And some days I can't even trust myself
It's killing me to see you this way
Merlin follows Michael as the boy walks straight through every person who crosses his path. He does his best to avoid crashing into everyone, while Michael doesn't even seem to really notice. He easily walks through people and doors and walls, while Merlin does his best to try and do so the way he's always done it. This gets fairly hard when you can't push doors open, though.
He and Michael finally make it to a small room Merlin's passed a few times but never gone into. It's fairly spacious, about half the size of Arthur's quarters. Completely empty, too, except for a few cushioned chairs and a small table in the centre. "Nobody's been in here for a while. Door's been jammed for years. Orion?!"
A girl pokes her head around the corner a bit comically, her long blonde hair falling off her shoulder and blue eyes widening from the distance. She jumps out from her hiding place and approaches them, a small bounce in her step as she walks. She's significantly shorter than Merlin, and a lot younger, too. She's got to be around sixteen, maybe younger.
"Emrys," she grins, teeth strikingly white, and Merlin realizes this girl is a figure of beauty. Perfectly curled hair, bright blue eyes and a gleaming white smile. Her skin glows and her eyes shine, and with a glance at Michael, Merlin notices for the first time that he's just the same.
"Do I look like that, too?" He asks, and Michael nods.
"It's a perk to being dead. It'd be a lot better if people could see it, but you take what you can get."
"Finally we get a new one. Mike's been boring me for years," Orion sighs, though the smile doesn't leave her face when she glances at Michael, who makes a mocking face and Orion laughs.
"Yeah, yeah, you keep talking. Just remember that I've been the only source of entertainment you've had for 3 years," Michael retorts lightly, sitting in one of the chairs. Merlin half expects him to fall through, but he doesn't.
"So, Emrys. Welcome to the world of the dead, population us three," Orion says a bit too cheerfully, and Merlin raises an eyebrow at her, hoping she doesn't make a habit out of calling him Emrys.
"Just three? Really?"
"Well, four," Orion says, a bit awkwardly, and Merlin raises his eyebrows at her.
"Who's the fourth?"
"Trust me, you don't want to meet the fourth," Michael laughs, but his smile fades when Orion glares at him.
"Alright. Four, then," Merlin nods a bit awkwardly.
"Course. Did you think the castle was gonna be crawling with dead people? If that happened we'd have to call it the apocalypse," Michael laughs and Orion grins over at him, both obviously forgetting or ignoring what they'd been talking about a second earlier.
"Why do you talk like that?" Merlin asks, ignoring the comment and approaching Michael, who raises his eyebrows questioningly.
"Like what?"
"Like, that way, with that accent. It's odd. You called me dude," Merlin says, the unfamiliar word rolling off his tongue awkwardly.
"Dunno. I spent a bit of time in the 2000's, way back when," Michael shrugs. "And I'm from America."
"Where is America? Is it in a different kingdom?" Merlin questions, and Michael laughs.
"Different continent, actually," he says in his strange accent and Merlin opens his mouth to say something but Michael cuts him off. "Nothing I can say. It'd disrupt the space-time continuum to recite future knowledge in the past or something."
Merlin stares at him wide eyed for a moment before finally saying, "what are you going on about?"
"You get used to it," Orion says, clapping him over the shoulder. "Rubs off on you a bit, too. It's contagious. Eventually you start to speak like him until you've completely converted into an American."
"Hey, no America talk. It's not yet been discovered," Michael warns her lightly in a fake accent like Merlin's and Orion's and she laughs, rolling her eyes.
Merlin stands still, completely dumbfounded, until he just shakes his head and choosing to ignore everything Michael had just said. "So, what's going on with this whole dead situation? I'm going to need a bit more of an explanation than you've given me," Merlin says, slowly sitting in the chair to make sure that he doesn't fall through.
"Well, my fine wizard friend, you've come to the right place. We here are your experts on all things dead-related, what is your question or concern?"
Merlin, despite hardly knowing what Michael said, manages to get enough to know what he's saying. "Aren't we supposed to go to someplace else when we die? I'm certain that being stuck here isn't what's meant to happen."
"No, my friend, it is not. Good question. Well, the good news is that you're not all dead. Just half-dead. Fate's not done with you yet, Merlin. Welcome to the world of us poor saps who apparently still have a bone to pick with this lousy planet. We three are still stuck on this lousy planet because we've been given an assignment."
"What sort of assignment?"
"A special one. One for each of us. And once we complete said assignment, we pass on into eternal life and happiness and blah blah blah."
Merlin raises an eyebrow at Michael at the last part and glances at Orion, who's gotten pretty into braiding her long hair over her shoulder loosely.
"And what's the task?"
"Million dollar question. We've got no idea."
This throws Merlin for a bit of a loop. Orion drops the braid and pulls it apart, smiling weakly at Merlin. "What do you mean you have no idea?!"
"I mean, they don't tell you what your task is. You've gotta find it yourself. But good luck. I've been here for a really long time and I still have no clue what my task is," Michael says a bit sadly, and Merlin sighs and shifts his gaze to his feet.
The awkward silence is immense before a thought strikes Merlin and he jumps to his feet. "I know what mine is."
"That was fast," Orion remarks under her breath but Merlin ignores her.
"It has to be. There's nothing else. The same thing it was when I was alive. It's... Fate has given me another chance at my destiny! My task is to protect Arthur and help him unite the lands of Albion!"
As proud as he is of his discovery, and as much as he'd expected Michael and Orion to be excited, neither of them really react. Orion's finished another braid and is fighting with a knot while trying to pull it apart, and Michael is just staring up at him lazily. "And how do you expect to achieve that? How do you expect to be able to protect him if you can't touch anything? You seem to be forgetting the one piece of vital information; the fact that you're dead."
"How could I possibly forget with you reminding me of it every two seconds?!" Merlin snaps, and Michael only rolls his eyes. Something tells Merlin by this reaction that Michael's used to being snapped at, and the only person it could possibly be from is Orion, who's trying out a different braid now in her own little secluded corner.
"I'm sure I'll figure it out," Merlin breathes, standing tall with determination as he stares down at Michael. "This is my destiny, and it's not over yet."
Merlin, despite the acceptance that nobody can see him, sits on the edge of Arthur's bed and watches helplessly as the prince paces across the floor of his chambers. "I don't think that's going to solve anything," Merlin says, hoping for but not expecting a reply.
He sighs as Arthur continues pacing until a someone knocks on the door and Arthur stops dead. "Enter," he says in a distracted voice and Merlin jumps to his feet as the door opens.
"Good morning, sire," a voice calls before they've even entered the room and Merlin groans immediately, falling backwards onto the bed hopelessly.
"George," Arthur nods, not even bothering to plaster a smile on his face.
"I've been instructed by King Uther to tend to you as your new manservant," George says in a clearly ecstatic yet completely professional tone, and Merlin groans as he sits up and puts his face in his hands.
"Again," Arthur mutters and a look of confusion passes George's face. He looks as though he's about to speak, but Arthur cuts him off. "Look, George, it's very much appreciated that you would work for me, but I think I'll be able to handle myself for a little while."
"That should be a show," Merlin laughs to himself, half expecting and half hoping for a smart remark from Arthur. Nothing, though, and Merlin goes back to watching the conversation.
"Sire, I don't mean to argue, but I have been instructed by the King-"
"Yes, and now you've been instructed by the prince. Tell my father if you see him that I am in no need of a new manservant at the moment." Arthur says nothing else, just turns and walks off to his desk. George heaves a sigh and Merlin's certain he hears his own name followed by a curse under George's breath, and he laughs as the boy walks out of the room, almost slamming the door after him.
Arthur waits until the footsteps recede to react. Merlin isn't expecting it, so it scares him when Arthur screams and kicks the desk, sending all it's contents flying across the room. Merlin stares in shock as Arthur turns and slams his fist into the wall, which clearly hurts but Arthur really doesn't seem to care. He sighs, leaning into the wall hopelessly.
Merlin watches awkwardly as Arthur stands there for what seems like an eternity, until the door creaks open and a familiar face pokes her head in. "Morgana," Merlin whispers and Arthur says, both at the same time. She takes a few steps into the room, closing the door softly behind her unlike George. She walks up the Arthur, sighing when she sees the papers scattered on the floor. She drops to her knees and begins collecting them, and Arthur wordlessly does the same.
It's silent between the two until the room is mostly clean, and Arthur looks away awkwardly as Morgana stares him down. "Arthur-" she starts, but he quickly cuts her off.
"Don't. Don't say anything. Don't you someplace to be?"
"Arthur, I know how you must be feeling," she sighs, taking a step towards him.
"No you don't. You can't. You can't possibly."
"You can't just lock yourself away," Morgana says, and Arthur stares down at his feet for a moment before looking back up at her.
"Watch me."
"Arthur-"
"Just leave me alone, Morgana!" Arthur snaps, walking away from her and towards the bed that Merlin is sitting on. He jumps to his feet immediately, walking to stand beside Morgana as they both watch Arthur's sad attempt at making his bed.
"Arthur, please-"
"I said leave me alone!" Arthur yells, whipping his head to send her a death glare. She heaves a sigh, then turns on her heels and storms out of the room.
"That wasn't very nice," Merlin says as he leans on the bed frame and ends up falling straight through it.
He lands on his ass on the floor and pulls himself to his feet to meet the eyes or Michael, who's suddenly appeared in the room and is staring at him with raised eyebrows and the smallest trace of a smirk on his face. "That was graceful."
"How did you-"
"Once you've been here a while you pick up a few tricks," Michael cuts him off, and then turns to look at Arthur who's given up making his bed and is now sitting on the edge of it, hands clasped on his lap as he stares out the window. "He blames himself, you know."
Merlin looks over at Michael, who just keeps staring at Arthur. "Why? It's not his fault."
Michael laughs at this. A small snort with a smile which fades immediately. "Try telling him that."
"I would if I could," Merlin sighs, and when Michael doesn't answer, he takes a few steps over to Arthur and kneels in front of him. He narrows his eyes, staring directly into Arthur's eyes just hoping he can see. "I'm here, Arthur. It's not your fault. You can't blame yourself." A look of recognition passes Arthur's face and he jumps to his feet, Merlin scrambling backwards to give him some standing room even though Arthur could stand in the exact same spot as him and not notice.
But he did notice. Because Arthur's staring at him now, Merlin's sure of it. "Arthur," Merlin whispers, taking a step towards him slowly.
"Merlin-" Michael whispers, almost sadly, but Merlin couldn't care less. Arthur can see him. Whatever happened, Arthur is looking at him
.
At least, Merlin thought he was. But that proved to be wrong, because Arthur walks straight through him without even a second glance. Merlin whips around and watches as Arthur walks out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Michael watches him carefully as a tear falls down Merlin's cheek and he lets out a hopeless, choked sob. Michael doesn't say a word as Merlin stands there, face in his hands, shaking with ragged breaths coming out, until finally he sighs and walks over to him.
"There has to be... Some way. Some way I can talk to him," Merlin says after taking a deep breath.
"There isn't. If there was, I'd probably have figured it out by now. Come on, Orion's back at the room. We've got a new one."
okok a few things this story takes place at the beginning of season two you'll see that in the next chapter because it features the events of the curse of cornelius sigan and the beginning of the end so we'll see mordred soon yay
that being said i know george is in this chapter we're just gonna pretend that we've already met him at this point because i couldn't help myself he's the greatest
ok next chapter should be up soon until then enjoy this
-notreallymagical