Back from America now! Here you go, put you out of your misery from that cliff-hanger ;) Hope you enjoy this bit too! Still more to come :) xxx
After an hour or so of waiting the two men were almost asleep, dozing lightly against each other as it was pretty late.
A soft splash near the shore brought Gwaine back to the present. Straining his eyes he looked over through the darkness to the source of the sound. As his eyes grew used to the gloom he realised what he was looking at. Not what, who.
"By the dragons…" he choked out, causing Merlin to stir beside him. In one swift movement Gwaine had leapt to his feet and was racing to the lakeside, knocking Merlin over in his haste.
"Gwaine what are you-"
"PERCIVAL!" Gwaine whooped, pulling the larger and completely bewildered man into a tight embrace.
"Gwaine?" he could hear the confusion and yet the overwhelming happiness in Percival's voice.
Merlin's own eyes adjusted and he saw several other figures nearing Gwaine and Percival in the darkness.
Quickly he muttered a spell and orbs of light flew from his hands, coming to a hover above their heads. Stood before him was Percival (who was standing by Gwaine) and behind them was Leon, Elyan and-
"Gwen!" Merlin exclaimed.
"Oh my goodness! Merlin!" she ran over and fell into his arms, hugging him close to her. Pulling back, Merlin saw the panicked expression on her face and tears forming in her eyes. "Merlin what is this? What's happened?" he opened and shut his mouth, unsure of what to say.
Gwen's brother looked around, frowning. "Where on earth are we? I am so confused right now!"
"ELYAN!" Gwen shrieked, she'd not noticed his presence until now. She sped over to him, before stopping herself and looking at him suspiciously. "Elyan…is that really you? But you were…" she took a step closer before pulled him into a huge hug, tears streaming down her face. He patted her back soothingly, but he too wore a puzzled expression.
"I don't understand" he spoke softly.
"Merlin, what's going on?" Leon's serious tone came then.
"Oh boy!" the warlock ran his hand through his hair (he would go bald at this rate) "Right. Well…um…welcome to the 21st century!"
When Kerry arrived back home that night, she was greeted by Merlin and Gwaine and four other people crammed into her house. They all wore glassy and slightly scared expressions as they sat in the living room.
She looked at Merlin who had stood up to come over and explain, but raised a hand to stop him.
"Just tell me in the morning," she sighed and then went straight to bed.
The next couple of weeks were bordering on chaotic. Now Merlin had to explain this new world to four more people, without letting Kerry know, as well as trying to find out why they were all here. It was perhaps most difficult for Elyan to adapt, he knew nothing of the events after Morgana's enchanted sword had killed him at the Dark Tower. Merlin had to explain what had happened with Mordred and Arthur and Camelot so therefore Elyan was left more confused than the others.
As for Percival, Leon and Gwen, they had all continued living in Camelot and had all died at a ripe old age. To suddenly be brought back to life at the age of mid-to-late-twenties was disorientating to say the least. They'd already lived an entire life back in Camelot. In fact Gwen had given birth to Arthur's child several months after the King's death, and then had eventually married Leon (an event which Merlin himself attended). So much had happened in their previous lives but now they were young again, and in another era.
At first Gwen had been panicking; asking for her son, Arthur II, whilst Elyan was asking for the Arthur he knew. It took a while for the news that Arthur, the Once and Future king had died at Mordred's hand to sink in for Elyan, and even longer for Gwen to take in the news that her child was now long dead. Merlin consoled her and told her how her son had been a good and wise king like his father, once Gwen and Leon had passed away. He was then succeeded by his son at a good age and the line of the Pendragon household had continued to this day.
He shocked them all by informing Gwen, that the present day Pendragons, no longer had that name and that the direct descendant of Arthur and Guinevere Pendragon was in fact Kerry Mason. That was the reason why Merlin had stuck with her family throughout the years.
When Arthur died, Merlin swore he'd protect his best friend's family to the last and so far, he'd kept that word. It helped that they were a friendly bunch, and sometimes Merlin could see some of Arthur's good and moral character in them, perhaps it was his imagination. However Kerry had called him a 'clotpole' on several occasions, a word she'd inherited from her father, and he from his father and so on.
This was partly the reason that Gwen took a shine to Merlin's housemate, even if the other woman didn't know her new housemate was her great-great-great (etc.) grandmother. And anyway, Kerry enjoyed the female company, seeing as the rest of the house was filled with big burly men.
The only excuse Merlin could come up with was that they were part of the same acting group that Gwaine was in. Kerry had been a little annoyed that she hadn't been warned their home would be overrun with strange people, but nevertheless found she couldn't help herself liking the group of strange, eccentric actors who seemed to be really dedicated to their roles.
At the moment Gwen and Leon were sharing the spare room, and the other three knights were sleeping on sofas or air-beds in the living room. It was a little inconvenient, but nonetheless there was enough room. By now, Merlin had called the university to inform them that he couldn't continue working for the time being. He knew if he ever wanted the job back, they would snap him straight up again.
All Merlin's time was taken up with the knights and Gwen. He was practically running his own school from home, teaching the knights and Gwen about modern life as well as the history of the past millennia-and-a-half. Somehow he'd found the time to get to the shops and buy them all some up to date clothing. Gwen had offered to help him with this job and found it a very enjoyable activity. Feeding two women and five men was an expensive task as well and Merlin had never been more thankful that he'd had the brains to save nearly all the money he'd earned in his long lifetime; it made quite a fortune. He'd given a lot of it to charities and people who needed it more than he did over the years, but there was still a large sum which he now was putting to some use finally.
Poor Kerry was still a little unsure as to why they were all there, and she wasn't the only one. Merlin was driving himself nearly insane trying to find out why.
The days went by; Percival and Gwaine were both coping well using the distraction of each other's company to help lessen the impact of the new world. Merlin had almost forgotten how close friends the two men were. Gwen and Leon were a little more bewildered and slower to get over the initial shock but Elyan found it the most difficult. He'd not known about Merlin's magic, much like Gwaine hadn't. The other three however did know. During Gwen's reign in Camelot, she, Leon and Percival had learnt of Merlin's power and had abolished the laws against magic, and so they were quite comfortable with Merlin being a sorcerer. Elyan however was a little wary of the warlock, but Gwaine had got over this by now.
During the day, whilst Kerry was out at work, Merlin would slowly take the group throughout the house, showing them the objects and utilities of each room, allowing their medieval minds to become familiar with them. Soon they could pass off as relatively normal people, except with blind-spots when it came to technology.
One evening, about a month after three people had become seven, Kerry had no work to do in the evening so decided to spend it with her new (hopefully temporary housemates).
"I want to watch Harry Potter!" Gwaine declared. He was rapidly getting into the popular series.
"Have you ever seen The Lord of the Rings?" Kerry called from the kitchen where she was busy making popcorn with Gwen, who was trying not to jump at every 'pop' the microwave caused.
"Seen what?" Gwaine wandered through, stripped to the waist; wearing only some comfortable jogger bottoms. Unwittingly Kerry's eyes wandered over his muscular torso, before snapping back to his face.
"Um…Lord of the Rings. It's a good film…" she mumbled, a little pink in the cheeks. Gwaine shook his head, oblivious to her roaming eyes.
He turned back and headed towards the living room again, whilst roaring "MERLIN! What's Lord of the Rings? Kerry says it's good!"
Kerry let out a sigh. "Why are the hot guys always taken or gay?"
Gwen blinked. "Sorry?"
Kerry gave a giggle. "Well it's alright for you, you've got Leon!"
With a blush, Gwen grinned. "Damn right I do!" she sat down on one of the kitchen-bar stools. "What about you?" She asked, but Kerry just shrugged as she pulled the popcorn out and grabbed a bowl. "Not interested in Merlin then?"
A loud laugh erupted from the young Mason girl and she nearly dropped the bowl. "Seriously, Merlin? Puh-lease! He's practically a brother. Anyway he's on the other bus."
Gwen frowned. She'd not heard that phrase before. "Bus? What bus?"
Kerry glanced over, raising her eyebrows. "On the other bus…? Batting for the other team…? I mean he's not interested in girls!" when the other woman continued to frown in a perplexed fashion, Kerry rolled her eyes. "I mean he likes men."
At that point, before Gwen had time to react, Merlin walked in, rubbing his hands.
"Is that popcorn ready or not? Getting impatient over here!"
"Merlin likes men?!" Gwen exclaimed then. The warlock in question froze and blinked at Kerry.
"You like…I mean you…do you? Like men?" Gwen could hardly form a sentence.
Merlin stood still for a few seconds more, hesitating, debating his answer, before straightening his back and raising his chin. "No."
Kerry started with a shock. This was news to her.
Gwen looked nervously between the two. "Oh…er I wasn't going to judge. You'd still be my same old Merlin either way." She said quickly, giving an awkward giggle. At that moment, she reminded him of the awkward Gwen that Merlin had first met, always tripping up over her words or worried that she'd hurt someone's feelings.
Kerry finally managed to form some words. "You don't?! Bu-…but when have you ever…have you-…?"
Merlin shrugged. He didn't know how to answer. Women never seemed to bother him much, but he didn't like men…well, just perhaps…for some reason a particular shade of blue danced across his mind. A certain blue that he'd committed to memory and had not forgotten despite the many years…he shook his head. Why that had come to mind he didn't know. "Well glad we cleared my sexuality up…how about that movie?" he took the popcorn from the still shocked Kerry and walked back through to the living room.
Eventually the two women joined them all and managed to squeeze in somewhere in the crowded room. An hour into the film and the previous conversation had been forgotten.
"How many protein shakes do you take a day, mate?" she laughed as Percival's large bicep moved in front of her vision to take some of the popcorn.
Merlin rolled his eyes and sighed as he sat on the floor, a blanket pulled round him. "He doesn't take them, Kerry. Some people are just naturally muscular and don't need things like that."
"Well you could do with some!" she winked across at him. Merlin poked his tongue out at her but smiled. She grinned back and squeezed herself out from in between the two larger men and moved to sit by him on the carpet. Merlin wrapped some of the blanket round her and she leaned against his shoulder in a sisterly manner. Gwaine immediately took her seat.
And so they sat and watched the rest of The Lord of the Rings, all of them (except Kerry) kept glancing over at Merlin whenever Gandalf the Wizard made an appearance.
It was a pleasant evening that ended with a popcorn fight, Gwaine and Percival took it a little too seriously by building another pillow fort and discussing strategies. Kerry found that she was becoming firm friends with this odd acting group and enjoyed their company.