The Church of Hot Addiction (8a/?)
Apr. 23rd, 2010 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
van_x_tangoTitle: The Church of Hot Addiction
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Dub-con for Arthur's age who although is not underage in the UK, he may be considered so in other areas. Bottom!Arthur. Porn fail. Blasphemy. Involves the catholic religion and priests being...unpriestly? The summary should help you decide whether you want to read or not.
Summary: Based on the prompt 'Arthur/Merlin AU, with reluctant priest!Merlin and bad Catholic!Arthurseducinghiminaconfessional'
A/N: Its been awhile hasn't it? Huge apologies everyone, and hopefully people are still willing to read this. A big thank you todevienta for beta'ing too. It was too big for one post so there's two.
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Monday
“Give back Tauren's colourful stone, Owain. Yes, good bo- no, don‘t throw it back!”
“Gregory, stop looking up Sophia’s skirt. And Sophia, would you please stop letting him!?”
“Where’s my map? Who’s taken my map?”
Kids, Merlin found out, were not his area of expertise. They had left the cathedral earlier that morning (too early, he thought, judging from the grouchy children), but then again - giving them sugar was an even worse idea, seeing as now they wouldn’t stop running and screaming, which had attracted quite some attention from the locals on the way up.
Sighing in defeat, he turned and marched over to Arthur, dropping his rucksack down beside one of the standard turquoise tents everyone had.
“Arthur, aren’t you meant to be helping me with that lot?”
Looking up from where he was hammering the tent stakes into the ground, Arthur gave him an incredulous look and nudged his head towards the tent.
“Why yes Father, I am, but if you didn’t successfully bugger up the tent then I wouldn’t be here trying to salvage it.”
Casting his head back down again, he resumed with hitting the stakes, unaware of Merlin’s glare aimed at the back of it. Giving up seconds later, Merlin grabbed an already unfolded green camping chair and collapsed down into it, sulkily crossing his arms.
He had earlier tried his hand at putting up his own tent, after all it didn’t seem that hard, but after getting tangled in it, snapping some of the tent poles, accidentally ripping a foot shaped hole into one side of the tents walls and then finally getting it up - inside out - Arthur had decided to take over, having fetched the tent down from a tree after it blew away when Merlin’s back was turned.
“Why is it that all these kids managed to put up their own tents, but me - a full grown man - managed to wreck the flaming thing?”
“Just stick to the priesthood and you’ll be fine, Father.” Arthur laughed, then sent him a mischievous look before adding, “Don’t go investing in a career of camping or something else that equally shows off your incompetence.”
If looks could kill, Arthur would be a pile of ash by now, but as Merlin opened his mouth to object, Arthur stood up and threw down the hammer.
“All done. I hope its to your liking, Father.”
Merlin blushed at the salacious tone of ‘Father’, resolutely looking anywhere but Arthur, who smirked, satisfied with himself, and turned to walk towards the group of children while shouting back over his shoulder, “We should gather them round, tell them the arrangements.”
Hoisting himself up out of the chair, he walked over to the patch Arthur had called the kids to (not without checking the tent first, which yes, Arthur was highly good at salvaging) and stood a short distance behind him while he announced the rules.
“Alright everyone hush your mouths and listen. Through the entirety of this trip you are to listen to me and Father Emrys and us only. If there’s to be any misbehaviour, the bishop will hear of it, plus, you won’t be able to join in any activities.” A series of groans and horrified gasps accompanied this, whether it was because of not doing activities or because of having to face Uther though, Merlin couldn’t tell. He would have guessed Uther. “When we’re out and about don’t wander off or we’ll just leave you out in the forest to live in the wild because that’s what you get for running off.”
“Arthur!” Merlin interrupted at Arthur’s callousness, who rolled his eyes in return thinking how easily the priest would get mauled alive if he was to ever become a school teacher while Merlin turned back to the children to reassure them. “What he means is, if you get lost try and find the nearest guide and they’ll help you find us, okay?”
“With that said, you can all get to your tents and sleep because tomorrows going to be a long day. And its two in each, remember.”
Spinning around, Arthur marched back to the tent while everyone else slowly shuffled back to their own in pairs, leaving Merlin to think about what Arthur meant and dreading who he had to share with.
He came to join Arthur in the tent a few minutes later, asking, “It’s two to a tent?”
Arthur stopped rolling out his bed to pointedly give Merlin a patronizing look.
“Yes, two to a tent otherwise there’ll be a pile up of kids in each tent and seeing as we’re both the leaders it makes sense for us to share, don’t you think?”
“Er, yeah,” he nervously laughed, “Of course. Perfect sense.”
Resisting the urge the compose a horrified expression himself as the kids did, Merlin tottered over to his own sleeping bag to roll out, wishing one of the other children would want to pair with him instead, till he realised that would be a decidedly worse idea given they were all mostly around 10 years of age more or less.
========================
Tuesday
Merlin was glad that - despite his trepidation - Arthur hadn’t decided to play any of his odd games that made Merlin awkward when everyone else went to bed, or through the night either, even if he did wake up in the morning with Arthur’s arm slung over his waist, but that had happened in sleep so it didn’t really count as anything to him.
After breakfast they were scheduled to meet with a tour guide, an aged man with sleeked back grey hair and gold rimmed glasses, who happily agreed to work with them throughout the week and was going to show them the whole forest that day, which was great but more than a little tiring.
Most of their surroundings were just mossy trees that towered high above them, dimming the sunlight that filtered in through the leaves at the top, with damp earth and dead leaves littering the ground.
Merlin didn’t mind this at all, compared to the ‘I’ve got better things to see and do’ groans emanating from most of the group. Being the nature type, he spent a lot of the time discussing all different things about the forest with the guide.
He understood about half the conversation but after awhile couldn’t decipher what exactly the guide was on about once he started talking about something to do with finding destiny in a forest.
He wondered if it was some type of film that’d just come out but considering the way the guide was talking about it, he assumed otherwise, leaving the guide to his cryptic nattering and dissolving back into the rest of the group.
Once it reached midday, they stopped by the Giants Chair on the sculpture trail to take a short rest from the constant walking around and eat some lunch they’d took along.
Gareth, a boy who constantly complained the whole walk, stomped up to Merlin and continuously poked his finger into his back until he got his attention.
“Father Emrys, I refuse to sit on the grubby floor.”
He was quite a chubby boy who was also short for his age, with mousy brown hair that was combed intricately and dressed in neatly pressed dungarees. Merlin hadn’t seen much of him at church compared to all the other kids, but he had met his parents enough times to know he came from a completely snotty and arrogant family that probably spoilt him rotten.
“I didn’t say you had to.” Merlin responded, somewhat befuddled.
“Yes, but after a very long and boring walk I expect to be able to sit down and the only chair there is, is a 15 foot one that no one can sit on.” He exasperated.
Luckily to his rescue came Arthur, who strode over and joyfully made it a point to tower over the younger lad.
“Most of us are sitting on the floor but if you really can’t cope with such a trauma there’s a bench over there, the one Mordred’s sitting on.”
Hearing his name, the Mordred boy looked up. Realising Arthur was sending Gareth to sit with him, a look of sheer doom crossed his features by the news, wishing he was anywhere but there.
Gareth growled lowly in his throat and sent them both dirty looks before stalking off.
“I hate that boy”, Arthur grumbled. “He must be getting on your rag, just dangle some food in front of him if he whines any longer.”
“Arthur! You can’t say things like that.” Merlin hushed, eyes swivelling to see if anyone heard.
Unfortunately, Arthur being Arthur, he didn't care whatsoever and just smiled cheekily.
“I can and I just did.” He turned and walked off again, getting his bag ready for the next place they were off to because the quick rest was over.
-----------------------------------
“I know many of you are bored out of your minds by now, so up ahead is a treat for you all as an end to this tour and for you all being such good sports about it.” Announced the guide.
It had been three long hours since they had stopped at the Giants chair and everyone was pretty much dragging their feet along the ground now, screaming for rest.
There hadn’t really been much to see after they left the spot apart from doing some nature living type of programme thing.
Some how, the kids miraculously conjured up energy within themselves to be able to run and scream again at the mention of a treat, as if they hadn’t just spent the past 6 hours or so killing off every muscle in their bodies one by one.
Walking up ahead into a clearing, the guide presented them with what seemed to be a high wire rope course. Merlin’s heart couldn’t have sunk faster even if it tried.
The nauseated feeling at the prospect of heights started to fill his gut, helping to drain the blood from his face entirely. If he knew the tour was going to include this he would have made up some excuse beforehand to get out of it, but the kids were excited and he had no time to plan an excuse anyway. I can do this, he thought. It’s just some climbing on ropes through trees while harnessed up at insanely high heights.
“This tree top adventure should be fun for all of you, you can all go crazy up there for 3 hours but be-”
“3 hours?!” he accidentally blurted out, causing everyone to stop and stare.
Pausing dubiously, the guide inquired, “Is something wrong?”
“Err- no, 3 hours is…dandy.” Merlin tittered, shying away to the back of the group, playing anxiously with his fingers letting the tour guide resume speech.
Once the talk on safety was over (which only made Merlin sense more danger than safety) the children started lining up for each of them to get their harnesses on and start climbing, him being at the back of the queue of course.
“Father Emrys, you look a bit peaky. Do you have something wrong with heights?”
Arthur had somehow sidled his way beside him without his notice, and although the concern was written on his face, the amusement was more than evident as well.
“No, I’m totally fine.” He responded expressionless, trying to hide any trace of fear, which still didn’t wipe the doubtful look from Arthur’s face.
“Are you sure?”
“I can do this, Arthur.”
Without awaiting response, he brushed past Arthur ready to be harnessed up and climb, feeling some regret for snapping at him.
He got about half way up the cargo net before he stupidly glanced down and a fresh wave of dizziness came to him, making him cling even more tightly to the net, not moving further up.
He didn’t notice Arthur climbing up behind him until he was at his shoulder giving him an inauspicious look.
“You were saying, Father?”
With a penetrating glare Merlin replied, “Not. A. Word.”
“I’ll move along with you shall I? Come on, you don’t want to get left behind and I’m not having you make me last either.”
Merlin gave a few minutes thought before he nodded and relaxed his stiff grip on the rope to follow Arthur.
Once on the small landing at the top he resisted the urge to look down and let Arthur grab his hand as he pulled him over to a set of high rope bridges.
It wasn’t actually all that bad once he got used to it. He’d been able to handle the things like climbing through tunnels and the transverse climbing wall (as long as he didn’t look down), although he needed Arthur’s help for the rest of the course.
He had to hold on to Arthur’s waist while crossing the catwalk, which was a narrow log suspended in mid air with an easy drop; balance himself with Arthur’s shoulders on the spinning logs, which resulted in them both falling backwards anyway; and hold onto his wrists on the dangle duo as they sat higher on each log they transferred up onto.
He refused to go on the Tyrolean rope crossing because it was situated over a thrashing river which he no way wanted to shimmy himself across on and was the highest thing they’d come to so far that had to be done singularly. Arthur granted him to just watch instead, but he didn’t allow the same for the rope swinging.
Merlin did not appreciate Arthur’s liking for the rope swing. Out of everything, that had been his favourite thing so far - much to Merlin’s abhorrence.
“Come on Father Emrys, it will be fun”, he had said, which Merlin soon found out was a total lie once they were soaring through the air towards the rope net that was awaiting their collision, while Merlin clung tightly to Arthur who had one arm and foot wrapped around the rope and the other arm wrapped around Merlin’s waist.
“How was that fun, it was the worst thing we’ve been on!” he had yelled after detangling himself from the net while some of the children who had stopped to watch laughed at them.
He had spoken too soon. That was not the worst thing, the worst thing was the end of the course, which he had been waiting for in delight so that he could get off but when they found it was a zip line that zooms 90mph through the air at about 50 feet from the ground he couldn’t care less if he stayed on the course forever.
On the other hand, Arthur couldn’t have been more excited. He started attaching the pulley from the cable to his harness when he noticed Merlin backing away to make his escape.
“Where do you think you’re going? You can’t back out of this one.”
“I didn’t do the Tyrolean rope crossing so I don‘t have to do this.”
As if talking to a child, Arthur said, “Yes, but you didn’t need to go on that to get off the course. The zip lines the only way to finish.”
“I think I’d rather stay here, thanks.” Merlin mock smiled, holding up his hands in front of his chest.
Arthur rolled his eyes. “Don’t be silly. I’ll harness you onto me.”
“What? No! That‘s dangerous.”
“Believe it or not, it’s a lot safer than you being up here by yourself.”
Scowling, Merlin folded his arms and stood his ground.
Arthur tapped his watch. “We haven’t got all day.”
“We’ll be too heavy,” he sighed, even though he had started to move towards Arthur this time.
“You’ll be fine. I won’t let anything happen to you, not that you’ll believe me. Now, sit.”
He pointed at his lap earning a confused gaze from Merlin until he realised there was no other way to get on other than having to straddle Arthur’s lap in order to be harnessed successfully.
Hesitantly, he brought his leg over Arthur’s hips, pointedly ignoring the grin Arthur was ineffectively hiding while strapping Merlin in.
“Shouldn’t there be a helper up here doing this sort of thing?” He asked looking for any signs of anyone else.
Chuckling while still strapping up, Arthur riposted, “What, afraid I might make a mistake, one little slip up and we fall to our deaths?”
When he got no answer he looked up to find Merlin glaring daggers at him with a mixture of anxiety.
“Just kidding! Jeez, no need to panic. Anyway, I‘m done. Do you need me to quadruple check what I‘ve already double checked?”
“Would you stop with the jokes?”
“Alright, alright.” He wrapped his arms around Merlin’s waist before saying, “If there’s nothing else then we best be going.”
He kicked off from the platform with such force Merlin ended up having to clutch to Arthur’s chest a bit too hard and muffle his screaming into his neck while Arthur more than gladly accepted it, laughing cheerily as they glided through the air.
About half way down Merlin realised his screaming was a tad too high for male range so he bit down hard on his lip in an attempt to stop any sound escaping his mouth burying his head deeper into the joins of Arthur’s neck and shoulder, keeping his eyes tightly shut.
There was something about it that made everything else a blur. Arthur’s laughing phased out from him as he drew in the smell of sweat, fresh forest dew, and incense fused from years of living in the cathedral, yet he felt content sitting there protected in Arthur’s arms making him forget everything and anything, including the heights.
He must have been too deep in the thought of Arthur’s neck smell of all things because next thing he knew, Arthur was rubbing soothing circles into his back and saying, “Father Emrys, you can open your eyes now.”
Opening them he found they weren’t mid flight anymore and were now swinging round in slow turns hanging from the cable waiting for the guide who was making his way towards them at snail pace.
“Oh so now there is a helper.”
“Still complaining I see.” Arthur said, raising his eyes towards the heavens. “And you survived, may I add.”
“Yes, thank you for not sending us to our untimely deaths.” He deadpanned.
“You must have enjoyed it though, right? About half way down you actually managed to stop screaming like a girl and relax.” he said - as though surprised at the thought - while starting to detach the pulley from the cable.
“I do not scream like a girl”, Merlin replied in outrage, “and even if I did at least I wasn’t cackling like a witch in heat. What are you doing? You can’t take-”
Next second they were on the ground in a crumpled heap, Merlin sprawled ubiquitously across Arthur’s torso.
Coughing for air, the slightly winded Arthur still had not managed to unwrap his arms from around Merlin after the zip line.
Noticing the contorting of Arthur’s face, Merlin asked “Are you alright?”
“Mhm, just hurt my coccyx a bit.” Arthur grimaced.
“Want me to take a look?”
He shifted uncomfortably from the complete surprised look he earned off of Arthur in response before it changed to wonder.
“…do you even know where the coccyx is?”
“Er…no.”
If he must admit it, Merlin hadn’t the foggiest when it came to the human anatomy. He knew his arm from his leg and then some but other than that he knew zilch, which without a doubt came across rather blatantly to Arthur, otherwise he wouldn’t be grinning inanely with evil glee.
“I’ll show you then.”
Taking his hand, Arthur pulled it gently to behind his back, slightly lifting his hips as he brought the hand down past the inside of his trouser waist band.
Wide eyed, Merlin asked, “What are you doing?”, attempting to snatch his hand away, but Arthur had stopped already, stilling Merlin’s hand at the base of his spinal column and pressed his index and middle finger along the area, all the while watching Merlin‘s reactions closely.
“Feel any abnormalities?”
He was distracted less by any abnormalities and more by the fact that he had his hand down Arthur’s pants - which was abnormal in itself - fingers splayed at the top of the cleft of his arse touching the soft, smooth skin, which was so soft it was as if it were untouched. And Merlin felt bizarre as to the fact that he was probably one of the only people that had touched this area at all, apart from Arthur.
Out of his own accord he found himself moving his fingers lower, as if all senses had taken leave of him and gazing back at Arthur’s curious eyes, which he felt silly enough to admit were hypnotising because if they weren’t then he wouldn’t feel so powerless as to the fact that he was leaning ever closer towards Arthur’s face with his eyes still at gaze and they’re lips merely centimetres separate. Leaning and leaning and-
“How was that for you both?”
- not leaning.
Realising what he was doing, and analysing just exactly how close they were in distance and intimacy, Merlin yanked himself off Arthur, hand in tow, trying to make it look like his hand did not just come out of his pants while he shot to a standstill in front of the ill-timed guide.
“It was great, thank you for today.” He rushed.
The guide nodded in acceptance at Merlin’s slightly stuttered thanks, turning to Arthur who had come to a stand next to him; face a mix of delight and irritation.
“It was a hoot.”
“I’m glad you both found it enjoyable.” He smiled knowingly. “I saw the fall. None of you got hurt did you?”
If he saw the fall, he probably saw a whole lot more too, Merlin groaned.
“Arthur hurt his coccyx.”
“Yes, but they feel much better now thanks to Father Emrys’s aid.” Arthur smirked, making it a point to pat Merlin hard and lingering on the back.
“I’ve hurt my tailbone before on this thing. Luckily I was younger than I am now, otherwise my old bones wouldn‘t be able to take it.” The guide chuckled to himself.
“Tailbone?” Merlin questioned, before turning to Arthur. “It’s the tailbone? Well, why didn’t you just say, I know what that is at least!”
Merlin laughed, seeing how idiotic he must have seemed to have not known that before noticing both sets of raised eyebrows from the others staring at him. His laughter died as he composed himself, coughing in his throat.
“Right well, now that’s over, we better be getting back to camp for dinner.”
--------------------
Later on in the evening, sometime just after Merlin finally stopped shaking from having flown through the air at a ridiculous height, everyone went off to bed. The children had all nodded off at some point or other but he and Arthur were lying in their tent still awake and trying to nod off too.
“These kids go to bed way too early.” Arthur declared after some silence. “I can‘t remember the last time I had to be in bed by 8.30.”
“Its 9.45.”
“Exactly, I don’t even go to bed by 9.45 and we’ve been trying to get to sleep for over an hour now. How many more is it going to be?”
Merlin heaved a sigh. “Try not to whine too much will you? You might wake up the whole camp.”
“Coming from the one who screamed at the top of their lungs the whole way down the zip line and complained after.” Arthur guffawed in reply.
“I didn’t scream the whole way”, Merlin defensively stated. “And I only complained because I told you not to take me on it and you ignored me.”
There was a shuffling about behind him as Arthur rearranged himself to face Merlin’s back, emitting a light breath on his neck.
“There was no other way down. What would you have had me do? Leave you stranded there on the tiny beam.” He vehemented. “God, you are so Jane.”
“Who?”
“Jane.” Arthur answered simply. “As in Tarzan and Jane?”
“What?! I am in no way Jane.” He gawked, much to Arthur’s amusement.
“Father Emrys, you clung to me like a damsel in distress while swinging from that tree. You are Jane.”
He couldn’t really argue with that because it was too close to being true, so instead said, “Are you suggesting you're Tarzan then?”
“Hmm…” Arthur said with false thoughtfulness, pretending to ponder. “I’m handsome, strong, a good climber and you swoon over me. Yeah, I’d say I’m pretty much Tarzan.”
“Your ego astounds me.” And a little belatedly -“And I do not swoon over you.”
“Mhm, whatever you say, Jane.”
“Don’t call me that, and don’t go thinking I’ll be calling you Tarzan either.” He warned, although the amusement was clear in his voice.
“Me Tarzan, you Jane.” Arthur responded in an ape like voice, before bursting into laughter behind Merlin, his chuckled breaths heating the back of his neck even more so as he joined in before they gradually fell into a pleasant calmness.
After a couple of minutes Arthur broke the quiet by asking, “So you're afraid of heights, huh?”
“No, I hate them. Afraid and hate are not the same thing.”
“So in other words you're terrified of them.”
Merlin rolled his eyes, not answering, and then remembered Arthur couldn’t see this anyway and probably took it as a yes for being terrified.
“Come on, admit it.” He felt a tingling up his spine, something padding along it in patterns, before he realised Arthur was drawing lightly into his back with his finger.
“Why did I have to get stuck in a tent with you?” Merlin groaned, no trace of malice present.
Arthur ignored his gentle whinging. “We have climbing tomorrow, are you going to drag your scrawny arse up that wall or am I going to have do it for you?”
“We’ll see when we get there.”
He went for settling down more into his sleeping bag - ignoring Arthur’s ‘scrawny arse’ statement - but heard a shuffling from Arthur again as he came closer, much further towards Merlin’s neck than before and whispered in his ear.
“Well then we better get some rest, Father Emrys.”
Unbeknown to Arthur, he touched over a ticklish spot at his back at the same time he whispered against his ear, causing a shiver to overcome him in his attempt to block out a moan.
“Are you cold?”
“No?”
Opting for cold would have been a much better idea than opting for whatever it was he had actually just felt, but his questioning tone seemed to convince Arthur that he was in fact cold, to which he proceeded to manhandle Merlin around to face him and then wrap his arms around him- much to Merlin’s bewilderment..
“Err…?”
“Just relax and go to sleep. This should keep you warm, what with body heat and all.” Arthur explained.
Merlin really should have felt odder about this, but he couldn’t deny it felt rather pleasant. Slackening in Arthur’s hold, it didn’t take long for him to drift off into sleep while Arthur endlessly played patterns on his back.
==============================
Wednesday
The same guide as the day before returned and took them to the climbing and abseiling walls, which wasn’t disguised in the trees like the rope course but it was much higher and looked more intimidating.
Its not as if his fear went unnoticed the day before so no one minded if he just sat and watched this time although he had a suspicion that Arthur still had ideas about helping Merlin climb up.
Once everyone was strapped up and had a safety talk, the guide saw them off, sometimes shouting up hints if they were doing something wrong that was stopping them from moving higher.
Arthur was unsurprisingly the first one to reach the top, bringing himself to stand once he’d dragged himself up over the edge and raising his arms triumphantly in the air before proceeding to turn and wink down at Merlin while a helper started getting him ready to abseil down.
Leaving his post, the guide came over, sitting down next to Merlin on the bench that had plant stalks and leaves wrapped around it from its growth direction.
“You not going to have a go?” he asked, bringing Merlin out of his reverie and startling him slightly.
“Oh no, I think after yesterday I better miss out on the big heights type of things.” He notified, laughing lightly to himself.
“Well, you can join in the archery later then.”
They sat in silence after that, awkward but also companionable somehow, watching the many kids try and compete their way to the top of the wall and down again.
“He seems to have a keen interest in you.” The guide suddenly spoke.
Merlin followed his line of sight. “Who, Arthur?”
“Yes, the young boy looks out for you and prefers your company to the others.”
Merlin frowned confusedly before understanding what he must have meant. “Oh no that was just because I wasn’t that taken to the ropes yesterday so he helped me, plus he’s the oldest one here - not including myself. The next one closest to his age is Maria over there, who’s about 14.” He shook his head and rolled his eyes, adding, “Arthur‘s about that age where he thinks he‘s too cool to hang around with children.”
“There is more than meets the eye, I’m sure. There is a bond that lies beneath more than just priest and pupil.”
“You know I teach him?” he asked intrigued.
“I once knew his father, so it would be fitting for the bishop to assort his son with more teachings than necessary.”
“You know Bishop Pendragon?” Now he really was interested, turning in his seat to face the guide more. “How?”
“I too was once where you are now. Unfortunately though Uther disliked me, so once he became bishop there was no hope in me staying.” He had a slight saddened expression followed with some anger, but it was well concealed.
“So you came here instead of joining another parish?”
“You ask many questions, young priest.” The man chuckled, but continued none the less. “I love the great outdoors, always preferred it. No one likes to be stuck inside now do they?”
They sat in silence once more, this time much more difficult than the last.
“You have another question don’t you?” The guide amusedly stated, noticing the tapping of Merlin’s fingers on his thigh. “Go ahead. Ask.”
“Why does Uther hate you?”
As if expecting the question, the older man sighed to himself, sitting back further against the bench with a solemn expression. “Although he was never a religious man to start with, Camelot itself is, so his parents were regular worshippers of God and would always attend service. Through his teenage years they asked of me to supply some of my teachings onto him because they wished for him to be less rebellious and more obedient. Obviously, it didn’t work out too well.” He finalised.
It didn’t exactly answer his question, but he had already asked enough so he wasn’t going to probe. He looked back to where all the kids were playing, most of them nearly down now and waiting for the last few to descend.
“Do you wish to keep your job?”
The question threw Merlin off a bit, puzzling him as to what they were talking about now and to why the guide looked so serious.
“Yes, why?”
“Then do as I never did with Uther. I doubt you wish for the boy’s admiration of you to turn to hate.”
Before he could ask for an explanation, the children had started coming over due to already finishing the activity and wanting to move on. The guide happily jumped up gathering them all to head off to the archery fields. Merlin got up to join them as they started walking off, Arthur joining him at the back of the group.
“Tarzan missed his Jane.” He pouted, using the ape like voice again.
“Would you stop with that?” Merlin laughed, shaking his head at Arthur before catching the guide looking back at them from over the heads of the children to give him a quick knowing smirk.
--------------------------------------------------
“I’m guessing not many of the activities have been in your favour.”
Giving up on his puttering around the tent for a plaster to put on his damned blister that was leaking profusely, Merlin peered up to find Arthur standing at the entrance all dressed and ready for bed. How he could find his pyjamas in and amongst the mess they’d already made of their living quarters for the week, he’ll never know.
“What do you mean?”
Arthur proceeded across the floor to his rucksack. “Well, so far things have mainly involved heights, a boring walk and you completely fail at archery so you mustn’t be having much fun.”
Archery hadn’t been a huge success for him either, much like the climbing. He’d missed every shot at the target board and had nearly somehow shot at his own foot, the arrow only just missing it by centimetres. After that everyone thought it was probably best he sat out and watched.
“No, I’ve had fun, not as much as I would have liked but it’s enough.” He responded, honestly. “Plus, the height activities are over already, I have better things to look forward to. And I do not completely fail at archery, I managed to string the bow properly.”
“True, after much help. Tell me, how many times did you hit the target exactly?” He inquired amusedly, stepping over with something in hand.
“…None.” He muttered, glaring at Arthur for being such a smart arse. “But I was close!”
“You were miles off on every hit.” He said flatly, plonking a box of plasters in Merlin’s hand then withdrawing to lay on his sleeping bag, hands behinds his head.
“Yeah well. Not everyone is perfect at everything like you.” Merlin muttered.
Smirking, Arthur hummed contently from his laidback position. “So you admit, I’m perfect.”
“As in, very good at doing things.” He concluded, searching for the correct words, which he should have known would only make Arthur even more intolerable because he had a dirty, dirty mind.
“I’m not going to forget this.” Yep, the smirk definitely gave away the way his mind was filtering what he said.
“Fine, I called you perfect, happy?”
There was perhaps some truth behind the words, but he was hardly going to admit that to Arthur.
“Immensely. You're not too bad yourself despite your ineptitudes.”
Merlin paused putting on his plaster, peering up looking completely confused. “I’m quite lost as to whether that was an insult or complement.”
“Take it whichever way you’d prefer.” Arthur smiled.
Pressing down the plaster to make sure it properly stuck on his newly formed blister, he chucked it’s box in the corner and proceeded to getting into his own sleeping bag settled next to Arthur’s, who rolled back to get under his as well instead of lying on top of it.
“You know, I could have helped you with the climbing today.” Arthur said quietly after settling, gazing blankly at the ceiling.
Merlin looked over to study his features shortly before turning back. “I appreciate your help for yesterday but I’d rather not climb anymore heights thank you, at least not for awhile.”
“You would have been alright; I might have even been able to harness you on to me again.” Arthur smirked, reliving the memory.
Merlin scoffed. “Our weight combined would probably break the rope.”
“Our weight combined would make no difference because you’re a skinny little fellow who needs to fatten up a bit.” He stated, matter-of-factly.
“Charming.”
Merlin turned around to face the wall where there were layers of cello tape keeping together the material over Merlin‘s foot shaped hole, bringing up his blanket over his shoulder, closing his eyes and willing sleep to over take him as he listened to the quiet swaying of trees and bushes outside against the wind.
“It was nice though.”
He opened his eyes. Clearly the conversation hadn’t ended as he had thought.
“What was?”
“Yesterday” Arthur said, but due to Merlin’s confused silence he added, “the rope course.”
“Oh, Sure.” He murmured non-committedly, letting his eyelids slowly shut again.
“It was nice with, you know, what happened” Arthur hesitatingly said, including in irritation, “until that guide went and bloody ruined it of course.”
Merlin didn’t answer, choosing to stare at the tent wall instead now that his eyes had unwilfully snapped open. Arthur took it as a chance to explain more.
“I keep imagining what would of happened if he hadn’t of come along and it was just us two out in the forest or what it would be like to have you straddling me again or holding onto me like a dying man.”
“Arthur.”
He turned speedily, coming face to face with him now. It was getting increasingly hard to ignore him anymore.
“Come on, you can’t deny you hadn’t thought it too, I know you did, it was written all over your face. Not to mention your hands were trailing past normal boundaries.”
Merlin gave a scandalized huff. “I was checking for injury, plain and simple.”
“And how do you explain the neck sniffing?” Arthur delved, pinning Merlin with a scrutinizing look. “Because it’s rather hard not to notice someone nuzzling into my neck, Father.”
Turning beet red and spluttering indignantly, Merlin quickly sifted his brain for a plausible explanation, knowing too well that he had already wasted about 15 seconds thinking and stuttering incoherent noises.
“I was just hiding my face in fear.” He made up, laughing nervously. “You know, being afraid of heights and all.”
Arthur didn‘t waste a second answering, eyebrows raised in fake confusion. “But you said you hated them. Afraid and hate are not the same thing, isn’t that what you said?”
Well that went down the pan. He cursed his brain for not thinking of a better excuse, silently doing so in his head just so that he had something to concentrate on doing that would help him avoid the well hidden dismay in Arthur’s eyes staring him down as he was stuck between him and the wall.
Arthur shuffled closer a bit more now making it simply impossible to avoid.
“Just admit it, Father, Please.”
Merlin exhaled deeply, shaking his head as he closed his eyes for a few seconds thinking and opened them again.
“Look Arthur, I can assure you-”
He was cut off by the dive of Arthur’s lips to his own, firm but unmoving, dissolving all thought from Merlin’s brain as they burnt against his mouth and into his memory.
Breaking off, Arthur searched his dazed face waiting for a response that wasn‘t rejection or something equally cutting.
“Arthur you can‘t-”
But he was doing it again, chaste and sweet, laying a light kiss against his lips to silence his protests before withdrawing again.
“Arthur-”
He should of known that would receive yet another in turn. Arthur didn’t want to hear anything he had to say, so he just swallowed the words down instead.
Every time Arthur would pull away he’d soon come back, each time less chaste and more intense than before, his hands wandering over into Merlin’s sleeping bag, and every time he’d break off Merlin would say his name, only in warning as to pick up from where his protests left off, but once he realised the chanting of his name had become less warning and more urgent, breathless gasps as he eagerly accepted Arthur’s mouth, he pushed Arthur away, maybe a little too harshly, surprise etched on his features for what was a second before turning to confusion.
It was happening once more, and this time he couldn’t just send Arthur away from his office like usual or walk away from him either. He had to face him and hope that he could control himself throughout the night if they were going to both be staying.
“Arthur, you really have to stop. This can’t keep happening. I don’t think you realise just how bad this is.”
He took one look at Merlin’s guilty expression before growling angrily under his breath.
“Why do you have to be so bloody difficult?!”
Giving him the ultimate death glare, Arthur turned forcibly in his sleeping bag to face away from Merlin.
Both of them were surely going to be pretending to sleep throughout the night.
==============================
Thursday
Merlin had been dozing in and out of sleep, finding it difficult to settle his mind, so as soon as even the faintest light filtered through the tent he was up and making his way to the closest lake.
He sat thinking about the night before, regaining himself. He only had three days left, he could get through those, right? He hoped so at least. It was becoming harder and harder to refuse Arthur.
He must have been gone a while because by the time he got back nearly everyone was awake, including Arthur when he re-entered the tent.
He was glaring at the opposite tent wall as if trying to burn a hole through the material.
“Where’d you go?”
“Just the lake. I needed to wash.” His quiet response was delayed in reply.
“We’re going kayaking this morning, you could have just got wet there.”
“Oh.”
Needless to say, that was how far their conversation progressed for the rest of the morning, until the guide came along again shortly after breakfast to bring them along to the Kayak and Wafting house.
The kayaks had already been aligned onto the river, so after getting their equipment on and learning how to hold the paddle properly everyone clambered in to their individual kayaks.
“From what I’ve been informed you’re all beginners in this so we’re going to start by-”
“I’ve been kayaking before. Whitewater kayaking actually.”
Sophia, a galling child, glided her way forward in her kayak, making it a point to flick her hair back with her hand and show she could still do strokes with the other one on the paddle. She did end up going a bit rocky though so immediately put the other back on to grip.
“Daddy says I’m a natural, he’s the head of Avalon Watersports Inc so he knows talent when he sees it.”
Arthur snorted and muttered, “Obviously not.” as she swam by; eliciting a disdainful glare from her while she stopped next to him.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. Now stop blathering and pay attention, your pissing everyone off.” He growled out.
She gave him a frustrated scowl. “It’s not my fault no one else here knows how to-AHH.”
Using his paddle, Arthur had gust up a huge wave of water directed perfectly at her face, messing up her already poorly applied make-up - due to lack of experience at 11 - and drenching her smoothly combed fair hair into lanky, tangled strands.
“Did I not just tell you to shut it?” he asked.
Spluttering unintelligibly, she fumed, “You’ll regret that.” Before she received another splash to the face, this time from a five year old who thought it looked fun, so she had to relocate somewhere far from them both.
“Thank you Mr.Pendragon, interruptions are vastly annoying.” The guide said unamusedly. “Now, all of you sit up straight, the key is good posture. Just relax your shoulders, open your chest and copy me, okay?”
The instructor did a bunch of odd flailing with his arms, Merlin couldn’t exactly tell what it was, but when he copied whatever was going on he seemed pretty good at it, immensely actually. His strokes didn’t falter or make him turn in the completely wrong direction, or even send him crashing into someone else. He just breezed through the water, slow and easy, gradually being able to pick up speed once confident.
Some of the others were progressing too, albeit not as well.
While everyone was practising, Arthur deliberately swam across Sophia’s path, going as slow as possible to reframe her from moving forward, causing her to throw a little hissy fit and soon her and Arthur started bickering at the back, which resulted in their very own water fight.
“I warn you, you shouldn’t do that.” The guide advised, almost sing song like.
With one last triumphant splash, Arthur swam away, smiling smugly to himself, but considering Merlin heard another huge splash after that, he presumed he wasn’t quite as triumphant as he thought.
The guide just sighed and went off to help Mordred disentangle his paddle from a bunch of weeds.
He sat back, non-paddling, but still jutting in the water, taking in his surroundings. The river was very secluded, the perimeter enclosed by the woods that were sending out the occasional twitter of a nesting bird while crickets buzzed in the grass.
The sun reflected against the water, a rainbow colour hitting his skin as it shined back at him. There was a blue flick, a swish of a tail maybe, as he saw a fish skimming just under surface.
It was a luminescent blue with black flecks spaced along its fins. He put his hand in, causing the fish to startle away from him hurriedly, only to return seconds later approaching his finger and doing that odd thing fish do with the circle of their mouth, a sort of globbing motion like their trying to bite but don’t have the teeth to do so.
The sensation always felt weird and disgusting to him so he retracted his hand, content with just watching it swim, soon accompanied by other fish of the same kind.
An ear splitting scream caught him back to the others. Snapping his head around he found the screaming was coming from Sophia, who was trying to get someone’s attention for help while pointing at a discarded floating life jacket bobbing along the water next to a capsized kayak.
Glancing around frantically, he saw everyone was there except Arthur.
He didn’t even waste a second. Grabbing the spray skirt’s grab loop, he quickly ripped it off and shoved himself out the kayak, diving in while his kayak simultaneously rotated with him.
The water was murky, making it a little harder to see, but he swam speedily over to where the shadow of Arthur‘s kayak could be seen bobbing up and down, powering through the water.
He could see him, dropping upside down a little way bellow his kayak. He hadn’t sunk that far so he mustn’t have been down long. He dived down, looping his arm around Arthur’s waist when he reached him before ploughing upwards, breaking the surface on the lake and quickly swimming back towards land with Arthur against his chest.
Everyone else had started paddling in, desperate to see what happened.
Dragging him over the ground, Merlin lay Arthur down and immediately started searching for a pulse. There was one tiny beating but it was fading off. Shit.
He hadn’t done CPR before, but one of his friends back in Ealdor was a paramedic and had explained somethings to him before when he was retelling him some of the things he’d done on the job, plus he’d seen his fair share of medical dramas. Drawing up on old memories of what he had said, Merlin kneeled down next to him and brought up his chin.
He pinched Arthur’s nose and covered his mouth with his own feeling the heat was starting to vanish from them, replacing them with a cooling, still touch.
“I thought he’d eskimo roll or something, I kept thinking he was going to come up any second, just waiting and waiting for it to happen, but he didn’t and instead that floated up”, Sophia cried, rushing to join him and pointing to the life jacket still floating in the water, adding hysterically, “I didn’t mean to do it! I really didn’t mean to, it was just for laughs, I didn’t know I’d kill him! Oh my god. I’ve killed him haven’t I? Haven’t I?!”
“Sophia calm the fuck down your making the others upset.” The girl Maria shouted, who was trying to comfort a few of the younger children to stop them crying.
He blew into his mouth a second time, watching his chest rise out of the corner of his eye before placing one hand over the other, facing them palm down on Arthur’s chest and pumping it, doing chest compressions until he had to pull away and breathe into his mouth again.
Still nothing.
“Arthur, you prat, wake up, there is no way you can do this.”
The guide rushed over, Arthur‘s life jacket in hand and knelt opposite Merlin, studying it.
“He mustn’t have put his life jacket on properly. It shouldn’t have come off so easily, it would have helped him float.”
“Fuck!”
A few of the children looked surprised, if only for a few seconds but were more concerned about Arthur than his swearing.
He pumped his chest again, not giving up, not until Arthur was safe and breathing, then he’d kill him for being a complete idiot.
He shuffled forward, pinching Arthur’s nose again and covering his mouth. Aha. He felt a tiny breath of air breeze his lips but it wasn’t enough. He breathed into his mouth again, this time receiving more of a response. Arthur’s chest had started rising and falling by itself now and he was coming around, much to Merlin’s relief. And he was - he was licking his way into his mouth?
Pulling off immediately, he looked down seeing Arthur slowly opening his eyes and inhaling deeply before suddenly coughing up all over the place.
The sound of happy squealing and delight resounded around them, some applause too.
“Arthur, you’re alive!” Merlin half-shouted, ecstatic.
“You can’t get rid of me that easily”, he weakly smiled, and then he caught sight of Sophia, who was cowering behind a few of the others so he wouldn’t notice her.
“You! You tried to drown me you little bitch!”
He made to get up and after her, until Merlin pushed him back down.
“Arthur she didn’t mean it, just calm down, okay. I think you have some explaining to do about that life jacket yourself, do you not?”
Arthur look confused for a few seconds before comprehension dawned, bowing his head to avoid Merlin’s angry eyes.
“I’ll take him back to camp.” Merlin said, putting Arthur’s arm over his shoulder and dragging him up. “You’ll be able to look after this lot?”
“Certainly, go.” The guide replied, watching them head off back to camp.
----------------------------------------------
Arriving back to the silence of the camp, Merlin directed Arthur over to their tent, sitting him down on his sleeping bag.
“Here, lie down, I’ll get you a towel.”
Peering around, he found there were no fresh towels so he opted for the partially dirty one on the floor, passing it to Arthur, who had been quiet ever since they had left the others.
“The water wasn’t cold so you’re unlikely to get hypothermia but start getting dressed anyway. I’ll wait outside.”
He waited outside for about two minutes or so, scuffing his shoes on the ground and listening to Arthur bustling around until Arthur let him in again.
“Are you feeling alright?” he asked once he was in.
“I’m perfectly fine.” Arthur mumbled.
Merlin came to stand opposite Arthur, folding his arms. “Right, then you won’t feel so bad as to tell me why that life jacket wasn’t on properly.”
Arthur let out a long sigh, leaning forward more to look at the ground continuously instead of having to face Merlin.
“It was a little small for me so I couldn’t do it up properly. They probably just got a bunch of kiddie sizes out because they saw that lot.”
Merlin blinked. “That’s ridiculous. Why on earth didn’t you ask for a next size up?”
“It was a fucking tiny, calm river, not some bloody raging whirlpool, Father Emrys. I thought it wouldn’t matter, how was I to know I’d be in any danger. Which I wasn’t let me remind you, until that bint tried to drown me. And it’s not exactly easy to get out of a kayak under water with no life jacket or previous experience all while trying not to panic.” he vexed, standing up now to pace the tent floor.
“They give you life jackets for a reason. There are even people who can die in paddling pools, just because something looks harmless doesn’t mean it is.” Merlin’s voice had started rising, his angry and distraught expression getting to Arthur and making him turn away.
“Alright, alright, sorry. Next time I’ll be more careful.”
Merlin stared in disbelief. “Next time? Arthur, you can’t just carelessly dismiss what happened, you could have died!”
“And what does that matter to you?”
Arthur turned to face him now, anger building in his own features too.
“What does that matter to me? That matter’s everything to me, why would you even ask such a thing?”
Arthur barked a laugh causing Merlin to jump, concern replacing his recent distress.
“Well it’s not as if you’ve showed any liking towards me, is it? You’d probably be glad to be rid of me.”
“You can’t honestly believe that can you?” Merlin asked quietly, face painted in shock.
Arthur bolted around rapidly to shout furiously at Merlin, “What do you expect me to believe?!”
They stood there a few seconds in silence apart from the noise of deep breathing, Arthur glaring at Merlin and Merlin staring still rather shocked at Arthur.
He went back to pacing, face cast at the floor as he brought hands up to tug at his wet hair.
“Arthur, look.” Merlin had seemed to regain his voice, this time being a lot calmer as he made his way over to Arthur. “I’m sorry if it seems I’m blaming this all on you. I’ll give Sophia a talking to as well, don’t worry, it’s just you really should have been more careful.”
“I’m not on about the bloody kayaking!” Arthur groaned frustratingly, stopping mid-pace.
“Then what?”
“Never mind.”
“No, tell me.” Merlin pressed on, confused.
“And what would I gain from telling you apart from rejection and avoidance?”
“Is this-”
“No, Father Emrys, you’ve made it clear enough times, I get it. You can go back to the others now; I’d rather be left alone.” He started to turn away, heading for the sleeping bag until Merlin grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
“Arthur I-”
“Good god, would you just-”
Merlin had caught onto Arthur’s sentence interruption technique it seemed, because usually it would be Arthur doing this type of thing. But now? Now it was Merlin doing the surprise swoop in and kiss. Half of him didn’t even realise what exactly he was doing, Arthur probably felt the same too, if his shocked yelp was anything to go by, but he was liking it nonetheless. It felt good to be able to feel those lips with life and heat again instead of the motionless, cold ones from before.
Merlin broke off, stepping back from Arthur and looking more than shocked with himself.
Arthur swayed slightly and dazedly asked, “Did that just happen?”
Merlin stepped back a bit further, eyes wild and fingers pulling at his hair.
“I think so. Oh god, yes.”
Arthur spluttered, looking completely stunned. “I-well- that’s - finally!”
“I’m -I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have.” Merlin anxiously started, equally wide eyed as Arthur.
“No! No, don’t apologise. I wanted that, you shouldn’t feel sorry.”
“I don’t know what came over me it just happened.”
Arthur put a finger over Merlin’s mouth, shushing him before slowly withdrawing it and smiling gratefully at him.
“Honestly, it’s more than fine.”
Merlin looked down, appalled. “It was wrong.”
Arthur lifted his chin, forcing Merlin to look at him and leaned forward to gently plant a kiss to his lips before leaning away again.
“How can that be wrong?”
Honestly, he wasn’t sure. It was the first time he’d felt right in a long time, and he wanted - needed to kiss Arthur again. He hesitantly drew back in, this time slowly and without surprise, sealing his lips against Arthur’s. It was chaste and sweet but soon he was licking into Arthur’s mouth, unhesitant now and overcome with the thought that Arthur was far from dead but had been within inches of being so, desperately holding him against his chest while his other hand roamed in his blonde hair.
They stumbled back towards the sleeping bags on the floor, Merlin not really noticing but letting Arthur pull him down on top of him, still connected at the mouth.
Breaking off to breath in as much air as possible, Merlin moved back, balancing on his knees while Arthur clasped onto his shirt buttons and started undoing them.
“Your clothes are soaking wet, you should probably get out of them now.”
Merlin surprisingly chuckled; feeling light and like everything was timeless, and reached for his belt, hands shaking.
He still felt peculiar. It hadn’t started hitting him that he was undressing for Arthur and Arthur was undressing for him quite yet, but he was getting there, and the thought really should have made him want to stop but it just turned him on even more.
He finally shoved his trousers down and groaned as he felt Arthur greedily kissing down his chest - having undone Merlin’s shirt along with his own - spending time to suck from one nipple to the other, giving a hesitant tug between his teeth on them before licking a trail all the way back up to kiss Merlin’s lips again.
He complied into it, letting his hands roam over Arthur’s chest, his form still not quite filled but beautiful none the less and skin soft underneath his palms, enjoying the little noises he’d make whenever he tweaked each rosy nub.
Merlin could feel Arthur hard against him through his trousers which Merlin hadn’t dared to remove yet, thinking that if they stayed on then he still had a chance to back out and do the right thing but his hand was already being led by Arthur past the waistband, pulling them off together before leaning Arthur back down against the floor. His breath hitched in his throat as Arthur lay naked before him, a blush creeping up his face and his legs crossing slightly in embarrassment from the intensity of Merlin’s gaze, who could not for the life of him stop staring because he had forgotten what this felt like for so long. The rush and the intimacy of being able to touch and be touched, an ache that he had learnt to contain over the years which he was now helplessly losing control over.
Merlin whimpered, trying to compose himself as the burning between his legs grew but found himself swooping down to Arthur’s neck instead, smelling the same scent as he did that day on the zip line, while saying between kisses, “ You look- so goddamn- incredible,” biting down where the neck and shoulder joined, causing Arthur to helplessly squirm under him.
Bringing his hand between the two of them, Arthur grasped Merlin’s cock and mapped his fingers along the silky skin before experimentally rubbing his thumb across the head, drawing out a shameless moan from Merlin.
Encouraged, Arthur took them both together in hand, shivering as Merlin nibbled down on his bottom lip. Arthur wrapped his legs around Merlin’s middle and was thrashing wildly underneath him as they ground against one another, pleasure building thick between them.
Merlin gradually built up speed because it was highly unlikely either of them were going to last for long. Leaning on his elbow, he bought his free hand up, brushing it through Arthur’s hair, while Arthur stared intently up at him before panting, “Ca- can I say it?”
“Say what?” Merlin asked, confused but too far gone to be paying too much attention.
“Mer-merlin!”
His orgasm hit, sending him arching off the floor and right up into Merlin who couldn’t help following him, choking out Arthur’s own name as well, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as a light burst behind them and riding through it till he was lying limp across Arthur.
They lay there for a few minutes, not caring about the drying cum all over their fronts, before Arthur interrupted, “At least now I know why you wouldn’t let me call you by your name before.”
Merlin looked up questioningly and then rolled off Arthur to beside him.
“Why?”
“Well seeing as once I said your name you came, then I would think it highly dangerous to let you out in public with people greeting you on first name terms. Imagine the horror.”
Merlin didn’t have to imagine the horror as he was already feeling it, but he chucked a pillow at Arthur’s head anyway hoping to distract him before he quietened down and stared up at the ceiling. He replayed what had happened in his mind, knowing that everything had changed now. Sure, he liked Arthur (in what he hoped was a platonic way), but he still had that horrified feeling in his stomach, thinking that he should have just kept well away.
Arthur noticed his silence and the blank expression of his face, his own face falling.
“That didn’t just…” he stopped, hesitantly.
“What?”
Merlin turned to look at him, hearing his disappointed tone.
Arthur sighed. “You didn’t just let that happen because I nearly drowned did you? You know, like in those films where someone is in danger and once their saved they suddenly have hot wild sex and then nothing afterwards. Well, if you watch those type of films of course.”
Merlin eyes widened and he sat up this time to face him. He should have known it might have come across like that.
“No, Arthur, believe me, I didn’t mean to make it seems like that. I‘m sorry if that’s what it seemed like. I wouldn‘t take advantage or anything, I‘m not like that!”
“I was only asking, no need to get your knickers in a twist.” That calmed him at least, his face seeming happier as he chuckled. “You’re right. Even if it didn’t happen, I think we both know it was going to happen sometime soon.”
He froze. He never realised how true that was till Arthur said it. There was just no escaping it. He was doomed from the start.
“Thanks for saving my life.”
He looked down again at Arthur who was smiling more joyfully than he’d ever seen him before.
“Your mouth comes in good use it seems.”
That night he prayed harder than he’d ever prayed before.
====================
Part 8b
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Dub-con for Arthur's age who although is not underage in the UK, he may be considered so in other areas. Bottom!Arthur. Porn fail. Blasphemy. Involves the catholic religion and priests being...unpriestly? The summary should help you decide whether you want to read or not.
Summary: Based on the prompt 'Arthur/Merlin AU, with reluctant priest!Merlin and bad Catholic!Arthur
A/N: Its been awhile hasn't it? Huge apologies everyone, and hopefully people are still willing to read this. A big thank you to
devienta for beta'ing too. It was too big for one post so there's two.======================================
Monday
“Give back Tauren's colourful stone, Owain. Yes, good bo- no, don‘t throw it back!”
“Gregory, stop looking up Sophia’s skirt. And Sophia, would you please stop letting him!?”
“Where’s my map? Who’s taken my map?”
Kids, Merlin found out, were not his area of expertise. They had left the cathedral earlier that morning (too early, he thought, judging from the grouchy children), but then again - giving them sugar was an even worse idea, seeing as now they wouldn’t stop running and screaming, which had attracted quite some attention from the locals on the way up.
Sighing in defeat, he turned and marched over to Arthur, dropping his rucksack down beside one of the standard turquoise tents everyone had.
“Arthur, aren’t you meant to be helping me with that lot?”
Looking up from where he was hammering the tent stakes into the ground, Arthur gave him an incredulous look and nudged his head towards the tent.
“Why yes Father, I am, but if you didn’t successfully bugger up the tent then I wouldn’t be here trying to salvage it.”
Casting his head back down again, he resumed with hitting the stakes, unaware of Merlin’s glare aimed at the back of it. Giving up seconds later, Merlin grabbed an already unfolded green camping chair and collapsed down into it, sulkily crossing his arms.
He had earlier tried his hand at putting up his own tent, after all it didn’t seem that hard, but after getting tangled in it, snapping some of the tent poles, accidentally ripping a foot shaped hole into one side of the tents walls and then finally getting it up - inside out - Arthur had decided to take over, having fetched the tent down from a tree after it blew away when Merlin’s back was turned.
“Why is it that all these kids managed to put up their own tents, but me - a full grown man - managed to wreck the flaming thing?”
“Just stick to the priesthood and you’ll be fine, Father.” Arthur laughed, then sent him a mischievous look before adding, “Don’t go investing in a career of camping or something else that equally shows off your incompetence.”
If looks could kill, Arthur would be a pile of ash by now, but as Merlin opened his mouth to object, Arthur stood up and threw down the hammer.
“All done. I hope its to your liking, Father.”
Merlin blushed at the salacious tone of ‘Father’, resolutely looking anywhere but Arthur, who smirked, satisfied with himself, and turned to walk towards the group of children while shouting back over his shoulder, “We should gather them round, tell them the arrangements.”
Hoisting himself up out of the chair, he walked over to the patch Arthur had called the kids to (not without checking the tent first, which yes, Arthur was highly good at salvaging) and stood a short distance behind him while he announced the rules.
“Alright everyone hush your mouths and listen. Through the entirety of this trip you are to listen to me and Father Emrys and us only. If there’s to be any misbehaviour, the bishop will hear of it, plus, you won’t be able to join in any activities.” A series of groans and horrified gasps accompanied this, whether it was because of not doing activities or because of having to face Uther though, Merlin couldn’t tell. He would have guessed Uther. “When we’re out and about don’t wander off or we’ll just leave you out in the forest to live in the wild because that’s what you get for running off.”
“Arthur!” Merlin interrupted at Arthur’s callousness, who rolled his eyes in return thinking how easily the priest would get mauled alive if he was to ever become a school teacher while Merlin turned back to the children to reassure them. “What he means is, if you get lost try and find the nearest guide and they’ll help you find us, okay?”
“With that said, you can all get to your tents and sleep because tomorrows going to be a long day. And its two in each, remember.”
Spinning around, Arthur marched back to the tent while everyone else slowly shuffled back to their own in pairs, leaving Merlin to think about what Arthur meant and dreading who he had to share with.
He came to join Arthur in the tent a few minutes later, asking, “It’s two to a tent?”
Arthur stopped rolling out his bed to pointedly give Merlin a patronizing look.
“Yes, two to a tent otherwise there’ll be a pile up of kids in each tent and seeing as we’re both the leaders it makes sense for us to share, don’t you think?”
“Er, yeah,” he nervously laughed, “Of course. Perfect sense.”
Resisting the urge the compose a horrified expression himself as the kids did, Merlin tottered over to his own sleeping bag to roll out, wishing one of the other children would want to pair with him instead, till he realised that would be a decidedly worse idea given they were all mostly around 10 years of age more or less.
========================
Tuesday
Merlin was glad that - despite his trepidation - Arthur hadn’t decided to play any of his odd games that made Merlin awkward when everyone else went to bed, or through the night either, even if he did wake up in the morning with Arthur’s arm slung over his waist, but that had happened in sleep so it didn’t really count as anything to him.
After breakfast they were scheduled to meet with a tour guide, an aged man with sleeked back grey hair and gold rimmed glasses, who happily agreed to work with them throughout the week and was going to show them the whole forest that day, which was great but more than a little tiring.
Most of their surroundings were just mossy trees that towered high above them, dimming the sunlight that filtered in through the leaves at the top, with damp earth and dead leaves littering the ground.
Merlin didn’t mind this at all, compared to the ‘I’ve got better things to see and do’ groans emanating from most of the group. Being the nature type, he spent a lot of the time discussing all different things about the forest with the guide.
He understood about half the conversation but after awhile couldn’t decipher what exactly the guide was on about once he started talking about something to do with finding destiny in a forest.
He wondered if it was some type of film that’d just come out but considering the way the guide was talking about it, he assumed otherwise, leaving the guide to his cryptic nattering and dissolving back into the rest of the group.
Once it reached midday, they stopped by the Giants Chair on the sculpture trail to take a short rest from the constant walking around and eat some lunch they’d took along.
Gareth, a boy who constantly complained the whole walk, stomped up to Merlin and continuously poked his finger into his back until he got his attention.
“Father Emrys, I refuse to sit on the grubby floor.”
He was quite a chubby boy who was also short for his age, with mousy brown hair that was combed intricately and dressed in neatly pressed dungarees. Merlin hadn’t seen much of him at church compared to all the other kids, but he had met his parents enough times to know he came from a completely snotty and arrogant family that probably spoilt him rotten.
“I didn’t say you had to.” Merlin responded, somewhat befuddled.
“Yes, but after a very long and boring walk I expect to be able to sit down and the only chair there is, is a 15 foot one that no one can sit on.” He exasperated.
Luckily to his rescue came Arthur, who strode over and joyfully made it a point to tower over the younger lad.
“Most of us are sitting on the floor but if you really can’t cope with such a trauma there’s a bench over there, the one Mordred’s sitting on.”
Hearing his name, the Mordred boy looked up. Realising Arthur was sending Gareth to sit with him, a look of sheer doom crossed his features by the news, wishing he was anywhere but there.
Gareth growled lowly in his throat and sent them both dirty looks before stalking off.
“I hate that boy”, Arthur grumbled. “He must be getting on your rag, just dangle some food in front of him if he whines any longer.”
“Arthur! You can’t say things like that.” Merlin hushed, eyes swivelling to see if anyone heard.
Unfortunately, Arthur being Arthur, he didn't care whatsoever and just smiled cheekily.
“I can and I just did.” He turned and walked off again, getting his bag ready for the next place they were off to because the quick rest was over.
-----------------------------------
“I know many of you are bored out of your minds by now, so up ahead is a treat for you all as an end to this tour and for you all being such good sports about it.” Announced the guide.
It had been three long hours since they had stopped at the Giants chair and everyone was pretty much dragging their feet along the ground now, screaming for rest.
There hadn’t really been much to see after they left the spot apart from doing some nature living type of programme thing.
Some how, the kids miraculously conjured up energy within themselves to be able to run and scream again at the mention of a treat, as if they hadn’t just spent the past 6 hours or so killing off every muscle in their bodies one by one.
Walking up ahead into a clearing, the guide presented them with what seemed to be a high wire rope course. Merlin’s heart couldn’t have sunk faster even if it tried.
The nauseated feeling at the prospect of heights started to fill his gut, helping to drain the blood from his face entirely. If he knew the tour was going to include this he would have made up some excuse beforehand to get out of it, but the kids were excited and he had no time to plan an excuse anyway. I can do this, he thought. It’s just some climbing on ropes through trees while harnessed up at insanely high heights.
“This tree top adventure should be fun for all of you, you can all go crazy up there for 3 hours but be-”
“3 hours?!” he accidentally blurted out, causing everyone to stop and stare.
Pausing dubiously, the guide inquired, “Is something wrong?”
“Err- no, 3 hours is…dandy.” Merlin tittered, shying away to the back of the group, playing anxiously with his fingers letting the tour guide resume speech.
Once the talk on safety was over (which only made Merlin sense more danger than safety) the children started lining up for each of them to get their harnesses on and start climbing, him being at the back of the queue of course.
“Father Emrys, you look a bit peaky. Do you have something wrong with heights?”
Arthur had somehow sidled his way beside him without his notice, and although the concern was written on his face, the amusement was more than evident as well.
“No, I’m totally fine.” He responded expressionless, trying to hide any trace of fear, which still didn’t wipe the doubtful look from Arthur’s face.
“Are you sure?”
“I can do this, Arthur.”
Without awaiting response, he brushed past Arthur ready to be harnessed up and climb, feeling some regret for snapping at him.
He got about half way up the cargo net before he stupidly glanced down and a fresh wave of dizziness came to him, making him cling even more tightly to the net, not moving further up.
He didn’t notice Arthur climbing up behind him until he was at his shoulder giving him an inauspicious look.
“You were saying, Father?”
With a penetrating glare Merlin replied, “Not. A. Word.”
“I’ll move along with you shall I? Come on, you don’t want to get left behind and I’m not having you make me last either.”
Merlin gave a few minutes thought before he nodded and relaxed his stiff grip on the rope to follow Arthur.
Once on the small landing at the top he resisted the urge to look down and let Arthur grab his hand as he pulled him over to a set of high rope bridges.
It wasn’t actually all that bad once he got used to it. He’d been able to handle the things like climbing through tunnels and the transverse climbing wall (as long as he didn’t look down), although he needed Arthur’s help for the rest of the course.
He had to hold on to Arthur’s waist while crossing the catwalk, which was a narrow log suspended in mid air with an easy drop; balance himself with Arthur’s shoulders on the spinning logs, which resulted in them both falling backwards anyway; and hold onto his wrists on the dangle duo as they sat higher on each log they transferred up onto.
He refused to go on the Tyrolean rope crossing because it was situated over a thrashing river which he no way wanted to shimmy himself across on and was the highest thing they’d come to so far that had to be done singularly. Arthur granted him to just watch instead, but he didn’t allow the same for the rope swinging.
Merlin did not appreciate Arthur’s liking for the rope swing. Out of everything, that had been his favourite thing so far - much to Merlin’s abhorrence.
“Come on Father Emrys, it will be fun”, he had said, which Merlin soon found out was a total lie once they were soaring through the air towards the rope net that was awaiting their collision, while Merlin clung tightly to Arthur who had one arm and foot wrapped around the rope and the other arm wrapped around Merlin’s waist.
“How was that fun, it was the worst thing we’ve been on!” he had yelled after detangling himself from the net while some of the children who had stopped to watch laughed at them.
He had spoken too soon. That was not the worst thing, the worst thing was the end of the course, which he had been waiting for in delight so that he could get off but when they found it was a zip line that zooms 90mph through the air at about 50 feet from the ground he couldn’t care less if he stayed on the course forever.
On the other hand, Arthur couldn’t have been more excited. He started attaching the pulley from the cable to his harness when he noticed Merlin backing away to make his escape.
“Where do you think you’re going? You can’t back out of this one.”
“I didn’t do the Tyrolean rope crossing so I don‘t have to do this.”
As if talking to a child, Arthur said, “Yes, but you didn’t need to go on that to get off the course. The zip lines the only way to finish.”
“I think I’d rather stay here, thanks.” Merlin mock smiled, holding up his hands in front of his chest.
Arthur rolled his eyes. “Don’t be silly. I’ll harness you onto me.”
“What? No! That‘s dangerous.”
“Believe it or not, it’s a lot safer than you being up here by yourself.”
Scowling, Merlin folded his arms and stood his ground.
Arthur tapped his watch. “We haven’t got all day.”
“We’ll be too heavy,” he sighed, even though he had started to move towards Arthur this time.
“You’ll be fine. I won’t let anything happen to you, not that you’ll believe me. Now, sit.”
He pointed at his lap earning a confused gaze from Merlin until he realised there was no other way to get on other than having to straddle Arthur’s lap in order to be harnessed successfully.
Hesitantly, he brought his leg over Arthur’s hips, pointedly ignoring the grin Arthur was ineffectively hiding while strapping Merlin in.
“Shouldn’t there be a helper up here doing this sort of thing?” He asked looking for any signs of anyone else.
Chuckling while still strapping up, Arthur riposted, “What, afraid I might make a mistake, one little slip up and we fall to our deaths?”
When he got no answer he looked up to find Merlin glaring daggers at him with a mixture of anxiety.
“Just kidding! Jeez, no need to panic. Anyway, I‘m done. Do you need me to quadruple check what I‘ve already double checked?”
“Would you stop with the jokes?”
“Alright, alright.” He wrapped his arms around Merlin’s waist before saying, “If there’s nothing else then we best be going.”
He kicked off from the platform with such force Merlin ended up having to clutch to Arthur’s chest a bit too hard and muffle his screaming into his neck while Arthur more than gladly accepted it, laughing cheerily as they glided through the air.
About half way down Merlin realised his screaming was a tad too high for male range so he bit down hard on his lip in an attempt to stop any sound escaping his mouth burying his head deeper into the joins of Arthur’s neck and shoulder, keeping his eyes tightly shut.
There was something about it that made everything else a blur. Arthur’s laughing phased out from him as he drew in the smell of sweat, fresh forest dew, and incense fused from years of living in the cathedral, yet he felt content sitting there protected in Arthur’s arms making him forget everything and anything, including the heights.
He must have been too deep in the thought of Arthur’s neck smell of all things because next thing he knew, Arthur was rubbing soothing circles into his back and saying, “Father Emrys, you can open your eyes now.”
Opening them he found they weren’t mid flight anymore and were now swinging round in slow turns hanging from the cable waiting for the guide who was making his way towards them at snail pace.
“Oh so now there is a helper.”
“Still complaining I see.” Arthur said, raising his eyes towards the heavens. “And you survived, may I add.”
“Yes, thank you for not sending us to our untimely deaths.” He deadpanned.
“You must have enjoyed it though, right? About half way down you actually managed to stop screaming like a girl and relax.” he said - as though surprised at the thought - while starting to detach the pulley from the cable.
“I do not scream like a girl”, Merlin replied in outrage, “and even if I did at least I wasn’t cackling like a witch in heat. What are you doing? You can’t take-”
Next second they were on the ground in a crumpled heap, Merlin sprawled ubiquitously across Arthur’s torso.
Coughing for air, the slightly winded Arthur still had not managed to unwrap his arms from around Merlin after the zip line.
Noticing the contorting of Arthur’s face, Merlin asked “Are you alright?”
“Mhm, just hurt my coccyx a bit.” Arthur grimaced.
“Want me to take a look?”
He shifted uncomfortably from the complete surprised look he earned off of Arthur in response before it changed to wonder.
“…do you even know where the coccyx is?”
“Er…no.”
If he must admit it, Merlin hadn’t the foggiest when it came to the human anatomy. He knew his arm from his leg and then some but other than that he knew zilch, which without a doubt came across rather blatantly to Arthur, otherwise he wouldn’t be grinning inanely with evil glee.
“I’ll show you then.”
Taking his hand, Arthur pulled it gently to behind his back, slightly lifting his hips as he brought the hand down past the inside of his trouser waist band.
Wide eyed, Merlin asked, “What are you doing?”, attempting to snatch his hand away, but Arthur had stopped already, stilling Merlin’s hand at the base of his spinal column and pressed his index and middle finger along the area, all the while watching Merlin‘s reactions closely.
“Feel any abnormalities?”
He was distracted less by any abnormalities and more by the fact that he had his hand down Arthur’s pants - which was abnormal in itself - fingers splayed at the top of the cleft of his arse touching the soft, smooth skin, which was so soft it was as if it were untouched. And Merlin felt bizarre as to the fact that he was probably one of the only people that had touched this area at all, apart from Arthur.
Out of his own accord he found himself moving his fingers lower, as if all senses had taken leave of him and gazing back at Arthur’s curious eyes, which he felt silly enough to admit were hypnotising because if they weren’t then he wouldn’t feel so powerless as to the fact that he was leaning ever closer towards Arthur’s face with his eyes still at gaze and they’re lips merely centimetres separate. Leaning and leaning and-
“How was that for you both?”
- not leaning.
Realising what he was doing, and analysing just exactly how close they were in distance and intimacy, Merlin yanked himself off Arthur, hand in tow, trying to make it look like his hand did not just come out of his pants while he shot to a standstill in front of the ill-timed guide.
“It was great, thank you for today.” He rushed.
The guide nodded in acceptance at Merlin’s slightly stuttered thanks, turning to Arthur who had come to a stand next to him; face a mix of delight and irritation.
“It was a hoot.”
“I’m glad you both found it enjoyable.” He smiled knowingly. “I saw the fall. None of you got hurt did you?”
If he saw the fall, he probably saw a whole lot more too, Merlin groaned.
“Arthur hurt his coccyx.”
“Yes, but they feel much better now thanks to Father Emrys’s aid.” Arthur smirked, making it a point to pat Merlin hard and lingering on the back.
“I’ve hurt my tailbone before on this thing. Luckily I was younger than I am now, otherwise my old bones wouldn‘t be able to take it.” The guide chuckled to himself.
“Tailbone?” Merlin questioned, before turning to Arthur. “It’s the tailbone? Well, why didn’t you just say, I know what that is at least!”
Merlin laughed, seeing how idiotic he must have seemed to have not known that before noticing both sets of raised eyebrows from the others staring at him. His laughter died as he composed himself, coughing in his throat.
“Right well, now that’s over, we better be getting back to camp for dinner.”
--------------------
Later on in the evening, sometime just after Merlin finally stopped shaking from having flown through the air at a ridiculous height, everyone went off to bed. The children had all nodded off at some point or other but he and Arthur were lying in their tent still awake and trying to nod off too.
“These kids go to bed way too early.” Arthur declared after some silence. “I can‘t remember the last time I had to be in bed by 8.30.”
“Its 9.45.”
“Exactly, I don’t even go to bed by 9.45 and we’ve been trying to get to sleep for over an hour now. How many more is it going to be?”
Merlin heaved a sigh. “Try not to whine too much will you? You might wake up the whole camp.”
“Coming from the one who screamed at the top of their lungs the whole way down the zip line and complained after.” Arthur guffawed in reply.
“I didn’t scream the whole way”, Merlin defensively stated. “And I only complained because I told you not to take me on it and you ignored me.”
There was a shuffling about behind him as Arthur rearranged himself to face Merlin’s back, emitting a light breath on his neck.
“There was no other way down. What would you have had me do? Leave you stranded there on the tiny beam.” He vehemented. “God, you are so Jane.”
“Who?”
“Jane.” Arthur answered simply. “As in Tarzan and Jane?”
“What?! I am in no way Jane.” He gawked, much to Arthur’s amusement.
“Father Emrys, you clung to me like a damsel in distress while swinging from that tree. You are Jane.”
He couldn’t really argue with that because it was too close to being true, so instead said, “Are you suggesting you're Tarzan then?”
“Hmm…” Arthur said with false thoughtfulness, pretending to ponder. “I’m handsome, strong, a good climber and you swoon over me. Yeah, I’d say I’m pretty much Tarzan.”
“Your ego astounds me.” And a little belatedly -“And I do not swoon over you.”
“Mhm, whatever you say, Jane.”
“Don’t call me that, and don’t go thinking I’ll be calling you Tarzan either.” He warned, although the amusement was clear in his voice.
“Me Tarzan, you Jane.” Arthur responded in an ape like voice, before bursting into laughter behind Merlin, his chuckled breaths heating the back of his neck even more so as he joined in before they gradually fell into a pleasant calmness.
After a couple of minutes Arthur broke the quiet by asking, “So you're afraid of heights, huh?”
“No, I hate them. Afraid and hate are not the same thing.”
“So in other words you're terrified of them.”
Merlin rolled his eyes, not answering, and then remembered Arthur couldn’t see this anyway and probably took it as a yes for being terrified.
“Come on, admit it.” He felt a tingling up his spine, something padding along it in patterns, before he realised Arthur was drawing lightly into his back with his finger.
“Why did I have to get stuck in a tent with you?” Merlin groaned, no trace of malice present.
Arthur ignored his gentle whinging. “We have climbing tomorrow, are you going to drag your scrawny arse up that wall or am I going to have do it for you?”
“We’ll see when we get there.”
He went for settling down more into his sleeping bag - ignoring Arthur’s ‘scrawny arse’ statement - but heard a shuffling from Arthur again as he came closer, much further towards Merlin’s neck than before and whispered in his ear.
“Well then we better get some rest, Father Emrys.”
Unbeknown to Arthur, he touched over a ticklish spot at his back at the same time he whispered against his ear, causing a shiver to overcome him in his attempt to block out a moan.
“Are you cold?”
“No?”
Opting for cold would have been a much better idea than opting for whatever it was he had actually just felt, but his questioning tone seemed to convince Arthur that he was in fact cold, to which he proceeded to manhandle Merlin around to face him and then wrap his arms around him- much to Merlin’s bewilderment..
“Err…?”
“Just relax and go to sleep. This should keep you warm, what with body heat and all.” Arthur explained.
Merlin really should have felt odder about this, but he couldn’t deny it felt rather pleasant. Slackening in Arthur’s hold, it didn’t take long for him to drift off into sleep while Arthur endlessly played patterns on his back.
==============================
Wednesday
The same guide as the day before returned and took them to the climbing and abseiling walls, which wasn’t disguised in the trees like the rope course but it was much higher and looked more intimidating.
Its not as if his fear went unnoticed the day before so no one minded if he just sat and watched this time although he had a suspicion that Arthur still had ideas about helping Merlin climb up.
Once everyone was strapped up and had a safety talk, the guide saw them off, sometimes shouting up hints if they were doing something wrong that was stopping them from moving higher.
Arthur was unsurprisingly the first one to reach the top, bringing himself to stand once he’d dragged himself up over the edge and raising his arms triumphantly in the air before proceeding to turn and wink down at Merlin while a helper started getting him ready to abseil down.
Leaving his post, the guide came over, sitting down next to Merlin on the bench that had plant stalks and leaves wrapped around it from its growth direction.
“You not going to have a go?” he asked, bringing Merlin out of his reverie and startling him slightly.
“Oh no, I think after yesterday I better miss out on the big heights type of things.” He notified, laughing lightly to himself.
“Well, you can join in the archery later then.”
They sat in silence after that, awkward but also companionable somehow, watching the many kids try and compete their way to the top of the wall and down again.
“He seems to have a keen interest in you.” The guide suddenly spoke.
Merlin followed his line of sight. “Who, Arthur?”
“Yes, the young boy looks out for you and prefers your company to the others.”
Merlin frowned confusedly before understanding what he must have meant. “Oh no that was just because I wasn’t that taken to the ropes yesterday so he helped me, plus he’s the oldest one here - not including myself. The next one closest to his age is Maria over there, who’s about 14.” He shook his head and rolled his eyes, adding, “Arthur‘s about that age where he thinks he‘s too cool to hang around with children.”
“There is more than meets the eye, I’m sure. There is a bond that lies beneath more than just priest and pupil.”
“You know I teach him?” he asked intrigued.
“I once knew his father, so it would be fitting for the bishop to assort his son with more teachings than necessary.”
“You know Bishop Pendragon?” Now he really was interested, turning in his seat to face the guide more. “How?”
“I too was once where you are now. Unfortunately though Uther disliked me, so once he became bishop there was no hope in me staying.” He had a slight saddened expression followed with some anger, but it was well concealed.
“So you came here instead of joining another parish?”
“You ask many questions, young priest.” The man chuckled, but continued none the less. “I love the great outdoors, always preferred it. No one likes to be stuck inside now do they?”
They sat in silence once more, this time much more difficult than the last.
“You have another question don’t you?” The guide amusedly stated, noticing the tapping of Merlin’s fingers on his thigh. “Go ahead. Ask.”
“Why does Uther hate you?”
As if expecting the question, the older man sighed to himself, sitting back further against the bench with a solemn expression. “Although he was never a religious man to start with, Camelot itself is, so his parents were regular worshippers of God and would always attend service. Through his teenage years they asked of me to supply some of my teachings onto him because they wished for him to be less rebellious and more obedient. Obviously, it didn’t work out too well.” He finalised.
It didn’t exactly answer his question, but he had already asked enough so he wasn’t going to probe. He looked back to where all the kids were playing, most of them nearly down now and waiting for the last few to descend.
“Do you wish to keep your job?”
The question threw Merlin off a bit, puzzling him as to what they were talking about now and to why the guide looked so serious.
“Yes, why?”
“Then do as I never did with Uther. I doubt you wish for the boy’s admiration of you to turn to hate.”
Before he could ask for an explanation, the children had started coming over due to already finishing the activity and wanting to move on. The guide happily jumped up gathering them all to head off to the archery fields. Merlin got up to join them as they started walking off, Arthur joining him at the back of the group.
“Tarzan missed his Jane.” He pouted, using the ape like voice again.
“Would you stop with that?” Merlin laughed, shaking his head at Arthur before catching the guide looking back at them from over the heads of the children to give him a quick knowing smirk.
--------------------------------------------------
“I’m guessing not many of the activities have been in your favour.”
Giving up on his puttering around the tent for a plaster to put on his damned blister that was leaking profusely, Merlin peered up to find Arthur standing at the entrance all dressed and ready for bed. How he could find his pyjamas in and amongst the mess they’d already made of their living quarters for the week, he’ll never know.
“What do you mean?”
Arthur proceeded across the floor to his rucksack. “Well, so far things have mainly involved heights, a boring walk and you completely fail at archery so you mustn’t be having much fun.”
Archery hadn’t been a huge success for him either, much like the climbing. He’d missed every shot at the target board and had nearly somehow shot at his own foot, the arrow only just missing it by centimetres. After that everyone thought it was probably best he sat out and watched.
“No, I’ve had fun, not as much as I would have liked but it’s enough.” He responded, honestly. “Plus, the height activities are over already, I have better things to look forward to. And I do not completely fail at archery, I managed to string the bow properly.”
“True, after much help. Tell me, how many times did you hit the target exactly?” He inquired amusedly, stepping over with something in hand.
“…None.” He muttered, glaring at Arthur for being such a smart arse. “But I was close!”
“You were miles off on every hit.” He said flatly, plonking a box of plasters in Merlin’s hand then withdrawing to lay on his sleeping bag, hands behinds his head.
“Yeah well. Not everyone is perfect at everything like you.” Merlin muttered.
Smirking, Arthur hummed contently from his laidback position. “So you admit, I’m perfect.”
“As in, very good at doing things.” He concluded, searching for the correct words, which he should have known would only make Arthur even more intolerable because he had a dirty, dirty mind.
“I’m not going to forget this.” Yep, the smirk definitely gave away the way his mind was filtering what he said.
“Fine, I called you perfect, happy?”
There was perhaps some truth behind the words, but he was hardly going to admit that to Arthur.
“Immensely. You're not too bad yourself despite your ineptitudes.”
Merlin paused putting on his plaster, peering up looking completely confused. “I’m quite lost as to whether that was an insult or complement.”
“Take it whichever way you’d prefer.” Arthur smiled.
Pressing down the plaster to make sure it properly stuck on his newly formed blister, he chucked it’s box in the corner and proceeded to getting into his own sleeping bag settled next to Arthur’s, who rolled back to get under his as well instead of lying on top of it.
“You know, I could have helped you with the climbing today.” Arthur said quietly after settling, gazing blankly at the ceiling.
Merlin looked over to study his features shortly before turning back. “I appreciate your help for yesterday but I’d rather not climb anymore heights thank you, at least not for awhile.”
“You would have been alright; I might have even been able to harness you on to me again.” Arthur smirked, reliving the memory.
Merlin scoffed. “Our weight combined would probably break the rope.”
“Our weight combined would make no difference because you’re a skinny little fellow who needs to fatten up a bit.” He stated, matter-of-factly.
“Charming.”
Merlin turned around to face the wall where there were layers of cello tape keeping together the material over Merlin‘s foot shaped hole, bringing up his blanket over his shoulder, closing his eyes and willing sleep to over take him as he listened to the quiet swaying of trees and bushes outside against the wind.
“It was nice though.”
He opened his eyes. Clearly the conversation hadn’t ended as he had thought.
“What was?”
“Yesterday” Arthur said, but due to Merlin’s confused silence he added, “the rope course.”
“Oh, Sure.” He murmured non-committedly, letting his eyelids slowly shut again.
“It was nice with, you know, what happened” Arthur hesitatingly said, including in irritation, “until that guide went and bloody ruined it of course.”
Merlin didn’t answer, choosing to stare at the tent wall instead now that his eyes had unwilfully snapped open. Arthur took it as a chance to explain more.
“I keep imagining what would of happened if he hadn’t of come along and it was just us two out in the forest or what it would be like to have you straddling me again or holding onto me like a dying man.”
“Arthur.”
He turned speedily, coming face to face with him now. It was getting increasingly hard to ignore him anymore.
“Come on, you can’t deny you hadn’t thought it too, I know you did, it was written all over your face. Not to mention your hands were trailing past normal boundaries.”
Merlin gave a scandalized huff. “I was checking for injury, plain and simple.”
“And how do you explain the neck sniffing?” Arthur delved, pinning Merlin with a scrutinizing look. “Because it’s rather hard not to notice someone nuzzling into my neck, Father.”
Turning beet red and spluttering indignantly, Merlin quickly sifted his brain for a plausible explanation, knowing too well that he had already wasted about 15 seconds thinking and stuttering incoherent noises.
“I was just hiding my face in fear.” He made up, laughing nervously. “You know, being afraid of heights and all.”
Arthur didn‘t waste a second answering, eyebrows raised in fake confusion. “But you said you hated them. Afraid and hate are not the same thing, isn’t that what you said?”
Well that went down the pan. He cursed his brain for not thinking of a better excuse, silently doing so in his head just so that he had something to concentrate on doing that would help him avoid the well hidden dismay in Arthur’s eyes staring him down as he was stuck between him and the wall.
Arthur shuffled closer a bit more now making it simply impossible to avoid.
“Just admit it, Father, Please.”
Merlin exhaled deeply, shaking his head as he closed his eyes for a few seconds thinking and opened them again.
“Look Arthur, I can assure you-”
He was cut off by the dive of Arthur’s lips to his own, firm but unmoving, dissolving all thought from Merlin’s brain as they burnt against his mouth and into his memory.
Breaking off, Arthur searched his dazed face waiting for a response that wasn‘t rejection or something equally cutting.
“Arthur you can‘t-”
But he was doing it again, chaste and sweet, laying a light kiss against his lips to silence his protests before withdrawing again.
“Arthur-”
He should of known that would receive yet another in turn. Arthur didn’t want to hear anything he had to say, so he just swallowed the words down instead.
Every time Arthur would pull away he’d soon come back, each time less chaste and more intense than before, his hands wandering over into Merlin’s sleeping bag, and every time he’d break off Merlin would say his name, only in warning as to pick up from where his protests left off, but once he realised the chanting of his name had become less warning and more urgent, breathless gasps as he eagerly accepted Arthur’s mouth, he pushed Arthur away, maybe a little too harshly, surprise etched on his features for what was a second before turning to confusion.
It was happening once more, and this time he couldn’t just send Arthur away from his office like usual or walk away from him either. He had to face him and hope that he could control himself throughout the night if they were going to both be staying.
“Arthur, you really have to stop. This can’t keep happening. I don’t think you realise just how bad this is.”
He took one look at Merlin’s guilty expression before growling angrily under his breath.
“Why do you have to be so bloody difficult?!”
Giving him the ultimate death glare, Arthur turned forcibly in his sleeping bag to face away from Merlin.
Both of them were surely going to be pretending to sleep throughout the night.
==============================
Thursday
Merlin had been dozing in and out of sleep, finding it difficult to settle his mind, so as soon as even the faintest light filtered through the tent he was up and making his way to the closest lake.
He sat thinking about the night before, regaining himself. He only had three days left, he could get through those, right? He hoped so at least. It was becoming harder and harder to refuse Arthur.
He must have been gone a while because by the time he got back nearly everyone was awake, including Arthur when he re-entered the tent.
He was glaring at the opposite tent wall as if trying to burn a hole through the material.
“Where’d you go?”
“Just the lake. I needed to wash.” His quiet response was delayed in reply.
“We’re going kayaking this morning, you could have just got wet there.”
“Oh.”
Needless to say, that was how far their conversation progressed for the rest of the morning, until the guide came along again shortly after breakfast to bring them along to the Kayak and Wafting house.
The kayaks had already been aligned onto the river, so after getting their equipment on and learning how to hold the paddle properly everyone clambered in to their individual kayaks.
“From what I’ve been informed you’re all beginners in this so we’re going to start by-”
“I’ve been kayaking before. Whitewater kayaking actually.”
Sophia, a galling child, glided her way forward in her kayak, making it a point to flick her hair back with her hand and show she could still do strokes with the other one on the paddle. She did end up going a bit rocky though so immediately put the other back on to grip.
“Daddy says I’m a natural, he’s the head of Avalon Watersports Inc so he knows talent when he sees it.”
Arthur snorted and muttered, “Obviously not.” as she swam by; eliciting a disdainful glare from her while she stopped next to him.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. Now stop blathering and pay attention, your pissing everyone off.” He growled out.
She gave him a frustrated scowl. “It’s not my fault no one else here knows how to-AHH.”
Using his paddle, Arthur had gust up a huge wave of water directed perfectly at her face, messing up her already poorly applied make-up - due to lack of experience at 11 - and drenching her smoothly combed fair hair into lanky, tangled strands.
“Did I not just tell you to shut it?” he asked.
Spluttering unintelligibly, she fumed, “You’ll regret that.” Before she received another splash to the face, this time from a five year old who thought it looked fun, so she had to relocate somewhere far from them both.
“Thank you Mr.Pendragon, interruptions are vastly annoying.” The guide said unamusedly. “Now, all of you sit up straight, the key is good posture. Just relax your shoulders, open your chest and copy me, okay?”
The instructor did a bunch of odd flailing with his arms, Merlin couldn’t exactly tell what it was, but when he copied whatever was going on he seemed pretty good at it, immensely actually. His strokes didn’t falter or make him turn in the completely wrong direction, or even send him crashing into someone else. He just breezed through the water, slow and easy, gradually being able to pick up speed once confident.
Some of the others were progressing too, albeit not as well.
While everyone was practising, Arthur deliberately swam across Sophia’s path, going as slow as possible to reframe her from moving forward, causing her to throw a little hissy fit and soon her and Arthur started bickering at the back, which resulted in their very own water fight.
“I warn you, you shouldn’t do that.” The guide advised, almost sing song like.
With one last triumphant splash, Arthur swam away, smiling smugly to himself, but considering Merlin heard another huge splash after that, he presumed he wasn’t quite as triumphant as he thought.
The guide just sighed and went off to help Mordred disentangle his paddle from a bunch of weeds.
He sat back, non-paddling, but still jutting in the water, taking in his surroundings. The river was very secluded, the perimeter enclosed by the woods that were sending out the occasional twitter of a nesting bird while crickets buzzed in the grass.
The sun reflected against the water, a rainbow colour hitting his skin as it shined back at him. There was a blue flick, a swish of a tail maybe, as he saw a fish skimming just under surface.
It was a luminescent blue with black flecks spaced along its fins. He put his hand in, causing the fish to startle away from him hurriedly, only to return seconds later approaching his finger and doing that odd thing fish do with the circle of their mouth, a sort of globbing motion like their trying to bite but don’t have the teeth to do so.
The sensation always felt weird and disgusting to him so he retracted his hand, content with just watching it swim, soon accompanied by other fish of the same kind.
An ear splitting scream caught him back to the others. Snapping his head around he found the screaming was coming from Sophia, who was trying to get someone’s attention for help while pointing at a discarded floating life jacket bobbing along the water next to a capsized kayak.
Glancing around frantically, he saw everyone was there except Arthur.
He didn’t even waste a second. Grabbing the spray skirt’s grab loop, he quickly ripped it off and shoved himself out the kayak, diving in while his kayak simultaneously rotated with him.
The water was murky, making it a little harder to see, but he swam speedily over to where the shadow of Arthur‘s kayak could be seen bobbing up and down, powering through the water.
He could see him, dropping upside down a little way bellow his kayak. He hadn’t sunk that far so he mustn’t have been down long. He dived down, looping his arm around Arthur’s waist when he reached him before ploughing upwards, breaking the surface on the lake and quickly swimming back towards land with Arthur against his chest.
Everyone else had started paddling in, desperate to see what happened.
Dragging him over the ground, Merlin lay Arthur down and immediately started searching for a pulse. There was one tiny beating but it was fading off. Shit.
He hadn’t done CPR before, but one of his friends back in Ealdor was a paramedic and had explained somethings to him before when he was retelling him some of the things he’d done on the job, plus he’d seen his fair share of medical dramas. Drawing up on old memories of what he had said, Merlin kneeled down next to him and brought up his chin.
He pinched Arthur’s nose and covered his mouth with his own feeling the heat was starting to vanish from them, replacing them with a cooling, still touch.
“I thought he’d eskimo roll or something, I kept thinking he was going to come up any second, just waiting and waiting for it to happen, but he didn’t and instead that floated up”, Sophia cried, rushing to join him and pointing to the life jacket still floating in the water, adding hysterically, “I didn’t mean to do it! I really didn’t mean to, it was just for laughs, I didn’t know I’d kill him! Oh my god. I’ve killed him haven’t I? Haven’t I?!”
“Sophia calm the fuck down your making the others upset.” The girl Maria shouted, who was trying to comfort a few of the younger children to stop them crying.
He blew into his mouth a second time, watching his chest rise out of the corner of his eye before placing one hand over the other, facing them palm down on Arthur’s chest and pumping it, doing chest compressions until he had to pull away and breathe into his mouth again.
Still nothing.
“Arthur, you prat, wake up, there is no way you can do this.”
The guide rushed over, Arthur‘s life jacket in hand and knelt opposite Merlin, studying it.
“He mustn’t have put his life jacket on properly. It shouldn’t have come off so easily, it would have helped him float.”
“Fuck!”
A few of the children looked surprised, if only for a few seconds but were more concerned about Arthur than his swearing.
He pumped his chest again, not giving up, not until Arthur was safe and breathing, then he’d kill him for being a complete idiot.
He shuffled forward, pinching Arthur’s nose again and covering his mouth. Aha. He felt a tiny breath of air breeze his lips but it wasn’t enough. He breathed into his mouth again, this time receiving more of a response. Arthur’s chest had started rising and falling by itself now and he was coming around, much to Merlin’s relief. And he was - he was licking his way into his mouth?
Pulling off immediately, he looked down seeing Arthur slowly opening his eyes and inhaling deeply before suddenly coughing up all over the place.
The sound of happy squealing and delight resounded around them, some applause too.
“Arthur, you’re alive!” Merlin half-shouted, ecstatic.
“You can’t get rid of me that easily”, he weakly smiled, and then he caught sight of Sophia, who was cowering behind a few of the others so he wouldn’t notice her.
“You! You tried to drown me you little bitch!”
He made to get up and after her, until Merlin pushed him back down.
“Arthur she didn’t mean it, just calm down, okay. I think you have some explaining to do about that life jacket yourself, do you not?”
Arthur look confused for a few seconds before comprehension dawned, bowing his head to avoid Merlin’s angry eyes.
“I’ll take him back to camp.” Merlin said, putting Arthur’s arm over his shoulder and dragging him up. “You’ll be able to look after this lot?”
“Certainly, go.” The guide replied, watching them head off back to camp.
----------------------------------------------
Arriving back to the silence of the camp, Merlin directed Arthur over to their tent, sitting him down on his sleeping bag.
“Here, lie down, I’ll get you a towel.”
Peering around, he found there were no fresh towels so he opted for the partially dirty one on the floor, passing it to Arthur, who had been quiet ever since they had left the others.
“The water wasn’t cold so you’re unlikely to get hypothermia but start getting dressed anyway. I’ll wait outside.”
He waited outside for about two minutes or so, scuffing his shoes on the ground and listening to Arthur bustling around until Arthur let him in again.
“Are you feeling alright?” he asked once he was in.
“I’m perfectly fine.” Arthur mumbled.
Merlin came to stand opposite Arthur, folding his arms. “Right, then you won’t feel so bad as to tell me why that life jacket wasn’t on properly.”
Arthur let out a long sigh, leaning forward more to look at the ground continuously instead of having to face Merlin.
“It was a little small for me so I couldn’t do it up properly. They probably just got a bunch of kiddie sizes out because they saw that lot.”
Merlin blinked. “That’s ridiculous. Why on earth didn’t you ask for a next size up?”
“It was a fucking tiny, calm river, not some bloody raging whirlpool, Father Emrys. I thought it wouldn’t matter, how was I to know I’d be in any danger. Which I wasn’t let me remind you, until that bint tried to drown me. And it’s not exactly easy to get out of a kayak under water with no life jacket or previous experience all while trying not to panic.” he vexed, standing up now to pace the tent floor.
“They give you life jackets for a reason. There are even people who can die in paddling pools, just because something looks harmless doesn’t mean it is.” Merlin’s voice had started rising, his angry and distraught expression getting to Arthur and making him turn away.
“Alright, alright, sorry. Next time I’ll be more careful.”
Merlin stared in disbelief. “Next time? Arthur, you can’t just carelessly dismiss what happened, you could have died!”
“And what does that matter to you?”
Arthur turned to face him now, anger building in his own features too.
“What does that matter to me? That matter’s everything to me, why would you even ask such a thing?”
Arthur barked a laugh causing Merlin to jump, concern replacing his recent distress.
“Well it’s not as if you’ve showed any liking towards me, is it? You’d probably be glad to be rid of me.”
“You can’t honestly believe that can you?” Merlin asked quietly, face painted in shock.
Arthur bolted around rapidly to shout furiously at Merlin, “What do you expect me to believe?!”
They stood there a few seconds in silence apart from the noise of deep breathing, Arthur glaring at Merlin and Merlin staring still rather shocked at Arthur.
He went back to pacing, face cast at the floor as he brought hands up to tug at his wet hair.
“Arthur, look.” Merlin had seemed to regain his voice, this time being a lot calmer as he made his way over to Arthur. “I’m sorry if it seems I’m blaming this all on you. I’ll give Sophia a talking to as well, don’t worry, it’s just you really should have been more careful.”
“I’m not on about the bloody kayaking!” Arthur groaned frustratingly, stopping mid-pace.
“Then what?”
“Never mind.”
“No, tell me.” Merlin pressed on, confused.
“And what would I gain from telling you apart from rejection and avoidance?”
“Is this-”
“No, Father Emrys, you’ve made it clear enough times, I get it. You can go back to the others now; I’d rather be left alone.” He started to turn away, heading for the sleeping bag until Merlin grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
“Arthur I-”
“Good god, would you just-”
Merlin had caught onto Arthur’s sentence interruption technique it seemed, because usually it would be Arthur doing this type of thing. But now? Now it was Merlin doing the surprise swoop in and kiss. Half of him didn’t even realise what exactly he was doing, Arthur probably felt the same too, if his shocked yelp was anything to go by, but he was liking it nonetheless. It felt good to be able to feel those lips with life and heat again instead of the motionless, cold ones from before.
Merlin broke off, stepping back from Arthur and looking more than shocked with himself.
Arthur swayed slightly and dazedly asked, “Did that just happen?”
Merlin stepped back a bit further, eyes wild and fingers pulling at his hair.
“I think so. Oh god, yes.”
Arthur spluttered, looking completely stunned. “I-well- that’s - finally!”
“I’m -I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have.” Merlin anxiously started, equally wide eyed as Arthur.
“No! No, don’t apologise. I wanted that, you shouldn’t feel sorry.”
“I don’t know what came over me it just happened.”
Arthur put a finger over Merlin’s mouth, shushing him before slowly withdrawing it and smiling gratefully at him.
“Honestly, it’s more than fine.”
Merlin looked down, appalled. “It was wrong.”
Arthur lifted his chin, forcing Merlin to look at him and leaned forward to gently plant a kiss to his lips before leaning away again.
“How can that be wrong?”
Honestly, he wasn’t sure. It was the first time he’d felt right in a long time, and he wanted - needed to kiss Arthur again. He hesitantly drew back in, this time slowly and without surprise, sealing his lips against Arthur’s. It was chaste and sweet but soon he was licking into Arthur’s mouth, unhesitant now and overcome with the thought that Arthur was far from dead but had been within inches of being so, desperately holding him against his chest while his other hand roamed in his blonde hair.
They stumbled back towards the sleeping bags on the floor, Merlin not really noticing but letting Arthur pull him down on top of him, still connected at the mouth.
Breaking off to breath in as much air as possible, Merlin moved back, balancing on his knees while Arthur clasped onto his shirt buttons and started undoing them.
“Your clothes are soaking wet, you should probably get out of them now.”
Merlin surprisingly chuckled; feeling light and like everything was timeless, and reached for his belt, hands shaking.
He still felt peculiar. It hadn’t started hitting him that he was undressing for Arthur and Arthur was undressing for him quite yet, but he was getting there, and the thought really should have made him want to stop but it just turned him on even more.
He finally shoved his trousers down and groaned as he felt Arthur greedily kissing down his chest - having undone Merlin’s shirt along with his own - spending time to suck from one nipple to the other, giving a hesitant tug between his teeth on them before licking a trail all the way back up to kiss Merlin’s lips again.
He complied into it, letting his hands roam over Arthur’s chest, his form still not quite filled but beautiful none the less and skin soft underneath his palms, enjoying the little noises he’d make whenever he tweaked each rosy nub.
Merlin could feel Arthur hard against him through his trousers which Merlin hadn’t dared to remove yet, thinking that if they stayed on then he still had a chance to back out and do the right thing but his hand was already being led by Arthur past the waistband, pulling them off together before leaning Arthur back down against the floor. His breath hitched in his throat as Arthur lay naked before him, a blush creeping up his face and his legs crossing slightly in embarrassment from the intensity of Merlin’s gaze, who could not for the life of him stop staring because he had forgotten what this felt like for so long. The rush and the intimacy of being able to touch and be touched, an ache that he had learnt to contain over the years which he was now helplessly losing control over.
Merlin whimpered, trying to compose himself as the burning between his legs grew but found himself swooping down to Arthur’s neck instead, smelling the same scent as he did that day on the zip line, while saying between kisses, “ You look- so goddamn- incredible,” biting down where the neck and shoulder joined, causing Arthur to helplessly squirm under him.
Bringing his hand between the two of them, Arthur grasped Merlin’s cock and mapped his fingers along the silky skin before experimentally rubbing his thumb across the head, drawing out a shameless moan from Merlin.
Encouraged, Arthur took them both together in hand, shivering as Merlin nibbled down on his bottom lip. Arthur wrapped his legs around Merlin’s middle and was thrashing wildly underneath him as they ground against one another, pleasure building thick between them.
Merlin gradually built up speed because it was highly unlikely either of them were going to last for long. Leaning on his elbow, he bought his free hand up, brushing it through Arthur’s hair, while Arthur stared intently up at him before panting, “Ca- can I say it?”
“Say what?” Merlin asked, confused but too far gone to be paying too much attention.
“Mer-merlin!”
His orgasm hit, sending him arching off the floor and right up into Merlin who couldn’t help following him, choking out Arthur’s own name as well, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as a light burst behind them and riding through it till he was lying limp across Arthur.
They lay there for a few minutes, not caring about the drying cum all over their fronts, before Arthur interrupted, “At least now I know why you wouldn’t let me call you by your name before.”
Merlin looked up questioningly and then rolled off Arthur to beside him.
“Why?”
“Well seeing as once I said your name you came, then I would think it highly dangerous to let you out in public with people greeting you on first name terms. Imagine the horror.”
Merlin didn’t have to imagine the horror as he was already feeling it, but he chucked a pillow at Arthur’s head anyway hoping to distract him before he quietened down and stared up at the ceiling. He replayed what had happened in his mind, knowing that everything had changed now. Sure, he liked Arthur (in what he hoped was a platonic way), but he still had that horrified feeling in his stomach, thinking that he should have just kept well away.
Arthur noticed his silence and the blank expression of his face, his own face falling.
“That didn’t just…” he stopped, hesitantly.
“What?”
Merlin turned to look at him, hearing his disappointed tone.
Arthur sighed. “You didn’t just let that happen because I nearly drowned did you? You know, like in those films where someone is in danger and once their saved they suddenly have hot wild sex and then nothing afterwards. Well, if you watch those type of films of course.”
Merlin eyes widened and he sat up this time to face him. He should have known it might have come across like that.
“No, Arthur, believe me, I didn’t mean to make it seems like that. I‘m sorry if that’s what it seemed like. I wouldn‘t take advantage or anything, I‘m not like that!”
“I was only asking, no need to get your knickers in a twist.” That calmed him at least, his face seeming happier as he chuckled. “You’re right. Even if it didn’t happen, I think we both know it was going to happen sometime soon.”
He froze. He never realised how true that was till Arthur said it. There was just no escaping it. He was doomed from the start.
“Thanks for saving my life.”
He looked down again at Arthur who was smiling more joyfully than he’d ever seen him before.
“Your mouth comes in good use it seems.”
That night he prayed harder than he’d ever prayed before.
====================
Part 8b