themegaloo: (Merlin- Merlin+Arthur- There for you)
Megan ([personal profile] themegaloo) wrote2009-02-18 04:37 am
Entry tags:

Merlin fic: Sweet Dreams Fly (PART TWO)

READ PREVIOUS ENTRY FIRST. This will not make sense otherwise.



[caesura]



At least not at first. Or second. Or third. And after that, Merlin sort of lost count and just started to catalogue glimpses, waiting for the day when he’d wake up again and be the Future King.

After all, you can’t argue with destiny. You might get eaten by a dragon, and wouldn’t that be unpleasant.

--

Sometimes Merlin was young when he saw Arthur again. He was young and beautiful and…wearing a dress once. It wasn’t his fault and if Arthur ever happened to remember it (someday, hopefully, maybe), Merlin felt entirely entitled to throw things. Rotten fruit, preferably. Revenge was best served cold, after all. Very, very cold in this case.

He just rather liked food (though he could, technically, live without it. He’d tried once, it hadn’t been pleasant) and acting wasn’t so bad. He’d gotten better at it—he’d had a couple centuries of pretending that he didn’t cyclically get younger and older and consistently Not Die, after all. And that Will Shakespeare fellow wasn’t so bad, really. When he wasn’t putting him in dresses and telling him he had lovely facial features for the part.

Arthur just had to show up the night he was playing Portia. Couldn’t have come on a Puck night.

Complete and utter prat.

--

Merlin liked writers. They had good imaginations and didn’t tend to mind when he got sulky and drank himself stupid. Which really didn’t take much. Still. He probably should have drank a bit less French wine back in the 1100’s, he’d somehow gotten Arthur painted as a lazy cuckold and he wasn’t going to like that much when he started remembering things again.

Regardless, after the dress incident, he’d decided to try and sulk a bit less and pay more attention. Didn’t want to be caught without his trousers again.

Not like that, at least.

--

There had been truly a ridiculous number of incarnations of Arthurs at this point. Centuries worth. And every time, Merlin tried to make sure he showed up at least once, to see if maybe, possibly, this time was the time. It never had been. He’d gotten good at scrying too. It was a lot easier than travelling to all the places throughout the British Isles Arthur’d been born. Though he did travel quite a lot. Side effect of growing forwards and backwards, after all. Once you started going backwards, it was a new place and a new name every few years. Too suspicious otherwise.

--

He was old this time. The last Arthur had gotten himself killed in a duel in England, somewhere. He hadn’t been there and had promptly broken the crystal ball Morgana had given him about a century before (she’d been telling fortunes from behind a gauzy veil and had laughed at him—apparently he wasn’t the only one to endure, though she seemed even less human than she had before Arthur’s first death—but she still helped him. He wasn’t sure if she actually recognized him or not, it was hard to tell with her). Ever since, he’d been relying on a silver bowl filled with water. It passed as a very nice punch bowl, otherwise. The ball was a bit circumspect anyhow.

Of course, he hadn’t used it much lately because spying on Arthur as a child just made him feel far too much like a pedophile.

So it came as a bit of a surprise when he ran into him one afternoon. He was in Ireland now, things were getting interesting there. It was 1797 and tempers were rising. England—once Albion—was having a bit of trouble in keeping peace these days. He didn’t dream the future, but even he could taste the blood on the land while he slept. It was coming, and soon.

He liked Ireland. They had good stories. And he liked the bardic ways. Telling stories was fun, though of course that was getting harder in recent centuries. But there wasn’t much else he could do during the old cycles. Besides, people liked stories from old men. They assumed they were wise. They never really knew what they were getting from Merlin, though.

“Arthur!” he’d said, surprised to see someone who definitely belonged in England wandering around in Ireland.

The man, who was once Arthur, frowned. “It’s Edward.” Merlin cursed, mentally of course. Not this time, then. “Do I know you?” Arthur-but-not asked.

It was so clearly him, though. The gap in his teeth, the facial expressions, the attitude. It was like being young again. The first time, that is.

“No,” he said, finally. He stretched, cracking his back. This was his least favorite part of the cycle. He disliked being so sore all the time. “You live here?”

Arthur (but not) nodded. “It’s my father’s land, been in the family for generations.”

“Strange to see someone actually living here, it’s been empty for a while.”

Arthur (it was just easier to think of him as Arthur) grinned, slightly. Oh, how that took him back! It was a perfect sort of torture. “My mother insisted. Father wants to send me back to England for schooling, though. He says the Irish are heathens and will corrupt me.”

Merlin laughed. “Don’t worry, in the end you’ll always be your own man. You always are. If you want to stay, that’s what you’ll do.”

That got him a strange look. Damn. He had alluded to the prior Arthurs. That never did bode well.

“Difficult times are coming,” he said after a long moment of strained silence, “take care of yourself.”

And then, he left. He couldn’t stay and get attached, it was too hard to watch him die time and time again. Because he always would, and Merlin would always outlive him, alone.

The blood did come, but Arthur endured. This time. It wasn’t always so.

--

Writers. Writers were fun. After the encounter with Arthur in Ireland, he moved back to England. He was in a young phase again and spent time with a poet or two. Wine was had, stories were told, and a series of poems about Arthurian legend started cropping up again. That was just typical. (Though he had to admit, for refusing to believe the truth when it was straing him in the face and drinking his wine and following all the old messed up hearsay stories of old, Tennyson wasn’t half bad.)

--

He swore off wine again. You would think that being over a thousand years old, he might have acquired a bit of tolerance. He decided that maybe alcohol and magic didn’t mix very well.

--

A century later and he decided that mind-altering substances in general didn’t mix well with magic. Especially not his. But a bloke named Tolkien ended up with some pretty interesting ideas on the subject after running into him. The rest, as they say, is history.

Sort of.

--

He did not, however, frequent any coffee shops in Scotland and as such could not be blamed for that other weird-looking, black-haired wizard. Who was entirely fictional. And used a wand. Merlin had no need to compensate like that. It was definitely not his fault. At all.

No, really.

--

Maybe he should swear off writers too. They were going to get him in trouble one day. When Arthur awoke. Hopefully it would be soon. He was getting tired of waiting.

--

And then, one day, something in him changed. He was at a young point. About the same age as he'd been when he met Arthur the first time. Something in him just snapped as he was walking through London. He would always have a fondness for cities. They were big. Anonymous. A good place to hide in plain sight.

But when that Something snapped, he was distracted. He walked right into a sturdy chest, and really, who stops in the middle of the street?

And then, oh then. “You’re late, Merlin.”

Arthur.

There were many things Merlin would have liked to have said. Perhaps flown into a rage about how he was not late, Arthur was. By several centuries at that. But all he managed was a simple “Prat” before he was in his arms in the middle of a London street and he didn’t care.

Because he knew what that Something was now.

This time, when Arthur grew old and passed, Merlin would go with him.




[fin]

[identity profile] dynastic.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 04:47 am (UTC)(link)
Okay, so you know I already love this. ♥ *reads again*

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
I thank you for putting up with me pasting random sections at you in AIM!

[identity profile] callistianstar.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 04:58 am (UTC)(link)
Oh my god! I fricken love this. Really. Truly. This is so very fabulous. I am in total awe and I love this ending. So gorgeous. Wonderful job with this.

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 05:00 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much! I'm like, dying of nerves. New fandoms always do that to me! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. :D

[identity profile] green-grrl.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 05:13 am (UTC)(link)
He probably should have drank a bit less French wine back in the 1100’s, he’d somehow gotten Arthur painted as a lazy cuckold and he wasn’t going to like that much when he started remembering things again.

Hee!

And Tolkien and Rowling--HEE!

But all he managed was a simple “Prat” before he was in his arms in the middle of a London street and he didn’t care.

Aw. Yay! :-)

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 05:15 am (UTC)(link)
It's the self-indulgent humor of a literature student, I can't help it! But in the end, I couldn't leave them apart!

Thanks for reading! :)

[identity profile] marn-barn.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 05:38 am (UTC)(link)
Aww, the ending! So cute, they end up together and they're all happy and it's ~*true love*~ Hee XD

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 05:45 am (UTC)(link)
I just really, really want them to be able to grow old together and bicker like an old married couple! After they save the world, of course. Thanks for reading!

[identity profile] marn-barn.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 06:26 am (UTC)(link)
IMO, they ARE an old married couple. They just happen to be young :P

[identity profile] issahime.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 05:52 am (UTC)(link)
So much fangirly squee... I love the Shakespeare bit; it made me giggle. Actually, every literature reference made me giggle.

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 05:55 am (UTC)(link)
Those references were at least half the point of writing it at all, so I'm glad you liked them!

[identity profile] heartofoshun.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 06:17 am (UTC)(link)
This is really great. The first part left me speechless and the second I just raced through. Loved moving through history with them meeting again and again and again... Great stuff and wonderful references. So well done.

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks so much! I almost left it as just the first part and then figured that'd be far too mean since I KNEW it was going to end happily. :D

[identity profile] heartofoshun.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
I, for one, am very glad you wrote the second part! The first was beautiful but heartbreaking. That Merlin wasn't aging and the concept of "once and future king" leads logically to the second, but didn't ensure for the reader that you intended to take it there. Again, great story, hope to see more by you in this fandom.

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 03:27 am (UTC)(link)
You have [livejournal.com profile] dynastic to thank for that, in part! I think she'd have killed me if I left it that way. Though I did start writing with the second half in mind, so it was always going to happen EVENTUALLY.

I hope to write more in this fandom! It's absolutely brilliant and there's just so much you can DO with it!

[identity profile] vicky-v.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 11:42 am (UTC)(link)
How magic and mind-altering substances in general don't make a good combination, now that is a fun thing to think about.

This I really liked. I was wondering how you were going to do all this dropping in of Shakespeare and such, but I'd say you pulled it off really well.

The ending was great to go out on. Bittersweet at the very last sentence, but ultimately left me with a smile. Oh boys. <3

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 03:18 am (UTC)(link)
I figured I'd give the poor boy an EXCUSE for his crappy alcohol tolerance at least! Glad you liked how it all came together! And yes, it is bittersweet, but SO MUCH BETTER than him going through it all over again, poor boy.

[identity profile] archaeologist-d.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 11:50 am (UTC)(link)
I loved this. All the times he was waiting for Arthur and at last they meet again and Arthur recognizes him. Loved it especially the last line!

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks so much! And for your comment on the first part, glad you found your way to this part as well!

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you!

[identity profile] fadagaski.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 08:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I love Merlin-endures-through-the-ages fics, and this is perfect. Just the right balance of humour, history, and angst. :D

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
Oh thank you! I was hoping it balanced out alright! It's one of my favorite ideas as well. :D

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
Glad you enjoyed!!

[identity profile] stand-december.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, that was beautiful. I love fics where Merlin lives on without Arthur until he comes back. THe reunions are worth the sad bits.

Gorgeous story!

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
I think so too. It's sorrow that lets us appreciate happiness. Without it, it's meaningless.

Thank you!

[identity profile] stand-december.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
agreed.

(you're welcome!)

[identity profile] aeroport_art.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, wow. This is such a fascinating concept, and I want to read it and read it over again just to get the full effect. I love these types of epics, where the characters are so destined to be together that they make it through multiple lifetimes. It's normally a difficult genre to get right--a requirement for success basically mandating that the story feel EPIC--but you're a good enough writer to pull it off ;) This is such a refreshing read in the fandom! Will be recced <3

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
Oh my god thank you so much! This comment just like, made my night! (which was already going pretty damn well!) I'm so glad it worked for you!!

[identity profile] blincolin.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 12:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I love this, especially the first part. But then the second one glued my heart back together. Thanks for sharing :)

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-20 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you for reading! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
isweedan: White jittering text "art is the weapon" on red field (English Major.)

[personal profile] isweedan 2009-02-19 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
So awesome. Future!fic Shakespearean Merlin-inna-dress!
The end sections are so touchingly lovely. And all the writers!
I heart your brain.

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-20 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
Well my brain hearts you back! Glad you liked it. :D
bluemeridian: Blue sky with fluffy white clouds through a break in the tree tops (Merlin - Pendragon)

[personal profile] bluemeridian 2009-02-20 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
I saw 'deaths' in the warnings and hesitated, but there was funniness, too, so I clicked. Very glad I did, too! I enjoyed it very much. *g*

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-20 03:43 am (UTC)(link)
I'm glad that idn't put you off too much-- but I couldn't NOT warn for it! Thank you!
ext_2955: black and white photo of flying birds and a lamp-post (Default)

[identity profile] azdaja-dafema.livejournal.com 2009-02-20 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, this is WONDERFUL. So WONDERFUL. I love how he [mayhave] influenced writers in some ways, how he's still so human getting caught in alcohol and other things and just waiting for the right Arthur. LOVE.

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-02-20 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks ever so much! (I just commented to your previous comment to say part two was less painful-- guess you figured that out already!)

[identity profile] your-muffin.livejournal.com 2009-02-21 10:45 pm (UTC)(link)
You fixed my heart!

Thank you, after smashing it like glass you fixed so I can stop feeling like a kicked puppy!

*smiles and gives you big kiss on the cheeck*

Loved it!
ext_3167: Happiness is a dragon in formaldehyde  (Arthur/Merlin = SQUEEE!)

[identity profile] puckling.livejournal.com 2009-02-22 10:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Awwwww. This was lovely, and a little melancholy without going overboard.

[identity profile] thwap.livejournal.com 2009-02-23 09:29 am (UTC)(link)
Hi. I love you.

[identity profile] doomcanary.livejournal.com 2009-02-26 03:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Ohhh. Literary, sarcastic, *and* so incredibly sweet. Fantastic.
astolat: lady of shalott weaving in black and white (Default)

[personal profile] astolat 2009-02-27 11:10 pm (UTC)(link)
ohh, lovely!

This time, when Arthur grew old and passed, Merlin would go with him.

♥ ♥ ♥

[identity profile] vail-kagami.livejournal.com 2009-04-13 04:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I loved this. It was so funny for something that could have been so depressing, and the last line just killed me.

[identity profile] jtsbbsps-dk.livejournal.com 2009-10-07 11:01 am (UTC)(link)
OMG AMAZING! *swoons*
Poor Merlin, having to watch him die over and over again!
He did not, however, frequent any coffee shops in Scotland and as such could not be blamed for that other weird-looking, black-haired wizard. Who was entirely fictional. And used a wand. Merlin had no need to compensate like that. It was definitely not his fault. At all.

No, really.
That right there just made me love you, even though it's only the second story by you I read xD (the other was the amazing one from kinkme)

Awesome story! :D

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-10-12 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
That would be the...two fics I have written and posted for this fandom. So far. But thank you so much! It pleases me a ridiculous amount that you came back and found this one too!!

[identity profile] devilluck.livejournal.com 2009-12-21 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
First of all I would like to say that it took me several minutes to tear myself away from that rather beautiful picture of Merlin...where did you get it?!

However, when I finally managed to read, I loved! The first part almost had me in tears, and the second was so full of hope and humour and general AMAZINGNESS! Absolutely gorgeous ending :)

[identity profile] themegaloo.livejournal.com 2009-12-21 07:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Lol! Trust me, it's taken me a long time to build up a tolerance to it myself. :) It's one of the promo pictures from Labyrinth of Gedref, actually, and I got it off Merlin's Keep (http://lhwo.hostrator.com/merlin/), they have an awesome resource of pictures there!

And thank you so much :) I'm glad you enjoyed it!
tama_abi: (merlin)

[personal profile] tama_abi 2011-01-04 05:08 am (UTC)(link)
Aww poor Merlin having to wait so much time for his Arthur...

Anyway that was great, thank you...