AN: So Bradley loves soccer and apparently Colin used to work in a cinema (I met someone who used to work with him. They were thoroughly amused by my excitement. See bottom of fic for more details), and from those two facts I somehow arrived at this fic. It's a fairly light-hearted bit of fun, and I hope you enjoy reading it. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the legends. And I have also borrowed all of the actors names. This isn't written as a real-person-fic (though you can read that way if you like) – I just feel that if Merlin's going to be called anything other than Merlin, it's got to be Colin. I can't see him with any other name.

...

Just An Ordinary Day

...

There's nothing special about the day that gives Merlin any clue what's coming.

He's been working at the local cinema for a while now, patiently waiting for the day Arthur will walk back into his life, fresh from his recovery in Avalon and – while Merlin doesn't know the exact date it will happen – he does know it can't be too much longer. It's like he can feel Arthur getting closer each day – like a shadow that's been missing slowly reappearing.

Why it was a cinema that instinct told him to go and get a job at all those months ago, he hadn't known at the time, but he learnt a long time ago that his instincts come from his magic, and his magic is always right in these kinds of things, so he'd waltzed up to the manager a half a year ago and asked if they had any positions available.

By the end of the first day he'd known he'd made the right decision, because the person that the manager had asked to show him the ropes was Gwen.

Only… she was introduced as Angel, not Gwen.

His delight at seeing her again after so many years had been rapidly tempered by the realisation that she had no idea who he was and no memory of who she had been, and he'd had to reign in his nearly-overwhelming excitement quickly before her wary expression at his exuberance turned into a serious concern that she was working with a creepy stalker of some kind.

"Sorry," he'd said, swallowing his distress that she didn't know who she was. He would work out how to deal with that later. "I, er… thought you were someone else. I'm Colin." Because he couldn't very well have a name like Merlin in this day and age, could he?

Merlin had held out his hand with a grin and Gwen (Angel – Angel, not Gwen) had only paused for a moment before she'd accepted his explanation with a tentative smile and reached out to shake hands.

"I'm Ang– " she'd started, and then her hand had touched Merlin's and she'd gasped, eyes going wide and a million emotions flickering past her eyes and her hand clenching tight to Merlin's as she'd stared at him with eyes as big as plates.

"Merlin?" she'd gasped a second later, breathless, and Merlin had blinked, surprised.

"…Gwen?" he'd asked, hesitant, not wanting to get his hopes up, but at the same time unable to quench the quiver of joy at the possibility that maybe…..

And then she'd given this strange squealy laugh of joy and thrown herself at him and hugged him until he'd thought he might pass out from lack of oxygen, and she was breathless and laughing and babbling a whole bunch of words without pausing for oxygen and he'd accepted that yes, somehow, she remembered.

It was the skin-to-skin contact that caused all of her memories to come back in one big sudden whoosh, Merlin worked out. He'd had no idea when he'd held out his hand that that was what would happen, but he was quite pleased with the surprise. If it had been some other, more complex trigger, it might have taken forever to work out.

It had taken Guinevere a few days to get used to the changes – to manage to reconcile her memories as Angel with her memories as Guinevere, and to work out how to have both lives present in the one mind at the same time – but she got there in the end. Her memories of Guinevere had influenced her behaviour as Angel somewhat, but that couldn't be helped, and it was nothing significant enough to draw unwanted attention to herself anyway, so Merlin was unconcerned. It was little things – her speech suddenly improved, and she had a more confident air about her – especially when it came to delegating work or dealing with unhappy customers or showing the new person the ropes.

Much as had been the case when Gwen and Merlin had first met in Camelot, Angel and Colin got on like a house on fire, and it wasn't long before rumours started going around that they were dating. The first time they heard one of those rumours, they'd looked at each other for half a second in shocked-but-amused surprise and then started laughing so hard that they'd cried.

Gwen had (re)introduced Merlin to her brother as soon as possible. He was away a lot, but he'd come home for a weekend a month or so after Guinevere remembered who she really was, and Angel had organised a catch-up dinner so that her brother and friend could meet.

Adetomiwa was his name, and Merlin almost instantly decided to never bother with that mouthful and to just call him Elyan all the time. He and Gwen called each other Colin and Angel at work as often as they remembered to, simply to avoid the inevitable questions that would otherwise arise, but occasionally the other name would slip out and their colleagues had just accepted that they had nicknamed each other. Elyan's 'nickname' would fit right in with the theme.

Elyan been pleasant enough when he'd arrived at Gwen's place, greeting Colin with that mostly-cheerful (but with just the vaguest hint of a threatening undertone) manner that pretty much all older brothers use when meeting their sister's boyfriend for the first time, and Merlin had chuckled to himself quietly at the observation. Over the past month, Angel had spoken a lot of Colin whenever she'd been chatting to her brother on the phone, and clearly Adetomiwa had assumed – like so many of their colleagues had already done – that they were dating.

It was amusing, how everyone automatically assumed that.

"I'm Colin," Merlin had said with a grin, holding out his hand to shake Adetomiwa's and looking forward to what was about to happen.

And then Angel's brother had nodded (if a little stiffly) and returned the gesture, and their skin had met and Elyan's eyes had gone huge in his face and his jaw had dropped open in a wordless gasp, and Merlin's grin had widened to the point of it being almost painful.

"Merlin?" he'd gasped, eyes wide, and Merlin had clapped his free hand on the knight's shoulder.

"Elyan," he'd returned warmly, and that had been enough.

Elyan had let out a loud whooping laugh of baffled-but-delighted joy, and lunged forwards to collect Merlin in a crushing hug, and then he'd spun and re-spotted Angel and half-hollered, "Gwen!" and thrown himself at her too, and then the three of them had been laughing and hugging and chattering all at once, and they'd stayed up until well into the night reacquainting themselves with each other before finally passing out scattered across Angel's couches and armchairs.

Lik Gwen, it had taken a couple of days for Adetomiwa to settle back into life after his memories had been triggered, and Merlin hadn't been the only one who could see the parallels between the Elyan of then and now. Gwen had remarked more than once since then at the changes in her brother; prior to his remembering that he was Elyan, he'd always been off traveling and doing his own thing and she'd hardly had any contact with him. However – after remembering who he was – he'd started traveling less, rented an apartment nearish to Angel's and got himself a job at a nearby mechanic, and hardly two days ever went by without him catching up with Angel and/or Colin.

It was so much like the first time around that Merlin had chuckled to himself about it more than once. Time passed and so much changed, but at the same time so much stayed the same.

It was… oddly relieving.

Merlin had decided rather quickly after meeting Angel's brother that he could get used to this; this overwhelming joy that he felt each time he found another of his friends, and he'd wondered then – naturally, really – how long it would be until he found Arthur.

In Camelot, Arthur was the first he'd met, while Elyan had been next-to-last. Clearly, things weren't sticking to the original order this time around. So did that mean Arthur would be the next that Merlin would find? Or maybe it would be one of the others?

The possibility that Arthur could be right around the corner sent an excited hum racing through his blood like he'd been electrocuted, but he'd pulled it quickly back under control. No sense in getting over-excited about something that hadn't happened yet. It would be disheartening if he allowed himself to believe that he was only days away from finding his King while in reality it could yet be months.

Merlin had been patient for centuries. He could be patient for a while longer.

And as it turned out, he'd had been right to not let his hopes get too high, because Arthur was not the next one he found.

It was a good few weeks before Gwaine arrived.

In all his long-haired, roguishly-charming glory, the man had (apparently – neither Angel nor Colin had been there to see it happen, but they'd heard all about it afterwards from more than one witness) sauntered up to the (female) manager one day and shamelessly flirted his way into a job. When they'd been told about it later, neither Merlin nor Gwen had been surprised to hear that he'd made a bit of a scene.

Skint broke, the man had been, and he'd figured that working at a cinema would be a pretty easy gig, and really, it would have been more surprising if the manager had been able to resist his charms long enough to not hire him. But she hadn't, and when he'd been given the customary tour of the place, he and his appointed guide had gone past Gwen first.

Merlin had heard her shriek of joy from where he stood, surrounded by whirring iced-soda machines and exploding popcorn, but he'd been serving a customer at the time so hadn't been able to investigate. It hadn't been necessary, as it turned out, because not a minute later Gwen's voice – much closer, suddenly; she must have run from wherever she'd been – had come from out the back of the Candy Bar.

"Merlin – Merlin!" she'd practically shrieked, unbridled joy clear in her voice, and then Merlin had known that something significant had happened because they were usually much more reserved with their 'nicknames' than to holler them across a crowded mall.

He'd hurriedly finished up with the customer he was serving and then – ignoring protocol and the rather long line of people waiting to be served – grabbed the "Counter Closed" sign from under the desk and left the other employee he'd been working in the Candy Bar with to deal with the rest of the customers, and dashed as fast as he could to where he'd heard Gwen.

Gwaine was standing next to Guinevere, his arm held tight in her grasp and a thoroughly bemused expression on his face as he'd regarded her quivering-with-excitement form in confusion.

"Well darling," he'd said, his Irish accent just as strong as ever. "I have to say – people have shown delight at meeting me in the past, but you take the cake, by far."

"This is my friend, Colin," Angel had announced breathlessly as soon as Colin arrived, her expression beaming with joy as she literally bounced from foot to foot in her excitement.

Gwaine had raised his eyebrows at her, evidently amused but thoroughly confused as to why she was so excited to introduce him to a friend of hers, and then Colin had smiled cheerfully (his grin had been so huge it would have been physically impossible for it to get any bigger) said, "Hi – I'm Colin," and held his hand out for Gwaine – or whatever his name was this time around – to shake.

Gwaine had sent the pair of them another perplexed look before shrugging a little and reaching his own hand out to meet Merlin's.

And so it was that the man became involved in his second scene for the day.

Just like Elyan and Gwen before him, Gwaine's eyes had gone wide and his hand had tightened around Merlin's as the memories all unfolded in his head, and his eyes had flashed from Colin to Angel and back to Colin at least twice before he'd gasped, "Merlin? Gwen?"

And Merlin – his grin wider than should have been physically possible – had half-laughed with happiness and said, "Gwaine," and then the knight had been laughing and shouting with joy as he'd embraced first Merlin, then Gwen, then both of them at the same time, and he may or may not have been the only one who'd been laughing and shouting as the three of them bounced around beside the Candy Bar of a somewhat busy mall, utterly oblivious to the curious looks they were attracting.

Gwaine's name was Eoin, now, and from what Merlin could tell, his name was the only thing that had changed.

"Gwaine always was my favourite knight," Eoin had grinned, pleased as anything and with a great big dollop of pride mixed in there too, and he'd still had an arm around Merlin's shoulders and an arm around Gwen's waist, and Merlin had suspected he wouldn't be letting go any time soon. "Guess now we know why."

"I'll have to call Elyan and tell him we've found you," Gwen had said, already digging into her pocket to fish out her phone, and Gwaine's face had – if possible – brightened even further at the promise of reuniting with another of his didn't-know-he-missed-them friends.

Predictably, Elyan had been ecstatic, and the four had made rapid plans to head to Gwen's after work for a proper catch up.

Merlin had wondered if they ought not find another place to hold their gatherings, because the neighbours in Angel's apartment block were likely to start getting snotty if these noisy, long-into-the-night reunions continued.

Life had rolled on and Gwaine had slotted in wonderfully with the rest of Angel and Colin's co-workers at the cinema (it was the longest-lasting job he'd ever had, Eoin confided to Colin one day, and that was just so much like Gwaine that Merlin couldn't help but smile), and the three of them and Elyan spent almost all their free time together.

The four of them had kept a constant eye out for anyone else they knew, but four months had passed with no new reunions at all, so maybe that's why – now – this ordinary, ordinary day (that really isn't) catches Merlin so much by surprise.

Eoin's checking tickets at the door, Angel's working in the Candy Bar and Colin's putting out the queue-dividers in preparation for the cinematic version of peak-hour (after three-thirty on a Friday, when all the kids come in after school and then later all the adults come in from work, looking forward to starting their weekends with a nice relaxing movie) and a gradual build-up of approaching noisy chatter catches his attention.

It's a crowd of young men, Colin realises, all of them chatting loudly and laughing and shoving each other playfully as they approach the cinema. A football team, judging by the matching jerseys that all of them are still wearing.

Colin's about to go back to what he was doing when something – he's not sure what, exactly – catches his attention and he looks back at them sharply.

And then he spots the blonde man walking in the middle of the eight-or-so men, shoving good-naturedly at a shaggy-haired man and flanked closely by two others – one with dark features and another taller and musclier than anyone else in the group – and the floor falls out from under Merlin's feet.

Arthur.

It's Arthur.

He can't believe it – it's Arthur.

One thousand, five hundred years and Arthur's just practically waltzed in, decked out in green and yellow and splattered haphazardly with mud, and Merlin's magic swells with joy and oh, this moment is somehow so much more exciting than he even imagined.

Gwen's spotted him too, Merlin realises distantly – the startled, cut of squeal of surprised delight is clue enough, and Merlin knows that that will have attracted Gwaine's attention too, and even as Merlin stands there with his jaw slack staring at the approaching group of football players, Arthur is getting closer and closer.

Arthur's the Team Captain, Merlin realises suddenly, and isn't that just so Arthur. The little Captain patch on his chest is white against the green jersey, and it comes as absolutely no surprise to Merlin that even now – one and a half thousand years later – Arthur is still a leader among men.

And maybe his subconscious noticed it before, but all of a sudden Merlin's brain registers the three walking closest to Arthur, and – yep, there it goes – his heart stops working for a moment.

Leon, Lancelot and Percival – looking so strange in their yellow-and-green kits instead of the red and gold that Merlin's so used to – surround Arthur on three sides, unconsciously flanking their King and Captain even without remembering their former lives, and Merlin wonders briefly if it's possible to die from happiness.

This is all of them.

Guinevere, and the Knights of the Round Table – all of them, here and alive and complete and oh, Merlin sincerely hopes that Angel's neighbours got a good night's sleep last night, because there's going to be another rowdy reunion at her place again tonight and Merlin still hasn't moved an inch and the football team is practically on top of him now.

The group of men is a mere metre or two away, heading for the maze of queue-dividers that Colin's just put up, and Merlin's just wondering how to go about convincing Arthur to shake his hand (because unlike with the others, Merlin has no excuse this time, and it might look a little odd to just randomly walk up and introduce himself for no apparent reason), but then Arthur glances up at Merlin in passing.

It's just a brief glance – the type of glance everyone gives strangers in a crowded place; long enough to see their features, not long enough to pay proper attention – and then suddenly Arthur's eyes snap back to the warlock and his feet stop moving and his body stills as his eyebrows pull down just the tiniest bit – the way they always did when he was trying to catch a thought that was just out of reach, and maybe Merlin won't have to find an excuse to introduce himself after all.

"Bradley?" one of Arthur's teammates asks when the rest of the team notice their Captain's sudden stop, and Merlin's brain absently files the name away for future reference.

Arthur – Bradley – doesn't acknowledge the query (Merlin doesn't think he even hears it, to be honest); he continues to stare at Merlin, his eyes narrowed and his brow pulled down in a perplexed frown.

"I… know you from somewhere," Arthur says hesitantly, a frown between his eyes as he tries to place Merlin's face, and Merlin grins – grins so bright that he wonders distantly how Arthur isn't blinded by it.

Gwaine and Gwen are watching from the sides – Merlin can see them out the corner of his eye, the two of them nearly bursting with excitement as they wait for what they know is coming – and Lancelot, Percival and Leon (Santiago, Tom and Rupert, Merlin finds out later) are standing just behind Arthur, waiting patiently for their Captain and looking vaguely curious as they wonder where Arthur – Bradley – might know this skinny, dark-haired cinema-employee from.

Merlin will get to them in a second; he'll shake their hands and their past lives and real names and all their memories will come flooding back to them, and between them and Arthur remembering who they are and greeting Merlin, Gwaine and Gwen, the whole lot of them are going to cause a serious scene – so much bigger than their reunion with Gwaine a few months ago – and Merlin kind of wishes Elyan could be here for this but that can't be helped, and anyway, all that will happen in a moment.

Right now Merlin has a King to greet.

"You do," Merlin agrees with a grin, and holds out his hand. "I'm Merlin."

…

end

…

AN: I hope you liked! And I hope it brought a smile to your face in the aftermath of 5x13 (I sobbed. Sobbed).

Now - the inspiration: I was in Ireland a little while ago, and my sister and I met Eoin Macken on the street. Absolutely, totally LOVELY guy, and he chatted to my sister and I for a solid ten minutes – the only reason we had to leave was because our tour guide hollered at us to get back on the bus (and when what had just happened hit us properly I think we both started hyperventilating. I know I did). No one on the bus knew who he was (fie, for shame!) but when we explained, one of our fellow tourers goes, "Ooh, that show! I used to work with the main guy – what's his name? Colin? Yeah – he used to work in a cinema with me. It was always so weird watching buses go by with his face on it once they started advertising the show…"

So, yeah. That's where this fic came from. And, like I said – I think we're all in need of a bit of light-hearted entertainment right now.

Please let me know what you thought!

Bundi