[Fic] GoldenEye(s) - for epiphanyx7
Title: GoldenEye(s)
Author: Anonymous
Recipient: epiphanyx7
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Arthur/Merlin, slight Uther/Morgana
Warnings: Small mention of sex, but nothing explicit
Spoilers: General spoilers through series 2, nothing major
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6,770
Summary: When Arthur accepted the mission to intercept the Chalice of Meridia before it got into Sorcerer hands, he had no idea that his life would be forever changed.
Author's Note: Inspired by the prompt: Arthur as James Bond and Merlin as the femme fatale, a modern AU with guns and crime fighting! I didn’t quite manage to turn Arthur into the awesomeness that is James Bond, but I enjoyed putting these characters into an espionage world. I realize that this fic ended up being completely ridiculous, and I am not quite sure how it ended up being such a large count of ridiculous words, but my goal was to make you smile, and hopefully I’ve pulled that off. But again, this fic is ridiculously ridiculous.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction - none of this ever happened. No copyright infringement is intended. No profit is made from this work. Please observe your local laws with regards to the age-limit and content of this work.
The mission sounded simple enough. Keep the targeted Sorcerer cell from getting their hands on the Chalice of Meridia. Intercept the independent dealer before he got to the Sorcerer liaison and convince him to hand over the chalice to the proper authorities. Those proper authorities just happened to be Arthur, and Arthur was nothing if not persuasive.
Again, simple, right? Wrong. Arthur had never been more wrong in his life.
He got to the café an hour before the scheduled meeting time. He sat at a corner table, partly concealed behind a potted plant, and pretended to read his newspaper as he scoped the place out for any suspicious looking persons. Not exactly the most original of disguises, but Arthur preferred the more traditional methods of espionage. Not that he didn’t enjoy his car that could change into a speedboat with the push of a button, or his watch that doubled as a camera, but when it came to stakeouts, simple was the way to go.
He took a quick glance at the photo that Gaius had given him with the case file and scanned the café again. No sign of the dark-haired young man that was supposed to hand off the chalice. Arthur’s eyes stopped on a woman sitting a few tables across from him. Only… she wasn’t a woman. At least, Arthur didn’t think so, judging by her very prominent Adam’s apple. But he was in Paris, so it wasn’t what he would call a suspicious sighting. But her… his… her leg was bobbing up and down, her fingers tapping against the table, and Arthur couldn’t help but conclude that she (he) was nervous. Arthur clicked the zoom feature on his sunglasses, and upon closer inspection, Arthur was positive that this woman was his guy.
Arthur cleared his throat and stood up, pulling the gun from his belt and concealing it within the newspaper. He quietly made his way to the woman’s table and stood behind her. He cocked his gun and held it to her back. When she stiffened, he said quietly, “Stand up.”
“Look, I don’t want any trouble,” she said in a falsely high voice.
“Stand up,” Arthur repeated, a little more dangerously.
“I’d rather not,” she replied.
Arthur gritted his teeth and said, “Stand up, or I will shoot you.”
“In a crowded restaurant? I don’t think so.”
“Hm, funny how your voice gets deeper when you’re being stupid.”
“I… I had something in my throat earlier, and now I don’t.”
“Mmmhmm.”
“Could you please stop poking me with that gun?”
“Not until you stand up and come with me.”
“Again, I’d rather not.”
“I’m not giving you a choice,” Arthur growled as he grabbed the man by his arm and yanked him out of his seat. “Don’t forget your purse.”
“Oh right, thanks.”
Arthur put his arm around the man’s shoulders and held him close, the gun discreetly between them, pushing against the man’s ribs. Arthur plastered a smile on his face and pinched the man until he did the same, and they walked out of the café together. Once on the sidewalk, the man tried to squirm out of Arthur’s grasp, but to no avail.
“What do you want with me?” he asked nervously.
“You’ll find out in due time,” Arthur replied.
“Do you work for the Sorcerers?”
“Do you?” Arthur asked.
The man closed his mouth and looked forward, continuing on with Arthur without saying another word. Once they reached an abandoned alley, Arthur pushed the man against a wall and held his arm behind his back, the man’s wig falling off in the process.
“Ow! That hurts, you know!”
“That’s the point,” Arthur said.
“Why?”
“Well, if you’d shut up for one second-“
“Would you shut up if someone shoved you against a wall?”
“I…”
“Exactly.”
Arthur felt a pounding headache coming on. He pulled on the man’s arm until he heard him let out a scream, then he pressed his body against his and leaned forward to speak into his ear. “You will shut up until I prompt you to speak, understood?” When there was no reply, Arthur yanked on the man’s arm and repeated loudly, “Understood?”
“Aaaah, yes! Yes, understood.”
“Good. Now, what is your name?”
“Merlin. My name is Merlin,” he said a little breathlessly.
Arthur laughed and said, “Merlin? Really? Do you honestly expect me to believe that?”
“Yes!”
“Why?”
“Because that is my name!”
“If you say so,” Arthur replied skeptically.
“What is yours?” Merlin asked.
“Pendragon. Arthur Pendragon.”
“And you’re making fun of my name?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing. It’s just that ‘Merlin’ is unique, mysterious, while ‘Arthur’ sounds like the name of an accountant.”
“You know, I really will shoot you!”
“So you’ve said.”
Arthur let out a sigh of frustration and held the bridge of his nose for a moment. “Why are you dressed like a woman?”
“To avoid situations like this.”
“Well, it didn’t work very well, did it?”
“Unfortunately not.”
“Who do you work for?” Arthur asked.
“No one.”
“Then why are you selling the Chalice of Meridia to Morgause’s clan?”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I’m not.”
Arthur yanked on Merlin’s arm again and he let out a yelp.
“Okay! Okay, I was meeting someone from Morgause’s clan at the café, but I wasn’t going to sell the Chalice of Meridia!”
“Then what were you going to sell?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing, I swear.”
Arthur let up on Merlin’s arm and turned him around so that he could look into his eyes. “What were you doing at the café?”
There was a long pause where Merlin just looked at him a little desperately, like it would physically hurt him to reveal the information.
“You can tell me, Merlin.”
“Why should I?”
“Because if you don’t, you’ll die.” Arthur looked at his watch, then back up to Merlin as he said, “By now Morgause’s man will mark you down as no show, which to them means you’ve either been captured by the enemy, or you broke a promise. They don’t take kindly to either scenario.”
“Oh god,” Merlin’s face went pale and he bent over like he was going to be sick.
“What?”
“This is your fault. If they kill her…” He looked back up at Arthur. “Whatever you want from me, it’s not worth her life.”
“Whose life?” Arthur asked. Somehow he had gotten completely lost during this conversation.
“My mother. They have my mother.”
“Oh.”
“They wanted the chalice in exchange for her life.”
“So you do have the chalice?”
“Did you not just hear one word I said about my mother?”
Arthur sighed and knelt down to put his hand on Merlin’s shoulder. He gave him a look of sympathy and asked, “Where is the chalice?”
“You are unbelievable.”
“Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“Where is the chalice?” Arthur asked again.
“In a safe place.”
“Take me to it.”
“Why should I?”
Arthur pursed his lips in thought, then finally said, “Help me get the chalice, and I’ll help you get your mother back.”
Merlin looked into his eyes for a long moment, and then finally said, “How do I know I can trust you?”
“Because you have no other choice.”
“Right. That again.”
On the way to Arthur’s car, they ran into trouble. The Sorcerer liaison had tracked them down and was conjuring fireballs to hurl at them. Arthur ran for cover behind a metal bench, dragging Merlin behind him as they pushed through the chaotic crowd of panicking people.
“Shoot him!” Merlin shouted.
“I would, Merlin, but there happens to be a crowd of civilians in the way at the moment.”
Merlin popped his head over the bench for a second, then came back down and said, “No there isn’t.”
“What? Merlin, are you blind or something, because clearly-“ Arthur stopped talking when he realized that Merlin was right. He wasn’t sure what had just happened, but he didn’t have time to analyze the situation. He took aim and shot at the Sorcerer, barely managing to dodge a fireball at the last second as it whizzed past his ear. He fell back down beside Merlin.
“Did you get him?” Merlin asked. Another fireball flew over their heads. “Guess not.”
After a few more dodging sessions, Arthur finally managed to land a bullet into the Sorcerer’s head. Both Arthur and Merlin slowly left the shelter of the bench and made their way to the dead body.
“Guess you can’t question him now, huh?” Merlin asked.
“What would I question him for?”
“The whereabouts of the Sorcerer base?”
“Oh, right, that... No matter, Intelligence is working on it.”
“So you’re a spy or something?”
“Or something,” Arthur replied.
“Aren’t you supposed to keep your identity a secret if you’re a spy?”
“Did I actually say I was a spy?” He did a double take at Merlin and asked, “Are you missing an eyebrow?”
“Am I?” Merlin asked, feeling the singed patch of skin where his eyebrow used to be. Arthur rolled his eyes.
As Arthur bent down to search the pockets of the body, the sound of a gun going off made him freeze in place, and he heard Merlin shout, “No!” Suddenly he was on the ground with Merlin on top of him, not quite sure how Merlin had gotten him out of the way of the bullet in time. Then his senses caught up with him and he threw Merlin off, whipped out his gun and shot at the tower where the original gunshot had come from. A man in black fell from a roof and landed on top of a car, causing the car alarm to go off.
“Come on,” Arthur said as he grabbed a gaping Merlin and dragged him to his car, trying not to be noticed by the gathering crowd.
“So, you’re telling me that it’s in a cave?”
“Yes,” Merlin said, coming out of the bathroom drying his hair, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, a cloud of steam following in his wake. Arthur didn’t mean to stare. It wasn’t in his nature to stare (he was more used to being stared at), but there was something about Merlin... Something that made him unable to look away. It wasn’t exactly the slender body or the long arms, or even the chest hair that Arthur found slightly alluring. It was something deeper than that. Some instinct that Arthur had about him. He had saved Arthur’s life, after all, and that had to mean something.
“Why is it in a cave?” Arthur asked as he watched Merlin pull up a pair of Arthur’s trousers underneath the towel.
“Because it’s a magical artifact. Where else would you expect to find it?”
“If it’s in a cave, then why couldn’t Morgause get it herself?”
“Because she didn’t know it was in a cave.”
“But you just said…”
“She thought I had it.”
“Why?”
Arthur could tell that Merlin was having trouble swallowing, and his eyes didn’t quite meet Arthur’s as he said, “Because my father was the last one to use it.”
“Your father…” Arthur was up in a flash with his gun in hand as he pushed Merlin down into the hotel mattress. He held the gun to his head as he growled, “Who are you?”
“I’m… I’m Merlin, I told you! I’m no one!”
Arthur pressed his knee harder into Merlin’s back. “Your father was a Sorcerer.”
“No! He was just a magic user, he never hurt anyone!”
“And you?”
“I can do magic, but I swear to you I am not like Morgause.”
“Am I to believe that?”
“If I was a Sorcerer, you would be dead right now, I assure you.”
Arthur went cold as he felt the power behind those words. He moved off of Merlin and sat back down in his chair, the gun still in his hand as he rested it on the table.
Merlin slowly stood up and turned to Arthur. “This doesn’t have to change anything. We still need each other.”
“You’re a Sorcerer, Merlin.”
“No, I’m not! Not everyone who uses magic is bad.”
“Try telling my father that.”
“Your father?”
“Is the Prime Minister of Camelot. He won’t stand for sorcery of any kind, Merlin, no matter how harmless it might be.”
“So don’t tell him.”
“What?”
“Don’t tell him about me. Don’t tell anyone about me. I’m the same useless kid you met at the café. Nothing’s changed.”
“I can’t lie to my superiors, Merlin.”
“Even if it gets you the chalice?”
Arthur sighed in defeat.
“Is it really necessary to get this Staff of Bonyet thing?” Arthur asked again.
“Yes. The cave is guarded by the last dragon of the old world. Only a dragon tamer can get by him, and since neither one of us are dragon tamers, the Staff of Bonyet is the next best thing.”
“Because it hypnotizes him?”
“In a way.”
“Why did your father put the chalice in a cave guarded by a dragon anyway?”
“Because he was a dragon tamer.”
“Ah, right, that makes sense.”
“So, you are positive that you can create a distraction at the museum’s fundraiser ball tonight long enough to let me gain access to the staff?” Merlin asked.
Arthur put his hand on Merlin’s shoulder and said, “Merlin, please, distraction is my specialty.”
“Right…”
Arthur wasn’t sure what he had been expecting when he sent Merlin off with his credit card to buy a tuxedo for the event, but it certainly hadn’t been the sight that stood before him. Merlin was in a black Vanguard tuxedo with a silver vest and a black necktie, a goofy grin on his face as he held out his arms and said excitedly, “What do you think?”
It was… terribly fashionable, especially on him. Arthur looked down at his own ensemble and suddenly regretted the fact that he went traditional. Arthur was the one that was supposed to be the distraction here, not Merlin. “How are you supposed to be inconspicuous looking like that?”
The grin fell from Merlin’s face as he looked down at his tuxedo and then back to Arthur and said, “What? Don’t you like it?”
Arthur was ready to shout “No!” To call him an idiot and ask him if he was capable of doing anything right. But the fragile hope in Merlin’s eyes stopped him. He wasn’t sure why this mattered to Merlin so much, but he certainly wasn’t about to tell him that he thought that Merlin looked slightly magnificent. So instead he worked his face into a disinterested grimace and turned towards the door as he said, “Are you coming or not? We’re going to be late.”
Arthur was fairly certain that he caught a small grin from Merlin as he brushed past him on his way out the door.
In between rubbing elbows with Paris’s elite, Arthur spied Merlin across the room by the bar, and he was positive that Merlin couldn’t look any more suspicious if he had tried. Arthur sighed and excused himself from the arm of a beautiful young blond, and he made his way over to Merlin. He ordered a martini from the bar (shaken, not stirred, obviously), and leaned against the wall next to Merlin as he sipped at his drink. “Having fun, Merlin?”
“No, not exactly,” Merlin replied, still looking around nervously and fidgeting with his tie.
Arthur pursed his lips and set his drink down, then he grabbed Merlin’s hand and said, “Come on, time to dance.”
“What? Here? Now?”
“This is a ball, Merlin. One does tend to dance at these things.”
“No, I know! Just…”
“Trust me,” Arthur said, doing his best to conjure up his most charming smile as he dragged Merlin into the throng of dancing couples.
“Okay, but I get to lead.”
“What?!” Arthur came to a dead stop and Merlin crashed into his back. He turned to look at him. “The man is supposed to lead.”
“Exactly.”
“Are you calling me a girl?”
“Well… I’m not exactly calling myself a girl, am I?”
“Look, you’re the one that likes to wear ladies clothing, therefore you are the girl.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I do,” Arthur said as he pulled Merlin to him roughly. There was a moment there where things seemed to stop, just for a second. Their faces were so close that their noses were mere centimeters from touching, and Arthur could almost taste the bacon-wrapped shrimp hors d'oeuvres on Merlin’s breath, which, when he really thought about it, wasn’t exactly the most romantic of things, and yet there was this odd thrill that shot through him when his eyes dropped to Merlin’s lips, and he was suddenly very aware of the feel of Merlin’s body against his, and it frightened him how right it felt to have Merlin in his arms like that. How comfortable it all was. Arthur was fairly certain that he was about to do something stupid like kiss Merlin, but then the music reached his ears and he suddenly snapped out of it. “Right, let’s get to dancing, shall we?”
“Of course,” Merlin breathed out, and this did nothing to tamper Arthur’s annoying need to kiss the idiot senseless, not that Merlin had any sense to begin with.
And so they danced. Sort of. Merlin was rather stiff in his movements, still distracted by what he had to pull off in a few minutes. And then Merlin stepped on his feet. “Oh, for the love of… Relax, Merlin. Just follow my lead.”
Merlin looked into his eyes for a long moment and Arthur was taken aback by the complete trust that he found there. And then Merlin pulled him closer and slowly laid his head on Arthur’s shoulder, and that was when Arthur knew that no matter what, he wouldn’t let Merlin down.
Arthur had created a decent enough distraction to let Merlin slip from the room unnoticed by doing the tango with the museum curator. Everyone had cleared the dance floor and were “ooing” and “awing” at Arthur’s expert moves, and he had certainly won the unadulterated affections of the middle-aged woman that he had created this distraction with. In fact, she had refused to leave his side at all until Arthur finally pried his arm away from her and bid adieu to the room at large, needing to make his way to his meeting point with Merlin. Naturally, she insisted on seeing him out, and as he struggled to come up with a way to desert her, an alarm bell sounded and the security guards rushed out of the room, along with a good number of the curious patrons. Arthur closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, preparing himself for the inevitable fact that Merlin was the cause of that alarm.
Arthur stepped out into the hall and heard Merlin shouting, “I didn’t do anything, I swear!” as he struggled against the two burly security guards that were carrying him.
Arthur pushed his way through the murmuring crowd and held up his ID when he got to the guards. “KOC. What seems to be the problem here, mates?”
The guards were hesitant at first, not sure if they were supposed to usurp authority over to the Knights of Camelot or not, but with some prodding from Arthur, they finally relented. “We caught him trying to steal the Staff of Bonyet, sir.”
“I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding.”
“No sir, we caught him. We’re not sure what he did with it, but he was there and the staff wasn’t.”
“You mean you don’t have it?” Arthur asked Merlin directly, alarmed.
“No,” Merlin said, the apology clear in his eyes.
Arthur sighed. “All right, let him go.”
“Can’t, sir.”
“What?”
“This is a matter of national security. That staff in the wrong hands could be deadly. We need to call in Prime Minister Pendragon for this one.”
“Is that really necessary?”
“Protocol, sir.”
“Right, do what you have to do,” Arthur muttered, giving Merlin a look that told him not to worry, though that didn’t seem to decrease the panic on Merlin’s face in the least.
“This boy is with you?”
“Yes, father. He’s a very integral component in carrying out my mission.”
“A component?” Merlin asked, clearly offended.
“Shut up, Merlin,” Arthur whispered.
“Integral how?” Uther asked, his voice making Arthur nervous with its power.
“He’s the only one who knows how to obtain the Chalice of Meridia.”
Uther’s eyes darkened as he slowly walked towards Merlin. He leaned down and put his hands on the armrests of the chair that Merlin was handcuffed to, making an eye-to-eye conversation with him inescapable. Merlin leaned back as far as possible, but he didn’t flinch when Uther’s voice said dangerously, “Is this true, boy?”
“Yes,” he answered back confidently. Arthur was sort of… proud. Proud of Merlin? Well, anything was possible, Arthur supposed.
“What do you want from my son?”
“Nothing,” Merlin answered, his voice quiet. He glanced over at Arthur and repeated, “Nothing.”
Oh, he was good. Arthur almost believed him himself.
A hand appeared on Uther’s shoulder, and suddenly Arthur remembered that his stepmother was in the room. “Uther. That’s enough. The boy is harmless.”
Uther huffed a little as he stood straight and said, “Morgana, this is necessary. He could be leading Arthur into a trap for all we know.”
“Surely not.”
“He was after a dangerous magical artifact, was he not?”
“Yes, but for Arthur!”
“And what if it was to kill Arthur? What if the boy possesses the ability to use magic?”
“And so what if he could use magic? That doesn’t make him a criminal.”
“No, it makes him a Sorcerer.”
“But magic can be used for good,” Merlin said desperately, and Arthur promptly shushed him. Not exactly the greatest moment to recapture Father’s attention, Merlin. Honestly. The boy truly was an idiot.
“He’s right, you know,” Morgana said, getting Uther to turn back to her.
“Now is not the time for this argument, Morgana.”
“No, now is the perfect time, I think.”
“Morgana…” Uther said warningly.
“Uther…” Morgana replied just as dangerously, the hint of a seductive smile on her lips.
Uther wordlessly opened and closed his mouth a few times, grabbed Morgana’s hand, gave Merlin one last look, then told Arthur, “I trust that you’ll keep me informed?”
Arthur nearly laughed at the ease with which Morgana had derailed the investigation. “Yes, Father.”
“Good,” Uther said hoarsely, dragging Morgana out the door.
“It’s a wonder that they haven’t killed each other yet,” Arthur said, shaking his head.
“Right. Now how about getting me out of these handcuffs?” Merlin asked.
“Mmm, I don’t know. My father did have a point.”
“What?”
Arthur leaned down onto Merlin’s chair in an exact imitation of his father. “Are you leading me into a trap, Merlin?” he asked softly.
“Never,” Merlin breathed out.
“Good,” Arthur said. He leaned in closer, his lips barely touching Merlin’s as he said, “Because I really don’t feel like killing you.”
“Morgause took it?”
“I’m pretty sure it was her.”
“You’re pretty sure, or you’re sure?”
“Um… almost positive?”
Arthur sighed.
“I saw a woman. With blond hair. I just saw the back of her before she disappeared into thin air.”
“But she had the staff?”
“She most definitely had the staff.”
“This is bad.”
“Very bad. If she gets to the chalice before we do, she won’t need me anymore. If she doesn’t need me anymore, then she doesn’t need my mother anymore.”
Arthur sighed once again, laying his gun on the table and sinking into an armchair, brushing a hand over his tired eyes. He loosened his bowtie and asked, “How did she know about the Staff of Bonyet?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think she knows where the cave is?”
“Not even my mother knows where it is. Come to think of it, she didn’t even know about the chalice. My father tried to keep his magical life separate from her.”
“But she knew about the staff?”
“No. No, she didn’t.”
“Then how did Morgause know?”
“Someone must be feeding her the information.”
“What, you mean one of my people?”
“Possibly. You’ve been updating that Gaius bloke all along, right?”
“Well, yeah, but…”
“Then it’s either him or someone else in the KOC department.”
“No.”
“It might be.”
“It’s not.”
“It’s possible.”
Merlin was right, of course. It was the only explanation. But Arthur couldn’t go accusing just anyone of being a double agent. Certainly not Gaius. He’d known Gaius his entire life and his loyalty to his father was unmatched. And it wasn’t Gwen. Couldn’t be her. He had dated her (sort of) for more than a year before Lancelot came along, surely he would have noticed if her loyalties weren’t with Camelot. As for the other agents, it could be any of them, but he had trained them himself. It hurt too much to think that any of them would betray him like that.
“From now on, Merlin, it’s just you and me. No more help from the agency.”
“Agreed.”
“That means no backup until we get the chalice.”
“We won’t need it.”
“This, coming from the man who got defeated by two rent-a-cops.”
“They were quite large rent-a-cops, actually.”
“Right.”
“They were!”
“And clearly too much for your magic to handle.”
“They caught me at a bad time, alright? I wasn’t prepared.”
“Whatever you say, Merlin.”
“I thought you said we weren’t going to contact the agency again,” Merlin said next to him on the plane ride to Ealdor.
“I had to get the plane tickets, didn’t I? Just be happy I didn’t order the private jet.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry, I told Gwen not to tell anyone.”
“Right, and how do you know that you can trust her?”
Arthur looked Merlin in the eye and said, “I just do.”
Merlin rolled his eyes at him and turned towards the window.
“What?”
“Nothing. I didn’t say anything,” Merlin replied with a shrug. Merlin had been snippy with him ever since Arthur had flirted with the flight attendant that had fixed him a martini. Arthur wasn’t quite sure what to make of that.
“So where, exactly, is this so-called cave of yours?” Arthur asked. They had been walking for nearly 5 miles in the heat and there was still no sign of the thing.
“We’re getting close, I can feel it,” Merlin said, looking around excitedly.
“Really? Because all I see is open land. Everywhere.”
“That’s what he wanted you to see.”
“Who?”
“My father. He charmed the cave to be invisible.”
“Right, and what if someone happens to run into this giant invisible mountain with a hole in it?”
“They wouldn’t. The cave will repel any non-magic users.”
“Okay. So, if this cave is invisible, and it repels people, how on earth are we supposed to find it?”
“Um… Arthur?”
Arthur stopped walking when he realized that Merlin was no longer in front of him. In fact, Arthur had unknowingly deviated from the path entirely and was heading in a new direction. “I don’t remember turning.”
“This is it,” Merlin said, reaching out to touch the air in front of him. Arthur tried to join him, but his feet just didn’t want to agree with him. Merlin watched him struggle for awhile, and he even had the gall to laugh at him until Arthur got angry and threw his shoe at him. Finally he muttered something in a language that Arthur didn’t understand, and a cave appeared before them. Merlin smiled over at Arthur and said, “I told you this was it.”
“Yes, I can see that, Merlin. Now, how are we going to get past the angry dragon without the Staff of Bonyet?”
“You’re going to sing to him.”
“What?!”
“It’ll calm him down.”
“Right. Here’s an idea, I get the chalice, and you serenade the dragon.”
“You know how to levitate things with your mind, then?”
“Well, no. But I could always give it a try. I am Arthur Pendragon, after all.”
“You are such a prat,” Merlin said with a laugh in his voice.
“And you’re an idiot, so it all works out then, doesn’t it?”
Merlin uttered another spell and a ball of blue light formed in his hand, then floated above them as if it were a balloon attached to a string on Merlin’s wrist. They slowly navigated their way through the cave, and aside from a few bats and some falling rocks here and there, it was relatively harmless. Suspiciously harmless, actually. And just as Arthur had that thought, a gigantic rat popped out of the shadows and headed straight for Merlin. Arthur drew his gun out in an instant and fired an entire round into the rat’s head. That didn’t even slow the thing down as it tackled Merlin and opened its jaw, planning on making a snack out of Merlin’s head. Without thinking, Arthur dove at the rat and wrestled with it on the ground beside Merlin, and as Arthur held its jaw apart to keep it from crunching down on his neck, he caught the sight of Merlin’s eyes turning gold, a look of complete fury on his face, and suddenly the rat exploded and Arthur was showered with its guts.
“Did you have to make him explode on my face?” Arthur asked, picking god knows what out of his hair.
Merlin was trying to catch his breath from the toll that the magic had taken on him as he said, “A simple thank you would suffice.”
“If you recall, I saved you from the rat first. You should be thanking me.”
Merlin scoffed and said, “Why do I even bother?”
They continued on their journey, and finally they reached the room with the chalice. And the dragon. “You’ve got to keep him distracted long enough so that I can make my way onto that ledge over there and will the chalice to come to me.”
“What should I sing?”
Merlin shrugged and said, “I don’t know. A dragon song.”
“Thanks for the help.”
“You’re welcome.”
They edged into the room, trying to go as far as they could without disturbing the dragon, but naturally Merlin’s bout with clumsiness decided to strike him when he tripped over one of the chains that was holding the dragon captive, and the dragon instantly roared to life. “Oh crap. Oh crap! Sing, Arthur! Now!” Merlin swiftly dove out of the way of the fire path that the dragon was trying to hit him with.
“Um… Puff the magic dragon, lived by the sea…” The constant stream of fire stopped and the dragon turned his head towards Arthur, a curious look in his eyes. He couldn’t believe it was working.
“Great, Arthur, don’t stop!” Merlin said as he struggled his way to the ledge.
“And frolicked in the autumn mist, in a land called Honah Lee!” The dragon sat down, his full attention on Arthur now. “Uh… Puff the magic dragon, lived by the sea…”
“You already sang that part!” Merlin shouted.
“That’s all I know,” Arthur shouted back to him.
“You’ve got to keep him interested. Just make up some words!”
Arthur sighed in frustration, and when he saw the dragon getting antsy, he started up again, “Puff the magic dragon, lived by the sea, and he ate a lot of fruit, right off that apple tree!”
Merlin reached the tip of the ledge and he became still. Trying to levitate the chalice, Arthur supposed.
“Then he started coughing, right by that apple tree, and performed the Heimlich on himself, to spit out that apple seed! Puff the mag-oh!” Arthur felt something hit his head and just before he blacked out, the last thing he saw was the back of Morgause as she held the dragon in some kind of trance suspended in air. Arthur slurred out “Merlin,” and his vision faded to black.
“Arthur!” He felt a tapping on his cheek. “ARTHUR!” A slap that time. He opened one bleary eye and saw the outline of Merlin leaning over him. He soon became aware that his head was in Merlin’s lap.
“My head would appreciate it if you’d stop with the shouting, Merlin.”
Merlin let out a laugh and wiped his face as he said, “I thought…”
Arthur’s eyes focused, and he reached a hand up to Merlin’s cheek as he softly said, “You won’t get rid of me that easily, Merlin.” Merlin closed his eyes and smiled into Arthur’s hand. Arthur tried to ignore the warmth that ran through him when Merlin’s lips grazed his palm. “What happened?”
“She got the chalice.”
“Oh.”
“We need to save my mother, Arthur. Now.”
“We need a plan first, Merlin. We need to contact the KOC for their intelligence reports on the whereabouts of Morgause’s base. We need weapons. We need backup.”
“No.”
“No?” Arthur sat up to look at Merlin like he had gone insane.
“I don’t trust them. Not with my mother. It’s just you and me, or I go alone.”
“I’m not letting you go alone, Merlin.”
“It’s settled then. We go tomorrow at daybreak.”
“No, wait, we don’t even know…” Arthur trailed off as Merlin stood up and started on his way out of the cave. “We still need a plan.”
“Here’s a map of Camelot and all of its territories. All I have to do is say the right spell, and Morgause’s base will light up on the map.”
“You mean you don’t actually know which spell to use?”
“Not exactly, no, but I have a vague idea of which spell to use.”
“I’m not going to like this, am I?” Arthur asked.
“Probably not,” Merlin said apologetically.
The first spell set the map on fire. Luckily Merlin had the foresight to buy more than one map. The second spell turned the map into a paper airplane that flew directly into Arthur’s forehead. The third spell, however, was exactly what they needed. “You do amaze me sometimes, Merlin.”
“Was that a compliment?” Merlin asked with a smile.
“I wouldn’t get used to it if I were you,” Arthur replied.
Merlin laughed, and then his face grew serious. “Listen, if I don’t make it tomorrow-“
“Shut up, Merlin.”
“No, Arthur, let me get this out. If I don’t make it tomorrow, can you make sure that my mother is safe? That she’s well taken care of after I’m gone?”
“You’re not going anywhere, Merlin. Not if I have anything to do about it.”
Merlin grabbed Arthur’s wrist and leaned closer, and Arthur couldn’t seem to look away from his eyes. “Just promise me that you’ll take care of her.”
“I promise,” Arthur said quietly.
Maybe it was the threat that tomorrow might be their last day, maybe it was the way Arthur felt more like himself with Merlin than he did with anyone else, maybe it was the mixture of confidence and vulnerability in Merlin’s eyes, maybe it was the feel of Merlin’s long fingers on his wrist, or maybe it was just their close proximity, but something made Arthur lean in and finally press his lips to Merlin’s. And something about that kiss made him believe that forever would only exist for him in Merlin.
They made love that night. The first time was desperate, hungry, both of them trying to cling to life in each other’s touch. The second time was slow, an equal give and take, an exploration of everything they had to offer each other. The third time was a promise to live, for themselves and for each other.
Thanks to Merlin’s map trick, they managed to easily find Morgause’s Sorcerer base deep within the forest. There was a woman in the middle of the camp that was tied to a tree, her face covered in dirt and her hair a matted mess. “My mother,” Merlin whispered, visibly thankful that she was still alive. “How are we going to get her out of there? There’s too many people around.”
Arthur smiled and said, “Easy. I’ll create a diversion!” Arthur jumped up before Merlin could properly protest, and he found a rock to throw at a bucket across the camp. It worked. Everyone turned towards the sound, alarmed. Arthur motioned to Merlin to get his mum.
He saw Merlin hold out his hand and utter a spell, and when the ropes broke, Hunith instinctively knew it had been the work of her son. She looked around and spotted him, and just as she started towards him, Morgause and her minions returned from the investigation of Arthur’s diversion. They were going to spot her, and surely they would strike her down the second they did. Arthur had no other choice.
He stepped out of his hiding place, gun in hand, and said, “Morgause.”
She instantly turned towards him and a small, wicked smile came across her face. “Arthur.” When her men prepared to strike him down, Morgause put up her hand to stop them.
Arthur could see out of the corner of his eye that Merlin’s mother had escaped, and Arthur hoped that Merlin had had the sense to leave with her and get her to safety. “Where is the chalice, Morgause?”
“What use is the chalice to you?”
“I don’t plan on using it. I plan on keeping it out of the wrong hands.”
“And you think it’s better left in your father’s hands?”
“He won’t use it to kill millions of innocent people,” Arthur said roughly.
“No. He already has better methods for that.”
Arthur cocked his gun. Morgause waved her hand and Arthur’s gun flew away from him.
“She’s right,” came a familiar voice. Morgana stepped out of a tent and stood next to Morgause.
“It was you,” Arthur said, surprised but not exactly. “You were the one feeding them the information.”
“Yes.”
“How? How could you do this to Father? To Gwen? How could you side with these people?”
“These people? Now you sound like your father,” she said in disgust.
“I thought you loved my father.”
“I did. I do. But he can never love me for all that I truly am.”
“Did you even let him try?”
“Would you if you were in my position?”
Arthur didn’t have an answer for that. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
“It does.”
“Give me the chalice, Morgana.”
“I can’t.”
“They’re going to use it to kill Father. To kill my men. To kill innocent people in Camelot. You support this?”
Morgana didn’t answer him in words, but she gave him a resigned look, a look that told him she believed it was for the best.
“Go home, Arthur,” Morgause said.
Determinedly, Arthur said, “Not without the Chalice of Meridia.”
“I do not want to kill you, Arthur Pendragon.”
“And I never leave a mission incomplete.”
“Very well,” Morgause said. As she raised her hand, Arthur caught Morgana looking away, and a part of him felt a twisted satisfaction that she’d be witnessing his death at the hands of the enemy that she supported.
Arthur knew it was a lost cause, but he reached for his extra gun anyway just as Morgause sent a bolt of blue lightning his way, and he pulled the trigger. What he hadn’t expected was the bolt of lightning to freeze in midair before it reached him. Morgause collapsed and the lightning disappeared, and he vaguely heard Morgana shouting “No! NO!” as she rushed to the fallen Morgause and cradled her in her arms. Morgause’s men were momentarily confused, and Arthur took advantage of this, getting to his feet and grabbing the gun that was on the ground so that he now had one for each hand. “The chalice, gentlemen?”
He heard a rustling behind him and felt more than saw Merlin stand beside him. “Do I get a thank you this time?” he asked.
“Not likely,” Arthur replied.
“Nice work, son,” Uther said, clapping Arthur on the shoulder. It was a bit more lackluster than usual, what with Morgana breaking his heart and all, so Arthur gave him a pass.
“Thank you, Father. I couldn’t have done it without Merlin’s help.”
Merlin gave Uther a giant grin, and Arthur had to keep himself from laughing at the perplexed look that came over his father’s face. “Yes, well, good work to you as well, Merlin.” He hesitantly patted Merlin on the shoulder and left Arthur’s office.
“I think he’s warming up to me.”
“Whatever you say, Merlin.”
Author: Anonymous
Recipient: epiphanyx7
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Arthur/Merlin, slight Uther/Morgana
Warnings: Small mention of sex, but nothing explicit
Spoilers: General spoilers through series 2, nothing major
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6,770
Summary: When Arthur accepted the mission to intercept the Chalice of Meridia before it got into Sorcerer hands, he had no idea that his life would be forever changed.
Author's Note: Inspired by the prompt: Arthur as James Bond and Merlin as the femme fatale, a modern AU with guns and crime fighting! I didn’t quite manage to turn Arthur into the awesomeness that is James Bond, but I enjoyed putting these characters into an espionage world. I realize that this fic ended up being completely ridiculous, and I am not quite sure how it ended up being such a large count of ridiculous words, but my goal was to make you smile, and hopefully I’ve pulled that off. But again, this fic is ridiculously ridiculous.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction - none of this ever happened. No copyright infringement is intended. No profit is made from this work. Please observe your local laws with regards to the age-limit and content of this work.
The mission sounded simple enough. Keep the targeted Sorcerer cell from getting their hands on the Chalice of Meridia. Intercept the independent dealer before he got to the Sorcerer liaison and convince him to hand over the chalice to the proper authorities. Those proper authorities just happened to be Arthur, and Arthur was nothing if not persuasive.
Again, simple, right? Wrong. Arthur had never been more wrong in his life.
He got to the café an hour before the scheduled meeting time. He sat at a corner table, partly concealed behind a potted plant, and pretended to read his newspaper as he scoped the place out for any suspicious looking persons. Not exactly the most original of disguises, but Arthur preferred the more traditional methods of espionage. Not that he didn’t enjoy his car that could change into a speedboat with the push of a button, or his watch that doubled as a camera, but when it came to stakeouts, simple was the way to go.
He took a quick glance at the photo that Gaius had given him with the case file and scanned the café again. No sign of the dark-haired young man that was supposed to hand off the chalice. Arthur’s eyes stopped on a woman sitting a few tables across from him. Only… she wasn’t a woman. At least, Arthur didn’t think so, judging by her very prominent Adam’s apple. But he was in Paris, so it wasn’t what he would call a suspicious sighting. But her… his… her leg was bobbing up and down, her fingers tapping against the table, and Arthur couldn’t help but conclude that she (he) was nervous. Arthur clicked the zoom feature on his sunglasses, and upon closer inspection, Arthur was positive that this woman was his guy.
Arthur cleared his throat and stood up, pulling the gun from his belt and concealing it within the newspaper. He quietly made his way to the woman’s table and stood behind her. He cocked his gun and held it to her back. When she stiffened, he said quietly, “Stand up.”
“Look, I don’t want any trouble,” she said in a falsely high voice.
“Stand up,” Arthur repeated, a little more dangerously.
“I’d rather not,” she replied.
Arthur gritted his teeth and said, “Stand up, or I will shoot you.”
“In a crowded restaurant? I don’t think so.”
“Hm, funny how your voice gets deeper when you’re being stupid.”
“I… I had something in my throat earlier, and now I don’t.”
“Mmmhmm.”
“Could you please stop poking me with that gun?”
“Not until you stand up and come with me.”
“Again, I’d rather not.”
“I’m not giving you a choice,” Arthur growled as he grabbed the man by his arm and yanked him out of his seat. “Don’t forget your purse.”
“Oh right, thanks.”
Arthur put his arm around the man’s shoulders and held him close, the gun discreetly between them, pushing against the man’s ribs. Arthur plastered a smile on his face and pinched the man until he did the same, and they walked out of the café together. Once on the sidewalk, the man tried to squirm out of Arthur’s grasp, but to no avail.
“What do you want with me?” he asked nervously.
“You’ll find out in due time,” Arthur replied.
“Do you work for the Sorcerers?”
“Do you?” Arthur asked.
The man closed his mouth and looked forward, continuing on with Arthur without saying another word. Once they reached an abandoned alley, Arthur pushed the man against a wall and held his arm behind his back, the man’s wig falling off in the process.
“Ow! That hurts, you know!”
“That’s the point,” Arthur said.
“Why?”
“Well, if you’d shut up for one second-“
“Would you shut up if someone shoved you against a wall?”
“I…”
“Exactly.”
Arthur felt a pounding headache coming on. He pulled on the man’s arm until he heard him let out a scream, then he pressed his body against his and leaned forward to speak into his ear. “You will shut up until I prompt you to speak, understood?” When there was no reply, Arthur yanked on the man’s arm and repeated loudly, “Understood?”
“Aaaah, yes! Yes, understood.”
“Good. Now, what is your name?”
“Merlin. My name is Merlin,” he said a little breathlessly.
Arthur laughed and said, “Merlin? Really? Do you honestly expect me to believe that?”
“Yes!”
“Why?”
“Because that is my name!”
“If you say so,” Arthur replied skeptically.
“What is yours?” Merlin asked.
“Pendragon. Arthur Pendragon.”
“And you’re making fun of my name?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing. It’s just that ‘Merlin’ is unique, mysterious, while ‘Arthur’ sounds like the name of an accountant.”
“You know, I really will shoot you!”
“So you’ve said.”
Arthur let out a sigh of frustration and held the bridge of his nose for a moment. “Why are you dressed like a woman?”
“To avoid situations like this.”
“Well, it didn’t work very well, did it?”
“Unfortunately not.”
“Who do you work for?” Arthur asked.
“No one.”
“Then why are you selling the Chalice of Meridia to Morgause’s clan?”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I’m not.”
Arthur yanked on Merlin’s arm again and he let out a yelp.
“Okay! Okay, I was meeting someone from Morgause’s clan at the café, but I wasn’t going to sell the Chalice of Meridia!”
“Then what were you going to sell?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing, I swear.”
Arthur let up on Merlin’s arm and turned him around so that he could look into his eyes. “What were you doing at the café?”
There was a long pause where Merlin just looked at him a little desperately, like it would physically hurt him to reveal the information.
“You can tell me, Merlin.”
“Why should I?”
“Because if you don’t, you’ll die.” Arthur looked at his watch, then back up to Merlin as he said, “By now Morgause’s man will mark you down as no show, which to them means you’ve either been captured by the enemy, or you broke a promise. They don’t take kindly to either scenario.”
“Oh god,” Merlin’s face went pale and he bent over like he was going to be sick.
“What?”
“This is your fault. If they kill her…” He looked back up at Arthur. “Whatever you want from me, it’s not worth her life.”
“Whose life?” Arthur asked. Somehow he had gotten completely lost during this conversation.
“My mother. They have my mother.”
“Oh.”
“They wanted the chalice in exchange for her life.”
“So you do have the chalice?”
“Did you not just hear one word I said about my mother?”
Arthur sighed and knelt down to put his hand on Merlin’s shoulder. He gave him a look of sympathy and asked, “Where is the chalice?”
“You are unbelievable.”
“Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“Where is the chalice?” Arthur asked again.
“In a safe place.”
“Take me to it.”
“Why should I?”
Arthur pursed his lips in thought, then finally said, “Help me get the chalice, and I’ll help you get your mother back.”
Merlin looked into his eyes for a long moment, and then finally said, “How do I know I can trust you?”
“Because you have no other choice.”
“Right. That again.”
On the way to Arthur’s car, they ran into trouble. The Sorcerer liaison had tracked them down and was conjuring fireballs to hurl at them. Arthur ran for cover behind a metal bench, dragging Merlin behind him as they pushed through the chaotic crowd of panicking people.
“Shoot him!” Merlin shouted.
“I would, Merlin, but there happens to be a crowd of civilians in the way at the moment.”
Merlin popped his head over the bench for a second, then came back down and said, “No there isn’t.”
“What? Merlin, are you blind or something, because clearly-“ Arthur stopped talking when he realized that Merlin was right. He wasn’t sure what had just happened, but he didn’t have time to analyze the situation. He took aim and shot at the Sorcerer, barely managing to dodge a fireball at the last second as it whizzed past his ear. He fell back down beside Merlin.
“Did you get him?” Merlin asked. Another fireball flew over their heads. “Guess not.”
After a few more dodging sessions, Arthur finally managed to land a bullet into the Sorcerer’s head. Both Arthur and Merlin slowly left the shelter of the bench and made their way to the dead body.
“Guess you can’t question him now, huh?” Merlin asked.
“What would I question him for?”
“The whereabouts of the Sorcerer base?”
“Oh, right, that... No matter, Intelligence is working on it.”
“So you’re a spy or something?”
“Or something,” Arthur replied.
“Aren’t you supposed to keep your identity a secret if you’re a spy?”
“Did I actually say I was a spy?” He did a double take at Merlin and asked, “Are you missing an eyebrow?”
“Am I?” Merlin asked, feeling the singed patch of skin where his eyebrow used to be. Arthur rolled his eyes.
As Arthur bent down to search the pockets of the body, the sound of a gun going off made him freeze in place, and he heard Merlin shout, “No!” Suddenly he was on the ground with Merlin on top of him, not quite sure how Merlin had gotten him out of the way of the bullet in time. Then his senses caught up with him and he threw Merlin off, whipped out his gun and shot at the tower where the original gunshot had come from. A man in black fell from a roof and landed on top of a car, causing the car alarm to go off.
“Come on,” Arthur said as he grabbed a gaping Merlin and dragged him to his car, trying not to be noticed by the gathering crowd.
“So, you’re telling me that it’s in a cave?”
“Yes,” Merlin said, coming out of the bathroom drying his hair, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, a cloud of steam following in his wake. Arthur didn’t mean to stare. It wasn’t in his nature to stare (he was more used to being stared at), but there was something about Merlin... Something that made him unable to look away. It wasn’t exactly the slender body or the long arms, or even the chest hair that Arthur found slightly alluring. It was something deeper than that. Some instinct that Arthur had about him. He had saved Arthur’s life, after all, and that had to mean something.
“Why is it in a cave?” Arthur asked as he watched Merlin pull up a pair of Arthur’s trousers underneath the towel.
“Because it’s a magical artifact. Where else would you expect to find it?”
“If it’s in a cave, then why couldn’t Morgause get it herself?”
“Because she didn’t know it was in a cave.”
“But you just said…”
“She thought I had it.”
“Why?”
Arthur could tell that Merlin was having trouble swallowing, and his eyes didn’t quite meet Arthur’s as he said, “Because my father was the last one to use it.”
“Your father…” Arthur was up in a flash with his gun in hand as he pushed Merlin down into the hotel mattress. He held the gun to his head as he growled, “Who are you?”
“I’m… I’m Merlin, I told you! I’m no one!”
Arthur pressed his knee harder into Merlin’s back. “Your father was a Sorcerer.”
“No! He was just a magic user, he never hurt anyone!”
“And you?”
“I can do magic, but I swear to you I am not like Morgause.”
“Am I to believe that?”
“If I was a Sorcerer, you would be dead right now, I assure you.”
Arthur went cold as he felt the power behind those words. He moved off of Merlin and sat back down in his chair, the gun still in his hand as he rested it on the table.
Merlin slowly stood up and turned to Arthur. “This doesn’t have to change anything. We still need each other.”
“You’re a Sorcerer, Merlin.”
“No, I’m not! Not everyone who uses magic is bad.”
“Try telling my father that.”
“Your father?”
“Is the Prime Minister of Camelot. He won’t stand for sorcery of any kind, Merlin, no matter how harmless it might be.”
“So don’t tell him.”
“What?”
“Don’t tell him about me. Don’t tell anyone about me. I’m the same useless kid you met at the café. Nothing’s changed.”
“I can’t lie to my superiors, Merlin.”
“Even if it gets you the chalice?”
Arthur sighed in defeat.
“Is it really necessary to get this Staff of Bonyet thing?” Arthur asked again.
“Yes. The cave is guarded by the last dragon of the old world. Only a dragon tamer can get by him, and since neither one of us are dragon tamers, the Staff of Bonyet is the next best thing.”
“Because it hypnotizes him?”
“In a way.”
“Why did your father put the chalice in a cave guarded by a dragon anyway?”
“Because he was a dragon tamer.”
“Ah, right, that makes sense.”
“So, you are positive that you can create a distraction at the museum’s fundraiser ball tonight long enough to let me gain access to the staff?” Merlin asked.
Arthur put his hand on Merlin’s shoulder and said, “Merlin, please, distraction is my specialty.”
“Right…”
Arthur wasn’t sure what he had been expecting when he sent Merlin off with his credit card to buy a tuxedo for the event, but it certainly hadn’t been the sight that stood before him. Merlin was in a black Vanguard tuxedo with a silver vest and a black necktie, a goofy grin on his face as he held out his arms and said excitedly, “What do you think?”
It was… terribly fashionable, especially on him. Arthur looked down at his own ensemble and suddenly regretted the fact that he went traditional. Arthur was the one that was supposed to be the distraction here, not Merlin. “How are you supposed to be inconspicuous looking like that?”
The grin fell from Merlin’s face as he looked down at his tuxedo and then back to Arthur and said, “What? Don’t you like it?”
Arthur was ready to shout “No!” To call him an idiot and ask him if he was capable of doing anything right. But the fragile hope in Merlin’s eyes stopped him. He wasn’t sure why this mattered to Merlin so much, but he certainly wasn’t about to tell him that he thought that Merlin looked slightly magnificent. So instead he worked his face into a disinterested grimace and turned towards the door as he said, “Are you coming or not? We’re going to be late.”
Arthur was fairly certain that he caught a small grin from Merlin as he brushed past him on his way out the door.
In between rubbing elbows with Paris’s elite, Arthur spied Merlin across the room by the bar, and he was positive that Merlin couldn’t look any more suspicious if he had tried. Arthur sighed and excused himself from the arm of a beautiful young blond, and he made his way over to Merlin. He ordered a martini from the bar (shaken, not stirred, obviously), and leaned against the wall next to Merlin as he sipped at his drink. “Having fun, Merlin?”
“No, not exactly,” Merlin replied, still looking around nervously and fidgeting with his tie.
Arthur pursed his lips and set his drink down, then he grabbed Merlin’s hand and said, “Come on, time to dance.”
“What? Here? Now?”
“This is a ball, Merlin. One does tend to dance at these things.”
“No, I know! Just…”
“Trust me,” Arthur said, doing his best to conjure up his most charming smile as he dragged Merlin into the throng of dancing couples.
“Okay, but I get to lead.”
“What?!” Arthur came to a dead stop and Merlin crashed into his back. He turned to look at him. “The man is supposed to lead.”
“Exactly.”
“Are you calling me a girl?”
“Well… I’m not exactly calling myself a girl, am I?”
“Look, you’re the one that likes to wear ladies clothing, therefore you are the girl.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I do,” Arthur said as he pulled Merlin to him roughly. There was a moment there where things seemed to stop, just for a second. Their faces were so close that their noses were mere centimeters from touching, and Arthur could almost taste the bacon-wrapped shrimp hors d'oeuvres on Merlin’s breath, which, when he really thought about it, wasn’t exactly the most romantic of things, and yet there was this odd thrill that shot through him when his eyes dropped to Merlin’s lips, and he was suddenly very aware of the feel of Merlin’s body against his, and it frightened him how right it felt to have Merlin in his arms like that. How comfortable it all was. Arthur was fairly certain that he was about to do something stupid like kiss Merlin, but then the music reached his ears and he suddenly snapped out of it. “Right, let’s get to dancing, shall we?”
“Of course,” Merlin breathed out, and this did nothing to tamper Arthur’s annoying need to kiss the idiot senseless, not that Merlin had any sense to begin with.
And so they danced. Sort of. Merlin was rather stiff in his movements, still distracted by what he had to pull off in a few minutes. And then Merlin stepped on his feet. “Oh, for the love of… Relax, Merlin. Just follow my lead.”
Merlin looked into his eyes for a long moment and Arthur was taken aback by the complete trust that he found there. And then Merlin pulled him closer and slowly laid his head on Arthur’s shoulder, and that was when Arthur knew that no matter what, he wouldn’t let Merlin down.
Arthur had created a decent enough distraction to let Merlin slip from the room unnoticed by doing the tango with the museum curator. Everyone had cleared the dance floor and were “ooing” and “awing” at Arthur’s expert moves, and he had certainly won the unadulterated affections of the middle-aged woman that he had created this distraction with. In fact, she had refused to leave his side at all until Arthur finally pried his arm away from her and bid adieu to the room at large, needing to make his way to his meeting point with Merlin. Naturally, she insisted on seeing him out, and as he struggled to come up with a way to desert her, an alarm bell sounded and the security guards rushed out of the room, along with a good number of the curious patrons. Arthur closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, preparing himself for the inevitable fact that Merlin was the cause of that alarm.
Arthur stepped out into the hall and heard Merlin shouting, “I didn’t do anything, I swear!” as he struggled against the two burly security guards that were carrying him.
Arthur pushed his way through the murmuring crowd and held up his ID when he got to the guards. “KOC. What seems to be the problem here, mates?”
The guards were hesitant at first, not sure if they were supposed to usurp authority over to the Knights of Camelot or not, but with some prodding from Arthur, they finally relented. “We caught him trying to steal the Staff of Bonyet, sir.”
“I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding.”
“No sir, we caught him. We’re not sure what he did with it, but he was there and the staff wasn’t.”
“You mean you don’t have it?” Arthur asked Merlin directly, alarmed.
“No,” Merlin said, the apology clear in his eyes.
Arthur sighed. “All right, let him go.”
“Can’t, sir.”
“What?”
“This is a matter of national security. That staff in the wrong hands could be deadly. We need to call in Prime Minister Pendragon for this one.”
“Is that really necessary?”
“Protocol, sir.”
“Right, do what you have to do,” Arthur muttered, giving Merlin a look that told him not to worry, though that didn’t seem to decrease the panic on Merlin’s face in the least.
“This boy is with you?”
“Yes, father. He’s a very integral component in carrying out my mission.”
“A component?” Merlin asked, clearly offended.
“Shut up, Merlin,” Arthur whispered.
“Integral how?” Uther asked, his voice making Arthur nervous with its power.
“He’s the only one who knows how to obtain the Chalice of Meridia.”
Uther’s eyes darkened as he slowly walked towards Merlin. He leaned down and put his hands on the armrests of the chair that Merlin was handcuffed to, making an eye-to-eye conversation with him inescapable. Merlin leaned back as far as possible, but he didn’t flinch when Uther’s voice said dangerously, “Is this true, boy?”
“Yes,” he answered back confidently. Arthur was sort of… proud. Proud of Merlin? Well, anything was possible, Arthur supposed.
“What do you want from my son?”
“Nothing,” Merlin answered, his voice quiet. He glanced over at Arthur and repeated, “Nothing.”
Oh, he was good. Arthur almost believed him himself.
A hand appeared on Uther’s shoulder, and suddenly Arthur remembered that his stepmother was in the room. “Uther. That’s enough. The boy is harmless.”
Uther huffed a little as he stood straight and said, “Morgana, this is necessary. He could be leading Arthur into a trap for all we know.”
“Surely not.”
“He was after a dangerous magical artifact, was he not?”
“Yes, but for Arthur!”
“And what if it was to kill Arthur? What if the boy possesses the ability to use magic?”
“And so what if he could use magic? That doesn’t make him a criminal.”
“No, it makes him a Sorcerer.”
“But magic can be used for good,” Merlin said desperately, and Arthur promptly shushed him. Not exactly the greatest moment to recapture Father’s attention, Merlin. Honestly. The boy truly was an idiot.
“He’s right, you know,” Morgana said, getting Uther to turn back to her.
“Now is not the time for this argument, Morgana.”
“No, now is the perfect time, I think.”
“Morgana…” Uther said warningly.
“Uther…” Morgana replied just as dangerously, the hint of a seductive smile on her lips.
Uther wordlessly opened and closed his mouth a few times, grabbed Morgana’s hand, gave Merlin one last look, then told Arthur, “I trust that you’ll keep me informed?”
Arthur nearly laughed at the ease with which Morgana had derailed the investigation. “Yes, Father.”
“Good,” Uther said hoarsely, dragging Morgana out the door.
“It’s a wonder that they haven’t killed each other yet,” Arthur said, shaking his head.
“Right. Now how about getting me out of these handcuffs?” Merlin asked.
“Mmm, I don’t know. My father did have a point.”
“What?”
Arthur leaned down onto Merlin’s chair in an exact imitation of his father. “Are you leading me into a trap, Merlin?” he asked softly.
“Never,” Merlin breathed out.
“Good,” Arthur said. He leaned in closer, his lips barely touching Merlin’s as he said, “Because I really don’t feel like killing you.”
“Morgause took it?”
“I’m pretty sure it was her.”
“You’re pretty sure, or you’re sure?”
“Um… almost positive?”
Arthur sighed.
“I saw a woman. With blond hair. I just saw the back of her before she disappeared into thin air.”
“But she had the staff?”
“She most definitely had the staff.”
“This is bad.”
“Very bad. If she gets to the chalice before we do, she won’t need me anymore. If she doesn’t need me anymore, then she doesn’t need my mother anymore.”
Arthur sighed once again, laying his gun on the table and sinking into an armchair, brushing a hand over his tired eyes. He loosened his bowtie and asked, “How did she know about the Staff of Bonyet?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think she knows where the cave is?”
“Not even my mother knows where it is. Come to think of it, she didn’t even know about the chalice. My father tried to keep his magical life separate from her.”
“But she knew about the staff?”
“No. No, she didn’t.”
“Then how did Morgause know?”
“Someone must be feeding her the information.”
“What, you mean one of my people?”
“Possibly. You’ve been updating that Gaius bloke all along, right?”
“Well, yeah, but…”
“Then it’s either him or someone else in the KOC department.”
“No.”
“It might be.”
“It’s not.”
“It’s possible.”
Merlin was right, of course. It was the only explanation. But Arthur couldn’t go accusing just anyone of being a double agent. Certainly not Gaius. He’d known Gaius his entire life and his loyalty to his father was unmatched. And it wasn’t Gwen. Couldn’t be her. He had dated her (sort of) for more than a year before Lancelot came along, surely he would have noticed if her loyalties weren’t with Camelot. As for the other agents, it could be any of them, but he had trained them himself. It hurt too much to think that any of them would betray him like that.
“From now on, Merlin, it’s just you and me. No more help from the agency.”
“Agreed.”
“That means no backup until we get the chalice.”
“We won’t need it.”
“This, coming from the man who got defeated by two rent-a-cops.”
“They were quite large rent-a-cops, actually.”
“Right.”
“They were!”
“And clearly too much for your magic to handle.”
“They caught me at a bad time, alright? I wasn’t prepared.”
“Whatever you say, Merlin.”
“I thought you said we weren’t going to contact the agency again,” Merlin said next to him on the plane ride to Ealdor.
“I had to get the plane tickets, didn’t I? Just be happy I didn’t order the private jet.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry, I told Gwen not to tell anyone.”
“Right, and how do you know that you can trust her?”
Arthur looked Merlin in the eye and said, “I just do.”
Merlin rolled his eyes at him and turned towards the window.
“What?”
“Nothing. I didn’t say anything,” Merlin replied with a shrug. Merlin had been snippy with him ever since Arthur had flirted with the flight attendant that had fixed him a martini. Arthur wasn’t quite sure what to make of that.
“So where, exactly, is this so-called cave of yours?” Arthur asked. They had been walking for nearly 5 miles in the heat and there was still no sign of the thing.
“We’re getting close, I can feel it,” Merlin said, looking around excitedly.
“Really? Because all I see is open land. Everywhere.”
“That’s what he wanted you to see.”
“Who?”
“My father. He charmed the cave to be invisible.”
“Right, and what if someone happens to run into this giant invisible mountain with a hole in it?”
“They wouldn’t. The cave will repel any non-magic users.”
“Okay. So, if this cave is invisible, and it repels people, how on earth are we supposed to find it?”
“Um… Arthur?”
Arthur stopped walking when he realized that Merlin was no longer in front of him. In fact, Arthur had unknowingly deviated from the path entirely and was heading in a new direction. “I don’t remember turning.”
“This is it,” Merlin said, reaching out to touch the air in front of him. Arthur tried to join him, but his feet just didn’t want to agree with him. Merlin watched him struggle for awhile, and he even had the gall to laugh at him until Arthur got angry and threw his shoe at him. Finally he muttered something in a language that Arthur didn’t understand, and a cave appeared before them. Merlin smiled over at Arthur and said, “I told you this was it.”
“Yes, I can see that, Merlin. Now, how are we going to get past the angry dragon without the Staff of Bonyet?”
“You’re going to sing to him.”
“What?!”
“It’ll calm him down.”
“Right. Here’s an idea, I get the chalice, and you serenade the dragon.”
“You know how to levitate things with your mind, then?”
“Well, no. But I could always give it a try. I am Arthur Pendragon, after all.”
“You are such a prat,” Merlin said with a laugh in his voice.
“And you’re an idiot, so it all works out then, doesn’t it?”
Merlin uttered another spell and a ball of blue light formed in his hand, then floated above them as if it were a balloon attached to a string on Merlin’s wrist. They slowly navigated their way through the cave, and aside from a few bats and some falling rocks here and there, it was relatively harmless. Suspiciously harmless, actually. And just as Arthur had that thought, a gigantic rat popped out of the shadows and headed straight for Merlin. Arthur drew his gun out in an instant and fired an entire round into the rat’s head. That didn’t even slow the thing down as it tackled Merlin and opened its jaw, planning on making a snack out of Merlin’s head. Without thinking, Arthur dove at the rat and wrestled with it on the ground beside Merlin, and as Arthur held its jaw apart to keep it from crunching down on his neck, he caught the sight of Merlin’s eyes turning gold, a look of complete fury on his face, and suddenly the rat exploded and Arthur was showered with its guts.
“Did you have to make him explode on my face?” Arthur asked, picking god knows what out of his hair.
Merlin was trying to catch his breath from the toll that the magic had taken on him as he said, “A simple thank you would suffice.”
“If you recall, I saved you from the rat first. You should be thanking me.”
Merlin scoffed and said, “Why do I even bother?”
They continued on their journey, and finally they reached the room with the chalice. And the dragon. “You’ve got to keep him distracted long enough so that I can make my way onto that ledge over there and will the chalice to come to me.”
“What should I sing?”
Merlin shrugged and said, “I don’t know. A dragon song.”
“Thanks for the help.”
“You’re welcome.”
They edged into the room, trying to go as far as they could without disturbing the dragon, but naturally Merlin’s bout with clumsiness decided to strike him when he tripped over one of the chains that was holding the dragon captive, and the dragon instantly roared to life. “Oh crap. Oh crap! Sing, Arthur! Now!” Merlin swiftly dove out of the way of the fire path that the dragon was trying to hit him with.
“Um… Puff the magic dragon, lived by the sea…” The constant stream of fire stopped and the dragon turned his head towards Arthur, a curious look in his eyes. He couldn’t believe it was working.
“Great, Arthur, don’t stop!” Merlin said as he struggled his way to the ledge.
“And frolicked in the autumn mist, in a land called Honah Lee!” The dragon sat down, his full attention on Arthur now. “Uh… Puff the magic dragon, lived by the sea…”
“You already sang that part!” Merlin shouted.
“That’s all I know,” Arthur shouted back to him.
“You’ve got to keep him interested. Just make up some words!”
Arthur sighed in frustration, and when he saw the dragon getting antsy, he started up again, “Puff the magic dragon, lived by the sea, and he ate a lot of fruit, right off that apple tree!”
Merlin reached the tip of the ledge and he became still. Trying to levitate the chalice, Arthur supposed.
“Then he started coughing, right by that apple tree, and performed the Heimlich on himself, to spit out that apple seed! Puff the mag-oh!” Arthur felt something hit his head and just before he blacked out, the last thing he saw was the back of Morgause as she held the dragon in some kind of trance suspended in air. Arthur slurred out “Merlin,” and his vision faded to black.
“Arthur!” He felt a tapping on his cheek. “ARTHUR!” A slap that time. He opened one bleary eye and saw the outline of Merlin leaning over him. He soon became aware that his head was in Merlin’s lap.
“My head would appreciate it if you’d stop with the shouting, Merlin.”
Merlin let out a laugh and wiped his face as he said, “I thought…”
Arthur’s eyes focused, and he reached a hand up to Merlin’s cheek as he softly said, “You won’t get rid of me that easily, Merlin.” Merlin closed his eyes and smiled into Arthur’s hand. Arthur tried to ignore the warmth that ran through him when Merlin’s lips grazed his palm. “What happened?”
“She got the chalice.”
“Oh.”
“We need to save my mother, Arthur. Now.”
“We need a plan first, Merlin. We need to contact the KOC for their intelligence reports on the whereabouts of Morgause’s base. We need weapons. We need backup.”
“No.”
“No?” Arthur sat up to look at Merlin like he had gone insane.
“I don’t trust them. Not with my mother. It’s just you and me, or I go alone.”
“I’m not letting you go alone, Merlin.”
“It’s settled then. We go tomorrow at daybreak.”
“No, wait, we don’t even know…” Arthur trailed off as Merlin stood up and started on his way out of the cave. “We still need a plan.”
“Here’s a map of Camelot and all of its territories. All I have to do is say the right spell, and Morgause’s base will light up on the map.”
“You mean you don’t actually know which spell to use?”
“Not exactly, no, but I have a vague idea of which spell to use.”
“I’m not going to like this, am I?” Arthur asked.
“Probably not,” Merlin said apologetically.
The first spell set the map on fire. Luckily Merlin had the foresight to buy more than one map. The second spell turned the map into a paper airplane that flew directly into Arthur’s forehead. The third spell, however, was exactly what they needed. “You do amaze me sometimes, Merlin.”
“Was that a compliment?” Merlin asked with a smile.
“I wouldn’t get used to it if I were you,” Arthur replied.
Merlin laughed, and then his face grew serious. “Listen, if I don’t make it tomorrow-“
“Shut up, Merlin.”
“No, Arthur, let me get this out. If I don’t make it tomorrow, can you make sure that my mother is safe? That she’s well taken care of after I’m gone?”
“You’re not going anywhere, Merlin. Not if I have anything to do about it.”
Merlin grabbed Arthur’s wrist and leaned closer, and Arthur couldn’t seem to look away from his eyes. “Just promise me that you’ll take care of her.”
“I promise,” Arthur said quietly.
Maybe it was the threat that tomorrow might be their last day, maybe it was the way Arthur felt more like himself with Merlin than he did with anyone else, maybe it was the mixture of confidence and vulnerability in Merlin’s eyes, maybe it was the feel of Merlin’s long fingers on his wrist, or maybe it was just their close proximity, but something made Arthur lean in and finally press his lips to Merlin’s. And something about that kiss made him believe that forever would only exist for him in Merlin.
They made love that night. The first time was desperate, hungry, both of them trying to cling to life in each other’s touch. The second time was slow, an equal give and take, an exploration of everything they had to offer each other. The third time was a promise to live, for themselves and for each other.
Thanks to Merlin’s map trick, they managed to easily find Morgause’s Sorcerer base deep within the forest. There was a woman in the middle of the camp that was tied to a tree, her face covered in dirt and her hair a matted mess. “My mother,” Merlin whispered, visibly thankful that she was still alive. “How are we going to get her out of there? There’s too many people around.”
Arthur smiled and said, “Easy. I’ll create a diversion!” Arthur jumped up before Merlin could properly protest, and he found a rock to throw at a bucket across the camp. It worked. Everyone turned towards the sound, alarmed. Arthur motioned to Merlin to get his mum.
He saw Merlin hold out his hand and utter a spell, and when the ropes broke, Hunith instinctively knew it had been the work of her son. She looked around and spotted him, and just as she started towards him, Morgause and her minions returned from the investigation of Arthur’s diversion. They were going to spot her, and surely they would strike her down the second they did. Arthur had no other choice.
He stepped out of his hiding place, gun in hand, and said, “Morgause.”
She instantly turned towards him and a small, wicked smile came across her face. “Arthur.” When her men prepared to strike him down, Morgause put up her hand to stop them.
Arthur could see out of the corner of his eye that Merlin’s mother had escaped, and Arthur hoped that Merlin had had the sense to leave with her and get her to safety. “Where is the chalice, Morgause?”
“What use is the chalice to you?”
“I don’t plan on using it. I plan on keeping it out of the wrong hands.”
“And you think it’s better left in your father’s hands?”
“He won’t use it to kill millions of innocent people,” Arthur said roughly.
“No. He already has better methods for that.”
Arthur cocked his gun. Morgause waved her hand and Arthur’s gun flew away from him.
“She’s right,” came a familiar voice. Morgana stepped out of a tent and stood next to Morgause.
“It was you,” Arthur said, surprised but not exactly. “You were the one feeding them the information.”
“Yes.”
“How? How could you do this to Father? To Gwen? How could you side with these people?”
“These people? Now you sound like your father,” she said in disgust.
“I thought you loved my father.”
“I did. I do. But he can never love me for all that I truly am.”
“Did you even let him try?”
“Would you if you were in my position?”
Arthur didn’t have an answer for that. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
“It does.”
“Give me the chalice, Morgana.”
“I can’t.”
“They’re going to use it to kill Father. To kill my men. To kill innocent people in Camelot. You support this?”
Morgana didn’t answer him in words, but she gave him a resigned look, a look that told him she believed it was for the best.
“Go home, Arthur,” Morgause said.
Determinedly, Arthur said, “Not without the Chalice of Meridia.”
“I do not want to kill you, Arthur Pendragon.”
“And I never leave a mission incomplete.”
“Very well,” Morgause said. As she raised her hand, Arthur caught Morgana looking away, and a part of him felt a twisted satisfaction that she’d be witnessing his death at the hands of the enemy that she supported.
Arthur knew it was a lost cause, but he reached for his extra gun anyway just as Morgause sent a bolt of blue lightning his way, and he pulled the trigger. What he hadn’t expected was the bolt of lightning to freeze in midair before it reached him. Morgause collapsed and the lightning disappeared, and he vaguely heard Morgana shouting “No! NO!” as she rushed to the fallen Morgause and cradled her in her arms. Morgause’s men were momentarily confused, and Arthur took advantage of this, getting to his feet and grabbing the gun that was on the ground so that he now had one for each hand. “The chalice, gentlemen?”
He heard a rustling behind him and felt more than saw Merlin stand beside him. “Do I get a thank you this time?” he asked.
“Not likely,” Arthur replied.
“Nice work, son,” Uther said, clapping Arthur on the shoulder. It was a bit more lackluster than usual, what with Morgana breaking his heart and all, so Arthur gave him a pass.
“Thank you, Father. I couldn’t have done it without Merlin’s help.”
Merlin gave Uther a giant grin, and Arthur had to keep himself from laughing at the perplexed look that came over his father’s face. “Yes, well, good work to you as well, Merlin.” He hesitantly patted Merlin on the shoulder and left Arthur’s office.
“I think he’s warming up to me.”
“Whatever you say, Merlin.”