Uh, oops? I posted a version of this yonks ago, but I reread it and saw how awful it was, so… yeah.
This is an incredibly slight crossover with the Shapeshifter series by Ali Sparkes. If you haven't read it, it doesn't matter, but if you have… eh, it was just a convenient story to use.
Good luck!
"Merlin, tell me that you're home!" Arthur shouted as he stomped through the door of their shared apartment and then slammed it shut. Wincing at the loud noise and the impact it had on his already throbbing head, he stalked through their miniscule kitchen and into the lounge room in time to see Merlin sit up on the couch, yelp in surprise, flail, and fall to the ground in an undignified heap.
Arthur stared. "You never cease to amaze me, Merlin," he said slowly, a smile appearing fleetingly before disappearing again in time to another nasty throb.
"I was sleeping," his roommate grumbled from out of sight, before sitting up and glaring. All it did was make him look more comical; his ruffled hair and far too large ears already did the job.
Arthur flung himself facedown onto the couch Merlin had so recently vacated. His position could only be described as a sprawl; feets hanging over the armrest, one arm over the back of the couch and one dangling onto the floor. We really need to move to a bigger place, he thought distractedly.
"Father went ballistic today," he moaned. "I barely made it out alive," he added, peering down at Merlin to see if he was gaining any sympathy. He wasn't, unsurprisingly.
"You're father is ballistic every day," Merlin argued, standing up and then plonking down on Arthur's back, who replied only with a surprised oof. "I am honestly, swear to God, scared of him."
Arthur twisted his head to look at Merlin. With his hair grown long in an attempt too hide his rather large ears and ink on his hands and face, Merlin looked exactly like the sort of people his father ranted on about every other day. This was partly the reason why Arthur enjoyed spending so much time around Merlin. Arthur tried to ignore the other part, which was mainly that he considered Merlin very cute indeed. Not that he'd ever let the idiot know that.
Arthur grinned and squirmed, trying to throw Merlin off his back. "Don't worry, I'll protect you from the big bad Uther," he said exasperatedly, "if you'll get off me. How do you weigh so much, you're a twig! A stiff breeze could snap you in half!" Merlin rolled his eyes and stood up, stretching his arms upward. Arthur winced at the loud crack of his roommate's spine. It almost made him feel bad for the plan he was about to execute. Almost.
"You know…" Arthur sat up and leant towards his friend. "I'm so tired from work…" Merlin was looking at him sceptically now. He turned up the charm. "I would just love it if you cooked that delicious fried rice of yours…"
He sensed the moment Merlin caved and looked at him. Aha! he thought in triumph. I win! Merlin could never resist the Pendragon Puppy Dog Eyes ™. Sure enough, he saw a silly grin form on his friend's face.
"Oh, fine," he said, rolling his eyes and getting up. "But you owe me!" he called back from the kitchen at Arthur, who just smirked.
…-…-…-…
"Arthuuuuuuur!" A voice called out from the kitchen. Arthur turned on the couch and looked into the kitchen. Merlin was standing in the doorway, hands on hips, looking pained. "Come here, you lazy prat," he yelled, despite there being only a few foot between them. Arthur rolled his eyes but got up anyway, walking towards his roommate, who went back to darting back and forth in their kitchen. Just how he did that Arthur was not sure, when the room barely had enough space to move, but somehow Merlin managed to change the laws of physics like that. Arthur wouldn't have been surprised if Merlin just didn't expect them to apply to him, so they didn't. Merlin was an idiot like that.
The idiot in question stood over the stove top, staring at the boiling rice as though as if it was going to attack him. "You," he ordered, and for a second Arthur thought he was addressing the rice. "Cut up the onion over there," he continued, pointing at the vegetable on the bench next to him.
Arthur rolled his eyes again. "Who died and made you king?" he replied, reaching for the chopping knife.
"Same person who assigned me as your servant, apparently," Merlin shot back easily. They worked together in silence, Arthur cutting the onion and Merlin alternating between collecting other vegetables and staring threateningly at the rice. Of course, 'threatening' on Merlin was roughly equivalent to 'chipmunk impression' on anyone else. It was slightly endearing. Only slightly, mind you.
Despite his lack of culinary skill, Arthur was actually doing alright with cutting the onions. He even managed not to cry, which Merlin would have teased him mercilessly for, even though Merlin was the biggest girl Arthur had ever met and cried over everything. Everything. Arthur could still remember Merlin's three day long mope after reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
In any case, he was doing fairly well, until the knife bit into his thumb.
He swore. Very loudly. Merlin, who had been gathering the final ingredients, dropped his fork and almost jumped the short distance to Arthur. "You alright?" he asked anxiously, grabbing Arthur's thumb and examining it closely.
"No I'm bloody well not," Arthur snapped. He moaned and closed his eyes against the sight of the deep red blood welling out of the wound.
There was silence from Merlin, and then suddenly the pain had disappeared, and Merlin's hand with it. Arthur cracked an eye open and gaped. The cut in his thumb had vanished.
He looked at Merlin. His room mate had gone pale all of a sudden. "Merlin," he began, then stopped as he realised he didn't know what to say. Well, except from – "Did you just-?"
Merlin was shaking his head, but the hopeless expression on his face said otherwise. "I didn't mean to," he whispered, eyes darting everywhere except Arthur. Something in those eyes seemed to snap, and then Merlin was gone, off like a startled rabbit out the door that was inches away.
Arthur stood in the tiny kitchen, their meal forgotten, and watched the blood on his hand dry with no obvious source. Then he shook himself and followed his friend out the door.
He looked around – no Merlin in sight. But then again, Merlin was faster than he looked. It probably had something to do with being a complete twig. After a moment or two of staring, Arthur caught sight of the ladder a few feet away and remembered Merlin's love of clouds and stars and fresh air and all things that came with being on roofs, his love of a place where Arthur refused to go out of petty fear, and he knew where Merlin had run to. So Arthur took a breath told himself to stop being a girl, and climbed the ladder.
…-…-…-…
Merlin was lying flat on his back, one hand holding the other tightly, and wondering whether he should go back inside and pack or just jump off the roof and run.
He heard the rattling of the ladder he himself had flown up seconds ago and let a faint stirring of hope enter his heart. Arthur hated heights. Maybe their friendship wasn't destroyed beyond all hope of repair.
"What was that?" Arthur asked as he lay down beside Merlin. He had to admit, the stars did look quite nice from here.
Merlin sighed and turned his head to look at Arthur. "When I was younger, I… kind of started to heal people's injuries miraculously. Freaked everyone the shit out," he added, remembering his friend Gwen's expression when he had taken away her skinned knee for the first time. "Anyway, this man came and explained that kids all over the country were doing things like this, and there was a special kind of school for us."
"You mean like in X Men?" Arthur asked before realising he had just, in effect, called Merlin a mutant. He lowered his eyes. "Sorry," he mumbled.
Merlin laughed at his discomfort. "Yeah, kinda," he said. "Anyway, this one kid's twin sister sucked everyone's powers out – that was her power, she was a parasite – and the weaker ones lost their powers for about six months. Including me. The school never really picked up again, even after we got our powers back – the head guy was killed and a lot of us had moved out of Britain – so I went back to school and was normal," he finished. "Well, tried," he amended. "Still a freak in any case," he said with a bitter smile before looking away. He looked so sad that Arthur found himself replying instantly.
"Hey," he said forcefully, surprising himself by lifting a hand up to rest on top of Merlin's where it lay in between their heads. Merlin looked at him, shock evident but with a definite smile at the contact, and Arthur knew he hadn't been wrong in his estimate of Merlin's feelings. "You're not-"
He cut off as he felt something wet against his hand where it was connected to Merlin's. He looked down and saw a cut on Merlin's thumb, just like the one he had healed Arthur of.
"Merlin," Arthur started, lifting their joined hands into view between them, "care to explain this?"
Merlin looked away sheepishly. "Uh, well," he said, "after I got my powers back, like I said, I never did go back to that school, so I kind of… lost a little of my talent in that area," he finished guiltily.
Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose with his other hand. He could feel another headache coming on. Just his luck, when it finally looked like the moment to move past the best friend/roommate stage… "Are you telling me that every time you heal someone, you don't actually heal them at all, you just take their injuries onto yourself?"
"Maybe," Merlin mumbled.
Arthur sighed. "Is anyone a bigger idiot than you Merlin?" he said exasperatedly, but he could feel a smile breaking out on his face. Merlin was wearing a similar grin.
"Is anyone a bigger prat than you?" he retorted. Arthur rolled his eyes and, still holding Merlin's hand, stood up and stretched, dragging Merlin with him.
"Come on you," he said, walking towards the ladder. "I think Doctor Who is on."
Merlin visibly perked up. "Reckon so!" he said excitably. "Although that last episode was rubbish, those pirates, what was that about? I mean, if you're going to…"
Yeah, they'd be alright, Arthur thought as he carefully climbed down the ladder and listened to Merlin babble.
"Oh, and Merlin," he cut into his friend's babbling, "you want to tell me why you looked so happy to be holding my hand?"
Merlin looked at him from the top of the ladder, grin still in place, and jumped to the ground. Arthur flinched. "You want to tell me why you held it in the first place?" he shot back, but the reply was ruined by the fact that his ears were turning red.
"Ah, but that's for me to know and you to find out," Arthur said, risking a wink. The blush spreading from Merlin's ears to the rest of his face was definitely worth it.
Yes, life could definitely be worse.