"Morgana, we've been looking at these fabrics for at least ten minutes, will you hurry up and pick something."
The heat was making him irritable as the afternoon pressed on, his legs sore from the walking they had already done. "Mordred, darling, why so impatient?" Morgana's sarcasm chided him. If he had a penny for the number of times he had rolled his eyes at her sass, he would have been a trillionaire by now.
"Because I've been staring at them for so long the colors are beginning to blur. I can't even decipher what is yellow and what is green anymore." He held up two fabrics, both green with yellow embroidery. The only difference he saw was the pattern, and the longer he looked at them the more the patterns seemed to match.
"You know you don't have to stick by me this whole time. Wander around yourself and find something you like." Her disapproving tone set Mordred's already ill-tempered mood on edge.
"You know I don't care for these events, why would I wander around the booths on my own?" he bit out.
She huffed, hands that were holding fabrics falling into the bin. One of her hands flicked towards the entrance of the tent out of exasperation. "If all you are going to do is complain then you might as well leave me here to it and wait for me out there somewhere. I'll call you when I'm done."
He raised both of his hands in defense. "Fine," he muttered, slipping out of the tent. The sunlight that greeted him immediately caused sweat beads to form on his forehead, the curly bangs rapidly becoming damp. If all he was going to do was sit around and wait for Morgana, he needed to find someplace that was preferably in the shade. Food sounded good about now, he might as well make his way in that general direction.
He started weaving through the crowd, the smell of fried foods gradually getting stronger and causing his stomach to rumble. Yet, the heavy body odor in the area counteracted his body's calls to eat. He groaned at the conflicting messages. He had only come to the festival on the whims of Morgana. She loved them and he could never quite understand why. The noise was overbearing, the people rude, the food and items sold were outrageously expensive. It seemed to be the worst place one would want to hang out at. Especially in the middle of summer.
He took shelter under the shade of an infant of a tree as he let his eyes roam the food trucks within his view. Just as he considered standing in line for a bowl of onion rings, he heard a loud exclamation behind him.
"Whoa, how do you do that, Merlin? Please tell me." Several oohs and aahs caused Mordred to turn in their direction, revealing a small group gathered behind him. He couldn't tell who was center stage, but they had attracted a crowd, with several more people stopping to watch. Mordred's curiosity piqued as he meandered his way over to the ruckus.
"You know I can't tell you," a voice rang in the middle of the crowd. "But maybe one day you will figure it out on your own."
Mordred managed to make his way to the other side of the circle, closing the gap in the crowd. The young dark-haired man in the center was currently bent down talking to a kid.
"Who is up for another trick?" The man raised the deck of cards above his head, causing several people to cheer. Mordred scoffed as the man started to turn and his features came into view. He had to be Mordred's age, most likely attending the same university given that it had sponsored the event. None of his features were complimentary, his ears were big and stuck out, his eyes a little too wide apart, his cheekbones sharp and high, his face narrow.
And yet, it worked for him. The culmination of odd features one could have actually didn't look ridiculous. In fact, it made him look quite innocent.
"Alright then, here we go." He traveled around the circle shuffling the cards as he wandered, focusing on his handiwork. It intrigued Mordred. The cards glided ever so smoothly as if choreographed by none other than the man himself. It almost drew him into a hypnotic daze.
A glint of light caught Mordred's eyes. They traveled in the direction the glare had come from to see a seven of spades resting next to his foot in the grass. Quickly, he scanned the crowd to see if anyone noticed. If the magician himself had.
Everyone's eyes were focused on the man in the middle, the man's on the deck of cards. As small of a movement Mordred could possibly perform, he shuffled his foot over the card, effectively blocking it from everyone's sight.
He bent down to feign tying his shoe, gliding the card out as fast as he could and encasing it in the palm of his hand. He knew he was smirking, he couldn't contain himself at the brutal mistake the man had just made.
He could be nice and let the guy know, give the card back. But Mordred had another idea that seemed too good to pass on.
"Ok then, who would like to go?" the magician wannabe exclaimed enthusiastically.
Before anyone had the chance to raise their hands, Mordred spoke. "I would like to."
The man whipped around, eyes growing slightly wide in shock before recovering himself. Mordred couldn't contain the smirk that started to creep onto his face. This was going to be fun. Mordred's arms crossed in front of him, the card still in the palm of one of his hands.
"Well then, say the name of any random card in this deck." Mordred could feel the smirk plastered on his face now. This worked out too well, it was the perfect magic trick to go wrong.
"Seven of spades," he said, shrugging slightly as if it were always the card he would pick. A mischievous glint appeared in the man's eyes, ready to impress. Any and all notion that this man was innocent flew right out of Mordred's mind. The man's smile grew, setting those odd features alight. He shuffled the deck, splitting it into halves and reshuffling before he finally stopped, swiping the card off the top and showing it to Mordred.
He had to do his best to not laugh then and there.
"Is this your card?" he quipped. Mordred could see how proud he looked, how much he wanted to impress him.
Mordred took a step towards the man, ready to lay the blow.
"No." The man's face fell, turning the card towards himself to reveal the ace of hearts. Confusion started to mask his features. He almost started to sputter out an explanation, however, Mordred beat him to it.
"But this is." He flicked the card between his fingers, revealing the seven of spades that he stole from the deck. A sudden roar emanated from the crowd as people began bending over in laughter, hands covering mouths and pointing at Mordred, unable to believe what they just witnessed. The man's face froze with wide eyes, his mouth agape and at a complete loss for words. Mordred's smirk grew as he took the applause with pride. He stepped closer to the man and slid the card back onto the top of the deck.
"You're welcome," he said. He turned away, giggling at the growing applause as he walked over to his original destination.
The line at the food truck had thankfully shortened while he was messing with the guy. He wouldn't have to wait in the sun for quite as long. He found his way over to a bench, ready to dive into his ketchup drowned onion rings when another presence slid right next to him.
"Ok, how in the hell did you do that?" Mordred had to keep himself from choking on his food, startled by the appearance of none other than the card trickster from earlier. He could see in the man's gaze that he desired to know what on Earth Mordred had done.
The man's struggle was hilarious to watch. He found it endearing the guy had managed to waft through the crowd just to get the answer to Mordred's stupid prank.
He wasn't going to give up another opportunity to fluster the man. He smiled, meeting the curious gaze, bending forward as if he was going to reveal a deep dark secret. He could tell the man thought so too, bending closer and leaning in with his ear, ready to hear the truth.
"A magician never reveals his secrets," Mordred muttered instead. The man jerked back, affronted, and Mordred busted out laughing, unable to sit up as he continued to laugh harder.
"That's not fair!"
Mordred let out a hoot as he tried to get his breathing under control. Managing to bring some sense back to himself, he let his eyes linger on the attractive, embarrassed man. He had another trick up his sleeve he was willing to play.
"Maybe I'll tell you if you let me take you for dinner sometime," Mordred managed to smoothly say. The man turned beet red. Mordred chuckled, nodding his head to the deck that was still in the guy's hands. "Give me that seven of spades and I'll write my number on it."
"Oh for crying out loud, I have a phone, here just plug it in there." Mordred smiled, taking the phone from the guy and opening up a new contact. "It's Merlin, by the way." He handed the phone back to him, Merlin's eyebrows bending in confusion as he looked at the name on the screen. "Mordred? Like from the Arthur legends?"
"Yes, my parents wanted to give their kids interesting names, thus Mordred. Merlin isn't exactly common either, and also from the Arthurian legends." Mordred laughed under his breath. What a coincidence. "How typical, someone named Merlin playing magic tricks."
"Just trying to live up to the name," Merlin remarked.
"Of course," Mordred affirmed. Merlin was turning out to be an interesting man. Maybe going to these festivals wasn't so bad if this was the outcome of them. "So, are you willing to go on a date, Merlin?"
The man's face relaxed as his smile reached his eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."