(no subject)
Title: A Certain Slant of Sunlight
Rating: PG for a couple of kisses so unexplicit they might as well not be there. Also, it aims to be disturbing, but I think it probably misses... :D
Warnings: Morally-Ambiguous!Merlin, and like I said - might be disturbing, if you turn your head sideways and squint a little with your left eye. Cluck like a chicken and do the Time-Warp and it might be terrifying. *grin*
Summary: Uther is dead, Arthur can't think straight, and Merlin knows exactly how things should go.
AN: I've never done anything like this before, so I hope it's OK! This is basically just a picture I had in my head written out in words because I can't draw to save my life. Not as interesting as all the jealousy-inducing stories of meeting/seeing CM and BJ, but I'll offer it anyway. ^_^ Title from a poem, but I can't remember who by - if anyone knows, please tell!
Arthur stared sickly at Merlin, trying to re-order scrambled thoughts into something like order.
“It was for the best.” Merlin said, gently. “Can’t you see that?”
Arthur couldn’t get his head round it. “He was my father.” He choked out, finally.
“A tyrant.” Merlin corrected, simply, reasonably, his eyes confused. “He wanted to tear us apart. Did you want that?”
“There must have been another way.” Arthur tried to sound as assertive as usual, but only managing to sound pleading. “You killed him. With magic.”
“I don’t think there was.” Merlin’s voice, though kind, was very definite.
Arthur stared at the corpse of the man he had always wanted to love him, and looked back up at Merlin, the man he sometimes thought always had. In the end, there was no choice.
“Arthur.” Merlin said, quietly. “We could be so good. Together.”
Such a tempting offer, and Merlin’s eyes were so warm, golden in the late sunshine. “How can I rule, without my father there to guide me?” he asked, weakly.
“Like you would have had to.” Merlin’s smile was warmer than any sunshine, and Arthur could feel himself swaying towards his sometime-manservant. “You can make Camelot so perfect Arthur. You’ve seen what magic can do! Embrace magic.” He stepped closer, and Arthur did nothing to stop him. “With magic, you can be king for a hundred years, and rise to be king again later. Embrace magic.” Another step towards him. “Embrace me.”
“You want to rule at my side?” Arthur said, hoarsely.
Merlin shook his head, his expression kind and indulgent. “Oh, no. I leave ruling to you - I have enough power of my own without yours. But surely you can see how this kingdom needs magic?” He gestured outwards at the sunlight, at Camelot, “All this was so grey under Uther,” Arthur’s connection with the corpse on the floor seemed to be waning as the body cooled, “You could bring colour back to Camelot. You could build your palace out of gold, Arthur.”
Arthur couldn’t look away from his manservant. “I-I…” No words seemed to be coming. He knew there were things he should be saying - Merlin had just killed his father, the King, and there were things to organise - but Merlin’s eyes caught and held him. “The laws…”
“Are yours to make.” Merlin pointed out, and that was just so Merlin, Arthur managed a weak smile.
“I could change them.” He agreed, and wondered why agreeing changing such a fundamental part of his father’s kingdom wasn’t more of a wrench.
“I would, if I were you.” Merlin said, his voice light and friendly, but Arthur couldn’t grasp the words, slipping over them awkwardly, letting them skitter every which-way inside his head because it was far too much effort to try and gather them back to him to make sense of them.
“If you say so.” He nodded, mechanically.
Merlin’s laugh was so warm. “It’s not what I want; I want what’s best for you.” He held out a hand to Arthur, and the other boy stared at it for a moment, at the calluses on the palm, so different to his own weapon-calluses, and at the dirt under the nails, and those long, slender fingers. “And this is best for all of us.” Merlin continued, very quietly.
Slowly, he reached out and clasped Merlin’s warm, warm hand and could almost hear something ending as his fingers closed around it. “Of course.” He nodded, holding on a little tighter. Things were spinning out of control, he could feel them, but Merlin knew what to do, and Merlin would be an anchor for him.
“Commoners deserve the same rights as nobles, don’t they?” Merlin’s voice slid over him so tenderly, as everything around him blurred into a mass of colour and blood and too-red sunlight. “Don’t I deserve the same right as a noble?”
How could Arthur deny something so obvious? “Of course.” His hand tightened on Merlin’s. “Of course you do.”
Merlin laughed again, deeper and richer. “Thank you.” An arm slid round his waist. “We have so much to change, Arthur.” A warm kiss pressed to his neck. “So much to change, and you’re doing so well. You’re going to do so well.”
“Stay with me.” Arthur begged. Suddenly, a world without Merlin was unthinkable. How would he ever sort out all the sights and sounds around him without Merlin to tell him what was right and wrong?
Another chuckle, another kiss. “Of course. Of course, Arthur. My King.”
Uther was dead, Arthur was King, and he and Merlin were going to change the world. How could Arthur ever have doubted that?
Held convulsively tight against the Prince’s chest, Merlin smiled.
**
I hope you liked it!