Merlin Headcanons

Blue

Merlin's eyes are blue.

It's not something anyone thinks much of. They're a rather startling shade, but after the initial comments, people generally have better things to think about.

Freya was different. She asked him when she was dying and perhaps not thinking too clearly if they'd always been blue. They were pretty when they were gold, she murmured, but she always thought when the gold faded that she'd caught sight of another color, perhaps just another shade of the blue, but a prettier one.

Merlin was confused.

Of course he was. It was understandable. But the thought tugged at him, and he looked in the lake for a long moment, wondering.

They had, hadn't they? Always been blue?

He wanted to ask his mother, but she was a long ways away and had been so sad the last time he saw her, and there was no one else to ask. Gaius would assume he was sick and make him drink something nasty, and Arthur would laugh at him. He didn't want to bother Arthur with anything so trivial. Arthur was important. He would do anything for Arthur.

He wouldn't have really left with Freya of course. He was just calming her down, that was all.

That was what he told Arthur when he reported the story. Arthur looked at him for a long moment before telling him that he had let him down. He had kept things from him for too long.

He flinched, eyes down. Yes, he had been bad, disloyal, he could see that now. "I'm sorry, my lord," he whispered. "I'll do better, my lord, I promise." He looked up pleadingly.

Whatever Arthur saw there must have placated him. He patted Merlin on the shoulder. "How could I say no when you're looking at me like that? You're forgiven, Merlin."

All was right in his world again. He put Freya aside. She was irrelevant.

He got hit on the head on occasion, on patrols or questing. But Arthur was always there right away, making everything better, taking the pain and distractions away with that warm blue glow. Everything was always so confusing after those times, but Arthur made everything better.

Everyone asked him why he was so loyal. Cornelius and Morgause and all the other horrible people who tried to hurt Arthur. Everyone wondered. It was something pondered and dissected by his enemies, desperate to find away to pull Emrys away from his king. They never saw the answer, though it was right in front of them.

Merlin's eyes were blue.

A/N: This is something of an Avengers crossover. My thinking behind it is that Uther hates/distrusts magic, but in this AU is smart enough to realize he needs it. He still kills a bunch of sorcerers, but he enslaves others using Loki's scepter/something like it. This is not widely known. Arthur found out about Merlin's magic. Uther probably would have burned him, so Arthur sneaks out the scepter and uses it so that Merlin will at least be alive. With all the blows to the head on the show, cognitive re-calibration would be happening right and left, so Arthur has to keep redoing it.