Merlin/Arthur
AU - set in the modern age.
A/N: None of the characters are mine, but are the property of the BBC. (Darnit.) This is just a little writing exercise thing I did. I quite like it so thought I'd share it with you guys. =D Like it, comment. Criticism, comment. Anything, comment.
Merlin knows that people never stay for long. In the beginning there'd been Hunith, his mother, who would wipe the blood from his knee and lecture him gently on the benefits of looking where he walked. Then Uncle Gaius had been hurled into his life, amid the epileptic memories of dingy alleyways, dark figures and his mother lying on a hospital bed, as pale and drawn as the snow falling outside.
Gwen, who'd accidentally thrown a pritt stick at his head on the first day of high school and from then on looked after the gawkly, black-haired teen who was forever bumbling into things. Then Lance, with his beaming smile and eyes that crinkled gently as Gwen stumbled her way through some form of apology and who'd threatened to steal her away to France every lunchtime, then one day, did.
Will, with carefree laughter that made something in Merlin's belly curl and fizz, who gave frantic hurried kisses stolen behind the sheds at break, hands in hair, breathless moans in mouths, skin against skin. And several months later who'd been hit by a car, died in a coma.
University, a flutter of papers, gallons of coffee, dark rings under eyes. Graduation, thick confident strokes against a blank canvas, dreams unfurling across the rough material. A gallery, a selling, a name, a style, an artist.
A coffee shop, falling again, a dark brown stain dancing across an expensive blue shirt. Arthur Pendragon. Anger, bickering, tentative smiles, in-jokes, painful laughter. Then, eyes meeting across the table, hands frantically reaching, grasping collars, ripping buttons, chuckling, flailing, beds, faster, harder, colours whirling, flying, soaring, until…white oblivion.
Now this.
Joy, pure happiness. Shoulders cradle heads, skin against skin. Gentle snores in the darkness, synchronised breathing. Soft sheets envelope love with fabric wings. Legs entwined, rain outside. This time it's forever.
