Merlin watched as the crew came together on the stage to shoot the next scene. He wrung his hands anxiously, trying to restrain from fretting. There was no reason to believe that anything would go wrong with this short little scene. At least that's what he was trying to convince himself of. They had already filmed most of the other scenes in the fake cave between Laura and Colin and 80% of them were done in one take. They had sweet on screen chemistry that worked well.
There wasn't anything complex in the scenes. A lot of sitting and talking and staring wonderingly at the other. So really nothing should go wrong.
The director called for action and Colin rushed around the corner, holding a napkin with food inside.
"I know, I'm late again. Sorry. But, er, this is going to be the best bread you have ever tasted." Colin unwrapped the small meal and presented it like a magnificent banquet. Laura let a small smile creep across her face. "What do you want with it? Come on. You can have anything." He rubbed his hands together with a grin. Merlin chewed on his lower lip. "Ham? Cheese?"
"Strawberries," Laura responded.
"Strawberries it is," Colin laughed and cupped his hands.
Merlin could feel his heartbeat racing. They had practiced the spell in the dream world for nearly two weeks. But Colin had never quite been able to master it. Merlin had no clue why it wasn't working for him. He had the pronunciation correct. And there was never a consistent problem. Sometimes it was a purple strawberry, other times it was a brilliant red raspberry.
"Blostma," Colin whispered into his palms. Merlin felt the slight surge of magic and held his breath. He couldn't tell from Colin's expression whether it had worked or not. Then Colin opened his hands and Merlin's heartbeat stuttered.
"That's not a strawberry," Laura said as she saw what the actor held.
Colin grinned sheepishly. "Er, it's the right colour?" She smiled back as he decided to tuck it into her hair. Merlin relaxed. After a breath, they continued on with the scene.
"Why are you so good to me?" It was a good thing improv seemed to come naturally to some actors. Merlin refrained from meeting the eye of anyone in the crew until the scene was over, trying to think up a lie for why there was a flower instead of a strawberry in Colin's hands. Actually, he wondered what Colin thought of the flower suddenly appearing in his hands. He had no clue how he could pretend that was a slight of the hand when the actor was not given an actual prop. Maybe he should just avoid the Irishman until he forgot about the incident.
No wonder so many people caught onto him having magic; he was terrible at hiding the little things that he did without thinking after so many centuries of living.
The scene ended and the director immediately congratulated Colin and Merlin on the last minute switch. They exchanged glances, Colin clearly knew it wasn't planned, but he played it off and said it was a last minute idea he had last night and thought it would play better if they kept it a secret since obviously Merlin had expected to actually make a strawberry. He apologized to Laura for not telling her, but she agreed that she thought it worked better this way, certainly more flustered surprise. The director quickly watched it back and said he was happy with how it turned out so they could move on to the next scene.
Merlin hurried off set before someone could confront him about the obvious magic.
AN: First, thanks again to equine14. You are more than welcome to stalk my writings. Check out my profile for more Merlin works and let me know what you enjoy!
To everyone else: This is the last chapter I have finished and ready to publish. What this means is a short break might be coming in posting. I'll try to finish the incomplete chapters for next week, but I would rather make sure they are good chapters before I post them. That said, reviews really do help motivate me to keep working on the story now that 007 Fest is over.
