Daydream on the Run
(Collect a Million Years)
(Summary: People live off of indulgence of happily ever afters. Arthur hasn't quite gotton there yet.)
Merlin BBC. Arthur Pendragon. Merlin/Arthur. Reincarnation.

There's this guy.

-

"Do you love me?" Vivian is beautiful.
"Yes." She is his fiancee.
"Why?" She doesn't know everything about him.
"I don't know. Because you're you." (He's a liar.)

-

"You're an absolute idiot." Arthur can't fight off the laugh in his voice and it bleeds into his words, takes the sting from them. Merlin smiles and it's a bit like looking into the sun, only not. Brighter, more familiar, less ignorable, something that fills up his chest and drags his every breath until he shakes. "You're the only one who seems to think so, Arthur." Merlin's words are far too playful and his lips a bit too full and Arthur almost can't take it for a second. It's OK though, he's fine.

-

Arthur has always dreamed of his mother. Little fragments of sight and sound that piece together what he imagines his mother was like before she died. Sandalwood perfume and blond hair against a velvet blue background. A sweet hum in the air and autumn leaves flying pass. A shining crown with sapphire stones. Lately, he hears her whisper. She says "Be happy."

-

Uther Pendragon has it all planned out. Ever since Arthur could remember there's been this imaginary list in his father's mind. The king of all To Do lists, really. And as Arthur grows older the list grows longer until he thinks there's no real end to it.

Take over his father's company.

Get Married to an acceptable woman of money.

Be perfect.

-

Vivian isn't cruel, exactly. Not in the way most people could be. She's high-matience and ignorant and someone who would be depicted as the evil stepsister of someone in a fairytale. Yet she was raised that way and has never had anyone to try to teach her something different. He tries to hold on to that fact as best he can, even though most people wonder why he bothers. Merlin gets it, though.

-

There are shadows in one of his dreams. They loom above and steal the light from the sky, sucking it ininin and he fears them. He's wearing armour and it weighs him down, making his knees almost, not quite, buckle and his grip weaken on his sword. He's holding someone's wrist in his other hand, though, and his fingers are steady over the pulse. It's a stuttering sound and that itself is more frightening that the shadows. He fights.

-

"So, married." Merlin's voice is perfectly normal, but his smile is a bit awkward around the edges. "Yeah, married." Nothing about Arthur is normal today. The black and white colors of his suit seem to be draining him and his tie cutting off whatever air he might have had. Something in his head is angry at the world, wondering why things can't be better, why he has to repeat this over and over again. Arthur hasn't ever been able to fully understand what that voice means, but he thinks he's learning. "All the happiness, yeah?"

-

You see, there's this guy.

(But it'll be fine.)