#for arthur melrin having magic just felt right

[acciohanbrough]

Sometime during merlin :

Arthur : I’ve connected the dots

Merlin: You didn’t connect shit

Arthur : I’ve connected them

[writerrain]

A new world - merthur Thank you.

Thank you anon :)

A new world

Arthur wants to go hunting, even if, from different sources, there is the news that some powerful sorcerer is making his way to Camelot. Merlin isn’t exactly thrilled at the idea, but he follows his king, complaining the entire time and scaring off all the wild animals.

Of course, Merlin’s prattle doesn’t only scare off the game, but also attracts unwanted attention. In this case, the sorcerer’s.

Merlin and Arthur have barely the time to realize that he’s behind them before he starts casting a spell. With no time to react, Merlin throws himself in the way, shielding Arthur from whatever the sorcerer has casted, taking a direct hit.

Once Merlin regains his senses - because apparently he has passed out - he realizes that he is still in the forest, even if he is in a different place, closer to Camelot. Arthur is right next to him, cradling him softly, something that makes Merlin turn as red as his neckerchief. The proximity is not exactly new, but the care Arthur is putting in it, the attentions he is giving to Merlin? They’re new, for sure.

Suddenly, Merlin remembers the sorcerer, and he stands up, abruptly, asking Arthur where the sorcerer is. Arthur reassures him, telling him that there was no sorcerer around, and that Merlin had passed out after falling from the horse.

Truth be told, their horses are peacefully waiting for them not too far from where Merlin was resting. Yet it doesn’t make sense, because Arthur and him had gone hunting without horses. 

Merlin tells Arthur exactly this, and Arthur laughs, saying that hit might have scrambled his head more than first thought. No, they hadn’t gone hunting. They had been having a pic nic.

Which is something else that doesn’t make sense, because it’s only the two of them, and they don’t have pic nics. Not without a princess that Arthur can woo in the mean time, anyway.

Merlin’s reply makes Arthur laugh even more, even if Merlin fails to see what’s so funny about it. But the way Arthur says he hasn’t had the intention to woo a princess for years now, Merlin makes the poor manservant blush again.

They decide that Gaius will be the only one able to tell if Merlin is safe or if he has a concussion, so they get on the horses (and Arthur, who has never in his life helped Merlin on a horse to take the pleasure to make fun of him while he tried to get on one, is right next to Merlin to make sure he’s safely on the saddle).

During the way back, Merlin studies everything around him. It feels just so real. If Arthur hadn’t been that weird around him, he might even have believed the story of the fall. Yet, he didn’t feel like someone who had fallen from a horse. He had no aching bones, and even his head didn’t hurt that much. His chest, a little bit. Because he had been hit with a spell. He knew it. The burn he felt where the impact had happened was proof enough of that. Yet, everything around him seemed to prove that Arthur was right.

Arthur even helped him to get off of the horse, something that no stable boy appeared to find unusual. The only one who thought it was out of the ordinary was Merlin.

It would have helped if Arthur had stopped fussing over him on the way to Gaius’ chamber, and if he hadn’t used his royal prattness to make his way into the room, interrupting a consultation, only to demand that Gaius visit Merlin immediately.

A quick check from Gaius told that Merlin was well, at least physically. To apologize for Arthur’s behavior, Merlin offered his help to gaius for the next patients, promising Arthur to come into his chambers with dinner later. Merlin tried not to dwell on Arthur’s “Yeah, where else would you want to have dinner?”

Once they were without Arthur, Merlin explained the situation to Gaius. They both come to the conclusion that the spell must have brought Merlin into a whole new world, that both to Gaius and him felt real, but that probably wasn’t.

Merlin leaves Gaius only after his promise to help him, and he gets into Arthur’s chambers. To find out that they are also his chambers.

Because apparently, in this world, they are a thing. A kind of an official thing, considering that Merlin is wearing a ring he hadn’t noticed until that moment, as if his body had been used to it.

Sleeping next to Arthur, who insists on cuddling on all things, is one of oddest experiences in Merlin’s life. And waking up in Arthur’s arms, knowing this is not true, is nothing short of torture.

But the biggest surprise is that not only Arthur knows about his magic, but he also insists on Merlin training him in said art, otherwise how could he ever defend himself?

The moment Arthur shows Merlin that he can actually summun flames out of thin air, Merlin passes out. Which is a reaction that scares the shit out of Arthur, to whom Merlin is forced to confess everything.

Arthur takes it on himself to find a way to return Merlin to “his Arthur”. It’s very sweet, Merlin thinks, or at least it would be if it wasn’t the complete opposite of what his Arthur would do. This Arthur tells him he’s wrong, because if Merlin’s Arthur is even half of who he is, he is doing everything he can, in the real world, to have Merlin back. Even if maybe they’re still king and manservant and not king and consort. No matter who Merlin is or where he is, he is the most important person in Arthur’s eyes.

Gaius, Arthur, and Merlin spend all the afternoon looking up in the books they have available for something that they could do to bring Melrin back, something that makes tears get in his eyes. 

Well into the night, finally, Merlin feels a tug in his chest, exactly where the spell had hit him. Gaius says that someone in the real world must have found a way to reverse the spell, and all they have to do is wait.

And that’s what Merlin does, and the world around him fades slowly. The last thing he sees is Arthur, the love and the tears in his eyes squeezing Merlin’s heart. The last thing Merlin remembers about the new world he has visited is something Arthur has whispered in the last moment possible: “Tell him the truth.”

Arthur’s eyes are the first thing that Merlin can focus on while coming out of the fog in his brain. They’re almost exactly the same, with tears and love - but that might just be Merlin seeing things - and worry in them. 

Once he comes back to consciousness, Arthur hugs him tight, and even if it feels weird and new, Merlin knows that this is the real thing; how could he have ever thought that the other Arthur had been the real one?

Gaius is there as well, smiling soft and proud at them. Merlin asks him for explanations, but it’s Arthur who answers.

The sorcerer hadn’t been looking for Arthur, as everybody thought, but for Emrys. But he had found Merlin instead. The sorcerer’s goal was to take Emrys away from Arthur, so that he wouldn’t be protected by the most powerful warlock who ever walked the earth. The idea was to trap Emrys in a world where he could have everything his heart most desired, a world from which he would have never wanted to part. But he had got Merlin, and Arthur had thought that he had lost Merlin forever, which explained the very manly tears he was definitely not shedding.

Gaius - and where the hell had Gaius gone? - had said that True Love’s kiss would be the only way to bring Merlin back, but only if Merlin really wanted to go back. And for the longest time Arthur had thought that he wouldn’t come back, because it had taken hours for Merlin to finally wake up, and Arthur was rambling for the first time in his life, adrenaline and relief making it impossible to stop the king from babbling.

Merlin stopped him, asking who was the person who had kissed him back to reality. He was sure it hadn’t been Gaius, but he did want to hear it from Arthur. Who became suddenly silent, averting his gaze.

So Merlin told him the truth. He told Arthur that no, the sorcerer hadn’t missed his target at all. Merlin told him about the world he had found himself in. About their rings. About him training Arthur so that he could defend himself both with his sword and a bit of magic. He told him about what the other Arthur said, that no matter what Merlin would always be the most important for any Arthur Pendragon. And how for Merlin Arthur had been the most important person for many years.

During Merlin’s speech, Arthur slowly turns his gaze to his manservant, never trying to butt in, always quiet. So, Merlin is fairly surprised that, after a moment of silence, all that Arthur does is slowly lean in to kiss him, a kiss so sweet that Merlin feels tears sting his eyes.

With the promise of making Merlin’s wished new world into reality, Arthur kisses him again. And again. And again.