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Cool air rushed into Merlin's bedroom as his most recent of many apprentices burst in. Their voice was high and panicked like it always was when something hadn't gone quite right. Unlike his own time studying magic, they hadn't handled mistakes as well.
Sitting up, Merlin stretched- for once in a blue moon it didn't hurt or crack in it's usually old man manner. A small pleasure Merlin learned to enjoy in his ancient age. He dared take a deep breath, and this time his lung didn't rattle. For the first time in a long time, he felt his body fill with oxygen. It didn't matter what this apprentice had done, today would be a great day.
However, when is eyes met theirs, they held a face of shock and horror that sent a pit plummeting to the bottom of his stomach.
"Merlin?" They squeaked.
"Well who else would it be?" He laughed, but stopped.
His voice wasn't hoarse or scratchy.
It sounded young.
As young as his body felt.
Could...
A single glow of his eyes and a mirror was Infront of his face.
Accept it wasn't his face.
Not really.
He was young again.
He looked like the same age as the day... the day he lost Arthur.
"But this cannot be... Not unless..."
With his young legs, he sprinted down the stairs of the small cottage he owned. Racing to the door and flinging it open to over look the island Arthur was buried on.
Merlin's eyes scanned the shore. Looking. Waiting. Searching for anything at all. Any sigh of-
"Arthur!" He bellowed as he saw smoke. It had to be, no one else could be there. He'd made sure if that.
Rowing across the short lake felt longer then ever before. Even when his arms got too old to row, he used magic. When he was too tired for magic, he waited for the current. But now, young once again, he still felt any of the others would be faster.
"Arthur!" Merlin called desperately when the boat hut sand. He flung himself into the icy water, wading to shore. "ARTHUR!"
Then he heard it. The sweetest sound after all those centuries.
"Merlin!?"
Arthur emerged from the tree line with wood, dropping it as his eyes clasped Merlin's.
They rushed to eachother, arms pulling the other into embrace. Grasping at eachother as if to anchor their very souls in fear the other would slip away.
"Arthur. I've missed you greatly." He whispered.
"How long was I gone?"
Merlin said not a word.
"Weeks?"
Nothing.
"Months?"
No answer.
"Years..?" The question crawled out of his mouth like a timid child asking for more gruel.
Merlin began to cry. "So so many years ..."
Arthur pulled Merlin in tighter somehow.
"I died..." He mumbled.
Merlin nodded.
Tears slip from Arthur's eyes too now.
He suddenly pulled away, his hands firm on Merlin's shoulders. "What of the others? The Knights of the round table? Of Gwen?"
A sad smile cracks on Merlin's face as he remembered. "Gwen was such a good queen. So strong. She adopted a boy, an orphan from the aftermath of the battle. She named him Arthur. He was raised by us all. All the Knights helped. And one day, he made a great king too... You would have been proud." More years slip from both of their eyes.
"So they're all... Dead now..."
Merlin nodded a sad nod. He had to watch them all fade away. Some grew old. Some should have gotten older. Even the boy whom Merlin came to love as a son as Gaius had for him. No one lasts forever. No one but Merlin.
"How long ago..?"
Merlin sighed.
"Centuries. I stopped counting millennia ago."
Arthur fell to his knees. The sound of the rocky beach clashing with his armour made Merlin wince.
With his had over his head, Arthur weeped. He screamed out to the gods. Cursing them. Begging them. Everything in between.
Merlin was little help.
He just stood by, his right hand man once again.
When Merlin got them both back across the lake to his home after some hours, Arthur was struck with awe and confusion.
While Merlin had grown with the changes, all of this was so sudden for the medieval knight. He'd never even seen a paved road, let alone a modern key.
"Times have truly changed..." Be muttered, sitting in front of the kitchen table, staring at everything in the room until his eyes laid onto Merlin's apprentice who was awkwardly standing in a corner.
"This is my apprentice. They don't bite, any more" Merlin introduced them.
"So magic is no long persecuted?" A hint of shame flushed in Arthur's voice knowing he'd now hunted his best friend all those years ago.
"Well, not really. There weren't meny left after... Well, yeah... So people forget we existed, and we let them."
Arthur nodded stiffly.
"You can go home for the day. I have some things to figure out." He smiled to his still bewildered apprentice who nodded and waved goodbye. Rushing out of the cottage faster then they ever had before.
Merlin began to make tea, the pots and cup floating around him as he usually does it, but his eyes land on a very wide eyed Arthur. "Sorry..." He muttered letting the kettle gently down on the side.
Arthur shook his head, "no, it's fine. This is you Merlin. I will not stop you from being so any longer."
Unsure, Merlin nodded, the gold glow returning to his eyes as the cups floated once more.
Arthur watched.
Eyes glancing from cup to cup to kettle to sugar, finally settling on Merlin himself. The man who stood by his side in the fight against magic, in every fight Arthur found himself in, was one of the most powerful sorcerer's there was. Not only that, but Merlin had used his magic to save him multiple times dispite it all.
"Merlin, how could you stand by me all those years as I-"
"Because, it was our destiny. And you cared about you. I never stopped caring. "
"Is that why you stayed here?"
Merlin nodded, handing Arthur a mug. "What the hell is Sports direct?"
Merlin laughed, "times have changed more then I could ever explain."
Arthur drank, taking in the new word he had been dragged into as Merlin explained as much as he could.
Even though it he'd been dead, Arthur felt as though he was finally not alone. As if all those years, he'd been sleeping rather then dead. Merlin was a comfort he never thought he'd ever had to miss. And yet here he was, sat with thousands of years of longing finally being satisfied that he had no idea he'd been feeling.
All those years came with a lot of history. Merlin's own adventures and the world being torn apart and patvhed back together again. Nothing was familiar anymore.
"Sorry if I'm overwhelming you." Merlin suddenly said.
"No, it's fine. Better all now then being surprised by the world out there." His eyes drifted to the door.
Merlin's hand gently lay on Arthur's cheek, guiding his face back to Merlin's. "but that's all out there. We're in here. You can take your time."
Arthur nodded, an even odder comfort from Merlin's touch overcoming him. Like a spell,but Merlin's eyes did not change. This was his personal charm.
The same old Merlin.
Arthur struggled to choose clothes from Merlin's wardrobe. It was all so different from Camelot. Merlin said modern, Arthur said uncomfortable.
What's so wrong with light linin and comfortable trousers?
When Arthur revealed himself, Merlin burtst into laughter.
"What?"
"Nothing!" He kept laughing, "It's different."
"I hate it. I also hate you."
"Sure thing, my lord." Merlin did a theatrical bow, Arthur threw socks at him.
Merlin grinned, "carry on and I'll make you eat a warhead."
"What the hell is that?"
Merlin justed laughed again, "don't worry about it." He looked up, more serious all of a sudden, "it's nice to have you back."
"It's nice to be back."