A long way to go 3/16

Jul 21, 2012 19:38

Title: A long way to go 3/16
Author: bunnysworld
Rating: NC-17 (not in this part, but it’ll get there)
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin, mentions of Arthur/other
Spoilers: No spoilers
Warnings: modern AU, with a hint of magic, homophobia
Word Count: 15.800andafew
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, the boys aren’t mine. Just took them out to play a little. I give them back unharmed - if I have to. Own nothing, no copyright infringement intended.
Summary: Arthur thinks his life is over. And then he meets Merlin.

Thanks to the wonderful tambear13 for being my cheerleader through this and for the quick beta.

Part 1
Part 2



Why the fuck had he come back again? After the last treatment, Arthur had felt better for almost a whole day before the pain was back. And then he had stared at the stupid book for hours, the empty pages ridiculing him. What was he supposed to write? In the end he just noted down what he had for dinner - a pizza - and that he had watched some TV. And now this Merlin person didn’t even ask for it?

“Did you have a nice weekend?”

“Why? Did you?”

“Oh yes, thanks for asking. What did you do?” Merlin just smiled and looked at him.

“Nothing.” It was the truth. It had been one of these endless weekends with nothing on TV that was worth being watched and his knee had hurt and…yeah, a wonderful weekend all over.

“No going out? No clubbing? Not even the movies? Meeting friends for dinner?”

Arthur shook his head. “None of the above.”

“Why not?”

His eyebrow shot up. Arthur couldn’t believe this bloke. “My knee?” How long would it take that man to get it into the thick skull of his that the injury had been the end of his life?

“You need your knee to see a movie? And to eat?”

Arthur huffed.

“How about your friends? Any calls?”

Leaning back, Arthur closed his eyes. “I don’t have any friends left.”

“Since…”

“Since the incident.”

When Merlin didn’t say anything, Arthur thought back to the days when his injury was still fresh. They’d all been there. But after a while, they stopped visiting, stopped calling. They all wanted to be his friend when he was active, when he made lots of money. When he was broken, they didn’t care about him anymore. And what was the use in clubbing when you couldn’t dance? When everyone just threw you sympathetic looks. Then again, he hadn’t been clubbing since it happened. It’d be too painful to watch all those couples around him.

“You know…” Arthur took a deep breath, “what good is clubbing when you’re not with someone?”

“Maybe to meet someone new?” Merlin tapped the end of his pen to his lips repeatedly.

“Who’d want me? The crippled ex-footballer?”

“That’s all you see when you look into the mirror? The crippled ex-footballer?”

“Yeah, what else is there to me?” Arthur sighed.

“It would be great if you saw the booze- and pills-addict, too. The bloke who feels so good in his self-pity that he doesn’t care that all his friends can’t stand it anymore and stopped calling? The person who neglects all his other talents to cry over spilled milk? The guy who pushes everybody away so he can feel all lonely and forgotten by the world?”

Even though there was an amused tone in Merlin’s voice, the words stung. “I’m no junkie!” If his knee didn’t hurt so bad, Arthur would have jumped up. “And what other talents do I have? I was a great football player! And why should I push people away? They just…stop coming to me!”

Merlin just smiled. “If that’s so…Why don’t you start cutting back on the pain killers?”

“Because my knee hurts too bad if I stop taking them?” Boy, that bloke was dense!

“Does it stop hurting when you take them?”

Arthur pondered for a moment. No… “Not really.”

Merlin shrugged. “Then you could do without them. Have you tried acupressure before?”

“Nobody sticks needles in me.” A stubborn pout showed on Arthur’s face.

“That’d be acupuncture, acupressure is just pressing the right points. Let me show you.”

Merlin got up and came over, reaching for Arthur’s hand. He pressed a few spots and Arthur gasped when he felt this in other parts of his body.

“Come on over, lie down.” Merlin smiled.

Arthur didn’t know why he did as told. He was fuming. Who did that ear-bloke think he was that he could accuse him of all of these things? He lay down with a deep frown on his face, but closed his eyes. If this person would only take the pain from his knee for another day, it was at least worth coming here.

Pressing some spots at Arthur’s ears and then in his face, Merlin made an approving sound, but didn’t comment on it.

“We’re done for today.”

Arthur sat up. “You didn’t treat my knee.”

“I did.”

“You didn’t do that thing with your hands on my knee.”

“I still treated it, though.” Merlin gave an encouraging nod. “See you on Thursday. And… Write a bit more in that book, okay?”

When Arthur grabbed his cane and limped out of the practice, he swore under his breath. He’d never go back to this place again.

Part 4

rating: nc-17, genre: h/c, genre: au, contributor: bunnysworld, genre: drama, fanfic, genre: romance, genre: angst

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