Unbreakable [fic]
Title: Unbreakable
Rating: G
Pairing[s]: Gaius/Uther, Merlin/Arthur
Word Count: 235
Spoilers: Series in general.
Summary: History has a way of repeating itself.
Youth is wasted on the young, Gaius’ teacher would mutter when he’d run out of consolations and left Gaius to his brooding.
And wisdom on the old, Gaius would murmur back, so soft he could scarce hear himself.
He knew it would happen one day, but one day was always some far distant future when they were grown men of the world and Uther finally looked like becoming King.
Gaius is wiser now. And inevitably older.
He isn’t the one drawn to the arrogant, golden-haired prince with the summer blue eyes. He is the one impressing what it truly means to be a servant, trying to turn the boy’s mind to someone else. Someone he could love. More importantly, someone he could have.
He will be the one who picks up the pieces when the prince is gone and the manservant is remembered as just that; a manservant (not friend, never more), the one who will comfort and console, rather than the one crying.
He could warn the boy, make the meaning behind his constant reminders of their position explicit. He could, but he knows, without needing to see how quickly Merlin would give away his dignity, his happiness, his life for Arthur’s, that it would do no good.
Time doesn’t go in a straight line, but in circles, clumsy and lopsided. Gaius is wiser to such things now.
As one day Merlin will be.
A/N: Yeah. Odd little ficlet, nothing like what I was meant to be writing, but I quite like it. We mustn't just slash the pretty ones.
Rating: G
Pairing[s]: Gaius/Uther, Merlin/Arthur
Word Count: 235
Spoilers: Series in general.
Summary: History has a way of repeating itself.
Youth is wasted on the young, Gaius’ teacher would mutter when he’d run out of consolations and left Gaius to his brooding.
And wisdom on the old, Gaius would murmur back, so soft he could scarce hear himself.
He knew it would happen one day, but one day was always some far distant future when they were grown men of the world and Uther finally looked like becoming King.
Gaius is wiser now. And inevitably older.
He isn’t the one drawn to the arrogant, golden-haired prince with the summer blue eyes. He is the one impressing what it truly means to be a servant, trying to turn the boy’s mind to someone else. Someone he could love. More importantly, someone he could have.
He will be the one who picks up the pieces when the prince is gone and the manservant is remembered as just that; a manservant (not friend, never more), the one who will comfort and console, rather than the one crying.
He could warn the boy, make the meaning behind his constant reminders of their position explicit. He could, but he knows, without needing to see how quickly Merlin would give away his dignity, his happiness, his life for Arthur’s, that it would do no good.
Time doesn’t go in a straight line, but in circles, clumsy and lopsided. Gaius is wiser to such things now.
As one day Merlin will be.
A/N: Yeah. Odd little ficlet, nothing like what I was meant to be writing, but I quite like it. We mustn't just slash the pretty ones.