{Merlin} Beside Myself (But Beside You, Too)
Title: Beside Myself (But Beside You, Too)
Author: Mayhem
Word Count: 1, 229
Rating: PG
Author Notes: So, this was not how this story was meant to go. May eventually get a follow-up.
Summary: For this KinkMe_Merlin prompt: A sorcerer or magical being hits Merlin with a magic stick that splits him into two. One half is the bumbling,clumsy,inept kinda meek Merlin half and the other is the confident,darker,tougher magic half (maybe call it the Emrys half). The two halves cannot exist without each other, and if one is killed, the other dies too. Gaius and Arthur must find a way to break the spell and rejoin them before the darker half does something that gets it executed. Bonus points if the dark Merlin is actually captured and sentenced.
Merlin is too busy grumbling under his breath to notice the rock. He trips, and Arthur hides a smile as he pokes him in the back. “Come on,” he says, “stop lying around everywhere.”
Merlin drags himself back up, and commences mumbling again. He proceeds to trip over the very next rock, and Arthur, pitying him, moves to catch his arm.
That's the only reason the bolt of magic hits Merlin instead.
Merlin collapses, and Arthur steps forward, putting himself between Merlin and the source of the bolt. “Who's there?” he demands, and a cloaked figure emerges, but stays far out of range.
“What did you do to him?” Arthur demands, his voice steady.
“It was meant for you,” says the figure, and it sounds like a girl. A young girl.
“I noticed,” he replies, keeping his sword up between them. “But what did it do?”
She laughs. “It's designed to remove the soul from the body. Fitting, for a soulless tyrant, no? He'll be alive, just...he'll only be alive.”
Arthur glances behind him, but Merlin is obscured by a cloud of gold mist, or gold something. He curses, but he can't do anything.
“It missed you the first time,” she says, and her hood falls back. She's delicate and blond and pretty, and she's barely out of her teens. “But really, what good will steel do against magic?” She cups her hands in front of her, and speaks to them, pouring magic into an orange, swirling sphere.
It would be pretty if it weren't a glowy ball of imminent death.
Her voice raises, crescendos, and then she drops her ball, lifts her hands to her throat, and dies.
“Well,” says an annoyingly cheerful voice behind him. “That's one obstacle down. You okay, Arthur?”
He turns, unable to believe that Merlin isn't dead. Then he stares, unable to believe his eyes. Still, Merlin gets to his feet, brushes himself off, and then offers Merlin a hand up. Merlin takes the hand, and allows himself to pulled into Merlin's arms, and then clings. Merlin is still looking at Arthur questioningly, even as Merlin wibbles in his arms.
“There are two of you,” he says stupidly.
“Well, yes,” says the talking one, rather mocking. “Yes, glad to see we can all count. Now, did the bitch hurt you?”
“No,” he responds, more out of instinct than anything. “What happened to her?”
Merlin rolls his eyes. “Did you miss the bit where she was trying to kill you? I just got there first.”
Arthur is having trouble accepting this. “You killed her.”
“Do I need to draw you a diagram? I caused her lungs to swell, and then explode, and the result of that is, generally, death.” He spits on the ground. “Good riddance to bad rubbish anyhow.”
His eyes glow and Arthur's clothes straighten themselves out. He looks down at himself, and notices his pants are perfectly mended, his boots are shinier than they were when he left, and his jacket is perfectly pressed and creased. “Have you always been magic? Or is this a side-effect?”
“Born like this,” Merlin says, and Merlin in his arms nods, and then whimpers and clings tighter.
That's just about all Arthur can take for today, and his brain shuts down on him. He sits down in the grass and stares.
Merlin tugs on Merlin's shirt, and Merlin bends down so that Merlin can whisper in his ear. “You're right,” he says, and they surround Arthur. The crying one clamps onto his right arm, and the other grabs his left.
“Let's go home,” one of the Merlins says, and then they are.
~@~
Gaius looks up as they appear in his room. He stops for a second, and whimpery Merlin tries to climb into Arthur's lap. Merlin pats his head and affectionately calls him a useless bastard, and then takes a few quick, dancing steps towards Gaius. “Hey!” he crows, “Lookit what we've done now!”
Gaius studies them all, and then sighs. “Merlin, there's this word called 'impossible,' and you are constantly redefining it for me. May I assume that the mess shivering in Arthur's lap is your logic and sense of self-preservation, as it were?”
“Probably,” Merlin says, and tumbles into a chair. He rearranges his limbs, and ends up in a lounge that Arthur actually envies.
“Of course.” Gaius turns to his bookshelves, and tosses a thin volume to the lounging Merlin who floats it to his hand, and a thinner one to the other Merlin, who gets the same treatment. Arthur gets his own tome, and the Merlins and Gaius all open them in a well-practiced manner. Obviously, they do this a lot.
He looks at his book, and finds it's mostly about mental afflictions. It's mostly irrelevant, except the bit about two people in one head. Still, it's fascinating.
About the time he puts it down, he realizes the Merlin using him as a cushion is asleep. “Hey,” he says quietly, and Merlin looks up. He smiles, then gets up, and inserts bands of magic under the sleeping Merlin. They disappear into Merlin's bedroom, and Arthur follows. He sees the two wrap up in each other, as if they could rejoin if they press hard enough. His lips turn up, and he carefully pulls the door to.
Gaius hands him another book, and he takes it with him up to his chambers. He continues reading until he falls asleep.
He dreams in words and gold.
~@~
Arthur wakes up with a Merlin in his bed. This is highly disturbing, as there was not any Merlin there when he went to sleep. Still, Merlin is undeniably curled up in the far corner, and given the boot he's using as a teddy bear, he's probably the quieter Merlin.
He sits up, and the other Merlin is at his table, with an unbelievable breakfast laid out. He's playing with a grape and lounging again, and he really resembles nothing quite so much as a large, contented cat.
Arthur stumbles out of bed and over to a chair, and by the time he sits down, he's somehow been dressed. He runs a hand through his hair to straighten it, and spends a little time just staring at the food. There's stuff he's never even heard of. And what's more, everything is the perfect temperature.
“Sorcerer manservant. Best Idea Ever.” Arthur says, and tries one of the small, red fruits. It's tangy and sweet and delicious, and also Arthur's new favorite flavor ever.
Merlin smiles, slow and sweet and content, and Arthur pushes the bowl of fruit towards him. “Have you tried these?” he demands.
~@~
Everything rolls along smoothly, and for a while, Arthur thinks they may actually get away with it. They leave one Merlin asleep in his chambers, and the other follows him around, doing his regular duties. He looks like Merlin, and Arthur does his very best not to let him talk to anyone.
They've just finished lunch, and Uther wants to talk to Arthur about something-or-other, so Arthur sets Merlin against the wall of the hall, and tells him not to move or speak, or even breathe too loudly. Merlin rolls his eyes and proceeds to demonstrate exactly how filthy his mouth can be when he has no concept of social constraints.
“Yes, okay,” Arthur says, a smile tugging at the corner of his own mouth. “So you'll just stay, please.”
He leaves so he won't have to work out what Merlin's muttering under his breath now.
He's standing in front of his father and the court when he sees Merlin enter through the back door with Guinevere. He stops for a breath so he won't trip over a word, and continues to speak to his father about grain and meat stores, and how many hunts should be arranged before the snow. His eyes dart back, and sure enough, both Merlins are in the room.
He is so dead.
Of course, that would be the moment it gets worse. There's a scream, and everyone turns to see Merlin holding a serving maid in the air. She drops her pitcher, and it rolls to a stop near Arthur. He glances at it; the wine is the wrong color. He bends down to smell it, and it's faint, but there.
The girl had planned to poison him. And this particular Merlin kills for plans like that.
“Merlin!” he shouts, and the other Merlin grabs onto his arm. There's chaos all around, and Uther is standing and shouting and wanting to kill the sorcerer threatening his court. The guards enter the fray, and Merlin is starting to look cranky. He flaps his hand, there's a crack! and the girl goes limp. He waves again and drops her off in some corner.
By this point, the guards have him surrounded.
Uther finally sees the perpetrator, and his mouth goes thin. “You're Arthur's boy.”
Merlin bows mockingly.
Arthur's not sure what will happen if half of Merlin is executed, but neither is he willing to find out. He has a mad, desperate plan, and he really hopes Merlin will forgive him what he's about to do.
“Look!” Arthur says, tugging Merlin's arm and pulling him forward. “This, here, is my manservant. That one is a sorcerer! He used the guise of Merlin to infiltrate our castle!”
Uther sits up on his throne. He glares at the Merlin his son is holding on to, and says, “Are you Merlin, then?”
The Merlin shrinks from him, which does far more to assure him than any words. The regular Merlin has always been twitchy around Uther, and the new Merlin was bold and defiant. Then his son's Merlin said, “Er, yes? Ever since you gave me the post after Lady Helen...?” and that seals it.
Uther turned his eyes to the intruder. “And you are a sorcerer?”
That Merlin laughs. “You want to know if I have magic?” He purrs, and then a small ball of fire is dancing around his fingers. “I have magic, all right. I have enough magic to tear the castle apart, so not one stone stands on top of another. I could kill everyone here in a second, and I might, if they annoy me. My coming has been prophesied since times unknown, and there will never be another like me. I will never, ever be forgotten.
“Not like you. You're a pathetic king, Uther; taking revenge on all magic-users because of your own follies. Your hatred causes this now, Uther; and yet, no one will remember you. A name in a book in a corner, forgotten.”
The king is standing now, furious beyond belief. He opens his mouth to order something, but the sorcerer wearing Merlin's face isn't finished yet. “Oh, and now you're angry!” he laughs. “Call your guards! Try and capture me. Just give me an excuse, any excuse to kill you. Please.” Uther, however does nothing, and so he sticks his hands in his pockets, and saunters out of the hall.
Whether it is from fear or magic, no one moves to stop him.
As soon as the noise starts up, Arthur pulls Merlin to him and whispers “You daft idiot! You can't just go around threatening my father! My castle! My people!”
Merlin shrinks from him. “Sorry,” he babbles, “Oh, really, I'm terribly sorry, I don't normally do things like that...” He quails from the glare Arthur has leveled at him.
“Arthur!” Uther shouts, and the noise dies. “Arthur, keep a close eye on your servant while we search the castle for that...” he apparently can't find a word bad enough, “...thing.”
“Sire,” Arthur acknowledges, and then manhandles Merlin the hell out of there.
In the hall, he runs into Gaius. “Just who I was looking for. Take this one back to your chambers, please, and keep an eye on him.” Arthur tosses Merlin to Gauis, and Merlin clings and makes weepy noises. Arthur rolls his eyes. “I'll find the other one, and meet you back there.”
Gaius nods and draws Merlin away. “Please hurry,” he says. “I don't know how much longer he can stand being split like this.”
Arthur nods tightly and hurries away. He thinks he knows where Merlin will be.
He dashes up stairs and around corners,praying he'll get there before the guard. He does, but it's close. Footsteps round the corner as he closes his chamber door, and he goes limp with relief.
Merlin is lounging on his bed, creating images on the brocade cloth suspended from the corner-posts.
“Come see the dragon,” Merlin invites lazily, and Arthur does approach, does perch beside him on the bed.
There's a knock, and the door opens. A guard pokes his head in. “Oh,” he exhales, relieved. “This is the real one, then?” At Arthur's well-duh look, he nods. “Just sit tight, Merlin. We'll have this whole thing sorted out in a jiffy.” He smiles and closes the door behind him.
There's a bright flash above him, and he looks up to see a perfect recreation of the night sky floating on the cloth. Merlin waves a finger, and the stars turn into fireflies turn into jewels turn into a rainbow.
Arthur is speechless. He's never seen magic used for such, such frivolous, non-evil, gorgeous purposes before. “Why didn't you kill my father?” He manage to ask, eyes on the butterflies as they became a horse, galloping in place.
Merlin stretches, which is stupid because he's never seen Merlin look quite so comfortable. “I'd like to,” he says. “I'd like to bind him and starve him and kill him by inches. I'd love to inflict every torture he ever tried on us, and I could make sure he wouldn't die until I was ready. I'd...but you don't want to hear that.” The hawk becomes a fire, and a figure rises from it, a shadow screaming silently as they watch. Finally, Merlin says, “Because you're not ready to be king. Because if he died, you'd die a bit, too.”
“For me,” Arthur clarifies.
“Always, everything. It's all for you.”
Arthur turns his head away and closes his eyes. He doesn't want to hear this strange, ruthless Merlin speak of everything Merlin's done. For him. Instead he clears his throat. “Can you make it so we can get to Gaius's chambers unseen?”
Before he finishes the sentence, they're there.
“Perfect!” Gaius declares, bustling up to them. “I'm afraid I haven't quite figured out the way to fix this-”
“We aren't broken,” interrupts the Merlin sitting beside him. The other is cowering on the bench across the room.
“I need you to go back to being one Merlin,” Arthur says firmly. “If you wait much longer, you won't be able to.”
“Yes,” Gaius allows, “but if we can't figure out how to put this right-”
“Oh, for the love of...” Merlin gets up from behind Arthur, and stalks over to his counterpart, who reaches for him. The first Merlin gently takes the other's jaw and pulls him up, so he's standing. Then he rocks his head in and presses their lips together. Arthur has enough time to think something along the lines of holyfreakingohmyfuckingodamnWHAT, and then there is a golden light, and it grows and surrounds the Merlins.
When it clears a minute later, there is only one Merlin, and he sits down rather heavily on the bench.
“Wow,” he says. “Let's not do that again.”
And then he faints.
Author: Mayhem
Word Count: 1, 229
Rating: PG
Author Notes: So, this was not how this story was meant to go. May eventually get a follow-up.
Summary: For this KinkMe_Merlin prompt: A sorcerer or magical being hits Merlin with a magic stick that splits him into two. One half is the bumbling,clumsy,inept kinda meek Merlin half and the other is the confident,darker,tougher magic half (maybe call it the Emrys half). The two halves cannot exist without each other, and if one is killed, the other dies too. Gaius and Arthur must find a way to break the spell and rejoin them before the darker half does something that gets it executed. Bonus points if the dark Merlin is actually captured and sentenced.
Merlin is too busy grumbling under his breath to notice the rock. He trips, and Arthur hides a smile as he pokes him in the back. “Come on,” he says, “stop lying around everywhere.”
Merlin drags himself back up, and commences mumbling again. He proceeds to trip over the very next rock, and Arthur, pitying him, moves to catch his arm.
That's the only reason the bolt of magic hits Merlin instead.
Merlin collapses, and Arthur steps forward, putting himself between Merlin and the source of the bolt. “Who's there?” he demands, and a cloaked figure emerges, but stays far out of range.
“What did you do to him?” Arthur demands, his voice steady.
“It was meant for you,” says the figure, and it sounds like a girl. A young girl.
“I noticed,” he replies, keeping his sword up between them. “But what did it do?”
She laughs. “It's designed to remove the soul from the body. Fitting, for a soulless tyrant, no? He'll be alive, just...he'll only be alive.”
Arthur glances behind him, but Merlin is obscured by a cloud of gold mist, or gold something. He curses, but he can't do anything.
“It missed you the first time,” she says, and her hood falls back. She's delicate and blond and pretty, and she's barely out of her teens. “But really, what good will steel do against magic?” She cups her hands in front of her, and speaks to them, pouring magic into an orange, swirling sphere.
It would be pretty if it weren't a glowy ball of imminent death.
Her voice raises, crescendos, and then she drops her ball, lifts her hands to her throat, and dies.
“Well,” says an annoyingly cheerful voice behind him. “That's one obstacle down. You okay, Arthur?”
He turns, unable to believe that Merlin isn't dead. Then he stares, unable to believe his eyes. Still, Merlin gets to his feet, brushes himself off, and then offers Merlin a hand up. Merlin takes the hand, and allows himself to pulled into Merlin's arms, and then clings. Merlin is still looking at Arthur questioningly, even as Merlin wibbles in his arms.
“There are two of you,” he says stupidly.
“Well, yes,” says the talking one, rather mocking. “Yes, glad to see we can all count. Now, did the bitch hurt you?”
“No,” he responds, more out of instinct than anything. “What happened to her?”
Merlin rolls his eyes. “Did you miss the bit where she was trying to kill you? I just got there first.”
Arthur is having trouble accepting this. “You killed her.”
“Do I need to draw you a diagram? I caused her lungs to swell, and then explode, and the result of that is, generally, death.” He spits on the ground. “Good riddance to bad rubbish anyhow.”
His eyes glow and Arthur's clothes straighten themselves out. He looks down at himself, and notices his pants are perfectly mended, his boots are shinier than they were when he left, and his jacket is perfectly pressed and creased. “Have you always been magic? Or is this a side-effect?”
“Born like this,” Merlin says, and Merlin in his arms nods, and then whimpers and clings tighter.
That's just about all Arthur can take for today, and his brain shuts down on him. He sits down in the grass and stares.
Merlin tugs on Merlin's shirt, and Merlin bends down so that Merlin can whisper in his ear. “You're right,” he says, and they surround Arthur. The crying one clamps onto his right arm, and the other grabs his left.
“Let's go home,” one of the Merlins says, and then they are.
~@~
Gaius looks up as they appear in his room. He stops for a second, and whimpery Merlin tries to climb into Arthur's lap. Merlin pats his head and affectionately calls him a useless bastard, and then takes a few quick, dancing steps towards Gaius. “Hey!” he crows, “Lookit what we've done now!”
Gaius studies them all, and then sighs. “Merlin, there's this word called 'impossible,' and you are constantly redefining it for me. May I assume that the mess shivering in Arthur's lap is your logic and sense of self-preservation, as it were?”
“Probably,” Merlin says, and tumbles into a chair. He rearranges his limbs, and ends up in a lounge that Arthur actually envies.
“Of course.” Gaius turns to his bookshelves, and tosses a thin volume to the lounging Merlin who floats it to his hand, and a thinner one to the other Merlin, who gets the same treatment. Arthur gets his own tome, and the Merlins and Gaius all open them in a well-practiced manner. Obviously, they do this a lot.
He looks at his book, and finds it's mostly about mental afflictions. It's mostly irrelevant, except the bit about two people in one head. Still, it's fascinating.
About the time he puts it down, he realizes the Merlin using him as a cushion is asleep. “Hey,” he says quietly, and Merlin looks up. He smiles, then gets up, and inserts bands of magic under the sleeping Merlin. They disappear into Merlin's bedroom, and Arthur follows. He sees the two wrap up in each other, as if they could rejoin if they press hard enough. His lips turn up, and he carefully pulls the door to.
Gaius hands him another book, and he takes it with him up to his chambers. He continues reading until he falls asleep.
He dreams in words and gold.
~@~
Arthur wakes up with a Merlin in his bed. This is highly disturbing, as there was not any Merlin there when he went to sleep. Still, Merlin is undeniably curled up in the far corner, and given the boot he's using as a teddy bear, he's probably the quieter Merlin.
He sits up, and the other Merlin is at his table, with an unbelievable breakfast laid out. He's playing with a grape and lounging again, and he really resembles nothing quite so much as a large, contented cat.
Arthur stumbles out of bed and over to a chair, and by the time he sits down, he's somehow been dressed. He runs a hand through his hair to straighten it, and spends a little time just staring at the food. There's stuff he's never even heard of. And what's more, everything is the perfect temperature.
“Sorcerer manservant. Best Idea Ever.” Arthur says, and tries one of the small, red fruits. It's tangy and sweet and delicious, and also Arthur's new favorite flavor ever.
Merlin smiles, slow and sweet and content, and Arthur pushes the bowl of fruit towards him. “Have you tried these?” he demands.
~@~
Everything rolls along smoothly, and for a while, Arthur thinks they may actually get away with it. They leave one Merlin asleep in his chambers, and the other follows him around, doing his regular duties. He looks like Merlin, and Arthur does his very best not to let him talk to anyone.
They've just finished lunch, and Uther wants to talk to Arthur about something-or-other, so Arthur sets Merlin against the wall of the hall, and tells him not to move or speak, or even breathe too loudly. Merlin rolls his eyes and proceeds to demonstrate exactly how filthy his mouth can be when he has no concept of social constraints.
“Yes, okay,” Arthur says, a smile tugging at the corner of his own mouth. “So you'll just stay, please.”
He leaves so he won't have to work out what Merlin's muttering under his breath now.
He's standing in front of his father and the court when he sees Merlin enter through the back door with Guinevere. He stops for a breath so he won't trip over a word, and continues to speak to his father about grain and meat stores, and how many hunts should be arranged before the snow. His eyes dart back, and sure enough, both Merlins are in the room.
He is so dead.
Of course, that would be the moment it gets worse. There's a scream, and everyone turns to see Merlin holding a serving maid in the air. She drops her pitcher, and it rolls to a stop near Arthur. He glances at it; the wine is the wrong color. He bends down to smell it, and it's faint, but there.
The girl had planned to poison him. And this particular Merlin kills for plans like that.
“Merlin!” he shouts, and the other Merlin grabs onto his arm. There's chaos all around, and Uther is standing and shouting and wanting to kill the sorcerer threatening his court. The guards enter the fray, and Merlin is starting to look cranky. He flaps his hand, there's a crack! and the girl goes limp. He waves again and drops her off in some corner.
By this point, the guards have him surrounded.
Uther finally sees the perpetrator, and his mouth goes thin. “You're Arthur's boy.”
Merlin bows mockingly.
Arthur's not sure what will happen if half of Merlin is executed, but neither is he willing to find out. He has a mad, desperate plan, and he really hopes Merlin will forgive him what he's about to do.
“Look!” Arthur says, tugging Merlin's arm and pulling him forward. “This, here, is my manservant. That one is a sorcerer! He used the guise of Merlin to infiltrate our castle!”
Uther sits up on his throne. He glares at the Merlin his son is holding on to, and says, “Are you Merlin, then?”
The Merlin shrinks from him, which does far more to assure him than any words. The regular Merlin has always been twitchy around Uther, and the new Merlin was bold and defiant. Then his son's Merlin said, “Er, yes? Ever since you gave me the post after Lady Helen...?” and that seals it.
Uther turned his eyes to the intruder. “And you are a sorcerer?”
That Merlin laughs. “You want to know if I have magic?” He purrs, and then a small ball of fire is dancing around his fingers. “I have magic, all right. I have enough magic to tear the castle apart, so not one stone stands on top of another. I could kill everyone here in a second, and I might, if they annoy me. My coming has been prophesied since times unknown, and there will never be another like me. I will never, ever be forgotten.
“Not like you. You're a pathetic king, Uther; taking revenge on all magic-users because of your own follies. Your hatred causes this now, Uther; and yet, no one will remember you. A name in a book in a corner, forgotten.”
The king is standing now, furious beyond belief. He opens his mouth to order something, but the sorcerer wearing Merlin's face isn't finished yet. “Oh, and now you're angry!” he laughs. “Call your guards! Try and capture me. Just give me an excuse, any excuse to kill you. Please.” Uther, however does nothing, and so he sticks his hands in his pockets, and saunters out of the hall.
Whether it is from fear or magic, no one moves to stop him.
As soon as the noise starts up, Arthur pulls Merlin to him and whispers “You daft idiot! You can't just go around threatening my father! My castle! My people!”
Merlin shrinks from him. “Sorry,” he babbles, “Oh, really, I'm terribly sorry, I don't normally do things like that...” He quails from the glare Arthur has leveled at him.
“Arthur!” Uther shouts, and the noise dies. “Arthur, keep a close eye on your servant while we search the castle for that...” he apparently can't find a word bad enough, “...thing.”
“Sire,” Arthur acknowledges, and then manhandles Merlin the hell out of there.
In the hall, he runs into Gaius. “Just who I was looking for. Take this one back to your chambers, please, and keep an eye on him.” Arthur tosses Merlin to Gauis, and Merlin clings and makes weepy noises. Arthur rolls his eyes. “I'll find the other one, and meet you back there.”
Gaius nods and draws Merlin away. “Please hurry,” he says. “I don't know how much longer he can stand being split like this.”
Arthur nods tightly and hurries away. He thinks he knows where Merlin will be.
He dashes up stairs and around corners,praying he'll get there before the guard. He does, but it's close. Footsteps round the corner as he closes his chamber door, and he goes limp with relief.
Merlin is lounging on his bed, creating images on the brocade cloth suspended from the corner-posts.
“Come see the dragon,” Merlin invites lazily, and Arthur does approach, does perch beside him on the bed.
There's a knock, and the door opens. A guard pokes his head in. “Oh,” he exhales, relieved. “This is the real one, then?” At Arthur's well-duh look, he nods. “Just sit tight, Merlin. We'll have this whole thing sorted out in a jiffy.” He smiles and closes the door behind him.
There's a bright flash above him, and he looks up to see a perfect recreation of the night sky floating on the cloth. Merlin waves a finger, and the stars turn into fireflies turn into jewels turn into a rainbow.
Arthur is speechless. He's never seen magic used for such, such frivolous, non-evil, gorgeous purposes before. “Why didn't you kill my father?” He manage to ask, eyes on the butterflies as they became a horse, galloping in place.
Merlin stretches, which is stupid because he's never seen Merlin look quite so comfortable. “I'd like to,” he says. “I'd like to bind him and starve him and kill him by inches. I'd love to inflict every torture he ever tried on us, and I could make sure he wouldn't die until I was ready. I'd...but you don't want to hear that.” The hawk becomes a fire, and a figure rises from it, a shadow screaming silently as they watch. Finally, Merlin says, “Because you're not ready to be king. Because if he died, you'd die a bit, too.”
“For me,” Arthur clarifies.
“Always, everything. It's all for you.”
Arthur turns his head away and closes his eyes. He doesn't want to hear this strange, ruthless Merlin speak of everything Merlin's done. For him. Instead he clears his throat. “Can you make it so we can get to Gaius's chambers unseen?”
Before he finishes the sentence, they're there.
“Perfect!” Gaius declares, bustling up to them. “I'm afraid I haven't quite figured out the way to fix this-”
“We aren't broken,” interrupts the Merlin sitting beside him. The other is cowering on the bench across the room.
“I need you to go back to being one Merlin,” Arthur says firmly. “If you wait much longer, you won't be able to.”
“Yes,” Gaius allows, “but if we can't figure out how to put this right-”
“Oh, for the love of...” Merlin gets up from behind Arthur, and stalks over to his counterpart, who reaches for him. The first Merlin gently takes the other's jaw and pulls him up, so he's standing. Then he rocks his head in and presses their lips together. Arthur has enough time to think something along the lines of holyfreakingohmyfuckingodamnWHAT, and then there is a golden light, and it grows and surrounds the Merlins.
When it clears a minute later, there is only one Merlin, and he sits down rather heavily on the bench.
“Wow,” he says. “Let's not do that again.”
And then he faints.