An Inconvenient Enchantment
Title: An Inconvenient Enchantment
Rating: G
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin preslash
Wordcount: ~2000
Summary: Bodyswap. Merlin discovers a spell that would allow one to see from someone else’s point of view. Walk a mile in their shoes, so to speak.
A/N: For merlin_the_elf 2008. Unbeta'd and hastily written at the time. Beware of random tense changes - there were a lot and I may not have caught them all while editing!
Merlin had discovered the spell several weeks before.
It was a spell that would allow one to see from someone else’s point of view. He’d thought that it was interesting, then forgotten about it for a while.
But now he was angry with Arthur. Very, very angry. Arthur had given him an absurd amount of work to do - so much that he wasn’t sure he could do it, even with magic - by the next morning, and then called him an idiot when he complained.
Then he remembered the spell.
It seemed like a very good idea. After all, he thought, surely Arthur would be more agreeable if he could see things from Merlin’s point of view for a while?
So he fetched the book out from under the bed, sought out the page, and found the spell.
He said the words. Nothing much seemed to happen. He wondered if he’d said the words wrong, but he’d felt the spell work. He was sure he had.
And in any case, he suddenly felt rather sleepy. Very sleepy, in fact. He just managed to slip the book back under his bed before he fell asleep.
*
In his room, Arthur clutched one of the bedposts, suddenly feeling as if he might pass out.
“What in the name of -” he managed before he hit the floor.
He woke up what had to be a few hours later, judging by the sunlight through the window, in a room that seemed very unfamiliar. It was a servant’s room, he thought. Had someone moved him while he was asleep?
As he sat up, he noticed he was dressed completely differently. He was wearing an oddly familiar neckscarf. He tugged it off and stared at it. yes. Definitely Merlin’s. He was about to get up off the bed and try and find out what had happened when there was a knock at the door.
“Merlin!” he heard Gaius’ voice say. “Are you up?”
“What?” he called, and his voice sounded different from how it normally did.
The door opened, and Gaius peered in at him. “Oh, good, you’re dressed,” he said, then looked closer. “Did you sleep in your clothes, Merlin?”
Arthur looked at him blankly, trying to work out why he was calling him Merlin.
“Come on, you don’t want to keep his highness waiting,” said Gaius.
Arthur looked down at his hands. They looked different. And he felt skinnier than usual as well. He could see a few strands of hair out of the corner of his eye, and it was most definitely black.
Something very strange had happened.
“No, you’re right,” he said. “I better go. I’ll be late.”
And with that he leapt up, pushed past Gaius, and ran out of the room.
“Don’t you want any breakfast?” Gaius called after him.
“No time,” he said. “I have to find Mer- Arthur. I have to find Arthur.”
He stopped at the first mirror he came to and took a good look. He was definitely Merlin. Or he looked like Merlin. He could think of two explanations; he actually was Merlin, and had gone insane, or someone had used sorcery. And he didn’t feel insane. Someone had used magic on him. Him! Prince Arthur Pendragon! The ultimate killing machine! He’d make them pay.
Just as soon as he found Merlin. Who was probably in Arthur’s body. What if he tripped and fell and broke it? What if Merlin got Arthur’s body killed?
He began to run, and almost collided with Gwen.
“Morning, Merlin!” she said cheerfully.
“Can’t stop, got to find Merlin!” he said.
“But you are Merlin!” she called after him, then frowned. “Aren’t you?”
He burst into his own room, and found his body staring intently into a mirror.
“Merlin?” he said.
“Oh,” said his body. “So you’re me, then? I was worried you might be someone else entirely and I’d have to go all around the castle to find you.”
“Same,” said Arthur, stepping into the room. “Do you have any idea what happened?”
“No,” said Merlin, but Arthur suspect he was lying. Was his face really that easy to read? Oh, dear.
Merlin turned back to the mirror and pulled at his - Arthur’s - hair.
“Don’t pull it out!” said Arthur. “You’re going to make me bald.” He shut the door. “Do you think this is someone’s idea of a joke?”
“It could be?” said Merlin. He was looking down at his new body with some interest.
“Yes, you have muscles now,” said Arthur. “Don’t get used to it. We’re going to have to find some way to reverse this.”
“Well...” said Merlin. “I think it might reverse itself after a while. Some spells do, you see... so I’ve heard.”
“Did you do this?” said Arthur. Merlin shakes his head. “You did, didn’t you?”
“Maybe,” said Merlin. “I didn’t know this would happen! Honest!”
Arthur started to advance upon him, but then remembered that Merlin has all the muscles now.
“You’re sure it’ll wear off?” he said. Merlin nodded. “Good.”
“Are you going to tell your father?” he said.
“He’d never believe me,” sighed Arthur. “He’ll think I’m you, and he thinks you’re an idiot. And he can’t do anything to you until this wears off, anyway. Just... be careful with my body!”
“Only if you’re careful with mine.” said Merlin.
“Oh, come on,” said Arthur. “There’s hardly any of it to be careful with.” He looked down at himself. “Have you always been this skinny?”
“Yes,” said Merlin. He folded his arms. “Look, it should only last a day or two. And I suppose this makes you my servant for a while.”
“No it does not!” said Arthur.
“Well,” said Merlin. “How else do you intend to stop your father finding out what happened?”
Arthur’s about to answer, but stops. Merlin has a point. He doesn’t really want his father to find out. He’d had Merlin executed, and that, he decides, would be bad.
“Fine,” he said. “But only when there are people to see. You can dress yourself.”
And with that he goes and sits down on his own bed, taking care to mess it up as much as he can, so Merlin will have to tidy it.
*
Merlin is terrible at being Arthur. But he finds some consolation in the fact that Arthur is equally terrible at being him, and is even ruder to Merlin than Merlin usually is to Arthur.
“Carry it yourself!” he said.
“No,” said Merlin. “You’re the servant. You take it.” Arthur’s voice was good for saying obnoxious things like that, he’d discovered.
Arthur gave him a look which said I shall kill you when I’m me again, and took the shield.
*
Arthur found he has to spend the evening refilling Merlin’s goblet whilst getting hungrier and hungrier. Merlin ate after him, he realised, which seemed very late. He thought that maybe he should change that particular arrangement.
Thankfully there were no guests that night, but Merlin still had to make conversation with Uther, and it was getting more and more obvious that he had no idea what he was talking about.
“Are you feeling alright, Arthur?” Uther said after a while. “You’re acting very strangely.”
“I’m -” said Merlin, then paused. “Actually, I’m really not feeling well. I think I might be ill.”
“Perhaps you should go back to your room, then,” said Uther. “You must be at your best for tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” said Merlin, looking blank. Arthur rolled his eyes. Merlin should know this, really.
“Patrolling?” said Uther.
“Oh!” said Merlin. “Yes. That. I’d better go, then. I think I need some sleep.”
*
And so, finally, they were back in Arthur’s room.
“I am not,” said Arthur. “Sleeping in your bed. It’s horrible.”
“Well, I can’t sleep there,” said Merlin. “Not without Gaius asking questions.”
“He might tell Uther what happened,” said Arthur.
“Well, no,” said Merlin. “But he’ll get annoyed with me.”
“But -” starts Arthur, but broke off. “He knows you use magic, doesn’t he?” Merlin nodded. Arthur sighed. “Well, fine. Stay in here. Sleep on the floor. I don’t care. Just... I’m not sleeping in your bed!”
*
Merlin decided to wait until later before going to find the book. There might just be a spell to reverse this, he thought.
But he was so unused to Arthur’s larger body that he woke Gaius, somehow, and was caught looking under his bed for the book.
“Your highness?” said Gaius behind him.
“Gaius!” he said, and turned around with the book of spells in his hands.
“What’s that?” said Gaius hurriedly, when he caught sight of it. “One of my books? I’d best put that way -”
“Gaius,” Merlin interrupts him. “It’s alright,” he sighs. “I’m not Arthur. I’m Merlin. I used a spell and it switched us around.”
“Oh,” said Gaius. “So Arthur -”
“He knows,” said Merlin. “I’m not sure if he’s planning on doing anything or not, though. But I can’t keep being Arthur, Gaius! He has to go patrolling tomorrow, and they’ll all know I’m not him!”
“That’s a good point,” said Gaius. “You’d best do something about it. Maybe you can persuade him it was all a dream -”
“He’d never believe that!” said Merlin. “He almost didn’t believe the story you came up with to explain the Sophia incident, Gaius. It’s not going to work again.”
“Well, then,” said Gaius. “You’ll just have to hope.”
“Oh, he also knows you know,” said Merlin. “Sorry.”
“Then I’ll also have to hope,” Gaius said solemnly, and trudged back to bed.
*
Merlin woke Arthur about half an hour later, after flicking through the book frantically by candlelight.
“What?” Arthur said sleepily, blinking at him from behind Merlin’s hair. It was quite sweet, really, Merlin thought. Did he always look like that?
“I found a spell to reverse this,” said Merlin, holding out the open book. Arthur sat up and took it.
“How long have you had this?” he said.
“Since I arrived,” said Merlin. “Gaius gave it to me. Promise me you won’t have him executed for this?”
“Promise,” said Arthur. “He’s a good physician. We need him around. You, however, are a terrible manservant. I can do without you.”
Merlin sat down. “I’m not that bad,” he said. “Shall I try the spell?”
“Aren’t you going to make me promise not to execute you?” said Arthur.
“You’ll never agree to that,” said Merlin. “And I can’t keep being you.”
He took the book back form Arthur, and read the spell.
“Well?” said Arthur. He yawned. “What happens now?”
“Last time I feel asleep,” said Merlin. “So I suppose -”
*
They woke up the next morning, in the same bed, but different bodies. Arthur rolled over, and smiled when he saw Merlin’s dark hair.
Then it occurred to him that they were in the same bed.
And had somehow got very tangled up.
Ah.
Then Merlin woke up, and turned to face him. “Well, that worked,” he said.
“Yes,” said Arthur. “Why are we in bed together?”
“I was sitting on your bed when we passed out,” said Merlin. “Sorry. My fault.”
He tried to disentangle himself from Arthur, but was stopped by Arthur’s hand on his back. “Stay where you are,” he said. “I like you there, and I’m not done sleeping yet.”
Rating: G
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin preslash
Wordcount: ~2000
Summary: Bodyswap. Merlin discovers a spell that would allow one to see from someone else’s point of view. Walk a mile in their shoes, so to speak.
A/N: For merlin_the_elf 2008. Unbeta'd and hastily written at the time. Beware of random tense changes - there were a lot and I may not have caught them all while editing!
Merlin had discovered the spell several weeks before.
It was a spell that would allow one to see from someone else’s point of view. He’d thought that it was interesting, then forgotten about it for a while.
But now he was angry with Arthur. Very, very angry. Arthur had given him an absurd amount of work to do - so much that he wasn’t sure he could do it, even with magic - by the next morning, and then called him an idiot when he complained.
Then he remembered the spell.
It seemed like a very good idea. After all, he thought, surely Arthur would be more agreeable if he could see things from Merlin’s point of view for a while?
So he fetched the book out from under the bed, sought out the page, and found the spell.
He said the words. Nothing much seemed to happen. He wondered if he’d said the words wrong, but he’d felt the spell work. He was sure he had.
And in any case, he suddenly felt rather sleepy. Very sleepy, in fact. He just managed to slip the book back under his bed before he fell asleep.
*
In his room, Arthur clutched one of the bedposts, suddenly feeling as if he might pass out.
“What in the name of -” he managed before he hit the floor.
He woke up what had to be a few hours later, judging by the sunlight through the window, in a room that seemed very unfamiliar. It was a servant’s room, he thought. Had someone moved him while he was asleep?
As he sat up, he noticed he was dressed completely differently. He was wearing an oddly familiar neckscarf. He tugged it off and stared at it. yes. Definitely Merlin’s. He was about to get up off the bed and try and find out what had happened when there was a knock at the door.
“Merlin!” he heard Gaius’ voice say. “Are you up?”
“What?” he called, and his voice sounded different from how it normally did.
The door opened, and Gaius peered in at him. “Oh, good, you’re dressed,” he said, then looked closer. “Did you sleep in your clothes, Merlin?”
Arthur looked at him blankly, trying to work out why he was calling him Merlin.
“Come on, you don’t want to keep his highness waiting,” said Gaius.
Arthur looked down at his hands. They looked different. And he felt skinnier than usual as well. He could see a few strands of hair out of the corner of his eye, and it was most definitely black.
Something very strange had happened.
“No, you’re right,” he said. “I better go. I’ll be late.”
And with that he leapt up, pushed past Gaius, and ran out of the room.
“Don’t you want any breakfast?” Gaius called after him.
“No time,” he said. “I have to find Mer- Arthur. I have to find Arthur.”
He stopped at the first mirror he came to and took a good look. He was definitely Merlin. Or he looked like Merlin. He could think of two explanations; he actually was Merlin, and had gone insane, or someone had used sorcery. And he didn’t feel insane. Someone had used magic on him. Him! Prince Arthur Pendragon! The ultimate killing machine! He’d make them pay.
Just as soon as he found Merlin. Who was probably in Arthur’s body. What if he tripped and fell and broke it? What if Merlin got Arthur’s body killed?
He began to run, and almost collided with Gwen.
“Morning, Merlin!” she said cheerfully.
“Can’t stop, got to find Merlin!” he said.
“But you are Merlin!” she called after him, then frowned. “Aren’t you?”
He burst into his own room, and found his body staring intently into a mirror.
“Merlin?” he said.
“Oh,” said his body. “So you’re me, then? I was worried you might be someone else entirely and I’d have to go all around the castle to find you.”
“Same,” said Arthur, stepping into the room. “Do you have any idea what happened?”
“No,” said Merlin, but Arthur suspect he was lying. Was his face really that easy to read? Oh, dear.
Merlin turned back to the mirror and pulled at his - Arthur’s - hair.
“Don’t pull it out!” said Arthur. “You’re going to make me bald.” He shut the door. “Do you think this is someone’s idea of a joke?”
“It could be?” said Merlin. He was looking down at his new body with some interest.
“Yes, you have muscles now,” said Arthur. “Don’t get used to it. We’re going to have to find some way to reverse this.”
“Well...” said Merlin. “I think it might reverse itself after a while. Some spells do, you see... so I’ve heard.”
“Did you do this?” said Arthur. Merlin shakes his head. “You did, didn’t you?”
“Maybe,” said Merlin. “I didn’t know this would happen! Honest!”
Arthur started to advance upon him, but then remembered that Merlin has all the muscles now.
“You’re sure it’ll wear off?” he said. Merlin nodded. “Good.”
“Are you going to tell your father?” he said.
“He’d never believe me,” sighed Arthur. “He’ll think I’m you, and he thinks you’re an idiot. And he can’t do anything to you until this wears off, anyway. Just... be careful with my body!”
“Only if you’re careful with mine.” said Merlin.
“Oh, come on,” said Arthur. “There’s hardly any of it to be careful with.” He looked down at himself. “Have you always been this skinny?”
“Yes,” said Merlin. He folded his arms. “Look, it should only last a day or two. And I suppose this makes you my servant for a while.”
“No it does not!” said Arthur.
“Well,” said Merlin. “How else do you intend to stop your father finding out what happened?”
Arthur’s about to answer, but stops. Merlin has a point. He doesn’t really want his father to find out. He’d had Merlin executed, and that, he decides, would be bad.
“Fine,” he said. “But only when there are people to see. You can dress yourself.”
And with that he goes and sits down on his own bed, taking care to mess it up as much as he can, so Merlin will have to tidy it.
*
Merlin is terrible at being Arthur. But he finds some consolation in the fact that Arthur is equally terrible at being him, and is even ruder to Merlin than Merlin usually is to Arthur.
“Carry it yourself!” he said.
“No,” said Merlin. “You’re the servant. You take it.” Arthur’s voice was good for saying obnoxious things like that, he’d discovered.
Arthur gave him a look which said I shall kill you when I’m me again, and took the shield.
*
Arthur found he has to spend the evening refilling Merlin’s goblet whilst getting hungrier and hungrier. Merlin ate after him, he realised, which seemed very late. He thought that maybe he should change that particular arrangement.
Thankfully there were no guests that night, but Merlin still had to make conversation with Uther, and it was getting more and more obvious that he had no idea what he was talking about.
“Are you feeling alright, Arthur?” Uther said after a while. “You’re acting very strangely.”
“I’m -” said Merlin, then paused. “Actually, I’m really not feeling well. I think I might be ill.”
“Perhaps you should go back to your room, then,” said Uther. “You must be at your best for tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” said Merlin, looking blank. Arthur rolled his eyes. Merlin should know this, really.
“Patrolling?” said Uther.
“Oh!” said Merlin. “Yes. That. I’d better go, then. I think I need some sleep.”
*
And so, finally, they were back in Arthur’s room.
“I am not,” said Arthur. “Sleeping in your bed. It’s horrible.”
“Well, I can’t sleep there,” said Merlin. “Not without Gaius asking questions.”
“He might tell Uther what happened,” said Arthur.
“Well, no,” said Merlin. “But he’ll get annoyed with me.”
“But -” starts Arthur, but broke off. “He knows you use magic, doesn’t he?” Merlin nodded. Arthur sighed. “Well, fine. Stay in here. Sleep on the floor. I don’t care. Just... I’m not sleeping in your bed!”
*
Merlin decided to wait until later before going to find the book. There might just be a spell to reverse this, he thought.
But he was so unused to Arthur’s larger body that he woke Gaius, somehow, and was caught looking under his bed for the book.
“Your highness?” said Gaius behind him.
“Gaius!” he said, and turned around with the book of spells in his hands.
“What’s that?” said Gaius hurriedly, when he caught sight of it. “One of my books? I’d best put that way -”
“Gaius,” Merlin interrupts him. “It’s alright,” he sighs. “I’m not Arthur. I’m Merlin. I used a spell and it switched us around.”
“Oh,” said Gaius. “So Arthur -”
“He knows,” said Merlin. “I’m not sure if he’s planning on doing anything or not, though. But I can’t keep being Arthur, Gaius! He has to go patrolling tomorrow, and they’ll all know I’m not him!”
“That’s a good point,” said Gaius. “You’d best do something about it. Maybe you can persuade him it was all a dream -”
“He’d never believe that!” said Merlin. “He almost didn’t believe the story you came up with to explain the Sophia incident, Gaius. It’s not going to work again.”
“Well, then,” said Gaius. “You’ll just have to hope.”
“Oh, he also knows you know,” said Merlin. “Sorry.”
“Then I’ll also have to hope,” Gaius said solemnly, and trudged back to bed.
*
Merlin woke Arthur about half an hour later, after flicking through the book frantically by candlelight.
“What?” Arthur said sleepily, blinking at him from behind Merlin’s hair. It was quite sweet, really, Merlin thought. Did he always look like that?
“I found a spell to reverse this,” said Merlin, holding out the open book. Arthur sat up and took it.
“How long have you had this?” he said.
“Since I arrived,” said Merlin. “Gaius gave it to me. Promise me you won’t have him executed for this?”
“Promise,” said Arthur. “He’s a good physician. We need him around. You, however, are a terrible manservant. I can do without you.”
Merlin sat down. “I’m not that bad,” he said. “Shall I try the spell?”
“Aren’t you going to make me promise not to execute you?” said Arthur.
“You’ll never agree to that,” said Merlin. “And I can’t keep being you.”
He took the book back form Arthur, and read the spell.
“Well?” said Arthur. He yawned. “What happens now?”
“Last time I feel asleep,” said Merlin. “So I suppose -”
*
They woke up the next morning, in the same bed, but different bodies. Arthur rolled over, and smiled when he saw Merlin’s dark hair.
Then it occurred to him that they were in the same bed.
And had somehow got very tangled up.
Ah.
Then Merlin woke up, and turned to face him. “Well, that worked,” he said.
“Yes,” said Arthur. “Why are we in bed together?”
“I was sitting on your bed when we passed out,” said Merlin. “Sorry. My fault.”
He tried to disentangle himself from Arthur, but was stopped by Arthur’s hand on his back. “Stay where you are,” he said. “I like you there, and I’m not done sleeping yet.”