Merlinfic: Born of Magic 6/12
Title: Born of Magic
Author: Destiny_Chicken
Characters: Arthur, Merlin, Uther, Gaius, OC Lord Aden, OC Lady Alys
Genre/pairing: Slash, Merlin/Arthur
Rating: MA Mature Adult due to language, and explicit sexual content
Word-count: 33,833 total
Chapters: 6 of 12
Spoilers: Mention of 1.1 (The Dragon’s Call), 2.8 (The Sins of the Father) and 2.13 (The Last Dragonlord)
Summary: Arthur suffers yet another blow to the head, but this one causes amnesia. He and Merlin are quarantined to Arthur’s chambers in an attempt to avoid revealing the amnesia to Uther. Once Arthur is cured by Merlin’s magic, strange incidents begin to occur.
Only two hours later, Arthur was shouting, “MER-lin!” from his bed. ‘Where is that worthless manservant of mine? He’s got to be in the chambers somewhere, since we’re under quarantine.’
Merlin dragged himself from his own warm bed and stumbled into Arthur’s bedchamber, trying to tame the wild nest that was his hair as he glanced at Arthur in the bed. “You bellowed, Sire?”
Arthur made a brief mental note that Merlin looked exhausted, with deep circles under his eyes and his face even paler than usual. He lowered his voice (not that he was doing so for Merlin’s benefit, of course), to say, “Merlin, I can remember! I know who I am and who you are,” gesturing with his hands to point at himself and Merlin in turn.
Merlin’s face broke into a wide grin. Then he narrowed his eyes and studied Arthur carefully, asking, “And Gaius? And your father?”
Arthur, answering Merlin’s grin with his own, “Known them both since I was a babe.”
“The mind clarity medicine must have finally taken hold,” Merlin offered in explanation.
“I don’t care what did it, the medicine or the amnesia just wore off, I’m just glad to be back to normal.” He amended, “Or mostly normal.”
“What do you mean, ‘mostly normal’?”
“Just a funny tingling feeling I have.” Arthur wasn’t sure how to describe it, but he knew he had never felt this before.
“Like a numbness? How is your knee? And what about the headaches?”
Arthur threw back the bed covers and tentatively put his weight on his injured knee. There was no pain. He stood and strode around the chambers. “No pain, no numbness in the knee. It’s fine now. No headache either. The tingling is not concentrated in any one place. I suppose the best way to describe it is as just an overall sensation.”
“Perhaps it is a side effect Gaius failed to mention. We should have him come to release us from the quarantine,” Merlin suggested.
“Get my breakfast first, and make it sausages and eggs today-my stomach is no longer queasy. And I think it is time for a bath. Gaius can come after that,” Arthur ordered.
Merlin set to work to fulfill Arthur’s commands while Arthur considered what he now remembered. In addition to his memories from before the fall returning, he was still aware of what had transpired since the fall. The fall itself and the rest of that day were fairly fuzzy however. But one particular set of memories was at the forefront of his mind--Merlin.
‘So now I know I’m attracted to Merlin: his pale skin and long elegant fingers, sparkling blue eyes and those cheekbones. His cheeky retorts and times of serious honesty. All that still seems as strong as before my memories returned. It doesn’t seem to be related to the memory loss. And now I know nothing has ever happened between us physically before. So what am I going to do about this attraction?’ he wondered as he closely watched the raven-haired lad pull the bathtub out of its storage space. ‘Nothing, absolutely nothing,’ he replied to himself.
Suddenly the fire that was banked in the fireplace roared with new life, the flames shooting up to the top of the firebox. ‘How odd,’ Arthur thought. It settled back down quickly.
Arthur’s breakfast arrived and he tucked in. Everything tasted delicious after several days of no appetite. As usual, the portions for the prince were large. He intentionally left a sausage and a portion of the soft bread on the plate for Merlin to filch.
As he pushed away from the table, Merlin said, “The bath is ready. Do you want me to help undress you?” He wasn’t meeting Arthur’s eyes when he said that, and his ears looked redder than usual.
The candelabra behind Merlin lit spontaneously, the candles’ flames flaring, and then as quickly as they were lit, the candles were extinguished. Arthur knit his brows in puzzlement. But Merlin had seen nothing, with his back to the candles. More strange happenings.
“Arthur, did you hear me?” Merlin repeated. “Do you want me to undress you?”
Arthur quickly replied, “Ah, no, I can handle it. I can perform some tasks by myself, you know.”
Merlin, grinning, rejoined, “You’ve told me that before. Your skills just usually don’t involve clothing, but weaponry. If you had to fight your way out of your clothes with a sword or dagger, I’m utterly convinced you could do it in seconds. Without a weapon, I’m not so sure.”
Choosing to ignore Merlin’s insult this time, Arthur moved behind the dressing screen, and began to exchange his sleep trousers for a towel around the waist. While he was behind the screen, he heard a crash followed by a large splash and water-sloshing sounds.
“Merlin, what happened?”
Sputtering, Merlin replied, “I-I’m not sure.”
Arthur stood on tiptoe to look over the screen and saw his manservant, fully dressed, half-in and half-out of the tub. His legs were upended, and the sputtering was evidently Merlin’s head emerging from underwater.
Arthur, with a laugh, crowed, “Leave it to you to stumble and fall into the bathtub. You are such clumsy idiot, who can’t avoid tripping to save his life.”
Merlin glared back at the part of Arthur he could see over the screen--his striking blue eyes and golden hair--and said with a pout, “It wasn’t my fault this time, the rug slipped out from underneath me. See?” He pointed to the rumpled rug beside the tub.
“I don’t know. You can lose your footing over nothing but the air quite easily; it doesn’t take a rug to trip you. You’re soaked, you should get out of those wet clothes, and while you’re at it, you should take a bath.”
“What? I bathed in the wash basin,” Merlin protested.
“I don’t care, your stench tells me you need a full bath, so get to it.”
“Here, now? This is your bath.”
Arthur came out from behind the dressing screen clad in just the towel, and settled comfortably in the chair by the fire. He crossed his arms, and stared at Merlin. “Yes, it’s my bath and I’m telling you to use it. Now.” ‘This idea was brilliant,’ Arthur said to himself. He had only seen Merlin naked briefly once, when they stopped to swim at the river during the summer heat. That was going to change right now.
“Arthur,” Merlin pleaded. “At least give me some privacy here.”
“Well, turn around. I’m sure if I’m not watching you, you will find some way to weasel out of bathing. But I will close my eyes and count to ten. One - two - three...”
Merlin quickly turned away from Arthur, and promptly pulled his neckerchief off and removed his belt. However, by the count of three, Arthur had set aside his chivalrous manners and had opened his eyes again to see Merlin lifting off his tunic and pulling off his boots.
“Four - five...” From the back, Arthur could see his lanky frame was wiry with muscles no doubt built up from lifting buckets, scrubbing floors, mucking out the stables and whatever other chores he did.
“Six - seven...” Merlin dropped his trousers and his smalls. Arthur took note of Merlin’s pert arse, and lean flanks. His hipbones were nearly as sharp as his cheekbones. Arthur blew out a full breath. He’d better close his eyes quickly, before Merlin turned around, because as much as he didn’t want to miss anything, he really didn’t want to be caught watching.
As Arthur counted, “Eight - Nine - Ten,” he heard the splash from Merlin hastily stepping into the tub and sitting down. Opening his eyes, he saw Merlin facing him, seated in the tub, with his face and ears bright red, and his arms folded over his chest with a determined look on his face.
Merlin accused, “You are enjoying this way too much, Arthur.”
Arthur rolled his eyes. “It’s insufferable how much caretaking you need.”
“You, take care of me? It’s the other way ‘round.”
“Get to washing, now. You’re my servant and I’ll have you be presentable.” Arthur responded. Merlin was right about Arthur enjoying himself too much, but the prince was not about to admit that. Merlin began washing his arms.
As he studied Merlin, he mused to himself, ‘Merlin had a bit of dark hair on his chest that partially covered an old scar that looked like it had been caused by a severe burn. How ever did he get that burn? Some inept mishap, probably.’
Merlin set to washing his hair, dunking underwater to wet it thoroughly, then he soaped it and dunked again to rinse. When he came back up, he glanced at Arthur. ‘Why was Arthur’s gaze so keen? Well that could work both ways,’ so he stared back defiantly. Arthur in just a towel was a banquet for Merlin’s eyes. The expanse of skin, the shape of his muscular arms, the angle of his jaw, the curve where his neck joined his shoulder--all areas begging to be assaulted by Merlin’s mouth. But his attention soon focused on Arthur’s pink, plump lips, always a bit chapped...lips that he longed to soothe with his tongue and suckle in between his own.
‘Keep washing,” Arthur barked. Merlin had paused in his bathing as he stared at Arthur’s form.
Merlin returned to the job at hand, washing his face, neck and shoulders.
Arthur found himself unable to stop staring at Merlin. He drank in those marvelously sharp cheekbones, and the tightening tendons on his neck as he turned his head to get a better angle to wash his neck. ‘What am I doing, leering at Merlin like this? See, he’s already noticed. He’s staring back at me. He’s going to hate me for wanting him. He won’t ever be comfortable in my presence again. Oh Gods, what can I do? He’ll likely quit being my manservant and move back to Ealdor.’
As Arthur followed his thoughts down a sinking hole to panic over Merlin’s opinion of him, his face was carefully schooled to show no emotions after years of training by his father. Despite that training, a brief panicked look tightened his brow and affected his eyes.
Unfortunately, Merlin saw the emotion flit across Arthur’s face. “Arthur, is something wrong?”
“No, why do you think so?” Now Arthur’s eyes were darting side to side, looking anywhere but back at Merlin.
“Just something in your face--you looked worried.’
Arthur let loose a false-sounding laugh, “What would I have to worry about? I’m the Crown Prince of Camelot.”
“The visit of a prospective bride for one, the unfinished taxation argument with your father for two, the difficulty in finding suitable knighthood candidates for three-shall I go on?” Merlin recited.
Abruptly, Arthur stood up and turned away from Merlin, walked over to the window and stared at nothing outside. ‘Well, I’ve managed to stop staring at him, at least.’ He shivered and it wasn’t solely from the cool air seeping in from the window.
Merlin quickly scrubbed the remainder of his body and stepped out of the tub, wrapping a towel around his waist. Arthur was behaving very strangely this morning; something was definitely off about him. “Come on, Arthur, now it’s your turn. The water is still warm--I was quick.” A bit of magic he chanced while Arthur’s back was turned helped keep that from being a lie.
“Alright.” Arthur strode to the tub and whipped off the towel before sinking in.
“Do you want me to assist you, to wash your hair?”
Eyes closed, Arthur managed to exhale, “No, I’ll do it. Go send word for Gaius to attend me.” Arthur was half-hard already, and sure he would come from just Merlin’s touch right now. Behind Merlin, the fire leapt high again.
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Arthur managed to finish his bath and get dressed himself, refusing Merlin’s assistance again, without any additional staring episodes. Merlin was tidying the breakfast dishes--Arthur noticed he did steal the sausage and bread to eat--when a knock at the main chamber’s door was heard. “It’s Gaius, Sire. I was told you wished to see me.”
Merlin went to the door and opened it the obligatory crack. Smiling, he whispered to Gaius, “It worked! He’s remembered.”
“Oh well done, Merlin, that’s excellent,” he praised. “No ill effects I take it?”
“Ask him about the tingling, and he is acting a bit odd.”
“Odd how?”
“Umm, well...staring at me a lot and he won’t let me perform my usual duties.” Merlin admitted with embarrassment.
Gaius narrowed his eyes and looked doubtful. He raised his voice for the benefit of the guards, “I need to conduct a complete exam to confirm the prince’s recovery.” Then he stepped inside the room and closed the door behind him.
Approaching Arthur as he sat at the table, Gaius asked, “Your Highness, you are feeling better? You are remembering?”
“Very much so, Gaius. All my memories seem to have returned, except those surrounding the actual fall and the rest of that day are still rather fuzzy.”
“It is not uncommon for amnesia victims to never regain the memories surrounding the actual event that resulted in the memory loss. So that is very normal. Merlin says you’ve had some other after effects? Your limbs are tingling?”
Gaius had taken out his magnifying lens and was examining Arthur’s eyes, then he turned to probing at the slight bump still remaining at the base of Arthur’s skull.
“No, it’s not in the limbs-it is a more generalized sensation of tingling. Is it a side effect from the potions?”
Gaius frowned as he answered, “No, I’ve never heard of that as a side effect. Anything else unusual?”
“No, just the tingling.”
Gaius looked pointedly at Merlin over Arthur’s head, and Merlin merely rolled his eyes in response. Arthur was Arthur. He wouldn’t admit to illness or weakness readily.
“I’ll research the tingling and see what I can determine. However, I believe I can lift the quarantine now, declaring you no longer contagious. But I want you to limit your activities for the next day or so.” Gaius continued, “No practice with the knights, but you can supervise their training activities. You should attend the council meeting to demonstrate your wellness and dissuade any rumors of your illness being more serious than we said.”
As these directions were not to Arthur’s liking, he frowned and said, “Council meetings? I fear my headache will return.”
Merlin grinned. “That would be normal, then Arthur. You always have a headache and are upset after council meetings. It wouldn’t be from the amnesia or from any illness.”
“Upset? I do not get upset,” Arthur declared peevishly.
Suddenly one of the shields mounted on the overmantle of the fireplace rattled loose and fell to the floor.
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By the end of the day, Arthur was starting to worry. After Gaius had announced the quarantine was over to the king and council, he’d been called to meet with his father privately in the audience chamber. Uther discussed, in excruciating detail, the visit of Lord Aden and his very marriage-eligible daughter, Lady Alys. They would be arriving tomorrow, and an elegant feast was planned for the first evening to welcome them. A hunt for boar had been scheduled; more banquets and a jousting tournament would be held to entertain them.
While Arthur was looking forward to the tournament (of course he would be competing), the other activities would require him to host Lady Alys at the banquets: sitting beside her, cutting and serving her meat to her plate. Engaging her in conversation about anything and everything, while saying nothing. And of course, dancing with her. Arthur could dance, he’d had to learn as part of his princely upbringing, but he did not enjoy it, except for the grace it lent to his ability with the sword. He usually loved hunting, but this time, he would not be able to participate fully in tracking or spearing the game. His role instead would be to accompany the Lady Alys and protect her from any angry wayward boars.
While he was discussing these unpleasant topics with his father, he maintained a carefully neutral expression on his face. Oddly, there were some additional ‘Incidents’ as he had come to refer to them. As Uther repeated pointedly what Arthur’s duties would be during the feast, the fire, which had been quietly burning, flared high and crackled and popped loudly. Arthur passed it off with a ‘must be some green wood’ comment to his father.
Then, when he was told by his father that he would be required to wear the Lady Alys’ favour during the tournament, the pikes standing on display in the corner of the chamber fell clanging to the floor. To his father he said, “A gust of wind must have blown them down,” but to himself, ‘That was no gust. What is going on here?’
He managed to make it through the subsequent council meeting without arguing with his father, mostly because he was concentrating on something else. The ‘Incidents.’
First the fireplace in his room burst into full flame and then the candelabra lit and extinguished itself quickly. Merlin was in the room then, and Arthur realized he was thinking about Merlin at the time. Next, there was Merlin tripping over the rug and falling into the bath. Arthur was sure the rug wasn’t rumpled before, and certainly Merlin was capable of tripping over nothing all by himself, but it could have been an ‘Incident’ too-Merlin said the rug slipped out from under him. Then there was the shield falling off the fireplace overmantle.
The two incidents with his father couldn’t have anything to do with Merlin-he wasn’t there and Arthur wasn’t thinking about his servant at the time. Arthur was just irritated about having to play eligible bachelor to Lady Alys. Just like he was irritated with Merlin before.
Arthur bit his lip as he realized the common elements to the ‘Incidents’-it was him! He was causing them somehow whenever he got angry or annoyed. But how was he doing this? He was afraid he wouldn’t like the answer if he knew it.
Arthur returned to his chambers once the council meeting concluded, and found, for once, Merlin was not in his chambers. He took advantage of the solitude to sit and stare at the fire and think some more about the ‘Incidents.’ Perhaps he could create them intentionally if they were related to him. He concentrated on the fireplace, willing the flames to rise...but nothing happened. Then he tried focusing on Merlin and his idiotic ways. He tried to re-capture the irritation from this morning, but instead his mind brought up the images of Merlin undressing, of Merlin naked in the bath. Of his silly grin and funny pout when he was mad at Arthur. Of Merlin kneeling to remove his boots and looking up at him under those long lush lashes. ‘Oh gods, this is not what I wanted to bring to mind.’
Arthur hastily came to his feet and began to pace the room. ‘All right. Stop thinking about Merlin. Concentrate on Lady Alys and how much wooing you’ll have to do of her. Ah, that’s better-anger, irritation, annoyance.’ And the flames rose in direct proportion to Arthur’s emotions.
Simultaneously, Arthur realised the meaning of what he had done, and Merlin burst in the chambers.
‘I am doing MAGIC! My father will have me put to death!’ With that thought, his eyes rolled back in his head and Arthur fell to the floor in a dead faint.
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