THE TRUTH OF A LEGEND

The truth of a Legend

Chapter 3

I held you tight to me

But you slipped away.

You promised to return to me,

And I believed.

I believed.

.:Merlin:.

"Merlin!"

The shout caused him to tiredly raise his eyes from where he had been staring at the floor. He cursed inwardly at the sight of Will once again, waving frantically, almost exactly like he had been this morning.

So much for my sneaky exit, he thought. After a day of trying to keep Gaius and his never ending appetite for tea sated, while also trying to clear out the many rat cages that the genetics department had let build up to enormous amount, Merlin was tired right down to his bones. All he wanted to do now, was go home, take a nice long shower and then let his head fall down on his pillow. But knowing Will, he'll want to know all about how it had gone, (and in Will's mind that meant going to a pub and prodding Merlin to reveal who he thought had the biggest boobs hiding underneath their lab coat.)

"Merlin!"

At the second call, Merlin resignedly changed his path from heading out towards the glass doors, showing the last rays of the sun shining onto the Clyde waters, and turned towards the reception desks.

"Merlin" Will repeated, way too much happiness in his voice for an end of a Monday morning, Merlin thought.

"Woah, mate! You look awful"

"Thanks Will. Next time try a 'how was your day?' though." Merlin replied, leaning wearily at the desk.

Will scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Hey, I'm just calling it how it is"

Despite himself, Merlin felt a beginnings of a grin begin to tug at the corners of his mouth. "Yeah and God forbid, you might actually make friends if you started being nice"

"Oi, remember who got you this job Merlin."

"Yeah yeah, okay. I am forever in your debt. What did you want?"

"Wow, you really are a grouch. Suppose I should have warned you though" Will smirked, leaning back in his chair.

Merlin narrowed his eyes. "Warned me about what?"

"Well there was a reason I knew about the job opening" Will said slowly, smirk building even wider.

"Will?"

"Well the position is always open. No-one has lasted more than 3 weeks as Gaius's assistant" Will shrugged before giving Merlin one of his manic grins.

Merlin groaned. "And you're telling me this now. He had me cleaning out rat cages today. Will, rat cages!"

Will burst out into laughter. "Oh God. Good luck mate"

"Thanks" Sarcasm dripped from his tone. "If that's all, I think I'll take my leave" he turned to go, wanting to get to his shower and bed as soon as possible.

"Wait!"

Merlin resisted letting out a groan and dropping his head into his hands. "What now Will?"

"Two seconds, let me grab my things and I'll tell you on the way."

"This had better be good"

"Oh it's good."

Twenty minutes later, despite Merlin's best efforts in avoiding it, he found himself in a pub sitting across from Will and nursing a pint of Guinness.

"That's it?"

Will mocked looking shocked. "What do you mean that's it. That was the highlight of my day. You should have seen Sally's face. I wish I had taken a picture"

"The highlight of your day was some hotshot, claiming to be the undercover CEO of APD that suddenly decided to return and head the company once more"

"Yep" Will claimed happily, downing half of his pint in one gulp.

Merlin didn't know whether to be amused or annoyed. The whole story sounded like something out of a BBC drama, not something that actually occurred in real life.

"And don't forget the best part"

"What else could you possibly add to this tale Will"

"A big booze filled party of course" he grinned happily.

"A what?"

"Exactly how it sounds bro. Invitations have been arriving all day. Apparently in celebration of his return an office party is being held and as Gaius's assistant, you will be required to attend."

Merlin spluttered on his pint. Wiping hastily at the froth moustache he knew he would have acquired drinking the bitter beverage, he turned wild eyes onto his friend.

"No no no no" he stuttered. "You know me and big fancy do's do not get on Will"

Will didn't seem to share his hesitation. Instead the brunette just seemed to be holding himself from outright laughing at the expression on his friend's face. "Too bad. I'm forcing you to go"

"You're forcing me to go"

"Yep" Will looked altogether too happy with his plan. "I require all the gossip from the higher ups, and this will most definitely include but not be limited to finding out which of those power hungry career woman would most likely sleep with me"

"Will!" Merlin looked hastily around to see if anyone in the vicinity had heard them. Thankfully the pub was quiet, it being a Monday night, and the nearest other patron was far enough away not to hear them.
"I'm not going to go fishing for desperate woman at this party. I'm not even sure I'm going, And besides" Merlin suddenly prodded a finger into Will's chest accusingly. "I thought you hated higher ups?"

Will shrugged in response, pushing Merlin's finger away lazily. "I do. Their attitudes are atrocious, but who said anything about actually talking with them?"

"Oh my God, I can't believe I'm friends with you sometimes"

"Neither do I. So are we at an agreement"

"No" Merlin shook his head rapidly but Will merely beamed at him. "Atta boy" he said before jumping up to the bar and ordering them some more drinks.

.:Arthur:.

The lift doors clanged open revealing an almost empty entrance hall. Arthur sighed, running a hand through his hair. It had been a long day, full of meetings and never ending arguments with directors that didn't want their fancy lifestyle changed.

But, Arthur supposed as he walked across to the exit, it could have gone worse. He could have been hauled away by security and chucked back out into the street. And even though the directors hadn't liked him, they all seemed to think he was pretty legit and not just some whack job pretending to be APD just so he could get his hands on the company's millions, which he had thought would be the most likely thing to have gone wrong this day.

So all in all, Arthur was pretty pleased with how it had turned out. Now just to try and catch the last ferry back over to the island, work through all the business plans he had been working on for the past 2 years, so he could finally collapse into bed and hope tonight would be the first night without any dreams.

Arthur scoffed at the idea. He hadn't had one of those for too many years that he had lost count. But I suppose he could always hope.

Opening the doors he briefly shielded his eyes from the glare of the setting sun.

"Will, I just want to go and have a shower. I'm not going to the bar, just so I can hear this stupid story"

Arthur's heart sped up at the sound of the voice. It was so familiar, even after all of these years.

"Come on, you know you can't resist good gossip"

Stupid, bloody sun, Arthur thought frantically. Walking forward he tried to get out of the sun's glare from the water.

A brunette head appeared walking along the pavement that ran along the River Clyde and briefly Arthur recognised the receptionist that had looked so amused this morning. He appeared to be rapidly talking to his friend, hands waving about wildly as he tried to get his point across.

At this angle though, he could only catch glimpses of his friend's black hair. Feeling like his heart had dropped down into his stomach he tried to get a better look. Too many times had he gone tearing after black haired tall gangly men over the years, only to be disappointed when it hadn't been him. Not to mention the weird looks he had gotten.

Finally the sun sunk low enough to be covered by a block of flats and Arthur's vision cleared.

The pair was just about to turn the corner and Arthur was at last allowed a full view of the black haired man. He strode easily along side his friend, long legs eating up the ground in a rather graceful gate. His face seemed annoyed, yet half amused at the same time, like he just couldn't make up his mind what to be. The fond sort of grimace he gave his mate was like a kick in the gut to Arthur.

Merlin strode across Camelot's courtyard, hands laden down with an assortment of brushes and buckets.

"And after you're finished with the stables, the hounds need some exercise!" Arthur called out.

Merlin stopped in his steps, turning to give him a glare. "Anything else, Sire" he called out, making sure his tone on saying 'sire' was dripping with sarcasm.

Arthur grinned. "Well now you mention it, my armour could use with some extra polishing."

Merlin's glared increased, yet he answered Arthur's grin. The wide smile stretch from one oversized ear to the other as though he just couldn't help but grin back. "Of course, My Lord"

Arthur had turned away after that, to attend some council meeting with his father, but the grin had stayed on his face all afternoon.

Arthur's mind abruptly returned to the present. It had to be Merlin, it had to be . The scene had been so similar to the memory, from Merlin's long sure strides to the half annoyed, half amused glare.

Forgetting about the fact that he would probably miss the last ferry over to Arran, or the fact tat he was wearing his most expensive business suit, Arthur leapt down the stairs that lead up to the offices and tore off down the street, ready to tackle Merlin to the ground to make sure he didn't leave ever again.

But as Arthur rounded the corner, he was startled out of his sprint by Glasgow's rush hour. Cars packed the streets and seemingly hundreds of suited business men and woman were making their way hastily to where Grand Central station was located just underneath the bridge.

"Fuck" Arthur swore, startling a man and woman who had been walking towards him. Hastily he apologized but his eyes were already scanning the street for any sign of Merlin and his friend.

Panic began to poison his mind as his search yielded no results. He had been so close, he was so sure of it. So close to having Merlin back and the stupid Scottish streets had decided fate was against him.

Leaning against a wall of a building, Arthur struggled to keep his body upright. They could have gone anywhere, and Arthur had no way of knowing which of the many side streets they could have taken or if they had taken any at all and simply hopped onto one of the many trains leaving the station right this minute.

Defeated, Arthur dropped his head into his hands, not caring if he was getting weird looks. He had been so close.

Unwanted the image of Merlin walking beside that receptionist entered his mind. Just for a few seconds he had let himself hope.

Suddenly his mind froze, rewinding the image in his head. Merlin had been walking beside the receptionist. The receptionist that was working for his company. He would be in tomorrow, at that front desk, taking phone calls and signing in visitors.

He would just simply ask him, who his friend was. Find out where he worked, and all the details he needed.

Breathing a sigh of relief he propelled himself form the wall and straightened his suit. Turning away from the station, he headed instead, towards a hotel. He wanted to be at work as early as possible tomorrow.

TBC…

A/N - Sorry for the late update, ever since finishing Merlin these boys have completely taken over my mind and I've had so many fiction ideas for the series. But I won't be starting any new ones till I've got this one and the two others finished.

Shout out to Ashling Alroy who gave some lovely reviews and an even more lovely PM which finally got me off my ass to finish this chapter.

Poem at the beginning is something from the internet I found ages ago but I just can't remember what from so I have no idea who wrote it.

Hoped you enjoyed, I should be more regular with my updates from now on!

Harlisan.