Chapter Ten
"Merlin? I thought your name was Marlin?" Steve asked the warlock, his eyebrows scrunched in confusion.
"Well..Um..I." Merlin' attempt at an explanation to his friend was cut off by a very muscular, overly happy man pushing his way to the front of the gathered crowd of superheroes, bending over and vigorously shaking Merlin's hand with a blinding smile on his face.
"Warrior Emrys it is an honour to meet you." He dramatically shook Merlin's hand till he gasped in pain and pulled his hands away from the man in favour of placing them on his wounded side in an effort to ease the burning pain.
That seemed to spur both Arthur and Steve into action as they both crouched down next to the warlock who was breathing deeply in his pain. "You're hurt. Let Bruce help you." Steve said as he placed a gently hand of Merlin's shoulder while giving him an encouraging smile.
"I'm fine honestly." Merlin tried to protest not really wanting to expose his wound to the gathered heroes as he was pretty sure that at least one of them would connect the dots, that is if the muscular man with long blond hair didn't blow it for him already.
"Look dude, I'm no doctor but you're bleeding and that doesn't scream fine to me." The man with short, brown hair said from his position stood by the fiery red haired women.
"I'd listen to Katniss, Lanky. Besides, it doesn't look good on us if we just leave a civilian bleeding to death on the floor now does it?" The famous Tony Stark said, at least Merlin knew the name of some of the gathered crowd.
Merlin turned his head towards Arthur looking for some guidance and he was answered with a small nod of his head.
"Alright." Merlin nodded his head in agreement and Steve and Arthur both helped him off of the floor and into a seat that Bruce had just pulled out for him to sit comfortably on.
"Can you lift your shirt up for me so I can examine the wound?" Bruce said kindly as he knelt down to waist height so he could examine the wound.
Merlin just nodded as he lifted his shirt to reveal his split open wound bleeding his crimson blood. Merlin lifted his head and his eyes caught site of the red headed women talking rapidly to both the brown haired man and on the phone.
Merlin wondered what they were talking about, wondered if they had figured out his and Arthur's secret.
Merlin was pulled from his thoughts by Bruce announcing his diagnostic on the state of his wound. "Well the wound doesn't look deep and it has been healing nicely. It doesn't look infected and it looks like you only ripped the wound open when you knocked it on the table." Well at least the wound was no longer going through both of his sides so he guessed that was a plus, Merlin thought to himself.
"How did you get injured Marlin? Was it during the invasion?" Merlin thought it was really sweet the way Steve looked generally worried about how he'd gotten hurt; it was nice having someone else looking out for him other than Arthur. However, before Merlin could even reply with a cover story that he would most likely have to make up on the spot, the red headed women walked over to them with a stoic mask placed on her face. "I think you'd better come with us." She said, he voice deadly serious.
"What! Why?" Steve said indignantly.
"Because he's the one from the battle."
'Well, shit.' Merlin thought.
An- I actually thought I'd end it here but I felt like I owed you guys more after not updating for a long time.
Before anyone could even blink Arthur had pulled his trusty sword out from under the counter, jumped into battle mode and growled, "You're not taking him anywhere." Seeing the sword had instantly kicked the serious women's battle instincts into gear too and she pulled out a handgun, from Gods knows where and pointed it straight in-between Arthur's eyes.
Merlin jumped in front of the pair his arms up in the universal gesture of peace. "Whoa, Whoa, Whoa! Why don't we all just calm down and lower our weapons." Slowly both parties lowered their weapon but neither loosening their grip. "Good now why don't we all introduce ourselves properly? My real names Merlin and this prat over here is Arthur." He said jerking his thumb in the direction of Arthur.
"Pfft you expect us to believe that." Tony Stark scoffed in response.
"Why would we lie?" Arthur scowled at the billionaire.
"Arthur." Merlin warned the ex-king.
"You really want us believe that he's" Tony said pointing to Arthur. "The famous king of Camelot and you're his trusty wizard, Merlin? Ha no chance that I'm falling for that."
"Despite whether or not you believe us you guys are...?" Merlin tried to ease the tension.
"I'm Steve Rodgers." Steve said giving Merlin a warm smile. He was slightly upset that Merlin didn't tell him the truth about himself but if what he says about him being the real Merlin he guessed he could understand, after all he never told him about being Captain America.
"I'm Thor Son of Odin! T'is an honour to meet such fine warriors such as yourselves." Thor said in his usual jubilant manner.
"Hello, I'm Bruce Banner, it's nice to meet you." The kind man who had helped Merlin previously greeted, outstretching his hand. Merlin gratefully shook the offered hand glad of the ease in tension, Arthur wearily doing the same
"The name's Tony Stark; genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist also known as the amazing ironman." Merlin couldn't help his bark of laughter. Tony reminded him of a strange mixture of Gwaine and a younger Arthur, which was kind of scary to think about.
"Name's Barton, Clint Barton." The man greeted with a nod hands crossed over his chest.
"Very funny Clint. I'm Natasha Romanoff."
"Right now we've all been introduced why don't you tell me why you want us to go with you?" Merlin questioned Natasha not really believing it to be a good idea to go with them unless they had significant proof that it was them at the battle.
"You both attended the battle dressed in cloaks with the same insignia as that to the one on your store's sign. You have a wound similar to that of a stab wound in the exact same side the warrior got when he saved Steve. If you are who you say you are it would explain the fighting skills displayed in the battle. Your eyes also slightly widened when we walked in but you don't seem like a fan as you already knew Steve before the battle." Merlin couldn't help but wince, he was hoping they wouldn't figure it out, guess he was wrong on that.
"Okay looks like you've caught us." Merlin said with a sigh.
"I think you better come with us to S.H.E.I.L.D and we can discuss this in a more secure location."
Merlin looked over to Arthur and the history due had a privet conversation with only their eyes and after a few seconds Merlin turned his attention back to the trained assassin infront of him.
"Okay." He nodded. "Lead the way."
