Merlin fic, "There be Dragons"
Oct. 3rd, 2010 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluecastleTitle: There be Dragons
Rating: Mature (for theme)
Word Count: 3463
Fandom: Merlin
Characters, Pairings: Morgana, Merlin, Arthur
Notes: Written for the “sexual extortion to keep a secret (high school)” square on my hurt/comfort bingo card. Because you can’t write in this fandom without doing an AU fic, and high school fics are everywhere! And because I can’t resist the allure of physicks = physics.
Merlin didn’t notice Morgana slipping in behind him at morning assembly. He was trying to finish his physics homework while attempting to look like he was paying attention to the Headmaster droning on about how important the honor code was to the school.
"If you know of any disgrace that goes against the principles of The Albion Academy, you must make a report of the greatest fidelity..."
Merlin knows it’s important not to ignore Headmaster Pendragon, but he is frankly more scared of what Professor Gaius will do to him if he doesn’t get his homework completed, than he is of a guy he’s only met twice before in his life.
So when Morgana leans forward to whisper in his ear, Merlin startles, both at the sound of her voice, and the touch of her hands on his shoulders. The warmth of her breath on the back of his neck, and the brush of her curls to his cheek make him shudder and press back against his seat. It wasn’t like he hadn’t wondered what it would be like to kiss Morgana, to curl his fingers in that dark glossy hair of hers. But he knows better than most that fantasy and reality are two different things.
"Do you want to know a secret, Merlin?" she asks softly.
The way her voice sounds as she says his name makes his palms sweat.
He gasps softly as she leans on the back of his seat, her fingers idly tracing along his neck just above the collar of his uniform shirt.
"It's a secret about you..."
Fortunately for Merlin, his shocked, "What?!" as his books slide off his lap and clatter to the floor is covered by his fellow students as the assembly is dismissed with a wave of the Headmaster's hand.
Morgana takes his arm as they walked up the aisle out of the auditorium.
She is almost cheerful as she says to him, “So Merlin Emrys. You're going to do just what I say or everyone will know your secret. They will know because I will tell them, and then my father will find out..."
"What is it you think you know, Morgana," he asks, pulling away from her.
"You know what. About you… about the things you did to get here. I know what you are."
"What am I?" he counters, suddenly brave, although not quite able to look Morgana in the eyes.
"You're mine, that's what you are. Meet me after school."
Merlin tries to think of some way out of this. But if she really does know things about him, he needs to find out what.
"Don'tcha want to? I bet you do," she says pressing herself up against him with a little twist of her hips that leaves him gasping. She laughs at him as she pushes him away, and with a wave of her fingers, slips into a nearby classroom.
But it isn’t until the Harvest Dance a week later that Merlin finds out what Morgana has up her sleeve.
Gwen from his study group squeals and pulls Merlin onto the dance floor.
“This is my favorite song,” she says as she wraps her arms around his neck.
Merlin is not much of a dancer, but he is having a pretty good time. Gwen is funny and friendly, and they’ve gotten along well ever since their group project in history class on the fortifications of famous castles. Between them they had made models and worked out a presentation. They got a good grade on it despite Merlin’s last minute insistence on including a dragon as one possible method of defense.
“There must have been dragons,” he insisted, with a bit of a twinkle in his eye when questioned by Mr. Geoffries the History Teacher. “How else would they end up in so many of those old stories? And anyway you can’t prove there weren’t dragons…”
But the last thing Merlin is thinking about that night is dragons. The school cafeteria has been transformed with hay bales and pumpkins. The overhead lights are dimmed, and the room is lit solely with colored lights that flash along with the music.
When the music switches to a slow number he suddenly finds himself in a dark corner of the dance floor, with Morgana’s arms wrapped around his waist. She pulls him close, pressing herself up against him. She has on a very lacy purple bra underneath a very sheer, low cut top. He tries not to stare, to look over her shoulder or anywhere but down at her chest, but he can feel every curvy bit of her as she leans against him and he isn’t very successful with that. She is very beautiful, after all. And he is well aware that she knows he thinks so. What he doesn’t know is what to do with his hands but settles eventually on resting them in the middle of her back.
"You like this, I can tell..." Morgana whispers in his ear, as she pushes her hips into his.
"What do you want, Morgana?" he asks gripping her shoulders.
"You're going to let me do anything I want ... touch you any way I want," she says as she pushes him backwards until he bumps up against a pillar along the wall.
He tries to push her away then, but she steps into him, and when she has him pinned up against the pillar, she says the words he’s been dreading since that day in the assembly hall.
"I heard you tell Gaius it was your fault that boy died. Somehow I don't think you want everyone here knowing that you're responsible. That he died because of you."
He struggles against her, but she jams her knee tight between his legs and runs one polished fingernail across his bottom lip.
"That wasn't my fault!" he says breathlessly, wishing he were anywhere else.
"Oh, the way I heard it, it was. He lied to cover up what you did. He died, disgraced, because of you. Now, I don't think that's fair, do you Merlin?"
She winds her arms around his neck and whispers in his ear, "So you're going to let me do whatever I want, or I'll make sure everyone knows what you are."
She winds her hands into his hair then, and kisses him, licking her way into his mouth. He tries not to kiss her back, but she nips at his bottom lip with her teeth, and when he gasps in surprise, she presses forward and kisses him again. He finds himself kissing her then, knowing it’s wrong, but at that moment it feels too good to stop.
“I like you greedy,” she says, and he pulls back suddenly with a gasp. His pulse is thudding in his ears and he can hardly hear the music pounding around them. Then suddenly, and with a giggle, Gwen appears and pulls Morgana back out onto the dance floor.
Merlin, relieved, watches her go. He can still feel her kiss on his lips, but he scrubs her lip gloss off his mouth with hands that still tingle from her touch, and runs out of the room.
There’s this bright light, the awful screech of brakes and the blare of car horns, then the sound of shattering glass. He can hear Will calling to him, crying out. All he can see is a limp and broken Will lying in the middle of the street, covered in blood.
Will tells him, softly, “You let this be my fault, Merlin, not yours. Do y'a think I want you stuck in this dead end town for the rest of your life, working some lousy job to support your mother? You are meant for bigger things than you will ever find here. Please. Go back to that school of yours and never mind about me. I've got no one who will miss me."
"I'll miss you."
“Promise me…”
Will is in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, and he’s clutching his friend’s hand and praying for him to be okay.
And then that sound, that dreadful terrible beeping. The solid steady tone of death from the machines and he’s pushed out of the way, shoved into a corner to watch his friend die as strangers paw at Will’s body.
He follows the gurney out of the ambulance, ignored, like he’s the one’s who has died. He wonders if he’s a ghost now. He certainly feels like one, or more to the point doesn’t feel. He thinks perhaps he will never feel anything ever again.
But then he senses his mother's hands on him, and he struggles to get free. He must be free now, or the weight of grief will kill him. Unless he’s already dead.
And when his mother tries to put him in her car and take him home he breaks down. He can’t stop shaking. On his knees there in the car park, the grit digging into his knees the first thing he really does feel. And then a slap across the face from his mother.
“Get in the sodding car, Merlin, I’ve no time for your tricksy ways.”
“No,” he says softly. “Oh, no … no no no no no…” he insists, shaking still, his voice getting louder and louder.
"No!" he cries, sitting up in bed, dazed at finding Arthur shaking him by the shoulders.
"Wake up, Merlin, you've been shouting your head off. It's just a dream, mate."
”Don’t,” Merlin says and shoves Arthur back, still in the grip of his dream.
The dim light of the small lamp on the table between their beds gives off just enough light for Merlin to be able to see the concerned look on Arthur's face.
"Sorry," Merlin mumbled as he draws his knees up under the covers and wraps his arms around them.
"You all right? You want to talk about it?" Arthur asks as he slides down to the end of his bed and props himself up against the foot board, watching his roommate with wary eyes.
"S'nothing, really," Merlin replies, resting his chin on his knees and trying very hard not to make eye contact. He has never felt completely comfortable rooming with Arthur Pendragon, son of the Headmaster. Not to mention that Morgana, whose wandering hands and dangerous words have no doubt sparked his nightmare, is Arthur's adopted sister.
There is a long silence then. Neither boy knows what to say, but Arthur at last asks softly, "Who's Will?"
"Why?" Merlin asks sharply, finally able to meet Arthur's gaze. There is something inexplicable in Arthur's expression, and Merlin finds himself blurting out, "What did Morgana tell you?"
"Morgana? What does Morgana have to do with this?" Arthur asks.
"Nothing, never mind, it's stupid," Merlin says as he slips out from under the covers and walks away from Arthur to stare out the window of their room. As he stands there in his ratty red Cymru t-shirt and looks up at the sky, the harvest moon makes his pale skin glow. He wraps his arms around himself and stands there silently trying to wish everything better.
He jumps when he feels Arthur's hands come to rest on his shoulders.
"Don't be a prat, Merlin. Tell me what Morgana's done now."
Merlin hadn't intended to say anything, ever, to anyone about this. But there is suddenly steel in Arthur's voice, and Merlin finds himself almost unable to stop speaking.
It comes out then, all in a rush, how Morgana overheard him talking with Gaius, how she's tormenting him with her information. Merlin's ears go all pink and he stares out the window while he admits how she felt so nice, pressed up against him, how she'd kissed him and that he’d kissed her back.
"You're such a girl, Merlin," Arthur says, not unkindly, at the end of Merlin's somewhat incoherent confession. Arthur pushes Merlin down onto his desk chair, and then he perches himself on the desk top, saying, "All right now, let's start at the beginning. You still haven't told me who this Will is.
Painfully, haltingly, as he keeps his eyes downcast, and picks idly at the ragged edge of his boxer shorts, Merlin tells Arthur the whole tale.
How he had been home last summer, after his first year at Albion. No, it started even before then.
“We'd nick smokes and drinks from the corner shop and head down to the quarry at night. Used to light a fire and just sit there staring up at the stars, lying to each other about the grand things we'd do once we got ourselves out of Ealdor. Thing is neither of us ever really expected to get out.
My Dad used to teach here, which is how my mum knows Professor Gaius. Well, she wrote him to see what kind of boarding schools he knew about. Just to get me out of town. And the next thing I know he's coming down on weekends to tutor me and he's making me sit for the scholarship exam here. I never expected to get in, Arthur. I figured I'd end up in that quarry slinging rocks, and lying to my mates for the rest of my days.
But my mother wanted a different life for me, and so I left. I left Will behind. He'd always been there, always been at my side, and the first chance I got, I abandoned him. Without me around he got into even more trouble – stealing, even drugs a couple times. There was talk of involving the police, but he always managed to talk his way out of it.
Then last summer, when I was home, we ... well, one night, we’d been back down at the quarry, and we’d been drinking. He got drunk and angry, and kept calling me a posh tossser, so I hit him. Told him to get in the car, or walk home.
On the way home there was this lorry, and God, I don’t even know how it happened, but suddenly there was all this light and noise and this crash, and Will was flung out of the car. The police found us there, and it was Will’s car, and everyone assumed he’d been driving, that it was his fault. I wanted to tell the truth, but Will wouldn’t let me.
I couldn't bear to go to the services. Had a big row about it with my Mum. She went alone. Said someone had to. It wasn't that I didn't want to. I couldn't. I couldn't stand there in my school blazer looking down at the casket knowing that I could have, should have, done something more.
And here I am, back at this posh school. Everything was slowly getting better, then Morgana has to come along and threaten to ruin it all for me. If it was just me I wouldn't care so much. But my mother got me out, and Will, he died to give me this chance. And I can't, I won't let them down.”
Arthur sat, silently listening to Merlin’s story. He watched as Merlin buried his head in his hands at the end, and listened to him breathing heavily. He thought maybe Merlin was crying, but he didn’t like to mention it.
He just slid off the desk, stood next to Merlin for a long moment, then reached out to ruffle Merlin’s hair, and said, “Come on, let's go back to bed. I'll sort this out with Morgana in the morning, you'll see.”
Merlin didn’t sleep. He lay on his bed staring at the shadows of the tree branches beating against the ceiling, and listened to Arthur’s steady breaths from the bed opposite.
He slipped out of their room as soon as possible in the morning. Arthur was still asleep, face down on his bed, with one striped pajama-clad leg sticking out from under the covers.
He thought about skipping breakfast, but despite the weight in the pit of his stomach, he was hungry. So he slipped into the cafeteria where the decorations from the dance the night before were still in evidence. The tables had been put back, though, and Merlin grabbed some toast and milk and cereal, and attempted to lose himself in the book he was reading for his history report.
His attempt at remaining unnoticed didn't work very well. Suddenly, Morgana was there, sitting across from him, eyeing him over her carton of yogurt.
She leaned forward, and said softly "You ran away last night before I was finished with you. You’re a very naughty boy, Merlin."
Merlin sat there crumbling his toast and trying not to make eye contact.
"This is how it's going to work, Emrys," Morgana said, breaking the silence. "You're going to do whatever I say. Because I own you now ... mind, soul, and," her eyes dropping to his crotch, "body."
Unable to take it anymore, Merlin stood suddenly, his chair screeching as it slid back across the floor. Before he could take a step away from the table he felt an arm drop around his shoulders.
"Merlin, Merlin..." Arthur said, "Sit down and finish your breakfast."
The two boys looked at each other for a long moment, Merlin's eyes flashing in anger, but Arthur's steady gaze, and tiny nod prompted Merlin to sit down, hands clenched in his lap.
"You don't want this, do you Merlin?" Arthur asked, with a flick of his head to Morgana, on "this."
"Merlin wants what I want," Morgana replied coolly.
"I wasn't asking you," Arthur replied imperiously.
Merlin found he couldn't trust himself to speak suddenly, and responded with a simple nod, "No."
“Okay then. Here’s what’s going to happen,” Arthur said, sitting down in the chair between the two.
“Morgana is going to forget all about this little amusement of hers, and Merlin, you are going to stop keeping me up at nights with your brooding.”
Merlin and Morgana both stared at Arthur. He smiled at Merlin and then turned to Morgana with anything but a smile.
“Oh, Arthur,” Morgana sneered. “What makes you think I’m going to listen to you? Huh? What is this, some misguided attempt at a power play? Hoping to get Daddy’s attention? Or maybe you just want Merlin for yourself, is that it?”
She laughed, then looked between the two boys.
Arthur stood, looking down at Morgana.
“You will go find someone else to bother, or Uther will find out about those pills you keep in your dresser … and about the booze in your closet. If you want to be a manipulative bitch, you can do it on your own time, just don’t involve me.”
“No one asked you to stick your nose in business that doesn’t concern you,” Morgana said, standing and facing Arthur.
“I could say the same to you, Morgana,” Arthur replied, refusing to look away from his sister.
Merlin watched as the two siblings stared at one another. He felt like he should do or say something, but Arthur put his hand on his shoulder, keeping him sitting there silently. This had somehow become about something other than him, he sensed, and so he watched the battle of wills going on in front of him.
He felt Arthur’s grip on his shoulder loosen just a bit, and Merlin knew, suddenly that Arthur had won this round, and that he no longer had anything to fear from Morgana.
When Morgana turned and walked away, he was sure of it, and he sagged back against his chair.
Arthur sat down, and grabbed a slice of Merlin’s toast.
“The score so far, Arthur – one, creepy sisters – zero,” Arthur said, spraying toast crumbs across the table.
Merlin laughed, and wondered when the last time was he’d done so.
“So, Merlin, just how grateful are you to me? Because I never did get to my Physics homework, and I’m sure you did … and I just bet you’d let me copy from you, given how noble and self-sacrificing I was for you. Right Merlin?” Arthur asked, his eyes sparkling.
“Prat,” Merlin shot back, but he dug his Physics notebook out of his bag, and shoved it at Arthur.
“Prince,” Arthur protested, tapping himself on the chest.
“Prince Prat, then,” Merlin said as the two boys bent over their schoolwork, pens scratching away.
This entry was originally posted at http://valancy-joy.dreamwidth.org/130107.html
Rating: Mature (for theme)
Word Count: 3463
Fandom: Merlin
Characters, Pairings: Morgana, Merlin, Arthur
Notes: Written for the “sexual extortion to keep a secret (high school)” square on my hurt/comfort bingo card. Because you can’t write in this fandom without doing an AU fic, and high school fics are everywhere! And because I can’t resist the allure of physicks = physics.
Merlin didn’t notice Morgana slipping in behind him at morning assembly. He was trying to finish his physics homework while attempting to look like he was paying attention to the Headmaster droning on about how important the honor code was to the school.
"If you know of any disgrace that goes against the principles of The Albion Academy, you must make a report of the greatest fidelity..."
Merlin knows it’s important not to ignore Headmaster Pendragon, but he is frankly more scared of what Professor Gaius will do to him if he doesn’t get his homework completed, than he is of a guy he’s only met twice before in his life.
So when Morgana leans forward to whisper in his ear, Merlin startles, both at the sound of her voice, and the touch of her hands on his shoulders. The warmth of her breath on the back of his neck, and the brush of her curls to his cheek make him shudder and press back against his seat. It wasn’t like he hadn’t wondered what it would be like to kiss Morgana, to curl his fingers in that dark glossy hair of hers. But he knows better than most that fantasy and reality are two different things.
"Do you want to know a secret, Merlin?" she asks softly.
The way her voice sounds as she says his name makes his palms sweat.
He gasps softly as she leans on the back of his seat, her fingers idly tracing along his neck just above the collar of his uniform shirt.
"It's a secret about you..."
Fortunately for Merlin, his shocked, "What?!" as his books slide off his lap and clatter to the floor is covered by his fellow students as the assembly is dismissed with a wave of the Headmaster's hand.
Morgana takes his arm as they walked up the aisle out of the auditorium.
She is almost cheerful as she says to him, “So Merlin Emrys. You're going to do just what I say or everyone will know your secret. They will know because I will tell them, and then my father will find out..."
"What is it you think you know, Morgana," he asks, pulling away from her.
"You know what. About you… about the things you did to get here. I know what you are."
"What am I?" he counters, suddenly brave, although not quite able to look Morgana in the eyes.
"You're mine, that's what you are. Meet me after school."
Merlin tries to think of some way out of this. But if she really does know things about him, he needs to find out what.
"Don'tcha want to? I bet you do," she says pressing herself up against him with a little twist of her hips that leaves him gasping. She laughs at him as she pushes him away, and with a wave of her fingers, slips into a nearby classroom.
But it isn’t until the Harvest Dance a week later that Merlin finds out what Morgana has up her sleeve.
Gwen from his study group squeals and pulls Merlin onto the dance floor.
“This is my favorite song,” she says as she wraps her arms around his neck.
Merlin is not much of a dancer, but he is having a pretty good time. Gwen is funny and friendly, and they’ve gotten along well ever since their group project in history class on the fortifications of famous castles. Between them they had made models and worked out a presentation. They got a good grade on it despite Merlin’s last minute insistence on including a dragon as one possible method of defense.
“There must have been dragons,” he insisted, with a bit of a twinkle in his eye when questioned by Mr. Geoffries the History Teacher. “How else would they end up in so many of those old stories? And anyway you can’t prove there weren’t dragons…”
But the last thing Merlin is thinking about that night is dragons. The school cafeteria has been transformed with hay bales and pumpkins. The overhead lights are dimmed, and the room is lit solely with colored lights that flash along with the music.
When the music switches to a slow number he suddenly finds himself in a dark corner of the dance floor, with Morgana’s arms wrapped around his waist. She pulls him close, pressing herself up against him. She has on a very lacy purple bra underneath a very sheer, low cut top. He tries not to stare, to look over her shoulder or anywhere but down at her chest, but he can feel every curvy bit of her as she leans against him and he isn’t very successful with that. She is very beautiful, after all. And he is well aware that she knows he thinks so. What he doesn’t know is what to do with his hands but settles eventually on resting them in the middle of her back.
"You like this, I can tell..." Morgana whispers in his ear, as she pushes her hips into his.
"What do you want, Morgana?" he asks gripping her shoulders.
"You're going to let me do anything I want ... touch you any way I want," she says as she pushes him backwards until he bumps up against a pillar along the wall.
He tries to push her away then, but she steps into him, and when she has him pinned up against the pillar, she says the words he’s been dreading since that day in the assembly hall.
"I heard you tell Gaius it was your fault that boy died. Somehow I don't think you want everyone here knowing that you're responsible. That he died because of you."
He struggles against her, but she jams her knee tight between his legs and runs one polished fingernail across his bottom lip.
"That wasn't my fault!" he says breathlessly, wishing he were anywhere else.
"Oh, the way I heard it, it was. He lied to cover up what you did. He died, disgraced, because of you. Now, I don't think that's fair, do you Merlin?"
She winds her arms around his neck and whispers in his ear, "So you're going to let me do whatever I want, or I'll make sure everyone knows what you are."
She winds her hands into his hair then, and kisses him, licking her way into his mouth. He tries not to kiss her back, but she nips at his bottom lip with her teeth, and when he gasps in surprise, she presses forward and kisses him again. He finds himself kissing her then, knowing it’s wrong, but at that moment it feels too good to stop.
“I like you greedy,” she says, and he pulls back suddenly with a gasp. His pulse is thudding in his ears and he can hardly hear the music pounding around them. Then suddenly, and with a giggle, Gwen appears and pulls Morgana back out onto the dance floor.
Merlin, relieved, watches her go. He can still feel her kiss on his lips, but he scrubs her lip gloss off his mouth with hands that still tingle from her touch, and runs out of the room.
There’s this bright light, the awful screech of brakes and the blare of car horns, then the sound of shattering glass. He can hear Will calling to him, crying out. All he can see is a limp and broken Will lying in the middle of the street, covered in blood.
Will tells him, softly, “You let this be my fault, Merlin, not yours. Do y'a think I want you stuck in this dead end town for the rest of your life, working some lousy job to support your mother? You are meant for bigger things than you will ever find here. Please. Go back to that school of yours and never mind about me. I've got no one who will miss me."
"I'll miss you."
“Promise me…”
Will is in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, and he’s clutching his friend’s hand and praying for him to be okay.
And then that sound, that dreadful terrible beeping. The solid steady tone of death from the machines and he’s pushed out of the way, shoved into a corner to watch his friend die as strangers paw at Will’s body.
He follows the gurney out of the ambulance, ignored, like he’s the one’s who has died. He wonders if he’s a ghost now. He certainly feels like one, or more to the point doesn’t feel. He thinks perhaps he will never feel anything ever again.
But then he senses his mother's hands on him, and he struggles to get free. He must be free now, or the weight of grief will kill him. Unless he’s already dead.
And when his mother tries to put him in her car and take him home he breaks down. He can’t stop shaking. On his knees there in the car park, the grit digging into his knees the first thing he really does feel. And then a slap across the face from his mother.
“Get in the sodding car, Merlin, I’ve no time for your tricksy ways.”
“No,” he says softly. “Oh, no … no no no no no…” he insists, shaking still, his voice getting louder and louder.
"No!" he cries, sitting up in bed, dazed at finding Arthur shaking him by the shoulders.
"Wake up, Merlin, you've been shouting your head off. It's just a dream, mate."
”Don’t,” Merlin says and shoves Arthur back, still in the grip of his dream.
The dim light of the small lamp on the table between their beds gives off just enough light for Merlin to be able to see the concerned look on Arthur's face.
"Sorry," Merlin mumbled as he draws his knees up under the covers and wraps his arms around them.
"You all right? You want to talk about it?" Arthur asks as he slides down to the end of his bed and props himself up against the foot board, watching his roommate with wary eyes.
"S'nothing, really," Merlin replies, resting his chin on his knees and trying very hard not to make eye contact. He has never felt completely comfortable rooming with Arthur Pendragon, son of the Headmaster. Not to mention that Morgana, whose wandering hands and dangerous words have no doubt sparked his nightmare, is Arthur's adopted sister.
There is a long silence then. Neither boy knows what to say, but Arthur at last asks softly, "Who's Will?"
"Why?" Merlin asks sharply, finally able to meet Arthur's gaze. There is something inexplicable in Arthur's expression, and Merlin finds himself blurting out, "What did Morgana tell you?"
"Morgana? What does Morgana have to do with this?" Arthur asks.
"Nothing, never mind, it's stupid," Merlin says as he slips out from under the covers and walks away from Arthur to stare out the window of their room. As he stands there in his ratty red Cymru t-shirt and looks up at the sky, the harvest moon makes his pale skin glow. He wraps his arms around himself and stands there silently trying to wish everything better.
He jumps when he feels Arthur's hands come to rest on his shoulders.
"Don't be a prat, Merlin. Tell me what Morgana's done now."
Merlin hadn't intended to say anything, ever, to anyone about this. But there is suddenly steel in Arthur's voice, and Merlin finds himself almost unable to stop speaking.
It comes out then, all in a rush, how Morgana overheard him talking with Gaius, how she's tormenting him with her information. Merlin's ears go all pink and he stares out the window while he admits how she felt so nice, pressed up against him, how she'd kissed him and that he’d kissed her back.
"You're such a girl, Merlin," Arthur says, not unkindly, at the end of Merlin's somewhat incoherent confession. Arthur pushes Merlin down onto his desk chair, and then he perches himself on the desk top, saying, "All right now, let's start at the beginning. You still haven't told me who this Will is.
Painfully, haltingly, as he keeps his eyes downcast, and picks idly at the ragged edge of his boxer shorts, Merlin tells Arthur the whole tale.
How he had been home last summer, after his first year at Albion. No, it started even before then.
“We'd nick smokes and drinks from the corner shop and head down to the quarry at night. Used to light a fire and just sit there staring up at the stars, lying to each other about the grand things we'd do once we got ourselves out of Ealdor. Thing is neither of us ever really expected to get out.
My Dad used to teach here, which is how my mum knows Professor Gaius. Well, she wrote him to see what kind of boarding schools he knew about. Just to get me out of town. And the next thing I know he's coming down on weekends to tutor me and he's making me sit for the scholarship exam here. I never expected to get in, Arthur. I figured I'd end up in that quarry slinging rocks, and lying to my mates for the rest of my days.
But my mother wanted a different life for me, and so I left. I left Will behind. He'd always been there, always been at my side, and the first chance I got, I abandoned him. Without me around he got into even more trouble – stealing, even drugs a couple times. There was talk of involving the police, but he always managed to talk his way out of it.
Then last summer, when I was home, we ... well, one night, we’d been back down at the quarry, and we’d been drinking. He got drunk and angry, and kept calling me a posh tossser, so I hit him. Told him to get in the car, or walk home.
On the way home there was this lorry, and God, I don’t even know how it happened, but suddenly there was all this light and noise and this crash, and Will was flung out of the car. The police found us there, and it was Will’s car, and everyone assumed he’d been driving, that it was his fault. I wanted to tell the truth, but Will wouldn’t let me.
I couldn't bear to go to the services. Had a big row about it with my Mum. She went alone. Said someone had to. It wasn't that I didn't want to. I couldn't. I couldn't stand there in my school blazer looking down at the casket knowing that I could have, should have, done something more.
And here I am, back at this posh school. Everything was slowly getting better, then Morgana has to come along and threaten to ruin it all for me. If it was just me I wouldn't care so much. But my mother got me out, and Will, he died to give me this chance. And I can't, I won't let them down.”
Arthur sat, silently listening to Merlin’s story. He watched as Merlin buried his head in his hands at the end, and listened to him breathing heavily. He thought maybe Merlin was crying, but he didn’t like to mention it.
He just slid off the desk, stood next to Merlin for a long moment, then reached out to ruffle Merlin’s hair, and said, “Come on, let's go back to bed. I'll sort this out with Morgana in the morning, you'll see.”
Merlin didn’t sleep. He lay on his bed staring at the shadows of the tree branches beating against the ceiling, and listened to Arthur’s steady breaths from the bed opposite.
He slipped out of their room as soon as possible in the morning. Arthur was still asleep, face down on his bed, with one striped pajama-clad leg sticking out from under the covers.
He thought about skipping breakfast, but despite the weight in the pit of his stomach, he was hungry. So he slipped into the cafeteria where the decorations from the dance the night before were still in evidence. The tables had been put back, though, and Merlin grabbed some toast and milk and cereal, and attempted to lose himself in the book he was reading for his history report.
His attempt at remaining unnoticed didn't work very well. Suddenly, Morgana was there, sitting across from him, eyeing him over her carton of yogurt.
She leaned forward, and said softly "You ran away last night before I was finished with you. You’re a very naughty boy, Merlin."
Merlin sat there crumbling his toast and trying not to make eye contact.
"This is how it's going to work, Emrys," Morgana said, breaking the silence. "You're going to do whatever I say. Because I own you now ... mind, soul, and," her eyes dropping to his crotch, "body."
Unable to take it anymore, Merlin stood suddenly, his chair screeching as it slid back across the floor. Before he could take a step away from the table he felt an arm drop around his shoulders.
"Merlin, Merlin..." Arthur said, "Sit down and finish your breakfast."
The two boys looked at each other for a long moment, Merlin's eyes flashing in anger, but Arthur's steady gaze, and tiny nod prompted Merlin to sit down, hands clenched in his lap.
"You don't want this, do you Merlin?" Arthur asked, with a flick of his head to Morgana, on "this."
"Merlin wants what I want," Morgana replied coolly.
"I wasn't asking you," Arthur replied imperiously.
Merlin found he couldn't trust himself to speak suddenly, and responded with a simple nod, "No."
“Okay then. Here’s what’s going to happen,” Arthur said, sitting down in the chair between the two.
“Morgana is going to forget all about this little amusement of hers, and Merlin, you are going to stop keeping me up at nights with your brooding.”
Merlin and Morgana both stared at Arthur. He smiled at Merlin and then turned to Morgana with anything but a smile.
“Oh, Arthur,” Morgana sneered. “What makes you think I’m going to listen to you? Huh? What is this, some misguided attempt at a power play? Hoping to get Daddy’s attention? Or maybe you just want Merlin for yourself, is that it?”
She laughed, then looked between the two boys.
Arthur stood, looking down at Morgana.
“You will go find someone else to bother, or Uther will find out about those pills you keep in your dresser … and about the booze in your closet. If you want to be a manipulative bitch, you can do it on your own time, just don’t involve me.”
“No one asked you to stick your nose in business that doesn’t concern you,” Morgana said, standing and facing Arthur.
“I could say the same to you, Morgana,” Arthur replied, refusing to look away from his sister.
Merlin watched as the two siblings stared at one another. He felt like he should do or say something, but Arthur put his hand on his shoulder, keeping him sitting there silently. This had somehow become about something other than him, he sensed, and so he watched the battle of wills going on in front of him.
He felt Arthur’s grip on his shoulder loosen just a bit, and Merlin knew, suddenly that Arthur had won this round, and that he no longer had anything to fear from Morgana.
When Morgana turned and walked away, he was sure of it, and he sagged back against his chair.
Arthur sat down, and grabbed a slice of Merlin’s toast.
“The score so far, Arthur – one, creepy sisters – zero,” Arthur said, spraying toast crumbs across the table.
Merlin laughed, and wondered when the last time was he’d done so.
“So, Merlin, just how grateful are you to me? Because I never did get to my Physics homework, and I’m sure you did … and I just bet you’d let me copy from you, given how noble and self-sacrificing I was for you. Right Merlin?” Arthur asked, his eyes sparkling.
“Prat,” Merlin shot back, but he dug his Physics notebook out of his bag, and shoved it at Arthur.
“Prince,” Arthur protested, tapping himself on the chest.
“Prince Prat, then,” Merlin said as the two boys bent over their schoolwork, pens scratching away.
This entry was originally posted at http://valancy-joy.dreamwidth.org/130107.html
