Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews*! Please review, good or bad, and tell me what you liked and what you didn't like. Also, if you have any questions, or need anything cleared up, just let me know. Hope you enjoy! (Oh, and by the by, I don't own Merlin).
PS: And by me saying please review, I mean PLEASE review. Thanks!
*Special thanks to CHARLES CHUKU and ForeverReading1 for being my first ever reviewers
Arthur still wasn't sure what to think about Merlin. He seemed nice enough. He was smart and funny. Merlin was really quiet though, like, not shy quiet, but the world threw everything at him quiet. Also, it was unusual the way he seemed to fit in with the group. The second he started talking, he said all the right things to make people happy, to make them laugh. And yet, Arthur still wasn't sure about him.
Morgana was especially quiet compared to usual. She kept most of her snarky responses to herself and almost seemed to draw into herself. It was frightening to see how much power Merlin had over her. One snapped response and she was as good as broken. Gwen spoke up, thankfully disrupting Arthur's inner ramblings, "Oh dear, Merlin left his phone!" Merlin had been showing Elyan and Lance (ever the computer geeks) all of the 'oh so cool' modifications he had done to his phone. Lance stood up, "I'll just go give it to him quick. He can't be that far away."
"We'll all go." Arthur cut in, "We've been here long enough anyways. Come on." They had paid for their meals about a half an hour ago and were starting to get vicious looks from the staff. They grabbed their stuff and moved towards the door as a pack.
The boys stayed close to their girls when they had them and they crossed the streets and wound through alleyways. After ten minutes of walking, Percival asked, "Are you sure this is the right way? I mean, we have to be getting close by now." Gwaine shrugged, "I think so. This looks right. He said that he lives a ways away from the school and this is a ways away from the school." Leon sighed and rolled his eyes. Suddenly they heard the sound of something hard hitting flesh and a gasp of surprise. Glancing quickly at each other, they ran towards the sound.
The creature that jumped from the shadows wasn't large. It was probably about the size of Merlin, maybe a little shorter, and it had about the same build. Merlin wondered if maybe it was a Sidhe. If it was, that would suck. Whatever it was, it had just punched Merlin in the face and that did not make him happy. In some faraway part of his mind, he heard the sound of running footsteps coming ever closer. That was the only thing that stopped him from using his magic to beat this creature to kingdom come.
The thing reared back for another strike and Merlin saw it for what it was: a human. Merlin's jaw clenched and his nostrils flared in anger. Why couldn't humans just leave other humans alone? Why did they always need to hurt each other? The man's fist swung straight towards his face and he ducked, rolling into a ball and then back onto his feet behind the man. The move had taken no more than several seconds.
The man swirled around, but he was too slow for Merlin. His hand was already out and aiming for a spot between the man's neck and shoulder. If he hit it right, the man would be knocked unconscious and not feel any pain. He would, however be very confused when he woke up. If he hit it wrong, however, it could kill the man. Merlin hit the spot. The man collapsed onto the ground, either unconscious or dead, Merlin didn't know, but he intended to find out.
He fell to his knees beside the would be mugger and put his fingertips to the man's throat as he had been taught to do by Gaius. There was a pulse, sluggishly moving the man's blood throughout his body. Merlin's body slumped in relief.
"Merlin! Are you alright?" The voice startled Merlin into whipping into a fighting stance, with his feet planted firmly and a piece of pipe that had been lying nearby clenched in his hand. Mordred stopped abruptly, almost falling over in his attempt to defy inertia. The warlock closed his eyes and slumped against the wall, "You scared me." Mordred had been moving closer, but he stopped and a muscle jumped in his jaw, "I'm sorry."
Somehow Mordred had managed to get ahead of the others because they pulled up to a stop near Merlin a couple of seconds later. Gwaine clapped Merlin on the back, "That was some impressive footwork, my friend. I am slightly concerned for the legal implications that this unfortunate circumstance has brought about, however." The whole group turned to stare at Gwaine except for Merlin who had heard such things from him before.
He smiled tiredly at Gwaine, "He'll be fine. I hit him on a certain weak spot so he would be knocked unconscious, but not feel any pain." Morgana frowned at him, "Doesn't that take like a really precise amount of pressure? Too much and you'll kill him and too little and he won't be knocked out kind of thing?" Merlin allowed a smile to cross his face and he nodded. "What are you guys doing here anyways? I thought you said that you lived on the other side of town." Gwen stepped forward, "We do, but we just wanted to return your phone and we didn't think that you'd be so far away already, so we, um, came." He nodded thoughtfully, taking the proffered phone.
"I just had a great idea!" Gwaine exclaimed and the others groaned. He glared at them, "What if we all headed over to Merlin's place, you know just to see it now that we're going to be best mates and all? Perhaps we can meet this long distance girl friend of his." His smile faded when he looked at Merlin, who said, "I don't think that's the best idea. I mean, my house is a mess and there are things all over the place…" He trailed off when he saw the hopeful faces of his friends, "Fine. But only for as long as it takes for someone to come and pick you up. As you can tell, this isn't the nicest neighborhood to be running around at night in." Gwen and Morgana squealed as Merlin led the way out of the alley.
About five minutes later, they reached the apartment building. Merlin was fitting the key into the lock while suggesting that someone should call their parents to come pick them up or something. Arthur pulled out his sleek phone and speed dialed his dad's number.
"Hello? Arthur?"
"Hey Dad, it's me. Morgana, Gwen, Lance, Percival, Gwaine, Elyan, and Mordred are all here with me. We're visiting a new friend from school. The one that we invited to the Pencil Shaker. I was wondering if you could come and pick us up."
"Where are you?"
Arthur glanced back at Merlin who looked at him at the same time and mouthed the words: where are we. Merlin rolled his eyes and answered. Arthur relayed the address to his father.
"Alright. Someone will come and pick you up. It'll take about a half an hour, understand?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. And Arthur, I don't want you hanging around with this friend too often. If he lives in that part of town then he can't be worthy of you."
"I'll keep that in mind sir."
Before anything else could be said, Uther Pendragon had ended the call. Arthur sighed and shared a look with Morgana. That had Uther written all over it. He couldn't possibly waste time on his children that would be better spent on making plans for his precious company. Sometimes Arthur was jealous of people like Merlin who didn't have to live with his parents. How much easier and happier would his life be without Uther standing over him every day all day? How much better of a person would Arthur be?
Then they had climbed the stairs and reached Merlin's apartment. He pulled a piece of paper from where it was wedged between the door and its frame before leading them inside.
He really hadn't been kidding when he said that his place was a mess. The main room consisted of a well worn sofa that had tons of wrappers on it and a TV on one side, with a desk piled high with strange books in foreign languages and a chair on the other. Arthur got a glimpse of his kitchen and saw that it was covered in half-baked meals and leftovers from who knows when. Merlin smiled apologetically, "I guess this is what happens when you don't have parents to follow up behind you and tell you to clean up." He got a round of weak laughter from all around and then, "Merlin? Who are these people?"
It was beautiful the way Merlin's whole demeanor changed when he heard that voice. His shoulders relaxed, he stood taller, his eyes grew brighter, and a smile graced his lips. He padded over to Freya's basin as they had taken to calling it. With a quick golden flash of his eyes, the water was frozen in place and it just looked like a bowl-shaped clear screen with a person looking out. He picked it up and faced it towards the group. He introduced them and then introduced her as Freya.
Gwen and Morgana grinned at each other, remembering that this was Merlin's girlfriend. "So Freya, what's it like being Merlin's boyfriend?" Morgana asked, coming closer to the basin. Freya's eyes lit up and her face grew brighter at the mere mention of Merlin's name. To the other occupants of the room, it was so very clear that they were mad for each other. Freya smiled and glanced at Merlin as she answered, "It is the most amazing thing ever! When all I had ever known was people hating me and fearing me, Merlin came and showed me once again that the world can love. He is love and he is magical. I love spending our nights talking together. I love that on the weekends he puts me on the seat next to him and we watch movies together. I love him; with all my heart I love him. I love that he never misses a single night of talking. I love that he always knows what to say. I love the days that he comes and visits me and we spend every moment of it on the shores of a lake, laughing and kissing and talking."
Merlin and Freya looked at each other with all the love and compassion and understanding that come from being immortal together. Everyone else in the room felt awed by the aura their love sent out. It truly was beautiful. Gwen sniffled, "I think I'm going to cry. That was so romantic." Morgana spoke around the lump in her throat, "Merlin, you need to teach our boyfriends how to be really romantic." For the first time all day, Merlin smiled at Morgana, "They don't need to learn how. Just being in love is romantic enough."
This time Gwen actually did let a tear or two escape and she and Morgana threw their arms around Merlin and hugged him. Freya, Elyan, Percival, Gwaine, and Mordred laughed while Leon and Arthur tried not to look jealous. The tips of Merlin's ears turned pink and he was about to say something when there was a mighty knock on the door. Freya and Merlin shared a look that no one else in the room could decipher before Merlin stalked over to answer the door.
A young, spirited woman all but ran into the room. "Please don't tell him I'm here!" she breathed out quickly before running to hide in the kitchen. Another mighty bang on the door announced another guest. Merlin opened the door again to have a very large, overweight man storm in, "Where is she! I know she's here! I'll find her! Where is she?!" "Mr. Brown," Merlin spoke up, "Mithian isn't here. If the sound of footsteps running down the stairs were anything to go by, I'd say she was downstairs." Mr. Brown stepped up into Merlin's personal space and bent down to glare at him, "Are you disrespecting my intelligence, boy?" Merlin, to give him credit, didn't back down or move an inch, "No sir. If I meant to disrespect you I would say that perhaps you should spend your spare time selling yourself out as a battering ram. Or perhaps I would say stop being such a useless drunk and Mithian would stop running away." Merlin tilted his head and gave him a tight lipped smile.
If Arthur didn't know him, he would have been terrified of that smile. But when Arthur thought about it, he didn't know Merlin. For Pete's sake, they had just met that day! Everyone else seemed to feel the same way as no one looked fearful, except for Mr. Brown. He looked like he just peed his pants. His face lost all of its color and he curled in on himself. He then walked out the door throwing a 'sorry' behind him as he left.
Merlin sighed, "Mithian, you can come out now!" She grinned and hugged him, "You are my hero, do you know that? I don't know how you stand up to him when he's that drunk, but it's amazing. I mean, he is scared as sh- of you!" She grinned again. Merlin let loose a fond sigh and ruffled her hair, "Let me guess, you need somewhere to stay tonight." Mithian gave him her best puppy dog eyes. He laughed, "You don't need puppy dog eyes with me. You can stay, like always. I think your go bag is in the bathroom still." She gave him another hug and started to run towards the bathroom.
She had flown past Percival, but then she stopped and backed up several steps. She raked her gaze up and down his body and then nodded her approval, "You're hot." Then she ran the rest of the way to the bathroom. Merlin laughed again at the shell shocked looks on his old friends' faces. He went to his desk and located a piece of paper before scribbling down Mithian's number. Merlin walked over to Percival and said, "Here Perce, figured I'd help you along the way." Morgana clapped giddily, "Ooh! You two would be so cute together!" The group laughed again at Morgana's antics before Elyan noticed the time and recommended that they should head to the front of the building.
They said their goodbyes to Freya, Mithian, and Merlin, and then they walked out the door. They would see him again tomorrow. As Arthur and company walked back down the stairs, Gwaine mused, "Is it just me or does that kid have a multiple personality disorder?" Percival looked at startled, he had been too busy staring at the phone number in his hand. Gwaine snorted at him before continuing, "I mean, seriously, in the one day that we've known him, I've seen at least five different sides to him." Leon looked like he was doing some math in his head while Morgana and Gwen nodded thoughtfully.
Arthur sighed, "Alright Gwaine, out with it. Enlighten us of Merlin's five personalities." "At least five." Gwaine corrected before continuing smugly, "Well, there's the normal Merlin, like his is at school and stuff. Then there's the totally in love Merlin like you saw with Freya just now. Then there's the 'I hate Mordred and Morgana for some all important reason' personality. After that, there's the protector of all that's just Merlin that you saw just now with Mithian, and finally, the kick butt Merlin that was examplified by Mr. Brown and the thug in the alleyway. So what do you think?" Lance's forehead was crinkled, "Is examplified even a real word?" Gwaine sighed and glared at him, earning him a slightly confused look from Lance.
Gwen once looked thoughtful as she said, "It really is interesting that we've all met him just today. It seems as if we've known him forever. I mean, that's how I feel. And he seems so comfortable around us, well most of us." She amended quickly, sending Morgana an apologetic glance before continuing, "Think about it, though. He even called Percival Perce and we only started doing that years after we met him. Merlin started on his first day. It's… interesting." She had to search for the right word and still she felt as if she hadn't found it. The rest of the group hummed in agreement, but then the moment was over and they were in front of the building and one of Arthur's dad's many limos had pulled up.
At the last minute, something made Arthur glance up at the window of what he now knew to be Merlin's room. As he watched, Merlin moved to stand in the window, watching the car, but not seeing Arthur, who was slightly behind a plant. He watched as Merlin watched them, an unimaginably old, unimaginably sad, look flitting across his face before he whipped around and walked into another room. That was strange, thought Arthur, I guess it's just another one of Merlin's supposedly many personalities. At that thought, Arthur snorted and shoved some people aside to sit next to Gwen on the way home.
Merlin had watched briefly through the window at his friends as they got into the limo, only stopping when a deep seated sadness had enveloped him. He turned away and walked back towards the main room, where Mithian was eating some left over cake from who knows when and talking avidly with Freya. The three spent about a half of an hour with Merlin and Freya berating Mithian for not calling the authorities sooner and teasing Mithian about liking Percival while Mithian protested until she was red in the face.
Eventually, Mithian went to sleep and left Freya and Merlin to their talking. He set the basin up on his desk and moved aside some ancient books to work on his essay. He was a little miffed about the whole essay deal, but who was he to complain when it was about history. He had lived through most of the stuff he was writing about and the rest he had heard from friends who had been there.
Freya watched him for a while, throwing in details here and there and occasionally throwing in bits about how her day was. Eventually, she spoke of what was really on their minds, "So they really were Arthur and his knights. And his queen, his greatest enemy, and his bane. What an interesting combination they have." Merlin sighed and put his pen down, "I don't know what to do Freya. Can I really fix what went wrong last time? When Morgana finds out she had magic- and that's if she even had magic, I'm really not sure- she will think she is even more insane then she thought she was back in Camelot."
Freya snickered quietly and Merlin frowned at her, "What?" She school her smile into a more serious expression before it cracked again and she started to giggle, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Merlin, it's just that I can't get over it that your school is called Camelot High. It's just so ironic." The warlock let out a short puff of laughter before Freya turned serious again, "Seriously though, I think that you should treat them as entirely new people. Like you said, they might not even have magic. I didn't see any in either of them, though that doesn't mean that they won't develop it. Trust them and maybe it won't turn out the way it did last time."
Merlin smiled at her and whispered, "What would I do without you, Freya?" She giggled and turned pink, "You would probably crash and burn." He laughed, barely remembering in time that Mithian was in the other room and would probably be awoken by raucous laughter. "That's very true." He paused for a moment, "Did you really mean everything you said to Gwen?" She nodded hesitantly, "I did. Did you?" He nodded as well, "Yes." Suddenly they smiled at each other. They spent about another hour where Merlin finished his essay and Freya told several funny stories about stupid people at the lake.
Eventually, Merlin told Freya that he was going to bed, and they both went their separate ways. Merlin was asleep the second his head hit the pillow.
The nightmare was worse than any he had had in a long, long time. Really, it had been decades since his nightmares were this bad. Nonetheless, he lived them out, watching them from afar like a ghost.
He saw Will die. He heard himself cry his grief for his lost friend. Will was one of the few friends that Merlin had had that truly knew him. Merlin remembered how it had felt as if he was the one who had been shot by the arrow. He remembered the pain at Will's words that he was afraid to die.
Then he saw Freya die. Even though he saw her every day, it still hurt like nothing else to know that she was dead. He saw Arthur land the killing blow on Freya's glossy black fur. He had known it was fatal when she flew away, back into the catacombs he had hid her in. He saw himself set fire to her body after she died.
Next was his father, Balinor. Balinor had died to protect the son he only knew for a few days. Merlin had felt Kilgharrah scream in pain. Most of all, Merlin remembered Arthur putting his hand on his shoulder and saying, 'No man is worth your tears.' If only he'd known.
He saw so many more: Lancelot, Gwaine, Mordred, Arthur, Elyan, Alator, and Finna. They all died because of him. Some of them he hadn't seen die, but he had heard the descriptions of them. He saw all of the ones who died later in life: Gwen, Percival, Kilgharrah, Gaius, Hunith, and so many more. He saw all of the people that he killed: Nimueh, Morgana, Uther, and Agravaine.
In his nightmares, he saw the training he had undergone to learn how to use weapons. First it had just been training with the knights and with Gaius. Later in life, it had been mind games and other people skilled in different weapons. He had perfected his skill with the bow and arrow, the war hammer, the sword, the dagger, the axe, the staff, the nun chucks, even his bare hands.
It horrified him that before Arthur had died; he would never had done that. He abhorred hurting someone at all, especially using traditional weapons. But after a while, he just didn't care anymore. He needed to know how to protect himself and those he loved, and that was the way to do it. He spent the night dreaming of all those he loved and all those he killed, watching their deaths play before his eyes, over and over and over again.
In the morning when Merlin awoke, Mithian told him that he had screamed a couple of times and had been tossing and turning all night. She also informed him that he looked awful what with the bags under his eyes and his pale skin and ruffled hair. He just glared half-heartedly at her and turned away. He made them breakfast and walked her to her school before heading the opposite direction to Camelot High.
When he finally reached the doors, he paused, terrified. The nightmares from last night had only served to remind him how awfully he had failed before. Would he fail this time? Could he trust Morgana and Mordred? What evils would they have to face this time? Why was it now that Arthur came back?
All of those important questions crowded his mind, searching and seeking for answers that weren't there. For a moment, his resolve strengthened and, before he could lose his nerve, he pulled open the doors to Camelot High and entered. Today was a new day and destiny had been written anew.