The Vicar of Ealdor
Title: The Vicar of Ealdor
Rating: PG
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Summary: Written here for the KMM Prompt: Merlin's a newly ordained vicar in his first village parish full of crazy types a la Vicar of Dibley except they are all Merlin character type crazies instead. He's unlucky in love like the VofD was too. Then Morgana's brother Arthur returns/visits from (enter wherever here) and Merlin falls in love.
EALDOR PARISH COUNCIL
Meeting Agenda
Wednesday 4th April, 1800hrs
Attending: Morgana LeFay (presiding), Geneviere DuLac, Lancelot DuLac, Percival Martins, Elena Knight, Gaius Mage, Kilgharrah Dragoon.
1. Call to order
2. Attendance
3. Approval of minutes from last meeting
4. Open Issues
a. Continued Graffiti in West Street.
b. Rabbit Overpopulation
c. Discussion of annual knitting marathon.
5. New Business
a. Discussion led by Elena on the addition of snooker to the school PE curriculum.
b. Vote on the suggestion that the sign to ‘King Street’ be moved one foot to the left.
c. Introduction of our new Vicar, Mr. Merlin Emrys.
“Oh Please, just call me Merlin, everyone does.”
“Right.” Morgana had answered slowly and given the new vicar a quick once over from where he sat grinning like an idiot beside her. The black vicar collar a stark contrast to his overly pale skin and somehow extenuated his ears which were ridiculous to begin with. Obviously feeling Morganas consideration, Merlin turned his grin in her direction. She grit her jaw, turned to the front and continued reading the agenda for the meeting.
By the end of the meeting one thing was very clear: Merlin Emrys was an idiot.
He frowned in contemplation whilst the old bats Gaius and Kilgharrah ranted about the mysterious graffiti that they swore they saw painted along the newsagents wall on their evening walk but was always gone by the morning, he offered a sympathetic pat and a box of tissues when Percival started fretting over the roll on effects of rabbit overpopulation near his farm, he offered his assistance to blustering and stuttering Gwen and her ridiculous Knitting Marathon to raise money for the war monument, he gave sound arguments as to why snooker should seriously be thought of as a rainy day sporting activity for PE, and he refused to vote on the sign issue as he stated that ‘he had only been living in the village for one day and wouldn’t feel right voting on such a controversial issue that would affect everyone’.
By the end of the meeting Merlin had managed to win over everyone, Lance and Gwen even inviting him over for dinner, Percival offering to show Merlin his snail collection, Gaius and Kil inviting him to their longstanding chess tournament and Elena punching him in the arm (practically a declaration of love from her) and Morgana had a headache.
*
EALDOR PARISH COUNCIL
Meeting Agenda
Wednesday 19th June, 1800hrs
“So let’s bring this meeting to order.”
The quiet mumbles of conversations carried on over Morganas commanding voice, barely withholding her eye roll she cleared her throat noisily and banged her mallet. The room suddenly quietened and Morgana gave her mallet a small stroke - and Merlin had said it was unnecessary.
“I would like to take this opportunity to let everyone know that I will be unable to attend next week’s meeting. I have already arranged for Gwen-“
“Ooo. Are you doing anything exciting?” Merlin interrupted enthusiastically. Morgana spared him a sideways glance.
“Hardly, my step brother is coming in for a visit and I must entertain him.”
“Brother?! I never knew you had a brother? What is he like?” Merlin was practically bouncing in his seat by now and Morgana had gotten used to having to curb her instinct to tie him to the chair.
“He is my step brother and he is arrogant, and rude and an idiot.”
“Oh….” Merlin floundered for a moment and Morgana hoped that would be the end of that but alas: “Well it must be nice to have your family to visit.”
Morgana offered Merlin a baleful look “Yes. It is wonderful to have my home invaded for a week, to have to waste money on extra food and cancel my weekly plans because I have to babysit him.”
“There’s no need to cancel plans. You could always bring him along to our meeting.” Merlin offered, staring at Morgana with those huge, annoyingly blue eyes. “It is always interesting to get an outsiders input.” Merlin glanced around pointedly to the rest of the room who all started to nod and murmur in agreement.
“Yes, well…. We’ll see.” Offered Morgana and gave the room a tight smile before proceeding with that days agenda. She tried to ignore the elephant ear to elephant ear grin that Merlin was sporting and the proud pat he gave the back of her hand before she unsubtly withdrew it and purposefully shuffled the papers outlining Gwen’s ideas for the town square shrubbery overhaul.
*
The day that Arthur was due to arrive hadn’t been the best of days for Morgana.
The florist that she had hired to decorate this year’s bake sale had over done the pink to yellow ratio so now the whole high street looked like it had been coated with candyfloss. When she had done berating the women for her uselessness she then had to explain to Percival (again) that it he wouldn’t be allowed to enter his stone cakes this year because last year they nearly killed Mrs Unbridge when she choked on a paper clip. She then had to suffer through Merlin's unimpressed stare when he had to guide a silently crying Percival away from the children’s park and back to his house for tea and crumpets.
She had then been on the phone to the council for hours trying to secure funding for the main street to be re-tarmaced (after breaking the heel on the forth pair of Jimmy Choo’s this month)
After all of that there was barely time to check that the maid had correctly made up the guest suite before the doorbell rang.
Walking elegantly toward the front door she automatically straightened two picture frames before opening the front door to-
“Merlin?” she asked in confusion. Said vicar offered her an idiotic grin from behind the tower of tuppaware he was carrying and pushed passed her into the living room. She followed automatically and to make sure he didn’t leave any sticky finger marks on any of the surfaces. “What are you doing here? I am expecting company.”
“I know.” Merlin sounded breathless as he carefully lowered the tubs to the dining table at the back of the room. “That is why I am here. I commandeered a few of the best of the batch from the stalls before they opened. I wasn’t sure what time your brother was due to arrive and I didn’t want him to miss out on the best Ealdor had to offer!”
Morgana came closer to the table as Merlin started opening the plastic dishes and now noticed they were all full of food. Gwen’s homemade preserve, Leon’s scones, Gaius’ flapjacks and something that suspiciously looked like-
“Are those-?” Morgana peered timidly into the last box that housed small, pale round cakes that suspiciously looked like Percival’s dreaded stone cakes.
“Yes.” Merlin offered sheepishly, “But he was just so disappointed that he couldn’t take part this year and I helped him make them so no stationary what-so-ever I promise!”
Morgana glanced up at Merlin's hopefully expression and rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She said, very magnanimously. “Just get all this to the kitchen before Arthur gets here. And don’t get crumbs anywhere.”
Merlin grinned idiotically, again, and looked for a moment like he was going to hug her. But Morganas glare made him retreat with a fond look on his face that was almost as bad.
Whilst Merlin retreated to the kitchen Morgana attempted to fix the mess Merlin had made of her doily’s on the table and the doorbell rang for a second time. Giving a last sorrowful look at the unsalvageable state of the table Morgana swept to the door once again.
This time there was no unpleasant surprise on the other side, just the anticipated arrival of her annoying brother, who looked even more of an idiot than he normally did.
You would have thought that ignoring their father’s wishes for him to join the family business and going travelling for three years would have matured him, but no. The blond turned to the now open door and gave Morgana one of his smiles that showed all of his ridiculously crooked teeth that Morgana remembered from their youth, it usually promised Morgana would find a newt in her bone china tea set.
“Arthur.” She greeted with a nod, standing back to allow Arthur to enter. He stepped forward removing his aviators as he did and shaking his fringe that had gotten entirely too long, out of his eyes.
“Sis!” he greeted in cheer, throwing his arms around her with a few pats to the back. When he had finally released her she straightened back up pulling at her blouse.
“Yes, well.” She cleared her throat, “You’re late.”
Arthur smirked in response before taking off his leather jacket to reveal tanned arms toned from building puppy orphanages or whatever it was he had been doing for the last few years, and a white t-shirt that was definitely too tight. “Nice to see you haven’t changed Morgs.” Arthur commented as he turned to hang his jacket up. Merlin chose that exact moment to emerge from the kitchen brushing bits of cake from his hair and glancing guilty over his shoulder to the closed kitchen door.
“I had a bit of an issue with - oh.” Merlin stopped when he saw the bulk of a man with his back to him beside Morgana. “Sorry, I didn’t hear the door go. You must be Arthur.”
Arthur turned from the coat rack towards Merlin and stopped, eyes wide and slowly blinking. Morgana frowned and looked back to Merlin, who had a similar wide eyed look on his face and looked like he had stopped breathing. She continued frowning and glanced back to Arthur who was now, not very subtly, running his eyes up and down Merlin's lean frame. Probably taking in the two-years-past-good Converse that Merlin insisted where still wearable and the home made jumper that he no doubt got as a Christmas gift from Old Martha Dent who should have stopped knitting four years ago when her eyesight finally gave out.
“Hi.” Arthur stated, kind of breathlessly. “I’m Arthur.” Arthur stuck out a sweaty appendage in Merlin's direction who softly grasped it in his own. And Morgana had to stop herself from berating him on his weak handshake - again.
“Merlin.” Merlin whispered in response, still not taking his eyes from Arthurs where they seemed to be in some kind of weird stare off. When neither seemed to be adding any more to the conversation Morgana intervened.
“Merlin is our village Vicar.”
“Vicar eh?” Arthur asked with a strange smile, his eyes running over Merlin once more, their hands still grasped in front of him, “You don’t look like any vicar I have ever seen. I might have gone with my father to church more often if I had.”
Merlin's face turned a ridiculous shade of red, the same colour it went when Elena asked Merlin to explain the birds and the bees to her and Gwaine’s six year old.
“Your….” Merlin floundered for a moment taking a step closer to Arthur, “not really what I was expecting from Morgana’s brother.”
“Oh? Should I take that as a good thing?” Arthur took a step closer as well.
“Oh yes. Definitely good. Very good.”
When neither of them seemed to be moving from the almost nose to nose staring contest they seemed to be engaged in Morgana cleared her throat. When that didn’t garner any response she barked out a terse “Merlin!”
That seemed to break the trance and Merlin blinked idiotically at her in confusion, his hand still clasped in her brothers.
“Don’t you have things you should be doing?” Morgana offered pointedly.
“Oh…. Right yes.” Merlin retreated somewhat reluctantly. “It was… very nice meeting you Arthur.”
“You too Merlin.” Arthur replied raising Merlin's hand, placing a kiss to the knuckles before releasing it, finally. Merlin moved backwards towards the door, eye not leaving Arthur’s.
“So I’ll see you around the village maybe?”
“Most definitely.” Arthur nodded.
“And if you need…. Anything. I live in the house next to the church, with the white door.”
“I’m sure I will be knocking sooner rather than later.”
When they lapsed back into silence and staring once more Morgana let out an impatient huff and herded Merlin towards the door. “Bye Merlin” she said pointedly. She thought she might have heard a ‘Bye Arthur’ murmured before she closed the door and turned to face her brother. He was sporting one of his annoyingly smug smiles that always managed to raise Morganas hackles.
“It looks like this trip is looking up and up.” He said, his eyes following something out the front window. Morgana rolled her eyes and went to see what mess Merlin had made of her kitchen.
*
Morgana had found, during long tedious meetings and tea mornings, that time went faster when you broke it down into twenty minute segments.
It took twenty minutes for Arthur to fetch his bags from his (environmentally friendly) car, it took twenty minutes for Morgana to set up tea and cakes, they sat and drank for twenty minutes, Morgana offering encouraging nods as Arthur rabbited on about his years in… she didn’t quiet catch where he had been, that had been the moment she found a small chip in her teacup. Another twenty minutes on what he had done since he had returned and how his visit with his father had gone, and then exactly twenty minutes of inane questions, about Merlin of all people.
“Why are you so interested?” Morgana asked when she had finished retelling the god awful tale of Merlin’s idiotic tryst with Will, one of Percival’s farm hands.
“No reason…. He just seems… interesting. This whole place is interesting. I have to say, this isn’t somewhere I pictured you ending up.”
“Interesting is a very kind way to put it.” Morgana stated, ignoring the latter part to his statement. Because frankly, this had been the last place she had expected to end up as well, but the thought of leaving never entered her mind.
Arthur just grinned at her and continued to sip his tea.
Twenty minutes was taken up with the clean-up from tea which Arthur actually helped with, without complaint or coercion. Morgana almost fainted.
Then Arthur stated that he was going to have a look around the village and Morgana sighed in relief as the front door closed and she retreated to her study to go over some paper work.
*
After glancing at the clock and realising that two hours had gone by and Arthur still wasn’t home, Morgana thought it apt to go and fetch him before he started teaching the village children dirty limericks. She had to go by Merlin’s anyway to go over the Sunday morning announcements so she could kill two birds with one stone. Gathering up her binder and blackberry she donned her cardigan for the early summer night and headed out across the village.
It was very peaceful at this time of day. The sun was still up but dimming and dipping towards the hills that bracketed the village on all sides. Morgana could see Lancelot working in his vegetable patch, Gwaine and his son Gilli chasing each other around the small children’s park with plenty other children dodging out of their way. Gaius and Kilgharrah were slowly hobbling around the square, arguing about something. Morgana waved crisply as Percival drove passed on his tractor, and large trailer of hay attached to the back and heard Elena call Gwaine and Gilli in for dinner. But no sign of Arthur.
Morgana sighed and headed straight for Merlin’s house set just outside the church grounds in full view of the square.
The door was hardly ever locked and Morgana was in a hurry so didn’t have time for Merlin to wake up from his nap or whatever else he does that means it takes him five minutes to answer the door.
“Merlin?” she called quietly as she poked her head round the door. There was no answer but Morgana heard the faint echoes of a conversation coming from the living room, and a deep chuckle… wait - was that Arthur?
Frowning, Morgana carefully made her way to the living area to find Merlin and Arthur both swivelled sideways on the sofa, arms overlapping on the back of the sofa.
“-and I just held her in my arms.” Arthur was continuing, “I couldn’t leave after that, I had to help rebuild. They had nothing left, it was the least I could do.”
“Wow Arthur.” Merlin whispered, his hand rubbing up and down Arthurs bicep where it rested on the back of the sofa. “That’s amazing; you were able to help so many people.”
“No. It was nothing really. Just a drop in the ocean of things that need doing.”
“But it is something.” They stared at each other for an intense moment before Arthur dropped his head in uncharacteristic shyness and - my god, was he blushing?
“Well, my father was furious. He wanted me to join the family business. I had to tell him I was staying out there to sleep on the floor and build drainage systems.” Arthur chuckled humourlessly, head still aimed at his knees. Merlin reached out his hand to Arthur chin and raised it gently.
“It was really brave.” Merlin whispered. And they started staring at each other again. Morgana was sensing this staring was starting to become an issue with them so clearing her throat she stepped forward into the room.
They both jumped as if electrocuted and she was met with a confused stare from Merlin and a furious one from Arthur.
“Morgana?” Merlin asked, rising from the sofa, a worried frown marring his forehead.
“I’ve just come to go over the Sunday morning announcements and to look for my brother; it seems I am in luck.” Morgana replied giving Arthur a stare that meant she wanted some kind of explanation.
“I bumped into Merlin on my tour of the village and he was kind enough to show me around.” Arthur stated, rising from the sofa also to standing elbow to elbow with Merlin. Morgana watched Merlin unconsciously lean into the body beside him and frowned between the two.
“Yes. And Arthur has been telling me all about his travels. They sound fascinating.” Merlin was starting to sport the same look he got when Leon hired a new contractor for his house, who would pop round to Merlin’s house for lemonade every lunch time.
“I don’t doubt.” She shook her head, “I’ll leave these with you.” She took out a sheaf of papers from the binder for Merlin and handed them to him, which he promptly dropped and crouched on the floor collecting them with murmured apologise.
“Arthur we should go, dinner will be ready soon.” Morgana said pointedly to Arthur who was crouched on the floor next to Merlin, seeming to be causing more harm than help as whenever he brushed Merlin’s fingers Merlin fumbled whatever he was holding and promptly dropped it again.
Morgana looked at Arthur with a raised eyebrow until he rose from the ground, lifting Merlin by the elbow and brushing imaginary lint from the vicar’s shoulders.
“So I should go then,” Arthur sighed eventually, his hand now cradling Merlin's elbow, “thank you for… showing me around and keeping me company.”
“No really. It was my pleasure; I hope we can do it again sometime.” Merlin smiled shyly in response
“Yes.”
“Yes.” And then they lapsed into staring again.
“Arthur!” Morgana barked with an accompanied eyeroll when Arthur blinked to attention.
“Right, yeah I have to go.”
“You should come by the church hall tomorrow. Gwen has the children putting on a musical version of Dr. Who. It is supposed to be excellent.” Merlin said with an enthusiastic grin that had to be faked because Gwen’s last foray into musical theatre (‘The Sad Tale of Felix the Flea’) definitely didn’t need an encore.
“OK. I’ll be there.” Arthur nodded enthusiastically.
“I’ll save you a seat, best in the house.”
“Next to you then?” And Merlin ducked his head and blushed uncontrollably, so to save him from further embarrassment Morgana grabbed her brother by the arm and dragged him from the house shouting a terse “Bye Merlin” over her shoulder and hearing Arthur shout a more enthusiastic ‘see you tomorrow Merlin’ as she closed the door.
*
As anticipated ‘Dr. Who - the Unsung’ was dire. And Morgana had to resort to biting the insides of her cheeks to stop her from blanking out and destroying every recorder ever made. But she clapped politely at the end like any good public official and smiled and offered insincere praise when Merlin dragged her and Arthur backstage after the torture was finally over.
That she could handle, it was all part of her job and she had perfected her polite mask over the years and thought she was pretty good at it. That she could handle, this she could not.
Arthur and Merlin rabbited on for a further ten minutes on the ingenuity of the plot and the talent of the children and -‘god, did you see little Sophia - such a cutey’ all the while making doe eyes at each other, touching each other more than necessary and ignoring Morgana. (Which was actually pretty fortunate because if they were to ask her at that moment what she thought she would have told them that the plot was absurd, even by Dr. Who standards, the children couldn’t sing and Recorders were obviously a torture devise left over from Medieval Britain and lords who wanted their subjects to slowly bleed to death from their ears.)
“I’m heading home.” She said pointedly when she couldn’t take anymore.
“Oh.” Stated Merlin looking between Morgana and Arthur in ill-disguised disappointment, “Well, I suppose I will see you both tomorrow at service?”
“I was thinking maybe I would stick around.” Arthur stated uncertainly, “I would love to hear more about what Gwen is planning on next.”
“Oh yes - it sounds like a really interesting concept. She was thinking of a cross between-“
“I will be going then.” Morgana interrupted. She had already heard all about Gwen’s next bright script idea for the drama club of doing a mix between the Book of John and ‘Ugly Betty’ Morgana didn’t know how the hell that was going to work, and at the moment didn’t care. “I’ll leave the door open, don’t be late Arthur.” She waved over her shoulder as she escaped and decided to pour herself a glass of wine when she got home, she definitely deserved it.
*
Morgana watched a recorded episode of ‘Deal or No Deal’ and huffed at the TV, ate her dinner and pretended to already be asleep when Arthur crept in the house at three o’clock in the morning.
*
EALDOR PARISH COUNCIL
Meeting Agenda
Wednesday 26th June, 1800hrs
Bringing Arthur along to the meeting had been a woeful idea. As soon as the blond walked through the door, swaggering his hips like he owned the place, everyone flocked to him; like idiotic moths to a smug pretentious flame.
Gwen stuttered and mumbled with greater frequency and Percival was almost struck mute, only nodding and lowly grunting when Merlin coaxed him into responding to questions.
Elena strode forward with intent, twirling a long strand of blond hair around one finger. “Me and my husband have an arrangement, you know.” She stated, pushing her chest in Arthurs direction. Arthur’s wide eyed look of fear was funny for a moment before Morgana grabbed his shoulder and pushed him down into the seat between her and Merlin.
“Yes very nice ladies, back to your seats” she called out and everyone slowly, shuffled back to their assigned seats. Morgana started sorting through the papers in front of her, allowing everyone a minute to regroup before they got down to business.
“Do they really have an arrangement?” Arthur whispered to Merlin beside her, surreptitiously glancing over at Elena who was still throwing coy looks his way.
“Oh yes,” Merlin chuckled, leaning further in to fake whisper in Arthur’s ear, “I have a long standing invitation from Gwaine for the next time Elena takes Gilli to her parents.” Merlin sent a cheeky smile in Elena’s direction.
“And your breaking his heart every time you turn him down merlin” she called above the din.
Merlin smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “What can I say, I’m an old fashioned romantic.”
“Really?” Arthur asked, leaning closer in to Merlin, “Me too.”
“Alright everyone!” And Morgana hit her mallet a little harder than necessary.
*
The next two weeks of Arthurs visit were…. Surreal.
He was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Morgana’s house was mostly empty, Arthurs bed hardly every looked slept in but Arthur was everywhere.
He was sat with Gaius and Kilgharrah and the picnic bench playing chess in the afternoons, he was with Gwaine and Gilli making forts in their garden, he was stood patiently to the side as Percival blushed and stuttered his way through explaining why ‘Fred’ was his favourite tractor.
And Merlin was never far from his side.
Morgana didn’t know how long her brother was planning on staying. When asked he had casually stated that he had a job lined in South America in the next month so not to worry, he would be out of her hair soon. But that had been almost two weeks ago, and Arthur didn’t look any closer to leaving and Merlin was looking more and more pathetic and enamoured every time she saw him.
On the third Tuesday of Arthurs visit Merlin had assaulted Morgana with wide eyes and a guileless smile and forced her to come to his with Arthur to taste a batch of Lancelot’s new vegetable smoothie’s.
So now Morgana sat sipping a mud coloured beverage, picking (what she hoped were) seeds out of her teeth and trying to ignore the way that her brother and the vicar just won’t stop touching each other.
A pat to the shoulder, a touch to the knee, the knock of a foot, the caress of a hand. It was making the air hot and stifling with obvious intent.
Thankfully the doorbell rang just as Arthur looked like he was about to brush Merlin’s fringe from his face. Merlin looked around apologetically and rushed to the door, tripping slightly on the side table on his way.
“Percy! How can I help?” Merlin’s voice waivered through to the living room. Arthur smiled a ridiculously fond smile and got up to inspect the pictures on the mantle place.
“Um...” Percy’s deep voice replied, “I was wondering if you had a moment?”
“Of course, come into the kitchen.” And Merlin and Percy’s voices tapered off as they disappeared behind the kitchen door.
As soon as the door closed Morgana was up off her seat and to the window, helpfully feeding Merlin’s flower box with probably very highly nutritious vegetable smoothie. She sighed in relief as she sank back onto the sofa and turned to eye her brother as he carefully looked over the picture frames crowding the fire place, fingering each frame gently, still with a cold glass of vegetable patch sludge in his hand which he was sipping dutifully.
“Arthur…” Morgana ventured after a few more moments silence, “what are you doing?”
Arthur turned away from the collage of Church events on Merlin’s wall to give her a confused look. “What do you mean?”
“I mean… aren’t you starting that job in South America in a few weeks?”
Arthur paled and looked around the room, at the ceiling, windows, furniture, but didn’t answer. Morgana sighed. It was oh so very typical of her brother.
“You need to decide what you want to do Arthur, before this goes any further.”
Arthur didn’t offer any response but turned his back to her and continued to stare at the pictures on the wall, but Morgana didn’t know if he was actually seeing them anymore.
They stayed in silence now until they heard Merlin’s voice grow louder as he approached the front door.
“-am sure there is nothing to worry about. They will sort it out themselves I am sure.”
“But they both just seem so sad. Are you sure there is nothing we can do?” she heard Percival reply with a catch in his voice.
“I don’t think that they do couples counselling for sheep but how about tomorrow, I will pop round and have a word with them?” Merlin replied and Morgana rolled her eyes at the image she knew would be just round the corner; Merlin giving Percy’s huge bicep a gentle squeeze with a unreasonably sympathetic smile.
“Really? Oh thank you Merlin.”
“My pleasure Percy. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
The door clicked shut and Merlin emerged from the hallway. “Sorry about that, all part of the job.” He said with a grin and picked his smoothie back up. “So what were we talking about?”
“Actually.” Morgana broke in before she could be dragged back into conversation or offered a refill, “I was just saying to Arthur that I should be off. Tell Lancelot thanks for the drink it was…. Fascinating.”
“Oh. OK, well I will see you tomorrow then Morgana.” Merlin said leading her towards the door. A few moments later Arthur perked up from the corner of the room.
“I should be going to.”
Merlin frowned at him but quickly schooled his expression, “Oh, of course. Um… I’ll see you tomorrow then, Leon has invited us over, he’s built a new patio out the back - all by himself this time, he’s very proud.”
Morgana made a mental note to check whether Leon had obtained the correct permits for that.
“Actually.” Arthur said crisply, “I don’t know whether I’ll be able to make it. I have a few calls to make and I really should spend some time with Morgana whilst I’m here. It’s what the visit was for anyway.”
“Oh.” And Morgana had to turn away from the tortured puppy look that Merlin was sporting just now.
“I’ll see you soon Merlin, give me a call.”
“But I don’t have your-“ but Arthur was striding across the village square before Merlin could finish that sentence.
Morgana gave Merlin what she hoped was a sympathetic smile but was most probably a grimace before following at a more sedate pace.
*
Arthurs leaving was actually rather anti-climactic. She came home from a visit to town the next day to find his bags in the hallway and him on the phone to the airline. He cast her a quick glance as she came through the door then turned his back to her as he finalised the details of his flight. Morgana waited by the stairs for him to finish the call.
“So you’re leaving?” she said once he had replaced the phone on the hook.
“Yes. I got the last seat on a flight for this evening.”
“OK.”
There was a long pause as Arthur fiddled needlessly with his bag straps.
“You were right.” He said wretchedly in the end, “It was best to… cut things before they got too complicated.”
Morgana just nodded but didn’t offer any more on the subject. She accepted Arthur’s farewell hug and made the perfunctory offer for him to come back when he wanted, to which he nodded but Morgana didn’t miss the way his eyes skirted over to the other side of the square.
*
After that she hoped that would be it. She hoped that with Arthur himself gone, his presence would be as well. Her hopes were scattered when she saw Gwen, Lance, Elena and Gwaine huddled on the street outside Merlin’s still curtained front window two days later.
“I went round there earlier and he was nearly buried under a mountain of chocolate wrappers.” Gwen was telling the group.
“I didn’t think he liked chocolate?” Elena pondered
“He doesn’t really, but he said they were Arthur’s favourite, he had bought them for him.” The whole group winced in sympathy before looking back towards the window.
“Maybe I should go over there?” Gwaine offered and started towards the door. His wife put a hand on his arm to stop him.
“I don’t think he needs you particular brand of sympathy today dear.” Elena said kindly.
“Don’t you have more important things to be doing on a Friday morning?” Morgana interrupted as she walked passed. When they all looked at her blankly she continued with a raised eyebrow “Like jobs to go to maybe.”
That sent them scattering in different directions all mumbling about ‘deadlines’ and ‘bosses’ and in Lances case ‘Rhubarb’.
Morgana gave one last look over her shoulder to the darkened house before getting on with her day.
*
EALDOR PARISH COUNCIL
Meeting Agenda
Wednesday 3rd July, 1800hrs
Attending: Morgana LeFay (presiding), Geneviere DuLac, Lancelot DuLac, Percival Martins, Elena Knight, Gaius Mage, Kilgharrah Dragoon, Merlin Emrys-
“Wait - where is Merlin?” Morgana asked looking around the room for an unruly tuft of black hair or a peek of a garish jumper. The room all ducked their heads simultaneously and mumbled incoherently at the table. Pinching the bridge of her nose Morgana rested her elbows on the table. “This is getting ridiculous.” She muttered to herself. “Has anyone actually seen him at all this week?”
That produced another wave of incoherent mumbles.
“I went round today.” Percy spoke up from half way down the table. “I took Henry and Tatty, I thought they might be able to cheer him up. But he just stared at them and tried to feed them chocolate.”
“Who are Henry and Tatty?” Morgana asked incredulously before she could stop herself.
Percival looked at her and blinked. “My snails.” He said as if that should have been blaringly obvious.
“Right.” Morgana drawled before shaking her head and rising, really this had gone on long enough. “I’ll be right back.”
She distantly heard Gwen call out “Morgana I don’t think-“ as she swiftly exited the church hall.
*
It takes three minutes and six sets of increasingly obnoxious banging on the door before it finally slowly swings open. Two blood shot eyes blinked at her from under an unruly mop of a tangled mess.
“Morgana?” Merlin croaked feebly, pulling a blanket further up around his shoulders even though there was really no need on a mild July evening.
“Merlin.” She huffed in response, pushing past the startled vicar and insinuating herself into his living room.
She cast her critical eye around. Chocolate wrappers over everything, half-drunk cups of tea scattered across the coffee table and a bible and a photograph album on the floor next to it.
“Did you need something? Is everything alright?” Merlin asked as he shuffled tiredly into the room behind her, not paying any attention to the debris he was walking over before plopping down onto the sofa.
“No.” Morgana mumbled, distractedly picking up discarded crumples of tissue surrounding the bin and disposing of them properly, “I was just coming to see if you knew when you would be fit to return to work. Not that Gwen’s sermons on the divinity of croquet patterns aren’t delightful but…”
“Oh, I don’t know….”
“Are these kittens?” Morgana asked distractedly as she picked up the discarded photo album and started to flick through. And yes it was, and entire photo album full of furry, tiny faces of kittens.
“Um, yeah. Gwen brought over, she thought it might help cheer me up.”
And now Morgana looked she recognised Gwen’s swirly script in Purple pen across the front. She scoffed, placing the album up on a bookshelf, close enough to an open window for her to hope a bird might be willing to fly in and take it away.
When she turned back around Merlin had laid himself out on the sofa, the blanket discarded in favour of stuffing another chocolate bar in his mouth.
“Oh dear lord…” she muttered when she saw what he was wearing. “Merlin is that one of Arthur’s T-shorts.”
Merlin looked down at the Oxford Rowing T-shirt, grey and threadbare, that was hanging loosely off his frame. He lifted the collar to his nose and, there was no other word for it, nuzzled the aging fabric before taking a deep breath.
“Yeah.” He sighed on the exhale, “it still smells of him.”
“Merlin.” Morgana barked, “Pull yourself together.” Tough love had always worked for her. Uther was known for his tough hand and firm stance and her mother had never been all hearts and cuddles. It had always worked well for her. Merlin’s head snapped up at her tone. “You cannot allow my brother to turn you into a pubescent girl!”
For a moment she thought it had worked. Merlin stared wide eyed at her, slowly blinking. And Morgana had one moment to revel in her success before his bottom lip began to quiver.
“Oh God.” Morgana prayed as Merlin’s large blue eyes began to swim with tears. “No Merlin. Don’t cry.” She commanded just had Uther had done when she skimmed her knee. It didn’t seem to work with Merlin who just sniffed loudly as a few tears escaped down the side of his face.
Thinking fast she grabbed a box of tissues from the side table and passed them at arms length to Merlin who took them quickly
“I don’t… understand.” still breathing with hitching breaths. “I thought…. We were getting along. I thought he liked me?”
Morgana sat tentatively next to Merlin on the sofa. “I will be the first to admit that my brother is an idiot. I told you that before you met him.”
“But he’s not though.” Merlin sniffed, his tears thankfully retreating somewhat. “He’s brave and kind and funny and…. Wonderful” and then the tears returned.
“Please Merlin. I really don’t do well with tears.” Morgana cringed.
“I can’t believe he just left.” He said forlornly, staring at his fingers entwined on his lap.
“Arthur… has always been a bit of a free spirit. He would never have stayed around here. It’s just not who he is. He lives for himself and himself alone.”
“I don’t even know where he is.” And Merlin looked at her with such a heartbroken look that her hand reached out of its own accord to pat his shoulder, somewhat awkwardly.
“The best thing you can do, is get washed, get dressed and come back to work.”
“Just a few more days and-“
“Everyone is missing you Merlin. You have an obligation to your congregation, to the village. The school children made you a ‘Come Back Soon’ card.”
“Really?” Merlin looked up at her with bright, surprised eyes.
“Yes… then the Gilli let the Guinea Pig loose and it got half eaten but I am told that it is the thought that counts”
Merlin gave at least a small chuckle to that and a fragile smile, but it was there. Morgana stood, her work here was done, and if she stayed longer she would be forced to find out what was in the foul smelling bowl on the fire place, and she didn’t think she wanted to know.,
“Well I had better go, and I hope to see you at work tomorrow.”
Merlin didn’t say anything but moved his head in small movements that resembled a nod. So Morgana counted that as a win.
*
EALDOR PARISH COUNCIL
Meeting Agenda
Wednesday 10th July, 1800hrs
“Merlin!”
“Merlin your back!”
“I missed you Merlin.”
“Alright people, let’s actually do some work tonight…. Percival put Merlin down!”
*
The summer air was thick and close as Morgana made her way through the town, her to-do list running through her mind as detailed as it was recorded on the blackberry. Pick up Dry Cleaning, get her weeks vegetables form Lance, post a pamphlet through Leon’s door on the uniformity code of the village with a highlighted section specifically on how six foot windmills in one’s garden were against that code, even if they were ‘masterly crafted by my own two hands’, buy a new saucepan and check with Merlin about his contribution to the Summer Fayre.
An hour later Morgana was one detailed pamphlet lighter, with her best suit and a new pan in her bag and contemplating dropping these off at home and hanging her suit before meeting with Merlin when she spotted said Vicar sat by the edge of the small pond in the park.
Merlin wasn’t back to his full irritatingly happy self yet but Gwen had stopped staring at Merlin’s white door with overly exaggerated puppy dog eyes every time she crossed the square, so Morgana assumed he was doing alright.
“Hello Merlin.” She greeted as she neared his rest spot on the grass.
“Hi Morgana.” Morgana followed Merlin’s eye line to Gaius who was moaning at Kilgharrah that he was taking too long with his move and that this was why they had to decree a time limit in the summer of ’73. Surveying the floor sceptically she tentatively lowered herself onto what she found as the cleanest spot of grass. “Are you not joining them?” she nodded over to the elderly pair.
“No.” Merlin smiled ruefully, “Chess isn’t really my game. That was more Arthur’s thing.”
“Right.” Morgana paused for a moment. “He always did beat me when we were children. I never took that very well.”
“I doubt you have ever lost at anything in your life Morgana. You are a natural winner.” Merlin said with a small smile in Morgana’s direction.
“Yes, well… I did get my own back with Scrabble though”
“You like scrabble?” Merlin asked surprised, breaking his gaze across the pond.
“Oh yes, and Arthur is just as an insufferable looser as I am. It was quite fun watching his face go red when I would get a triple word score.”
Merlin chuckled a bit weakly. “No wonder he refused to play me.”
“I have scared him for life obviously his ego can’t handle it.” Merlin smiled warmly at her and returned his gaze to the gentle waves of the pond. Morgana - and she couldn’t explain it even to herself - felt the sudden urge to keep that smile there, as if Merlin looked… incomplete without it. “Would you like to challenge me to a game sometime?”
“What?”
“Scrabble? I think I still have my old board somewhere, if you were ever wanted to test your skills…”
“You’re inviting me over - to your house?” Merlin asked with a confused frown.
“Well yes.”
“Morgana!” Merlin gasped a large, very Merlin-like grin breaking out on his face, “You’ve never invited me to your house before!” And without warning Merlin threw his arms around her.
Morgana sat stiffly, not sure how to respond. “I am sure I have invited you over before, there is no need to get so excited.”
“Oh Morgana.” Merlin said with an overly fond smile as he pulled back, “What about tomorrow night?”
“Wh- Oh, of course, Ok.”
“Excellent, I shall bring the biscuits.” With that Merlin got up and headed back towards his home, before Morgana could manoeuvre herself to standing as graciously as possible in a pencil skirt and heels Merlin had turned, walking backwards towards his house and shouted “I knew you liked me really!” before jogging the remainder of the way.
Morgana groaned. At least everything was nearly back to normal.
*
Morgana wasn’t exactly sure how it happened, she had a sneaking suspicion that she could blame an overpriced bottle of red wine that she pulled out on Merlin’s first visit, but the Scrabble games became an unspoken weekly event.
Every Friday Merlin would turn up at Morganas front door, wearing one of his many ridiculous hand knitted jumpers, grinning and carrying some kind of biscuit or cake goods.
Morgana would mock his jumper, roll her eyes, take the sweet and step back to let him in.
It turned out that Merlin was quite good at Scrabble, though Morgana still won most times unless Merlin got extremely lucky. It turns out being a scrawny boy with big ears from the country and wanting to become a Vicar meant that Merlin had quite a few Friday nights in as a child with his books for company.
Their nights escalated into Scrabble, wine and now dinner as Morgana tried to educate Merlin away from his student diet of bean on toast and pot noodle that he seemed to live off.
And so the months passed in a verbose whirl. Town meetings, scrabble and the town turning quickly from summer, skipping autumn and landing firmly in bloody freezing.
Morgana and Merlin had an agreement, not that they had ever spoken of it but they both mutually decided to try not to bring Arthur up. For only knowing Arthur for a few weeks Merlin had a lot of stories that began with ‘So me and Arthur’, or ‘One time Arthur…’, after which he would blink and stuff a cake in his mouth or, failing that, take a large swig of wine.
It was a Friday afternoon and Morgana was tucked warmly away in her front room reading by the fire and nursing a mug of tea. She could hear the cheering whoops and calls from the impromptu snowball fight that Merlin, Gwaine and Gilli had started in the square. Every now and then she would see a flash of red which would be Merlin in his matching Hat, Scarf and Mitten set, run past her house.
It was a few moments before Morgana realised that it had gone quiet, deadly silent.
When she got to her front door she immediately understood why.
The partakers of the fight had all retreated to the sides of the square, staring openly at the couple in their centre. Merlin looked pale huddled with his scarf now hanging loosely around his neck, the flush from his activity drained from his face by the man stood in front of him…
Arthur.
Arthur, the idiot, standing in the middle of a snowy village in England in winter with only a light weight jacket and trainers. He looked nearly blue with cold but didn’t move, just stood staring at an equally still Merlin in front of him.
“Merlin”, Arthur spoke, breaking the silence
“Arthur?” Merlin whispered, taking an unconscious step forward. He quickly realised his body betraying him and pulled back, crossing his arms over his chest. “What are you doing here?”
“I came…” Arthur started, looking more uncertain and nervous than Morgana had ever seen him before, “I wanted…. God - I missed you.” He whispered reverently moving closer to Merlin. Merlin didn’t move back but did not look convinced.
“You missed me?”
“Yes. I missed you every day. I couldn’t stop thinking of you. I built a helicopter pad and two school buildings trying to get you off my mind but…. I just couldn’t. I just kept picturing you fingers, or you lips, or your eyes….”. Arthur had progressively edged forward to now be standing directly in front of Merlin who’s eyes hadn’t left Arthurs but remained silent, “Please Merlin, say something.”
“Are you leaving again?” Merlin said blankly.
“No, never.” Arthur shook his head fervently. Reaching out and gripping Merlin arms.
“Arthur…”
“Ok maybe not never - I’ve talked to my father about helping me set up my own charity so I may have to go away for a month at a time maybe. But I want to be here - with you.”
Morgana could tell Merlin was trying to resist but a small smile was playing at the edge of lips. He managed to school his features down into a more solemn expression
“You really hurt me.”
“I know Merlin and I am sorry. But just please, take me back and I’ll try every day to make it up to you. Please - just say yes.”
“To what?”
“To anything, everything!” Arthur choked on a laugh, “I just want to be with you, near you.”
There was a pregnant pause before Merlin breathed out, “OK”
“OK?”
“Yes, Ok.” Merlin nodded, and Arthur stood grinning in front of him, just a hairs breadth apart.
“Kiss him already.” Gwaine shouted from the crowd.
The couple grinned at each other before Arthur pulled Merlin into his arms, one round his waist and one cradling his jaw. And when their lips finally touched the village square erupted in whoops and catcalls and whistles. Morgana rolled her eyes and stepped back into her house to add more chilli to the batch bubbling on the hob. It looked as though Merlin would be bringing a plus one to their scrabble game tonight.