War between free-will and predestination makes the idea of time travel is still too difficult to digest.
Toba Beta
August 23, 2009
Arthur is 23, Merlin is 21
When Arthur wakes it takes him a long while to remember where he is and how he got there but when he does, he's grinning gleefully from ear to ear as he comes round.
Here they are, finally in the present together, at last, for the whole world to see.
Merlin's snoring softly with his face pressed into the back of Arthur's shoulder. He's curled around Arthur on the sofa with a leg between his and an arm hooked tightly around his waist, enclosing him, keeping him. Their legs are hanging off the edge and it shouldn't be comfortable, but it is, and Arthur doesn't want to move.
He's still grinning as he drifts back into sleep.
The next time he opens his eyes, he's sprawled out over most of the sofa with an arm over his eyes and his first thought is to panic. He's alone. He's not sure how to deal with Merlin disappearing now that they are on the same timeline. This is very different to before.
He shoots up so quickly his neck hurts. "Merlin?" he calls, loud and hoarse. His voice is laced with uncertainty, but at least he isn't as confused as he was a few hours before.
"Kitchen!" comes as a reply, and then Arthur's bounding through the flat, following the smell of bacon like a bee drawn to honey.
"I thought you'd gone," he says when he finds Merlin, his throat still thick with sleep. Or maybe it's pure want, Arthur thinks as he watches Merlin cook.
Merlin is swinging his hips to only a tune he can hear, in black sports-branded tracksuit bottoms and not much else. Arthur's suddenly aware that he is stark naked in the doorway and the sight of Merlin frying bacon is turning him on, stirring something inside of his stomach, and he all but jumps Merlin's bones there and then as Merlin swivels away from the pan with a bright smile. "From my own flat?"
Arthur rolls his eyes. "You know what I mean."
"I haven't gone anywhere since Thursday. You're having a good effect on me. Bacon?"
"Sure."
"You alright?" Merlin asks, because Arthur is leaning against the door frame with his eyes closed, but whether it's out of relief or stress Merlin doesn't know.
"I think I'm having an out of body experience," Arthur replies slowly.
"I know what you mean," Merlin replies as he turns back to the pan, but only after pointedly raking his eyes up and down Arthur. "I almost had to restart my heart when I got up."
"I did when I woke up on my own. Come back to bed, Merlin. Please?"
"Energy first."
"Spoilsport," Arthur mutters grumpily.
"A spoilsport with a great bum," Merlin corrects happily, turning the meat onto buttered bread. "Do you want ketchup or brown sauce?"
"I'm good without."
"Good, because I don't have either in stock," Merlin says, licking his fingers. He holds out a messy bacon sandwich on a plate to Arthur.
"What's that?"
"Bacon sandwich," Merlin says with wide, innocent eyes, his voice raising an octave. Arthur can't tell whether Merlin's genuinely offended or not.
"Merlin, you can't be serious. I wouldn't touch that with a barge pole."
Merlin rolls his eyes and shoves the plate into Arthur's chest. "Just eat it, you prat."
Arthur scrunches his nose but he takes the plate and a hesitant bite when Merlin has turned his back, who is slapping his own bacon between some bread. By the time he has drained the pan, thrown it in the dishwasher and turned off the appliances, Arthur is shoving the last of his sandwich into his mouth.
"Um, Arthur, you know you didn't really have to eat it if you didn't want to..." he says, holding his own plate dumbly as he watches Arthur smack his lips. "We could have gone out for breakfast instead. I wouldn't have minded."
"And waste your food? That was actually really good," he says quickly, but his surprise drops when he sees Merlin smirk. "Oh, don't look so smug. Now, come on, come back to bed."
"I haven't eaten."
"Take a few bites on the way," Arthur growls exasperatedly as he reaches for Merlin's arm and drags him out of his own kitchen and along the hall, into his own bedroom. "A-ha!" he says when they enter. There are clothes and towels strewn across the room from the evening before, when Merlin was trying to find something to wear, and his bed's unmade with the pairs of jeans still on top of it. "This is more like it! Mess!" Arthur cries happily.
Merlin grunts at the absurdity of Arthur's glee, intent on wolfing down his food before anything else happens. "Am gonna get hiccups," he grumbles.
"It'll be an interesting experience," Arthur says, and he's laughing as he stalks towards Merlin like a giddy predator. He takes the plate away and it clatters noisily on a nearby set of drawers as he backs Merlin against the wall. "Now..."
"I wasn't finished!"
"You're such a grouch in the morning, Merlin."
"But you were–"
"Shh."
Suddenly Merlin's tracksuit bottoms have lost their string and then Arthur's working his way down Merlin's chest.
"Jesus," Merlin gasps. "Jesus, Arthur, I just ate–"
"For God's sake, Merlin, shut up," Arthur says with another growl against Merlin's stomach.
And he does. For a moment.
Later, they're dozing as they bathe in the warmth of the late morning sun which is streaming through Merlin's window.
"Tell me again why we slept on the sofa?" Merlin asks as he nuzzles into the crook of Arthur's neck. They're wound around each other on the bed, the duvet resting on their hips and they both have to admit it's a step-up from the couch.
"I think you said it'd be a waste of time."
"Oh. I was right, then."
"Only by a margin," Arthur laughs, and he leans back into Merlin. "Oh, this is so surreal!"
"Hm? Why?"
"I've been waiting for this my whole life. For us to meet, in the present, and now it's happened I can't quite believe it."
Merlin's eyes close. "Mm. It's quite assuring for me."
"How do you mean?"
Merlin sighs into the back of Arthur's neck and pulls him closer. "It's disconcerting for me, the way I'm always leaving, running, trying to find my way in a future time or remembering what I'm supposed to be doing when I land in the past, but here, with you... Even just days after I've met you, it's like it's all sorted now, you know? I don't find myself having to worry as much."
"I keep forgetting it's only been three days for you. It's been years for me. So long..."
"That doesn't seem fair."
"It's okay. You have it all ahead of you," Arthur assures. "I'm glad you do. Me as a kid, pre-adolescent, full blown horny adolescent... legal age..." He rolls over and swings a leg over Merlin's hip suggestively. "I enjoyed it very much."
"I bet you did, Mr. Law Student. It seems as if I have a lot of catching up to do."
"Mmm. I may have tried to push it just a little, before I was emotionally competent to make my own decision in the eyes of the law."
"I look forward to that," Merlin says, his arm hitching around Arthur's leg and holding him in place. He loves the way Arthur makes him feel.
"I won't tell you how it happens."
"No, don't," Merlin murmurs as his fingers trace the inside of Arthur's thigh. "I don't do that."
"Do what?"
"Tell me stuff about myself, or get other people to, y'know? I mean, I know I tried to make you last night, but I kind of like the idea of having free will."
"Do you believe you do?"
"I don't know."
"You will eventually," Arthur says quietly.
Merlin laughs. "That's what I mean. I don't know if I believe in free will, but you say that I will sooner or later, so what's the point?"
"Well," Arthur says, "you can always say no and get out of bed."
Merlin grunts and shuts Arthur up as best he can.
They kiss, shower, disturb the neighbours, and then Arthur's in his suit from the night before, and Merlin's in jeans and the red hoodie he had nearly worn, and they're looking at complete odds as they burst into the daylight and head towards Battersea Park, holding hands and fawning over each like teenagers, amidst all of the other couples and children and parents and dog walkers as if they've been together in this way for years.