Alright, so the get to know you period's gonna be quick cause i'm terrible and writing anything remotely happy.
I don't own Merlin or this plot format thing, much to my annoyance.
I'm also american and know little for your slang and such, sorry.
Merlin was staring at the ceiling, and all he saw was starving children and bleeding fathers that refused to bow to anyone. Merlin did this every morning since he returned, until the sickness in his throat would subside and he could breath without wanting to cry. This was his life, it had been ever since he left, it was what he was used to.
What he wasn't used to was Arthur Pendragon.
This was the first night they'd spent at the flat, two days after meeting. Arthur had slept there the first day, but Merlin had to pack. In all honesty Merlin was avoiding sleeping in a new place, avoiding the anxiety of waking up crying, blood and pleading faces fading back into his mind. No one knew about the nightmares, all they saw was dark bags under his eyes, and something just a little bit wrong in his features. He wasn't ready to tell anyone what he saw, because what he saw wasn't just the tortured souls of poverty and civil war. He didn't just see his father's face twisted in pain, bleeding out in an alleyway or his mother, limp and weak on a bed.
He saw a castle surrounded in smoke and fire. He heard cries that resonated in his soul, causing his fingertips to tingle with pain and guilt. He saw a pale face and green eyes staring at him in horror, dark hair fanned out behind a thin body, a betrayal beyond words written on their face. His nightmares were haunted by faceless people and creatures, screams and tears that followed him everywhere. He saw his father with long hair and a beard in his arms, brown eyes wide with pain.
Merlin saw a past he couldn't remember, and felt a pain he couldn't describe.
Merlin shut his eyes against the invisible smoke that burned them, held his breath to the fire that clawed into his throat. A few more minutes and he could face the world, a few more minutes and-
"Merlin!" Arthurs voice broke his concentration, and a strange deja vu over took the genius as he turned his head. "What the hell happened to my shoes?" Merlin growled something very unkind, and pushed his bedroom door open, only to almost slam right into Arthur. Royal blue eyes blinked down in a glare at him, and he matched it with a confused, sleepily look.
"How am I supposed to know?" Merlin hissed, pushing past a very disgruntled Arthur who just followed him into the main room.
"I've got to be at New Scotland Yard in an hour Merlin, I need my shoes!"
"I'm not your servant," Merlin felt strangely like he was lying, but ignored it as he prodded at the coffee maker. "How am I supposed to know where you put your shoes?"
"Whatever." Arthur growled, dropping to his stomach and searching under the ugly floral printed couch that had come with the flat. "Just help me look, would you?" The blonde man rolled onto his back, giving a defeated groan as he stared at the ceiling. Merlin peaked around the doorway from the kitchen to the main room, tilting his head to the side. "This is your fault." Arthur accused the ceiling, but Merlin assumed he was speaking to him.
"My fault?!"
"Yes, I don't know how but you are to blame!" Arthur complained, pushing his palms into his eyes. He began muttering curses in a long string. "I've been waiting two years for this and now I'm going to miss it because of shoes!" Merlin's chest constricted a little at the desperation in his flatmate's tone, and cursed his all to loving nature. Merlin snatched up the only other mug from the cupboard and filled it with coffee.
"How do you take it?" Merlin asked pleasantly, already done dropping two spoonfuls of sugar into his own.
"Black." Merlin hummed in reply and carefully walked into the room with two cups. He set Arthur's gently on the small, dark wood table, and cradled his to his chest. "Thanks?" Arthur eyed the glass as if expected it to sprout a tail and sing Lady Gaga to him, but gave a smile to Merlin. The dark haired man just rose an eyebrow slowly and took a sip of his own coffee, waiting for Arthur to start the conversation. "I'm applying for the Detective Programme."
Merlin nodded once, waiting for the blonde to continue. After a moment of just staring at each other Arthur got up in a flurry of motion and dove towards the bathroom. After the sound of at least one shampoo bottle hitting tile a loud 'Ah Ha!' filled the flat, followed by a very pleased Arthur emerging from the bathroom, a pair of shoes in his hands. He grinned triumphantly at Merlin as he hopped across the floor, pulling the shoes onto his feet.
"Where?"
"Under the sink." Arthur said with a short shrug, and Merlin blinked at him. Arthur just smirked as he moved through the flat, coffee mug in one hand and paper in the other. "Wish me luck, idiot."
"I hope they laugh at you, prat." Merlin mumbled, surprising himself with the lack of feeling behind it. Arthur left the room laughing merrily, coffee mug with him as he pounded down the stairs. Merlin could hear Gaius' surprised shout as Arthur probably nearly knocked him to his back, and Arthur's fading apologies and then the door slamming shut as the future-detective finally left. Merlin enjoyed the silence of the flat for all of 12 seconds, he counted, before Gaius was walking in.
"Where was he off to in such a hurry?" The old physician asked while walking towards the kitchen. Merlin looked up to see the man regarding the dishes with his eyebrows raised so high the young man flinched. Gaius went to work organizing the pile of dishes, that appeared in record breaking time, while he ran the water to fill the sink.
"He's going to go apply to the detective programme." Merlin said as he unfolded himself from the armchair, walking towards Gaius uncertainly. He truly did fear the eyebrows powers. "You don't have to do our washing up."
"I have nothing else to do." Gaius said defensively, rolling up the sleeves on what Merlin could only describe as a muumuu. "I'm not your housekeeper, you know."
"Then why are you-" Merlin was halted in his sentence by the eyebrows, and nodded once. "Yes, I'll remember that." He mumbled, scurrying back to the living room, hugging his coffee cup like it was a life line. The young genius curled back up on the couch, knees pressed to his chest and coffee cup leaving a warm circle on one knee, as he stared unseeing at the wall. A math problem was working it's way through his mind, slowly, and soon he was on his feet.
After a desperate search through his boxes he found a large chalk board and a box of chalk. He began nailing the board to the wall, ignoring the odd looks from his landlord, and was furiously scratching at the black surface. Numbers strung out in front of him, shapes and letters working their way over the entire surface, chalk dust comfortably filling Merlin's airways.
Soon Merlin felt the usual shaking in his wrist, and his knuckles were scraped from dragging over the black board every few minutes. After an hour he put up three more black boards, and his face was ghostly with the chalk dust settling on it. Gaius left silently, letting the smell of bleach and water fill the flat as Merlin moved from his mathematical problem to a set of bones found in the Thames. He had photo's attached to the walls, and the file spread around his feet as he began seeing everything everyone missed.
His mind fell into place as he began to point out faults in the bones. He was shaking and grinning when he finally identified the body, which had been sitting in the dust at Scotland Yard for three years. He called the only DI he knew, Gawain, and emailed him the discoveries. The body was that of Catrina Tregor, a psychologist from the states who was helping work out a serial killings case. A moment later he received a reply, Gawain was asking if Catrina was also killed by the killer they'd asked her to help catch.
'I'm no Dr. Brennan, Gawain, but I'd have to say yes.- Merlin
Was his reply, and his stomach tied itself up at the thought. He'd helped the police before, only on little things that usually involved mathematics, but he'd studied the human body and memorized it well. His professors used to tell him he was magic, the way he understood everything, he could be an expert in whatever he pleased. Merlin's one and true love was mathematics, but the way a human body functioned was a close second. He knew without a doubt that the person responsible for Catrina's death had killed the other three victims in the file.
Arthur came home late that night, smelling faintly like alcohol and perfume, and wrapped one arm around Merlin's shoulders. Merlin dropped his book on criminal justice with a loud thunk and flailed desperately, pulling at the muscled arm wrapped around him. "I-" Arthur began, but was interrupted by a hiccup which he scowled about. "am now a detective!" Merlin grumbled into his arm, thrashing about until the words sank in.
"Well congatu-fucking-lations, now release me!" He grumbled, pulling at Arthur's arm until the offending appendage disappeared and left Merlin tumbling to the floor. He was face first into the carpet, limbs splayed out around him, with Arthur howling laughter when his phone rang. After a battle with gravity he was on his feet, answering the rattling device with a few angry pokes. "Hello?"
"Merlin!" Gawain's low voice shrieked, and Merlin held the device away from his ear to stare at it. "He's back! The scarlet killer, we found another body."
"Yes, right why are you calling me?"
"You're now officially a consultant on this case." And with that the line went dead, and Merlin was left, gobsmacked when he received a text message with an address. Merlin replied with his exact thought on being forced out of his home at midnight before pulling on his converse and jean jacket.
"W'ere you goin?" Arthur mumbled from the couch, arm slung over his eyes.
"I've...got some work."
"What kind of work 'appens at midnight?" Arthur said, rolling over to stare at Merlin with tired eyes, all excitement drained away.
"Uhm..." Merlin shoved his wallet in his pocket, confusing even himself with his next word. "Murder."
The body was just what Merlin could expect from the Scarlet Killer. A red symbol carved deeply into the woman's chest, her eyes left wide open and staring at the ceiling, where a matching symbol was painted in her blood. Pale white limbs with blue veins curling around them were splayed around her, fingertips coated in scarlet red liquid, dripping from wear they hung at her sides. This woman was laying on a table, arms hanging off the edges, face contorted into a grin and completely nude.
Merlin rose his chin, ignoring the disgusting lurch his stomach gave as he stared at the body. Gawain left him to look, to calculate, to try and disconnect himself. Merlin had done this before, but only a few times had he seen the bodies. He'd calculated where a rapist lived by where he'd taken his victims, and he'd uncovered an entire underground organ selling scheme with a few numbers, but rarely did he actually see bodies. Before his round the world trip he'd been a consultant on almost everything Gawain wanted help on, but when he left he hadn't heard from the DI. Merlin had assumed he'd upset the older man with his sudden departure.
"What's the symbol mean?" Gawain asked, inclining his head toward the ceiling and squinting. He turned, ridiculously long hair moving like a model and Merlin was certain one of the forensics girls swooned.
"Chinese symbold for a dragon." Merlin said, brow drawn. "The first symbol had been for destiny, the second for doom or death, the third an ancient flower, and Catrina's.." He paused, watching Gawain swallow heavily. He'd been friend with the psychologist, they'd known each other well, and gotten on brilliantly, her death was probably a kick in the gut for him. "Meant magic."
"So... Destiny, doom, flower, magic, and dragon.." Gawain said, frowning as he looked to Merlin. "Is your genius mind comming up with anything?"
"No..." Merlin breathed, and Gawain recgonized the look covering his face. The DI had even said his eyes turned gold when he got like this, thinking to hard and to fast to be human. Merlin was sorting through every book he'd ever read, myth he'd ever heard, and even a few songs as he tried to decode the message behind the words. "Why now? Why do they come back now? After almost a year and half with nothing...Why now?"
"Crazy people, Merlin," Gawain said, his voice teasing but resigned. "Do crazy things."
"Yeah, but usually they have a reason. A crazy reason that probably makes very little sense, but a reason!" Merlin argued, stepping closer to the blank face of the woman on the table. He circled her body, eyes scanning the deep cuts in her ivory chest. Blood leaked around them, but you could tell wear the cut ended. Torn skin was frayed around each slice, and the blood pooled between her breasts and beside her neck. Drying rusty liquid attached itself to the woman's blonde hair, causing it to curl in a sickly fashion.
"What's your reason?" Merlin breathed so quietly no one could hear.
