Merlin has a strange feeling of day ja vu as he stood beside the dock where the Prince's sleek single pilot craft rested. Except, he reminded himself, this is not just a photo oppurtuinty and then he'll leave us alone. This is the first day of the longest month of his life. Merlin siged as the craft door hissed open and Arthur emerged, golden hair blazing as the brighter of the two suns peaked over the horizon covering the land in golden light and gilding everything it touched. It caught the minute fibres of Arthurs suit and Merlin almost scowled as he glowed before descending the steps to the shade of the dock. Stupid traitorous sun making him look like some kind of saint Merlin thought bitterly. He definitely did not think A very handsome saint and even if he did there was no denying the Prince's looks - girls boys and others all across the galaxy had his posters plastered on their bedroom walls and tucked into their lockers and diaries.
Arthur was followed through the door by his bodyguard - Merlin struggled to remember his name. Lee or something. The prince approached Gwen with a polite smile and Merlin forced his face into a passive mask. The best he could hope for was to avoid Arthur as much as possible, and be civil. Merling could do civil.
"Ms Nevere, thank you so much for allowing me to work with you" Arthur said with a winning smile and a handshake of Gwen's hand. Gwen bobbed an awkward half-curtsey and blush furiously.
"Oh please, call me Gwen. It's such an honour to have you. I mean for you to be be here. I - this is Merlin! Which you know because he was here last time..." She trailed off and pressed her lips together as if to force herself to stop babbling. Arthur's smile did not faulter as her turned to Merlin to shake his hand also. Unecessarily, Merlin found this jarring. He'd been fuming about the prince's presense here since before he'd ever set foot on terra firma, and he was here pretending Merlin had shouted in his face or called him an arrogant prat? A petty streak ignnited in Merlin's mind.
"Your royal space highness." He said confidently meeting Arthur's eyes, and smirked as the Public Smile across his face flickered. He tried not to notice Gwen glaring at him out he corner of his eye.
"Would you like to see your accomodations for the moth? Lance here will show...your compation where to go." Lance gave the prince a bow-nod. He was the head of security for the camp - an unfortunately required position which at least gave Gwen the oppurtunity to see her husband as much and as often as she could. He was a dark-hairred man with olive skin and kind, deep brown eyes that Gwen often said she could melt into like chocolate. He was outfitted the the security team uniform - though calling it a uniform was being a bit generous. Cargo pants, black long sleeved top, dessert scarf and whatever stab vest fitted out of a selection that had been either donated, purchased, or however else things turned up here.
"This is Lancelot," Merlin said, gesturing towards the man.
"Your majesty." Said Lancelot, reverendly with a slight bow. Gwen smiled adoringly at her husband, his kind dark brown eyes fixed on the prince.
"And this is Arthur's personal guard… um…" Merlin gestured at Leon and flailed with an apologetic grin and arm at Leon.
"Leon." Leon provided. Stepping forward and shaking Lancelot's hand with his gloved one.
"It's an honour to meet you. While here, you'll be staying with me, or in my barrack room, at least." Lancelot explained.
"You don't live with your good wife?" Arthur questioned with a confused expression.
"We stay together when we can, sire, but our rolls are very different. The cause is better served with us being where we are needed." Lancelot explained. Gwen nodded along in agreement. ,The three of them trekked to the barranks where Arthur's kind faced and gentle haired bodyguard would be staying for the duration. Merlin pirately thought that a bodyguard would be staying closer to the body he should be guarding, but paid it no mind. Arthir was unlikely to irritate anyone enough to attack him when asleep, Merlin reasoned.
"It's very…cosy." Merlin was torn between laughing at the badly disguised horror on Arthur's face at his small room and raising in anger at how privlidged and pompous he was. Arthur pulled phone out of his insie suit jacket pocket and frowned at the bright screen. He glanced up and met Merlin's eyes.
"Do you get signal here?" Merlin did laugh then, or sort of chocked slightly in amazement.
"Signal? This is a refugee camp on a planet that has no secure trading post and no surface water. Why in the void of space would anyone put signal here?" Arthur frowned harder.
"You have a phone!" He said accusingly. Merlin unclipped the chunky gadhet from his belt and wiggled it.
"Satellite phone. We can only use it when the satellite's in rage or someone important enough bounces us a connection" He said poniontly. Arthur visibly blanched.
"You mean I can't use my phone...at all? I can't text...what if someone needs to call me?" he asked desperately. Merlin shrugged, he was rather enjoying this.
"The palace can bounce a signal. We have a timetable for when the satellite comes back in range." Merlin said nanchalantly.
"When's that?" Merlin saw hope flicker in the prince's eyes...
"About three weeks." ...and die.
"Three weeks!" Arthur sqwarked and sat heavily on the - Merlin's - bed, flopping back and staring agassed at the ceiling.
"Sophia is going to kill me." Merlin blinked at him. His suit jacket was going toget all wrinkled.
"Who's Shophia?" he asked.
"My girlfriend" Arthur told the ceiling.
"Oh." Merlin wasn't sure why he asked. There was a breif pause.
"I'll uh. Be going then. Come find Gwen or me when you're ready, I guess." Arthur didn't reply, so Merlin just nodded to himself and left, shutting the door behind him.
Arthur did not emerge for the rest of the day, sending Merlin into a futile tonado of rage and even causing Gwen to give a slight frown and a "Oh." before she turned the frown on Merlin, who was slamming storage crates around the small warehouse with far more force than was necessary for a man looking for tweezers at planetry midnight.
"I don't know whay you're so mad about this Merlin. He probably wants to rest. It's a long journey from Camelot and our atmosphere isn't what he's used to" She said watching him with crossed arms.
"Don't make excuses for him Gwen, he's here as punishment and he's sulking like a child. If we have to keep operating without him I'd rather he wasn't here at all, taking up resources. Why do we have so much dried mango?" He turned to wave a silver packet at her and she shrugged.
"Gwaine said it was 'on sale', whatever that means to him" she replied making air quotes with her fingers when she said 'on sale'. Merlin sighed and tossed it back into the crate full of identical packets.
"Hopefully next time he brings us something more useful." Merlin expressed.
"Last we heard from him, he should be here in three weeks. We can manage until then." Gwen reassured.
"As long as there's no outbreaks, riot, or who knows what else." Merlin sighed. Gwen rested her hand on Merlin's shoulder in concern and he gave her a week smile. He looked exhausted.
"You should get some rest" Merlin shook his head and turned to survey the warehouse.
"Nah, I need to get this sorted. You go though. I'm sure Lance will be glad to see you." Vwen nodded and left, giving his shoulder a quick squeeze before she left. Merlin waited until the door clicked shut behind her and made his way to the back of the warehouse where there collection of mismatched blankets were kept, freshly cleaned. They might not be the most luxous, but they were enough. He took a pile and arranged them into a bed on the floor, turned off the light with a flash of his eyes, and tried to get comfortable.
He couldn't stop the swirling nebula os thoughts in his mind, taking over and clouding his thoughts like a storm. His magic was the only thing providing the camp with water - Tintagel had no surface water, and the groundwater was tainted and revolting. Though not strictly poisoinus, it had an oily texture and tasted like paint. Merlin could clarify it with very little effort with his magic, allowing everyone to have ample ater to drink and use - hardly a luxury, but it was something he could give freely to these people to make these peoples lives a tiny bit better.
With Arthur here he had no time, they were surviving on the bottled water the Albian releif provided last time they brought supplie - well over 2 sun cycles ago. He sighed and turned over, tryng to ger comfortable on the concrete floor. Eventually he fell into a fitful sleep.