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In hindsight, the course of actions currently unfolding before them could have been completely avoided. Merlin would think so, except Arthur— oh wise-eyed, ‘I know everything’ prince Arthur— seemed to differ on this thought.
“And just what did you expect to come from,” Merlin tilted his head in concentration of recounting the story correctly, “heckling a known sorcerer?”
“It was not heckling!” Arthur roused from his position a few feet ahead of Merlin. He assessed his servant with an unadulterated look of acrimony. Arthur shook his head in miffed disbelief and retired his gaze to footprints stamped in the otherwise fresh mud. Merlin trailed behind as the prince stood tall once again and took confident strides following the print made path. “It was a strategic plan. Not that you would know anything about that sort of thing,” Arthur supplied offhandedly, his back still facing Merlin as they trekked on.
Ignoring the catty remark, Merlin squinted his eyes in humorous scrutiny. “Really? Because ‘Show us some party tricks with your witchy friends’ sounded a lot like heckling to me.” Merlin disregarded the breath of increasing annoyance from Arthur and cracked a devious smile. “I think perhaps the sorcerer thought so as well.”
“I was trying to bait him to lead us to his co-conspirators,” Arthur gritted out, at his wits’ end.
Too giddy with himself to notice Arthur had halted, the manservant collided with Arthur’s armor-donned figure. He succeeded in nothing but allowing a “humph” past his lips and frowned at the iron piece as if it alone committed an unjustified wrong against him.
Merlin nursed his stung arm, bearing resemblance to a scolded child, as Arthur turned on his feet. His stern expression slightly faltered and he regarded Merlin with something akin to sympathy, Merlin thought. But then again, this was Arthur and that was a ridiculous idea so Merlin chalked it up to a trick of the eye.
In any sense, the not-sympathy look disintegrated as Merlin continued on talking. “Not that you would know, but that,” he jabbed Arthur’s chestplate for emphasis, “is a hunk of metal. It does hurt.”
“Oh, I’m sorry that you ran into me.”
And that was the final straw. If Arthur was to be an insufferable ass today, then so be it. “You’re a complete prat! Do you have any idea how aggravating it is to work for you?”
Arthur fixed him with his signature look reserved for Merlin and Merlin only. A look equal parts unimpressed and amused. A few silent beats passed between them, then, “Are you done now? We need to find the sorcerer.”
Merlin was not given a chance to speak his mind because Arthur had swiftly changed his direction once again. He knew they needed to locate the sorcerer, Arthur’s well being could very well depend on it. But god, sometimes Merlin just wanted to—
“Merlin?”
Merlin looked up to the sky and closed his eyes, pleading for the strength to go on like this. He let his shoulders drop and smiled at Arthur sarcastically. “Yes, sire?” Arthur was once again facing him with a look of uncertainty on his face. He seemed to be already finished with the conversation despite not even starting it.
Arthur clenched his gloved hand, “Did you recognize a word he was saying when he— when he—”
“Cursed you?”, Merlin offered.
Arthur’s eyes snapped back to meet Merlin’s. “Do you have to say it like that? It sounds so damning.”
“Well I’m sure that was the whole goal. In response to you, you know. Heckling him,” Merlin stated simply, unaware of the inner turmoil he was conjuring in Arthur.
Arthur let out a frustrated whine in response, “ Merlin! Do you or do you not know what he cursed me with?”
Merlin may often be taken for an idiot, but he could clearly sense the urgent tension radiating off the prince. Looking at Arthur, clueless and fearful, (though it rarely ever showed, Merlin could tell when Arthur was putting on a brave face) he forgot any earlier strife and allowed the warmth his being so often associated with Arthur to creep into his heart. His knack for cheeky comments subsided in favor of helping Arthur, any way he could.
He recalled the moment they were attacked and split up. Merlin was sent flying into a tree and had recovered as quickly as he could manage. But by the time he hauled himself to where Arthur had been, the hooded sorcerer had spoken the last words of his spell and ran off. Merlin recognized a few of those words, but could not say for certain. Whatever spell this was, the young sorcerer was not an expert on the topic it pertained to.
He stepped closer to assess Arthur and his behavior. Without much thought Merlin took Arthur’s chin in his hand and forced his face side to side. Next, he moved impossibly closer and his eyes alternated between a shifty squint and a wide stare trying to detect any revealing agents in Arthur’s eyes. “How do you feel?” At this intrusion, Arthur’s face tinted a lovely shade of pink and he pulled into himself with a perplexed expression.
“Fine? Must you get so close?”
“I have an idea, but I need to have a look at you before I can know for sure,” Merlin once again entered Arthur’s personal space to continue his dissection. And he took no pleasure in this close proximity, not at all.
Once satisfied nothing was physically wrong, he stepped back. With his hands opened in front of him he shrugged, “I don’t see anything wrong with you.”
“Yes, well, I said the same thing when I first saw you. Look how wrong I was,” the insult was belied by the obvious worry in his tone and features. “You said you had an idea?”
Merlin sighed in defeat. Yes, he had an idea, but not one that Arthur was going to like in the slightest. “I think it was an enchantment.”
Any chance Arthur would leave it at that?
“What kind of enchantment?”
Of course not.
“Right,” Merlin rubbed his hands together to warm himself up before just getting on with it. “Love.”
Arthur, of course, was none too pleased with this news. “Oh, for christ’s—”
“But, there seems to be nothing wrong with you. You said you feel fine! Maybe he was really just a shoddy sorcerer with some rundown party tricks,” Merlin rushed to explain, for there was no other explanation. Arthur looked fine, Arthur felt fine. Which usually meant, now stop him if he’s wrong, that things were fine.
“How do we break it?” Arthur stood unusually still, staring past Merlin and into the woods they found themselves to be in the middle of.
“Didn’t you hear me? I said you’re fine—”
“Just tell me, Merlin,” tired blue eyes met Merlin’s confused ones. “Please.”
Merlin would not deny him any longer, he just wished he could offer a better answer. “I don’t know. There’s a wide range of love-inducing magic that are all annoyingly similar, I can’t be sure which one exactly was used.” His head bowed as he felt, for once, useless.
“So, we need to find whoever did this. Then we can reverse the spell and erase the effects,” Arthur determined resolutely and made to march on.
“Effects?”, Merlin stalled the prince.
Arthur’s ears were dusted pink, “You know, the effects that are bound to happen at some point. Not all sorcerers are as incapable as you, Merlin. Now let’s go.” His hand grabbed hold of Merlin’s arm for a mere second before Arthur dropped it as if in response to touching a scalding object.
Merlin would not move before he figured just what in god's name was happening. “Are you sure you’re fine?” He spoke as if to a frightened deer, careful not to spook it into running off.
“Yes, obviously. I just remembered your arm was hurting you from earlier,” His voice was strained and he rested his stare somewhere above Merlin’s head.
Merlin wasn't buying this for a second. He knew what consideration sounded like coming from Arthur, and that was not it. “Okay, not to fuel your massive ego, but I may have been wrong in assuming you were fine.” Merlin made it an inch closer to get another look but Arthur’s quick reflexes sent him flying three steps back.
“No!” came the high pitched shrill in his voice. Merlin held out his hands in a placating manner and moved no further. Arthur granted himself a decompressing breath before further speaking. “What’s important right now is tracking the sorcerer down. That and that alone.”
Merlin’s head dipped to peek at the ground past Arthur, “You may find that a bit difficult.”
Arthur rolled his eyes, “And why is that, Merlin?” His hands rested on his hips and his eyebrows shot up, waiting for what he expected to be some foolish statement.
Merlin smirked, “Because there are no more footprints to follow.” Immediately, Arthur’s head snapped toward the ground with investigative intent written on his face. As he saw Merlin’s words to be true, he pinched the bridge of his nose and hunched his broad shoulders in tribulation.
Arthur wearily rubbed his face in rumination before considering Merlin. “Can’t you do something?”
Merlin was at a loss, “What do you suggest I do?”
Arthur pointed to Merlin like it was so painfully obvious. “You have magic. I’m sure you can find him.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Merlin replied grimly. His chest did swell with pride at the honest notion Arthur didn’t underestimate Merlin’s abilities. Also with fondness thinking of Arthur’s lack of judgement in regards to Merlin’s magic, but that he will keep to himself.
“Why the hell not?”
“Because—”
“I thought you said you were an all powerful sorcerer,” Arthur tacked on snobbishly.
“—I don’t have the means.”
Arthur’s face twisted into one of denial and submissively waved his hand. “I’m the prince of Camelot, Merlin. Whatever it is you need, I can get you.”
On the one hand, the proposal sounded rather tempting to Merlin, but, “Unless you can get me a lock of hair from our sorcerer I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do.”
Arthur smiled sardonically, “That’s just bloody perfect! What are we supposed to do now?”
Merlin was disconcerted by Arthur’s reaction to the whole ordeal. Never before had he seen a more perturbed Arthur, and normally he would take great delight in the fact, but now it unsettled him to no degree. He hated to say it but he would much rather an egotistical ass right now.
“We’ll go back to the castle, Gaius has any magic book a person could need and any remedy that we will need,” Merlin went on certainly, already turning around in the direction they came. “Everything will be fine, I didn’t save your arse more times than I can count just so you could be taken down by a rubbish old man.”
Merlin looked over his shoulder briefly and did a double take to see Arthur was not following. The prince picked up on the other’s confusion and sighed, “It’s no use, Merlin. The sun is setting as we speak, we’ll never make it in time.”
“Nonsense. Come on you big brute, you’ve been just fine so far. Besides, whoever your infatuation lies with is resting safely in Camelot, I’m sure,” Merlin forced a smile on his face. Did he want to return Camelot just to see Arthur literally enchanted with someone else until they remedied him? It didn’t much matter what he thought, Merlin decided, it only mattered that he protected Arthur. Even from some lousy love spell.
“Maybe I could sleep it off?,” Arthur inquired with a hopeful glance to Merlin. It did not pull at the strings of his heart beating uncontrollably in his chest.
Arthur had taken on a softer tone now with no hint of a demand, like he genuinely wanted to know what Merlin thought. And Merlin did not take this lightly. So, as much as he believed they should return home, he conceded to Arthur’s wishes. With a gentle smile he spoke, “Okay, we can try that. But if we aren’t moving by the first ray of light I will drag you back myself.”
“Please, be my guest.” Arthur’s face dropped and if it were possible for a person to go from sickly pale to faintly red all over within a few seconds then that is surely what had happened. Merlin was certain he had not imagined the words, nor the reaction. He did, however, pretend to not have heard them.
So they set up camp in painful silence with Merlin rolling out their bed sacks and Arthur fetching water. Arthur had even removed his armor by himself. It wasn’t until Merlin went to gather firewood that they even acknowledged the other.
“It’s okay, I can go alone,” Merlin attempted to stop Arthur from following him any further into the woods.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Merlin. It’s dark, you’re outrageously clumsy, and there’s an evil sorcerer out there.”
Merlin’s chuckles ceased when he realized Arthur remained sober. “You’re serious?”
“Completely,” Arthur deadpanned. He held his hand out gesturing Merlin to continue walking ahead of him. Merlin allowed his eyes to roll slightly as he strolled past the other with a grin.
At one point Merlin had tripped over a god forsaken log, just a slap in the face after Arthur’s earlier remark. He nearly face planted the mud beneath him, but of course Arthur could not allow that to happen. No, his hands reacted quickly and latched onto Merlin’s bony shoulders, pulling his whole body flush against his chest like it was nothing.
“It’s a good thing I came along, then,” Arthur’s grip slightly tightened and it was a few moments of them standing like that before Arthur seemed to force himself a step back. Merlin had never been so thankful for the mask of night as he felt his cheeks heat up.
They went on like that, a few snarky comments passed back and forth, Arthur hovering a little too close for Merlin’s sanity, and Merlin gathering dry wood.
Back at the base, Arthur immediately took over for Merlin and worked on the fire, throwing him a scandalized look when he so much as even handed a piece of wood to Arthur. He diligently set their fire up with little to no trouble, but Merlin could only watch on in astonishment. “Are you enjoying the view there, Merlin?” Merlin could hear the smugness in his tone.
“Just surprised you know how to do that,” he crossed his arms defiantly.
“Believe it or not, I know how to do many things that may surprise you,” Arthur looked over to Merlin with a subtle smirk. His features were illuminated by the flames, so there was no mistaking what he saw. Merlin just didn’t know what to do with the information.
So he laughed lightly and weakly muttered, “Right,” before suddenly finding the night sky so interesting. He busied himself with mapping false constellations until he saw Arthur take a seat next to him from the corner of his eye. He shifted his gaze to the figure and opened his mouth to speak.
“If you ask me how I’m feeling one more time, Merlin, I might get loopy.”
Merlin sealed his lips and decided against pressing any further, despite desperately needing to know why Arthur was acting so strange. Arthur was no monster but he also was never this kind to him, and certainly never made such suggestive comments directly to Merlin.
“Okay, well I’m going to get some sleep. We’ve got an early morning,” Merlin yawned and stretched as he retreated to his makeshift bed a few feet away.
He settled with his back turned to Arthur, knowing sleep would not come easily tonight. He sat deep in thought for several minutes before Arthur put out the fire.
“Merlin?”, he whispered, inching closer.
Maybe if he pretended to be asleep, Arthur would just give up and rest. He shut his eyes quickly and tried to even out his breathing.
“Merlin? I need help.”
Merlin was a smitten fool. “What’s wrong, Arthur?” He still had not turned to face the other, though.
“Could you please look at me?” He sounded so beaten down, Merlin had no choice but to comply. He shifted to a sitting position facing Arthur, who knelt before him. It was dark, and he could barely make out any sort of tell on the prince’s features.
Arthur’s hand, surprisingly soft in light of the fact he was a knight, cupped Merlin’s face. And all Merlin could do was freeze. His heart picked up in pace and he stopped breathing all together. “You drive me mad,” was all Arthur said before gently caressing Merlin’s cheek with his thumb.
Then, realization sucker punched Merlin in the stomach and he shoved Arthur’s hand away. “Arthur, this is the love spell affecting you.” He pushed aside the heavyweight disappointment in his chest because Arthur was enchanted to be in love with Merlin! This wasn’t real, and he was an idiot for not listening to his instincts earlier.
“No, Merlin, it isn’t. Not really.” Arthur cooed like Merlin was a baby bunny he happened upon. Merlin was going to be sick, this was the universe’s messed up way of mocking him for falling for someone like Arthur. He was sure of it as Arthur moved closer.
“Listen to me,” he paused to establish eye contact with Arthur and held his shoulder at an arm’s length away from him. “Whatever you’re feeling right now is simply because you are enchanted. Not because it is real. Do you understand?” Merlin tried to gauge Arthur’s thoughts.
“Look,” with little effort Arthur swatted Merlin’s hand away, “I know that in my right mind I would never do any of this, never act like a lovesick fool but,” he trailed off.
“You’ve been struck by a love spell,” Merlin laughed grimly.
“Yes, but you’re not understanding me. The spell— it didn’t give me any new feelings. It just made it impossible for me to keep them to myself,” Arthur went off and Merlin listened on with furrowed brows.
“Of course you would say that. You. Are. Enchanted. You would know nothing but that you are in love with me, or feel like it at least.” To say Merlin has never considered a love spell for even a second in the past would be a lie, but he very quickly disposed of the idea. He didn’t want Arthur’s love, not like this. Not through the means of magic.
Arthur cupped Merlin’s face once again, this time with both hands. His eyes plead desperately to Merlin, “Merlin, I have cared for you for a long time now. More than a prince cares for his people. I fancy you, and I don’t need a bloody love spell to tell me that much. But I did need it to do this.”
Arthur clashed their faces together in a kiss. It was not an amazing kiss by any means. It was rushed and awkward and a mess of teeth and spit. But Merlin could not find a single thing he would complain about. Arthur was kissing him! The same Arthur he’s been a damned fool over for years now was handling him so gently and kissing the worry out of him.
Arthur pulled back, rested his forehead against Merlin’s and shut his eyes. “I nearly lost my mind just looking at you,” he panted.
Merlin just pursed his lips, “Thank you?”
“What I meant was,” came Arthur's melodious laughter, “it became harder and harder to resist you from the moment the sorcerer ran away.” They were closer than ever now, and Merlin could make out the warmth in Arthur’s eyes. “I had no clue it was a love spell because I always feel this way toward you. I only put it together when you told me.”
This was difficult for Merlin. He wanted to fall into the comfort and security of a love drunk Arthur, but he knew for a fact magic was involved and he couldn’t turn a blind eye to all he knew it could manipulate. Love was no exception.
“I see you thinking hard in that massive brain of yours. Stop,” Arthur soothed. “I know this is a lot. If you don’t feel the same way then we can continue under the pretense I fell victim to a love spell. You don’t have to pretend because I’m your prince.” Arthur’s face lowered in despair and he dropped his hands to his sides.
Merlin couldn’t stand this. He snatched Arthur’s hand in his, demanding his attention. “If this is really a love spell I hope you don’t remember this,” he muttered before kissing Arthur’s cheek. His face was surely bright red as he pulled back, but he didn’t care so much anymore. Arthur was smiling widely and Merlin’s heart leaped knowing he was the cause of it.
Merlin advised against it, but Arthur left him no choice when he pulled their bodies to the ground and encaged Merlin’s body with his arm. Arthur’s chest fit snug against Merlin’s back and his steady breathing lulled Merlin into a deep sleep.
Merlin awoke to the horrendous sound of birds chirping loudly. He outstretched his limbs and ruffled his hair with sleep ridden eyes before they shot wide open, recalling the previous night’s events.
He turned his head comically slow and felt his heart sink as the spot next to him was empty.
Why are you so sad? You knew this was going to happen.
“Merlin!” Arthur’s cheery voice rang, startling the man in question. He moved to rest on his elbows and looked to the prince. He was maddeningly handsome in his simple white tunic with tousled hair. He smiled bright as the two locked eyes and Merlin internally sighed at the marvel standing before him.
Before long, he stood and marched over. He couldn’t bring himself to say anything, too afraid he would meddle with Arthur’s memory. He waited impatiently for the man to continue.
“I want you to know I haven’t forgotten about last night,” his expression remained unreadable and Merlin’s breath hitched in his throat.
Oh god. This was the day he died. Whether it be by Arthur’s bare hands or embarrassment, he was dying.
Arthur leaned in closer with a glint of mischief in his eye as Merlin held his breath. But he was surely taken by surprise when Arthur left a chaste kiss on the corner of Merlin’s mouth before briefly leaving one on his forehead. “Is that still okay?”
Merlin could only nod dumbly and a radiant grin broke across Arthur’s face. “Let’s go home, then.”
“What about the sorcerer?”
Arthur paused and held up a finger in thought, “You’re absolutely right. I was thinking of some fresh herbs, maybe?”
Was Merlin missing something here? Were they not just hunting this man down no less than a day ago? “For what, exactly?”
“For being our own private Cupid! I mean, the man deserves some credit for this.”
Merlin laughed heartily while Arthur smiled with his eyes. “You are unbelievable.”
“It’s a good thing you’re so gullible then.”
And if the two waited just a little while longer to return home on such a nice day by themselves, well, no one has any proof of such a thing.