AN: I wrote some of this at home one night, and some while spending five and a half hours in back drive at McDonald's. That is to say, if it seems slightly inconsistent, I would love for you to blame it on that, even though it's not much of an excuse. Furthermore, I am going to pretend that, while this story is set sometime between Uther's death and the death of his son, Gwen was never a contender for Arthur's heart (Let's just say she always loved Lancelot and only Lancelot, even though she kind of falls for any guy that stands still long enough. I love her to death, but come on!) and Morgana and Morgause were defeated with very few character deaths, none of which were named characters. I know, unrealistic, but it's my story and this is how it came into my mind. Let us also pretend that it is not weird that the language in this is much less formal and appropriate for the time period, as it was in the first few seasons, before they got more medieval. I also apologize if any characters seem OOC. That's just how they came to me. Reviews are welcome, even flames, although I may poke fun at you (playfully, of course) if you are to flame. Sorry for the long author's note, but I hope you enjoy the story.
P.S. I know it's kind of frowned upon to switch tenses and point of views, but it doesn't usually bother me when I'm reading it from another author, so I hope you guys don't mind. Also, the story will be short.
PROLOGUE
"Arthur…Please say something." Now that I have confirmed his fear, he is frozen. I'm looking into his eyes, and he's not moving. I am not even sure he's still breathing. And then, when he finally speaks…
"Leave me."
He will not meet my eyes, but I nod anyway, before making my way out of his rooms. I get as far as the next hallway before collapsing in tears, and that is where Percival and Gwaine find me, two hours later. They do not bombard me with questions; they simply help me up and escort me to my small bed in Gaius's chambers. I hear them explain what little they know to him before assuring him they will be back to check on me in the morning. That is the last thing I remember before I cry myself to sleep.
THE DAY BEFORE
It was another long day in King Arthur's employ. We had been hunting since before the sun came up. Actually, Arthur and the knights had been hunting while I was freezing my arse off and carting around their trophies. Now that we were back in the castle, I was looking forward to a hot cup of tea and my humble bed. Maybe I'd even cast a spell on my sheets so that they would be warm when I crawled into—"MER-lin!" There goes my evening. "I need you to rub down my horses, shine my armor, repair my spears and bring me my dinner."
"Yes, sire." I turned around, in an attempt to escape before—
"Oh, and Merlin?" he started.
"Yes?" But, as I was turning back to him, I noticed that Arthur's eyes were widening, and his gaze was focused a fair distance above mine.
I looked up to see one of the sentries plummeting toward the ground, precisely where I happened to be standing. Before I had the chance to react, Arthur was upon me, pushing me onto my back and out of harm's way. If it had been one of the stone gargoyles or some other such inanimate object, I would have thanked Arthur and left it at that, but since the projectile was, in fact, a living being, I reacted without thinking. I could feel the change in my eyes and I pictured the man slowing until he met the ground as gently as possible. I turned my head slightly to meet the gaze of my King, and I started to panic internally.
Arthur seemed too stunned to react at first, but once the man on the ground behind us started to stir, he jumped up, searching the courtyard for any signs that someone else had noticed our dangerous encounter. He seemed to decide he had been the only witness, and only then did he turn to the guard and admonish him for falling asleep at his post, as if the entire scenario were as simple as that. After watching said guard stumble off in confusion, he turned and stormed into the castle, seemingly deaf to my many pleas for him to stop and listen.
Once he reached his chambers, he swept in and motioned for me to close the door behind myself. He then turned to face me, his arms crossed over his chest. Now that we were alone, I seemed to have lost my ability to speak, as I had no idea where I should begin.
"Well," he said, "You asked me to stop; you begged me to listen."
But still nothing came out.
"You have ten seconds to start explaining." And, as if those words were the key to my mouth, all of it came pouring out. My abilities, my experiences in Camelot, and elsewhere, with him, and anything else I found relevant. I talked for so long my throat grew sore, and still he said nothing. He only stared at the floor and listened, completely silently.
"Arthur…Please, say something."
THE NEXT DAY
I awoke to stinging eyes and a pillow soaked through with tears. For a moment, I was confused, then the memories came rushing back and I had to fight back against a fresh assault of blubbering. All I could think about was saying goodbye to everyone I knew, as I would surely be arrested for sorcery soon. I was surprised that Arthur had not ordered the arrest already, but I was sure his guard, my friends, would be along any moment to throw me in the dungeon. Shortly thereafter, I knew, I would be killed. I did not yet know how, but I knew it was inevitable.
With that thought, I propelled myself out of my room and woke Gaius up. I calmly explained the situation to him, miraculously refraining from crying again. Although I could not say the same for him, I convinced him there was nothing he could do, and we sat for some time doing nothing but talking for what we were convinced would be the last time.
When Gwaine and Percival came in without knocking, I was sure this was my escort to the dungeon, but they were simply making good on their promise from the night before. After spending a short time saying goodbye to them, I left them with Gaius in an attempt to finish my farewells.
Most of my friends were confused by the short conversations and they seemed worried by the nostalgia and clear goodbye in my words. I eventually convinced them, one by one, that everything was fine, but Gwen was the hardest by far. It took a long hug and many promises that nothing out of the ordinary was going on before she went back to her duties and allowed me on my way.
I had finished my goodbyes. The only person I had not spoken to today was Arthur, and I knew I could not face him yet, so I sat myself in a large windowsill, waiting to be found and arrested.
MEANWHILE
All of the court had noticed their King's foul mood but, as he did not let it affect his judgment or duties, they did not question it. However, when Sir Leon was seen to whisper something in his ear that greatly surprised him and sent him running from the room in an obvious rage, none of the courtiers could stop themselves from speculating about the cause for the rest of the day.
SOON AFTER
By the time Arthur found me, I had come to terms with the whole ordeal. I had had a full, exciting life, even though it was shorter than I would have liked. I could somehow sense that he was even angrier than he had been previously but I was surprised to see that he was alone. Maybe he wanted to keep the pleasure of arresting me to himself. I was okay with that, as it gave me time to say goodbye to the one I had just realized was the most important person to me inside the walls of Camelot.
"Hello, My Lord," I gave him a sad smile, which only seemed to anger him further.
"How can you do this? What you told me last night was bad enough, but this? I never truly thought you to be a coward, but I must have been wrong." His words confused me. As far as I knew, I had done nothing further to offend him.
"Sire?"
"Do not 'Sire?' me," his voice got louder and he stepped so close I could feel the heat of his body on my cold skin. "You know exactly what I was talking about. I just talked to Sir Leon."
"Sir Leon? Arthur, what are you talking about?" I had not said much to Leon, and he had seemed the least phased out of any of my friends.
"He has talked to Gwen, and Lancelot, and Percival, and every other friend you have made in Camelot. You have said your farewells to everyone, except for me—" I still could not understand why this was so maddening to him, unless he was simply mad that I was talking to the people he probably thought I had betrayed. "—and now you are here to take your own life, which is the most cowardly course of action you could ever take."
"Wait, why do you think I am planning to kill myself?" As the words burst out of me, my expression changed to one of stunned disbelief, but Arthur didn't seem to notice.
"You've said goodbye to almost everyone, Gaius cannot stop crying, and now you are sitting on the ledge of a very high window. Do not try to convince me otherwise." He then picked me up off of the windowsill and set me down by the opposite wall. "I will not allow it."
At this, I was almost as angry as he was. "You are such a clotpole, Arthur. First of all, I am not here to kill myself. This window has one of the prettiest views at night and I wanted to see it one last time. Secondly, I cannot believe you have the nerve to say you do not allow me to take my own life when I was preparing for a death at your hands and—"
"What do you even mean by that?" He shouted over me, "Why in the world would you be 'preparing for a death at my hands'? That makes no sense at all."
"According to your father's law you must sentence me to death." I yelled in his face, "Or have you forgotten what happened just yesterday?"
This stopped his anger cold. His face was then taken over with regret and sadness. "You thought I would kill you?" He whispered brokenly, "You thought I could kill you?"
I gave my king a sad smile and replied, "I did not think you had a choice." Before he could say anything else I added, "I made peace with it. I have said goodbye, as you well know, to everyone but you. I did not forget you, I just wanted to make sure I was able to reach everyone, and I did not expect you to let me continue if I were to face you before I was done."
To my shock, these words brought tears to my dear king's eyes. He then surprised me further by bringing me into a tight hug and whispering, "How could you give up on me this easily? You said you believed it to be our destiny to bring magic back to the land; to teach me that not all magic is evil. Have you abandoned your beliefs so quickly?"
"You were raised to believe these things, Arthur." I reminded him, "How could I expect you to turn your back on all your father taught you."
"But I have always known my father to have serious biases. You taught me not to fear magic, by using it only to help me and save Camelot." We locked eyes and I realized he had listened to everything I said the night before. He truly was different from his father. He had not heard the word magic and shut down. But, still—
"Why did you send me away?" I asked, "If you could accept me, why did you seem repulsed at the sight of me?"
"I was so angry," I started to look down, but he lifted my chin so I would meet his eyes. "Not because you were a sorcerer, but because you had lied to me all these years. It took me all night to realize how hard it must have been for you in my father's court; in my court. And then I spent the day sulking because I missed your annoying voice."
I gave him a watery chuckle and wondered aloud, "What are we going to do?"
"Well," he started, "We could start by allowing magic throughout the kingdom. Since it is neither good nor bad, we only hurt our kingdom's unity by denying its use."
"How well will that go over? Especially if it is revealed that I have magic?" I worried, "People will think I have put you under a spell."
"I am certain people will come around." He assured me, "Think of how many people must be hiding magic. If the skeptical ones find out people they have always trusted have magic, perhaps they will come to realize, as I did, that it is the person that is good or bad, not the magic."
"I hope you are right." I replied, "And I hope that our friends see it the same way."
EPILOGUE
Once the laws against magic were gone, many aspects of everyday life all around the kingdom began to improve. Farmer and carpenters that possessed magic were able to freely improve their trade through sorcery, and some especially skillful sorcerers went around selling those improvements to the tradesmen that were without magic, some even extended these favors free of charge, so happy were they to finally be free. There were isolated incidents against some of those that practiced the craft of magic, but they were few and far between.
Merlin's fear of his friends' reactions turned out to be unfounded. Many of them had already suspected his powers, but had kept quiet out of loyalty and a sense of protectiveness. Those of them that had not guessed took only minimal convincing and, of course, Lancelot knew and accepted Merlin's magic long before this event occurred.
Over time, Arthur and Merlin grew closer and closer, and eventually joined in marriage. Though this was unheard of at the time, no one opposed the match…at least, as far as they heard. In addition to marrying the King, Merlin became the Court Sorcerer and also took over the position of Court Physician when Gaius died. He lived to the unheard of age 102 and exited the world peacefully in his sleep.
The regal couple became closely allied with many of the royal families they came into contact with, but had a particularly important bond with Princess Mithian of Nemeth, who was an especially close friend to Arthur, until her death due to a wound obtained from a hunting trip. Her throne then went to her cousin, but her only son, Godwin, was taken in by Merlin and Arthur, and legally became the heir to the throne of Camelot.
Merlin and Arthur paved the way for many same-sex couples that resided in Camelot. Soon after the King's marriage, Gwaine and Percival were joined, followed closely by the Ladies Evelyn and Keaton in holy matrimony.
Merlin and Arthur lived together happily until Arthur's death at the age of 86. Merlin was understandably distraught, but found comfort in the knowledge passed on by the dragon that his love was indeed, "The Once and Future King" and would return when Albion, and Merlin, most needed him.
AN: Evelyn is my grandmother's name, so when I saw it meant "hazelnut" in Old English, I had to use it, and so I fabricated the last same-sex couple. Along the same vein, the meaning of Keaton is "where hawks fly", which I thought was cool, and Godwin is a medieval name meaning "divine or good friend". Since "G" is exactly between "A" and "M", I decided to use a name starting with "G" and his mother is an ally to Arthur, hence "good friend". Also, I apologize for the lack of quality in the scene between Arthur and Merlin toward the end, and realize that both Merlin AND Arthur are OOC in it. This is for my best friend, the platonic Merlin to my Arthur, and I REALLY hope she enjoys it…more than I hope anyone else does. Also, credit goes out to her for reading over this so I wouldn't make a COMPLETE fool out of myself by putting up utter crap! I LOVE YOU, MY MERLINIAN FRIENDESS, MY SHERLOCKIAN BFF, MY FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD FANGIRL!
P.S. If anyone actually likes this story, and would like to request a one-shot or even a multi-chapter story expanding on anything I've written here, please let me know and it will be taken into consideration. Thanks again for reading!