Merlin Emrys walked into his small, shabby apartment, plopped his briefcase onto the floor by the entrance, loosened his tie and messed up his hair. It had been a long day, his first day at his new job and he had already gotten into a fight with the boss's son, in which he had insulted him and gotten him thrown out on his first day. He would no doubt return but he would definitely be shunned. He had made one single friend, Gwen, the receptionist. She had called him brave for standing up to the man, whose name Merlin couldn't remember for the life of him, but he felt instead, incredibly foolish.
Merlin slouched over to his sofa, sunk in and shoved his hand into the crevice in-between the cushions to find the remote. He found it, along with two coins and an old chocolate egg, and switched on the telly. The first thing he saw when he turned the telly on was a man who's likeness to him was uncanny. He ended up watching the show through to the finish. When it had ended, Merlin sat there, dumbly, for quite a while before his brain started properly functioning again. This was an exact resume of his day, well, minus the whole "medieval" thing. All of the sudden, memories started flooding back. He remembered.
He remembered everything.
He scrambled to find his shoes but in the end, didn't bother. He ended up running down the street, in his socks, door unlocked and telly still playing.
Arthur Pendragon inserted a key into the door. It glided in with perfect ease and he pushed the door open. He pulled his key out and strut in. He slipped his work shoes off easily, shrugged off his jacket and hung it on the rack. He walked into his large kitchen and grabbed an apple off the island in the middle of the big room. Munching on the apple, he casually slouched into his living room. He flopped onto his large couch and switched on the large flatscreen telly with the tap of a button. He catches the beginning of a show. He recognizes the man but he doesn't know where. He squints at the telly and continues to walk. Merlin? Wasn't that the name of the foolish boy who had dared insult him at work. He must be an actor on the side.
Arthur continued watching. He gaped as he saw a man who greatly resembled his father with a scar along his face, order an execution and nearly fell off his chair as he saw his step-sisters lookalike turn away from the execution from her position behind a window. A woman appeared.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a son for a son!" The woman all but shrieked. As the King order the guards to seize her, she mumbled some words under her breath and her eyes flashed a familiar gold. Something in Arthurs brain jiggled, like something trapped in a box, trying to escape. Arthur was not surprised however when the boy, Merlin revealed his magic by saving Gaius, another familiar face. Gaius was the scientist at Pendragon industries. (He had a wonderful hangover remedy.) It was not hard to guess that Merlin would have magic, Arthur had heard the legends of King Arthur and Merlin the wizard. He was confused, when he imagined Merlin, he imagined an old man in red robes with a long flowing beard and a pointy hat, not some ignorant kid. Arthur laughed at the blind old man that Merlin was supposed to warn about drinking the whole potion Gaius had given Merlin to deliver, drink his entire potion in one go. He found it funnier than he should have and did not cease to laugh until he heard a familiar laugh, hauntingly familiar… His heart started beating uncharacteristically fast as he saw himself on the screen. The man looked exactly like him, down to the crinkles in his eyes when he smiled. All of the sudden he remembered everything that had happened today, his father, Uther, very publicly firing a man, his battle of wits with Merlin… He paused it then and there, he didn't need to watch the rest, he already knew it. He remembered it as though it were yesterday.
He jumped up, knocking his entire couch over in his haste to get out the door, he left the keys in the door and he was wearing a pair of his step-sister, Morgana's flip-flops.