hopenight | The Rebirth of Camelot (Chapter 3)

Title: The Rebirth of Camelot
Author: HopeNight
Rating: PG-13 may get higher in later chapters
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Warnings: The usual madness and mayhem but nothing too bad except some language. And well it’s Un-beta’d which I hope to soon fix.
Genre: romance/humor/adventure/fantasy
Summary: Arthur Jameson is your ordinary twenty one year old. He has two loving parents, an annoying half-sister, and a decent job. Still he feels restless. Well…until he accidently stumbled upon a beautiful man encased in quartz and diamonds, which he accidentally freed. After which his life suddenly gets rather interesting.

The Prologue
The First Spell
The Second Spell

Arthur pulled away after kissing the man. He gently touched his fingers to his lips.

“I cannot believe that I just did that.”

He looked at the sleeping man and sighed. Well apparently fairy tale cures did not work on this guy. Which really wasn’t that much of a shocker. Maybe he should call the cops. He went to go check the guy’s pulse.

Then a pair of beautiful blue eyes that seemed to swirl with gold flew opened.

“Boo!” said the man with a grin. His eyes seemed to be glowing in the night. Arthur desperately tried not to think about how the smile lit up the other’s face.

“AHH! What the hell man?!” yelled Arthur as he jumped back. He stared at the strange man who was laughing.

“Sorry. Sorry. But when you’ve been asleep for as long as I have…what year is it anyway?” asked the strange man as he gently put down the sword and stood. The strange man cracked his back and looked around before letting out a whistle.

“I’m guessing I was asleep for a long time.”

“Asleep? Who are you?”

The man looked at him for a second before tilting his head. He grinned shyly and Arthur felt his breath catch at the sight.

“I’m Merlin.”

Arthur stared at him for a moment before laughing with disbelief. He stared at the strange (and possibly insane) man.

“No seriously. Who are you?”

“I am serious. I’m Merlin,” stated the man stubbornly.

“Like the magician from the King Arthur legend?”

“Legend?” asked Merlin shocked, “It wasn’t a legend.”

Arthur stared at the handsome, possibly insane, man before him. He stared into the blue, gold swirled eyes before saying softly.

“Prove it.”

Merlin looked at Arthur before nodding. He stood in the center of the room and threw up his hands. Arthur saw his eyes turn to a pure gold and suddenly the ancient stones began to stack themselves. The ivy began to fall away, the old wood began to become new, and everything seemed to shine. Arthur watched with wide eyes as the castle was restored to its former glory in front of him.

Merlin stood there and his eyes went back to blue with swirling gold. He turned to look at Arthur, who was gaping widely.

“I have got to be dreaming!” gasped out the shock man. He gently touched the stone wall before turning to look at Merlin.

“Sorry you’re not dreaming. Now can you please tell me what year this is?”

“Uh…it’s the year two thousand and nine, mate.”

Now it was Merlin’s turn to look shocked.

“I’ve been asleep for over a thousand years?!”

Arthur nodded, “Oh um I didn’t introduce myself did I? I’m Arthur, Arthur Jameson.”

Even in a situation as strange as this, his good manners prevailed. Mainly because his mother drilled them into him since he could remember.

Merlin stared at him before grinning, “Pleasure, Arthur.”

The golden haired man tried valiantly to suppress the shudder at how Merlin said his name. He touched the stone wall again.

“I have got to be dreaming. I’m going to wake up at my campsite in the morning because this cannot be real.”

“But it is,” stated Merlin with stubbornness. The shock of the situation was beginning to hit Arthur now. He shook his head and began to back up.

“No this can’t be real. Just another one of my crazy dreams. Magic’s not real,” stated Arthur to Merlin before turning tail and running out of the castle.

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“Well that went as well as can be expected,” muttered Merlin under his breath as he watched Arthur run out.

‘Emrys!’ called the nymphs as they came out of their hiding places, ‘You have awakened!’

Despite himself Merlin smiled at them kindly. His bright eyes that have not been seen since the death of the Once and Future King made the magical beings quiver in happiness.

“Ladies, I must thank you again for watching over me.”

‘It was our pleasure, Emrys! Why does the King run?’ asked the green haired nymph.

“A lot has changed while I have been asleep. He says magic is not real.”

‘We have hidden as science prevailed. We have had to hide ourselves. It has not been easy since you have gone to sleep,” told a nymph with skin the color of fine sand and hair the color of a desert at sunset.

“I have seen that. I should change my clothes then?”

‘It would be wise,’ agreed the desert haired nymph, ‘We have brought you clothes from this era.’

“You are such clever girls. How can I ever repay you?”

‘We do not need to be repaid! You gave us the great honor of protecting you. It is our duty and we did it gladly, Emrys,” stated the clay skinned nymph. She laid the simple outfit before him.

Merlin picked up a pair of skinny jeans and stared at them with wonder before muttering to himself, “Now how on Earth am I to get these on?”

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Hate, anger, love, lust, or whatever other emotion that anyone can dredge up is not the base emotion of humanity. It is denial. Humans spend their entire existence denying. We deny that better version of the car because it costs too much. We deny our happiness because it could cause pain to others. We deny love because we believe ourselves unworthy.

And worse we deny truth because sometimes truth means hardship. Second thing about humans is that we try to avoid making our lives harder than necessary and in the end; we end making things harder than they have to be.

So it was no surprised that Arthur was deep in denial about what he just saw, about what had just experienced, and about how deep down he knew that it was real.

Once he was at his campsite, he crawled back into his sleeping bag ready to forget about this weird dream, experience thingy that he just had.

Only his dream refused to let him.

The beast approached him. It was large, gray, lumpy, and smelled of death. It’s fangs dripped poison that made holes through anything it touched.

Oh God he was so unequivocally screwed to Hell and back. He tightened his grip around the sword and prepared himself to die a warrior’s death. Perhaps then his father would be proud of him. He steeled himself for the pain of being bitten when a blast of golden light pushed the beast back.

He turned around and he could not believe his eyes.

There he stood with his hand out and muttering words under his breath. An invisible wind whipped through his hair and his eyes were as golden as the autumn sun. He felt his heart stop.

A sorcerer…his stupid, incompetent manservant was a bloody sorcerer!

Who was saving his life and probably saved it in the past. He watched as the magic left his eyes and he noticed that Arthur was watching. He froze like a deer just before a kill. His blue eyes wide and his mouth was in an ‘O’ shape.

“Arthur! I-I…I am so sorry. I was going to tell you honestly!” he paused and stared at Arthur with fear in his eyes, “Please don’t have me killed.”

Arthur sighed and pulled his stupid, stupid…friend into a hug.

“There was always something about you, Merlin. Now I suppose I know what it is.”

He sighed and looked at him, “I am very upset that you lied to me. However I am not a murderer. And despite my objections to it. You are my friend and saved my life.”

He could feel Merlin sag against him in a boneless heap. “Thank you, Arthur.”

Arthur yawned and stretched from his slumber. For the first time in a long time, he woke up after the sun had risen. Still he did not expect a second figure sitting on a rock staring at him.

“Good Morning!” chirped Merlin to him. Arthur groaned and closed his eyes again. It wasn’t a dream.

Denial was shattered.

“What are you doing here?” asked Arthur as he opened his eyes. He got out of the sleeping bag and tried to look threatening. Which he would like to point out is very hard with bed head, blood shot eyes, and very little sleep.

“You woke me up. So now you’re stuck with me,” said Merlin with secretive smile. His arms were wrapped around a jean clad knee. Arthur stopped and did a double take.

“How did you get jeans and the rest of your outfit?” he asked debating on whether or not he wanted to know the answer.

“Wood nymphs,” answered the black haired man as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world.

“Wood nymphs,” parroted Arthur back with disbelief in his voice.

“Is there an echo? Wood nymphs apparently they’ve been stealing clothes for me for centuries. They didn’t know when I was going to get woken up. So I apparently had to be with the in fashion.”

“You’re joking right?”

“I wish I were,” stated the age old sorcerer before standing up.

Arthur stared at him with an open mouthed expression on his face. Because well…for a guy over a thousand years old, Merlin was absolutely fucking gorgeous. (Arthur didn’t have time to reflect how sad it was that after two painfully long years of celibacy that the first man to catch his interest was a man over a thousand years old with a body of someone in their early twenties. Arthur’s love life, he reflected, was absolute shit.)

Black skinny jeans formed to his contours of his hips and legs. A dark blue t-shirt fell just below the waist line and a black neckerchief was tied around his neck. Black converse trainers were on his feet. His hair was mussed up with the ‘I just rolled out of bed’ (which really translated into the ‘I just got my bloody brains shagged out’) look. Around his left wrist was a black leather cord tied to a sword charm. Next to his feet was a pack.

Arthur was ready to run into the river or slap himself. Since this whole day was insane, he settled for slapping himself. Merlin just raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. Arthur decided to focus on the earlier part of the conversation.

“So wait because I woke you up. You’re my slave?”

“Well slave’s a strong word…more like a companion.”

“Like I Dream of Jeannie? OH! Or like Doctor Who!”

“I dream of who? And I’m sorry I don’t which Doctor you’re talking about.”

Arthur stared at Merlin as the gravity of the situation set in.

He was stuck with a man that woke up in the twenty first century a few hours ago. Sure Merlin looked the part but people will notice if he doesn’t get the basic references.

So basically Arthur was stuck teaching an ancient and all powerful sorcerer who was, apparently, eternally young about a thousand years of British and world history. Because even though he was supremely freaked out by this whole situation; it was not in his nature to leave someone alone. Especially in Merlin’s state.

He looked at Merlin and groaned.

Damn Morgan and her stupid big half-sisterness. It was all her fault!