Stay
Title: Stay
Author: theonekierce
Pairing: Could be seen as Merlin/Arthur
Rating: G
Wordcount: 315
Summary: Arthur's reaction to discovering Merlin's magic. Very short.
“How could you!? I don’t even know what to say, Merlin! What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Arthur-”
“No, I don’t want your excuses. Get out of my sight, and don’t let your big mouth run and tell someone else.”
“I’ve managed it for three years, you know? I’m not entirely incompetent.”
“No? Well you’re pretty damn close, aren’t you?”
“Arthur, please. I just- I didn’t want to make you have to choose.”
“CHOOSE? Choose what? As far as I can see, you’ve been deciding my ‘destiny’ since you got here! You’ve decided what I should and shouldn’t know about my closest and most trusted friend! Apparently, that trust was misplaced!”
“NO! It wasn’t my place to make you choose between me and your father! Its nothing like- I don’t- ugh. You’re obviously not going to understand. I’ll just go say goodbye to everyone then?”
Arthur looked up. Yes he was angry, but he hadn’t remembered actually making any sort of official sentence. He looked into Merlin’s eyes expecting… defiance? Anger? He didn’t know really, but he certainly wasn’t prepared for heartbreak. Merlin looked so broken, he was visibly collapsing, and if Arthur wasn’t already in two pieces, he would have broken from the sight of him. They couldn’t part like this, if all Merlin’s talk of destiny was true. “Merlin-”
“What, have you thought of some other way to throw the guilt of three years of betrayal in my face?” Merlin turned back towards Arthur sharply, frustrated, and blinking away tears threatening to come streaming as soon as he crossed the threshold.
“Just. Stay.”
Stay. In that one word ‘stay’, Merlin heard more than just ‘stay in Camelot’, more than ‘stay in my employment’, more than even ‘stay in this room’, he heard the most important thing to trespass his ears he had heard in his life. He heard ‘stay with me.’