[April 7th] [Merlin (bbc)] Waiting
Title: Waiting
Day/Theme: April 7 - all things out of season
Series: Merlin (bbc series)
Character/Pairing: Arthur, Merlin
Rating: PGish
“You’re not supposed to be here.” Merlin hears the horror in his voice and hopes his face looks as equally horrified. After a thousand plus years of solitude, he’s not quite sure if his eyes and mouth remember how.
“No,” Arthur agrees, and then, with something almost like but never quite - never quite - guilt, he adds, “But I was bored. Extremely bored. And that was entirely your fault, by the way, palming me off on a bunch of dour old druids who wanted me to sleep all the time.”
Merlin wants to remind Arthur that Arthur is the once and future king and thus is obliged to follow the damn rules, but he knows Arthur believes this title to be 1) a grammatically incorrect statement and 2) stupid.
“Anyway, I thought we could have a holiday,” Arthur continues, moving away from pesky things like rule breaking and onto more important things like playing hooky and - oh say - unraveling the entire future that generations before and after them have used sweat and blood and magic to keep safe.
“Are you mental?” Merlin asks, because even though he knows (oh yes, he knows) the answer, he can’t possibly stop himself.
“After a millennia of Morgana watching me sleep?” Arthur says. “Quite possibly, yes.”
Merlin frowns. “It can’t be as bad as all that,” even, when Arthur puts it that way, it does sound rather creepy.
Arthur waves a hand, dismissing logic as unimportant. “Look, aren’t you sick of being shut up in this cave?”
“That’s not the point, Arthur,” Merlin says. “The point is - “ And there’s a long, lovely point involved that he’s already explained to Arthur, about destiny and needing to follow certain proper paths to make sure the future is one that guarantees mankind’s future survival, but Arthur, apparently, feels that this speech is as quite unnecessary the second time as it was the first and cuts him off with a proposition.
“Look, I’m sure we can save Albion or the world or the universe or whatever just as easily from a hotel in Mallorca as from Avalon or this cave.”
And drat, Arthur has an equally valid point there, unfortunately. Merlin wishes it was just his own boredom talking, but he’s pretty positive it’s not. Still he’s not going down without at least the pretense of an argument.
“And just what do you know about hotels in Mallorca, what with being asleep?”
Arthur looks shifty. “Gwen and Lancelot might have mentioned it. When they last visited.”
“Last visited?” And Merlin’s not upset they didn’t think to visit him; he’s not. It’s not like he advertised to anyone what cave he’s in. Not like Arthur and his heroic mortal wound and subsequent sailing off for Avalon.
“Morgana says it’s boring watching me sleep. She’s right. I’m the one sleeping, and I know it’s boring.” Arthur looks round the cave. “And you can’t possibly convince me that this is in any way stimulating.”
“All right,” Merlin agrees. “I admit it. Sarte was wrong. Hell isn’t other people, not even you; it’s this place.”
Arthur gives his little-boy smile, the one Merlin loves as much as he hates the terrible (though Arthur would argue brilliant) ideas that always come after it. Still, he’s smiling back as Arthur slings a companionable arm about his shoulder.
“So,” Arthur says. “First off, you need to magic us up some proper passports, yeah? And those wonderful credit card things. We need lots of those. And some sort of cover…what would you study at university, anyway?”
Day/Theme: April 7 - all things out of season
Series: Merlin (bbc series)
Character/Pairing: Arthur, Merlin
Rating: PGish
“You’re not supposed to be here.” Merlin hears the horror in his voice and hopes his face looks as equally horrified. After a thousand plus years of solitude, he’s not quite sure if his eyes and mouth remember how.
“No,” Arthur agrees, and then, with something almost like but never quite - never quite - guilt, he adds, “But I was bored. Extremely bored. And that was entirely your fault, by the way, palming me off on a bunch of dour old druids who wanted me to sleep all the time.”
Merlin wants to remind Arthur that Arthur is the once and future king and thus is obliged to follow the damn rules, but he knows Arthur believes this title to be 1) a grammatically incorrect statement and 2) stupid.
“Anyway, I thought we could have a holiday,” Arthur continues, moving away from pesky things like rule breaking and onto more important things like playing hooky and - oh say - unraveling the entire future that generations before and after them have used sweat and blood and magic to keep safe.
“Are you mental?” Merlin asks, because even though he knows (oh yes, he knows) the answer, he can’t possibly stop himself.
“After a millennia of Morgana watching me sleep?” Arthur says. “Quite possibly, yes.”
Merlin frowns. “It can’t be as bad as all that,” even, when Arthur puts it that way, it does sound rather creepy.
Arthur waves a hand, dismissing logic as unimportant. “Look, aren’t you sick of being shut up in this cave?”
“That’s not the point, Arthur,” Merlin says. “The point is - “ And there’s a long, lovely point involved that he’s already explained to Arthur, about destiny and needing to follow certain proper paths to make sure the future is one that guarantees mankind’s future survival, but Arthur, apparently, feels that this speech is as quite unnecessary the second time as it was the first and cuts him off with a proposition.
“Look, I’m sure we can save Albion or the world or the universe or whatever just as easily from a hotel in Mallorca as from Avalon or this cave.”
And drat, Arthur has an equally valid point there, unfortunately. Merlin wishes it was just his own boredom talking, but he’s pretty positive it’s not. Still he’s not going down without at least the pretense of an argument.
“And just what do you know about hotels in Mallorca, what with being asleep?”
Arthur looks shifty. “Gwen and Lancelot might have mentioned it. When they last visited.”
“Last visited?” And Merlin’s not upset they didn’t think to visit him; he’s not. It’s not like he advertised to anyone what cave he’s in. Not like Arthur and his heroic mortal wound and subsequent sailing off for Avalon.
“Morgana says it’s boring watching me sleep. She’s right. I’m the one sleeping, and I know it’s boring.” Arthur looks round the cave. “And you can’t possibly convince me that this is in any way stimulating.”
“All right,” Merlin agrees. “I admit it. Sarte was wrong. Hell isn’t other people, not even you; it’s this place.”
Arthur gives his little-boy smile, the one Merlin loves as much as he hates the terrible (though Arthur would argue brilliant) ideas that always come after it. Still, he’s smiling back as Arthur slings a companionable arm about his shoulder.
“So,” Arthur says. “First off, you need to magic us up some proper passports, yeah? And those wonderful credit card things. We need lots of those. And some sort of cover…what would you study at university, anyway?”