The Church of Hot Addiction (6/?)
Apr. 23rd, 2010 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
van_x_tangoTitle: The Church of Hot Addiction
Fandom: Merlin BBC
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Ratings: PG-13
Words: 3290
Summary: Inspired by the prompt 'Arthur/Merlin AU, with reluctant priest!Merlin and bad Catholic!Arthurseducinghiminaconfessional'
Notes: We can all praise the lord now because finally! there is a beta for this story thanks to the lovelyaccede , so if your one of those people who keel over at the sight of bad grammar, no worries. The previous chapters have been tweaked slightly aswell but not too much, so if you've read them already you don't have to go back. I know not everyone on here is catholic so I didn’t go into too much proper detail and if any one on here is very, very, very, hardcore catholic and does not like the concept then I can’t guarantee you’d want to read this.
----------------------------------------------
“Ah, Arthur, take a seat.”
It was yet another lesson, being that it was Thursday evening, and for the past month Arthur had been insanely happy for some odd reason Merlin couldn’t decipher. Either way, he liked seeing Arthur that cheerful.
“So, how are you this evening?”
“I’m doing very well, Father, thank you. And yourself?”
“I’m doing well too, thanks. Listen, Arthur, your father does know you still come here in the evenings, right? Because I know he said you didn’t need to come anymore, but I wouldn’t want him to worry.”
Arthur’s smile began to waver, a flicker of hindrance passing his eyes only for a slight millisecond before they became serene once more.
“Of course he knows I’m here. And he has no reason to worry, I’m here with the priest, perfectly safe hands. What could possibly happen to me here?”
“I suppose you're right. Well now that’s settled, lets crack on. Today’s lesson: the seven deadly sins.”
Merlin may have noticed the relaxed and perfunctory tone Arthur had voiced himself in but unfortunately he was unable to identify the unease in Arthur’s eyes as he so blatantly fibbed.
Again, Arthur understood perfectly what the lesson was about and was correct in his knowledge of six of the deadly sins, but the seventh seemed to be giving him some trouble.
“Lust, now this is when someone has excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature.”
Seeming somewhat baffled, Arthur stopped tossing a pen back and forth between his hands, leaning forward to ask, “And what exactly is deadly about that?”
“Giving into lust can lead to -”
“A lot of fun. I don‘t see how that can be so bad.”
“No. It's ungodly, it’s a mortal sin. One that wears away the presence of Christ in the sinner’s soul.”
“So the lord goes around impregnating virgins, yet it's ungodly. That’s a bit hypocritical, isn’t it?” he enquired with a bemused expression.
“Arthur, I’m trying to teach you what is right and wrong here.”
Rubbing his forehead for patience, but feeling quite surprised by Arthur’s outspoken view of the Lord, Merlin pointedly continued.
“Mary was chosen specifically to give birth to Jesus, that’s why the holy spirit lay within her since her birth and when the time came the holy spirit within Mary conceived Jesus, the lord himself didn’t impregnate her, or any other virgins for that matter! Seriously, Arthur. Lust leads us away from God just for the cause of personal satisfaction.”
“If I was drawn into lust, I wouldn’t just take care of my own personal satisfaction you know.”
Something was suddenly brushing up against the inside of his thigh, ever so close to his crotch, causing him to jump slightly at the contact.
Peeking down to his lap he found that the something was a foot. More precisely, Arthur’s foot. It was gliding up and down, no shoes or socks on it, toes curling into the fabric of his trousers and pulling gently.
“I’d satisfy the other person as well, make them feel what I feel, if not the same feeling, then a better one.”
He had now picked up the pen he was tossing about before and had placed it in his mouth, hollowing his cheeks around it as he dragged it in and out leisurely between his lips, head bent, eyes up, staring intently into Merlin’s own eyes voraciously.
“Arthur, your, uh, foot is in a very inappropriate place right now, could you please-”
Before he finishes talking - or stuttering - Arthur stops and complies, putting his leg down for Merlin. Phew, he would of thought, if it wasn’t for the fact that Arthur took that as an invitation to start climbing towards him over the desk instead.
“What the-”
“Shh,” he puts his finger to Merlin’s mouth, silencing him before moving it to hook around his dog collar. "If I was drawn into lust, Merlin, I’d draw you in with me."
Tugging feverishly, Arthur pulls the dog collar towards him and before Merlin can ask what he‘s doing, his lips are enclosed by Arthur’s, dissolving all the words from his mouth. Their lips pause against each other's until Arthur sighs with relief and starts to move against them.
Merlin can’t exactly process what’s going on but he inadvertently coaxes Arthur on when he groans in surprise, which he’s really got to stop doing when people kiss him out of the blue.
He had started nibbling at Merlin’s bottom lip, reddening it bright against the pale skin and sucking it straight after until coming back to invade Merlin’s mouth with his tongue, running it against his teeth, inner cheeks and his own, trying to battle it into life from its slack, shocked state.
Surprisingly, this felt better than Morgana’s kiss, Merlin thought. Not that he was judging the two. He just assumed from her flirtatious behaviour and looks that she must have had some experience. So although this kiss with Arthur wasn’t very experienced, he sure made up for it in eagerness, gentle dominance, and, well, just being Arthur.
He starts reacting to the warm wetness of Arthur’s mouth, he realised a little belatedly, kissing back hesitantly first but then unrestrained, leaning up more and more against his mouth as if he’d left all senses and this was all he was attained to, heated kisses and boundless moaning.
Arthur’s hand had left the dog collar and was now gripping the back of Merlin’s neck while the other that supported him on the desk moved down to start groping Merlin’s crotch, emitting a moan from him mid kiss. And he knows he shouldn't do this, he knows he shouldn't submit. But Merlin also knows he can't exactly stop himself once he gets started.
Arthur grins at the reaction, finally being able to get his hands on Merlin and starts kissing down his neck, biting then sucking from time to time embedding marks that show lucid into the creamy white skin, only going back to his mouth when he thinks Merlin’s going to say no.
He’s desperately griping at Merlin’s trouser buttons, popping a few as he’s pulling them open before he can finally reach in and grasp his cock, setting off a thrust from Merlin, who groans, throwing his head back over the top of his chair, gripping the edges of his seat.
The flash of a light flicking against every wall in the room distracts them back to reality, both of them turning their heads, startled, until their eyes settle on the figure in the doorway, leaning slightly against the doorframe, smiling to themself.
“Wow Arthur, who could have thought you were the type to be romantically cliché.”
Wide eyed and shocked, Merlin came to the realisation of what he’d just been doing. Realised that he probably just did the equivalent of selling his soul to the devil. He looks straight up at Arthur, seeing his own hands twisted in his shirt and how he’s so palpably hard in Arthur’s grasp.
“Oh god…”
“Morgana,” Arthur says, clearly vexed and furious, but with hidden unnerve.
Stepping into the light was Morgana, in all her smirking glory.
“I mean honestly Arthur, that sentence was downright cringe worthy, and you’ve seen the books I read. Actually, that might explain where you got the cringe-yness from.”
Desperately snatching his hands from Arthur’s shirt and covering himself up, Merlin hurriedly makes his way out of the chair, looking more panicked by the second.
“Morgana, it's not what it looks like, we were just…”
And he fails at any excuse at all.
Morgana had just walked in on a heated kissing frenzy with Arthur’s hand around his cock and he was supposed to make up an excuse for that?!
It would be a miracle if he could produce such a believable excuse. But from her disbelieving expression, he feels she wouldn’t believe him anyway no matter how believable it was.
“Oh, I know what you were doing Father, don’t worry, I‘m not blind.”
Arthur was off the desk by now, coming right over to her, looking her dead in the eye with his hands on her shoulders.
“If you tell father about any of this I’ll-”
“You’ll what? Throw on all you BDSM gear and slap me silly? Like I‘d tell Uther. But it's nice to know how little faith you have in me.”
“I have none at all.”
“Thought as much. So, Father Emrys, you finally cracked I see. Pity really, it's fun to watch Arthur come home frustrated after every lesson you have just because he hasn’t succeeded in shagging you yet, although personally I think from that performance you could show him a thing or two with a bit of dominance yourself. It wouldn‘t hurt to try you know, and I think between you and me, he has a bit of a thing for it, if you get what I mean.” She added, winking and nudging his side. He doesn’t think he’s ever felt this sick in his entire life.
Arthur on the other hand looks entirely red.
“Stop making me out to sound like some BDSM perv! I wasn’t even doing anything of the sort, your mind just makes up images you want to see, and tell me what the hell you're doing here.”
“Calm it Arthur, you should be happy I came and fetched you instead of Uther, who was marching right down this corridor looking for you only but two minutes ago. Until I passed him of course and he ordered me to check in on Father Emrys instead while he went off.”
Merlin was pretty sure he was having a full blown heart attack now. If it wasn’t thanks to Morgana, they would have been caught by the Bishop of all people and he’d surely suffer a fate worse than death, and probably wouldn’t be allowed to set foot on holy grounds ever again. At least Arthur finally had the decency to look alarmed now.
“Yeah, so he was looking for you. And I think situations like this deserve a thank you, hint, hint.”
Arthur looked to be inwardly battling with himself, glaring at her while he contemplated, so it was sometime before he disdainfully said, “Thank you.”
Merlin however had other things than a thank you on his mind.
“Wait, he was looking for you? I thought you said he knew where you were?”
Looking a little perturbed, Arthur began fiddling with the edge of his shirt, eyeing around shiftily.
“Er…he does, he’s just…forgetful sometimes.”
Morgana barks out a laugh behind them, seeming highly amused by the prospect, nearly doubled over until she tries to say in all seriousness, “Uther Pendragon forgets nothing.”
Merlin may as well be rocking in the corner or calling for his mummy, because now he's scared shitless and doesn't understand why Morgana was taking this all so lightly anyway.
“No need to act so panicked, Father. Relax, you seem as if you think I disapprove.”
“Don’t you? What I did was wrong. I’m a priest for goodness sake.”
“Oh, people have done worse, did I tell you about the time when Arthur was in the choir and-”
“Morgana, shut up!” Arthur seethed.
She just laughed lightly to herself, delighted at her vexing.
“Yes, well, like I said, people have done worse. I rather enjoyed the view actually, so it wasn‘t all that bad. I even savoured it in fact.”
She reaches inside her pocket and pulls out a small silver camera, holding it up for both to see, enjoying the horrified looks on their faces.
If Merlin really was having a heart attack before, then by now he was dead.
Arthur’s eyes go wide with fury, stepping forward with his hand out and saying in an impressively controlled voice, “Give that here, now.”
“No, I think I’ll just hang on to it for now.”
“Give it now!”
Okay, so not that controlled anymore.
“What, so you can wank over the pictures? I don’t think so.”
“That’s rich coming from the voyeur. Who even carries a camera around anyway?!”
“Well, you were sucking each others faces off for so long it gave me time to nip back and get one.”
Arthur still seemed furious but his expression changed, as if something just clicked in his head making all the more sense, because no one could possibly get up and down that tower in a flash.
“Or you just so happened to be spying on a certain Sister.” He smirked.
Not the best thing to say when someone holding evidence of you and a priest getting it on is in their hand. Her expression darkened immensely, Arthur's anger transferring onto her and Morgana’s simpering transferring onto him.
“Whatever you're implying Arthur, I can assure you that I’ll go straight to Uther if you drag my friend into this mess. Not everyone here is like Father Emrys.”
They stood grounded, glaring at each other, neither breaking eye contact. Merlin thinks about trying to defend himself in that statement but knows it's pointless.
“I’ll leave you to what you were doing,” she announces, turning for the door.
“Oh and Arthur, if you want it, you're going to have to work for it.”
Once she left, Arthur was cursing for the whole world to hear, kicking things out his way like a little kid.
“Damnit! I’m going to get that bitch and her camera when I get back upstairs.”
Merlin was silently staring at the wall with a blank expression, but mourning the priesthood in his mind.
Arthur tentatively asked, “Are you all right?”
“Am I alright? No Arthur I am not alright. In case it has escaped your attention we have just been caught doing things together that we should never have been doing in the first place and it has been caught on camera! Why are you not taking this seriously?!”
This got Arthur set off again.
“I am! It's not just you who’ll get in trouble, you know. This is my father we’re talking about if it's found out, not just your career.”
Sighing, Merlin put his head in his hands, sitting back down in his desk seat, muffling out, “If you knew that then why did you start this in the first place? I was only trying to teach you.”
And out of everything, Arthur finally appears dejected, shoulders sagging slightly while he looked downward.
“Well… I’m sorry… I just thought you’d like it.” Then he added with more of a grin, “Which you did.”
Merlin abruptly shot right out the chair with a comically outraged expression, making Arthur chuckle.
“I did not!”
“Liar,” he smirked, a sense of victory in his eyes.
“I- you - just - ahh, I’m not even going to fight you on this!”
“That’s because you liked it. Come on, admit it Merlin.”
“That’s Father Emrys to you.”
Arthur just sighed and appeared dejected once more. Knowing he’s probably about to be thrown out again like last time, he swivelled for the door giving one last glance at Merlin to say, “Have it your way,” and was gone, leaving Merlin to mope in his chair once more before he was off to bed, forgetting to sterilise his mouth like when he had with Morgana.
And for the first time in 6 years, he woke up from a terrible night's sleep with morning wood.
-----------------------------------
He takes a week off from work after what happened, tells Uther he’s sick, because there’s no way he can go out there and give a service when he was a sinner himself. Of course, he couldn’t stay away for too long otherwise people would start asking questions or the Bishop would force him to do his job, and if he just upped and left it in the middle of the night it would cause suspicion and he’d lose a job he‘s always wanted.
Luckily, Arthur doesn’t know what room is his in the convent. He has a feeling Arthur probably thinks he’s avoiding him, which he is, but its not just him, it's Morgana who teases and Uther who wouldn’t surprise him if it turned out he was in the bishop mafia.
And they all just stare. He’s back in service now, but not only did he have to look out for Arthur’s knowing eyes during service, but Morganas too, with a much more oblivious Uther in-between them both, pretending to listen when he had already heard these teachings a million times before.
At the end he could see Morgana and Arthur coming towards him, so he seized his chances and fast paced it over to Lance, who was packing up his sheet music.
“Lance! Hello, haven’t seen you all week!”
The tanned man looked up from his folder, tucking dark hair behind his ears out of his face before a charming smile graced it.
“Merlin, nice to see you back from your illness, nothing terrible I suspect?”
“Oh, it had its severities,” he laughed nervously, flashing his eyes around to see the others had gone.
“Yes, well, now you can’t ditch me for lunch anymore, seeing as Will hasn’t been here either.”
A morose expression donned Lance’s features while he huffed out a small sigh, casting his face down to the floor. Some of the faces Lance made when talking about Will intrigued him, but he usually thought nothing of it.
“Pity about Will, Uther was not a happy bunny when he found out,” he said, drawing in on the memory of that dreadful dinner night.
“Apparently he tried to beat Will with his own shovel. Don’t know if it's true though, Will does tend to dramatise things, but then again Uther does seem the sort to do that to someone.”
Feeling queasy, Merlin pushed images of Uther battering him with a shovel out of his mind, reminding himself to pray to God again that Uther would never find out about him and Arthur.
“Did he look as if he’d been hit by a shovel?”
There was a slight pause as Lance tried to look for suitable words to say, not too sure if he believed them himself.
“Well… not exactly... I mean I saw him yesterday, and he said he’d got in a fight at the pub the day before, so it could have been that, but he was a bit shifty. Other than that though he was fine, he still looks… good. He apologised and everything, it's not as if he was aware he was burying the wrong person. He even dug them back up because he couldn’t risk losing his job. Still pissed Uther off though. I just can‘t believe he‘d ban him from this place because of it though, it was just one mistake that‘s never happened before.”
He got an even odder feeling about Uther’s power now. He replayed on what Lance said, hearing something distinctly amiss each time.
“You can’t ban someone from church,” he said with a puzzled expression.
“No, not unless you're Uther of course. Anyway, there’s no other person in this town that grave digs apart from his family, so he’ll most likely be coming back, but he’ll have to be a lot more careful.”
Lance seems overtly happy now at least by this thought, but Merlin doesn’t take intrigue in his expression, gulping at the prospect that Uther could have such a tight rein on everything.
“Seriously, he can ban someone?”
“What- oh, yes. That’s one man you cannot afford to cross Merlin. See you at lunch.”
He’d finished packing all his music and was off, and Merlin was feeling even worse than what he had been feeling his whole week off.
Maybe he shouldn’t have seized a chance to talk to Lance after all.
..................
Part 7
Fandom: Merlin BBC
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Ratings: PG-13
Words: 3290
Summary: Inspired by the prompt 'Arthur/Merlin AU, with reluctant priest!Merlin and bad Catholic!Arthur
Notes: We can all praise the lord now because finally! there is a beta for this story thanks to the lovely
accede , so if your one of those people who keel over at the sight of bad grammar, no worries. The previous chapters have been tweaked slightly aswell but not too much, so if you've read them already you don't have to go back. I know not everyone on here is catholic so I didn’t go into too much proper detail and if any one on here is very, very, very, hardcore catholic and does not like the concept then I can’t guarantee you’d want to read this.----------------------------------------------
“Ah, Arthur, take a seat.”
It was yet another lesson, being that it was Thursday evening, and for the past month Arthur had been insanely happy for some odd reason Merlin couldn’t decipher. Either way, he liked seeing Arthur that cheerful.
“So, how are you this evening?”
“I’m doing very well, Father, thank you. And yourself?”
“I’m doing well too, thanks. Listen, Arthur, your father does know you still come here in the evenings, right? Because I know he said you didn’t need to come anymore, but I wouldn’t want him to worry.”
Arthur’s smile began to waver, a flicker of hindrance passing his eyes only for a slight millisecond before they became serene once more.
“Of course he knows I’m here. And he has no reason to worry, I’m here with the priest, perfectly safe hands. What could possibly happen to me here?”
“I suppose you're right. Well now that’s settled, lets crack on. Today’s lesson: the seven deadly sins.”
Merlin may have noticed the relaxed and perfunctory tone Arthur had voiced himself in but unfortunately he was unable to identify the unease in Arthur’s eyes as he so blatantly fibbed.
Again, Arthur understood perfectly what the lesson was about and was correct in his knowledge of six of the deadly sins, but the seventh seemed to be giving him some trouble.
“Lust, now this is when someone has excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature.”
Seeming somewhat baffled, Arthur stopped tossing a pen back and forth between his hands, leaning forward to ask, “And what exactly is deadly about that?”
“Giving into lust can lead to -”
“A lot of fun. I don‘t see how that can be so bad.”
“No. It's ungodly, it’s a mortal sin. One that wears away the presence of Christ in the sinner’s soul.”
“So the lord goes around impregnating virgins, yet it's ungodly. That’s a bit hypocritical, isn’t it?” he enquired with a bemused expression.
“Arthur, I’m trying to teach you what is right and wrong here.”
Rubbing his forehead for patience, but feeling quite surprised by Arthur’s outspoken view of the Lord, Merlin pointedly continued.
“Mary was chosen specifically to give birth to Jesus, that’s why the holy spirit lay within her since her birth and when the time came the holy spirit within Mary conceived Jesus, the lord himself didn’t impregnate her, or any other virgins for that matter! Seriously, Arthur. Lust leads us away from God just for the cause of personal satisfaction.”
“If I was drawn into lust, I wouldn’t just take care of my own personal satisfaction you know.”
Something was suddenly brushing up against the inside of his thigh, ever so close to his crotch, causing him to jump slightly at the contact.
Peeking down to his lap he found that the something was a foot. More precisely, Arthur’s foot. It was gliding up and down, no shoes or socks on it, toes curling into the fabric of his trousers and pulling gently.
“I’d satisfy the other person as well, make them feel what I feel, if not the same feeling, then a better one.”
He had now picked up the pen he was tossing about before and had placed it in his mouth, hollowing his cheeks around it as he dragged it in and out leisurely between his lips, head bent, eyes up, staring intently into Merlin’s own eyes voraciously.
“Arthur, your, uh, foot is in a very inappropriate place right now, could you please-”
Before he finishes talking - or stuttering - Arthur stops and complies, putting his leg down for Merlin. Phew, he would of thought, if it wasn’t for the fact that Arthur took that as an invitation to start climbing towards him over the desk instead.
“What the-”
“Shh,” he puts his finger to Merlin’s mouth, silencing him before moving it to hook around his dog collar. "If I was drawn into lust, Merlin, I’d draw you in with me."
Tugging feverishly, Arthur pulls the dog collar towards him and before Merlin can ask what he‘s doing, his lips are enclosed by Arthur’s, dissolving all the words from his mouth. Their lips pause against each other's until Arthur sighs with relief and starts to move against them.
Merlin can’t exactly process what’s going on but he inadvertently coaxes Arthur on when he groans in surprise, which he’s really got to stop doing when people kiss him out of the blue.
He had started nibbling at Merlin’s bottom lip, reddening it bright against the pale skin and sucking it straight after until coming back to invade Merlin’s mouth with his tongue, running it against his teeth, inner cheeks and his own, trying to battle it into life from its slack, shocked state.
Surprisingly, this felt better than Morgana’s kiss, Merlin thought. Not that he was judging the two. He just assumed from her flirtatious behaviour and looks that she must have had some experience. So although this kiss with Arthur wasn’t very experienced, he sure made up for it in eagerness, gentle dominance, and, well, just being Arthur.
He starts reacting to the warm wetness of Arthur’s mouth, he realised a little belatedly, kissing back hesitantly first but then unrestrained, leaning up more and more against his mouth as if he’d left all senses and this was all he was attained to, heated kisses and boundless moaning.
Arthur’s hand had left the dog collar and was now gripping the back of Merlin’s neck while the other that supported him on the desk moved down to start groping Merlin’s crotch, emitting a moan from him mid kiss. And he knows he shouldn't do this, he knows he shouldn't submit. But Merlin also knows he can't exactly stop himself once he gets started.
Arthur grins at the reaction, finally being able to get his hands on Merlin and starts kissing down his neck, biting then sucking from time to time embedding marks that show lucid into the creamy white skin, only going back to his mouth when he thinks Merlin’s going to say no.
He’s desperately griping at Merlin’s trouser buttons, popping a few as he’s pulling them open before he can finally reach in and grasp his cock, setting off a thrust from Merlin, who groans, throwing his head back over the top of his chair, gripping the edges of his seat.
The flash of a light flicking against every wall in the room distracts them back to reality, both of them turning their heads, startled, until their eyes settle on the figure in the doorway, leaning slightly against the doorframe, smiling to themself.
“Wow Arthur, who could have thought you were the type to be romantically cliché.”
Wide eyed and shocked, Merlin came to the realisation of what he’d just been doing. Realised that he probably just did the equivalent of selling his soul to the devil. He looks straight up at Arthur, seeing his own hands twisted in his shirt and how he’s so palpably hard in Arthur’s grasp.
“Oh god…”
“Morgana,” Arthur says, clearly vexed and furious, but with hidden unnerve.
Stepping into the light was Morgana, in all her smirking glory.
“I mean honestly Arthur, that sentence was downright cringe worthy, and you’ve seen the books I read. Actually, that might explain where you got the cringe-yness from.”
Desperately snatching his hands from Arthur’s shirt and covering himself up, Merlin hurriedly makes his way out of the chair, looking more panicked by the second.
“Morgana, it's not what it looks like, we were just…”
And he fails at any excuse at all.
Morgana had just walked in on a heated kissing frenzy with Arthur’s hand around his cock and he was supposed to make up an excuse for that?!
It would be a miracle if he could produce such a believable excuse. But from her disbelieving expression, he feels she wouldn’t believe him anyway no matter how believable it was.
“Oh, I know what you were doing Father, don’t worry, I‘m not blind.”
Arthur was off the desk by now, coming right over to her, looking her dead in the eye with his hands on her shoulders.
“If you tell father about any of this I’ll-”
“You’ll what? Throw on all you BDSM gear and slap me silly? Like I‘d tell Uther. But it's nice to know how little faith you have in me.”
“I have none at all.”
“Thought as much. So, Father Emrys, you finally cracked I see. Pity really, it's fun to watch Arthur come home frustrated after every lesson you have just because he hasn’t succeeded in shagging you yet, although personally I think from that performance you could show him a thing or two with a bit of dominance yourself. It wouldn‘t hurt to try you know, and I think between you and me, he has a bit of a thing for it, if you get what I mean.” She added, winking and nudging his side. He doesn’t think he’s ever felt this sick in his entire life.
Arthur on the other hand looks entirely red.
“Stop making me out to sound like some BDSM perv! I wasn’t even doing anything of the sort, your mind just makes up images you want to see, and tell me what the hell you're doing here.”
“Calm it Arthur, you should be happy I came and fetched you instead of Uther, who was marching right down this corridor looking for you only but two minutes ago. Until I passed him of course and he ordered me to check in on Father Emrys instead while he went off.”
Merlin was pretty sure he was having a full blown heart attack now. If it wasn’t thanks to Morgana, they would have been caught by the Bishop of all people and he’d surely suffer a fate worse than death, and probably wouldn’t be allowed to set foot on holy grounds ever again. At least Arthur finally had the decency to look alarmed now.
“Yeah, so he was looking for you. And I think situations like this deserve a thank you, hint, hint.”
Arthur looked to be inwardly battling with himself, glaring at her while he contemplated, so it was sometime before he disdainfully said, “Thank you.”
Merlin however had other things than a thank you on his mind.
“Wait, he was looking for you? I thought you said he knew where you were?”
Looking a little perturbed, Arthur began fiddling with the edge of his shirt, eyeing around shiftily.
“Er…he does, he’s just…forgetful sometimes.”
Morgana barks out a laugh behind them, seeming highly amused by the prospect, nearly doubled over until she tries to say in all seriousness, “Uther Pendragon forgets nothing.”
Merlin may as well be rocking in the corner or calling for his mummy, because now he's scared shitless and doesn't understand why Morgana was taking this all so lightly anyway.
“No need to act so panicked, Father. Relax, you seem as if you think I disapprove.”
“Don’t you? What I did was wrong. I’m a priest for goodness sake.”
“Oh, people have done worse, did I tell you about the time when Arthur was in the choir and-”
“Morgana, shut up!” Arthur seethed.
She just laughed lightly to herself, delighted at her vexing.
“Yes, well, like I said, people have done worse. I rather enjoyed the view actually, so it wasn‘t all that bad. I even savoured it in fact.”
She reaches inside her pocket and pulls out a small silver camera, holding it up for both to see, enjoying the horrified looks on their faces.
If Merlin really was having a heart attack before, then by now he was dead.
Arthur’s eyes go wide with fury, stepping forward with his hand out and saying in an impressively controlled voice, “Give that here, now.”
“No, I think I’ll just hang on to it for now.”
“Give it now!”
Okay, so not that controlled anymore.
“What, so you can wank over the pictures? I don’t think so.”
“That’s rich coming from the voyeur. Who even carries a camera around anyway?!”
“Well, you were sucking each others faces off for so long it gave me time to nip back and get one.”
Arthur still seemed furious but his expression changed, as if something just clicked in his head making all the more sense, because no one could possibly get up and down that tower in a flash.
“Or you just so happened to be spying on a certain Sister.” He smirked.
Not the best thing to say when someone holding evidence of you and a priest getting it on is in their hand. Her expression darkened immensely, Arthur's anger transferring onto her and Morgana’s simpering transferring onto him.
“Whatever you're implying Arthur, I can assure you that I’ll go straight to Uther if you drag my friend into this mess. Not everyone here is like Father Emrys.”
They stood grounded, glaring at each other, neither breaking eye contact. Merlin thinks about trying to defend himself in that statement but knows it's pointless.
“I’ll leave you to what you were doing,” she announces, turning for the door.
“Oh and Arthur, if you want it, you're going to have to work for it.”
Once she left, Arthur was cursing for the whole world to hear, kicking things out his way like a little kid.
“Damnit! I’m going to get that bitch and her camera when I get back upstairs.”
Merlin was silently staring at the wall with a blank expression, but mourning the priesthood in his mind.
Arthur tentatively asked, “Are you all right?”
“Am I alright? No Arthur I am not alright. In case it has escaped your attention we have just been caught doing things together that we should never have been doing in the first place and it has been caught on camera! Why are you not taking this seriously?!”
This got Arthur set off again.
“I am! It's not just you who’ll get in trouble, you know. This is my father we’re talking about if it's found out, not just your career.”
Sighing, Merlin put his head in his hands, sitting back down in his desk seat, muffling out, “If you knew that then why did you start this in the first place? I was only trying to teach you.”
And out of everything, Arthur finally appears dejected, shoulders sagging slightly while he looked downward.
“Well… I’m sorry… I just thought you’d like it.” Then he added with more of a grin, “Which you did.”
Merlin abruptly shot right out the chair with a comically outraged expression, making Arthur chuckle.
“I did not!”
“Liar,” he smirked, a sense of victory in his eyes.
“I- you - just - ahh, I’m not even going to fight you on this!”
“That’s because you liked it. Come on, admit it Merlin.”
“That’s Father Emrys to you.”
Arthur just sighed and appeared dejected once more. Knowing he’s probably about to be thrown out again like last time, he swivelled for the door giving one last glance at Merlin to say, “Have it your way,” and was gone, leaving Merlin to mope in his chair once more before he was off to bed, forgetting to sterilise his mouth like when he had with Morgana.
And for the first time in 6 years, he woke up from a terrible night's sleep with morning wood.
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He takes a week off from work after what happened, tells Uther he’s sick, because there’s no way he can go out there and give a service when he was a sinner himself. Of course, he couldn’t stay away for too long otherwise people would start asking questions or the Bishop would force him to do his job, and if he just upped and left it in the middle of the night it would cause suspicion and he’d lose a job he‘s always wanted.
Luckily, Arthur doesn’t know what room is his in the convent. He has a feeling Arthur probably thinks he’s avoiding him, which he is, but its not just him, it's Morgana who teases and Uther who wouldn’t surprise him if it turned out he was in the bishop mafia.
And they all just stare. He’s back in service now, but not only did he have to look out for Arthur’s knowing eyes during service, but Morganas too, with a much more oblivious Uther in-between them both, pretending to listen when he had already heard these teachings a million times before.
At the end he could see Morgana and Arthur coming towards him, so he seized his chances and fast paced it over to Lance, who was packing up his sheet music.
“Lance! Hello, haven’t seen you all week!”
The tanned man looked up from his folder, tucking dark hair behind his ears out of his face before a charming smile graced it.
“Merlin, nice to see you back from your illness, nothing terrible I suspect?”
“Oh, it had its severities,” he laughed nervously, flashing his eyes around to see the others had gone.
“Yes, well, now you can’t ditch me for lunch anymore, seeing as Will hasn’t been here either.”
A morose expression donned Lance’s features while he huffed out a small sigh, casting his face down to the floor. Some of the faces Lance made when talking about Will intrigued him, but he usually thought nothing of it.
“Pity about Will, Uther was not a happy bunny when he found out,” he said, drawing in on the memory of that dreadful dinner night.
“Apparently he tried to beat Will with his own shovel. Don’t know if it's true though, Will does tend to dramatise things, but then again Uther does seem the sort to do that to someone.”
Feeling queasy, Merlin pushed images of Uther battering him with a shovel out of his mind, reminding himself to pray to God again that Uther would never find out about him and Arthur.
“Did he look as if he’d been hit by a shovel?”
There was a slight pause as Lance tried to look for suitable words to say, not too sure if he believed them himself.
“Well… not exactly... I mean I saw him yesterday, and he said he’d got in a fight at the pub the day before, so it could have been that, but he was a bit shifty. Other than that though he was fine, he still looks… good. He apologised and everything, it's not as if he was aware he was burying the wrong person. He even dug them back up because he couldn’t risk losing his job. Still pissed Uther off though. I just can‘t believe he‘d ban him from this place because of it though, it was just one mistake that‘s never happened before.”
He got an even odder feeling about Uther’s power now. He replayed on what Lance said, hearing something distinctly amiss each time.
“You can’t ban someone from church,” he said with a puzzled expression.
“No, not unless you're Uther of course. Anyway, there’s no other person in this town that grave digs apart from his family, so he’ll most likely be coming back, but he’ll have to be a lot more careful.”
Lance seems overtly happy now at least by this thought, but Merlin doesn’t take intrigue in his expression, gulping at the prospect that Uther could have such a tight rein on everything.
“Seriously, he can ban someone?”
“What- oh, yes. That’s one man you cannot afford to cross Merlin. See you at lunch.”
He’d finished packing all his music and was off, and Merlin was feeling even worse than what he had been feeling his whole week off.
Maybe he shouldn’t have seized a chance to talk to Lance after all.
..................
Part 7