The Love Between Souls (Merlin X Reader)

~{Chapter 10}~

I feel my head uncomfortably fall to the side as the figure from beneath me gets up and starts walking away. I open my eyes groaning quietly, rolling my neck with a small yawn, and see Merlin's blue tunic disappear through the trees. I get up, looking at Snow White with a sympathetic frown, and follow the dwarf with curiosity. I hear thumping behind me and I take a glance seeing the wooden bunny following me with loud thumps.
"You didn't have to follow me," I comment walking through the trees following Merlin silently. Merlin stops in a small clearing and starts to pick up twigs, muttering to himself.
"Merlin..." I speak giving the poor dwarf a heart attack.
"(Y-Y/N)!" Merlin stutters nervously.
"Merlin are you okay? What are you even doing?" I ask curiously.
"Ugh," Merlin sighs dropping his shoulders.
"Trouble in paradise?" I ask giggling. Merlin rolls his eyes with a goofy smile on his face.
"Collecting twigs to fuel the dying fire while wondering to myself what would have happened if Snow had taken her shoes off the night prince average attacked," Merlin murmurs loud enough for me to hear, continuing to pick up twigs.
"You think that's important?" I question, picking up sticks too.
"I just wonder, what I would've done if I'd seen the real Snow White," Merlin says looking at me shrugging.
"Seriously? It's still all about appearance for you?" I scoff.
"No! Not exactly..." Merlin barks quickly.
"But I can't live looking like this for the rest of my life!" Merlin's tone raises defensively as he gestures to his green self.
"You are kind of proving my point." I roll my eyes.
"Alright. Let's try this." I sigh dropping the twigs in a pile by my feet.
"Who do you like more, Snow White or Red Shoes?" I ask.
"Easy, it's Red Shoes." Merlin's answer is quick and he dumps his pile on mine, in a challenging manner.
"Now, which of you do you think Red Shoes likes more?" I raise an eyebrow as Merlin scoffs at the question.
"Easy, it's human me!" Merlins smirk falters as he ponders the answer and it soon drops.
"Wait. No. It's... this...me." Merlin gestures his hands out and he frowns.
"Now do you know what I mean?" Merlin nods his head slightly and then picks up half the sticks of the pile, keeping quiet for a couple more seconds a small breeze flowing through the trees.

"Who would you choose?" Merlin asks out of the blue as we start to walk back to the camp.
"Hmm?" I hum slightly confused.
"Human me or dwarf me, who would you choose?" Merlin looks up at me with a hopeful expression as I ponder the question thoroughly. After a couple of minutes of silence, I am happy with the conclusion I come up with and start relaying it to the dwarf.
"I honestly don't mind. You are still Merlin, green or not. Yes, it would be a nice perk having you back to your normal height so it would be easier to hug you and do affectionate things like that but dwarf merlin is still the same Merlin to me. He just has a different physicality." Merlin looks at me wide-eyed, like he wasn't expecting the answer given, and looks forward, silence falling between the two of us.
"I missed you a lot when you disappeared. But now that you are back it's still a bit surreal." Once again the dwarf tries to pick up a conversation with me and I chuckle slightly at his statement.
"I missed you a lot to Merlin. At first, I didn't think about how much I actually did but now that my memories are finally back with me, I've realized just how much I had missed you too."
"These past couple months were quite tough. I almost didn't believe you were alive when you had come back that day." Merlin's voice becomes soft and I blush lightly moving my head so it was facing away from Merlin.
Suddenly the small chatter of a conversation between a male and female picks up around us but it isn't our voices. At least I couldn't hear my voice.

"Eat the apple, and they'll slide right off." A voice identical to Merlins asks in an almost violent tone.
"Where did you get that?" I hear the voice of Snow White ask. Merlin and I look at each other confused and we walk closer towards the conversation.
"I want to help you, Snow White. Please." We break through the trees to see redshoes surrounded by three little wooden bears and who is standing in front of another Merlin holding out an apple.
"Redshoes?" The Merlin beside me asks with a questioning tone. Redshoes turns around and looks towards us in shock before looking back at the other Merlin, a red apple in her grasp.
"Merlin?" She looks to us with a shocked expression and the other merlins face contorts to one of surprise.
"Merlin?" Redshoes turns to the other Merlin who is standing speechless. This Merlin growls, a malicious sneer forming across his green countenance before he rolls his shoulder.
"What terrible timing you have." Merlin grows taller and soon contorts into an elderly woman with silver-blue hair and a black cloak.
"Ugh, we're going to have to do this the hard way." The woman moans rolling her eyes. Redshoes gasps and drops the apple she is holding while the three little bears at her feet squeal in terror running to hide behind me and Merlin. The pile of twigs the bunny was carrying for us falls to the dirt with a loud clatter.
"Aw such a tender family reunion," the woman sasses with sarcasm.
"What does she mean by that?" I whisper to Merlin who shrugs his shoulders.
"So sad we can't stay!" The woman launches herself at Red, rapping her cloak around the girl and disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
"Redshoes!" Merlin calls running toward the cloud, but it was too late.