MiniBang: Colin/Katie: And That Was Episode Six...
Title: And That Was Episode Six...
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings/Characters: Katie/Colin, random techs.
Warnings: RPF is RPF, don't like, don't read...
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin, and it's actors, still aren't mine!
Rating: PG
Summary: The commentary that I wanted to see/hear for 4x06!
Author Notes: Written for the MiniBang on merlinbb_rpf dedicated to all my M/M or C/K girlies <3 Sorry this is late! Late week was deadline week and I spent it writing my last essay then running away to look for somewhere to live in Scotland! So here it is!
They insisted on it. That’s what people would say. They had so much fun with the episode that they wanted to share the experience with the fans. Katie would have told you that she wanted to laugh at her and ‘Col’ trying to remain serious when all they wanted to do was laugh. Colin would have told you he wanted to express how much fun it was being ‘evil Merlin’. When in actual fact, they would barely cover these bases at all.
Arriving at the recording studio with only minutes to spare, Katie followed the crew member up the stairs to the room she would share the next hour or so with Colin Morgan, laughing at their acting. She always found it odd that this was her life now, the sheer success of the entire thing was something none of them had even fathomed. They knew it was good, but they didn’t think people would come from Australia just to see them in France, it was crazy. Ludicrous.
Colin was already sat on the plush sofa when she was shown into the room. He beamed at her and brandished the bottle of mineral water at her. Something he brought to ever audio commentary sitting he’d ever done. Katie smiled and pulled out a bottle of wine. Something she did every time. “Can’t go breaking tradition, can we Col?” she laughed setting the bottle down on the small table next to the glasses.
“Of course not.” Colin shifted to the edge of the sofa and stood, hugging Katie briefly before they both slumped back into the sofa. “Good day?” he asked, he’d been busy doing some ADR recording downstairs whilst Katie had been off with her next venture.
“Yeah, not bad. Costume fittings, hair trails, you know the deal.”
“Yeah, vaguely.” He laughed. In his time on Merlin he had about a third of the costume fittings that Katie had, maybe even less. His costume had been near-constantly the same since day one. An odd different shirt here, his Emrys robe and brand spanking new jacket for Gwen’s coronation. Having it on though, he missed his usual costume, it was a safety blanket and it had been stripping away from him. Luckily he hadn’t been the centre of attention that day so he was free to tug at the collar as and when he needed to for the most part. The worst thing he’d had to do was sit in a chair for near five hours whilst the make-up team put a prosthetic on his face.
“Ready to go guys?” a voice came through the speakers from the sound booth. They grabbed their headphones and unscrewed the lids of their brought beverages.
“Yeah,” they chorused in Irish unison. They were counted down and the episode started to run before them. In a land of myth and a time of magic...
“Hello Merlin Fans,” Katie said mockingly, knowing Bradley would listen to the commentary once it was released, “I’m Katie McGrath and I play Morgana.”
“And I’m Colin Morgan and I play Merlin.”
“Oh, you just said that at the same time as John.” Katie pointed out with a laugh as she started to pour out a glass of white for the pair of them.
“I planned it,” Colin replied deadpan, looking at Katie with a wide grin on his face. She laughed in return and handed him his glass.
Katie looked up at the screen, she had seen the episode a few days previously, so she could react to it and know what was going on in the scenes that she wasn’t a part of. Many a time before she had spent time being teased for not recognising scenes or for not being in them, “So what do we have here, Col?”
“Well, we have the Valley of the Fallen Kings.” Colin informed their invisible audience. She cracked a smile.
“And why is Merlin so worried about it?” She teased him, watching Merlin panic on the screen before them. They each had a massive pair of headphones and could only hear each other as they spoke over the episode through the speakers. It was odd to see Colin talk but hear a tinnier version of his voice in her head.
“Because nothing ever goes right there...”
“No, no it does not,” she said the picture of seriousness before cracking a smile at her fellow Irishman, “What happened the last time you were there?” she asked him, vaguely remembering it herself, she’d featured heavily in the episode but been asleep for most of it.
“Arthur got shot with an arrow and died.” Colin said bluntly.
“Something he doesn’t seem to recall.”
“Noo...” they both laughed, Colin was tempted to make a comment about how idiotic Arthur was, but Merlin had never told Arthur that he had been gravely injured, merely scratched and the clotpole had believed him.
“I love how Tom doesn’t fit into chainmail.”
“He does,” Colin confirmed with a sideways glance, he could see her innocently smiling back at him.
“But we’d miss out on the guns if he did wear sleeves.” She comically pumped her arms, like a roman god, to demonstrate her point. Colin raised an eyebrow, and laughed at her.
“He’s allergic to sleeves.”
“Sorcery!” Katie shouted as Merlin performed a spell in front of a huge group of un-noticing people.
“Gaius says that a lot less this series.” Colin informed her.
“I think it’s because he’s realised that it’s always sorcery, and Merlin always knows it’s sorcery, so it doesn’t need to be said. More often than not I’m at the root of it anyway.” She replied flippantly, waving her hand through the air at nobody in particular. “Merlin! Poor Merlin.”
“At least it wasn’t Arthur for a change.” The pair of them laughed, they knew if Bradley was with them he’d act high and mighty then finally submit to them and agree. It was the one thing he hated about his character. It was another thing that happened a lot less in the series, Arthur spent the majority of his time awake and lucid than knocked out.
“Oh bless, look at him, he’s so worried about you!” Katie teased as Arthur clocked that Merlin had been hit, eyes wide and panic-ridden.
“What would Arthur do without Merlin? He wouldn’t be able to feed himself.”
“Oh it’s more than that.” Colin looked over at her and gave her a quick scowl, he knew she’d comment like she was. She had in commentaries before and she would, no doubt, again. He shook his head at her, his he could dissuade her that would be best for all involved, “He’s shaking his head at me.”
“New credits!” Colin exclaimed as the music kicked in.
“Hah, diversion.” Katie laughed, poking him in the side.
“I’m not the only one on them anymore!” they started to watch them in silence, Katie waiting for her opportune moment.
“There I am!” She called on seeing her face appear, “Awh, the kisssss. Oh we get the pleasure of it every episode now!” She celebrated, clapping her hands barely loudly enough for the microphones to pick up.
“I really like what they’ve done with them.” Colin decided, nodding to himself. He didn’t know, nor understand, why they hadn’t really changed them before now. Every year they were told they would and they hadn’t but now they were finally different and it was odd, it was going to take a while to get used to.
“Me too. I think it’s like the show, the show has turned into a show about their relationships and their characters now more than anything, rather than what they’re facing monster and why, they’re facing their inner demons.”
“Completely,” Colin agreed taking a small sip of wine, “everybody has grown since the start, Morgana has changed so much.”
“She has, she’s so much fun!”
“Is it fun to finally be playing your true self?” With an offended gape of her mouth, she raised her hand and slapped him upside the arm, “Ah! She just hit me. Ah! And again!”
“I’m not evil.”
Colin relented, “Okay, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
“Good.” They watched for a moment as Arthur helped Merlin away, resting on their journey, Merlin too injured to carry on, “Merlin the hero! Arthur admits it, Merlin’s his hero!”
“Well, he does save his life all the time!”
“I love the way you said that! Kiiiin-gah.”
“We had a lot of fun doing this. It really shows how they’ve grown up.” Throughout the series, they had had more scenes such as it more than they had ever before. It was different, Arthur accepting who he was and that he may need help from other people sometimes. There were times still that the childish Arthur seeped through, making him think that he had to do it all on his own. It had added a whole extra level for them to play with and they had both come out of it stronger actors.
“Arthur especial- yes Arthur! He would save your life!”
“He has!”
“It’s love, I’m telling you.” Colin let it slide, engrossed in the fight scene, remembering the day they filmed it. With so many episodes going on at once for him, days like this, action days, were the less hectic ones, which seemed odd to comprehend, but instead of doing a million scenes from more than half the episodes, he was doing two or three substantial scenes from just one. “How does Arthur not notice you do magic?”
“I have no idea.”
“He’s blinded by love.” That time Colin turned to her and glowered, before a smile cracked over his face to show he was joking, it was all in good humour he knew that, “That was a good look. Col just glared at me, it was fabulous!”
“Look at them man handling me!” he said, pointing towards the screen, being thrown to the floor.
“Look at me, kicking you around.” She said with mirth on her face.
“I love this, he’s your little puppy.”
“Who, Merlin? Kick him whilst he’s down...”
“No Agravaine! You just don’t let him get away with anything!”
“Of course not,” Katie said with a twist of a smirk on her lips, she was trying to watch the episode but ended up talking to and looking at Colin instead, “He’s bought me a servant when he should have bought me the King!”
“I’m more valuable than Arthur.” Colin declared.
“Yeaaaaah, but Morgana doesn’t know that!
“Don’t kill me!” Colin said flinching as Agravaine lifted the sword to do so, even though he knew the outcome and nobody could see him.
“I won’t let him!” she said, petting him on the knee as if he were a small child in need of the comfort, she had a wicked grin on her face, and Colin knew she wasn’t joking. It wasn’t too long before she was distracted and laughing again, hand still resting on his knee, “‘Strangely fond of the boy’!”
“Did you add that in?” he asked her, turning to look her way, his hand not resting on hers.
“No... no honestly it was in the script!” she said, pulling her hand out from under Colin’s and raising both in her defence. Colin had read the scene but, much like Katie, often skimmed it quickly when he didn’t have lines to learn but he made sure to know exactly what was happening and where. He eyed her sideways, withdrawing his hand from his knee bring his fist in front of his mouth, leaning forward on his elbow.
“You enjoyed throwing water at me, didn’t you?” he asked as the scene faded up on Merlin strung up in chains in Morgana’s hovel. A wicked grin spread across Katie’s face.
“Yeah... I really did. How many times did we have to do this shot?”
“Four or five? They had to keep drying me, try tried to make it warm water to start with but decided the reaction was truer is they threw cold water at me. I was freezing!” He had been glad that it was a stage set rather than location in Wales, he’s had been truly frozen by the last take if they had been outside.
“Sorry.”
“And who forced you to live in a hovel?” he asked, “Who said you needed to do that? You have magical powers, magic yourself up a castle!” he joked, waving his fingers around meaningfully.
“Is that what Merlin would have done?” she asked him. She had asked the producers the same question, but they wanted her to have everything she’d had before taken from her, if she’d built her own castle she could have claimed her own kingdom and become queen on that one. She’d still had motive and reason to go after Camelot, but it would be more gratifying to see her fall from grace and build herself up.
“No, Merlin would have gone back to Ealdor...”
“I loved these scenes. They were good fun.” Katie concluded as she watched herself tidying Merlin up. She’d not been allowed to torture him, it was still on pre-watershed, so throwing water was all she’d got.
“Being tied up hurt.” His muscle memory kicked in, his wrists started to ache, he could even feel his arms starting to throb as if the blood was trying harder to circulate.
“Well, Morgana’s a bit kinky.” She winked at him.
“No chains in a cell or on the floor, no, you’re going to hang him from the ceiling...”
“Easier to be suggestive that way, I guess.”
“I just imagine Jeremy coming in and telling you off again for being too flirty!”
Katie laughed, remembering all too well back in the first series when she had pushed the scene between Merlin and Morgana over Mordred to be more than friendly, “Family show, guys,” she said, trying to sound like their director, “family show.”
“So the bad guy ties up her arch nemesis in chains...”
“Only she doesn’t know that he’s Emrys.”
“The first time you said that I swear you said ‘I’ve never seen Gaius clean a wound before.’ Like you were really bad at it or something.” Colin laughed, he’d been confused and started to laugh, the shot had to be gone again. It was weirdly hilarious and they had had to kick themselves for messing around.
“Hey, I tended to the injured!”
“You tended to Arthur, once. The other time you snuck off to be evil and try and kill me!”
“You were in my way...” that had been one of her favourite shoots to date, sword fighting. Her many a campaign with Angel had paid off, and it had once again in series four. They even got a short scene together which they had enjoyed immensely and had worked extra specially hard so that they would give them swords again.
“Do you think Morgana would have told Arthur or Uther if Merlin had opened up to her about his magic?” Colin asked randomly, the thought coming to him. They had spoken about it briefly before back when Merlin had found out about Morgana’s abilities, how the story would have gone if he had been honest with her from the start.
“In the end, probably, like now. But to start with she would have hidden it, if he was helping her. That would have been interesting to see.”
“I think it would have.” They fell into a comfortable silence for a few moments, watching as the scene changed to Arthur’s return to Camelot.
“Agravaine doesn’t want to find you.”
“No... but everybody else does. They all need me.”
“But without you there, the knights get to realise that there’s something wrong without it being you sneaking around sorting it out on your own.”
“Yeah, it’s my fault they never come across that well...”
“Oh completely.”
“Arthur should just listen to Merlin all the time. He’s normally right.”
“Do you ever get an ‘I told you so’ moment?”
“Sort of. Maybe. Can I say that?” He asked looking up to the window into the sound booth. The people in it shrugged.
“You have now!” she said, trying to pretend it was the worst thing in the world. In his defence it had been a long time coming for Merlin to finally get his chance to say it, even if in the end he had been humble about it, “I don’t know how many takes it took me to get that spell right, but my god, I don’t know how you do it! I’m so bad at it!” Colin gave her a sympathetic look. He had tried his hardest to help her out with learning spells. They were both given a list of pronunciations and he had gone through them with her the first few times. She had been adorable, getting them wrong, trying again, laughing, stumbling over them all. Eventually she would nail them then come the day of the take she’d forget all their practise and curse at his lack of absence for being able to just say it to her, the pro now that he was.
Colin watched the screen intently as Morgana produced her plan, the Fomorrah, “That little snake thing became your pet.” He laughed, she’d named it Perry and stroked it like she was a Bond Villain with a cat.
“It did! I loved that little plastic guy!”
“Morgana’s gone a bit mental.”
“Little bit Drusilla.” Katie said, it was known now, amongst fans and magazines and interviewers alike how much she was into genre, from Kroll to Princess Bride to Star Wars, she love it all. Being able to attend all the conventions as a guest was one of her favourite things about being on the show. Running into Nathan Fillion at Comic Con in July had been a highlight of her life. She knew what it felt like to be the speechless fans that came up to her and gushed about her character and the show, she was one of them, and she loved it. She loved that she was able to provide the same thrill and adoration that she wanted and got from her own interests.
“That’s what Bradley said.”
“Tony would too.”
“Nice little clause that. Not simple is it?” he mentioned as she explained that the Formorrah would grow back when its head was cut from its body, imply the same of the one planted in his neck.
Katie laughed, her wine in her hand, “Not going to make it easy for you!”
“Everything that makes me Merlin: no magic. I liked that.” Colin said as Morgana took away everything from Merlin that made him Merlin. His trusting, kind personality, his smiley persona and his even his magic, making him the most inept assassin in the world.
“I loved how useless you were.” Katie commented, followed by a large swig of her wine, emptying her glass.
“He does rely on magic for a lot of things!”
Katie leant forward to grab the bottle, unscrewing the screw top and filled up her glass. She offered it out to Colin who gave her a thumbs up and held out his nearly finished glass. “This makes me cringe every time!” she declared mid pour, stopping to point at the screen.
“It makes me squirm and it wasn’t even really there!” Colin agreed accepting his now full glass back from Katie and relaxing back in the sofa.
“George!”
“One!” Colin ticked off on his fingers. Katie looked up and understood what he was counting, Bradley sans shirt. “He was a really funny guy comically brilliant.” Colin said of George.
“I ran into him on set. I love how he’s wear a variation of your outfit.”
“Just neater.”
“A lot neater.” They said as George presented Arthur with his banquet of a breakfast. “Where did the tavern thing come from?”
“An episode in series three.”Colin confirmed. He couldn’t even remember who’s idea it was, but ever since Gwaine had arrived they had a running with taverns and it had stayed.
“But why the tavern?”
“I never asked. It’s always been a running joke that Merlin can’t hold his drink.”
“Not like you at all. You’re the stereotypical Irish man...” Katie said in jest, knowing full well that after a few he could get a bit jolly. His incredibly sticky frame didn’t give the alcohol much space to absorb so it went to his head.
“Eoin puts me to shame.” Katie poked her bottom lip out in faux-sympathy, Colin the Jolly Sailor was always entertaining. Something she was very much on side with and may have snuck a few extra drinks in...
“What is it Gaius says? One whiff of a kitchen maids apron or somet- he’s coming for you!” she said interrupting her own trail of thought as Arthur and Gwen exited the castle into the courtyard.
“Gwen’s worried too!”
“Yeah, but Arthur’s the one going.”
“And Gwaine.” Colin pointed out as their fellow Irishman appeared behind them on screen.
“Merlin’s new BFF.” She said, gesticulating towards him.
“He’s better than Arthur.”
“Tavern buddy!” she moved to high-five him, something Colin missed so she dropped her hand heavily between them on the sofa, it knocking into Colin’s leg as it did.
“It’s a spiral Merlin can’t escape from now Gwaine’s pushed him down it...”
“Look at them. That- she’s going to steal my throne!” said was outraged, pouting and pretending to kick up a fuss about it. She stamped her feet on the ground and flailed her arms about to make her point, but Colin wasn’t looking her way.
He looked to her when she stopped moving, “More like you’re going to steal hers!” Katie pouted at him, a look he returned before cracking into a smile and turning his attention back to the screen.
“Awh listen to the praise, Gwaine loves Merlin too.”
Colin nodded, “Everybody loves Merlin. Even Morgana.”
“No she doesn’t.” Katie responded quickly, an air of mirth in her tone.
“Everybody does.”
“Yeah she does. It’s a big love-in. Secretly she wanted those flowers you gave her last year.”
Colin thought for a second before explaining, “For anyone that didn’t see the deleted scenes-“
“Though anyone watching the commentaries probably have-“
“-we filmed a scene in episode one, I think, where Merlin brought Morgana flowers to welcome her back, and once he left she discarded them. Mean.”
“Out of context, without the bit at the end, that scene was so sweet. If only they’d listened to me back in series one! It could have been beautiful.” She pointed at the screen as Arthur hugged Merlin to him. “Look at the love!”
“I’m confused.” Colin bristled, “What team are you on?”
“Every team. I ship everything.” He shook his head at her again, she was such an enabler for the fans of the show. He rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the screen. “He rolled his eyes at me. Men.” They fell quiet for a short while as Gaius welcomed Merlin back. “You are wonderful in these scenes. It’s so slight, but effective.”
“Thank you.”
“You make me feel bad.”
“Sorry.”
She waved it off, Colin Morgan, it was widely known, was a legend in certain circles. When the show was recognised by awarding bodies, it was him and his acting performances that got nominated - quite rightfully, “I love what I did to you.”
“I loved that woman. She was so lovely. All of them were.”
“We have the best supporting cast.” Katie declared, over the years they had worked with so many talented individuals, she could scarcely remember them all, but she loved that even though they were only there for a day or a single scene, a lot of them would give it their all. Some of them, like Rupert, stayed on. “I like to think Merlin has to fend off Gwaine every morning...” Katie concluded, feeling that she wouldn’t be alone in the world for thinking so.
“Me and Eoin decided that too. Only that normally he would give him something...”
Katie awhed at Eoin’s saddened face as Merlin walked away, opening the scene on Gwen and Arthur who was sitting at the table, “Look at them. It’s an odd relationship, serving your boyfriend food.”
“And yet Merlin serving him still equates to love to you?”
“Yes.”
“I have to say, Angel was brilliant in this episode. It was so much fun, even if she was hitting me around the head with jugs.” Colin laughed, it had been a different episode for both of them, Angel getting to do a more humorous script and Colin getting to act Merlin’s darker side, something he had only done briefly before.
“She is. Nobody disses the future queen. Bad Merlin.” Katie reprimanded as Arthur squinted at Merlin, Excuse me?
“Sorry.” Colin replied meekly, looking down at his empty hands, quickly deciding to reach out for his glass of wine.
“What did the pigs ever do to you?”
Colin shrugged, forgetting the listeners would be able to see him. “Poor pigs.”
Katie started to giggle uncontrollably. Colin swiped her glass from her hand so she neither spilt or dropped it as she bent forward in her chair.
“Okay?” Colin asked her once she started t calm down, holding her glass just within reach should she want it.
“Mmm. Yeah.” She exhaled with a hum, “Must have been really good fun to do this. I miss doing the comedic scripts. Morgana’s life is so serious now.”
“Seriously evil.”
“She’s not evil, she’s misunderstood!”
“Of course.” Colin said deadpan, giving her a disbelieving look.
“That Gwen’s a clever girl.”
“PD Guinevere.” Colin smiled. They’d all seen what the fans called CSI Camelot online. The three of them detecting things and saving the day in impossible ways, the thought of it was amusing and he certainly did enjoy deducting cases with other characters, getting them all involved.
Katie was frowning the next moment when he looked over to her, “Why does Gaius deny having knowledge about everything?” she asked him.
Colin sucked in his breath through his teeth, “He’s a humble man.”
“He thwarts a lot of plans, does Gaius.”
“Including Merlin’s.” Colin reminded her, many a time had Gaius told him not to do something, of course, a lot of the time Merlin would do it anyway. It wasn’t like anybody could really stop him. Lock him in jail, he could escape. He’d get the better of you.
“He knows a lot of dangerous information.” She concluded, Morgana’s entire story, he knew. “A lot of people trust him.” Uther one of the most trusting in him, Gaius knew every aspect of his life, from the truth behind Arthur’s birth (which Arthur now seemed to know without explanation considering it had all been denied before) , the truth about Morgana’s lineage, Merlin. He figured out everybody’s secrets and mostly kept them.
The young actor shook his head, “You don’t want to get on the wrong side of Gaius.”
“No, no you don’t.” Katie confirmed with a long swig of her wine, her second glass almost gone, the bottle already empty, “Why does Percival hate me so much because of Cenred?” Katie asked having completely missed a trick.
“Because you sided with him?” Colin replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“I wanted his army... not him.”
“And that makes it better?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think Percival cares that much about why you had him on side, just that you did. It was his army that killed his family, you had his army; therefore he doesn’t like Morgana either.” Colin explained with a shrug. If he was Percival, he would hate her too.
“Bradley changing.” Katie said, saying what she saw on screen.
Colin laughed, “Two.”
Katie grinned, she’d heard the commentary for the first episode of series two when they had started the game. “The next one would count as like five.”
“That was just-“ Colin cut himself off laughing, “it was so funny to film, so awkward. What made it better was Richard’s smile-“
Katie shushed him, “We shouldn’t talk about it now!”
“No, no, we’ll spoil it...”
Katie awhed, “He trusts you more than his future brother in law. More than Gwen.” Colin nodded smugly, until as Merlin he ran into a pillar, knocking himself to the ground. Katie laughed, Arthur’s reaction making it stronger, “How did you manage to run into the wall and knock yourself out?”
Colin puffed out his chest and proudly responded with, “Special case.”
She winced as Gwen hit him around the head with the jug, “Looks like it hurt.”
“She wasn’t actually allowed to hit me around the head, you know,” Colin replied with a sarcastic grin.
“I know. But I’m just saying it looked good.” She huffed prodding him in the arm to no avail. They watched in silence as Gaius started to extract the Fomorrah from the back of Merlin’s neck. “Highly skilled! Awh yeah! I’m highly skilled,” She exclaimed to stop herself from cringing at the moving worm-like creature. “Complimented by Gaius,” she was proud of it.
“You got one over on Merlin. Doesn’t happen often.”
Katie was busy cracking up again to respond to him properly, “Angel’s facial expressions are priceless. They are one of my favourite things. I saw episode three the other day and her facial expressions whilst Arthur is on the cartwheel is just, I laughed a lot.”
“Me and Alice had a lot of love for her reaction shots.” Colin agreed, he hadn’t seen them whilst they were recording, being face down on the chair at the time.
“Arthur. Finally using his brain.” She reported pointedly, waving her hand towards the screen. She had been wondering how long it would take but she didn’t think he would go back on his accusations once they had been made, but she’d been wrong. Arthur was turned back around so quickly, so trusting of his uncle.
“See what you see!”
“Epic lighting!”
“Bad man!”
“Arthur.”
“Seriously, Gaius?” Colin said disbelievingly. He shook his head in disappointment, “I’m shaking my head at Arthur.”
“So am I.”
They both did so in comical timing.
“One day, he’ll see that he can use his own brain. Agravaine is just too good in his eyes that doubting him isn’t something he wants to do. Even though he should.”
“You’d think after the Gwen thing he’d be a bit more sceptical of him.”
“You think, Arthur hits his head so much he’s probably damaged his memory cortex or something.” Katie looked at him and for a moment was silence before she laughed.
The scene changed before them, Arthur changing behind his screen, stripping himself of his clothes, “FIVE!” Katie shouted with a clap. “I must say, Col, I do like the purple shirt you’re wearing.” She said with an approving look on her face, nodding.
“Thank you. I felt special being given that new shirt.
“You’ve got more clothes than me this series!”
“That’s saying something.”
“They made me a dress last series that I was only meant to wear once but I liked it so they let me wear it more.”
“And I get two different colour shirts... and scarves.” Colin returned flatly, he wanted more costume, he’d been given another for the finale, his coronation outfit, it had been odd and uncomfortable and it just wasn’t his trademark neckerchief and baggy shirt that he has become accustomed to over the years. He wasn’t sure as of yet whether he would be wearing the new costume more or if it was just a special occasion thing.
“Jealous of my dresses?”
“Always.”
“I love how Gwen doesn’t look away. She gets a good look in before she even stops staring at him. Good girl.”
“Richard pummelling me against the pillar there. It went a bit wrong the first time, I crashed my head into it.” He laughed awkwardly, scratching at his growing hair, his break from filming was his chance to turn into a bit of a scruff for a few months.
“You like to have accidents, don’t you?” she could recall several accidents he’d had over the years, some worse than others but most silly little things. They’d both injured themselves falling over in the cloisters.
“I do.”
A thought suddenly came to Katie, “Why has everybody been in a scene with shirtless Arthur apart from me?”
“Because it would be incest?” Colin said with an impish grin.
“Even when I tended to his wounds,” she said ignoring him, “he was chainmail wearing. It’s always Angel who gets the shirtless scenes, actually,” she correctly, “it’s mostly you!”
“Because I get him dressed in the morning?”
“That’s incredibly gay of you.”
“It used to be Gwen’s job to help you get dressed...”
“That’s what girls do. Not men. Not manly men.” She poked, she cheekily raised her eyebrows and smirked. She turned her attention back to the screen to see Merlin shovelling fruit into his mouth at breakneck speed. “Berries! My god you stuff those in fast, don’t you?”
“I like berries.”
“One of three things you can eat.”
“Four.” Colin countered, laughing along with her. Famously when they had been eating out whilst in France there were few things he found he could eat. Everything had cheese or meat or tomatoes in it. Crepes were made with milk. Pizza was just a no-go area and then the rest of the menu was either steak or ham. And people wondered why he was so skinny.
“I’m about to come back!” Katie gleefully declared, clapping her hands together joyously, “Screen time! This episode is about to get a whole lot better-“
“-worse. Owh!” he frowned at her, rubbing his arm with an injured pout on his face.
“I hit him again. THE TAVERN! I love how this has become a running joke. I really do.”
“It’s his friendship with Gwaine. He’s a bad influence on Merlin.”
“Is that a parallel to your relationship with Eoin in real life?” she asked, prying for the Merlin fans needs rather than her own, she knew fully well that Eoin was a terrible influence on all of them. He was always up for a knees up which generally ended in heads down.
On tables passed out drunk.
“I couldn’t tell you that.” Katie upturned her lip, pretending to be upset, the slyness of his voice suggested exactly what she knew.
“What are you talking about there?” She asked, oblivious to what was going on.
“Where?”
“To Gwaine, not who he seems?”
“I think it’s a reference to his father being a knight for Caerleon. It never got brought up again. Neither did the fact that Gwaine didn’t want to be a knight to begin with!” Colin shrugged, he fiddled with his headphones, inching his ear and replacing them again.
“I love how his banishment got revoked the moment Arthur was in charge.”
“Yeah! It’s good to have Gwaine around, he’s good fun. Always a good laugh.”
“Eoin’s hair puts us all to shame.” Katie stated, Colin nodded in agreement with her. He pulled at his shorter hair and tried to flip it around but failed miserably. Katie shook with laughter then presented him with an over-the-top hair flick, making herself blind by hair in front of her face.
Colin laughed. “We’re practising our hair flicks. Katie just mashed me in the face.”
She pulled her hair from in front of her face, guiltily looking at Colin before apologising and turning to look back at the screen. “Oh Rupert!”
“He’s head knight.”
“Tom’s face!” Katie was gone with her giggles, “Did you actually trample on them?”
“I did.”
“I love how Adetomiwa just doesn’t react, at all! How did he not?”
“I don’t think I stood on him directly. I think he just got crushed when I stood on Rupert. He’s probably grimacing in his mind.”
“Poor Tom at the bottom!”
“I think we did this take only a couple of times, the first time they got the giggles and I fell off Rupert trying to get on the horse.”
“Did you hurt yourself?”
“No, no, I was fine. I just kind of stumbled a bit over them and stopped myself.”
“We’re all very good at getting ourselves injured.” She said as if directly talking to the people watching the show rather than in conversation with Colin, “I kept walking into the table in my hovel. It’s all a bit close together in there.”
“It makes it easier to get in the mind frame that Morgana’s evil now. It was a lot harder to think you were the bad guy when you were still in Lady Morgana dresses, going around the castle. Here, with the hovel in the forest, you really are the big bad, you know? This is it.”
“She’s the evil now. She’s the General Zod to your Superman.”
“Not my kryptonite though.” He said, shaking his head like a young child who was being teased by his older siblings about his crush on a girl.
“She could have been.” She replied suggestively.
“Emrys is hers now though.” Katie snorted at the thought and tried her hardest not to laugh to hard.
“This next scene, we see just how much she is terrified of him. She genuinely believes that he will kill her. If he comes into her life, that’s the end of her. From the visions she’s had, all of them have come true. Everything she’s ever dreamt has come to pass.”
“There are dreams she’s had that have come to certain points and interventions have been made.”
“But it’s always the parts of the dreams that can be determined either way that she sees. Arthur was never dead. Her dream about Gwen, at this stage at least, is going to happen. Until such times as they get to the stage of their relationship that they get married, we don’t know if the dream will come true. Chances are for Morgana that they will. She never wins.”
“Evil never does.”
“It has some victories. But Morgana never wins. She takes over for a day then Merlin’s ruining her plans and she’s back in the hovel.”
“You’ve already killed Uther this series.” Colin pointed out, what he thought, helpfully.
“She didn’t feel good about it. She’s not evil, she felt bad about killing her own father.”
“We’re all fatherless. Aren’t we?”
Katie looked up thoughtfully, “Arthur is. Morgana is. Merlin is. Gwen is so Elyan is.”
“Gwaine is. Percival’s family were killed by Cenred’s army as we found out today!”
“What about Leon?”
“I don’t know. It’s never come up.”
“Maybe we should ask them. I want to know. Leon is my favourite knight. Rupert, we will find out for you!” she promised, the people in the sound booth were shrugging at them.
Colin cut back to paying attention to the episode before him, “You’re not scared enough that you don’t follow me.”
“No. She’s made of harder stuff than that. It’s fun to play, but learning the old English is really hard. It takes me a million takes to do one small spell, then you’re there, talking in Dragon and you make me look so bad, with these massively long speeches in Old English.”
“This is my fourth year doing it. To start with Merlin used to do things without words, all the time, and that was far easier.” His teaching her had been comical. Ever since the first seires she’d wanted him to teach her how to say the complicated things.
“We have some of that now, in the heat of battle, just throwing each other around.”
“No respect for your elders.” Colin tutted,
“None at all. She fears Emrys, he’s her doom, he’s going to kill her, so she believes. She’s terrified of him. She’s not going to let him live!”
“He didn’t try then.”
“Defending a man who is no friend to magic, you should be ashamed!”
“I’m sorry.” He faked crying, the smile on his face betraying him.
“And there you go, putting me to shame with your really long spells! And throwing me through the woods! You could have killed me.”
“I think that was the idea.”
“When did they turn into this? Hey?” she asked him, pretending to be emotional, shaking his arm, “When did they start to hate each other so much?”
“When Morgana tried to kill the whole of Camelot...” he responded just as irrationally asking her back.
“I’m trying to get sympathy here.”
“I think Morgana is past getting sympathy.” He replied, moving back to sit normally.
“The fans still want her to have love though, they do!” she declared, they had had questions at nearly every con they had been too. More recently, at San Diego, there had even been suggestion of the pair of them together which Katie had found hilarious and quite the good idea, or it would have been previously, maybe not so much anymore. Now it certainly would be an interesting storyline for sure, one she was completely certain was so far out of the water there was no point suggesting it. Well, she could try, then be ignored. “Merlin and Morgana need love. There was a time when that could have been with each other. But did the listen to me? No. They should have. Morgana liked getting flowers.”
“Surely there were other men that bought her flowers other than Merlin?”
“Not that we ever saw. She only ever received them from Merlin on screen.”
“How many times?”
“Twice? Three times? I think we’ve filmed three and two made the cut? Maybe? I don’t know. Arthur talked Merlin out of it before too long.”
“Arthur was talking himself out of it.” Colin commented with a grin.
“What, bringing Morgana flowers?”
“Yes, exactly.” Colin said, laughing as Katie shook her head at him, mouthing ‘No’ at him.
“Oh look, you’re in trouble. Arthur’s got his angry face on. You missed a date.”
“It’s okay, he found a new friend whilst I was away.” Colin said as George came into the shot.
“I love how Arthur doesn’t even think to check that Merlin is in the tavern. He could tie it in with a trip to Gwen’s house or something. If he was that desperate to see Merlin, if he needed him that badly, he could go there himself.”
“Arthur’s just lazy.”
Polishing.
Katie burst out laughing, “Oh George,” she managed through her laughter, tears coming to her eyes.
“He likes to polish.”
Slowly she calmed, “Does he ever come back?”
“No, he doesn’t. Maybe he could take Merlin’s job whilst he’s off saving the world.”
“But he is very good at polishing things, swords especially.” She said suggestively. Colin couldn’t help but laugh. “Have you got a brass joke?” she asked, genuinely intrigued, she didn’t know you could make jokes about brass; that was probably the point.
“No. I don’t even know what you could joke about with brass.”
“I Googled, all I got was instrument jokes but I’m not sure that’s entirely what he meant.” She said honestly.
“No, I have no idea. I’ll have a think about it let it come back to you.”
“I’m injured! Look! Look what you did to me! I might be dead!” she said, poking him sharply in the side.
“If you were, I’d have blown you up.”
“You used to do that a lot.”
“Not so much anymore.” He sighed, disappointed but at the same time grateful that he was being more inventive with killing people. Or just killing them less.
“You’ve killed a lot of people. Why don’t you get any repercussions? You’re teaching children that it’s okay to kill people if nobody knows about it.”
“I always feel bad about it.” He replied simply.
“Oh, the people in the sound booth are telling us to wrap it up. We are talking over the credits now, There’s my name! Next week, will I, or will I not find out who Emrys is?”
“Or will she remain clueless. Tune in to find out.”
“These go on the DVDs so chances are they’ve already seen it...”
The pair of them hooked off their headphones and set them down on the small table. “We managed to stay on topic, mostly,” Katie said proudly. There had been so many times that they had done commentaries and ended up talking about the most random of things. They had had tangents, for sure, but mostly stuck to what they were meant to talk about.
“Go us, we did well.” Colin complimented as he held open the door for her to exit. She thanked him. She hooked her scarf around her neck ready to snuggle down into it away from the chill. They chatted inanely as they walked down the stairs into reception, signing out and leaving.
“D’you need a lift?” she asked him, grabbing her car keys out of her bag. She knew he’d be getting a taxi or a bus to wherever he was going.
“Sure, I’m just headed back to my flat.”
“On my way back then,” she smiled. She clicked her car open and climbed into the driver’s seat. The car itself was cold, she whacked the heating up as she turned the ignition. Colin jumped into the passenger seat, rubbing his hands together.
Their pointless and comfortable conversation continued all the way home, ranging from work to Katie’s new job and onto Colin’s projects. The journey passed quickly, “Cup of tea?” Colin asked, unplugging his seatbelt as she pulled up outside his flat. She gave him a sideways glance and agreed, turning off the engine.
The walk from her car to Colin’s building was short. They walked side by side, Colin’s hand shoved deep into his jean pockets. “I could do with warming up.”
He caught her eye, she was smiling still, “I’m sure I can arrange something. And I’m pretty sure I have the latest episode of Castle too.”
“Well why didn’t you say so? How can a girl refuse the temptation of Nathan Fillion?” he beamed, linking her arm through Colin’s unoffered arm. He looked down at it, briefly stunned.
“You just wait until I break out my Space Cowboy costume next Halloween.”
“Next Halloween? You think you’re getting away with making me wait until next Halloween?”
“Maybe your birthday, then.” He chuckled, received a slap on the arm for his efforts. “Well maybe if you behave.” He quirked his eyebrow suggestively, making Katie smile broadly.
“Well now, Mr Morgan, if I didn’t know better I’d think you were flirting with me.”
“You don’t know better.” She was appalled, mockingly so. “You know what I mean.”
She silently nodded and allowed him to lead her into his building into the warmth of the hallway. Maybe it was just the heat in his cheeks that was making him clam up but once she smiled at him, simple and happy, he calmed. Maybe tonight wouldn’t go so badly after all.
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings/Characters: Katie/Colin, random techs.
Warnings: RPF is RPF, don't like, don't read...
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin, and it's actors, still aren't mine!
Rating: PG
Summary: The commentary that I wanted to see/hear for 4x06!
Author Notes: Written for the MiniBang on merlinbb_rpf dedicated to all my M/M or C/K girlies <3 Sorry this is late! Late week was deadline week and I spent it writing my last essay then running away to look for somewhere to live in Scotland! So here it is!
They insisted on it. That’s what people would say. They had so much fun with the episode that they wanted to share the experience with the fans. Katie would have told you that she wanted to laugh at her and ‘Col’ trying to remain serious when all they wanted to do was laugh. Colin would have told you he wanted to express how much fun it was being ‘evil Merlin’. When in actual fact, they would barely cover these bases at all.
Arriving at the recording studio with only minutes to spare, Katie followed the crew member up the stairs to the room she would share the next hour or so with Colin Morgan, laughing at their acting. She always found it odd that this was her life now, the sheer success of the entire thing was something none of them had even fathomed. They knew it was good, but they didn’t think people would come from Australia just to see them in France, it was crazy. Ludicrous.
Colin was already sat on the plush sofa when she was shown into the room. He beamed at her and brandished the bottle of mineral water at her. Something he brought to ever audio commentary sitting he’d ever done. Katie smiled and pulled out a bottle of wine. Something she did every time. “Can’t go breaking tradition, can we Col?” she laughed setting the bottle down on the small table next to the glasses.
“Of course not.” Colin shifted to the edge of the sofa and stood, hugging Katie briefly before they both slumped back into the sofa. “Good day?” he asked, he’d been busy doing some ADR recording downstairs whilst Katie had been off with her next venture.
“Yeah, not bad. Costume fittings, hair trails, you know the deal.”
“Yeah, vaguely.” He laughed. In his time on Merlin he had about a third of the costume fittings that Katie had, maybe even less. His costume had been near-constantly the same since day one. An odd different shirt here, his Emrys robe and brand spanking new jacket for Gwen’s coronation. Having it on though, he missed his usual costume, it was a safety blanket and it had been stripping away from him. Luckily he hadn’t been the centre of attention that day so he was free to tug at the collar as and when he needed to for the most part. The worst thing he’d had to do was sit in a chair for near five hours whilst the make-up team put a prosthetic on his face.
“Ready to go guys?” a voice came through the speakers from the sound booth. They grabbed their headphones and unscrewed the lids of their brought beverages.
“Yeah,” they chorused in Irish unison. They were counted down and the episode started to run before them. In a land of myth and a time of magic...
“Hello Merlin Fans,” Katie said mockingly, knowing Bradley would listen to the commentary once it was released, “I’m Katie McGrath and I play Morgana.”
“And I’m Colin Morgan and I play Merlin.”
“Oh, you just said that at the same time as John.” Katie pointed out with a laugh as she started to pour out a glass of white for the pair of them.
“I planned it,” Colin replied deadpan, looking at Katie with a wide grin on his face. She laughed in return and handed him his glass.
Katie looked up at the screen, she had seen the episode a few days previously, so she could react to it and know what was going on in the scenes that she wasn’t a part of. Many a time before she had spent time being teased for not recognising scenes or for not being in them, “So what do we have here, Col?”
“Well, we have the Valley of the Fallen Kings.” Colin informed their invisible audience. She cracked a smile.
“And why is Merlin so worried about it?” She teased him, watching Merlin panic on the screen before them. They each had a massive pair of headphones and could only hear each other as they spoke over the episode through the speakers. It was odd to see Colin talk but hear a tinnier version of his voice in her head.
“Because nothing ever goes right there...”
“No, no it does not,” she said the picture of seriousness before cracking a smile at her fellow Irishman, “What happened the last time you were there?” she asked him, vaguely remembering it herself, she’d featured heavily in the episode but been asleep for most of it.
“Arthur got shot with an arrow and died.” Colin said bluntly.
“Something he doesn’t seem to recall.”
“Noo...” they both laughed, Colin was tempted to make a comment about how idiotic Arthur was, but Merlin had never told Arthur that he had been gravely injured, merely scratched and the clotpole had believed him.
“I love how Tom doesn’t fit into chainmail.”
“He does,” Colin confirmed with a sideways glance, he could see her innocently smiling back at him.
“But we’d miss out on the guns if he did wear sleeves.” She comically pumped her arms, like a roman god, to demonstrate her point. Colin raised an eyebrow, and laughed at her.
“He’s allergic to sleeves.”
“Sorcery!” Katie shouted as Merlin performed a spell in front of a huge group of un-noticing people.
“Gaius says that a lot less this series.” Colin informed her.
“I think it’s because he’s realised that it’s always sorcery, and Merlin always knows it’s sorcery, so it doesn’t need to be said. More often than not I’m at the root of it anyway.” She replied flippantly, waving her hand through the air at nobody in particular. “Merlin! Poor Merlin.”
“At least it wasn’t Arthur for a change.” The pair of them laughed, they knew if Bradley was with them he’d act high and mighty then finally submit to them and agree. It was the one thing he hated about his character. It was another thing that happened a lot less in the series, Arthur spent the majority of his time awake and lucid than knocked out.
“Oh bless, look at him, he’s so worried about you!” Katie teased as Arthur clocked that Merlin had been hit, eyes wide and panic-ridden.
“What would Arthur do without Merlin? He wouldn’t be able to feed himself.”
“Oh it’s more than that.” Colin looked over at her and gave her a quick scowl, he knew she’d comment like she was. She had in commentaries before and she would, no doubt, again. He shook his head at her, his he could dissuade her that would be best for all involved, “He’s shaking his head at me.”
“New credits!” Colin exclaimed as the music kicked in.
“Hah, diversion.” Katie laughed, poking him in the side.
“I’m not the only one on them anymore!” they started to watch them in silence, Katie waiting for her opportune moment.
“There I am!” She called on seeing her face appear, “Awh, the kisssss. Oh we get the pleasure of it every episode now!” She celebrated, clapping her hands barely loudly enough for the microphones to pick up.
“I really like what they’ve done with them.” Colin decided, nodding to himself. He didn’t know, nor understand, why they hadn’t really changed them before now. Every year they were told they would and they hadn’t but now they were finally different and it was odd, it was going to take a while to get used to.
“Me too. I think it’s like the show, the show has turned into a show about their relationships and their characters now more than anything, rather than what they’re facing monster and why, they’re facing their inner demons.”
“Completely,” Colin agreed taking a small sip of wine, “everybody has grown since the start, Morgana has changed so much.”
“She has, she’s so much fun!”
“Is it fun to finally be playing your true self?” With an offended gape of her mouth, she raised her hand and slapped him upside the arm, “Ah! She just hit me. Ah! And again!”
“I’m not evil.”
Colin relented, “Okay, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
“Good.” They watched for a moment as Arthur helped Merlin away, resting on their journey, Merlin too injured to carry on, “Merlin the hero! Arthur admits it, Merlin’s his hero!”
“Well, he does save his life all the time!”
“I love the way you said that! Kiiiin-gah.”
“We had a lot of fun doing this. It really shows how they’ve grown up.” Throughout the series, they had had more scenes such as it more than they had ever before. It was different, Arthur accepting who he was and that he may need help from other people sometimes. There were times still that the childish Arthur seeped through, making him think that he had to do it all on his own. It had added a whole extra level for them to play with and they had both come out of it stronger actors.
“Arthur especial- yes Arthur! He would save your life!”
“He has!”
“It’s love, I’m telling you.” Colin let it slide, engrossed in the fight scene, remembering the day they filmed it. With so many episodes going on at once for him, days like this, action days, were the less hectic ones, which seemed odd to comprehend, but instead of doing a million scenes from more than half the episodes, he was doing two or three substantial scenes from just one. “How does Arthur not notice you do magic?”
“I have no idea.”
“He’s blinded by love.” That time Colin turned to her and glowered, before a smile cracked over his face to show he was joking, it was all in good humour he knew that, “That was a good look. Col just glared at me, it was fabulous!”
“Look at them man handling me!” he said, pointing towards the screen, being thrown to the floor.
“Look at me, kicking you around.” She said with mirth on her face.
“I love this, he’s your little puppy.”
“Who, Merlin? Kick him whilst he’s down...”
“No Agravaine! You just don’t let him get away with anything!”
“Of course not,” Katie said with a twist of a smirk on her lips, she was trying to watch the episode but ended up talking to and looking at Colin instead, “He’s bought me a servant when he should have bought me the King!”
“I’m more valuable than Arthur.” Colin declared.
“Yeaaaaah, but Morgana doesn’t know that!
“Don’t kill me!” Colin said flinching as Agravaine lifted the sword to do so, even though he knew the outcome and nobody could see him.
“I won’t let him!” she said, petting him on the knee as if he were a small child in need of the comfort, she had a wicked grin on her face, and Colin knew she wasn’t joking. It wasn’t too long before she was distracted and laughing again, hand still resting on his knee, “‘Strangely fond of the boy’!”
“Did you add that in?” he asked her, turning to look her way, his hand not resting on hers.
“No... no honestly it was in the script!” she said, pulling her hand out from under Colin’s and raising both in her defence. Colin had read the scene but, much like Katie, often skimmed it quickly when he didn’t have lines to learn but he made sure to know exactly what was happening and where. He eyed her sideways, withdrawing his hand from his knee bring his fist in front of his mouth, leaning forward on his elbow.
“You enjoyed throwing water at me, didn’t you?” he asked as the scene faded up on Merlin strung up in chains in Morgana’s hovel. A wicked grin spread across Katie’s face.
“Yeah... I really did. How many times did we have to do this shot?”
“Four or five? They had to keep drying me, try tried to make it warm water to start with but decided the reaction was truer is they threw cold water at me. I was freezing!” He had been glad that it was a stage set rather than location in Wales, he’s had been truly frozen by the last take if they had been outside.
“Sorry.”
“And who forced you to live in a hovel?” he asked, “Who said you needed to do that? You have magical powers, magic yourself up a castle!” he joked, waving his fingers around meaningfully.
“Is that what Merlin would have done?” she asked him. She had asked the producers the same question, but they wanted her to have everything she’d had before taken from her, if she’d built her own castle she could have claimed her own kingdom and become queen on that one. She’d still had motive and reason to go after Camelot, but it would be more gratifying to see her fall from grace and build herself up.
“No, Merlin would have gone back to Ealdor...”
“I loved these scenes. They were good fun.” Katie concluded as she watched herself tidying Merlin up. She’d not been allowed to torture him, it was still on pre-watershed, so throwing water was all she’d got.
“Being tied up hurt.” His muscle memory kicked in, his wrists started to ache, he could even feel his arms starting to throb as if the blood was trying harder to circulate.
“Well, Morgana’s a bit kinky.” She winked at him.
“No chains in a cell or on the floor, no, you’re going to hang him from the ceiling...”
“Easier to be suggestive that way, I guess.”
“I just imagine Jeremy coming in and telling you off again for being too flirty!”
Katie laughed, remembering all too well back in the first series when she had pushed the scene between Merlin and Morgana over Mordred to be more than friendly, “Family show, guys,” she said, trying to sound like their director, “family show.”
“So the bad guy ties up her arch nemesis in chains...”
“Only she doesn’t know that he’s Emrys.”
“The first time you said that I swear you said ‘I’ve never seen Gaius clean a wound before.’ Like you were really bad at it or something.” Colin laughed, he’d been confused and started to laugh, the shot had to be gone again. It was weirdly hilarious and they had had to kick themselves for messing around.
“Hey, I tended to the injured!”
“You tended to Arthur, once. The other time you snuck off to be evil and try and kill me!”
“You were in my way...” that had been one of her favourite shoots to date, sword fighting. Her many a campaign with Angel had paid off, and it had once again in series four. They even got a short scene together which they had enjoyed immensely and had worked extra specially hard so that they would give them swords again.
“Do you think Morgana would have told Arthur or Uther if Merlin had opened up to her about his magic?” Colin asked randomly, the thought coming to him. They had spoken about it briefly before back when Merlin had found out about Morgana’s abilities, how the story would have gone if he had been honest with her from the start.
“In the end, probably, like now. But to start with she would have hidden it, if he was helping her. That would have been interesting to see.”
“I think it would have.” They fell into a comfortable silence for a few moments, watching as the scene changed to Arthur’s return to Camelot.
“Agravaine doesn’t want to find you.”
“No... but everybody else does. They all need me.”
“But without you there, the knights get to realise that there’s something wrong without it being you sneaking around sorting it out on your own.”
“Yeah, it’s my fault they never come across that well...”
“Oh completely.”
“Arthur should just listen to Merlin all the time. He’s normally right.”
“Do you ever get an ‘I told you so’ moment?”
“Sort of. Maybe. Can I say that?” He asked looking up to the window into the sound booth. The people in it shrugged.
“You have now!” she said, trying to pretend it was the worst thing in the world. In his defence it had been a long time coming for Merlin to finally get his chance to say it, even if in the end he had been humble about it, “I don’t know how many takes it took me to get that spell right, but my god, I don’t know how you do it! I’m so bad at it!” Colin gave her a sympathetic look. He had tried his hardest to help her out with learning spells. They were both given a list of pronunciations and he had gone through them with her the first few times. She had been adorable, getting them wrong, trying again, laughing, stumbling over them all. Eventually she would nail them then come the day of the take she’d forget all their practise and curse at his lack of absence for being able to just say it to her, the pro now that he was.
Colin watched the screen intently as Morgana produced her plan, the Fomorrah, “That little snake thing became your pet.” He laughed, she’d named it Perry and stroked it like she was a Bond Villain with a cat.
“It did! I loved that little plastic guy!”
“Morgana’s gone a bit mental.”
“Little bit Drusilla.” Katie said, it was known now, amongst fans and magazines and interviewers alike how much she was into genre, from Kroll to Princess Bride to Star Wars, she love it all. Being able to attend all the conventions as a guest was one of her favourite things about being on the show. Running into Nathan Fillion at Comic Con in July had been a highlight of her life. She knew what it felt like to be the speechless fans that came up to her and gushed about her character and the show, she was one of them, and she loved it. She loved that she was able to provide the same thrill and adoration that she wanted and got from her own interests.
“That’s what Bradley said.”
“Tony would too.”
“Nice little clause that. Not simple is it?” he mentioned as she explained that the Formorrah would grow back when its head was cut from its body, imply the same of the one planted in his neck.
Katie laughed, her wine in her hand, “Not going to make it easy for you!”
“Everything that makes me Merlin: no magic. I liked that.” Colin said as Morgana took away everything from Merlin that made him Merlin. His trusting, kind personality, his smiley persona and his even his magic, making him the most inept assassin in the world.
“I loved how useless you were.” Katie commented, followed by a large swig of her wine, emptying her glass.
“He does rely on magic for a lot of things!”
Katie leant forward to grab the bottle, unscrewing the screw top and filled up her glass. She offered it out to Colin who gave her a thumbs up and held out his nearly finished glass. “This makes me cringe every time!” she declared mid pour, stopping to point at the screen.
“It makes me squirm and it wasn’t even really there!” Colin agreed accepting his now full glass back from Katie and relaxing back in the sofa.
“George!”
“One!” Colin ticked off on his fingers. Katie looked up and understood what he was counting, Bradley sans shirt. “He was a really funny guy comically brilliant.” Colin said of George.
“I ran into him on set. I love how he’s wear a variation of your outfit.”
“Just neater.”
“A lot neater.” They said as George presented Arthur with his banquet of a breakfast. “Where did the tavern thing come from?”
“An episode in series three.”Colin confirmed. He couldn’t even remember who’s idea it was, but ever since Gwaine had arrived they had a running with taverns and it had stayed.
“But why the tavern?”
“I never asked. It’s always been a running joke that Merlin can’t hold his drink.”
“Not like you at all. You’re the stereotypical Irish man...” Katie said in jest, knowing full well that after a few he could get a bit jolly. His incredibly sticky frame didn’t give the alcohol much space to absorb so it went to his head.
“Eoin puts me to shame.” Katie poked her bottom lip out in faux-sympathy, Colin the Jolly Sailor was always entertaining. Something she was very much on side with and may have snuck a few extra drinks in...
“What is it Gaius says? One whiff of a kitchen maids apron or somet- he’s coming for you!” she said interrupting her own trail of thought as Arthur and Gwen exited the castle into the courtyard.
“Gwen’s worried too!”
“Yeah, but Arthur’s the one going.”
“And Gwaine.” Colin pointed out as their fellow Irishman appeared behind them on screen.
“Merlin’s new BFF.” She said, gesticulating towards him.
“He’s better than Arthur.”
“Tavern buddy!” she moved to high-five him, something Colin missed so she dropped her hand heavily between them on the sofa, it knocking into Colin’s leg as it did.
“It’s a spiral Merlin can’t escape from now Gwaine’s pushed him down it...”
“Look at them. That- she’s going to steal my throne!” said was outraged, pouting and pretending to kick up a fuss about it. She stamped her feet on the ground and flailed her arms about to make her point, but Colin wasn’t looking her way.
He looked to her when she stopped moving, “More like you’re going to steal hers!” Katie pouted at him, a look he returned before cracking into a smile and turning his attention back to the screen.
“Awh listen to the praise, Gwaine loves Merlin too.”
Colin nodded, “Everybody loves Merlin. Even Morgana.”
“No she doesn’t.” Katie responded quickly, an air of mirth in her tone.
“Everybody does.”
“Yeah she does. It’s a big love-in. Secretly she wanted those flowers you gave her last year.”
Colin thought for a second before explaining, “For anyone that didn’t see the deleted scenes-“
“Though anyone watching the commentaries probably have-“
“-we filmed a scene in episode one, I think, where Merlin brought Morgana flowers to welcome her back, and once he left she discarded them. Mean.”
“Out of context, without the bit at the end, that scene was so sweet. If only they’d listened to me back in series one! It could have been beautiful.” She pointed at the screen as Arthur hugged Merlin to him. “Look at the love!”
“I’m confused.” Colin bristled, “What team are you on?”
“Every team. I ship everything.” He shook his head at her again, she was such an enabler for the fans of the show. He rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the screen. “He rolled his eyes at me. Men.” They fell quiet for a short while as Gaius welcomed Merlin back. “You are wonderful in these scenes. It’s so slight, but effective.”
“Thank you.”
“You make me feel bad.”
“Sorry.”
She waved it off, Colin Morgan, it was widely known, was a legend in certain circles. When the show was recognised by awarding bodies, it was him and his acting performances that got nominated - quite rightfully, “I love what I did to you.”
“I loved that woman. She was so lovely. All of them were.”
“We have the best supporting cast.” Katie declared, over the years they had worked with so many talented individuals, she could scarcely remember them all, but she loved that even though they were only there for a day or a single scene, a lot of them would give it their all. Some of them, like Rupert, stayed on. “I like to think Merlin has to fend off Gwaine every morning...” Katie concluded, feeling that she wouldn’t be alone in the world for thinking so.
“Me and Eoin decided that too. Only that normally he would give him something...”
Katie awhed at Eoin’s saddened face as Merlin walked away, opening the scene on Gwen and Arthur who was sitting at the table, “Look at them. It’s an odd relationship, serving your boyfriend food.”
“And yet Merlin serving him still equates to love to you?”
“Yes.”
“I have to say, Angel was brilliant in this episode. It was so much fun, even if she was hitting me around the head with jugs.” Colin laughed, it had been a different episode for both of them, Angel getting to do a more humorous script and Colin getting to act Merlin’s darker side, something he had only done briefly before.
“She is. Nobody disses the future queen. Bad Merlin.” Katie reprimanded as Arthur squinted at Merlin, Excuse me?
“Sorry.” Colin replied meekly, looking down at his empty hands, quickly deciding to reach out for his glass of wine.
“What did the pigs ever do to you?”
Colin shrugged, forgetting the listeners would be able to see him. “Poor pigs.”
Katie started to giggle uncontrollably. Colin swiped her glass from her hand so she neither spilt or dropped it as she bent forward in her chair.
“Okay?” Colin asked her once she started t calm down, holding her glass just within reach should she want it.
“Mmm. Yeah.” She exhaled with a hum, “Must have been really good fun to do this. I miss doing the comedic scripts. Morgana’s life is so serious now.”
“Seriously evil.”
“She’s not evil, she’s misunderstood!”
“Of course.” Colin said deadpan, giving her a disbelieving look.
“That Gwen’s a clever girl.”
“PD Guinevere.” Colin smiled. They’d all seen what the fans called CSI Camelot online. The three of them detecting things and saving the day in impossible ways, the thought of it was amusing and he certainly did enjoy deducting cases with other characters, getting them all involved.
Katie was frowning the next moment when he looked over to her, “Why does Gaius deny having knowledge about everything?” she asked him.
Colin sucked in his breath through his teeth, “He’s a humble man.”
“He thwarts a lot of plans, does Gaius.”
“Including Merlin’s.” Colin reminded her, many a time had Gaius told him not to do something, of course, a lot of the time Merlin would do it anyway. It wasn’t like anybody could really stop him. Lock him in jail, he could escape. He’d get the better of you.
“He knows a lot of dangerous information.” She concluded, Morgana’s entire story, he knew. “A lot of people trust him.” Uther one of the most trusting in him, Gaius knew every aspect of his life, from the truth behind Arthur’s birth (which Arthur now seemed to know without explanation considering it had all been denied before) , the truth about Morgana’s lineage, Merlin. He figured out everybody’s secrets and mostly kept them.
The young actor shook his head, “You don’t want to get on the wrong side of Gaius.”
“No, no you don’t.” Katie confirmed with a long swig of her wine, her second glass almost gone, the bottle already empty, “Why does Percival hate me so much because of Cenred?” Katie asked having completely missed a trick.
“Because you sided with him?” Colin replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“I wanted his army... not him.”
“And that makes it better?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think Percival cares that much about why you had him on side, just that you did. It was his army that killed his family, you had his army; therefore he doesn’t like Morgana either.” Colin explained with a shrug. If he was Percival, he would hate her too.
“Bradley changing.” Katie said, saying what she saw on screen.
Colin laughed, “Two.”
Katie grinned, she’d heard the commentary for the first episode of series two when they had started the game. “The next one would count as like five.”
“That was just-“ Colin cut himself off laughing, “it was so funny to film, so awkward. What made it better was Richard’s smile-“
Katie shushed him, “We shouldn’t talk about it now!”
“No, no, we’ll spoil it...”
Katie awhed, “He trusts you more than his future brother in law. More than Gwen.” Colin nodded smugly, until as Merlin he ran into a pillar, knocking himself to the ground. Katie laughed, Arthur’s reaction making it stronger, “How did you manage to run into the wall and knock yourself out?”
Colin puffed out his chest and proudly responded with, “Special case.”
She winced as Gwen hit him around the head with the jug, “Looks like it hurt.”
“She wasn’t actually allowed to hit me around the head, you know,” Colin replied with a sarcastic grin.
“I know. But I’m just saying it looked good.” She huffed prodding him in the arm to no avail. They watched in silence as Gaius started to extract the Fomorrah from the back of Merlin’s neck. “Highly skilled! Awh yeah! I’m highly skilled,” She exclaimed to stop herself from cringing at the moving worm-like creature. “Complimented by Gaius,” she was proud of it.
“You got one over on Merlin. Doesn’t happen often.”
Katie was busy cracking up again to respond to him properly, “Angel’s facial expressions are priceless. They are one of my favourite things. I saw episode three the other day and her facial expressions whilst Arthur is on the cartwheel is just, I laughed a lot.”
“Me and Alice had a lot of love for her reaction shots.” Colin agreed, he hadn’t seen them whilst they were recording, being face down on the chair at the time.
“Arthur. Finally using his brain.” She reported pointedly, waving her hand towards the screen. She had been wondering how long it would take but she didn’t think he would go back on his accusations once they had been made, but she’d been wrong. Arthur was turned back around so quickly, so trusting of his uncle.
“See what you see!”
“Epic lighting!”
“Bad man!”
“Arthur.”
“Seriously, Gaius?” Colin said disbelievingly. He shook his head in disappointment, “I’m shaking my head at Arthur.”
“So am I.”
They both did so in comical timing.
“One day, he’ll see that he can use his own brain. Agravaine is just too good in his eyes that doubting him isn’t something he wants to do. Even though he should.”
“You’d think after the Gwen thing he’d be a bit more sceptical of him.”
“You think, Arthur hits his head so much he’s probably damaged his memory cortex or something.” Katie looked at him and for a moment was silence before she laughed.
The scene changed before them, Arthur changing behind his screen, stripping himself of his clothes, “FIVE!” Katie shouted with a clap. “I must say, Col, I do like the purple shirt you’re wearing.” She said with an approving look on her face, nodding.
“Thank you. I felt special being given that new shirt.
“You’ve got more clothes than me this series!”
“That’s saying something.”
“They made me a dress last series that I was only meant to wear once but I liked it so they let me wear it more.”
“And I get two different colour shirts... and scarves.” Colin returned flatly, he wanted more costume, he’d been given another for the finale, his coronation outfit, it had been odd and uncomfortable and it just wasn’t his trademark neckerchief and baggy shirt that he has become accustomed to over the years. He wasn’t sure as of yet whether he would be wearing the new costume more or if it was just a special occasion thing.
“Jealous of my dresses?”
“Always.”
“I love how Gwen doesn’t look away. She gets a good look in before she even stops staring at him. Good girl.”
“Richard pummelling me against the pillar there. It went a bit wrong the first time, I crashed my head into it.” He laughed awkwardly, scratching at his growing hair, his break from filming was his chance to turn into a bit of a scruff for a few months.
“You like to have accidents, don’t you?” she could recall several accidents he’d had over the years, some worse than others but most silly little things. They’d both injured themselves falling over in the cloisters.
“I do.”
A thought suddenly came to Katie, “Why has everybody been in a scene with shirtless Arthur apart from me?”
“Because it would be incest?” Colin said with an impish grin.
“Even when I tended to his wounds,” she said ignoring him, “he was chainmail wearing. It’s always Angel who gets the shirtless scenes, actually,” she correctly, “it’s mostly you!”
“Because I get him dressed in the morning?”
“That’s incredibly gay of you.”
“It used to be Gwen’s job to help you get dressed...”
“That’s what girls do. Not men. Not manly men.” She poked, she cheekily raised her eyebrows and smirked. She turned her attention back to the screen to see Merlin shovelling fruit into his mouth at breakneck speed. “Berries! My god you stuff those in fast, don’t you?”
“I like berries.”
“One of three things you can eat.”
“Four.” Colin countered, laughing along with her. Famously when they had been eating out whilst in France there were few things he found he could eat. Everything had cheese or meat or tomatoes in it. Crepes were made with milk. Pizza was just a no-go area and then the rest of the menu was either steak or ham. And people wondered why he was so skinny.
“I’m about to come back!” Katie gleefully declared, clapping her hands together joyously, “Screen time! This episode is about to get a whole lot better-“
“-worse. Owh!” he frowned at her, rubbing his arm with an injured pout on his face.
“I hit him again. THE TAVERN! I love how this has become a running joke. I really do.”
“It’s his friendship with Gwaine. He’s a bad influence on Merlin.”
“Is that a parallel to your relationship with Eoin in real life?” she asked, prying for the Merlin fans needs rather than her own, she knew fully well that Eoin was a terrible influence on all of them. He was always up for a knees up which generally ended in heads down.
On tables passed out drunk.
“I couldn’t tell you that.” Katie upturned her lip, pretending to be upset, the slyness of his voice suggested exactly what she knew.
“What are you talking about there?” She asked, oblivious to what was going on.
“Where?”
“To Gwaine, not who he seems?”
“I think it’s a reference to his father being a knight for Caerleon. It never got brought up again. Neither did the fact that Gwaine didn’t want to be a knight to begin with!” Colin shrugged, he fiddled with his headphones, inching his ear and replacing them again.
“I love how his banishment got revoked the moment Arthur was in charge.”
“Yeah! It’s good to have Gwaine around, he’s good fun. Always a good laugh.”
“Eoin’s hair puts us all to shame.” Katie stated, Colin nodded in agreement with her. He pulled at his shorter hair and tried to flip it around but failed miserably. Katie shook with laughter then presented him with an over-the-top hair flick, making herself blind by hair in front of her face.
Colin laughed. “We’re practising our hair flicks. Katie just mashed me in the face.”
She pulled her hair from in front of her face, guiltily looking at Colin before apologising and turning to look back at the screen. “Oh Rupert!”
“He’s head knight.”
“Tom’s face!” Katie was gone with her giggles, “Did you actually trample on them?”
“I did.”
“I love how Adetomiwa just doesn’t react, at all! How did he not?”
“I don’t think I stood on him directly. I think he just got crushed when I stood on Rupert. He’s probably grimacing in his mind.”
“Poor Tom at the bottom!”
“I think we did this take only a couple of times, the first time they got the giggles and I fell off Rupert trying to get on the horse.”
“Did you hurt yourself?”
“No, no, I was fine. I just kind of stumbled a bit over them and stopped myself.”
“We’re all very good at getting ourselves injured.” She said as if directly talking to the people watching the show rather than in conversation with Colin, “I kept walking into the table in my hovel. It’s all a bit close together in there.”
“It makes it easier to get in the mind frame that Morgana’s evil now. It was a lot harder to think you were the bad guy when you were still in Lady Morgana dresses, going around the castle. Here, with the hovel in the forest, you really are the big bad, you know? This is it.”
“She’s the evil now. She’s the General Zod to your Superman.”
“Not my kryptonite though.” He said, shaking his head like a young child who was being teased by his older siblings about his crush on a girl.
“She could have been.” She replied suggestively.
“Emrys is hers now though.” Katie snorted at the thought and tried her hardest not to laugh to hard.
“This next scene, we see just how much she is terrified of him. She genuinely believes that he will kill her. If he comes into her life, that’s the end of her. From the visions she’s had, all of them have come true. Everything she’s ever dreamt has come to pass.”
“There are dreams she’s had that have come to certain points and interventions have been made.”
“But it’s always the parts of the dreams that can be determined either way that she sees. Arthur was never dead. Her dream about Gwen, at this stage at least, is going to happen. Until such times as they get to the stage of their relationship that they get married, we don’t know if the dream will come true. Chances are for Morgana that they will. She never wins.”
“Evil never does.”
“It has some victories. But Morgana never wins. She takes over for a day then Merlin’s ruining her plans and she’s back in the hovel.”
“You’ve already killed Uther this series.” Colin pointed out, what he thought, helpfully.
“She didn’t feel good about it. She’s not evil, she felt bad about killing her own father.”
“We’re all fatherless. Aren’t we?”
Katie looked up thoughtfully, “Arthur is. Morgana is. Merlin is. Gwen is so Elyan is.”
“Gwaine is. Percival’s family were killed by Cenred’s army as we found out today!”
“What about Leon?”
“I don’t know. It’s never come up.”
“Maybe we should ask them. I want to know. Leon is my favourite knight. Rupert, we will find out for you!” she promised, the people in the sound booth were shrugging at them.
Colin cut back to paying attention to the episode before him, “You’re not scared enough that you don’t follow me.”
“No. She’s made of harder stuff than that. It’s fun to play, but learning the old English is really hard. It takes me a million takes to do one small spell, then you’re there, talking in Dragon and you make me look so bad, with these massively long speeches in Old English.”
“This is my fourth year doing it. To start with Merlin used to do things without words, all the time, and that was far easier.” His teaching her had been comical. Ever since the first seires she’d wanted him to teach her how to say the complicated things.
“We have some of that now, in the heat of battle, just throwing each other around.”
“No respect for your elders.” Colin tutted,
“None at all. She fears Emrys, he’s her doom, he’s going to kill her, so she believes. She’s terrified of him. She’s not going to let him live!”
“He didn’t try then.”
“Defending a man who is no friend to magic, you should be ashamed!”
“I’m sorry.” He faked crying, the smile on his face betraying him.
“And there you go, putting me to shame with your really long spells! And throwing me through the woods! You could have killed me.”
“I think that was the idea.”
“When did they turn into this? Hey?” she asked him, pretending to be emotional, shaking his arm, “When did they start to hate each other so much?”
“When Morgana tried to kill the whole of Camelot...” he responded just as irrationally asking her back.
“I’m trying to get sympathy here.”
“I think Morgana is past getting sympathy.” He replied, moving back to sit normally.
“The fans still want her to have love though, they do!” she declared, they had had questions at nearly every con they had been too. More recently, at San Diego, there had even been suggestion of the pair of them together which Katie had found hilarious and quite the good idea, or it would have been previously, maybe not so much anymore. Now it certainly would be an interesting storyline for sure, one she was completely certain was so far out of the water there was no point suggesting it. Well, she could try, then be ignored. “Merlin and Morgana need love. There was a time when that could have been with each other. But did the listen to me? No. They should have. Morgana liked getting flowers.”
“Surely there were other men that bought her flowers other than Merlin?”
“Not that we ever saw. She only ever received them from Merlin on screen.”
“How many times?”
“Twice? Three times? I think we’ve filmed three and two made the cut? Maybe? I don’t know. Arthur talked Merlin out of it before too long.”
“Arthur was talking himself out of it.” Colin commented with a grin.
“What, bringing Morgana flowers?”
“Yes, exactly.” Colin said, laughing as Katie shook her head at him, mouthing ‘No’ at him.
“Oh look, you’re in trouble. Arthur’s got his angry face on. You missed a date.”
“It’s okay, he found a new friend whilst I was away.” Colin said as George came into the shot.
“I love how Arthur doesn’t even think to check that Merlin is in the tavern. He could tie it in with a trip to Gwen’s house or something. If he was that desperate to see Merlin, if he needed him that badly, he could go there himself.”
“Arthur’s just lazy.”
Polishing.
Katie burst out laughing, “Oh George,” she managed through her laughter, tears coming to her eyes.
“He likes to polish.”
Slowly she calmed, “Does he ever come back?”
“No, he doesn’t. Maybe he could take Merlin’s job whilst he’s off saving the world.”
“But he is very good at polishing things, swords especially.” She said suggestively. Colin couldn’t help but laugh. “Have you got a brass joke?” she asked, genuinely intrigued, she didn’t know you could make jokes about brass; that was probably the point.
“No. I don’t even know what you could joke about with brass.”
“I Googled, all I got was instrument jokes but I’m not sure that’s entirely what he meant.” She said honestly.
“No, I have no idea. I’ll have a think about it let it come back to you.”
“I’m injured! Look! Look what you did to me! I might be dead!” she said, poking him sharply in the side.
“If you were, I’d have blown you up.”
“You used to do that a lot.”
“Not so much anymore.” He sighed, disappointed but at the same time grateful that he was being more inventive with killing people. Or just killing them less.
“You’ve killed a lot of people. Why don’t you get any repercussions? You’re teaching children that it’s okay to kill people if nobody knows about it.”
“I always feel bad about it.” He replied simply.
“Oh, the people in the sound booth are telling us to wrap it up. We are talking over the credits now, There’s my name! Next week, will I, or will I not find out who Emrys is?”
“Or will she remain clueless. Tune in to find out.”
“These go on the DVDs so chances are they’ve already seen it...”
The pair of them hooked off their headphones and set them down on the small table. “We managed to stay on topic, mostly,” Katie said proudly. There had been so many times that they had done commentaries and ended up talking about the most random of things. They had had tangents, for sure, but mostly stuck to what they were meant to talk about.
“Go us, we did well.” Colin complimented as he held open the door for her to exit. She thanked him. She hooked her scarf around her neck ready to snuggle down into it away from the chill. They chatted inanely as they walked down the stairs into reception, signing out and leaving.
“D’you need a lift?” she asked him, grabbing her car keys out of her bag. She knew he’d be getting a taxi or a bus to wherever he was going.
“Sure, I’m just headed back to my flat.”
“On my way back then,” she smiled. She clicked her car open and climbed into the driver’s seat. The car itself was cold, she whacked the heating up as she turned the ignition. Colin jumped into the passenger seat, rubbing his hands together.
Their pointless and comfortable conversation continued all the way home, ranging from work to Katie’s new job and onto Colin’s projects. The journey passed quickly, “Cup of tea?” Colin asked, unplugging his seatbelt as she pulled up outside his flat. She gave him a sideways glance and agreed, turning off the engine.
The walk from her car to Colin’s building was short. They walked side by side, Colin’s hand shoved deep into his jean pockets. “I could do with warming up.”
He caught her eye, she was smiling still, “I’m sure I can arrange something. And I’m pretty sure I have the latest episode of Castle too.”
“Well why didn’t you say so? How can a girl refuse the temptation of Nathan Fillion?” he beamed, linking her arm through Colin’s unoffered arm. He looked down at it, briefly stunned.
“You just wait until I break out my Space Cowboy costume next Halloween.”
“Next Halloween? You think you’re getting away with making me wait until next Halloween?”
“Maybe your birthday, then.” He chuckled, received a slap on the arm for his efforts. “Well maybe if you behave.” He quirked his eyebrow suggestively, making Katie smile broadly.
“Well now, Mr Morgan, if I didn’t know better I’d think you were flirting with me.”
“You don’t know better.” She was appalled, mockingly so. “You know what I mean.”
She silently nodded and allowed him to lead her into his building into the warmth of the hallway. Maybe it was just the heat in his cheeks that was making him clam up but once she smiled at him, simple and happy, he calmed. Maybe tonight wouldn’t go so badly after all.