Fic: Unmistaken Identity
Title: Unmistaken Identity.
Fandom: BBC's Merlin
Characters/Pairings: Leon, Arthur, Morgana, Merlin, Leon/Morgana
Rating: PG-13, as drunk!Arthur uses bad words.
Summary: Leon meets a man at the bar insisting that he was King Arthur and Leon was one of the knights of the Round Table. Leon really doesn't feel like dealing with this.
Word Count: 4,842
Author's note: This is a companion fic to my fic Taxi Man, which is A/M slash, though it isn't strictly necessary to read that to understand this. And basically I wrote this for my own enjoyment because Leon is pretty awesome and he never gets any love in the reincarnation fics. Plus Leon/Morgana makes me happy.
Leon stared at the man sitting across from him at the table, trying to determine if he had fallen asleep.
"Arthur." He reached across to shake his shoulder a little. "Arthur."
Arthur opened an eye and stared at Leon before lifting his head up. "Do you remember now?"
Leon sighed. "No, Arthur. But if they think you've passed out, they're going to kick you out. I'm going to get you some water, all right, and then maybe I'll call you a taxi to take you home?"
Arthur buried his face in his hands and seemed more upset than Leon had seen him the whole night, which was saying something.
"None of that, Arthur. Now come on, try and stay upright until I get back." Arthur nodded miserably, trying to use his arms to brace himself against the chair.
It had started out as a normal night. He had come out to the pub to relax after a long week at at work. He had called a few of his friends to see if they had wanted to come, but had ended up coming by himself. It didn't bother him too much. He had lived in the area long enough that the chances of seeing someone he knew were pretty good, and worst come to worse, he'd have a quiet drink by himself. But when he'd gone up to the bar, the man who later introduced himself as Arthur had grabbed his arm, nearly tight enough to leave a bruise and said in a harsh whisper "Leon?"
After Leon had confirmed that he was Leon, but he was certain he had never met Arthur in his life, Arthur had sighed heavily but then gave a tight smile and apologized, offering to buy him a drink. Leon had hesitated, but was curious as to how Arthur knew his name.
The first hour had gone well, better than he would have expected from such an introduction. It turned out that Arthur had an old friend who was also called Leon and who oddly enough looked very much like Leon. It was coincidental enough that Leon wondered if he had somehow forgotten Arthur, but they established they hadn't lived near each other growing up and didn't know the same people. They had begun to talk about the football teams they followed and teased each other good naturedly about recent matches. Arthur had, like Leon, played rugby in uni, and Leon told him about pick up matches that he played in sometimes on the weekend. Eventually the depressed look had begun to disappear from Arthur's face and Leon was happy that he might have a new person to play rugby with.
The second hour, however, was another thing entirely. Despite seeming to be in better spirits, Arthur had not let up on the drinking, and had insisted in response to Leon's roundabout questions, that this was not something he did normally, and that he had a rough day.
"You'll think I'm insane." Arthur had said, surprisingly clearly for how drunk he was, when Leon asked if he wanted to talk about it. "At least you will now. I don't what the hell's going to happen in the next couple of weeks. We usually all...Forget it. Just forget it."
So Leon tried to distract him again by giving him grief about a truly rotten play Arthur's team had made the other week, but it was mostly a one sided conversation with some forced laughter from Arthur, and just when Leon was wondering how to extricate himself from the situation, Arthur dropped his bombshell.
"You know what? Who cares? Who cares if you think I'm crazy for a while. At least you won't think you're crazy when it happens to you." He looked at Leon's alarmed expression, and laughed. "Oh, I'm not going to hurt you or anything. Don't look at me like that.
Arthur laughed again. "So, I don't think there is a way of saying this where you aren't going to think I'm insane, so I'm just going to go with it." He downed his shot of vodka and looked around to see if there was anyone too close by. "So." Arthur giggled again. "So, I'm Arthur, you're Leon. And right now you think we just met tonight. Except we didn't. We really met...God, like twelve hundred years ago at this point. And I was actually King Arthur, only, no, I was just Prince Arthur when we first met. And you were one of my knights. A cracking good one. One of the knights of the Round Table actually, and no, I don't know why you never showed up in any of the stories about us. Probably because you never had sex with my wife and you were too old to realistically be one of my bastard children. Though that sort of thing never stopped them before." Arthur shrugged. "So, obviously, we died. Because twelve hundred years is a long time." Arthur gestured with his hands to demonstrate just how long twelve hundred years was. "And then, hey! Turns out reincarnation is an actual thing. And not just once, but a fuck load of times. Except this is the first time I can remember you showing up. Which, hey, awesome to see you again, even if you haven't remembered and you're probably getting really weirded out at how insane I am." He smiled and slapped Leon's arm lightly. "But I am really glad to see you again, seriously." Arthur said, sounding more coherent than he had for most of his speech.
Leon had spent most of the time Arthur was speaking looking around to see if anyone else was hearing this and if any of them were his friends who would give him so much crap later on. No one seemed to have heard any of it, and he turned back to Arthur, who was smiling and signaled for another round from the server.
"You needn't tell me I'm crazy. If I were you, I'd think I was crazy, but you asked what was bothering me, and well, there we go. That's what was bothering me. I woke up this morning suddenly remembering I'm King Arthur and I've done this a couple of dozen times before. Cheers," he said, smiling brightly at the waitress who brought his drink over. "Deserves a night of getting unbelievably trashed if you ask me." He tilted his shot glass in Leon's direction and downed it. "So now that that's done with, let's talk about something else. How about swords?"
"Swords?" Leon asked faintly.
"Sure, why not? I don't know about you, but going back to talking about football after that doesn't really feel natural. So, why not swords?"
"Do you, uh, think about swords often, Arthur?"
Arthur stared at him for a moment and then barked out a laugh. "Leon, even assuming that I'm insane, do I really seem to be one of those crazies who go around hurting themselves? Especially with a sword? Wouldn't be the most efficient way of going about it, would they?" And with that, Arthur had launched into a lecture on medieval weaponry, occasionally trying to do a physical demonstration until Leon forced him to sit down, pointing out that he'd bump into people and knock tables over if he did that. Yes, even if he wasn't actually holding a sword.
So Leon had spent the rest of the evening half nervous and wanting to get away from Arthur as soon as possible and not sure what he should do about him and being fascinated. For all that Arthur was clearly insane, he had evidently done his research on swords and jousting. Leon had always had an interest in that sort of thing himself, so he could tell that Arthur hadn't made it all up, but Arthur's knowledge far and away outstripped his own. Occasionally, without realizing it, he asked a question, and Arthur seemed to take this as a good sign. Leon eventually because so engrossed in the conversation that he had forgotten that Arthur was crazy, even though talking about swords seemed rather odd. It only returned to his attention when Arthur occasionally paused and asked him if any of this sounded familiar, or Leon used to be really good at the fighting technique he was describing. Still, insane or not, Arthur turned out to be good company until the vodka had really caught up with him and started falling asleep.
Leon signaled for a glass of water at the bar and got a handful of napkins which turned out to be useful when Arthur dribbled some of it down his front. He guided Arthur to the front door and sighed as he felt the cool air.
There weren't many people milling around outside, though, as he checked his phone, it was still rather early. He saw a cab slowly driving by and he gave a shrill whistle, using two of his fingers. Arthur lolled his head to stare at Leon. "How'd you--how'd you know to do that?"
Leon shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I've always known how to do that."
Arthur grinned. "I taught you that whistle. I could do it now, but I'm too drunk to remember. And I taught you how to use a sword."
Leon rolled his eyes.
"Don't roll your eyes at me. You know there was fineese...finesse to using a sword. I could teach you again if you've forgotten once you remembered, but I always remember. Not like it's useful nowadays, but whatever and you know, Leon, you know, Leon...you're not listening...you should listen to me. I've never steered you wrong, Leon."
Leon gave a sigh of relief as the cab pulled up to them. Arthur almost collapsed against it, still muttering to himself, but he pushed himself upright again. Leon was worried about trying to get Arthur into the cab, but the dark haired cab driver seemed to understand Arthur's ramblings which seemed to endear himself to Arthur. Leon was able to get Arthur's address out him, eventually giving an address that Leon wasn't familiar with but sounded like a normal enough apartment building. He paid for Arthur's fare plus a good tip since Arthur had been buying the rounds.
Leon decided he had enough for one night and after seeing Arthur off, made the short walk home. He turned on the television and made sure to finish a glass of water as he sat watching a rerun of Top Gear. He fell asleep with the television on and had odd dreams about the Stig wandering around the Tube with a sword, threatening passengers at random.
He woke up with a surprisingly large headache and he tried to remember exactly how many pints he had had the night before, but they began to blur together once Arthur had gone off the deep end and the headache got worse the more he tried to remember. He dropped it and wondered if Arthur had gotten home all right the night before. He'd remembered seeing that cab company around before, so he supposed they were legitimate.
After he had taken a shower and gone to the breakfast place around the corner for something greasy, he straightened up around his flat and did some errands. He had worked a lot of hours the past week and hadn't really had time to do anything else at home besides sleep. In the afternoon he joined some of his friends for a pick up match down the park, and kept an eye out for Arthur but didn't see him. The poor guy was probably too hung over to even think about playing rugby, and even if he did, Leon wondered if he was as crazy not drunk as when he was drunk. He wasn't sure if he wanted to play rugby with a guy who kept insisting that he was King Arthur.
The next day, he went to visit his parents. They sat a table that Leon and his father had built when Leon was fourteen and Leon had to smile, because it was a round table and he had to wonder what Arthur would think of that. Then the next day he went back to work, and if he thought of Arthur again it was to file him away as a story to tell the next time he went out drinking with his friends.
On Wednesday night one of the people at work was leaving and they took him to a nice restaurant down the street as a treat. In addition to the work crowd, a few of his friends and family members also showed up. Leon had never met any of them but ended up sitting next to the man's sister. The women at work were always trying to set him up with their single friends, saying that it was a shame that someone so handsome and sweet didn't have a girlfriend, so somehow he wasn't too surprised at the seating arrangements. And the woman was beautiful, with long black hair and pale skin. He didn't think he'd have a bad time of it tonight.
The sister, on the other hand, seemed to be very surprised to see him. "Leon?" she gasped.
Leon turned to look at her. "Er, yes?"
A quick look of disappointment flashed across her face, and Leon was reminded very strongly of Arthur for some reason. But then she was smiling brightly at him. "Oh, I'm sorry, it's just that Jonathan has often spoke of you and I guess I was surprised to finally meet you."
Jonathan was staring at his sister and looking puzzled. He glanced at Leon and shook his head, shrugging as he did so.
"Oh, well, it's very nice to meet you--?" Leon raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, that's nice," she admonished her brother. "You talk to me about people at work but you never talk to your work friends about me. I'm sorry, I'm Morgana."
"I wasn't aware I had done it so much," Jonathan said helplessly, taking a sip of his water.
"Very nice to meet you, Morgana," Leon said, smiling at her. She held his glance a moment too long, but then she returned to looking through her menu, so Leon went back to his.
The meal was enjoyable enough. They had all chipped in to buy him a nice dock for his iPod, and they all exchanged personal email addresses so that they could keep in touch. Morgana had kept up the friendly flirting with him throughout the meal and occasionally good naturedly ribbing her brother. Eventually Leon's drink ran out, and he decided to go up to the bar himself to get the refill. Morgana joined him.
"You know, it's funny. Isn't Morgana one of the people from the stories about King Arthur?" He asked her as they waited.
She stiffened beside him. "Yes, actually. Morgana Le Fay. She was a...Seer."
"So, like Merlin, then, I guess."
"No, not really like Merlin. He was a sorcerer."
Leon shrugged. "All right. Anyway, you're the second person this week that's made me think of all those stories and who knew me before I knew them."
"Oh really?" Morgana's tone was casual, but she was staring at him, waiting to hear more.
"Yeah, I went out to the bar the other night. Jonathan might have said we were having a rough time of it at work last week, so I just going to relax a bit. Anyway, there was a guy there who thought he knew me. Grabbed me by the arm and actually called me by name. Turned out to be a misunderstanding but his name turned out to be Arthur. Friendly enough, but get a few drinks in him and..."
"Went a bit nuts?" Morgana said, looking like she was about to laugh.
Leon laughed a little. "Yeah, actually. Do you know him?"
"I've seen him around."
"He usually like that?" Leon asked.
Morgana looked like she was thinking that over. "No, I suppose you just caught him on a good week," she grinned mischievously.
"Good week. Right. Thanks," he said to the bartender as he brought over his drink.
"Listen," Morgana began digging around her purse as they walked back to the table. She brought out a card with a flourish and presented it to him. "That's my card. I, er, like to keep an eye out for Arthur. If you remember and you see him again, will you give this to him?"
Leon looked at the card. "Sure, I guess. Though I don't know if I'll be seeing him again."
"Oh, Arthur has a way of keeping himself under your feet. You'll probably see him sooner rather than later."
He rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, making her laugh. "Arthur's really not that bad. Like I said, he's not normally like that all the time."
"No?" he asked, pulling her chair out for her.
"No, not usually crazy. Can be really annoying when he wants to be, though. But not crazy."
Leon sat down himself, and pointedly put the card in his wallet.
They closed the restaurant and the group of them milled around outside for a bit before dispersing. Morgana lingered with Leon for a moment longer before heading to her car.
"It was really nice seeing you, Leon." Morgana said earnestly, and again Leon was forcibly reminded of Arthur. But then she pulled him down and kissed his cheek, letting her hand brush against that spot behind his ear, and he felt her smile as he shuddered. She pulled away and tapped his jacket pocket where he kept his wallet. "Keep in touch. And don't forget about Arthur." She called as she began walking away.
The next day, Thursday, he went to work as normal, helping train Jonathan's replacement. Luckily he didn't have as much work this week as he did last week, so he had the time. He went home and read up on the sports pages on line and played with Morgana's card, thinking about emailing or calling her, but decided that less than a day seemed too desperate. He went to bed early after having such a late night the night before.
Then the next morning, he woke up gasping, ready to scream. He looked around his room wildly, wondering where the dragon had gone. He gingerly sat up, feeling as though he must be terribly injured.
But that wasn't right. There was a clock radio staring at him. Dragons and clock radios didn't belong together. And there couldn't be a dragon in his small room. There was no smoke and no screaming. He gingerly felt himself over. No injuries. No dragon related scars. He cautiously pushed the blankets back and sat up. His t-shirt was sticking to the small of his back from sweat. He gingerly put his feet on the floor, still carpeted and definitely not stone underneath. He walked out to the living room and switched on the tv. It was only five in the morning and there was just an infomercial on, but the background noise was reassuring.
The dragon. It hadn't been a dream. He remembered fighting against it for a week solid, seeing it kill dozens of people every day. He remembered he and the other knights circling Arthur--Arthur! and preparing to go after the dragon. He remembered wishing he could see Morgana one last time. Wishing that there was a sure way to kill the dragon, because he didn't mind dying but he didn't want to leave the people of Camelot unprotected.
What the hell was this? He unsteadily made his way to the kitchen and chugged back a glass of water that seemed too cold. As soon as he put the glass back in the sink, more memories came, and he just barely made it over to a chair before his legs gave out. More memories of Arthur and serving the King, Uther. Memories of his parents and family from that first life. Of being on a charging horse, when he had never been on a horse in this life. Of fighting impossible monsters and Morgana pulling him into a hidden hallway to steal a kiss. As the images died off, though no the less vivid, he realized an hour and a half had gone by. He felt as though the images from the battlefields were burned into his eyelids and he barely made it to the toilet, kneeling heavily before it and throwing up. After rinsing his mouth out, he found his phone and called into work. The early morning receptionist good naturedly teased him about starting the weekend early, but he hardly ever called in, so he knew they wouldn't mind.
Once he had gotten over the shock of the memories, he remembered Arthur and Morgana. Or, the Arthur and Morgana he had met this week. Though from the way Arthur acted, he supposed they were the same person. But he couldn't be the same person as that Sir Leon. He couldn't imagine going off to battle against a dragon. Still, they had been expecting this. Arthur had even said he told him the things he did so he wouldn't think he was crazy when it happened to him. And Morgana, he was less sure about, but she had definitely dropped enough hints. He found her card in her wallet, and after staring at it for five minutes, dialed her number. It went to voicemail. He hung up, not sure how to even begin to talk about...this with no one at the other end. He booted up his computer and searched for his name from before. Nothing came up that seemed to relate to him or Arthur, and he felt vaguely offended. For kicks, he looked up reincarnation, but gave up in frustration soon after that. He read up on Arthurian legend a bit, though Arthur had said emphatically how much they had gotten nearly all of it wrong.
He eventually got up and took a shower and brushed his teeth. He tried in vain to remember the address Arthur had given the cab driver. Eventually, unable to think of anything else to do, he went to the pub where he met Arthur.
It had just opened up for lunch, and the bartender rose his eyebrow at seeing Leon there so early. He ordered his normal pint, and then remembering his growling stomach, a ham sandwich with chips.
The day went by slowly, and Leon only moved once or twice to go to the bathroom. Still, he didn't drink that much, only remembering to drink from his glass when the bartender gave him a warning look. By six-thirty there were only three empty glasses in front of him. He had been wondering if it was worth loosing his seat to go to the bathroom when he heard someone come from behind him.
"Sorry I didn't get to the park last weekend, but as you probably could have told, I really wasn't up for it. How's it going?" Leon froze at the sound of the voice that had been replaying in his memories all night and all day. He slowly turned to face him and suddenly his mouth felt too dry to talk.
"Hey, Leon," Arthur was smiling. "Remember me? Or were you a lot drunker than you looked?" He raised his eyebrows at him. "Oh don't worry, I won't go crazy tonight. That was a one time thing."
Leon took a deep breath and then ran his hand through his hair.
"I...remember you."
Arthur stared at him for a moment. "Oh...Oh!" He leaned down so he was closer to Leon. "When?"
"This morning," Leon said, staring at his glass.
"Okay. Are you feeling all right?"
Leon blinked at him. "I guess...?" He went back to staring at his drink. "Arthur," he started, his voice barely over a whisper. "What happened after the dragon?"
Arthur sighed heavily, and looked around the room. Then he pulled Leon over to a table in the corner in the back. "Some of y--some of the knights died. We survived though. Merlin...you remember?" Arthur did an imitation of Merlin's magical stance as best he could while sitting at the table.
Leon nodded. Even if he hadn't remembered the specifics of Merlin's magic, he was, after all, Merlin. Pick anyone off the street and they'd be able to tell you that Merlin was a sorcerer.
"Right, so Merlin did some weird bonding thing with the dragon and was able to send it away. He said that I had driven it away afterward, but this was before we all knew about Merlin.
"Anyway, you were pretty injured, but you recovered, and while you were recovering, you built the damn round table. And then my father died, and well, there's that. You'll probably remember more later. Sometimes it happens like that."
Leon wondered if throwing up was an option again. But then he felt Arthur's hand on his shoulder. "Listen, I've had dozens of lives since then, and I've never ended up in a history book again. Don't expect to live up to yourself again." Arthur quirked a smile.
"Right." Leon took a deep breath. "I met Morgana the other day. We got to talking about you somehow, and she said to give this to you." He dug the card out of his pocket, not bothering to put it back in his wallet after he had taken it out before.
Arthur studied the card for a second before grinning. He dug out his phone and dialed and Leon reflected for a moment how odd it was seeing Arthur Pendragon in jeans and trainers, using a mobile phone. "Morgana!" Arthur said grandly into the phone. He paused. "Yeah, it's me. Our man Leon just gave me your card. Yeah, he's just remembered, this morning. I've just found him. You free now? All right, you want to meet at my apartment? Oh, have you found Guinevere, yet? All right. Yeah, this is my address." Arthur rattled off the address and then told Morgana he'd see her soon.
"She's a bit ticked that you didn't call her first but she saw she had a missed call and she figured that was you." Arthur scrolled through his phone again, and put the phone up his ear. "Yeah, he's here. Yeah. This morning. Er, well, he's a bit stunned looking," Leon frowned. "But he'll be all right. All right. See you in a few." He closed his phone. "Are you nearly done with that?" Arthur said, motioning to Leon's glass.
"Yeah." He took one last gulp and put it down, allowing Arthur to walk him out of the pub. He found himself instinctively walking a pace behind Arthur before Arthur grabbed his arm and pulled him forward. "You'll get used to it. This is old hat for the rest of us. We'll walk you through this, you'll get over it pretty quickly."
"Of course. So old hat that you drank a half a litre of vodka when you remembered."
Arthur flushed. "You never got smart before. Besides, I had a lot more remembering than you did." A cab pulled up in front of them, and Leon had an intense feeling of deja vu. And then he remembered the day he was having and started to laugh. Arthur gave him a worried look but opened the back door for him, and then swung in the front seat himself. Leon frowned and then focused on the driver.
"Merlin?"
"Hey Leon!" Merlin turned around and smiled brightly at him. "You all right?"
"Yeah, fine, I guess."
"You'll be all right." Merlin pulled the cab away from the curb. "Oh, thanks by the way, for dumping this prat in my cab the other night."
Leon stared at him. "That was you?"
"Yeah, dropped him off at his place, walked up to the door because you gave me a good tip. Cheers for that, by the way. As soon as I start to remember things, he shuts the door in my face and makes me sit on his stoop the whole night."
"Shut it." Arthur turned to face out the window, but Leon could see his grin in the reflection. After a moment, Arthur spoke up again. "Leon's met Morgana already, though he didn't remember her at the time. She gave him a card to give to me. I called her before I called you and she's meeting us at home."
"Good at planning, Morgana." Merlin said, smiling.
Morgana was just getting out of her car when they arrived. She nearly ran over to greet them as they got out of the car, exchanging warm hugs with Arthur and Merlin. Then she pulled Leon's face down to her's and kissed him square on the mouth, hold her hands behind his neck. "You have no idea how much I wanted to do that the other night."
Arthur and Merlin had already begun walking to the front door, and Morgana lead him up the walkway, following behind them.
Fandom: BBC's Merlin
Characters/Pairings: Leon, Arthur, Morgana, Merlin, Leon/Morgana
Rating: PG-13, as drunk!Arthur uses bad words.
Summary: Leon meets a man at the bar insisting that he was King Arthur and Leon was one of the knights of the Round Table. Leon really doesn't feel like dealing with this.
Word Count: 4,842
Author's note: This is a companion fic to my fic Taxi Man, which is A/M slash, though it isn't strictly necessary to read that to understand this. And basically I wrote this for my own enjoyment because Leon is pretty awesome and he never gets any love in the reincarnation fics. Plus Leon/Morgana makes me happy.
Leon stared at the man sitting across from him at the table, trying to determine if he had fallen asleep.
"Arthur." He reached across to shake his shoulder a little. "Arthur."
Arthur opened an eye and stared at Leon before lifting his head up. "Do you remember now?"
Leon sighed. "No, Arthur. But if they think you've passed out, they're going to kick you out. I'm going to get you some water, all right, and then maybe I'll call you a taxi to take you home?"
Arthur buried his face in his hands and seemed more upset than Leon had seen him the whole night, which was saying something.
"None of that, Arthur. Now come on, try and stay upright until I get back." Arthur nodded miserably, trying to use his arms to brace himself against the chair.
It had started out as a normal night. He had come out to the pub to relax after a long week at at work. He had called a few of his friends to see if they had wanted to come, but had ended up coming by himself. It didn't bother him too much. He had lived in the area long enough that the chances of seeing someone he knew were pretty good, and worst come to worse, he'd have a quiet drink by himself. But when he'd gone up to the bar, the man who later introduced himself as Arthur had grabbed his arm, nearly tight enough to leave a bruise and said in a harsh whisper "Leon?"
After Leon had confirmed that he was Leon, but he was certain he had never met Arthur in his life, Arthur had sighed heavily but then gave a tight smile and apologized, offering to buy him a drink. Leon had hesitated, but was curious as to how Arthur knew his name.
The first hour had gone well, better than he would have expected from such an introduction. It turned out that Arthur had an old friend who was also called Leon and who oddly enough looked very much like Leon. It was coincidental enough that Leon wondered if he had somehow forgotten Arthur, but they established they hadn't lived near each other growing up and didn't know the same people. They had begun to talk about the football teams they followed and teased each other good naturedly about recent matches. Arthur had, like Leon, played rugby in uni, and Leon told him about pick up matches that he played in sometimes on the weekend. Eventually the depressed look had begun to disappear from Arthur's face and Leon was happy that he might have a new person to play rugby with.
The second hour, however, was another thing entirely. Despite seeming to be in better spirits, Arthur had not let up on the drinking, and had insisted in response to Leon's roundabout questions, that this was not something he did normally, and that he had a rough day.
"You'll think I'm insane." Arthur had said, surprisingly clearly for how drunk he was, when Leon asked if he wanted to talk about it. "At least you will now. I don't what the hell's going to happen in the next couple of weeks. We usually all...Forget it. Just forget it."
So Leon tried to distract him again by giving him grief about a truly rotten play Arthur's team had made the other week, but it was mostly a one sided conversation with some forced laughter from Arthur, and just when Leon was wondering how to extricate himself from the situation, Arthur dropped his bombshell.
"You know what? Who cares? Who cares if you think I'm crazy for a while. At least you won't think you're crazy when it happens to you." He looked at Leon's alarmed expression, and laughed. "Oh, I'm not going to hurt you or anything. Don't look at me like that.
Arthur laughed again. "So, I don't think there is a way of saying this where you aren't going to think I'm insane, so I'm just going to go with it." He downed his shot of vodka and looked around to see if there was anyone too close by. "So." Arthur giggled again. "So, I'm Arthur, you're Leon. And right now you think we just met tonight. Except we didn't. We really met...God, like twelve hundred years ago at this point. And I was actually King Arthur, only, no, I was just Prince Arthur when we first met. And you were one of my knights. A cracking good one. One of the knights of the Round Table actually, and no, I don't know why you never showed up in any of the stories about us. Probably because you never had sex with my wife and you were too old to realistically be one of my bastard children. Though that sort of thing never stopped them before." Arthur shrugged. "So, obviously, we died. Because twelve hundred years is a long time." Arthur gestured with his hands to demonstrate just how long twelve hundred years was. "And then, hey! Turns out reincarnation is an actual thing. And not just once, but a fuck load of times. Except this is the first time I can remember you showing up. Which, hey, awesome to see you again, even if you haven't remembered and you're probably getting really weirded out at how insane I am." He smiled and slapped Leon's arm lightly. "But I am really glad to see you again, seriously." Arthur said, sounding more coherent than he had for most of his speech.
Leon had spent most of the time Arthur was speaking looking around to see if anyone else was hearing this and if any of them were his friends who would give him so much crap later on. No one seemed to have heard any of it, and he turned back to Arthur, who was smiling and signaled for another round from the server.
"You needn't tell me I'm crazy. If I were you, I'd think I was crazy, but you asked what was bothering me, and well, there we go. That's what was bothering me. I woke up this morning suddenly remembering I'm King Arthur and I've done this a couple of dozen times before. Cheers," he said, smiling brightly at the waitress who brought his drink over. "Deserves a night of getting unbelievably trashed if you ask me." He tilted his shot glass in Leon's direction and downed it. "So now that that's done with, let's talk about something else. How about swords?"
"Swords?" Leon asked faintly.
"Sure, why not? I don't know about you, but going back to talking about football after that doesn't really feel natural. So, why not swords?"
"Do you, uh, think about swords often, Arthur?"
Arthur stared at him for a moment and then barked out a laugh. "Leon, even assuming that I'm insane, do I really seem to be one of those crazies who go around hurting themselves? Especially with a sword? Wouldn't be the most efficient way of going about it, would they?" And with that, Arthur had launched into a lecture on medieval weaponry, occasionally trying to do a physical demonstration until Leon forced him to sit down, pointing out that he'd bump into people and knock tables over if he did that. Yes, even if he wasn't actually holding a sword.
So Leon had spent the rest of the evening half nervous and wanting to get away from Arthur as soon as possible and not sure what he should do about him and being fascinated. For all that Arthur was clearly insane, he had evidently done his research on swords and jousting. Leon had always had an interest in that sort of thing himself, so he could tell that Arthur hadn't made it all up, but Arthur's knowledge far and away outstripped his own. Occasionally, without realizing it, he asked a question, and Arthur seemed to take this as a good sign. Leon eventually because so engrossed in the conversation that he had forgotten that Arthur was crazy, even though talking about swords seemed rather odd. It only returned to his attention when Arthur occasionally paused and asked him if any of this sounded familiar, or Leon used to be really good at the fighting technique he was describing. Still, insane or not, Arthur turned out to be good company until the vodka had really caught up with him and started falling asleep.
Leon signaled for a glass of water at the bar and got a handful of napkins which turned out to be useful when Arthur dribbled some of it down his front. He guided Arthur to the front door and sighed as he felt the cool air.
There weren't many people milling around outside, though, as he checked his phone, it was still rather early. He saw a cab slowly driving by and he gave a shrill whistle, using two of his fingers. Arthur lolled his head to stare at Leon. "How'd you--how'd you know to do that?"
Leon shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I've always known how to do that."
Arthur grinned. "I taught you that whistle. I could do it now, but I'm too drunk to remember. And I taught you how to use a sword."
Leon rolled his eyes.
"Don't roll your eyes at me. You know there was fineese...finesse to using a sword. I could teach you again if you've forgotten once you remembered, but I always remember. Not like it's useful nowadays, but whatever and you know, Leon, you know, Leon...you're not listening...you should listen to me. I've never steered you wrong, Leon."
Leon gave a sigh of relief as the cab pulled up to them. Arthur almost collapsed against it, still muttering to himself, but he pushed himself upright again. Leon was worried about trying to get Arthur into the cab, but the dark haired cab driver seemed to understand Arthur's ramblings which seemed to endear himself to Arthur. Leon was able to get Arthur's address out him, eventually giving an address that Leon wasn't familiar with but sounded like a normal enough apartment building. He paid for Arthur's fare plus a good tip since Arthur had been buying the rounds.
Leon decided he had enough for one night and after seeing Arthur off, made the short walk home. He turned on the television and made sure to finish a glass of water as he sat watching a rerun of Top Gear. He fell asleep with the television on and had odd dreams about the Stig wandering around the Tube with a sword, threatening passengers at random.
He woke up with a surprisingly large headache and he tried to remember exactly how many pints he had had the night before, but they began to blur together once Arthur had gone off the deep end and the headache got worse the more he tried to remember. He dropped it and wondered if Arthur had gotten home all right the night before. He'd remembered seeing that cab company around before, so he supposed they were legitimate.
After he had taken a shower and gone to the breakfast place around the corner for something greasy, he straightened up around his flat and did some errands. He had worked a lot of hours the past week and hadn't really had time to do anything else at home besides sleep. In the afternoon he joined some of his friends for a pick up match down the park, and kept an eye out for Arthur but didn't see him. The poor guy was probably too hung over to even think about playing rugby, and even if he did, Leon wondered if he was as crazy not drunk as when he was drunk. He wasn't sure if he wanted to play rugby with a guy who kept insisting that he was King Arthur.
The next day, he went to visit his parents. They sat a table that Leon and his father had built when Leon was fourteen and Leon had to smile, because it was a round table and he had to wonder what Arthur would think of that. Then the next day he went back to work, and if he thought of Arthur again it was to file him away as a story to tell the next time he went out drinking with his friends.
On Wednesday night one of the people at work was leaving and they took him to a nice restaurant down the street as a treat. In addition to the work crowd, a few of his friends and family members also showed up. Leon had never met any of them but ended up sitting next to the man's sister. The women at work were always trying to set him up with their single friends, saying that it was a shame that someone so handsome and sweet didn't have a girlfriend, so somehow he wasn't too surprised at the seating arrangements. And the woman was beautiful, with long black hair and pale skin. He didn't think he'd have a bad time of it tonight.
The sister, on the other hand, seemed to be very surprised to see him. "Leon?" she gasped.
Leon turned to look at her. "Er, yes?"
A quick look of disappointment flashed across her face, and Leon was reminded very strongly of Arthur for some reason. But then she was smiling brightly at him. "Oh, I'm sorry, it's just that Jonathan has often spoke of you and I guess I was surprised to finally meet you."
Jonathan was staring at his sister and looking puzzled. He glanced at Leon and shook his head, shrugging as he did so.
"Oh, well, it's very nice to meet you--?" Leon raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, that's nice," she admonished her brother. "You talk to me about people at work but you never talk to your work friends about me. I'm sorry, I'm Morgana."
"I wasn't aware I had done it so much," Jonathan said helplessly, taking a sip of his water.
"Very nice to meet you, Morgana," Leon said, smiling at her. She held his glance a moment too long, but then she returned to looking through her menu, so Leon went back to his.
The meal was enjoyable enough. They had all chipped in to buy him a nice dock for his iPod, and they all exchanged personal email addresses so that they could keep in touch. Morgana had kept up the friendly flirting with him throughout the meal and occasionally good naturedly ribbing her brother. Eventually Leon's drink ran out, and he decided to go up to the bar himself to get the refill. Morgana joined him.
"You know, it's funny. Isn't Morgana one of the people from the stories about King Arthur?" He asked her as they waited.
She stiffened beside him. "Yes, actually. Morgana Le Fay. She was a...Seer."
"So, like Merlin, then, I guess."
"No, not really like Merlin. He was a sorcerer."
Leon shrugged. "All right. Anyway, you're the second person this week that's made me think of all those stories and who knew me before I knew them."
"Oh really?" Morgana's tone was casual, but she was staring at him, waiting to hear more.
"Yeah, I went out to the bar the other night. Jonathan might have said we were having a rough time of it at work last week, so I just going to relax a bit. Anyway, there was a guy there who thought he knew me. Grabbed me by the arm and actually called me by name. Turned out to be a misunderstanding but his name turned out to be Arthur. Friendly enough, but get a few drinks in him and..."
"Went a bit nuts?" Morgana said, looking like she was about to laugh.
Leon laughed a little. "Yeah, actually. Do you know him?"
"I've seen him around."
"He usually like that?" Leon asked.
Morgana looked like she was thinking that over. "No, I suppose you just caught him on a good week," she grinned mischievously.
"Good week. Right. Thanks," he said to the bartender as he brought over his drink.
"Listen," Morgana began digging around her purse as they walked back to the table. She brought out a card with a flourish and presented it to him. "That's my card. I, er, like to keep an eye out for Arthur. If you remember and you see him again, will you give this to him?"
Leon looked at the card. "Sure, I guess. Though I don't know if I'll be seeing him again."
"Oh, Arthur has a way of keeping himself under your feet. You'll probably see him sooner rather than later."
He rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, making her laugh. "Arthur's really not that bad. Like I said, he's not normally like that all the time."
"No?" he asked, pulling her chair out for her.
"No, not usually crazy. Can be really annoying when he wants to be, though. But not crazy."
Leon sat down himself, and pointedly put the card in his wallet.
They closed the restaurant and the group of them milled around outside for a bit before dispersing. Morgana lingered with Leon for a moment longer before heading to her car.
"It was really nice seeing you, Leon." Morgana said earnestly, and again Leon was forcibly reminded of Arthur. But then she pulled him down and kissed his cheek, letting her hand brush against that spot behind his ear, and he felt her smile as he shuddered. She pulled away and tapped his jacket pocket where he kept his wallet. "Keep in touch. And don't forget about Arthur." She called as she began walking away.
The next day, Thursday, he went to work as normal, helping train Jonathan's replacement. Luckily he didn't have as much work this week as he did last week, so he had the time. He went home and read up on the sports pages on line and played with Morgana's card, thinking about emailing or calling her, but decided that less than a day seemed too desperate. He went to bed early after having such a late night the night before.
Then the next morning, he woke up gasping, ready to scream. He looked around his room wildly, wondering where the dragon had gone. He gingerly sat up, feeling as though he must be terribly injured.
But that wasn't right. There was a clock radio staring at him. Dragons and clock radios didn't belong together. And there couldn't be a dragon in his small room. There was no smoke and no screaming. He gingerly felt himself over. No injuries. No dragon related scars. He cautiously pushed the blankets back and sat up. His t-shirt was sticking to the small of his back from sweat. He gingerly put his feet on the floor, still carpeted and definitely not stone underneath. He walked out to the living room and switched on the tv. It was only five in the morning and there was just an infomercial on, but the background noise was reassuring.
The dragon. It hadn't been a dream. He remembered fighting against it for a week solid, seeing it kill dozens of people every day. He remembered he and the other knights circling Arthur--Arthur! and preparing to go after the dragon. He remembered wishing he could see Morgana one last time. Wishing that there was a sure way to kill the dragon, because he didn't mind dying but he didn't want to leave the people of Camelot unprotected.
What the hell was this? He unsteadily made his way to the kitchen and chugged back a glass of water that seemed too cold. As soon as he put the glass back in the sink, more memories came, and he just barely made it over to a chair before his legs gave out. More memories of Arthur and serving the King, Uther. Memories of his parents and family from that first life. Of being on a charging horse, when he had never been on a horse in this life. Of fighting impossible monsters and Morgana pulling him into a hidden hallway to steal a kiss. As the images died off, though no the less vivid, he realized an hour and a half had gone by. He felt as though the images from the battlefields were burned into his eyelids and he barely made it to the toilet, kneeling heavily before it and throwing up. After rinsing his mouth out, he found his phone and called into work. The early morning receptionist good naturedly teased him about starting the weekend early, but he hardly ever called in, so he knew they wouldn't mind.
Once he had gotten over the shock of the memories, he remembered Arthur and Morgana. Or, the Arthur and Morgana he had met this week. Though from the way Arthur acted, he supposed they were the same person. But he couldn't be the same person as that Sir Leon. He couldn't imagine going off to battle against a dragon. Still, they had been expecting this. Arthur had even said he told him the things he did so he wouldn't think he was crazy when it happened to him. And Morgana, he was less sure about, but she had definitely dropped enough hints. He found her card in her wallet, and after staring at it for five minutes, dialed her number. It went to voicemail. He hung up, not sure how to even begin to talk about...this with no one at the other end. He booted up his computer and searched for his name from before. Nothing came up that seemed to relate to him or Arthur, and he felt vaguely offended. For kicks, he looked up reincarnation, but gave up in frustration soon after that. He read up on Arthurian legend a bit, though Arthur had said emphatically how much they had gotten nearly all of it wrong.
He eventually got up and took a shower and brushed his teeth. He tried in vain to remember the address Arthur had given the cab driver. Eventually, unable to think of anything else to do, he went to the pub where he met Arthur.
It had just opened up for lunch, and the bartender rose his eyebrow at seeing Leon there so early. He ordered his normal pint, and then remembering his growling stomach, a ham sandwich with chips.
The day went by slowly, and Leon only moved once or twice to go to the bathroom. Still, he didn't drink that much, only remembering to drink from his glass when the bartender gave him a warning look. By six-thirty there were only three empty glasses in front of him. He had been wondering if it was worth loosing his seat to go to the bathroom when he heard someone come from behind him.
"Sorry I didn't get to the park last weekend, but as you probably could have told, I really wasn't up for it. How's it going?" Leon froze at the sound of the voice that had been replaying in his memories all night and all day. He slowly turned to face him and suddenly his mouth felt too dry to talk.
"Hey, Leon," Arthur was smiling. "Remember me? Or were you a lot drunker than you looked?" He raised his eyebrows at him. "Oh don't worry, I won't go crazy tonight. That was a one time thing."
Leon took a deep breath and then ran his hand through his hair.
"I...remember you."
Arthur stared at him for a moment. "Oh...Oh!" He leaned down so he was closer to Leon. "When?"
"This morning," Leon said, staring at his glass.
"Okay. Are you feeling all right?"
Leon blinked at him. "I guess...?" He went back to staring at his drink. "Arthur," he started, his voice barely over a whisper. "What happened after the dragon?"
Arthur sighed heavily, and looked around the room. Then he pulled Leon over to a table in the corner in the back. "Some of y--some of the knights died. We survived though. Merlin...you remember?" Arthur did an imitation of Merlin's magical stance as best he could while sitting at the table.
Leon nodded. Even if he hadn't remembered the specifics of Merlin's magic, he was, after all, Merlin. Pick anyone off the street and they'd be able to tell you that Merlin was a sorcerer.
"Right, so Merlin did some weird bonding thing with the dragon and was able to send it away. He said that I had driven it away afterward, but this was before we all knew about Merlin.
"Anyway, you were pretty injured, but you recovered, and while you were recovering, you built the damn round table. And then my father died, and well, there's that. You'll probably remember more later. Sometimes it happens like that."
Leon wondered if throwing up was an option again. But then he felt Arthur's hand on his shoulder. "Listen, I've had dozens of lives since then, and I've never ended up in a history book again. Don't expect to live up to yourself again." Arthur quirked a smile.
"Right." Leon took a deep breath. "I met Morgana the other day. We got to talking about you somehow, and she said to give this to you." He dug the card out of his pocket, not bothering to put it back in his wallet after he had taken it out before.
Arthur studied the card for a second before grinning. He dug out his phone and dialed and Leon reflected for a moment how odd it was seeing Arthur Pendragon in jeans and trainers, using a mobile phone. "Morgana!" Arthur said grandly into the phone. He paused. "Yeah, it's me. Our man Leon just gave me your card. Yeah, he's just remembered, this morning. I've just found him. You free now? All right, you want to meet at my apartment? Oh, have you found Guinevere, yet? All right. Yeah, this is my address." Arthur rattled off the address and then told Morgana he'd see her soon.
"She's a bit ticked that you didn't call her first but she saw she had a missed call and she figured that was you." Arthur scrolled through his phone again, and put the phone up his ear. "Yeah, he's here. Yeah. This morning. Er, well, he's a bit stunned looking," Leon frowned. "But he'll be all right. All right. See you in a few." He closed his phone. "Are you nearly done with that?" Arthur said, motioning to Leon's glass.
"Yeah." He took one last gulp and put it down, allowing Arthur to walk him out of the pub. He found himself instinctively walking a pace behind Arthur before Arthur grabbed his arm and pulled him forward. "You'll get used to it. This is old hat for the rest of us. We'll walk you through this, you'll get over it pretty quickly."
"Of course. So old hat that you drank a half a litre of vodka when you remembered."
Arthur flushed. "You never got smart before. Besides, I had a lot more remembering than you did." A cab pulled up in front of them, and Leon had an intense feeling of deja vu. And then he remembered the day he was having and started to laugh. Arthur gave him a worried look but opened the back door for him, and then swung in the front seat himself. Leon frowned and then focused on the driver.
"Merlin?"
"Hey Leon!" Merlin turned around and smiled brightly at him. "You all right?"
"Yeah, fine, I guess."
"You'll be all right." Merlin pulled the cab away from the curb. "Oh, thanks by the way, for dumping this prat in my cab the other night."
Leon stared at him. "That was you?"
"Yeah, dropped him off at his place, walked up to the door because you gave me a good tip. Cheers for that, by the way. As soon as I start to remember things, he shuts the door in my face and makes me sit on his stoop the whole night."
"Shut it." Arthur turned to face out the window, but Leon could see his grin in the reflection. After a moment, Arthur spoke up again. "Leon's met Morgana already, though he didn't remember her at the time. She gave him a card to give to me. I called her before I called you and she's meeting us at home."
"Good at planning, Morgana." Merlin said, smiling.
Morgana was just getting out of her car when they arrived. She nearly ran over to greet them as they got out of the car, exchanging warm hugs with Arthur and Merlin. Then she pulled Leon's face down to her's and kissed him square on the mouth, hold her hands behind his neck. "You have no idea how much I wanted to do that the other night."
Arthur and Merlin had already begun walking to the front door, and Morgana lead him up the walkway, following behind them.