WELCOME TO THE CHRISTMAS DRABBLES OF 2011!

A/N: Merry Christmas bee27!

This is rather different from your wish, but your idea sparked this one and it has some of the same ingredients... ;)

Genre: AU! I had trouble placing this in either dark or light, but it got light in the end… slightly angsty, though! Read more about the Christmas drabbles in the bottom A/N.

Love and Magic

Hurried footsteps echoed in the stone hallway of the castle as a young man made his way to the royal suit. The latest battle had been won, but at a very dear price.

"I heard you've been reckless again, my king…"

King Arthur opened his eye, the other one swollen shut, and looked up at the man standing at his bedside.

"Well, Merlin… at least I won…" he smirked. The smirk turned into a grimace of pain as a cough racked his body. Hands were immediately on his face and chest but the injured king weakly batted them away. "Don't fuss, boy, you know it won't do any good."

"Don't call me 'boy', Arthur, I'm older than you are!" the black-haired man hissed down on his white-haired patient.

"Well, blame your magic for looking as manly as a page…" the king chuckled, the sound horrifyingly wet.

"You never complain when you bed me…" the wizard snorted, a soft look in his eye.

"Oh-oh."

"What?"

"It must be very bad if you give me doe-eyes like that…" the king said.

"It is… it is bad," Merlin nodded, the warmth in his expression exchanged for pain.

"Well… Modredus is dead, I take comfort in that. I would wish, though…"

"Wish for what?" the magician asked. "If it is my power, my king…"

"I doubt it…" the battered man grinned and shook his head. "What I want is beyond even your talents…"

"Let me be the judge of that," Merlin smirked back. "But please do not ask for flying pigs again? It got ugly last time…"

"If it had been so simple… what I wish for is… more time… more time with you…" the older-looking man's hand closed over Merlin's, which had stayed on his chest.

The wizard sank down on the edge of the bed, leant over, and kissed his kings lips.

"This is my wish as well… but it is too late in this time... I'm sorry… I cannot save you."

"In this time?" the king said.

"Yes… I can bind our souls together… this will guarantee that we get at least one more chance on this Earth… but it's risky…"

"How so?"

"One of us could come back as a woman…" Merlin smirked.

The king gave a weak laugh.

"Perish the thought…"

"Also our age-differences might be too great… or we might not recognize each other…"

"We will… we must… I won't forget your eyes…" the king insisted.

"I won't forget you either, I am sure of it. I will know as soon as I see your face…" Merlin mumbled. "With your permission, then, I'll begin."

"With my permission and my blessing…" the white-haired man nodded, his voice growing weak.

A silence settled as Merlin worked. He could feel his lover slipping away as he linked their souls together.

"All done… only one thing left…" The wizard pulled out a long, sharp knife.

"What… no…" the king hissed, his breath barely there anymore.

"Be calm, my love…" Merlin said softly, the knife pointing at his own heart. "I've bound our souls… I have to join you…"

"No…!"

But the king's last command was ignored as the magician thrust the knife between his own ribs.

"I… never meant…" Arthur said brokenly.

"I did… I always meant to follow you…" Merlin's startling blue eyes met the other man's gray. His hand, shaking slightly, caressed the king's left cheek, leaving a dark coppery-red mark the same color as was spreading on his chest. "Just… promise me… that whoever we will be… that you will love me."

"I will… and I won't take no for an answer…" the king mumbled, a small smirk on his lips.

Merlin slowly fell forwards, over Arthur's chest.

"Good…. I can be… stubborn…"

With that their hearts shuddered to a stop and their souls escaped. Together.

"Slade!" Robin growled out the name. "Give up now!"

The arrogant man merely snorted, and, with a new growl, the teen attacked. The fight was vicious and nearly ended for good as the mercenary swiped his staff close to the hero's head. Robin threw himself back, but the end of the weapon grazed his temple, snatching on his mask, which tore, distorting his vision. He could hear Slade coming after him again, and, to be able to see, he ripped his mask off, just in time to raise his bo-staff, blocking another strike. He looked up at the villain and the man froze.

Instead of seizing the moment and attacking again, Robin pulled back a little. He needed to catch his breath, and, if possible, reach for an extra mask in his belt.

"I… I know you…" Slade suddenly said, causing the teen to blink.

"Yes, I'm the one who are going to kick your ass…" Robin growled.

"No… I… you don't recognize me?"

"Yeah, you're Jump City prison's new inmate," the teen snorted, wondering over the man's odd behavior, but grateful for the breather.

Then Slade removed his mask.

Robin's heart all but stopped and he instantly knew why the man had acted so strange.

"...y-you?"

"Yes."

"I… I didn't know! The mask-"

"I knew… I knew there was something about you… something that drew me to you, made me want you… but I didn't know how… I thought I wanted to conquer you, own you… but then I saw your eyes…"

While Slade had been talking, almost mumbling, Robin had had time to recover, and he threw his bo-staff down, flying into the man's arms. The next moment their lips met and centuries of love and longing between two bound, lost, souls swept through them.

As they parted, to catch their breaths, Slade noticed that his lover's cheeks were wet by tears, even more so than his own.

"Merl- Robin? Is something wrong?"

"I… it wasn't supposed to be like this… I lost my powers. I'm just human… I was supposed to find a way so that we would never be apart again!"

"Ah… I don't think the fates have been as cruel as you fear… It's my turn to have the answers this time and, trust me, we will never have to say goodbye again…"

The End

A/N: Yup, I messed with the Arthur-saga… the idea originally included them having sex on the round table, which I really enjoyed (the idea, that is, I haven't tried it…) but this little plot-bunny was born instead and it was all so small and black and cute and emo I had to write it… ;) Just a strange way to explain their, obviously powerful, bond… ;)

Oh, and I could have made either of them Arthur/Merlin but I quite liked the idea that their "meta-human-status" switched in their next lives… as Arthur Slade was a regular, though powerful, human, and in his currant life, Robin is… fair's fair!

SEMI IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT THE CHRISTMAS DRABBLES IN GENERAL!

Yeah, hi and welcome! As you might already know every other drabble will be light and every other dark, that means tomorrow it's time for a dark drabble!

Sometimes, like with this, I have had trouble deciding which category a drabble should go in… true love doesn't automatically mean it's light, and bad things can happen in light stories too… but there will be warnings and stuff…

The drabbles are already written, and have you missed your opportunity to wish for one, you must have lived under a rock for the past five months because I have been talking about this eeeeeeverywhere… ;)

I will use the term "Christmas", that is, I wish you, and the people who has gotten the day's drabble, a merry Christmas… If you do not celebrate Christmas, please mentally change this word to whatever you DO celebrate. If you don't celebrate ANYTHING, then just have a merry… day… or something. I'm Swedish. We don't care about trampling on religious toes… ;)

So… 25 drabbles coming up. I got a lot more than 25 wishes/suggestions… the rules were that I would write anything that got my plot-bunnies humping, and I did, but, truth be told, I have only picked one idea per person… that doesn't mean someone might not get more than one wish written, as I have also added anonymous requests, so if it turns out that this happened: congratulations!

If I have not written your request, it's of course because I hate you. –grin- Nah! There are many reasons why I didn't pick a particular prompt… maybe it felt like something I had already written, maybe it felt like something I've read from someone else… maybe I didn't know anything about the genre/basic idea and it would either take me too much research to make it work or I'm not very interested in the subject…In a few cases several of you have also suggested similar ideas, and if the plot bunny bit on one, I can't very well write the others as well… none of this is your fault! If, by the end of this, you realize I haven't picked your idea and you want to ask why, just go ahead, I've saved every one of them in a special list…

Where was I? Yes, 25 drabbles, and, of course, on New Year's, a 26'th! And what THAT will be, will be up to you, because that will be a SEQUEL to one of these drabbles, up to the 24'th (because the 25'th is more reflections that a story, and I could use the extra day there…)… The voting won't begin until the 24'th though, but I thought I'd tell you now so you can make a note if/when you read a drabble you really can see continued…

Well, that's it… as usual some drabble will be short, some long.

Oh, I MIGHT NOT HAVE TIME TO ANSWER REVIEWS EVERY DAY, but I'll try… I WON'T have time to make corrections, though, so, unless it's a REALLY big mistake that kinda ruins the story, you don't have to tell me about it… if it is, though, I want to know… ;)

Remember, the drabbles will stay up so you don't HAVE to read every day, they will wait for you… ;) Also, I love reviews, but don't feel pressured into reviewing every day either, as I said, I might not have time to answer them…

I hope your December will be great!

All the best!

/Wynja