Ok, so there is a very good read why this is so late. Nation Novel Writing Month. In the midst of writing part 7, NaNoWriMo started and I decided that it'd be in the best interest of my sanity and time schedule to simply put off on TCoME: Merlin's Story and work solely on my novel. During NaNo I kept getting inspiration for all these little one-shots and shortly chaptered stories that had nothing to do with Merlin, let alone this story, and I wrote those (which I'll post at some point but I'm not sure when).
I actually completely forgot I hadn't finished this story yet. See, in my mind, I know how this is all ending and I've planned the end though I haven't written it. So during NaNo my mind flipped its status to complete and I forgot to start working on it again when November ended. But now I'm back and I'll do my best to finish this in a timely manner.
I hope you all haven't given up on me and that most of you will still be reading this!
…
…
March, 2002
Arthur grumbled under his breath. Merlin and he had come to the movie theater in Camelot for a late night showing of a movie. Arthur was so peeved right now that he actually couldn't remember what it was anymore.
Why was he ticked?
Laughter trickled over to him from Merlin's left side and Arthur glanced past Merlin discreetly to see Lucas with a huge smile on his face. Arthur turned back to the movie with an inaudible sigh. The guy had shown up just before they'd gone in the theater and Oh My God It's you guys! Let me sit with you and Dammit it was supposed to have been a date!
Merlin's arm moved and Arthur's gaze drew downward to see how Merlin was holding his hand slightly turned upward. A tiny smile graced Arthur's features and he laid his hand in Merlin's. Their fingers entwined and Arthur felt much better about the situation already. Merlin glanced over at him, a smile on his face. Arthur wasn't sure if it was directly for Arthur or if the movie was really funny, but the smile did him loads of good anyway.
He barely noticed Lucas the whole rest of the movie.
…
…
It was Monday, March 11th, and Arthur was feeling good. It was two in the afternoon and he and Merlin were sitting in Drake Park drinking milkshakes from a new ice cream shop in town. His was strawberry and Merlin's was chocolate. Arthur had spent the morning with his father, eating breakfast and discussing what it was to be the man of the house and all that jazz. Then he'd had lunch with Merlin at the Classic Café and now they were in Drake Park.
His father had commissioned Drake Park two years ago. It was cute and people loved how it brought more green to the area, but no one really cared enough to actually go walk through it. And it was so far from Camelot's high society that there was little to no chance of seeing anyone they knew here. Merlin had packed a lunch in his bag so that they could just sit outside and enjoy not having to hide from people all day long.
"Not to sound too gay," Merlin half-joked, a grin on his face, "but it's really beautiful out here."
Arthur laughed, turning to look at Merlin instead of the park. "Not too gay," he assured the darker boy before he leaned in, landing a sweet chocolate-strawberry kiss on Merlin's lips. He licked his lips once he'd pulled away. "Mm, tasty."
Merlin snorted and playfully shoved Arthur's right shoulder, nearly making Arthur drop his shake. He sighed, laying back on the grass beneath the tree they sat by. He turned his head to the left to look at the little book bag like bag he'd packed their sandwiches and snacks in. It wasn't a special occasion or anything, but he had made more chocolate for Arthur to celebrate this temporary freedom. His only worry was that he couldn't tell how Arthur would respond to them. A slight frown flit across his face and Arthur saw it.
"What?" he asked. "You hungry already?" The joking tone had not yet left his voice.
Shaking his head, Merlin sat up again and took a sip of his shake. "No. Just thinking."
Arthur set his shake down, the joke gone and worry in his eyes. "About what?" Merlin made to shake his head again, but instead squeezed his eyes shut when a sudden jolt of feeling passed through him. A moment later his eyes shot open and Merlin jumped up from the ground. "What?" Arthur asked in shock.
"He's in trouble," Merlin said in response, turning his head left, then right, before running left.
"Who? Merlin?" Arthur leapt to his feet and took chase, but Merlin had a good head start and actually knew where they were going, so he was just barely keeping up.
Merlin ran down two streets, through an alleyway, across that street, and down another before he spotted his target. Lucas! He was crossing the street with his head down, attention on the book in his hands. "Lucas!" Merlin shouted as the car turned the corner, the driver searching for something in the passenger seat and not looking where they were going.
"Huh?" Lucas looked up but turned toward Merlin instead of the car. Luckily, Merlin had never stopped running. He slammed full body into Lucas, knocking them both to the other side of the road and out of the car's way. The driver sat up in their seat again and kept going, never once realizing what almost happened. "What?" Lucas gasped out, looking between where he'd been and where the car was now. "I….Merlin?" he asked, taking in who was still laying on top of him.
Merlin pushed himself up, gulping in deep breaths of air. Goodness he was not a runner like Arthur! "I….was afraid I w….wouldn't make it….Are you alright?" he half-choked out.
Lucas stared at Merlin in awe for a few more seconds before blinking harshly to wake himself up. "Yea," he said, shaking his head. "Yea I'm fine. Thank you. That's twice now you've saved me." A huge grin spread across his face. "You're like a guardian angel!" He laughed.
"Having fun?" Arthur asked, his voice unhappy but breathing even.
Merlin blinked, squinted for a moment, and then gasped as he took in his position: still draped over Lucas. He quickly rolled off, instead sitting on the sidewalk next to Lucas instead of on him. Lucas pushed himself up into a sitting position as well.
"Sorry," Merlin said, to both Arthur and Lucas, but for different reasons. Arthur was jealous of Lucas and here Merlin was laying all over him! He was so stupid sometimes!
"Don't, ow," Lucas paused to take in his scraped up hands, but simply waved them in the air a bit as he continued. "Don't apologize to me. You saved my life. A little scraping and bruising is nothing." He stood up and held a hand out to Merlin, who accepted it, and pulled him to his feet. Lucas didn't immediately release Merlin's hand though. Instead he began shaking it. "You've got to let me repay you somehow!"
Merlin shook his head, allowing his hand to be jerked around in Lucas's excitement. "No. Really. It's fine. I was happy to do it."
Arthur's grip on his shake was bending the cup inward. Lucas gripped Merlin's hand with both his now and Merlin shifted uneasily from foot to foot. Arthur was getting upset, he could tell, but he didn't want to be rude to Lucas either.
"Please!" Lucas gasped. "I've got it! I'll buy you dinner tomorrow!" A muscle in Arthur's temple twitched. "That's it. That's what I'll do. A really nice dinner! How about we meet here tomorrow at say….four o'clock and I'll take you out to a really nice restaurant?"
Merlin smiled. Arthur and he hadn't thought of that! It was Spring Break and all their classmates were across the country doing who knew what. They should go to a nice dinner! And since Lucas was offering to pay for both of them – he could feel it – then why shouldn't they take him up on it? It wouldn't be a proper date, but then Arthur's father wouldn't know he'd paid for something expensive for two people, Merlin wouldn't lose a dime, and no one who did see them would know it was a date because they could say the guy asked them there separately or something if asked about it….Not that anyone would, Merlin realized as he felt into the future.
"That'd be great," he accepted. "Tomorrow then." He finally shook back and the smile on Lucas's face was a beacon.
"Awesome. I'll see you then!" he cheered, releasing Merlin's hand and clapping him on the shoulders instead. "I've gotta go make reservations somewhere," he said seriously before bending down to pick up his book and walking away backwards, waving. "See you guys later!" Then he turned around and hurried off down the street.
Merlin laughed. "He's a funny sort of guy, huh?" Ache suddenly wound itself in his heart and before Merlin could dissect it, there was a low thud and a splat from behind him. "Hm?" He turned and looked at where Arthur's strawberry shake was oozing across the sidewalk. "Arthur?" he asked slowly, looking up into Arthur's angry eyes.
"Funny?" he asked. "He's funny?" Arthur threw his hands up in the air. "God! You like him, don't you?"
"Arthur, no, I-" Merlin tried, but Arthur wasn't finished.
He dropped his hands to his side, clenching his fingers into fists. "This week was supposed to be amazing. Just the two of us. No worries at all. Remember?" he asked, hurt seeping into his voice. "But then you meet Lucas and we hang out with him and then he shows up at the movies and you don't even care that he's messed up our whole date and then today!" he practically screamed. Luckily, the street was vacant of any other people right now. "In the middle of our wonderful day you just run off to go find him!"
Merlin glared slightly. "Arthur. He would've died. I couldn't just let him die. He's got things he still needs to do with his life."
That sounded similar to what Merlin had said to Arthur when he'd stopped him from getting in Cedric's car and it just made Arthur angrier. "Oh yea? And do those things have anything to do with all the touching and laying on him you were doing?" he accused.
A feeling Merlin had never experienced before exploded within him. He was sucked into Arthur's eyes once more and saw all the wonderful things he and Arthur would do together: Christmas, Valentine's Day, the beach, the golden rings, the kisses, snuggling, hugging, calling each other at midnight. They were all cracking like a broken t.v. set and then fading away.
"No….," he breathed out fearfully before his eyes refocused and he gave Arthur a pleading look. "Arthur, please. It's got nothing to do with that. He's barely even a friend!"
"Really?" Arthur sneered. "He seems to like you well enough," he scoffed.
Fading. He couldn't hold on to it. Everything was being ripped away. Merlin was losing everything! "Arthur, please don't do this…Don't break this….," he pleaded softly, placing a hand on Arthur's left arm.
Arthur jerked back a step. "Can you honestly tell me that he's not attractive? He's been all over you since we met and you don't seem to care! And when he's around you hardly pay attention to me at all. It's like I don't exist!"
Merlin shook his head, clenching his hands a bit to keep from reaching out again. "You exist," he said definitively. "More than Lucas." Arthur was shaking his head and Merlin kept feeling worse inside. "More than anything. Arthur, I-"
"I'm sorry," Arthur interrupted, holding up a hand to stop Merlin's explanation. "Everything sounds like a lie. You probably have a great explanation that would seem fine under normal circumstances….but I can't right now." He sighed. "I think we should take some time off from each other."
And there. The future was a blank abyss. Merlin stared at Arthur, right in Arthur's eyes, pleading within himself that he would see something….anything…anything at all…..but he didn't, couldn't. The emptiness that engulfed him then was overwhelming and Merlin found he couldn't make a single sound of protest as Arthur turned and walked away.
He stood there, next to Arthur's melting milkshake splattered across the ground, for several minutes before he managed to move. When he did, Merlin found himself walking back to the park, a part of him hoping this was all some sick hallucination. Then, there before him on the grass sat his own milkshake and the bag that still held their lunch and the chocolates inside. That's why he hadn't been able to tell how Arthur would react, isn't it? Because Arthur wasn't ever going to eat them….
Standing there in the park, Merlin cursed his ability, wished he'd never felt a thing, and wept.
…
…
Gaius looked up from where he was reading from a thick, leather bound book when Merlin's bedroom door shut down the hall. He watched as his nephew exited the hallway wearing his (new) best jeans and a blue shirt with dark blue swirls stretched across it. His eyes, while darker than usual, were no longer red and puffy, no longer bloodshot and sleep-deprived. Merlin headed for the door and had his hand on the handle before Gaius cleared his throat.
"Merlin?" he asked. "Where are you going?"
Merlin didn't move to turn around or anything as he spoke, simply staring at the handle instead. "Someone I helped offered to buy me dinner," he said almost mechanically. "It'd be rude to stand them up."
"But Merlin," Gaius protested, "you're in no shape to-"
"I'll see you later."
The door shut behind him and Gaius gave a deep sigh. He'd never thought this would happen; not to Merlin, and especially not because of Arthur. Merlin had been on cloud nine every day since he'd first looked into Arthur's eyes. When they got together, he'd mentioned, several times, how amazing they would be and how they would always love one another. Merlin had such a great sense of things by this point that practically nothing surprised him anymore. To know that, somehow, the man Merlin had given his heart, soul, and body to – the man Merlin had given his entire being to – had left him just as easily as any man had ever left another person….it was unbelievable.
As much as it shocked Gaius, it hurt Merlin a hundred times more. He'd come home in tears, clutching the bag he'd packed like a lifeline, and then collapsed on the couch. He'd cried until late in the night, right up until he fell asleep in his sorrow. Gaius had carried him to his bedroom and put him to bed, hoping that tomorrow, and some rest, would bring relief. Unfortunately, the first thing Gaius heard of Merlin today was muted sobs and staggering breaths. It was unbelievable that now, at barely three p.m., Merlin was up and leaving the house.
"Can you see what you've done to him, Arthur?" Gaius asked the air around him.
…
…
Lucas smiled as Merlin hurried over to where he stood on the sidewalk. "Hey, Merlin!" he greeted happily.
"Hi," Merlin greeted with a small smile. It would've been easy to be angry at Lucas for what happened between him and Arthur, but Merlin knew it was also partly his own fault, so he wasn't mad at the older boy.
Lucas looked around the direction Merlin had come and frowned slightly. "Where's your boyfriend?"
Merlin blinked a couple of times before he was able to answer. "He uh…We had a fight and…."
"Oh," Lucaus interrupted, so Merlin wouldn't have to continue. "I get it. I've had those before….Sorry…." He looked at the ground for a moment and then back up. "Do…do you still wanna have dinner? Or would you rather, I don't know, do something else?"
Merlin gave a little smile, slipping his hands in his pockets. "I'm starving. Dinner would be great."
They began walking down the street in silence. Merlin frowned to himself. He'd known that Lucas knew about him and Arthur from day one. He'd known that but….but just then, he'd known Lucas was about to ask about Arthur and then….he couldn't feel a thing. Even now, he wasn't getting anything about anyone they passed or how the evening would go. The strange thing was…Merlin wasn't surprised in the least. Subconsciously he'd decided that if he couldn't see the future he'd had with Arthur, then he didn't want to know the future at all.
Oh. Right. That reminded him-
Merlin lifted his head from the ground just as they reached the restaurant, something high class that Merlin could never afford, and looked up the few inches between him and Lucas. "Don't worry, by the way," he began. "You're girlfriend isn't cheating on you and she never will. When you head back tomorrow, she'll be at the station…and she needs to talk to you about something important."
Lucas stared at Merlin was minutely narrowed eyes, trying to process what he'd said. After about five seconds, he blinked and seemed to come out of the trance. "Right," he said lightly, a gentle smile gracing his face as he held the door open for Merlin to go in first. "Thanks for the heads up."
Merlin smiled. One last person helped.
…
…
On Wednesday, Merlin waved Lucas off at the station for lack of anything else to do. Lucas gave him a big hug to thank him, again, for all he'd done and wished him the best of luck with Arthur.
He spent the rest of the day curled up in bed. With no one there to distract him, not even Gaius, Merlin was swallowed by the emptiness he felt inside. He stared at the blue sheets on his bed with clouded eyes, rarely blinking and seeing nothing but images of the past and a future that could have been.
…
…
On Thursday, Merlin woke up at about two in the afternoon. He wandered into the kitchen for something to eat and found a note from Gaius saying he'd gone to work but he'd made homemade oatmeal and left it in the fridge. Thirty seconds in the microwave and 'breakfast' was served.
He'd meant to maybe watch some T.V., but seeing the couch made him remember Valentine's Day and snuggling and kissing and so he laid in bed again instead, repeating yesterday's routine.
His eyes were dry, but the world was gray. He felt so cliché, but it was true….Without Arthur, Merlin felt like he'd lost everything that meant anything in his life.
…
…
Everything changed on Friday.
Gwen called at about ten that morning and asked if Merlin would take her shopping. She wanted to buy a new outfit before school started up again and Morgana was busy dealing with issues at home. Merlin agreed for two reasons: 1) Gwen was his friend and he'd do practically anything for her. 2) He wanted, needed, some way to get his mind off Arthur…so that maybe he could move on.
"So I know clothing isn't your specialty," Gwen was saying as they headed down one of Camelot's busier streets, "but I need you to tell me if what I pick out looks good on me, ok?"
"Sure thing, Gwen," Merlin agreed with a little smile. "I'll do my best."
Gwen frowned. She ran two steps ahead and then turned to stand in Merlin's way, stopping their walk abruptly. She examined his face curiously. "Merlin…are you ok?"
"What makes you say that?" Merlin asked nervously. He'd been hoping to hide it from Gwen, but it seemed he wasn't doing such a great job of it.
"I don't know," Gwen said uncertainly. "You seem…sick. Unwell, somehow…Did something happen to Gaius?" She shook her head, hitting herself with her right hand. "Well, duh, obviously not. He answered the phone when I called this morning. Stupid," she chastised herself. Merlin smiled and Gwen got back on topic. "But really, are you alright?"
Merlin nodded. "Not quite. But I will be," he assured her, his smile still in place.
Gwen frowned, gripping her purse a bit tighter. "Are you just saying that…or did you sense something?"
Sense. Horn. Scream. Blood. Pain. Cold.
Merlin's eyes widened. His head flipped around, frantically searching the street. It was so faint…where…where…Where was she?
"Merlin?" Gwen asked in concern. "What? What is it? What's wrong?"
Merlin shook his head. "A little girl. Blonde. Pink dress. Barbie doll….where?" he asked in fragments.
Gwen began looking around too, thrown into a panic at Merlin's fear. She turned her head back and forth and spun in circles looking, before she spotted the girl. "Merlin!" she cried, pointing.
Merlin saw her. She was trailing behind her parents as they walked down the street, talking to her doll. Her parents turned at the corner and continued down the next street, but the girl wasn't paying attention to them and kept walking straight – into traffic.
"Melinda!" Merlin shouted, bolting forward.
The girl didn't hear him and kept walking. Merlin ran as fast as he could, faster than he had when searching for Lucas. Melinda looked up and noticed her parents weren't with her and stopped walking in the middle of the street, searching. Merlin's feet hit the black asphalt. Melinda turned to face the oncoming car as the driver hit the horn. Gwen screamed.
…
…
Arthur pushed back from his desk and leaned back in his chair with a great sigh. It had been four days since he'd spoken to Merlin. It had been four days since that terrible fight...and he was already falling to pieces. His father and Morgana had noticed, no doubt. He had no appetite, he went on long runs more often than not, he barely spoke to either of them and when he did it was only to snap or yell. He'd been the one to end things with Merlin and yet he felt like he'd been the one left out in the rain with nowhere to go. Arthur covered his face in his hands and sighed again.
"Sighing gives you wrinkles," Morgana announced in a rush as she sped past his room.
"What?" he let out, but she was already gone. Curious, Arthur stood from his desk, his homework forgotten, and went downstairs. "Morgana?" He looked around but didn't see her.
"You just missed her," Uther Pendragon's voice announced. "She's already run out," he grumbled.
"Where's she going in such a rush?" Arthur mused aloud.
"I don't know," Uther scowled. He barely seemed to realize the person he was talking to was Arthur, actually talking to him for once in a week. "Something about someone she knows being in a car wreck...a Marvin or something." He waved the conversation away and walked toward his study.
"Marv…in…?" Arthur breathed out, and then it hit him. His blood ran cold. Merlin? In a car wreck? He hurried back up to his room before his legs collapsed out from under him and he fell to the floor in the center of the room. He caught himself on his hands, but barely.
He wanted to run to the hospital as fast as he could and make sure that Merlin was alright. He wanted to apologize for being stupid and promise to never let Merlin get hurt again. He wanted to hold him tight and let Merlin know that Lucas didn't matter one bit, that he was sorry. He wanted to know what was wrong now, right now, but he knew that he couldn't. If he went to the hospital then everyone would know that he cared for Merlin. If he went to the hospital then everything would be ruined...if it wasn't ruined already. God, why had he been so stupid as to ignore Merlin for so long? What if Merlin was dying and the last thing he'd said was that fight?
He wanted to see Merlin, now more than ever. Arthur looked out the window at the evening sky. "Please...don't let it be too late. I need to tell him the truth. I need to tell him, even if he already knows, that I love him."
…
…
Spring break ended and school began again the next Monday with no one else any the wiser about Merlin's condition. Morgana had come home Saturday night with bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, her hair undone from its usual braided ponytail, and with tear tracks dried on her cheeks. She'd skipped dinner and instead went straight to her room upon arriving home.
Arthur excused himself from dinner as well, suddenly unable to even consider keeping anything down.
Sunday he had managed to ask Morgana what happened at the hospital with her friend Marvin. She'd angrily shouted that it was 'Merlin' not 'Marvin' and that he'd been hit by a truck while saving a little girl. She'd said the girl was dead when she reached the hospital and that Merlin hadn't woken up yet.
Monday brought the same news. Merlin was still unconscious and barely clinging to life.
Arthur stopped at his locker after classes that day and leaned his forehead against the cool metal there. He took a deep breath. He felt like he had no energy. Everything he had was being put into pretending nothing was wrong.
"Hey, Arthur," Matthew called out quietly as he and Greg and Adam all came upon him in the hallway. "What's the matter?"
Arthur started and pushed himself back off his locker. Clearing his throat he began, "Sorry. Ahem. Sorry," he repeated. "Morgana's stupid friend got in a car wreck this past week and she's been insufferable," he said by way of explanation.
It wasn't a lie. She'd yelled at Arthur that morning for burning his own toast, saying it was people like him that hurt Merlin by not paying enough attention to the world around them.
"Stupid friend?" Gregory asked before understanding lit his face. "Oh! You mean the freak?" He elbowed Adam in the ribs with a grin. "How 'bout that, eh?"
Adam scowled. "The shit deserved it: talking about other people's families and being a false prophet and all. You know," he said as if enlightened, "if he really were psychic…wouldn't he have known the car was coming?" He grinned and the three of them started chuckling to themselves.
Arthur slammed his fist into his locker, actually denting the metal a bit, and glared at his friends when they looked at him in alarm. "Shut up," he said in a threatening voice. "I don't care what we say about him, alright? You don't get to laugh about someone in a car accident….especially when they were trying to save a six year old girl."
Without waiting for their response, Arthur turned, slung his bag over his shoulder, and stormed out of the school towards his car. Matt, Greg, and Adam stared either at his locker or his retreating back in shock. After a few moments, Matt gasped.
"A car accident!" he practically shouted, but lowered his voice when he realized how loud he was being. "He must be having issues because he was nearly in a fatal car accident last year." He waved his hands like it would wave the awkward air about them away. "He'll be fine in a couple of days. I'm sure of it. Then, given he's not dead, we can go back to picking on Merlin as much as we like."
Adam and Greg shrugged simultaneously, gave each other considering frowns, and accepted it. It made sense, after all….didn't it?
…
…
Tuesday, none of Arthur's friends even spoke to him. They didn't get the chance. Arthur walked to his locker that morning, entered his combination, opened the door, and found a note folded up on the floor of his locker. Curiously, Arthur set his things in the metal case and picked up the paper, unfolding it with a frown.
'CGH 416'
Arthur's eyes widened. He took the paper, left his stuff in the locker, shut his locker, and smoothly left the campus. He doubted anyone even saw him go in the rush of people heading inside before the bell. He took his car and parked it in a grocery store lot a block from Camelot General Hospital before walking to the imposing blue and white building. It was six stories tall and the leader in practically any medical knowledge anywhere.
When he walked inside, Arthur almost bypassed the front desk until he realized he had to sign in first. He wrote Roger Williams on the paper before slipping away and into the elevator. The nurses would probably recognize him if he stood in any one place too long: he was the police chief's son after all, and he didn't want them telling his father he was skipping school, lying about who he was, or visiting the school freak.
The elevator stopped on the fourth floor and Arthur stepped out nervously, looking from side to side for some indication of where room 416 would be. There. On the wall. 400-424 with an arrow pointing to Arthur's right. He walked quickly and yet calmly down the hall until he was standing outside room 416. Merlin Emrys was written on the name card outside the door.
Arthur took a deep breath and turned the handle. The room was dark: the curtains pulled shut and the lights off. A light from the small window in the door and a little table lamp were the only things letting Arthur see Merlin at all; and he wished he couldn't see a thing.
Merlin's left leg was up in a cast that covered the majority of his leg from ankle to thigh. His left arm was in a similar state, covering even his fingers. His head was bandaged and what Arthur could see of his chest and right arm were bandaged as well, though there were no more casts. His face had relatively light cuts and bruises on it, but Arthur still felt like each one was a threat to Merlin's life.
As if sensing Arthur's stare, Merlin's eyes snapped open and focused on Arthur standing at the foot of the bed. Neither teen said a thing, merely staring at each other. After what felt like a century, Merlin gasped out, "Arthur," like he could finally breathe again.
Arthur cracked. He took three swift steps to stand at Merlin's right side, took Merlin's right hand gently in his own, and fell to his knees crying. "I'm so sorry," he breathed against the bed sheets and Merlin's arm.
"Arthur?" Merlin asked quietly.
Arthur shook his head. "I was completely out of line. I was stupid," he insisted, unable to look at Merlin's face through his tears. "You would never hurt me. I know that. I knew that. But I still….My god, you could've died and I would've….The last time I saw you, I was yelling at you….I was so afraid-!" He squeezed Merlin's hand a tiny bit harder and laid his head down in the sheets as the tears cascaded down and out of his eyes to be soaked up in the thin white material of the hospital bed covers.
Merlin wished he could hold Arthur right then, but he could barely move. He woke up last night while Gaius and Gwen were here. Gwen had gone for dinner and so Merlin had Gaius write Arthur the note, which Gaius then asked Gwen to put in Arthur's locker at school (though they just told her a number, not whose it was). Merlin had woken up with the world in full color and the future as plain as the present in his mind. And now Arthur was here with him, crying for him, and Merlin felt so at peace….
He squeezed Arthur's hand in return, softly, and Arthur's watering eyes snapped to look at him. "You came," Merlin said simply, smiling. That was all that mattered.
"Of course I came," Arthur half-chastised. "I…." He took a deep breath. "I love you."
Merlin's eyes widened in awe. He'd said it. Arthur had said it! "You…," he trailed off, and a smile faded into existence on his lips with brilliance. "I love you too, Arthur. Forever."
Arthur nodded. "I know." He wiped his eyes roughly but couldn't stop the tears. His chest was swelling while his heart was being squeezed. Forever. "I'm sorry I accused you of cheating. You've been nothing but patient with me and at the first hint of jealousy I let loose on you. I was stupid. I should've known better-!"
Merlin shook his head as best he could and gave a reassuring smile. "You're a guy in a relationship, Arthur. It's perfectly normal to get jealous when the one you love is being friendly with an attractive, older guy. Besides," he managed a laugh but winced, "I'm the one who can see the future…not you."
Arthur frowned a bit. "How?" he asked. "How did this happen with your power?"
Merlin decisively refused to tell Arthur about his lapse in 'living.' "I was with Gwen and…and I felt it. Melinda. She wasn't paying attention and she walked into full traffic…." He squeezed his eyes shut as tears began to form. "I tried but….she still died…."
Merlin's heart rate monitor began beeping faster, showing what the loss did to him, and Arthur squeezed his good hand tighter. "Shhh," he breathed out. "You did everything you could. You did your best." He kissed the back of Merlin's hand and that calmed Merlin more than the words did. "You good?" Arthur asked in a whisper. Merlin nodded. After a few seconds, "How long until you get out of here?"
Merlin shrugged. When he spoke, his voice was quieter than before but not quite a whisper. "I don't know…two or three weeks? The doctor said it'll be anywhere from three to six months before I'm completed healed though." He smiled. "At least it wasn't my dominant side that got all screwed up, right?"
Arthur couldn't smile. "How are you going to finish school? You'll be held back…"
"Like I said, it's not my dominant side," Merlin repeated. "I'll just have Gwen bring me my assignments and get notes from other kids in class. It'll be fine. And in two months, I'll have all summer to heal up."
Arthur lifted his left hand and trailed it gently down the side of Merlin's face, a deep expression on his face. "And I'll be there for you all the way. I'll keep the bullies off of you, and help you as much as I can. I don't care if anyone finds out. You need me and I'm going to be there."
Merlin nodded as best he could. "Thank you, Arthur." He felt so warm inside. Everything would be perfect. No one would find out and Arthur was going to be by his side the whole time.
Arthur leaned over the bed and pressed his lips to Merlin's in a gentle, chaste kiss full of promises.
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Merlin only managed to return to school for the last three weeks of class. True to his word, Arthur kept the bullies off of Merlin physically. They still called him names from afar, but he'd threatened to break both the arms of whoever actually touched him, so Merlin was free to hobble on his crutches through the halls unscathed. It was difficult, no doubt, with a hurt arm on the same side of his body as his hurt leg, but Merlin managed it with help from Gwen and Morgana. It was during this time that Morgana gained respect for Arthur through his 'kindness' towards Merlin – because even Arthur wouldn't attack a cripple.
Gwen was over at Merlin's house more often than not. She and Gaius babied Merlin like every breath would send him crumbling to the ground. Morgana showed up several times and was strict as a drill sergeant on how he took his recovery. The day summer break hit, Merlin left for Ealdor with Gaius. Two days later, Arthur went 'backpacking in the mountains' and vanished from the public eye. He stayed with Gaius, Hunith, and Merlin all summer as Merlin's bones healed one by one and he had to partially re-teach the muscles how to work. He kissed his boyfriend every day, usually several times a day, and said goodnight every night with an 'I love you' in the mix. Half-way through summer break, Merlin's leg was the only thing still in a cast or bandage and the rest of him was stretching in the fresh air.
Two weeks before Junior year started, Merlin was up and about and ready to take on the world….or close to it. Arthur returned home to Camelot with a long-drawn out goodbye that nearly made him miss his train. Merlin and Gaius came back a week later and Gwen and Morgana descended upon the house like a wave upon the shore. All in all, Merlin would say that summer was very successful.
And that was how Merlin Emrys and Arthur Pendragon began their junior year at Camelot High School.
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TBC...