Author's Note: I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this but I just finished it and I'm excited to see what you think! If you review I can give you a small preview of the next chapter ahead of the game! Thanks.
The potion tasted like… warmth, with no better way to describe it. Arthur felt his mind relax as soon as he had taken the first sip. Merlin's aching body sank into his cot and a sigh of contentment filled him. He could feel the magical remedy take hold immediately. He had time to feel the smallest twinge of guilt for not telling Arthur that he was being healed using magical means, before the potion took hold.
Merlin had done some means of research concerning linking curses and their cures, and knew that the cure involved the two cursed persons becoming connected through mind and spirit. He hadn't understood what that meant until he was suddenly experiencing a rush of memories and emotions that were very clearly not his own.
He was a seven-year-old prince of Camelot, crouched alone and crying in his room because his father hadn't had time to see him that day. He was fourteen and quarreling with a fuming Morgana. He was sixteen, staring into the lifeless eyes of the man whose life he had just taken – first kill.
He was seeing Merlin for the first time, hatred boiling over for his arrogance and disrespect…
Merlin watched his time with Arthur fly forward quickly, as the prince went from despising him to finding him interesting to finally considering him a trusted friend and confidant. It was odd to feel Arthur's emotions coursing through him, particularly as Arthur's mind – their mind, flashed to Guinevere and a lurch of passion and love swept over him. Them.
In that moment, Merlin could not tell where his own thoughts ended and Arthur's began. He was feeling too many things at once – his own life was flashing through their communal mind as well, and that meant…
The part of Arthur's mind that was still his own was feeling fear and anger battle with respect and affection – too many memories for one mind, as he saw a three-year-old Merlin giggling with delight as he made a broom fly across the bare floor of his childhood home, with his horrified mother anxiously trying to catch it.. There was Merlin and his friend Will laughing in the woods on the edge of the village, as Merlin made fire appear at the tip of his fingertips just by snapping.
And then – Merlin arriving in Camelot, discovering the illegality of magic… He saw and felt his eyes – Merlin's eyes, his own eyes – he didn't even know anymore – flash gold as he saved Arthur's life on his very first day in Camelot.
He felt Merlin's anger and fear as he heard the Great Dragon explain his destiny to protect Arthur… He saw in rapid-fire Merlin's eyes flash gold again and again… a spear was thrown off course, a ball of light reached Arthur in a cave, conversations with the dragon…
Crushing sadness as Merlin held his dying father in his arms, deep guilt at the destruction wrought by the dragon… bringing Kilgarrah under his control and sending him away… Merlin, tears falling at the sight of what appeared to be a mortal wound from an arrow stuck in Arthur's back…
Nothing was in order and nothing seemed right – Merlin watched and felt Arthur's deep and passionate hatred for Dragoon as his father took his last breath, and Arthur felt the overwhelming sadness of Dragoon, of Merlin as he stumbled back… felt the disappointment when Arthur turned his back on the possibility that magic might not be all that bad…
Then Merlin was crying over a beautiful druid girl – Arthur remembered his own blade pierce the beast and also watched it from under cover, through Merlin's eyes.
Merlin's intent to sacrifice his life when he had been bitten by the questing beast… Lancelot's tryst with Gwen, explained by an enchanted bracelet…
Their minds were so tightly woven that Arthur wasn't sure whether the panic he was feeling was his own or Merlin's. Merlin was panicking… Or Arthur was panicking… The images were swirling faster and faster…
Merlin confronting Morgana, poisoning her, being tied up and then attacked in a forest, then Arthur's voice, yelling at him for being so incompetent as to spend the whole night in the tavern.
Guilt. Arthur's? Merlin's? So much guilt and sadness and anger and just a bit of relief on top of all of it. Whatever happened now, at least –
Quite suddenly, as if someone had blown out the light of a lantern, the connection severed, and Merlin felt himself fall back into his own mind. Arthur was suddenly himself again, and he could feel his heart beating abnormally fast against his ribs.
With herculean effort, Arthur peeled his eyes open and turned in the direction of Merlin's cot. Merlin was staring at the ceiling, his entire body rigid with fear. He would not meet Arthur's eye.
Author's Note: So... A unique way to do the reveal? What do you guys think?