Darkness… Nothing but darkness… Utter, complete… I'm suffocation. Drowning in the dark.

There's a light. It's sending the dark away. Making everything white. A lifeboat, dragging me up, giving me air.

I'm swimming now, up to the surface. Is that…? I break through, water sounding musically around me, as I look at HIM.

"You were dead.", I say, struck to simplicity by my own overwhelming emotions.

"I still am. But I'm coming back. You'd better be waiting."

I woke up.

M&A

"It was just a dream." , I thought, getting up. "It didn't mean anything."

And yet, I couldn't get over how real it felt, how ALIVE he felt. All my memories of him, locked away in a dark corner of my mind, set free, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Suddenly, I found myself hoping against hope.

"He's coming back. Finally, after all these years, Arthur is coming back to me."

M&A

It was a long drive to the lake. I had gotten my license as soon as cars were made. Anyway, traffic was on my side today. Barely any cars, and absolutely no trucks. I think I would have had a fit if there was.

The lake with the castle… Arthur died on this shore… And now he's going to come back out, living as only he could.

I sat on the dock, waiting, for hours. Only when the sun finally disappeared did it hit me (like a ton of bricks, I might add) that he wasn't coming.

It was an even longer drive home, my tears blurring the lines in front of me.

M&A

Two AM and I got home exhausted. I set my keys in the bowl beside the door, on the table under the light switch. I was so tired… Not because of the hour, but because of…

"Hello?"

That voice. His voice. Right in front of me. In my apartment.

"He's here.", I managed to think, before I dropped into a cold faint.

M&A

I woke up in bed. It was still night.

"Was it all just a bad dream?"

He walked in carrying a tray.

"You slept all day. It's ten o'clock now. I thought you could use some dinner.", he said to me. "I thought you might be hungry when you woke up."

I just stared at him, taking in every inch of my king. I couldn't speak. I was in awe of the life that blossomed in front of my eyes. I was literally looking at a dead man walking.

He shifted slightly, obviously extremely embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be here… I'll just go then.", he mumbled.

My ability to speak cam back to me suddenly. "Arthur."

He snapped to attention, his eyes becoming unfocused, and I sensed something in his mind break. A spasm ran across his body like a continuous earthquake, emotions and memories associated with his past life flooding into his mind.

Finally it stopped, an age and a second later.

"Merlin?"

I wept.

M&A

We were sitting at my table, drinking tea out of chipped mugs and eating hot pockets. I had gotten over my sadness, and now indignant rage threatened to overcome me.

A sigh. "Merlin, get the stick out of your arse and ask…"

"What happened?"

"I remember the battle. You tried to get me to the cup. We were on the shore, and I… Died." He swallows. "Then I woke up as a two year old child. I don't remember anything before that. Then, yesterday, I felt the uncontrollable urge to come here. I didn't know why, but I trusted my instinct."
I snorted a laugh. "You always were one to follow your instincts. As I recall, it got you in a lot of trouble."

Arthur looked sheepish. "Yes, I do believe it did. Not to mention that it still does."

We sat in companionable silence for a while, lost in our own thoughts about the past. After a while, I felt a prickling on the back of my neck, and turned to see Arthur staring at me.

Rather self-consciously, I asked him why he was staring at me.

"Well, it's just that… I don't know. Something about you just seems different that before."

"Of course I would…", I reply bitterly. "A few centuries alone will do that to a man."

Arthur looked surprised. "You haven't gotten together with anyone over the past couple hundred years?"

I shake my head, suddenly and immensely depressed. The moment of truth had arrived. "Of course not. If I dated anyone human, they'd just die, and I didn't want to deal with the pain. I couldn't date anyone supernatural, your father, Uther, had them hunted to the brink of extinction. That's beside the fact that…"

I stopped. My fumbling train of thought was taking me down tracks I've been to before, but never in the company of others. Definitely not with the one the thoughts were about.

A hand over mine. Two. Eyes glinting with passion under half-lidded eyelids. "Besides the fact that…?", he whispered hoarsely.

And now for the zenith. I looked my prince straight in the eyes and said, "I love you, Arthur. Always have."

Two men drowned that night. Two deities came out of their love. Two gods out of their embrace. And the last thing I hear before falling asleep in his arms?

"I love you too."

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