Coming of Age
[Modern AU] Merlin (Morgana, Arthur, Gwaine, Gwen, Lancelot, Freya); Of royalty, knights, magic and a lady of the duck pond. (In which an eighteen-year-old Merlin realises he's a warlock, that his best friend Morgana is a witch and that there may just be a lady living in the duck pond in the park).
When Merlin was a young boy he always wanted to be a magician. He learnt card tricks and other little "magic tricks" which were all very technical and sometimes had something to do with mirrors. At the age of eight he met a girl that was very different from the others, in games of make-believe she always played the evil witch that the brave knight must fight in order to free the princess from her curse, this girl's name was Morgana. Merlin use to have to play the dragon because the other kids said his unusual looks suited the role and so Merlin and Morgana were always on the same side, rotten outcasts of society; the ones that were somehow different and very misunderstood.
At the age of ten, Merlin fell into the duck pond in the park near his house. This wouldn't have been much of a problem if Merlin had known how to swim, which he hadn't. Not that it matters too much, Merlin doesn't remember anything after he slipped into the water, but he remembers waking up on the grass next to the pond. He just assumed that the ducks saved him.
Two days before his fourteenth birthday Merlin met this prat of a boy named Arthur Pendragon. They bumped into each other in a bookstore while Merlin was buying books for his first semester.
"Watch where you're walking," the blonde boy had reprimanded Merlin.
"You walked into me," Merlin had told the boy.
"Do you have any idea who I am?" the boy had asked, and to be perfectly honest, Merlin had no idea. He assumed that either it was some sort of trick question, or that Arthur was a bit of a condescending twat. Merlin has said as much; the boy had given Merlin a glare filled with so much hatred that any smart person would have apologised and walked away calmly. Merlin may be smart but he doesn't have any sort of common sense, so he threw what was left of the drink he was holding into the boys face and ran for it. In his defence, Merlin was just doing what he thought Morgana would've done in the situation.
When they were fifteen, Morgana and Merlin made friends with a boy named Gwaine. He was the rebellious sort, quite often getting himself into trouble by pulling silly pranks. He was a charming enough lad, but the ladies weren't all that interested in the boy because he was, in all honesty, a bit of a misfit. He fit right in with Morgana and Merlin. Gwaine and Morgana were always very supportive of Merlin's endeavours into becoming a performing magician, mostly because they themselves hadn't really thought about what they wanted to do with their lives. It wasn't as if they had to hurry with their choices though, since they were only fifteen.
Two and a half weeks before his sixteenth birthday Merlin met the kind and gentle Guinevere, or Gwen for short. He met her in a clothing store while he was helping Morgana pick out some new clothes. Merlin was holding a pile of clothes so high he couldn't see in front of him, he ended up walking into a wall; Gwen was the lovely lady who came running to his assistance.
"Are you okay?" She'd ask.
"Yeah, I'm fine, all the clothes cushioned my impact," Merlin had joked while he'd stood up from the floor and started collecting up clothes; Gwen was quick to start helping him.
"That's convenient," she'd joked with a cheery smile. "Is there a reason you're carrying around so many dresses?" Gwen has asked. Luckily Morgana had come out at that moment to see what commotion Merlin had caused. The three of them had gone off to have some lunch after that, and spent the next hour having a long, pointless and fairly entertaining conversation.
"Would you like to hang out with us next Thursday?" Merlin asked. "You can meet our friend Gwaine."
"He may hit on you," Morgana warned.
"Oh, sorry," Gwen started with a disappointed look. "I have to go to some function with my boyfriend Arthur. But I'm free next Friday if you don't have plans."
"Next Friday sounds fine," Morgana told her, "let's trade numbers."
Merlin thinks that Gwen fits right in with them.
On Morgana's eighteenth birthday her parents had thrown her a lovely party with a limitation of twenty guests. A considerably small gathering compared to the usual size of parties held by teenagers that go to their school. Merlin, Gwaine and Gwen had been at the very top of her list of guests. Merlin had absolutely no idea who the other seventeen people were, but he was assuming most of them probably went to his school. Gwen, of course, had been allowed to bring her boyfriend, and when she introduced all three of them to a tanned brunette boy named Lancelot, they were all honestly a little perplexed.
"Weren't you going out with a boy named Arthur," Gwaine asked, "you said he was blonde."
"Oh no, did I not tell you three?" Gwen questioned looking at her three friends with shock and the slightest bit of embarrassment. "I broke up with Arthur a year and a half ago; I've been dating Lancelot for the past year."
"You mean to tell me," Gwaine began, "that there was a half a year period of time where I was allowed to hit on you, and you never told me this."
"I'm sure you've been holding back many great pick up lines," Lancelot says with a smile. Gwaine and Morgana laugh loudly in response, Gwen and Merlin smile brightly. Lancelot fits right in with them too. Later that night an elegantly drunk Morgana will walk over to Merlin, who has barely had any drinks and is sort of tripping over his own legs, and will take him aside to tell him something she says is very urgent.
"Merlin," she'll stage whisper, "I can do magic."
Merlin will find this hysterically funny because Morgana was never any good at those silly magician tricks. Morgana's eighteenth birthday is only two weeks before Merlin's.
The next day Merlin ends up having to walk home from Morgana's after helping her clean up, he takes the shortest route he knows and ends up cutting through the park near his house. As he wanders past the duck pond he notices a lady about his own age taking a casual swim.
"Um, ma'am," he calls out to get her attention; she turns to look at him and smiles brightly. "Why are you swimming in the duck pond?"
"Because I like ducks," she yells back. Merlin shrugs and continues on his walk back home, it sounds like a reasonable enough explanation.
Two days before his eighteenth birthday Merlin's mother and farther send him a message telling him to catch the bus back from the movies because they're very busy at the moment and he shouldn't question why. Morgana's own parents are apparently busy, and Gwen and Lancelot live close enough to the movies to walk home.
"Why can't you ask your parents for a lift?" Morgana asks Gwaine while the three of them wait at the bus stop.
"We could," Gwaine begins, "but they went on vacation and it may take them a fair few hours to get back here."
"Your parents are on vacation?" Merlin questions.
"Did I forget to mention that?"
"Yeah," Morgana mumbles.
"Now I'm starting to wonder what exactly we talk about all the time that makes us all seemingly forget to mention life changes," Merlin says to them just as the bus pulls up at the stop. Gwaine and Morgana take the only free seat with both spots free and Merlin stands up next to them holding onto one of the handles so that they can continue their conversation. Two stops later a blonde boy hops on the bus and attempts to carelessly shove past Merlin. Merlin, being the stubborn person that he is, refuses to move out of principle and then the pair stumble and almost fall over when the bus starts moving.
"Can you move?" the blonde asks sarcastically.
"Ask politely," Merlin responds. The two boys turn to glare at each other and Merlin, with his strangely excellent memory, remembers this as the boy he threw his drink on in a bookstore four years ago. The blonde's glare changes to one of confusion and familiarity.
"Do I know you?" he asks.
"Uh, nope, I've got no idea who you are."
"No, I swear I've met you somewhere before."
"Nah, I've never met you before in my life, friend," Merlin informs him in a nervous tone, before he moves out of the blondes way, flourishing his hand in a way that is supposed to signify to the blonde boy Merlin's allowance to let him pass. The blonde turns to look at Morgana and Gwaine.
"Yeah," the blonde says, "I know you lot, you're Gwen's friends," he looks like he's trying not to smile at them, and Merlin is sort of wondering why someone would try to suppress a smile. "She talks about you lot all the time, she has pictures of you lot in her scrapbook."
"Who are you?" Gwaine asks.
"Oh, I'm Arthur, I go to the same school as Gwen, we're good friends," he explains.
"You're her ex-boyfriend?" Morgana questions.
"I see why she broke up with you," Merlin mumbles. Arthur turns to look at him, and his face has changed back to the slightly confrontational look he had before.
"What's that supposed to mean?" the blonde asks.
"It means you're a bit of an arse," Merlin tells him.
"You've known me less than five minutes," Arthur complains.
"Yeah, and you were giving me attitude, just like when I was fourteen."
"What?" Arthur looks genuinely quite perplexed. "Wait, how old are you now?"
"I'm turning eighteen," Merlin says proudly. Recognition passes through Arthur's eyes.
"You!" he almost yells, which causes most of the people on the bus to turn and stare at him. "You're that kid that threw coke in my face four years ago."
"You had it coming," Merlin stubbornly retorts. It's at this moment in the argument that Arthur stops thinking rationally and automatically tackles Merlin on a moving bus and the pair end up scuffling childishly on the floor. It's also the moment where the bus driver stops said moving bus, and throws the pair off.
"You know, it's your fault we got kicked off the bus," Arthur says to Merlin as they walked down the street side by side.
"It's not my fault you're a dick," Merlin retorts. This leads to another childish scuffle between the pair.
On his eighteenth birthday Merlin wakes up to find his phone floating above his face. Merlin has a sleepy moment where this seemingly makes perfect sense to him. Then he wakes up, and panics, and the phone stops magically floating above him and smacks him in the face. Which with the black eye he still has on his face from getting into a fight with Arthur two days ago, really hurts. Merlin decides the best way to forget about this moment is to take a nice long jog. The "long jog" last until he's stopped in the park by a lady sitting patiently on a park bench.
"Hello," she says in a friendly manner, "my name is Freya."
"I'm Merlin," he replies. "You're the girl who was swimming in the pond the other day."
"Yes. I'm a Lady of the Lake."
"Um, I hate to break it to you, but that's not really a lake," he pauses to look at said body of water sceptically. "It's a duck pond."
"Well, there aren't any lakes around here," Freya says.
"Why do you have to stay around here?" Merlin asks.
"To inform certain witches and warlocks about their destiny," she explains, "and teach them magic and offer advice."
"I guess that makes you the Lady of the Duck Pond then."
"I suppose."
Merlin didn't plan on having a birthday part, he wouldn't know who to invite. It's not as if he's terrible at making friends, he's friendly enough and the girl's that work in the food court at the mall keep telling him he's rather adorable, but he doesn't really think many of his friends are the party type. He isn't even the party type. So on his birthday his closest friends decide to take him bowling. Morgana has apparently been planning this a long time, they're going to go out in the middle of the day and have some lunch while they're bowling, and afterwards they're going to the movies. Lancelot is the first to turn up at Merlin's house; he pulls into the drive way in an old looking seven seater four wheel drive with Gwen and Morgana riding as passengers. Gwaine turns up next with his girlfriend Elaine. Merlin sort of questions why Gwaine and Elaine walked to his house when they could've just gotten Lancelot to pick them up, and after Morgana glares at him for being the one to think rationally for once, they all pile into the car. On the drive to the bowling alley Elaine turns to Merlin to talk to him.
"Merlin," she says, "I think there's a crazy lady living in the park near your house."
"She's not crazy," Merlin defends, "I think she just likes ducks." Which, Merlin decides, is reasonable enough; it's an interest Merlin could base an entire friendship on, if he really wanted to. To be perfectly honest, Merlin wants to be friends with Freya, she's a little odd and she likes magic. It's not as if Merlin has ever met anyone in his life who was normal and interesting, so she lives in the park, who doesn't sometimes wish they could live amongst nature. "Plus, she's a nice enough girl," he tells Elaine. Elaine nods in understanding; she's a bit of an odd girl herself, if you really think about it.
That evening when they get back from bowling, the group wanders into the house, turns on the light and is welcomed by a large group of people yelling "surprise." Merlin is seemingly the only one surprised by this, which makes sense, when he thinks about it. He recognises everyone in the room, which is shocking to him, because he thought he had about six friends. After the initial welcome a few of the older guests, including his parents, wish him a happy birthday and then disappear out the front door to go off and do something that parents do when in large groups. After the older generation leaves Merlin is left with ten people his own age, one of which is Arthur and another of which is Freya, and they all play each other in Wii games, and eat crappy food and eventually sit down to watch whatever movies Morgana decided to get.
While everyone else is watching a movie Morgana drags Merlin out into the corridor to the bedrooms and looks at him very seriously.
"It's a lovely party," Merlin says, "I'm having fun; there's no need to look at me like that."
"I know," she looks around to make sure no one else is around. "Merlin, I can do magic," she confesses to him, "can you?"
"Why would I be able to?" Merlin asks.
"So you believe me when I say I can?"
"Sure, it sounds reasonable enough."
"Are you sure you can't do magic Merlin?"
"Well, this morning when I woke up my phone was floating above my head, but I didn't think it was worth mentioning."
"I think our group of friends might have some communication issues," Morgana tells him whilst rolling her eyes at him.
"What do you mean?" he asks.
"Well, you forget to mention that you can do magic, Gwaine forgets to mention that his parents left the country, Gwen forgets to mention that she got a new boyfriend. Is there anything else you're forgetting to mention?"
"Well, now that you mention it, Freya told me that she was a Lady of the Lake and that she was supposed to tell witches and warlocks in this area their destiny." As if on cue, Freya walks around the corner and into the corridor.
"Hello," she says with a kind smile. "Do you both know that you're magic yet?" Morgana looks at her with a deadpan expression, Merlin smiles brightly back at her.
"Yes," Morgana says, "we've covered that much."
"So I guess that means now I can train you for your destiny," Freya tells them both.
"Our destiny?" Merlin questions.
"Yep, it's both of your jobs to protect the future Court of Camelot."
"And who is the future Court of Camelot?" Morgana asks.
"Well, Arthur is the King, and Gwen is the Queen, and Lancelot is her Knight, Elaine is a Princess and Gwaine is her Knight, and you two get to be Advisors to the King and Queen." Freya tells them.
"None of that makes sense," Morgana tells her.
"I didn't mean it literally," Freya confesses, "you two are just supposed to protect them all until they fulfil their own destinies."
"You mean I have to protect Arthur?" Merlins asks and Freya nods. "Arthur Pendragon?" Frey nods again. "You must have the wrong Arthur, because this one's an idiot."
"I don't understand what that means metaphorically," Morgana complains, "is Gwen going to marry Arthur?"
"Excuse me!" Arthur butts in loudly, popping his head around the corner to look at the three of them. All three of them turned to look at him. "Are you finished with whatever strange lover's squabble you've got going over here? You're missing the movie."
"And you're a twat," Merlin retorted. This is the reason Arthur and Merlin got into yet another childish scuffle while a concerned Freya looked on and Morgana stood off to the side pondering metaphors and destiny.