Chapter Text
Merlin was less surprised than he should have been to see a goose at the bottom of his bed when he woke up.
It was a common occurrence at the moment in Camelot for people to wake up to geese that would spend the day leading them to their soulmate.
Merlin assumed it was some old wizard’s idea of a joke.
He and Gaius had looked into a few counter spells but there wasn’t a clear solution at the moment. It didn’t really matter though, the geese were annoying but not life threatening.
They would pester, peck and provoke the people they selected until that person shared a kiss with whoever the goose deemed their ‘soulmate’ to be.
Merlin had been putting off trying to fix this curse because he hadn’t thought it was too serious. Now because of his laziness he was face to face with a goose of his own.
The goose blinked at him before standing and charging. It got half way to Merlin’s face before the warlock’s eyes flashed gold and the goose was lying dead on his chest.
Good riddance, Merlin thought. He had no time to deal with being attacked by a goose today. Arthur had gotten into a fight with his father a few nights ago which means he’s not in a great mood which means Merlin gets twice as many chores. Finding a soulmate on the same day would be too much hassle.
Besides Merlin doesn’t want to find his soulmate. He knows it might be a little selfish to whoever that may be but… it would also be selfish to find them and have to tell them he’s in love with someone else.
As much as Merlin hates to admit it he’s fallen completely in love with his dollophead of a prince. He knew it was stupid and his feelings would never be reciprocated but he didn’t care. Arthur was his destiny and even if he never loved Merlin the way the warlock wanted him to, he wouldn’t want to spend his life with anyone else.
His soulmate will just have live without the knowledge that he exists.
There was now a dead goose in Merlin’s bed, which is fairly gross but being raised in Ealdor he wasn’t one to waste a good meal.
He got up and dressed before grabbing the thing by it’s neck and taking it downstairs with him. “Fancy some goose for dinner tonight Gaius?”
The old man looked up from his work and raised an eyebrow at his apprentice. “Merlin where on earth did you get a goose from?”
Merlin sighed and laid the goose down on the table before sitting down. “It was on my bed when I woke up.”
“Ah, so judging by its lack of life I take it you don’t wish to find your soulmate.” He asked, looking back down to his work.
“Yeah, no not really. I’ve got no time for love, what with Arthur trying to get himself killed almost every day.”
Gaius hummed in response. “Speaking of the prince, you’re late and I have a feeling he won’t be in a good mood this morning.”
The warlock groaned but got up to leave anyway.
Merlin went straight to the kitchens to get Arthur’s breakfast. There was no point going to wake the price up just to go all the way back down and up with food. Especially if he was already late.
After acquiring Arthur’s breakfast Merlin started heading up the stairs. It was on this journey that he was surprised attacked by another goose.
The thing had been hiding behind an alcove and jumped out as the warlock as was walking past. It barrelled itself straight into his face causing Merlin to drop the prince’s food.
The goose continued its attack, squawking and hissing at him. Merlin’s eyes flashed gold and for the second time that day he was looking at a freshly killed goose.
Merlin then turned his attention to the food on the floor. He looked both ways down the corridor before lifting his hand and muttering an enchantment to make the breakfast rearrange itself back onto the plate he was holding.
He then whispered another spell to clean it off before continuing to Arthur’s chambers.
As an afterthought Merlin flashed his eyes at the goose behind him to send it to the table in Gaius’ room with the first one he’d killed that day.
As he walked Merlin thought about how strange it was that another goose had appeared. There being multiple geese was an element of the curse he had not been aware of. Granted no one else had actually been able to kill their goose.
The warlock wondered how many of the creatures he would have to kill before they got the message to leave him alone.
As it turned out, he would have to kill a lot.
There had been three in Arthur’s room alone. The first had been sat on the table when he walked in. That was an easy kill and teleport away. The goose didn’t even get a chance to attack. Luckily Arthur was asleep so he could use magic.
The second had been waiting for him in Arthur’s wardrobe. The prince, at this point, was sitting at the table grumpily eating his breakfast so Merlin had to be more subtle removing the goose.
He had grabbed the thing by the beak so it didn’t make any noise. The goose did not like that. It flapped and fought but then Merlin’s eyes flashed gold and it went limp in his grasp. He quickly whisked it away to the others just as Arthur looked up.
“What was that?”
“Oh, nothing sire.” Merlin replied with a fake grin.
“I could have sworn I heard-” Arthur continued.
“Perhaps you’re hearing things! Do I need to call Gaius?” He distracted Arthur with cheekiness.
“I am not hearing things Merlin.” He stated before throwing cup at his manservant. Thought it was with little force.
Merlin barley had to dodge before turning to give Arthur a more genuine smile. He loved their banter, more than he was supposed to he knew.
That’s when he saw the third goose standing silent and menacing behind Arthur. Merlin knew he would have to distracted Arthur for this one so he pulled the oldest trick in the book.
“Hey what’s that over there?” He asked as he pointed out the window. Arthur, predictably, fell for it and Merlin used the less than a second long space to kill the goose.
Arthur turned to look back at him. “Merlin there was nothing out of the window.” He said with a slight annoyance.
“Oh I could have sworn I saw something.”
“Well Merlin, you are an idiot.” He then stood up and made to turn around. Merlin then realised he hadn’t disposed of the goose’s body yet.
“Wait!”
“What now?” Arthur huffed.
“Are you really sure there’s nothing out there?”
“Yes I’m sure.”
“Why don’t we check together.”
Merlin all but ran the distance to Arthur before slinging his arm around the prince’s shoulder and dragging him to the window. He managed to look over to the goose and teleport it away without Arthur seeing.
“Oh you know what your probably right there’s nothing out there. We should getting going your already late for training.”
“And who’s fault is that?”
“Oh I couldn’t possible say.”
The two made their way down to the training ground together. Merlin walked slightly behind Arthur and so he was able to dispose of the two geese that tried to attack him on the way.
Once on the training ground however Merlin was completely out on the open and couldn’t use his magic. He was half way through putting Arthur’s armour on him when this became a problem.
In his peripheral vision Merlin spotted one of the dreaded geese. For a moment he allowed himself to hope it was here for someone else but of course he could never be that lucky.
The goose charges at him full speed. Without his magic Merlin did the only reasonable thing… he grabbed Arthur’s dagger and stabbed the goose in the chest.
The prince gasped at him. The goose continued to move though it was clearly in pain. He stabbed it two more times to make sure it was dead before facing Arthur again.
“Merlin! Why did you do that? Don’t you want to find your soulmate?” The prince exclaimed.
Merlin just stared at him. Arthur knew what the goose meant? That was the first shock the second was that he seemed upset that Merlin had killed it. If Arthur knew it was magic why wouldn’t he want Merlin to kill it?
“How do you know it leads people to their soulmates?”
Arthur went a light pink and Merlin narrowed his eyes at him.
“I don’t- No- I mean- I-it’s common knowledge that the geese bring two soulmates together and don’t leave them alone until they share a kiss.”
That was mighty suspicious. Not only did Arthur know about the soulmate geese and wasn’t afraid of them but he also knew quite a lot of details for someone who should hate magic.
Arthur continued. “A-anyway, you didn’t answer my question! Why did you kill the goose? Don’t you want to find your soulmate?”
Well this was sort of awkward. Arthur was the main reason Merlin didn’t want to find his soulmate in the first place.
“Um no, not really.”
“Oh.” Arthur looked surprised and… a little hurt? No Merlin must be seeing that wrong. The prince cleared his throat. “Well then, finish putting my armour on before you make us both even later!”
Merlin continued until Arthur was fully strapped into his armour before looking at the dagger he had dumped on the table. It was still covered in goose blood.
Merlin thought it would be handy to have a weapon on him to kill the geese when magic wasn’t an option. He picked it up and looked back at Arthur. “Hey can I hold on to this for the day? I get the feeling I might need to kill a few more geese before they leave me alone.”
“Oh, sure. You can keep it if you want, I have plenty.” Merlin smiled, he treasured any gift Arthur gave him.
“Thank you.” He said as he tucked the blade into his boot for later.
The knife came in handy as he had to kill exactly eight geese during trading that day. He didn’t use magic for any of them so he couldn’t send them to Gaius. By the time Arthur was finished he had quite a pile stacked up.
“I guess we won’t need to go hunting for a while right sire?” Merlin tried to joke.
He had expected the prince to laugh and respond with something but instead he just sighed and muttered “yeah I guess so.” Before walking off to his chambers.
Arthur had a council meeting that day and so Merlin used the time to complete his chores. During this time he was free to use his magic for geese killing purposes and by the time Arthur returned to his chambers for dinner Merlin had sent sixteen more geese to Gaius. The old man probably wouldn’t be to happy with him when he got back.
Arthur sat down silently and started eating the food Merlin had laid out for him.
There was no noice for a while and Merlin found the atmosphere oddly tense. Eventually Arthur cleared his throat and spoke up.
“Um, Merlin, if you don’t mind me asking… why don’t you want to find your soulmate?”
Merlin tensed up before forcing himself to relax. He hated lying to Arthur and he knew he was rubbish at it. The warlock decided to try and stick as much to the truth as possible.
“If you must know, I’m already in love with someone else.”
He heard Arthur’s sharp intake of breath before the prince composed himself. “Oh, may I ask her name?”
“It’s not a her.” Merlin said without thinking.
“I see… um what’s his name then.”
“Look Arthur it’s really non of your business.” Merlin winced, he hadn’t meant to snap. The warlock moved to make Arthur’s bed to try and escape the conversation.
Unfortunately when he moved the sheets Merlin found himself facing another stupid goose. It squawked and flew at him before the warlock got a chance to react.
It sent him falling onto Arthur who had stood up when he heard the commotion. The two landed in a pile on the flood with Merlin laying on top of the prince.
“S-sorry!” He stammered out before sitting up. He was still half on top of Arthur but paused when he noticed the goose silently watching them. It was… calm, which was a surprise.
Out of all the geese Merlin had killed that day none of them had been calm.
The warlock made to stand up and get off Arthur but just as he did so the goose started to go nuts again. Merlin stopped and so did the goose.
Merlin looked down at Arthur to see he was blushing furiously and looking from Merlin to the goose to back at Merlin.
The prince then sat up in a panic, the action pushing Merlin into hip lap, and started trying to rapidly explain something. “Merlin listen I’m so sorry! I had no idea you were already in love and I was being an idiot! I shouldn’t have trusted that witch and now you know and everything’s ruined.”
“Hey, hey! Arthur calm down! What witch? What happened? Are you alright? Do you know why the goose stopped?” Merlin bombarded the prince with questions. Arthur looked into his eyes and took a breath.
“The goose stopped because… we’re soulmates.”
“I- what.” Was all Merlin could manage.
“Look! I can prove it!” Arthur all but cried.
Then before Merlin knew what was happening Arthur’s soft lips were on his own and his mind went blank. All to soon though the kiss ended and Merlin was left staring at his prince.
“Look at the goose Merlin.” Arthur whispered.
Merlin turned to where the goose had been. There was no longer a goose. It had disappeared.
“Listen Merlin, I really am sorry. Please don’t feel any obligation for things to change between us I just-”
“WE’RE SOULMATES!!!!” It finally clicked for Merlin. The goose disappeared when Arthur kissed him. THE GOOSE DISAPPEARED WHEN ARTHUR KISSED HIM!
“I- yes.”
“You already knew?! What I- why aren’t you surprised? A-and why are you sorry? Wait no just, just tell me everything from the beginning.”
Arthur looked away and for a moment Merlin thought he wasn’t going to say anything but then he took a deep breath and started explaining.
“Do you remember me and my father had an argument a few nights back?” When Merlin nodded Arthur continued. “Right well after that I snuck into the woods late at night to get some fresh air and clear my head. I happened to run into a witch.”
A witch? When Merlin wasn’t there to protect him? Arthur was lucky he didn’t get himself killed.
“She was actually really nice and we got talking. I ended up telling her about how I was in love with my manservant but he didn’t- doesn’t feel the same. She laughed and told me that we were soulmates destined to be together and… I bought it. I let her curse Camelot like the idiot that I am to try and get us together. She said the curse would break after we kiss but I don’t even know if that’s true. I just assumed if it wasn’t you’d be able to fix it with your own magic- I’m so sorry Merlin I’ve been a fool and I know you love someone else I just hope you’ll forgive me.”
Merlin blinked at him then almost screamed. “I’m in love with YOU, you absolute clottpole!!!”
“What?”
“I’m in love with YOU Arthur! There’s no one else!! I didn’t want to find my soulmate because for almost as long as I’ve known you I’ve been completely and utterly hopelessly in love with you!!”
“You love me?”
“Yes!”
To prove his point Merlin grabbed the neck of Arthur’s tunic and pulled him into a kiss. He was still sat on the prince which made the angle slightly weird but in was perfect never the less.
It was at that moment Merlin recognised something else Arthur had said. He pulled back from the kiss. “Wait. You know about my magic?”
“Um, yes? You’re not exactly subtle Merlin. Don’t worry clearly I’m not going to execute or punish you. You have my full support Merlin. I’m not like my father.”
Merlin was so happy he was almost in tears. Arthur blushed and broke eye contact. “Could we, um, go back to what we were doing a moment ago?”
Merlin laughed. “I was sort of hoping we would.”
And they did.