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“Hey, that’s enough!”, Merlin said.
The prat stopped laughing and his eyes found the sorcerer.
“What?”, he spat.
“You’ve had you’re fun, my friend.”, Merlin said, smiling.
For one whole minute, the blonde just stared at him. Then, with the self-righteousness of a King, he strutted forward.
“Do I know you?”, he asked, smirking.
“I’m Merlin.”, the raven-haired boy said brightly, offering his hand.
“So I don’t know you.”, the prat said.
Merlin gave a pause before saying,
“No. . .”
“And yet you called me. . . friend.”
Merlin scowled. ‘What a jerk!’, he thought to himslef.
“Excuse me??”, the blonde asked, his eyes going dramatically wide. “You can’t address me like that!”
“Like what?”, Merlin asked, his brow furrowing. ”I didn’t say anything.”
“Yes, you did! You just called me a jerk!”, Mr.Arrogant said, pointing an accusatory finger.
“Um, no, I thought you were a jerk. And apparently, I was right.”
“Well, if you didn’t say it out loud, then how did I hear every syllable?”
“I have no—”, Merlin began, but never got to finish.
“Guards! Take this idiot to the stocks!”, Mr. Clotpole said to the men standing behind him.
Merlin scoffed. “What, you think you’re the King?”
At that, the blonde grabbed Merlin’s wrist and bent his arm behind his back.
“No, I’m his son. Arthur.”
With a painful twist, he brought Merlin down to his knees on the ground for the guards to collect.
In the stocks, Merlin kept wondering how the Prince had heard what was definitely just a thought.
And then it dawned on him.
Apparently, Mr.Dollophead — What was his name again? Arthur? — had just had the same realization, because Merlin heard the Prince’s unmistakable voice in his head, saying,
'Shit.'
Of course Merlin had to become Arthur’s manservant. . .
Merlin knew from the moment he had the epiphany that Arthur was his Soulmate, that destiny was going to find some way to push them together.
This time, destiny was an evil witch with a terrible aim in throwing a dagger at the prince.
That’s how Merlin became Arthur’s manservant.
As the sorcerer stood next to the disgruntled prince, he nervously thought to himself, ‘God, please, just don't make him find out that I have magic.’
For being the greatest sorcerer ever to walk the earth, Merlin can be pretty daft sometimes.
He heard a gasp from his left and turned to see Arthur gaping at him, his jaw hanging open.
‘You have magic??’, he heard an incredulous voice ask inside his head.
With a nervous chuckle, Merlin thought,
‘Great.’
When Merlin was finally alone with Arthur in his royal chambers, the prince turned to him and stalked forward. Merlin stumbled back until his back hit the wall.
“You have magic?”, Arthur growled.
"You already asked me that.”
"And you didn't respond."
"Yes. Yes, I do.", Merlin said, rolling his eyes.
“And you’re my Soulmate?”, Arthur asked, scowling as if he had stepped in horse poo.
“As it turns out, yes.”
Arthur groaned, burying his face in his hands. “Excellent. Now I can’t even turn you in.”
Something told Merlin that Arthur wouldn’t have turned him in even if he weren't his Soulmate.
“Well, I’m not very happy with this arrangement, either!”, Merlin protested. “A prat like you is the last person I want reading my thoughts.”
“Nor do I love the idea of an idiot like you in my head.”
And then they just stood there, glowering at each other, until Arthur shook his head and left with a huff.
Merlin ‘hmphed' and began looking around the room in which he’d be working for the next God-knows-how-many years.
Picking up a red shirt and twiddling it between his fingers, Merlin absentmindedly thought,
‘Is he attentive enough to notice if I burn a tiny hole through the front?’
The reply came almost immediately.
‘Don’t you dare! That’s my favourite shirt!’
Smirking, Merlin thought, ‘Hey! Look at us! Getting to know each other already!’
It hardly took a few days for Arthur and Merlin to grow closer.
Very soon, Merlin drank the poisoned wine that was meant for Arthur. The prince had risked his own life, trying to save Merlin’s. Thanks to their telepathic conversations, Merlin was able to guide Arthur out of a dark cave filled with flesh-eating spiders, despite being only half-conscious himself.
Since then, there had been an unspoken bond between them. They both knew it: They were willing to die for each other. But neither of them were ready to admit it yet.
However, that didn’t change the fact that every time they thought about each other, the other knew exactly what they were thinking.
For instance, the first time Merlin had seen Arthur naked one morning, he couldn’t stop the word ‘Damn!’ from popping into his head. Immediately, the prat had turned to him with a smirk and didn’t let him forget the humiliating incident for the next several weeks.
And then there was the time when Arthur had told Merlin that he looked ‘ridiculous' in that new outfit, and then almost immediately Merlin heard the prince's voice in his head saying, ‘Why is he so adorable?’, followed by a string of panicked ‘shit!’s, and a 'Did he hear that?'
Merlin said, "Yes, I did.", but Arthur refused to acknowledge that the incident even happened.
‘Does this shirt make me look fat?’, Arthur mused, standing in front of the mirror.
‘Yes.’, came the reply in his head.
“Shut up, Merlin.”, Arthur said.
“Wha— I didn’t say anything!”
“You didn’t have to.”, Arthur reminded him.
Because of the whole sharing-thoughts business, Merlin and Arthur could never keep any secrets from each other. Merlin knew that Arthur had daddy issues. Arthur knew that Merlin had anxiety, because of the constant fear of getting caught while using magic.
Even though sometimes it felt a little annoying to have literally every one of their thoughts shared without their permission, other times it made them feel closer to each other. They never felt alone, even in the darkest or bleakest of times. There was always a voice in their head, supportive and reassuring.
That felt nice.
They didn’t know when they began falling for each other. Had it always been there since the beginning? Who felt it first? Or did it happen at the same time for both of them? Neither of them knew.
But eventually, there were times when both of them could feel the other person thinking about them. Initially, they used to tease each through telepathy about their corny feelings.
But one day, the teasing just stopped, and there was just silence from the other end. Not cold, awkward silence, but more of a warm, fluttery silence, with unsaid words hanging in the air, like dew drops hanging from a leaf.
When one of them finally confessed, it was Arthur who did it. It was rather surprising, considering how he was the Conceal-Don’t-Feel one among the two.
And since then, Merlin and Arthur had been courting in secret. Hidden kisses in corridors. Stolen glances in council-meetings. Silent conversations in their head.
It felt like they were one. Like two sides of the same coin.
And it all felt so right.
Their first kiss was initiated by Merlin.
Arthur was leaving for battle. As Merlin fixed his chainmail with familiar ease and swift fingers, they both spoke with thoughts without breaking the comfortable silence.
‘You’re going to bring back victory to the Camelot, and glory to all that it stands for. Do you hear me?’
‘Merlin, if something happens out there—'
‘Nothing will happen out there.’
‘But if it does—’
Merlin stopped Arthur’s flow of thought by pressing their lips together.
It felt a little painful to do this for the first time right before having to let Arthur go to fight a bloodthirsty army.
But the kiss felt more like a silent promise that the prince would be back, rather than a parting 'goodbye'. It said that Arthur would come back to Merlin.
Merlin pulled back and said, aloud his time, “Come back to me.”
And Arthur did.
‘If a penguin and a dragon had a baby,’, Merlin wondered while folding Arthur’s clothes, ‘would it be called a draguin or a Pendragon?’
“You know, Merlin,”, Arthur said, “sometimes the things that go through your head scare me.”
‘Do you know what I’m going to do to you after this meeting?’
‘Arthur!’
‘You look delectable when you’re blushing.’
‘God, Arthur, stop! Focus on the meeting!’
‘How can I, when you’re standing there, looking so delicious and tempting?’
‘Well, you’re gonna have to wait for a little longer.'
‘Hmm. Or maybe I should just have you right here, on this table.’
‘Oh, my God, stop!’
‘Or what?’
‘Or you won’t get any tonight.’
‘I’m sure I can change your mind.’
‘Try me.’
‘I do intend to tie you. To the bed.’
‘I said try m— Wow, I did not see that coming.’
‘You’ll see me coming tonight.’
‘I wish there was, like, an off switch to shut you out.’
‘But if there was, you wouldn’t use it, would you?’
‘Hmm. Not really.’
When Uther died, Arthur was devastated. That day, Merlin had stayed with him, not saying anything, not thinking anything. Just staying with Arthur. A silent comfort. A shoulder to cry on.
"Long live the King!", the people of Camelot chanted in chorus, but Arthur had ears only for Merlin's little voice, that kept repeating the phrase in his head.
The crown felt heavy upon Arthur's head. He was not ready for this. He was too young to be King. This was all happening too fast, too soon.
But one look at Merlin, his smiling lips and fiery eyes, gave Arthur all the confidence he needed in that moment.
“By the sacred laws vested in me,”, Arthur announced to the assembled court, “I crown you, Merlin, King of Camelot.”
When Arthur placed he crown on Merlin’s head, he knew he had made the right decision to marry this man. He knew it in his heart. He knew it when Merlin smiled up at him.
Arthur offered his hands, and Merlin took them. When he rised, Arthur pulled him close and kissed him with all his love pouring out uncontrollably.
‘I love you.’, he thought, cupping his new husband’s face.
‘I love you, too.’, came the reply in his head.