Chapter Eleven: When the world comes crumbling down (I've got you to piece it back together again)
Arthur escaped the evil clutches of an overly concerned doctor late in the night. His father wouldn’t be happy, but Arthur couldn’t be bothered with that. He’d rang Merlin three times already and had yet to hear from him. Each time the cell went to voicemail he made sure to curse as he hung up. Not that it helped any.
When he arrived at the pub - having changed into the only clothes he had on him aside from the loose-backed gown the hospital had forced him into - he shivered his way up to the apartment and knocked with his free hand until his knuckles cracked open and Will had opened the door holding a baseball bat.
“Fucking hell,” Will hissed as though the incessant pounding hadn’t woken anyone. “You’ve a lot of nerve. What happened to you?” Will stood on his tip toes to see over Arthur’s shoulder. “Where’s Merlin?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing.” Will shook his head and turned to go to the phone, leaving the door open in an unofficial invitation for Arthur to enter, which he did only reluctantly. Gwen was standing in the doorframe to the bedroom and Lance had sat himself down on the couch. When Arthur caught his eye he also shook his head.
“He’s not picking up,” Will said from the phone as he redialed.
Arthur paced back and forth for a few moments before it dawned on him that Merlin had probably done exactly the opposite of what Arthur had asked him to do. He sighed in exasperation.
“I know where he is,” Arthur said. “Is he always so disobedient?”
Lance laughed nervously and Gwen chirped unhelpfully, “always.”
Arthur left without a word. He could hear Will close on his heels as he descended the stairs and turned to address him, “he’s at my father’s firm. Probably confronting Morgana-”
“You know something,” Will accused, his voice colder than the night air. “You know what’s going on, why Merlin’s gone so ballistic these last few days.”
Arthur didn’t say anything. He pulled his damaged arm closer to his chest and shivered.
He was just clearing his throat when Will’s fist flew hard into his cheek. Arthur stumbled sideways, trying desperately to regain his footing so he could avoid falling on his injured arm.
“You good for nothing bastard,” Will shouted. Arthur’s ears rang from the blow, but he could hear Gwen yelling and Lance’s loud footfalls as he ran down the stairs.
“Are you alright?” Lance asked as he helped Arthur right himself and when Arthur nodded in affirmation Lance turned to Will. “What the fuck Will?!”
Will sneered at Arthur. “Ever since you’ve come around with your sister things have gone to shite.”
Arthur straightened his shirt and sling and rubbed carefully at the delicate spot on his cheek. “I didn’t do anything!”
Will’s face went bright red in the dull light from the apartment. “You fucked with Merlin! You showed your sister how to fuck with him.”
Arthur carefully pulled away from Lance’s tightening grip. “I didn’t want it to be this way. I wanted to help. With the pub- with everything.”
“Yeah well, you’ve blotched that up,” Will snapped, his tongue twisting on the words.
Gwen had come down and was putting a hand on Will’s shoulder when Arthur’s mobile phone buzzed against his thigh. He scrabbled to grab it and nearly dropped it in the process. But when he finally put it to his ears without bothering to check his caller ID he was surprised when the voice that responded to his desperate cry of ‘Merlin’ was actually Morgana.
“I’m assuming you’re looking for someone,” Morgana said coldly. “He came to threaten me tonight about his scuzzy pub. I thought I should let you know that despite the fact you expect me to back off I won’t. And I won’t allow you to get in my way Arthur. I hope you can bring that idiot around.” And she clicked off the phone.
Arthur let his hand fall to his side. He met Will’s eyes calmly but said as firmly as possible, “I’m going to help whether you like it or not.” He spun on his heels.
****************
Merlin was sitting on the curb outside of Camelot Construction when Arthur pulled into the car park. He had his legs curled up and arms wrapped around his knees.
Arthur wasn’t sure how he wanted to go about handling the situation, but after a deep breath he found himself climbing from his car and ambling silently to Merlin’s side. He sat down next to him with enough space that Merlin could swing an arm without striking him.
“Hey,” Merlin whispered into his knees. His voice shook. Arthur leaned back on his good palm and sighed.
“Hey,” he replied.
They sat in silence for a few minutes and then Merlin scooted quickly flush against Arthur’s side. His skin was cold and he shivered when it came in contact with Arthur’s.
Arthur didn’t move. He waited patiently as Merlin shivered and shivered until he finally said, “aren’t you angry?”
Arthur nodded, knowing well that Merlin could feel the movement.
“Say something,” Merlin bit out. “Tell me why.”
And even though Arthur knew he was itching to fight, he took the bait and said angrily, “you shouldn’t have confronted her alone knowing what she’s capable of.”
Merlin laughed suddenly. He laughed in a way that made Arthur’s chest ache for him. As abruptly as it had started Merlin stopped and said sourly, “I can protect myself and everyone else.” He pushed off from Arthur’s side and went straight to his car. Arthur watched after him for a moment before following. The entire ride to the pub Merlin remained stony silent.
They arrived at the pub none too soon in Arthur’s opinion. Merlin had been sulking silently and Arthur’s skin prickled with irritation that he was the one angry after everything that happened. Throwing the car into park Merlin didn’t even wait for the final roll of the tires from moving to parked to jump from the vehicle and storm his way into the pub.
Arthur sucked in a frustrated breath and rubbed his eyes until he saw white spots. He wanted to scream at someone and at the moment Merlin was the only person he knew close enough, so instead he took out his mobile and dialed Morgana’s number. It went straight to voicemail. He clicked the off button viciously and only barely stopped himself from chucking the damned thing against the floor mat.
Arthur closed his eyes, promising himself he would get out of the car after a few minutes, but next he knew when he woke it had been over two hours. He sighed one last time and got out, shivered once at the cold and made his way to the pub somehow knowing that Merlin would be in there rather than the apartment.
He was proven right when he walked in to a slumped Merlin in the booth right next to the door. In front of him was a half empty bottle of vodka and on the floor several cans of energy drink.
“Oh, ‘s you,” Merlin slurred as though he had been expecting someone famous to walk through the pub doors at such an ungodly hour.
Arthur sat carefully across from him as though trying not to spook a wild animal. “Yeah, it’s only me.”
Merlin laughed and then hiccuped, “’uch a prat.”
“That I am,” Arthur agreed. He pushed the bottle of vodka away from Merlin as slyly as possible. “You’re drunk, I’m a prat. It’s quiet the terrible predicament we’ve got ourselves in.”
Merlin leaned forward. He blinked slowly, head swaying as he said, “fuck off.”
“Fuck off?” Arthur snapped, the boiling frustration from earlier reaching a new peak. “I’m trying to bloody help you. You’re such a sodding stubborn fool.”
Merlin nodded drunkenly, “yeah, so fuck off and leave this sodding fool in peace.”
Arthur took the bottle of vodka and slammed it in front of Merlin’s face, “drink yourself to death then for all I care.”
“Exactly,” Merlin shouted, suddenly sounding more sober than his shaky movements showed. “You don’t actually care,” he laughed. “You’re such a liar. I should have known it.”
Arthur watched in astonishment as Merlin took a giant gulp of vodka directly from the bottle and let gravity do the vast majority of the work of setting it back down.
“You’re going to break it and then cut yourself,” Arthur said, the anger dissipating as quickly as it had overwhelmed him.
“Don’t act like you care now,” Merlin said and lifted a finger. He pointed it at Arthur’s face, but it swayed from side to side as he tried to stare down it’s length.
“I do care. You just won’t let yourself accept that,” Arthur said calmly and slid the bottle away again. It was considerably lighter from before, but he chose to ignore that as he carefully lowered Merlin’s hand with his own.
Merlin stared down at their touching skin and swallowed as though he were dying of thirst.
“You’re just like the rest of them,” Merlin said, still unmoving. Arthur could feel his fingers twitch beneath his own and knew that Merlin was considering pulling away, but the fact he hadn’t done so yet told him a lot about the conflict he was probably feeling.
“The rest?” Arthur asked softly.
“Yeah,” and then he finally pulled his hand out from under Arthur’s. He tucked it under the table and diverted his eyes. “All the others who I’ve dated. They get bored of me after a while. Throw me away like trash and don’t think twice about it. I’m not even worth a second thought.”
Arthur sat back in his chair, the whole emotional bit had always been hard for him despite the fact that he had spent his entire adult life trying to learn how to not be like his father for the sake of his own happiness and those around him. He wouldn’t have even picked up on the bass if it wouldn’t have been for his father’s strict business outlook on every detail of reality.
“Merlin, I’m not going to get bored. I’ve been coming here, playing in this pub long enough to know that I wouldn’t ever be sick of you. Unless you go on like this, not accepting my offerings of assistance and ignoring the challenges you’re going to face.”
Merlin finally met his eyes, mouth falling open in clear, astonished anger. He finally snapped it shut and glared at Arthur until he had to fidget. “I have been facing the challenges. I saw Morgana tonight and told her to bugger off-”
“- without any help! You could have been hurt,” Arthur carefully moved his injured arm to draw Merlin’s attention to the damage already done and returned the glare. “You think she’d really spare you after she’d already tried to seriously hurt me?”
Merlin shook his head, “I don’t need a knight in shining armour. I can take care it.” He reached for the bottle of vodka, but Arthur slid it further away and pushed his hand back.
“You may not need one, but maybe you’d like one,” Arthur said, suddenly feeling very possessive over Merlin. He stood abruptly and went around the table to manhandle Merlin into the best standing position he could manage. “It’s time for you to go to bed.”
Merlin grumbled and struggled, but he wasn’t a match sober, much less alone and tipsy given his scrawny size. Arthur easily dragged him up the stairs, only breaking the flood light in the process, and into his flat. By the time they’d gotten there Merlin had tired himself out fighting and immediately collapsed on the couch. Will poked his head about the corner of one of the doors.
“He alright?” Will asked, not a single ounce of irritation in the tone of his voice. It took Arthur a moment to get over that shock as he nodded. Will disappeared again and when he came back he had a thick fleece blanket.
“Gawain’s,” Will said as explanation and tossed it on top of Merlin so that a corner rested against his nose. Merlin mumbled something and buried himself further underneath it.
“They were close weren’t then?” Arthur asked, eyes locked on Merlin’s sleeping - or rather passed out - form that was barely noticeable under the massive expanse of blanket.
“They were family as well as best mates,” Will responded and disappeared into the room again.
Arthur leaned down and adjusted the blanket so that it was perfectly tucked under Merlin’s light body.
And then he found himself unable to stand staring at his sleeping face, eyelashes perfectly dark against pale tired skin, a frown so prevalent on Merlin’s face that Arthur couldn’t help but mirror it with one of his own.
Tonight had been so bizarre and Arthur hadn’t even had the opportunity to sit down and think about it. His own sister... he scrunched up his nose and turned to leave.
“Arthur,” Will’s voice said quietly from the door frame. Arthur spun to look at him, not having noticed he’d been there. “You’re not half bad, but if you hurt him, rest assured, there are many who love him and will kill you.”
Arthur smiled. “Is that your approval?”
Will turned and said simultaneously, “prick.”
Arthur allowed one last look at Merlin’s sleeping form and then he left, only barely finding his way back to the pub in the sudden darkness.
It didn’t take much thought for Arthur to realise he wanted to stand in Merlin’s garden and see exactly what Merlin was capable of. When he got there it suddenly dawned on him that Merlin had risked his life to see Morgana and wouldn’t have had the personal strength to defend himself by hurting her. Merlin wasn’t capable of that even if he thought he was.
Morgana, on the other hand, was more concerned about her own self worth than anyone else’s. She had proven that when she’d come out at Arthur in the dark and threatened him with death should he involve himself further, and when he’d refused it had ended at a broken arm and mild bruise on his head, only because someone had managed to walk by at that very moment.
He rubbed his eyes again, certain that he’d end up bruising them too if he kept up. No, Merlin didn’t deserve this even if Morgana was of magic and had been hiding it her entire life. It wasn’t Merlin’s fault. How could it be when he could do - and then it dawned on Arthur - Merlin was of magic too. Merlin had to have learned to use his magic somehow. Arthur could almost literally see light bulbs flicker on in his peripheral vision. Merlin had learned from Gaius! Merlin had been taught by Gaius and Morgana had been reassured that her strangely vivid dreams and random accidents around her were nothing. Gaius had been lying to her all her life!
“Shit,” Arthur hissed and could have sworn he felt the plants shudder at his seething anger.
A few of the plants waved at him faintly and he had to blink several times to realise they really were moving of their own accord. He approached them carefully and ran his fingertips over the shivering leaves. He felt a warmth spread through his fingers and down to his toes. Merlin’s magic. It felt amazing, sliding up his arms and down his back like warm water.
He bit his lip and realized with sudden clarity that Merlin’s magic was the most amazing thing he had ever experienced and he only felt safe practicing it here which meant... well, it meant that Arthur had to do whatever it would take to save the pub so that he could see Merlin happy again. Simple enough. Arthur laughed out loud. Clarity was freeing.
****************
Merlin was still passed out on the couch when Arthur entered the flat again, too exhausted to drive himself home after everything. He’d been in the garden for hours, but Merlin hadn’t even moved from where he’d collapsed. Arthur allowed the corners of his lips to tilt up when Merlin suddenly let out a loud snore.
“You’re a fool,” Arthur whispered in his best attempt at affection. Merlin stirred and blinked his eyes open.
“Whachu say?” he slurred and gave Arthur a half lidded glare.
“I asked, do you want to move to your bed?” Merlin pondered the question and then nodded. He went to sit up. Arthur rushed to his side, but Merlin only shrugged his hand off his arm with a loud sound of disapproval.
“I can manage,” he said bitterly and only barely untangled himself from the blanket. Arthur followed him like a shadow into his room and watched as he flopped ungracefully onto his bed.
He was about to turn and leave when Merlin said, “I don’t wanna be alone tonight.”
Slowly, he turned to look at him and Merlin’s expression was entirely sincere. “I don’t want to-”
“-You don’t have to,” Arthur hurried to say and quickly went to his side. He sat down on the bed. “I can stay until you fall asleep.”
Merlin nodded against the pillows, eyes slowly closing.
