A/N:HYELLO.
CHAPTER 11 ARRIVETH.
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Chapter 11: The Snake
Why did revelations never go properly for him? Merlin followed a rather erratically behaving Gavin down fourteen flights of stairs, with Nerissa right behind him, her heels clacking loudly on the marble flooring, keeping up surprisingly well. The last time he'd revealed he had magic, Arthur had died in his arms.
"Gwa-Gavin, Gavin, wait -"
"Wait? For what?!" Gavin looked back incredulously at Merlin and Nerissa before turning to continue down even faster than before. "I don't know what kind of sick joke you guys are playing, but it's not funny."
Damn Gwaine – Gavin, even in this life, the man's stride made it so Merlin had to run doubly fast just to keep up. Case in point, he had jump down the last four steps in order to catch up to him as Gavin shoved the metal door at the bottom of the steps open.
Gavin paid him no mind, and walked perhaps even faster, his navy blue blazer flaring out behind him as he approached his car. Even his stride was indicative of the anger he was feeling. Merlin, nearly running now, thanked the gods that the parking lot seemed to be mostly deserted. He understood where Gavin was coming from. In this context, it was easy to see why Gavin felt like he was the butt of some elaborate joke.
"I mean I'd been having dreams but, King Arthur? As in the King Arthur? I must be completely out of my mind. I need a beer or something." He opened the car door only to have Merlin finally catch up to him, with Nerissa huffing and puffing just behind him, pushing the door shut just as it opened. He leaned against the door
"Gavin just wait - I know this is a shock -"
"A shock? A shock? No, a shock is when you discover your mate necking with your girl or your parents doing it in the living room, THIS is bloody unbelievable." He scrubbed his hands up and down his face, over his five o' clock shadow, though it looked a lot more stylish than Merlin's did. "Unbelievable. Maybe I'm just lying, shitfaced, in some hooker's apartment? I mean I know that gin does some nasty things with your head, maybe this is just some bizarre drea-"
Nerissa seemed like she'd seen enough and swung her considerably large bag to connect perfectly with Gavin's head, causing him to cut off in mid-sentence, yelping in pain.
"Ow, what the hell, you bi-" Nerissa rolled her eyes and hit him upside the head again, for what seemed like good measure, while Merlin watched, mouth agape, eyes flicking back and forth between the two.
"Ouch, are you insane -"
"Stop whinging like a child, Gavin, you're a grown man. I was still in highs chool when I found out about all of this."
Gavin gawked at her, like he was seeing her for the first time.
"Wait a minute. Are you telling me that you knew about this? You known about this thing for years, and you never once thought to mention it to me?" Gavin raised an eyebrow and Merlin could see the merit in that point. Nerissa huffed, looking self conscious and now slightly defensive.
"Look, I was a just a kid, and honestly, I could barely understand what was happening and even though it felt real, none of it hit until this one showed up yesterday. " Nerissa jerked her thumb in Merlin's direction. "All I knew was that I was having dreams - "
Gavin looked like he was about to throttle her, eyes wide and disbelieving and displaying just that little bit of crazy.
"Dreams?! You knew I'd been having dreams too!"
"You said nightmares, you dingdong, how was I supposed to know that we were dreaming about the same thing?'
"Dingdo- oh how very mature 'Rissa, really." Gavin sniffed, clearly not impressed and Nerissa just waved her hand at him, beyond words.
Merlin couldn't help but intercede here at the mention of the nickname.
"'Rissa?' So then you two are friends? The same age?"
"Yes," Nerissa replied making the word sound like it was a tragedy to be in the same age bracket as Gavin, thumping him on the forehead to get him to back up, seeing as he had pushed himself up alarmingly in her personal space during his ranting and raving. "I've had to deal with this narcissistic hysterical mess since I was 14 years old."
Gavin thumped her right back, eliciting a gasp out her when she stumbled two steps to the side. Merlin put his hands up in surrender, back away slightly.
"Okay, I'm not even going to touch that one. But the point here is that for whatever reason, you've all been reincarnated. Here and now, within spitting distance of each other, for a reason."
"What reason?" Gavin asked, seemingly curious despite himself.
He put his hands on his hips in response and frowned. "The 'why' is still a tad elusive. I don't know." Merlin found himself admitting and Gavin just threw his hands up in the air in defeat.
"Great." Gavin muttered, raking a hand through his hair. "I'm a reincarnated knight with no purpose listening to a magic man who's got no idea what's going on."
"Oh shut up Gavin. At least you were a knight, I was King's psycho crazy half-sister who kept trying to destroy the whole place." Gavin's eyes grew disproportionately wide in realization, whirling to face her again, this time in suspicion. He pointed a finger in Nerissa's face, though she remained rather unperturbed at his antics, leading Merlin to think that Gavin was perhaps unaware of just how un-suave he really was.
"That's right! I remember now! You were Morgana!"
"Gavin, I'm going to give you three seconds, three, to get that finger out of my face or I will break it."
"You were evil! You tried to kill me. TWICE" Merlin found himself inappropriately wanting to laugh at the outrage on Gavin's face as he connected all the dots in his head. Clearly this Gavin was on par with the perception skills of his medieval counterpart. Well. It made things somewhat less complicated for him, making it easier to treat Gavin comfortably. He still wasn't too sure how he was going to deal with the reincarnation of Lancelot. He was far too removed from Lancelot's polite and mannered personality, reminding him more of Gwaine, actually.
"1."
"Uh, Gavin, I think she's serious ." Merlin eeked out, seeing Nerissa's expression growing more annoyed. He was starting to see the tumultous relationship the two must have had growing up.
"How do we know you're not evil now?" Gavin leaned forward, just behind his still pointed finger with his eyes narrowed.
"2." The word was heavy with warning.
"Gavin - "
"Prove it you're not evil!"
"3."
Nerissa proceeded to grab the surprised Gavin's hand and twisted it artfully behind the man's back in a move that Merlin almost felt the need to applaud. He'd learnt the move for well over 200 years and he didn't think he could have executed it as smoothly as the young woman had. Nerissa shoved her childhood friend up against the car, grinning in self satisfaction.
"Ow ow ow! Let go you psychopathic crazy lady!"
"I did warn you. Besides, if you'd been paying attention, McLeod, the fact that you're alive should be proof enough. If I was evil you'd have never made it past you're 16th birthday alive." Merlin shivered as she said the words, the smile she wore and the sentence she'd just finished didn't match in the slightest. He was definitely glad that Morgana was on their side this time around, it was a chance to atone for the sins of his past. He hadn't been able to stop her before, at least this time, he could protect her innocence for as long as he was able this time.
"If you two children are quite finished with the two-man comedy skit you're running, we've got something important to discuss."
That put a stop to the squabbling almost instantaneously as Nerissa let go of Gavin, who shot her a dirty look but just rubbed his wrist, severely put out at being one upped. Nerissa set herself again, smoothing down her hair and mouthing an aggressive "what're you looking at?" at Gavin when she caught the looks he was sending her, which tamed him rather quickly before he addressed Merlin.
"Discuss? What are we discussing?" Merlin motioned to the building behind them in response to Gavin's question.
"I was already talking to Nerissa when you showed up." Gavin leaned back against the car, indicating interest.
"Someone, I don't know who, is making a move on Arthur." Gavin grew serious, thinking while Nerissa stopped trying to intimidate Gavin.
"Okay, we know this how?"
"A manticore tried to kill Arthur in his office yesterday, and on the way home, I was attacked by a harpy - "
"wait, wait, wait." Gavin put his hands up to stall Merlin in the middle of his debriefing, giving him widely confused looks.
"What the hell is a harpy? Or even a manticore?" Merlin blinked, astounded at the question.
"What do you mean what are they? How can you not know? You've fought hundreds of them - "
Gavin threw his hands up for a second time that day.
"I told you, I just started having these dreams, I've got bits and pieces Marlin - " Gavin stopped and looked at him weirdly.
"Hang on, that's not it. Your name isn't Marlin, it's Merlin." Nerissa interrupted him impatiently, brushing a few strands of hair that the wind had blown into her face.
"Yes, we know Gavin, catch up already will you?" Gavin muttered something definitely rude under his breath and hurried on to continue what he was saying to Merlin when he caught sight of Nerissa's raised eyebrow.
"Anyway, what are they?" Merlin thought for a moment.
"Let's say for simplicity's sake, that a manticore is about the size of a cat but get close enough and it has venom strong enough to kill a man. It also has pretty good at mind control. The mind control is how it got in yesterday, the manticore possessed Arthur's secretary and she tried to stab him while his back turned. I killed it though. The harpy on the other hand," Gavin was now deep in thought as he tried to think back to yesterday, recalling that he had left the building early to go drinking. It was the first time he found himself regretting the action.
"That's also a pretty nasty one. It's basically a woman with wings who's got limbs that are a weird cross between bird and human. One nearly got the jump on me yesterday but Lancelot got there in time to kill it." Gavin's eyes nearly bugged out, similarly to Nerissa's when she'd first heard that tidbit of information.
"Lancelot? Seriously? You've already found another one of the knights?" The wizard nodded and Gavin nearly appeared to faint with happiness.
"And he remembers?" When Merlin confirmed it, Gavin erupted with a muted cheer. "So I'm seriously not crazy?"
"That's debatable." Nerissa deadpanned, earning herself a surprised snicker out of Merlin.
"Oh quiet you. You're just jealous you don't have any witchy friends to chat with." He turned to Merlin eagerly. "Can I meet him? I'd love to see him."
Merlin felt like he would have to say yes now or risk another public meltdown. He still wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do about the scene Gavin had caused in the cafeteria, approaching them and suddenly bolting like the hounds of hell were upon him. Merlin could already feel the headache coming on from thinking about it. It was only his second day of work, dammit. He'd gone 500 years without creating – significant – trouble, and then he meets Arthur and suddenly there's more trouble than he'd experienced in two days than he's seen in the last 250 years (not counting the years he spent in the two world wars that is).
"Well, I can't see that he'd refuse but I'm warning you two, this Lancelot's nothing like the old one, so don't be expecting the one you saw in your dreams, alright?" They nodded, and Merlin suddenly felt faint from how quickly things were progressing despite the fact that the main reason behind this reunion was still blissfully unaware of the events going on around. Merlin shuddered to think of the reaction that kid was going to have when he realized he'd been kept in the dark all this time. If his current temperament was anything to go by, he was just as volatile as his medieval version. Possibly more so.
Speaking of temperament, Merlin thought and looked down at his watch. He cursed internally, and looked at the two looking at him expectantly.
"Alright, I wish we could talk more, but I've got to get back to work or I'm positive that that entitled prat is going to send me down to HR again for being late." That got Gavin and Nerissa to crack a grin in unison.
"Seriously? He did that to me too, on my first day as his VP. I thought I was going to die of cookie-overdose." Merlin just rolled his eyes and waved, taking off for the doors, hearing Nerissa and Gavin start to bicker again as he left.
"Why can't you act just a little put together? You made us look like raving lunatics in front of him!"
"What does the evil witch have a little crush on Merlin? And anyway, it's not me you should be worried about, why don't you learn to let loose a little - "
The door swung closed behind him and Merlin just shook his head, they'll kill each way before some magical creature gets the chance to do it.
He approached the doors to Arthur's office with some trepidation, knowing that his father had called the teen into his office in the afternoon, most likely to discuss the elevator fiasco. Thinking of that had Merlin's cheeks burning red, even as he stood right in front of the office.
Stop it, Merlin scolded himself. He's Arthur for God's sake! You can't go getting excited just because he's the first guy you've had physical contact with in 250 years! Merlin ignored the memories of his decidedly more promiscuous years flooding his head, causing his cheeks to burn even more. He slapped himself in the face to snap himself out of it just as Arthur opened the door, shocking him into freezing in post slap stance.
"Marlin!" The taller man had to wrench himself back to avoid bowling Merlin over, and looked at him strangely, eyes flicking from the hand to the most likely vivid slap mark on his face. Merlin flushed again, this time out of embarrassment. "I just came back from a meeting with Father, although Im not too sure what I did after you left for lunch." A briefly confused look crossed over Arthur's face that Merlin failed to catch, too caught up with having been caught slapping himself. Merlin resisted the urge to cover his face and barreled past the man into his office.
"Sorry I'm late, got caught up a little bit."
"Yeah, I heard." Arthur said drily, following Merlin to sit at the chairs around the sitting area in his office rather than his desk. Noting the slight humor in the tone, Merlin glanced at the blond suspiciously from his seat.
"Heard what?"
"Just that you had lunch with Nerissa of all people, and the McLeod apparently showed spoke to you for like 2 seconds, then ran like a bat out of hell and the two of you went running after him like some bad version of a soap opera."
Merlin groaned, leaning back into the cushy couch.
"Don't your employees have better things to do than gossip?" Arthur had the audacity to snicker.
"Are you kidding? This is a high school in here, gossip is pretty much an entry requirement."
When Merlin shot him an unimpressed look at the joke, and after a moment of silence, he spoke again.
"So what happened?"
"What?"
"You know, what happened at lunch? Never mind that you've only met my sister once and she's already having lunch with you when my friends have only gotten a basic look, why'd Gavin have a soap-opera style fit in the cafeteria today?"
"He found out that he and Nerissa were reincarnated medieval characters and that I was immortal." There. He'd said it. Now to see if -
"Nice try Marlin, that sounds more like the latest plot of Doctor Who. Seriously, cough it up."
"He got jealous of Nerissa having lunch with me and wanted to have some words with me."
"Even worse, you numpty, everyone knows that those two can't stand each other for longer than they have to. I'm letting it go for now only because my appointment's going to be here soon and we have bigger fish to fry, but don't think for a second that this is over yet. "
Arthur whacked him on the arm in promise of this future interrogation and got up, going quickly to his desk and picked up a tablet, tossing it to Merlin, watching amusedly as the man scrambled from his slouched position to grab the thing before it hit ground. Succeeding after doing a slide and grab, Merlin rolled over from his position on the floor to glare at his teenaged boss.
"Oi! Don't go tossing stuff like that! Just because you've probably got twenty in assorted colors, don't assume they're expendable, you twit." Arthur pinned Merlin with a look that he decided was probably intended to intimidate him, but was rather giving him the appearance of trying to think really hard.
"Whatever, look that's yours now. It's got our schedule - "
"Our schedule?"
"- yes, Marlin, try to keep up, you're my PA, my schedule IS your schedule. It's also got my personal references in there for when you order us food - "
"What am I, your waiter?"
"- your work email and a webcam application for when we need to talk."
"As opposed to using my perfectly functional phone?" Merlin waved it in the air. He knew he was being annoying but couldn't help it. He'd yearned for years for the return of this dynamic and was finding it far more natural than he'd thought it would be to return to.
"Are you being purposely difficult?" Arthur put his hands on his hip indignantly.
"Me? Never, boss." Merlin put on the airs of being unjustly accused.
The sideways look that Arthur gave him was definitely unconvinced but the young man was forced to let it go when the first of his afternoon appointments knocked on the office door. Arthur mouthed behave at him silently, before opening the door, not missing the mock salute that Merlin sent him in response.
That night, the drive back to his apartment with Keyes was far easier than the ride this morning had been. Merlin was beginning to feel the effects of the day on his body, after being on high alert all day. Not only had it been wet and gloomy but also carried the added punch of emotional reunions between more people of the Camelot era. He was starting to feel a little overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of information and people, as well as keeping up with the civilian life he had to live at Arthur's side.
"Falling asleep there Marlin?"
Merlin scowled, this prat had been needling him all day, and as a result they'd been getting into ridiculously silly back and forths.
"So would you if you were employed for no pay by a classmate."
"Who said I'm not paying you?" Arthur looked genuinely surprised by that and Merlin bit his tongue. He should never have brought it up. A quick couple taps on Arthur's own tablet later and then the heir was once again looking at Merlin as if seeing him for the first time.
"You're right. You're not on the company payroll. I wonder why?" He pursed his lips and began clacking away while Merlin silently hit himself. Of course he wasn't there, Marlin Keyes didn't have a bank account.
"Just put my pay with Keyes' I haven't got a bank account yet."
"What? You're 18 already Marlin, what're you doing? You're going to be going to University next year, you need your own bank account." Arthur settled in to his seat, putting away his tablet and focusing on Merlin, who sat opposite him, pulling on his tight turtleneck collar, feeling hot under pressure.
"Right. University." The unsure tone had Arthur look at Merlin, alarmed.
"Wait a second, you're not - " He thumped his head into the car seat with a groan. "you are not telling me that you're one of those idiots who's left his University application to the last minute are you?" Merlin's unnatural laugh convinced Arthur he was right, sending him ranting a lecture that Merlin quickly tuned out. After all, what was he going to say? It wasn't like he was going to be able to tell him that he probably had, altogether, over 70 degrees from 30 Universities worldwide with different anagrams of his name, and one somewhere with his own name, though that one was most likely lost to the fires of the book burnings of Nazi Germany.
"Merlin -"
Merlin's eyes snapped open to look at Arthur at the sound of his own name, belatedly realizing the car had stopped. Arthur himself seemed unconcerned by it.
"Whoops, I meant Marlin, sorry, I know, its dumb calling you Merlin. But seriously, it's only the difference of one letter," Arthur shrugged. "Maybe I'll start calling you that, stupid name for a stupid guy." He grinned at Merlin like he was expecting Merlin to laugh or something. Instead, curiously, Arthur's upright coffee mysteriously spilt itself all over his perfect suit lapel.
Ah yes, magic certainly did have its benefits.
"Ah shit!"
"Language Mr. Heir Apparent."
"I thought I told you to stop calling me that."
"You say a lot of things, doesn't mean I'm going to listen to all of them."
Alright, perhaps he was having a little too much fun with the discovery of their equal social status.
"Marlin. Isn't that the guy from this morning?"
Merlin looked outside, realizing they were in front of his building, and that outside it, stood Rhain, holding a hand to his rather bloodied head. He was out of the car before he realized it, sprinting towards him, after muttering a quick goodbye to Arthur.
So preoccupied was he with Rhain that Merlin failed to notice two things.
The unmarked car that pulled up behind Arthur's Audi The distinct glow of a moving symbol on Arthur's neck. Remarkably similar to a mark Merlin had once worn himself.