Title: The Wrong Emotion
...
Chapter Eight:
..."I'm selling the company.
"Her reaction is instantaneous, her head snapping up and her eyes narrowing at him, surely I must've misheard him. "I beg your Pardon?" She asks, then bites her lip.
Merlin shakes his head and leans forward on his seat. "That," he points to the paper she's holding, "Is my resignation letter. I came into the office late last night and made all the arrangements that is needed for my transition out of the company. Nothing else changes, except for me leaving. After tomorrow, I'm selling the company to Uther, and I've told him that my only condition will be to keep everything as it is. He agreed and I offered my position to his son, Arthur. I haven't received a reply yet from him, but I'm certain he'll take it. I wanted you to know so you won't wonder why your boss is suddenly blonde with brown eyes." He tries to joke, but Morgana is not laughing, still staring at him and completely speechless.
Merlin clears his throat and looks at his hands. "Also, I want to apologize for the other night. Everything I said and did, I'm sorry."
Morgana is still staring, her eyes widening farther with every second that he spoke. "And I hope you like your new boss. I'm sure you'll be much happier working with him than with me."
That is when she snaps out of her shock, ignoring the fact that this is probably the most he's ever said in.. well, ever. "You're leaving the company?" She asks incredulously, getting up from her chair and glaring at him.
"Selling it, actually." Merlin corrects nonchalantly as if he didn't care about the company that he had spent all his life trying to build up from the ground.
She's spluttering like an idiot as she tries to wrap her head around Merlin's revelation. "Why? This is your company, and it's going great! The stocks are growing at extremely high rates!" She doesn't know what she's saying. She should be happy, right? Ecstatic even! But she isn't. Not even a little.
Merlin sighs again, scratching the back of his neck as he does so, "It's complicated. There are..." He trails off and looks directly into her eyes. "things I need to do, and places I need to go."
"Like what? And where are you going?" She demands, not caring thathe'sthe boss andshe'sthe assistant. Her anger is slowly, but surely building up inside her, and she's certain it's not stopping until she explodes.
"That's my business, Morgana."
Morgana shakes her head furiously and yells at him. "No, this is your Business!" She gestures around his office, wondering what the hell is going on with the man. Who the hell just shows up to work one day and decides to sell his beloved company?
He's a little surprised at her reaction, but he hides it rather well. "My decision is final, Morgana. Come tomorrow morning, Uther will buy Camelot Stocks, and Arthur will be your new CEO."
Morgana stares incredulously at him. "Does this have something to do with you visiting your parents graves in Ireland?"
Merlin blinks at her, then his eyes narrow at her suspiciously. "How-" he cuts himself and closes his eyes, inhaling slowly. He mutters something under his breath that sounded remarkably like 'Gaius, that bloody tattletale." He rolls his eyes. "It has nothing to do with that." He concludes.
"Then why are you selling a company you worked so hard to build?" Honestly, she thinks he may have lost his bloody mind. Maybe he's finally snapped.
He gives her a sad smile and walks over to the shelf on the far wall. He pulls out a binder and opens it, pulling out a piece of paper from one of the sheet protectors. He stares at it for a few minutes before giving it to Morgana.
She looks at it, seeing the company name, logo, and his fathers name, Balinor Emrys listed as the CEO. "In my parents will, they left pretty much everything they ever owned to me. They made sure I was taken care of, and named Gaius as my legal guardian... And they named me as successor to their company." He laughs humorlessly. "I was only 6. And the weight of that knowledge, was almost too much for me to bear. To know that they're entrusting me with their business." He looks down at the desk, staring at it as if it were the most interesting thing in the room. "So I studied hard, worked hard, stayed up late at night to read up on stocks, and how to run the company." He finally looks up, and his eyes held a sort of faraway look. Like he's remembering what his life had been like. "I had convinced myself that they didn't want me to fail in their company." He then looks directly into Morgana's eyes and shakes his head once. "So I succeeded in the company... But I failed in life."
Morgana finally understood. He was giving it up so he can pursue a life. A real life. So he can do what he never had time to do before. "You can still have a life and run a company at the same time, you know?" She suggests timidly.
Merlin sighs heavily, "Be that as it may, but I don't need the company."
She stares incredulously at him, "Well what if the company needs you? What if Uther can't run two companies at the same time?"
"I'm sure Arthur will help him." Merlin returns.
"Well what if Arthur can't do what you do? I'm sure he'd be a great boss, but he doesn't exactly have a masters degree in Business and-"
"Morgana, why are you making this difficult?" Merlin asks desperately. He's utterly confused by her behavior. He's always known she held some sort of contempt towards him, even hate. And he thought that she'd be grateful for this news, but shes acting like she's not.
Morgana looks away from his confused expression and down at her feet. She doesn't know or have an answer to that question. She's just as confused as he is.
"When I sell this company, I won't have any ties to it." Merlin states simply. "What Uther and his son do to the company will no longer be my concern. They can turn it into a petting zoo for all I care."
Morgana looks at him then, her anger coming back in full force. "This isn't you." He rolls his eyes, and she hates that he's so nonchalant about the whole thing. "You've dedicated so much of your time and life to this company, and getting a life, is just not a good enough reason to sell it."
"Well maybe you were right about me, Morgana." His voice is venomous as he narrows his eyes at her. "Maybe I don't have affections at all, and maybe this company, everything in it, around it, and attached to it, means nothing to me."
It sounded too much like he was referring to her. That she means nothing to him. And it's not like it matters, but it hurts her. So she hurts him back. "Or maybe it means too much to you. Maybe you're too scared of everything you feel about this company and what it holds, so you're running away like a true coward!"
He steps around his desk and approaches her. She takes a few steps, and he follows, backing her up right against the wall. "You think you've got me all figured out, don't you?" He rests his hands on the wall on either side of her head, and a sense of deja vu hits Morgana like a freight train. This was almost exactly like the other night. He pushed her, she pushed back, and then he shattered everything.
She refuses to back down, looking up at his face with a smug look. "I think I do have you figured out. And I think it terrifies you."
He leans down, his face so close, she could feel the warmth radiating off of him. She grits her teeth against the urge to look away from his scorching gaze. His eyes flicker to her lips, and she could almost taste his mouth and the impending descent it is going to make. "Do you want to know what solidified my decision to sell the company?" His voice is low and husky as he tilts his head.
She breathes a soft, "What?"
He kisses her, and she's ready this time, already kissing him back as fireworks explode behind her eyelids. She hadn't known she wanted this so much until now. Her arms leave her sides to wrap around his neck, pulling him closer until they're practically a part of the wall. When he pulls away, they're both panting heavily and staring into each other's eyes. Then he pulls away completely and gives her a look. "Because of you." He says softly. "The reason I actually decided to sell the company is because of you."
She's beyond confused now. He'd just kissed her like his life depended on it, and then tells her he's selling the company and leaving because of her? What the actual bloody hell? "Why me?"
He shakes his head and turns to go back to the desk to get his bag. "Because you will never understand just how much you affect me, and I will never do anything about it."
He begins towards the door, but Morgana blocks his path, her eyes full of questions. "Then help me understand." It's her last attempt at stopping him from leaving. She's desperate, though she's not entirely sure what she's desperate about. He stares at her for a long time, contemplating her words. Morgana stares back hopefully, wondering if he'll actually do something.
He shrugs his bag off a moment later, and as soon as it hits the floor, Morgana practically lunges forward, grabbing hold of the lapels on his jacket and pulling him down. Their lips crash together, and their arms wrap around each other, trying to get as close as possible.
She doesn't know what she's doing, but whatever it is, she knows she needs it more than she's ever needed anything in her life.
It's the sound of a loud thud and a gasp that pulls them apart from each other, and they both turn their heads towards the sound.
Arthur stares widely at the two, his mouth hanging open in shock as the feeling of betrayal seeps through his veins. He bends down to pick up his fallen briefcase, turns swiftly, and marches back to the elevator.
Dread and guilt fills Morgana's heart as she watches the elevator doors begin to close. '"Arthur!" She calls, turning to follow him, but Merlin grabs her wrist. She looks at him, angry at herself and angry at him for putting her in this position. Mostly, she's confused so she pulls away from his grasp.
He's looking at her with sad eyes, and she hates him even more for it because there he goes again, making her feel everything for him. "I'm sorry, Morgana."
She narrows her eyes at him as her brain conjures up thoughts of him scheming and planning to do this to her. To hurt her one last time before he leaves. "You knew he'd be here, didn't you?" She accuses. She's not even sure about where that accusation came from. She's angry at herself, and he just happens to be standing too close to the firing squad.
He gives her a hurt look, and she forces herself to ignore it. "Yes I knew he was coming, but I didn't think he was going to show up so early." He sighs tiredly and scrubs a hand down his face. "I'm not that evil, Morgana."
She laughs humorlessly and glares at him. "You could've fooled me." She deadpans.
This time, he really does look hurt. Like she had just slapped him across the face. He quickly raises a hand and gently caresses her cheek with the back of his hand, and then just as quickly, he pulls away and picks his bag up from where he dropped it earlier. "I'll fix this." He says softly. "And then you'll never have to see me again... I promise." He leaves before she could fully comprehend what he had said.
She leans against the wall, sliding down until she's sitting on the floor as tears fill her eyes. She's also not sure who she's crying for. Her head tells her it's Arthur. Her heart screams it's Merlin.
...
This is probably the most awkward thing he's ever had to do. He mentally slaps himself as he searches the sea of people for a man with blonde hair. Kind of hard to do when there are literally hundreds of people walking to and fro along the sidewalk, many of whom are blonde.
His eyes narrowing as he spots a familiar figure, the exact one he was searching for, walking towards the crosswalk. Merlin knows he didn't walk there in his suit, and searches the road for the designated black Chevy that usually drives Uther and his son around. He spots the Chevy parked on a curb across the street before looking back at the man.
"Arthur!" He calls, managing to stop the man in his tracks, but then Arthur was only turning to glare darkly at him before turning away again and continuing onto the road.
It all happened so fast. At the corner of his eye, Merlin sees a white Camaro speeding down the road, just as Arthur steps onto the crosswalk, not even bothering to look at the red pedestrian lights. Merlin didn't think as he sprinted towards the blonde man. He hears the screeching tires of a car just as he reaches the blonde man and pushes him out of the way as hard as he could. Arthur rolls on the ground and glances back in surprise.
Merlin knew he was too late to move out of the way himself, only stopping long enough to see the shocked expression on Arthur's face. And then, total darkness consumes him.
...
A/N: So this one is a little shorter than the other chapter I posted, but I hope you like it. I'm really upset because I had already written a whole chapter that I really liked, but my niece had deleted it by accident from my computer. So I had to rewrite it, but it just wasn't the same. Anyway, please leave a review, and also, check out my 2 latest MERGANA one-shots if you haven't already. One is called, "The Forbidden Words" and the other is called "Not A Dream". Thank you again, and I'll try to update as soon as possible. :)
-McDiggin'It
