A/N: Merlin's dialogues are written in italics for some part of the story. You would understand why.
There were voices in his room. Voices that did not belong.
"Are you sure you put enough in Val? He looks like he is waking up?" Someone was saying in a distance. Except no. The voice was coming from near his bed... then why did it sound so far away?
Arthur had a feeling something was very wrong. There shouldn't be people in his room, should they? He knew he should feel very very alarmed, but he was so sleepy!
He tried to pry apart his eyelids, to look at whoever was speaking now. It was barely a whisper and it sounded angry, something about being quiet, and don't use names moron, and something about the tone made a shiver run up Arthur's spine. He needed to get away from this guy, he knew instinctively, but not even his eyelids would obey his command and open.
It was pitch black, and there were voices in his room.
From somewhere even further away, another voice trickled into Arthur's subconscious as well. This one was calling his name, over and over again, pleadingly. It was a part of his imagination, he was sure, or was it? His brain was too scrambled to dwell on it.
"Let's get this over with. Hurry up, before he really wakes up." The first voice said, in a nasal tone. It almost felt like he was whining. Then Arthur felt someone touch his arm. That made his eyes snap open. Voices in his room were one thing; someone touching him without his permission was very different.
"Oh! Look at that. Pretty boy woke up." The first voice sing songed. Arthur tried to look at him and figure out who it was, but he had a black balaclava on his head, showing only his eyes. The eyes made Arthur wish he had never looked at him. They were cold, and merciless.
He tried to open his mouth to scream, but a hand clapped on his mouth, and a second hooded face loomed in his sight, shaking his head.
"I won't do it if I were you." The man threatened, and then waved a short, silver knife in front of his face.
"Wha-?" Arthur tried to say, quietly this time, when the man removed his hand. His assailant's grim and sure eyes said that he won't hesitate in following through with his unvoiced threats.
"What do we want?" The guy asked, and even through the mask, Arthur could hear the menacing smile in his voice. "How accommodating of you. We just want to kidnap you, boss's orders. Were hoping you won't even notice, drugged your food and all, but I guess our meeting was fate. So, it would be best if you co-operate."
Arthur had ordered room service for dinner, but hadn't been very hungry, considering he had not moved all day other than from couch to washroom and back, so he had barely touched his food. Turns out, it was a blessing. As he felt the first guy pulling on his arm again, he reconsidered: maybe it wasn't a blessing; maybe sleeping through all this would've been much better.
"Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck! Arthur, Arthur you asshole look at me." The imaginary voice in his head-one that sounded extremely familiar- was still saying, the alarm was very obvious in it this time. Arthur tried to move his head, because even through the haze clouding his brain he remembered he did not like this voice being alarmed, he cared for this voice-real or not- but his body felt very heavy, and there were two bodies blocking his view.
The one who was pulling his arm, snuck a hand under his shoulder, helping him sit upright like an imbecile. If he had more energy, he would've felt embarrassed. As it was, he was helplessly moved, with a growing feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. Sitting up, at least, gave him more idea of what had happened. One of the panes of glass walls of his room was cut- not smashed, cut, like someone had used proper cutting tools and made a hole in it- big enough to let a man-or two- inside.
It also made him aware of a green figure, hovering right in front of his bed. He looked remarkably relieved the moment Arthur met his eyes.
"Thank God. Arthur. Can you hear me? I am so sorry I didn't notice them before but I need you to listen to me now. Please."
Arthur stared at him blankly, his plea registering in his brain, but not processing.
The two men supported him to stand upright, and then tried to move him. He was gaining more and more control of his limbs by the moment, and now he was sure he could stand by himself. His brain though, was as slow as before. It did tell him that he needed to break free, so he started struggling the moment his muscles started co-operating.
His captors were two to his one, and they were not metabolizing an unknown drug in their system at the moment, so his struggles were futile.
"Don't even try pet. You will only make this difficult for you." One of the masked men said. The nickname made Arthur furious, and he started struggling even more.
"Damn it Arthur. I can't do anything until you tell me to. I can't hurt them, can't even touch or scare them until you allow me to. Tell me Arthur. Order me to kill them. JUST NOD." Merlin, that was the green Genie's name, Arthur remembered, shouted at him, panicked. Arthur felt the ground shake, and blamed it on the drugs.
Arthur managed to free himself from one of the guys holding him, and he swung his hand with as much force as he could, punching him in his face.
"Fuck. You little piece of shit." The guy swore and stumbled back, rubbing his jaw. The other one roughly turned him around and plastered himself against Arthur's back, one hand grasping his arm, the other placing a knife against his throat.
"If you move again, I will kill you." A voice warned at his back, the warm breath against his ear turning his stomach, disgusting him.
"Tell me to kill them Arthur." Merlin moved in front of him, begging, but with malice in his eyes.
"No..." Arthur managed to say. He did not want Merlin to kill anyone. He was not that sort of an owner. And hadn't Merlin said he simply didn't do murder?
"No. You won't co-operate, or no I shouldn't kill you?" The man at his back sneered, and pressed the knife a little harder against his throat. Arthur felt it tear his skin, feeling a few drops of blood trickle down his neck.
At that moment, the floor shaking intensified, and the frames on the wall started rattling. The lamp on Arthur's side table fell down, but instead of looking at the fallen lamp in alarm like the man who Arthur had punched was doing, Arthur looked at Merlin.
His eyes were still blue, but there were sparks of a golden fire dancing in them, and there was hatred and wrath on his face the likes of which he had never seen before. Merlin had always looked a mixture of adorable, ridiculous, and - Arthur was man enough to admit- appealing. Right now he looked... Petrifying.
"Something is wrong Val. Hurry up; we should get out of here." The guy he had punched told Val, who was holding Arthur at the moment. He sounded scared, and he could not even see Merlin. Val, on the other hand, was either extremely foolish, or extremely brave. He just muttered a quick shut up, and went back to holding Arthur tightly.
"They deserve to die Arthur. They spilled your blood now."
Arthur shook his head violently, making the knife dig a little harder against his neck, increasing the size of the gash.
"Don't kill..." his tongue was heavy, his words sluggish.
"That's like a good boy." The man cooed, not knowing Arthur wasn't even talking to him.
Merlin was visibly trembling, and Arthur remembered him talking about magic thrashing about when its wielder was in distress. "I can't let them take you. I have to do something. I will burst apart if I don't. My magic would consume me. Please?" He begged.
"Okay." Arthur told him and made his second wish, not because Arthur wanted him to, but because Merlin needed it. Merlin had asked, and Arthur had a feeling Merlin rarely ever asked something for himself.
"Okay what Arthur? You need to be specific. You told me not to kill, so what do you want me to do?"
"Anything you want." Arthur told him, and Val huffed out a laugh behind him, thinking Arthur was begging them.
"Just don't..." Kill them, Arthur didn't say. But he knew Merlin understood, because he gave him a sharp nod, composed his features and closed his eyes. Val was laughing and sneering behind him, saying "Look at that Cedric, the Pendragon boy is a coward. Begging us not to hurt him. Don't worry pet, this won't hurt at all."
Arthur ignored them, his eyes fixed on Merlin, who even with his eyes closed, looked majestic. He distantly registered the sudden quiet and stillness around him. The frames had stopped rattling, the ground stopped shaking, and Arthur's breath caught, not willing to break the hush. Even Val and Cedric, unknowingly, stopped breathing too. Calm before the storm- the phrase had never felt so accurate to Arthur before...
Merlin opened his eyes, molten gold, blazing like the sun, powerful, furious and unimaginably destructive. Arthur cowered in fear, even though he knew Merlin's wrath wasn't aimed at him.
And then he extended his right hand, fingers splayed open, palm outwards, and screamed. There was a burst of power so strong that Arthur instinctively crouched down, closing his eyes tightly and clasping both of his hands against his ears. He could hear the air inside his room become something resembling a wind storm, whipping around, scattering the papers lying across the room, tearing apart books and memos, upending the table and making the frames fall down. Arthur felt rather than saw sparks flying, and he could hear the lights in his room fusing making loud sizzling and popping noises.
Merlin kept screaming, and the air current kept getting stronger and stronger, until Arthur thought his ears would start bleeding and the sharp air would cut his skin. Then, all of a sudden, everything stopped. Merlin fell quiet, and his hand fell down, killing the wind storm it was causing along with it. There was a ringing silence, and that's when Arthur realized that his two kidnappers were nowhere to be found anymore.
Arthur looked around to see where they were, and when he didn't find them, he looked at Merlin questioningly. Merlin was not looking at him. He was not looking at anything in particular actually. He was sitting against a wall, and Arthur knew if he had knees, they would he folded with his arms around them. As it was, he had covered his face with both his hands, and looked miserable.
"Merlin?" Arthur asked, his mind still a little foggy, but mostly recovered from whatever drugs were put in his meal.
"I am sorry." He said in a small, scared voice, and Arthur stood up from where he was still crouching on the ground.
"What for? You just saved my life. You don't have anything to be sorry about."
"I am sorry about losing control like that." He removed his hands from his face, and looked at Arthur. He looked afraid, but what of, Arthur had no idea.
"Please don't hate me." He whispered, and Arthur finally understood why Merlin was acting so strange.
"You idiot. Of course I don't hate you..." Arthur said, and started to move towards Merlin, wanting to cuff him on head, and hug him. Why would he ever think like that? Arthur was as capable of hating Merlin as Merlin was of hurting him... which is to say, not at all.
Instead, his body made him remember he was still recovering from sedating drugs, making him stumble. He would've fallen down, but Merlin suddenly flew over to him, gripping his arm to steady him.
He helped change Arthur's direction, and started moving him towards the bed instead, saying in a serious tone, "You need to rest Arthur."
And really, there was nothing Arthur could say to that. It was true. His bed was a disaster zone though, the pillow and bed linen strewn across the room. The mattress had survived somehow, but the wood frame had scratches on it, probably caused by the harsh wind. Arthur felt grateful for the moment that whatever the reason, the wind had not affected him like it had affected the wood. Merlin must have unconsciously directed his magic to spare him.
Merlin asked him where he kept bed linens, and then glanced at his neck and added first aid box to the list too. Then quietly but efficiently moved around the place while Arthur stood against the wall for support. Soon, his bed looked completely odd, arranged like a very normal and neat thing in a room full of chaos. Merlin helped Arthur settle down on his it, and then went and retrieved a first aid box.
"Not so incompetent after all huh?" Arthur joked, but it fell flat when Merlin didn't even smile.
Very gently, he cleaned the gash on Arthur's neck, decided that it did not need stitches and then applied clean bandage on it. It looked like Merlin had cleaned and dressed wounds before, many times, because he never hesitated when Arthur flinched, examined it with a trained eye, and his hands had moved surely and expertly. Arthur resolved to ask him about it later, when he did not feel like he would collapse any second, and just moved as Merlin asked.
In no time, Merlin was pressing on Arthur chest slightly, making him fall back and lie in bed. He draped a cover on him, and then, without saying a word, turned around to leave.
"Thank you Merlin." He said quietly, feeling guilty for some reason. Merlin shrugged without looking back at him.
"What happened to them?" Arthur asked, knowing he won't be able to sleep if he didn't know.
Merlin laughed mirthlessly, and then said coldly, "They aren't dead, if that's what you are asking. Though they will wish they were."
Arthur stiffened in alarm, and tried to sit up. "What did you do Merlin?"
"You told me I could do anything. Anything except kill them. Don't you dare tell me off now." Merlin spun around, his eyes challenging Arthur.
"I am not telling you off Merlin." Arthur explained earnestly, too tired to argue. "I just don't want you to regret it later."
"Only thing I regret is not tearing them from limb to limb, and making an example out of them, for anyone who would dare hurt you again." Merlin said fiercely, and then without waiting for Arthur to reply, he turned around left the room. He didn't open the door, just walked through it, making Arthur remember once again how not-human he was.
Arthur sank back in the bed, and stared at the ceiling. He could not decide what he felt at the moment: terrified at how close he had gotten to being kidnapped, disgusted at how weak he had been, horrified at how terrifying and merciless Merlin was, or grateful and so very honored that Merlin felt Arthur was worth fighting for... Worth killing for.
He settled on feeling extreme gratitude for Merlin's loyalty. It was vastly undeserved. Arthur had done nothing remarkably good in all of his life, and nothing at all for Merlin, and yet, he had protected him. There was a warm and fuzzy feeling growing in his heart that he could not name, and thinking of Merlin made him smile, filling him with joy. He closed his eyes, holding tight to those feelings, and drifted back to sleep.
In the back of his mind, he remembered there was a hole in his room wall. He will fix it in the morning.