... something? Had to do with anything resembling what Merlin had seen of her semi-clothed yesterday. Everything she imagined just came out very odd.

"Um. Right. I had a reason for coming here." She paused, then gave up on being embarrassed. Too much work. "Do you guys want to go out for coffee and doughnuts?"

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"I'm up for that," Tony said, glad to get away from the other subject.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Love to!" Anything that wasn't the subject before was perfect, if you asked him.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Awesome. Let's go." Before Dinah found another reason to stick her foot in her mouth.