{fic} Venturing At Its Finest. Part One
Title: Venturing At Its Finest. Part One.
Author: blushemphasises
Pairing: Bradley/Colin
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2400~
Warnings/Spoilers: None, really. Except that it may just twist your brain. Just a little bit.
Summary: Bradley and Colin go exploring the castle while they're on a break in between shooting scenes and after venturing out of a mysterious room, suddenly people are calling Bradley 'Sire' and Colin's expected to know how polish armour and well, bloody hell, they're in the medieval age and he's the bloody prince of Camelot.
Author's Note: Well -er, this is a bit different. -nervous laugh- If it reminds you a little of episode 6.15 of Supernatural "The French Mistake" that's because it was slightly inspired by it. Hope you enjoy!
____
Bradley knows for a fact that it wasn't actually his fault, no matter what Colin says or the amount of evidence he conjures up whenever they were having the argument. Sure, it was Bradley's own idea to get up and actually do something interesting for once, but it was Colin who actually found the wretched room or whatever the hell it was.
So, yeah. It definitely wasn't Bradley's fault that he and Colin were hiding behind a large rock from a bloody group of bandits with nothing but a sword made of plastic and Colin's kerchief to protect them.
~~
"It's a beautiful day, isn't it?"
When Bradley received no immediate reply, he was inclined to nudge Colin's foot with his own. He waited for a moment while Colin, seemingly too engrossed in whatever he was reading, provided Bradley with no response.
Bradley was not very accustomed to being ignored so the only reasonable next course of action was to lean over his own chair and pull one of Colin's earphones out whilst shouting "Oi, Morgan!"
"God, Bradley," the Irish said, rubbing his exposed ear. "No need to start screaming your head off like a lunatic."
Bradley smiled sheepishly, "Sorry."
"Well, what is it anyway?"
"I was saying, isn't it a beautiful day, Colin?"
There was a moment of silence in which Colin stared at Bradley as if he had sprouted a second head and Bradley patiently waited for a response.
"Well?" Bradley prodded. "Wouldn't you say that it was?"
Colin stared at Bradley for a moment before deadpanning, "Yes Bradley. Spectacular day."
Bradley smiled brightly. "So now that we've established our agreement, let's bloody get up and actually do something."
Colin returned to whatever he was reading "Can't. Going over the script."
Bradley rolled his eyes and then grinned at how typically Colin the reply was and put a firm hand on his best friend's shoulder.
"Listen, mate, you've done a enough script-reading for the two us…and anyway, it looks like you need a proper break."
Colin looked up from the script and eyed the crew who were currently busying around the place like a bunch of bees.
"How long d'you reckon they'd take to sort that out?" Colin asked and Bradley shrugged in response.
"I don't know, maybe an hour, hour and a half?"
Colin nodded and then stood up, stretching. "Alright Bradley, this better be good. What'd you have in mind?"
Bradley grinned triumphantly as he sprung up from his chair. "To discover this castle's innermost secrets and to inspect every crevice or secret passageway it has to offer."
Colin raised his eyebrows, "You want to go exploring?"
***
"Ouch, that was my foot!"
"Sorry! I can't see where I'm going!"
Bradley gritted his teeth as his foot throbbed, hoping the pain would take care of itself. "Bloody dark corridors," he muttered under his breath.
"You'd think they would've sorted out the lighting in this area," Colin whispered back, though Bradley wasn't sure why he was whispering.
Bradley blinked and lifted his phone higher, using it as a torch light.
"I don't think we've ever filmed in this part of the castle before," Colin continued.
"I don't think anyone's been in this part of the castle before. Look at all those cobwebs," Bradley angled his phone so it revealed a corner of said cobwebs. "On second thought, maybe we should have changed before coming here. Costume department's not going to be happy if I dirty Arthur's precious red tunic."
Colin snorted, "Too late for that."
They continued walking for several minutes in silence and since Bradley's foot was kind of slowing him down, Colin began leading the way.
"When's the bloody corridor going to end?" Colin muttered, almost to himself.
"Do you want to go back?" Bradley asked, suddenly feeling a little guilty for dragging Colin away from his work.
Colin laughed lightly, "Nah. We've gotten this far, why not venture some more?"
They walked on for several more moments when Colin suddenly came into a halt and abrupt as it was, naturally Bradley walked right into Colin. But before Bradley could even make a smart remark he was interrupted by Colin murmuring "What the…?"
"What? What is it, Colin?" Bradley stepped forward and raised his phone so he could see Colin's face.
"There, did you see it?" Colin pointed suddenly and Bradley quickly turned around just in time to catch a flicker of light from underneath what looked to be a door.
"Was that door always there?" He asked, feeling stupid. He could sense Colin shake his head beside him.
"I'm not sure…but why is the light flickering?"
Bradley shrugged, "Candles?"
"In broad daylight?" Colin replied, sounding sceptical.
"Okay, I don't know. Let's just go back, I think I've had enough exploring for one day and-"
"Bradley, shut up for a moment," Colin interrupted him, placing a hand on Bradley's shoulder as if it would keep him quiet. They had a moment of silence in which Bradley was holding his breath. There was a distant noise of a thump coming from the room. "Did you hear that?" Colin asked and Bradley suddenly felt a weird urge to grip the hilt of the sword he was wearing on Arthur's belt.
"Of course I heard it! Now let's go before-"
"What if there's like an animal stuck in there or something? We can't just leave it!"
Bradley rolled his eyes, "Of course you're worried about an animal."
"Let's just go and check it out, you're the one who wanted to explore anyway," Colin paused, "Don't tell me that Bradley James is all talk," he smirked.
Bradley huffed, crossing his arms. "Okay fine, you lead the way."
It was Colin's turn to grin triumphantly and he turned around heading towards the door in a faster pace that Bradley would have preferred.
"It's-it's jammed," Colin pushed and struggled against the door. Bradley rolled his eyes.
"Move aside, Irish boy." He rolled his shoulders before charging up to it sideways and using the force of his arm against the door. It opened with a groan and Bradley almost fell face-first to the ground but Colin was fast enough to steady him to his feet.
"Ugh," Bradley said, blinking rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the light inside the room. "Remind me never to do that again."
"Noted," Colin said, smiling wryly.
Bradley looked around the room for the first time. The arched windows were spilling an excessive amount of sunlight, colouring the small room with an almost-blinding golden. There was an old, wooden chair sitting in the corner of the room, looking quite lonely.
"Okay, so that was a waste of time," Colin said, with a touch of disappointment in his tone and Bradley suddenly wished there was an animal-in-need-of-rescue in the room. "Let's get back to the set. They're probably wondering where we are by now."
"Alright, let's go." Bradley agreed whilst massaging his shoulder, following Colin to the door.
"Er- Bradley?" Colin began, but Bradley didn't have to guess what the problem was. Colin was struggling with the door yet again.
"It's stuck, isn't it?" Bradley didn't wait for a reply as he stood beside Colin and joined his hands next Colin's, gripping the ring-shaped door handle.
"Okay, so this time we're pulling since I'm definitely not doing the shoulder-thing again," Bradley stated. "Alright, ready?"
Colin nodded, "Let's just get the damn thing open."
"Okay, pull!"
Bradley put all the strength he could muster into the pull and he was bloody well hoping that Colin was doing the same. He could feel the door loosening and he let out a "yes!" as the door opened.
They both let go of the door handle at the same time and grinned at each other.
Bradley let out a short laugh, "Well, that was sufficiently scary. Imagine being stuck in that room for the rest of eternity."
"At least we'd have the chair to entertain us," Colin replied as he walked out the door. Bradley scoffed and was about reply with a witty remark but for the second time that day, Colin halted to a stop.
He turned around, facing Bradley with an alarming amount of panic in his eyes. "What the hell was that?"
"Mate, what are you going on abou-" But suddenly Bradley had felt it too and immediately realised what Colin was referring to. It was like getting sucked in by a vacuum cleaner and then getting blown out. Bradley froze next to Colin, his heart beating a million miles an hour.
"What the actual fuck was that?"
Colin stared at him with wide, blue eyes and shook his head. "I have no idea…let's just get back as fast as we can."
Bradley nodded in agreement, his eyes just as wide. They started walking again and Bradley couldn't shake the feeling that something was terribly off about the place.
"Colin…" he started, raising his phone to see the other man clearer.
"What is it?" Colin whispered back.
"Are you feeling as weirded-out as I am about this? Because I'm really weirded-out."
"Let's focus on getting back…hold on," Colin slowed into a stop,
"What? Was is it?"
"Could've sworn there were cobwebs in that exact same spot when we past it not a minute ago," Colin pointed to the corner Bradley had showed him. Bradley stared at the cobweb-free corner and then looked around the entire corridor.
"There'll all gone!" Bradley said, his tone rising up in a pitch. He would be lying if he'd said he wasn't just a tiny bit spooked. "What the bloody hell is going on here?"
"Maybe the cleaning crew came around here while we were in the room?" Colin supplied, though he didn't seem to believe it himself.
"Whatever. Let's just get out of here but with less halting-in-the-middle-of-nowhere," he grabbed Colin's forearm and almost broke out into a jog as he hurried out the corridor.
It wasn't until Colin let out a "Slow down, Bradley!" that Bradley actually eased back into a walk.
"I just want to get out of here," Bradley said, trying to remember if he was taking the right turn.
"Look, there's light coming from outside, we must be close." Colin's voice was a little breathless as he kept up with Bradley's pace.
There was a distant noise of people bustling about and sure enough, they were back to where they started their adventure.
Except that it looked much, much different to when they had left. There were suddenly hundreds of people milling about the place, people laughing, conversing and every single person was in costume.
"Er- are they in the middle of shooting a scene or…?" Colin asked, trailing off.
"I've never seen the set look so real before," Bradley said, not talking his eyes off the scene in front of him. "And since when did we have this many extras?"
"I don't know Bradley, but I really just want to get out of here," Colin replied.
Bradley nodded in agreement. "You think we could sneak around the cameras or something without getting noticed?"
"Um, I can't see any cameras…Can you?" Colin asked. Bradley frowned and strained his neck to get a better view. Not a single camera, or director or anybody familiar for that matter, was in sight.
"They can cut the scene if they need to, let's just get out of here," he replied, ignoring Colin's question simply because the answer freaked him out just a little.
He stepped out into the sunlight and turned back to see Colin following him timidly.
They walked a little further into the set and the first thing Bradley noticed was the change of smell. It was not the fresh, French air he was used to, but rather a pungent smell of baking bread mixed with horse manure. He looked at Colin who scrunched up his nose.
He turned back, shaking his head when he spotted a familiar shape walking around in the markets.
"Is that Angel?" Bradley asked Colin, squinting his eyes to get a better look. She was in costume and she was carrying a basket.
"She must be in the middle of filming," Colin supplied. Bradley narrowed his eyes again, it didn't look like she was acting. In fact, Angel was idly strolling around as if she didn't have a care in the world.
"I don't care if they're shooting a scene, let's ask her what the bloody hell is going on here." Bradley strode forward determinedly with Colin in step next to him. Angel had her back turned to them so Bradley put a hand on her shoulder to turn her around.
"Angel," he said.
Angel turned around and her eyes immediately widened. She sputtered for a moment before saying, "Sire. Although I'm flattered, you mustn't call me an angel in public. People will notice," she blushed heavily and bit her lip.
Before Bradley to reply with anything coherent, Colin stepped forward.
"Sire? Did you just call him sire?"
"Merlin! What happened to your voice? You sound so different, are you sick? Did Gaius give you something?"
There was a shocked silence.
Bradley exchanged a strained look with Colin before turning back to Angel. "Angel, if this is some sort of joke or prank you and Katie are pulling, you got us. Haha, bloody hilarious."
Angel frowned, "Arthur, what are you..I'm not sure what you mean."
Beside him, Colin groaned. "Oh, bloody hell," he muttered under his breath, before he grabbed Bradley's hand and pulled him away. Bradley let Colin drag him behind a rock, where they both stared at each other in utter and shocked silence.
"Bradley," Colin broke the silence carefully. "Where do you think we are at the moment?"
Bradley gulped, "Um, in France?"
Colin closed his eyes, took a deep breath and opened them again. "And when do you suppose we are?"
Before Bradley could reply, there was loud noise of swords clashing together and men shouting in the background. Bradley stretched his neck from behind the rock and caught sight of two men breaking out into an actual sword fight with what looked like actual swords, slashing at each other with what looked like actual intent to seriously harm each other.
Bradley returned his gaze to Colin, swallowing loudly.
"We're in Camelot. Aren't we?"
____