Chapter Text
“No, Will, I can’t take your stupid cat.”
The first time Merlin shut the door on Will, he had felt a certain degree of regret. A twinge of remorse. The first few times he had to reject the small tabby, he even apologized. As it stood, this was the third time he had to say no to the little mongrel just this morning. And the tenth time this week. This was the fourth time he had to physically shut Will out of his home. So Merlin tried to put extra oomph in slamming the door this time.
Two weeks ago, Will had found the pathetic lump of fur on the side of the road, while he and Merlin were biking home from work in what seemed to be Poseidon’s final attempt to drag down their little isle back into his domain. Merlin was a good quarter mile ahead, eager to leave the muck of the golf course behind when he noticed Will wasn’t panting alongside him. Panic welled in his chest when he turned around and saw Will sprawled on the ground, while the rainwater parted around him on its journey to the gutter.
“If he slipped in this and fell onto the concrete at this speed, he could be bleeding out by now. How do you heal head wounds? Will he get hypothermia from this weather? Can I carry him on my own?” Merlin’s panicked thoughts streamed through his mind. “Will my magic be enough to save him?”
As if the thought alone opened up the floodgates, he felt the static shocks in his arm veins that preceded accidental magic. The water underneath his bike tires began to steam, the heat licking at his ankles. Merlin shook out his ankles, the warmth curing his temporary paralysis.
Merlin wheeled around, skidding to a messy stop right in front of Will. His heart was beating double time, as he looked at his best friend’s hunched form. He threw his bike down, ignoring the hiss of evaporating water, barely audible under the roar of the storm. And when Will looked up, unharmed, sheltering the black shivering kitten, Merlin could have cried in relief if he had a little bit of self respect. Instead his bladder decided the best way to express gratitude to the universe and the gods that his best friend wasn’t dying in a ditch was to release itself.
“C’mon Merls, it’s practically your cat too! You pissed yourself with joy when you met!” Will whined through the shut door.
“I was happy you weren’t on your deathbed, you idiot!” Merlin shouted back, his face beginning to flush.
“How about you treat her as something to remember me by? After you’ve fucked off and moved to the big city?”
There it was. The real reason Will had spent the last two months of summer whining.
It wasn’t as if Merlin was moving to Camelot of his own volition. Hunith had been badgering him to move in with his uncle Gaius ever since he managed to pop all the balloons at his tenth birthday party while blowing out his candles. After every floating bed sheet, every frog-filled sink, every exploding toilet, Hunith brings up the move again. If Hunith lost her keys, she brought up Camelot.
And every time Merlin managed to say no. He felt he held at least a modicum of control over his body and his magic, even as he grew older and his power grew with him. Until this past May.
Merlin tried to blame it on math. Chemistry, fine. English, fine. Math, Satan's special gift for mankind. When he walked into the cramped auditorium to take his final exam, he knew he already knew he was screwed. The question was to what degree.
When he sat down at his section, his gangly limbs forcing his legs to be shoved up against the back of some poor girl’s seat, and flipped through the booklet, he felt his chances of passing slipping away. Ok, letters in math, fine, do what you will. But at least have the decency to keep it to the Roman alphabet. The floating Greek symbols jumbled around in Merlin’s head, as he flipped from problem to problem, trying to find one that he could at least start. Merlin shoved his face into his hands, and suppressed the urge to cry as his throat constricted.
And then the sprinklers turned on. Relief washed over Merlin as he pushed his now soaked hair out of his eyes, and saw the ruined test paper in front of him. He heard Will shout “Hallelujah” somewhere behind him. A mousy substitute with fly-away hair began scurrying around, trying to collect test booklets before the integrity of the sopping wet tests was compromised. Merlin slowly gathered up his things, when a groan echoed from above him. Merlin snapped his head up, just in time to watch a water pipe burst through the ceiling, rapidly pouring gallons and gallons of water onto the base of the auditorium. Merlin and his fellow classmates watched, shell shocked, as more pipes burst in quick succession.
When Merlin felt the water lap at his ankles, he willed himself to move. He artlessly hopped himself over the wooden seats, trying to reach the doorway. Unfortunately, Merlin’s movements appeared to break the stillness of the room, and soon everyone was pushing towards the doorways.
By the time Merlin fought his way down the middle aisle, the water licked his upper calves. He sloshed to the tiny stage, and climbed up while his classmates waded to the doors, and held his arms to the sky, willing the pipes dry. Instead, with several loud successive pops, the heads burst off the sprinklers, and the water managed to fall at an even more rapid pace than before.
“Shit shit shit shit shit,” Merlin whispered to himself as the water reached the height of the stage. He stood on his tip toes, and watched as the students vainly tried to push through each other to exit the auditorium. Those rusted hinges always needed a fair amount of elbow grease, and his panicked classmates could barely muster up the traction in the now chest high water.
“Everybody on stage!” Merlin shouted, but he was drowned out by the waterfall.
Merlin whirled around, looking for something, anything to save the situation. At the back of the auditorium he spotted an ancient red and green fire axe. He dove off the stage into the water. Swimming was more efficient than walking by this point, so Merlin valiantly performed his most desperate impersonation of a salmon and beat his way uphill to the back of the auditorium. He wrenched open the metal box, setting off the alarm right next to his ear.
“Fuck off,” Merlin shouted at the system before turning around.
He flopped back into the water, swimming his way down the auditorium one handedly, brandishing his axe with the other. By the time he made it to the door, many students had finally taken refuge on stage. Merlin tread water above the doorframe.
“Fuck it,” Merlin took a giant breath, and dived.
Merlin held the door handle tightly, trying to anchor himself, and took a semi blind swing at the hinge. The axe made no contact, and Merlin tried to curse underwater but that just let the putrid water into his lungs. Merlin closed his eyes so he could ignore the black spots clouding his vision, and took another swing. The bottom rusty hinge thankfully fell off at the first hefty swing.
Merlin made a quick prayer to the sprinkler gods, ignored the screams filtering down to his ears, and swung blindly. His axe struck the top hinge, and the old door burst outwards. Merlin was sucked into the hall with the door.
Merlin gripped his chest as he looked back out at Will, remembering how he vomited water for a good hour after the ordeal. That was the final straw. The minute Hunith saw Merlin’s sopping clothes, she picked up the phone for Gaius. And that was that. Goodbye Ealdor.
“I’m sorry, I’m moving, and I’m sorry your grandmother is allergic to that monstrosity-”
“Steven,”
“What?”
“His name’s Steven, Steve for shirt,” Will interjected.
“I don’t care what the stupid furball’s name is, I am not taking him with me!” Merlin shouted.
Steven meowed for the entire train journey, which didn’t suit Merlin at all. Apparently animals did not enjoy being stuffed into small boxes, stuck inside larger boxes, hurtling at incredibly fast speeds. Who knew.
Gaius was waiting for him at the station in a Mini Cooper of all things. They had to pile Merlin’s suitcases on the roof, shove a very angry Steven in the back, and Merlin cramped his legs to slide in. Merlin tried to hide his simmering annoyance from his uncle. It wasn’t his fault that Merlin was a fuck up who couldn’t control his magic.
They dodged city traffic until they made it to Gaius’ home, well Merlin’s home now, on the outskirts of the city. They pulled up to the little cottage, and Merlin hauled in his stuff, letting Steven out in the living room, before collapsing on the couch. Gaius took a quiet seat next to him.
“Now, I know you’re not thrilled to have to live with an old fart like me,” Gaius started.
“It’s not you Gaius. I can’t thank you enough for taking me in, and I’m really grateful and stuff, and-”
Gaius raised a hand to stop Merlin’s rambling. “You don’t have to pretend that you’re happy with this arrangement. I just hope that I can help you get your magic under control.”
“It’s going to be so hard to start over-”
“And I know the headmaster of your new school personally. Uther Pendragon is a hard man, but he’s agreed to give you a full scholarship if you keep your grades up.”
Merlin nodded, “I won’t let you down Gaius.” Suddenly, Steven jumped into Merlin’s lap, and curled himself up, purring loudly.
Maybe everything would be ok.