AN: Ho, dearies! Posting a new oneshot here. :D Unbeta-ed, unedited, not proofread, so please forgive any mistakes that would be spotted.
Sea and Sky
He watched her eyes flutter as the salty sea breeze hit their faces. She kept her gaze on the thin horizon, where the seemingly endless vastness of blue met an unreachable constant play of colour of the sky. Her raven locks flew and danced with the wind's pull as she strained to keep her eyelids open against it. The deep waters in the distance were restless, trying to reach the infinite and limitless dome of life's existence in frantic greed. They kept their hands buried deep in their pockets, salvaging what little warmth they could.
The sky had cast a bright glow in the farthest distance, and it faded into shades of lavenders and violets that disappeared into a shimmering darkness. The last rays of the drowning star set fire to the thin wisps of clouds into smoldering shades of reds and pinks of smoke as they drifted in a lazy invisible current. It was in ironic and beautiful sight: a heaven in serenity of an infinite expanse of life and possibilities, colliding with a dark, angry chaos of waves from below. It was breath taking, and he wanted it to stop.
"Stop," Merlin croaked out in a voice hoarse from its disuse. His nails dug in deeper into his palms as his hands enclosed into fists, her cold eyes looking on, the force of the breeze growing stronger into a lashing wind, stinging like needles on his skin, as the sea's giant waves reached higher and higher in its futile efforts. The flowing green scarf loosely wrapped around her pale neck succumbed to the wind's clumsy grip as it had trailed and whirled behind her, losing itself into the blinded distance where they faced their backs. She paid no heed to her surroundings, to the cold, to him, as she focused her icy stare unto the live and unrelenting waters.
"Please, just stop. Please." It was begging. It was a plea that slipped from his lips, and he didn't care. She turned her pale jade orbs to him at that, with light amusement and annoyance and anger swimming in her eyes. It turned into a glare, cold but blazing at the same time, and he shivered. But they softened in seeing the look in his eyes and his plead. The raging invisible storm started to cease as he reached for her freezing fingers, the waters dying down in peace as it swayed into rest and tranquility.
"Thank you," he whispered into her hair as he pulled her closer. He could feel it, her stillness in his embrace that indicated the fight for dominance in her emotions. He knew, she wanted to pull him closer, but the tears that flooded her eyes told him that she needed to push him away.
And she did.
His heart clenched tightly in his chest as he watched her turn her eyes back onto the waters. Merlin immediately looked down to her feet as the still strong winds, the growing chaos within the dark world around them, and the sudden hot tears stung his eyes. But as his heart sank, he raised his chin and looked on unto the still waters of the Lake of Avalon, feeling the magic radiating in the air around them, reveling in the feeling of the momentary serenity. He stared in anticipation, waiting, as he tried to put his heartbreaks and tears aside to make his self face the growing darkness in the world that he could not prevent.
And as he felt long, gentle fingers reach and weave to entwine with his, he couldn't keep in the strangled and relieved laugh that bubbled in his throat, his own hand enclosing even tighter around hers.
It might not be so bad after all, he thought.
They waited with silent anticipation.
The trees' branches swayed and rustled their leaves to fill in the thick absence of sound, the swift winds hissing into their ears as they kept their steady hard gazes upon the soft waves of the waters. The air pricked their cold skins with a growing energy and force, as if the earth and nature themselves were trying to send a message.
Something was coming. Soon.
With their fingers entwined and their palms pressed together, their hands braced the cold of the nearing of winter, of yet another time with their world frozen and buried under bitter ice and dark, grey skies. The sounds of flocks of dark birds screeched and fled from the weather. Their hair lashed out and their hard eyes began to water in the violent winds, but they moved not an inch. Firmly, with solid resolve and an iron will, they stood. Hand-in-hand, they waited.
When time was but a distant idea and concept in their minds, the shapes and colours and space around their visions blurring into one and into nothing and everything as they reserved their eyes for only one thing, it was then that everything suddenly slowed into almost a halt. The leaves' dance left but a whisper in the air, the lake's surface almost a still mirror of the realm above it, and the magic in the air lulled into a soft throb, seemingly almost about to explode and seep through their lungs.
It was time.
Morgana turned to Merlin, her grip on his hand growing tighter and tighter by each moment. He turned his head to her in a mix of confusion and curiosity, and for a while, everything else melted away around them. Pale jade eyes met soft blue. Slowly, she stood on her toes, fluttered her lashes closed, and lightly, sweetly, against the pandemonium that reigned over their lives and worlds, she pressed her lips on his. Merlin stood paralysed for a few moments till he deepened the kiss, the hunger and desire and frustration built over the years merely a dull heat in the background as they were pushed aside. They let this moment of affection be sweet as they sought comfort in the other, both terrified of what might come, but really, it was too late for regrets, and they wouldn't have it all in any other way.
The sound of loud bursts and splashes in the waters disrupted the quiet hum of the breeze that drifted across the area. They broke apart and once more directed their eyes upon the lake of Avalon, the two beings of magic standing side-by-side, the light and the dark, watching as a head that bore golden hair surfaced from the waters. His deep blue eyes wandered till they settled on the pair by the shore, his face an unreadable calm, and his eyes kept on drifting down on the two's clasped hands. The man, his body covered in chainmail that shone in its wet state under the dim natural light and his hands in thick wet gloves, trudged through the waters as he headed towards them, and Morgana could feel Merlin's trembling fingers in hers.
She pressed her hand against his cheek and forced him to look at her, and she saw the doubt and fear and worry that filled his eyes. Morgana smiled softly. This was not the time for letting old bitter memories come into the frontlines. This was no time to let healed scars bleed once more, and it was certainly not the time for dwelling into the distant past that was so long ago. This was not the time for her cold and aloof demeanour to show to just simply distance herself from him, and so she kissed him once more, a peck on the lips, to reassure him, just to tell him that everything would be fine without any words to say.
When she pulled back, she saw that the tears that began to flood his eyes weren't of pain and sorrow.
"Thank you," he whispered, pressing his forehead against hers, before giving his attention back to the waters where his best friend was coming towards them.
"And how would you explain how all of this happened?" Arthur demanded with his hands on his hips as he glared daggers at Merlin.
Merlin couldn't help the snort that he tried to hold back. He readjusted their hands and began rubbing circles on Morgana's wrist with his thumb. "I'm not your servant anymore, you clotpole. I don't think I actually need to answer that." He held his chin high and his jaw was set, but there was mirth playing in his eyes. At the pointed look and raised eyebrow sent by his king, he rolled his eyes and sighed in defeat.
"Over a thousand of years, that's what happened," he muttered, but loud enough for Arthur to hear. "And I can't believe I've waited all that time to be greeted like this, even if you were a prat and these kinds of things actually were to be expected." Merlin sent him a cheeky grin, Morgana's hand tightening around his as he felt her begin to shake in suppressed laughter.
But Arthur's expression sobered from any amusement and soon the mood for light banter was gone, his eyes settling on his sister beside his best friend.
Morgana immediately stilled beside him, the laughter dying in her throat, as she raised her chin to meet his gaze with challenge. Arthur let a small smile grace his lips and nodded to her direction, which she returned.
The Once and Future King once more started to walk through the waters of the lake of Avalon, towards fulfilling the destiny that had sought them out from the very beginning and was prepared for them: to lead man towards its Golden Age.
Terrifying, but worth it.
AN: REVIEWS PLEASE :)) Please? I'll love to hear, or read, rather, from all of ya.