A new chapter, not a day later? I know right, its weird af. But I was actually planning on posting at last 3 chapters the following hour I posted the 1st one but I had to go to bed. So here's the 2nd chapter a few hours late.
Sword boys kept me occupied.


Annalise, as Arthur had expected, came back as early as the next morning, bringing the hellhounds with her as she rained furious knocks on his apothecary's glass doors.

She was just lucky-or Arthur's doors, really-that Arthur decided to work late that day, brewing a fresh batch of Sunny Meadows-for upset stomachs-for delivery to a nearby school's nurse's office. It was exam season, they told him. Students tend to get stuck in the infirmary for headaches and upset stomachs in these kinds of days.

He sighs gratefully to himself when he had decided to sprinkle a hefty amount of time-slowing powder for his brewing batch before he went out to check his door.

He cracks the door of his shop open, the wind chimes clacking pleasantly as he does so and peers at her haggard figure. "What do you need, Ms. Annalise?"

Her dress is filled with wrinkles and her hair is in disarray, she raises a finger with cracked nail polish to shove some stray strands away from her eyes as she glowers up at Arthur, who is a head and a half taller than she.

"You lied to me," She sneered. Arthur blinks at her, opening his mouth to push his tongue on his molars, to show nonchalance. He raises an eyebrow, "I told you, didn't I?"

It seemed to do well when her entire demeanour changes, her shoulders sagging in defeat and her expression crumbles into confusion and desperation-a different kind from what he had seen before.

Yesterday, before she left her shop, she had the face of someone patting their own back for a job well-done. Her aura is telling Arthur that she's cheering herself on, that she can do it!

Now, it was different.

Annalise is at a loss.

She doesn't know what to do. It's what her body language is telling him.

"Please," She says. She takes one shaky step towards Arthur, who doesn't move a muscle, staring at her blankly like she's some funny display at a thrift store.

"I need your help," Her eyes started to water when Arthur shakes his head slowly at her in refusal.

She opens her mouth and closes it for a couple of moments, eyes darting everywhere, looking for something.

"I..I'll pay! However much you want, just," She starts suddenly, shaky hands coming up to reach into her purse. She pulls a booklet, her cheque book.

"Please, save Alfred!"

Arthur doesn't respond, still giving her that blank, disinterested stare. She knows fully well that Arthur had the right to refuse; they signed a contract that says so. This was an illegal kind of deal, too, so there's no way she could get Arthur arrested if things go real bad. It will be easy for Arthur to pull out the signed contract and drag her with him if she involves the law.

Arthur can tell that these are the same things that are going through Annalise's head as she stared at him back with wet eyes. He jumps when he suddenly feel her cold hands on his chest, pressing.

"Please, I have the money! However much you want, I can give it to you!" She insists.

Arthur's lips press into a thin line as he sighs out through his nose, loud and heavy. It settles on the both of them like a blanket and Annalise blinks, unmoving as she listens to Arthur's breath.

"Alright. Take me to Alex." He says, stepping out of his shop and pulling the door close. He locks with a twist of his key without taking his eyes off Annalise, who seemed to compose herself after Arthur's agreement.

She pulls at the stray strands that stuck to her face due to her tears back where they belonged and discreetly wipes the wet tears lining her eyes and cheeks, smudging her perfect eyeliner.

She nods gratefully at him. "Alfred. Let's hail a cab."


It was past visiting hours, but Annalise manages to sneak the both of them in without much trouble.

Her boyfriend's in the ICU, a couple of machines connected to him, keeping tabs of his vitals.

"They detected a strong hex on him but the medical witches can't lift it off." She smiles wryly at Arthur. "They can't even trace the hexer, so he's a lost cause."

Annalise silently watches as Arthur walks around her boyfriend's bed, touching the screens and eyeing the equipments. Then Arthur mutters, "What about the…other woman?"

"Huh?" Annalise asks.

Arthur turns towards her, "His other…girlfriend. Has she tried yet?"

"No, why would she?" Arthur gives her a pointed look at which she jumps at, turning her head away from him and pulling at her stray hair.

"She can't."

Arthur approaches her, "And why can't she?"

"I…" her voice weakens, "I don't want her to."

"You're afraid that it will work with her." Arthur tells her slowly, like it was a revelation. She seemed to react to it that way, when her eyes started watering again and she turns to sit on the chair beside her boyfriend's bed.

"Alfred loves that skank, of course I'll be worried." She reasons. Arthur finds himself sitting next to her, but his hands remained on his sides. He doesn't like consoling people for things they did to themselves.

"The antidote is true love's kiss. It wouldn't matter if Alex loved them or not. What does is if they loved Alex."

"Alfred." She sniffs, but nods and it surprises Arthur, causing him to stiffen in his seat when she suddenly presses herself into him, crushing him into a hug.

Women are so soft.


Her name's Marilou and she's pretty and nice, from what Arthur had seen.

She eyes Annalise with wary when they decide to return to the hospital during the designated visiting hours, meeting Marilou right after she left Alex's door.

"Hey," Annalise begins, her voice subdued and awkward. It seems like this was the first time she regarded Marilou with civility.

"Hey." Marilou answers, raising a wary hand in greeting. Her eyes turn to Arthur as she slowly approaches the pair and Annalise was quick to notice, standing before Arthur as she begins, "This is Arthur. Um," She spares the hallway a glance, towards the nurse's station, a couple of medical witches on duty.

"Would you mind if we talk somewhere else?"

Marilou looks at between them carefully, hands around herself as she nods slowly, eying the nurse's station.

"We can talk at the canteen downstairs."


"So," Marilou starts, taking a sip from her cup of coffee, "What do you want to talk about?" She makes a pointed look in Arthur's direction.

Annalise follows her gaze, her black hair flipping around her like a veil as she makes eye contact with Arthur. She nods before slowly turning back to Marilou.

"This is Arthur. He's a warlock." When Marilou does nothing but stare at them both, Annalise winces, adding, "A good one."

It made Arthur wince when Marilou started looking at him differently. Regarding him in a higher pedestal.

Is it really that big of a deal with the non-magicks that one magick-user is better than the other?

"You can help Al?" Marilou asks him, her eyes earnest, they twinkle under the dim lights over them.

Arthur winces again, arms wrapping around himself to rub at his sides, the room had suddenly gotten too cold. "Depends. It's a strong hex," He pauses, feeling Annalise's eyes on him, begging.

Heavy.

"From what I can tell. The witch is still untraceable, unfortunately." It brings a frown on Marilou's face.

"But," Arthur starts, both women turning their attention to him fully, listening intently.

"I found a cure," He swallows. It's so much easier to elaborate when it's just Annalise; she wouldn't question or oppose because she had known it was a possibility from the beginning.

As for Marilou, she's a blank slate.

Definitely not open to myths like true love. If magick users like Arthur call it a lost cause, the non-magicks will call it that-a myth.

He keeps his eyes firm and steady on Marilou as he continues, "True love's kiss."

Arthur doesn't wince nor move a muscle when the scalding hot coffee on Marilou's cup spills, some drips on his face, leaving small, pinpricks on pain as the woman slams her drink down into the table, calling the attention of the remaining people in the canteen in the early hours of the day.

"I knew it!" She exclaims, a finger pointing at Annalise's direction. Her nail is long and square. It could've really done some damage if she puts that to proper use on Annalise's flawless face.

"You planned this, didn't you? You've always come between us, me and Al. You just can never accept it, will you? His highschool sweetheart only to be dumped because he met a skank in his shitty law school!"

Arthur discreetly wipes at the coffee drips on his face with the sleeve of his sweater as he leans on the table, silent and unfeeling as any by-stander would as he watched the spectacle happen in front of him.

He had pegged Annalise as the confrontation type. These kinds of situations are her battlefield, where she truly excelled at rather than at small talks and under-the-table deals to get back at an enemy, Marilou being the total opposite.

But right now-it was like the world had been flipped outside down.

Annalise was the silent, prostate one and Marilou was the bitch stepping on her.

"No!" Annalise tries say between Marilou's endless barrage of attacks but fails, completely falling on deaf ears but Arthur's. When he turns his head to look around them, he notices that people has yet to truly look, so he stands up and grabs both women on the shoulders.

Both women barely had a moment to spare when the void eats the three of them, their figures banishing like smoke in the middle of the canteen, the people none the wiser.

It's a hospital, after all. People tend to explode because of all the emotions and deaths and heartbreaks.

People screaming at each other, one confrontation after another, it's a normal occurrence.

No one cared.


Arthur's transportation spell brings them to Alex's hospital room.

Both women gasps as their bodies gain a physical form once again, both faces pale. It was inconsiderate of Arthur to drag inexperienced non-magicks into a sudden blink after all, without even a fair warning.

In Arthur's defense, it eased the tension between them. Marilou was calmer now, that he had done it.

"What was that?" Annalise asks, hands on the wall behind her, having fallen on it when she lost her footing after stepping on the solid ground after what felt like an eternity. It does that to first-timers.

"Blink." Arthur tells her, watching in slight amusement as Marilou approaches Annalise and grabs both her hands to help her on her feet. She was calling Annalise things not a few moments ago and now, she helps her without even much prompting.

At the confused stare Annalise gave Arthur at his answer, however, he further elaborates. "A kind of teleportation spell."

"So," Marilou starts, eying Annalise. "Margarette's not lying?"

"Hm?" Arthur asks as he grabs the curtains covering Alex's bed.

"That you're…good."

"If performing blink is a standard to tell a magic-user's skill, then even three-year olds are qualified as promising witches." He snorts, pulling the curtains open as he does so.

Both women pauses to look, sees the man they both love and pine for lying asleep on the hospital bed, attached to multiple machines, magical and not.

"So, Ms. Marilou." He points at Alex, then to her, offering his hand.

Marilou eyes him strangely, then to Annalise. "My name's…Mary. Mary Grace."

"Right," Arthur nods, still holding out his hand.

"I just," She swallows. "Have to kiss him, right?"

Arthur nods patiently and shakes his hand, urging her to take it so she could come closer.

She accepts, wrapping her hand around his, cold and wet from nerves.

She sits on the stool next to Alex's bed and takes a moment to stare at his sleeping face, peaceful and quiet and not-quite-dead.

She swallows, carefully pulling out Alex's oxygen mask to reveal his lips.

She kisses him, full and chaste on the lips.


*Arthur describing women as soft: hemeant it literally. Sorry girls, but we can feel your boobs when you hug us. But its cool. Nothing sexual or whatever. Arthur is a virgin bisexual man.

**yea, you can see some bit of BBC merlin!modern au magick shit in here too.