OTP One-Shots (Requests Welcome)

Cabbage Head! (Merlin to Arthur)

The air brushed against Merlin's skin softly and he glanced out at the lake and the broken tower. He glared at it for a moment, his beard caressing his old neck.

"Arthur, you cabbage head," he griped, tottering down the street in his old shabby clothes. He'd grown with the times and now was a historian, a very specific type of historian. He was an Arthurian historian. He 'studied' Prince Arthur the 'Great' and taught boarding school students about the prince and how he became the king. Many of his students had asked him, why call him Prince Arthur when he was actually King Arthur?

"Because he was a prince before that correct?" he would snap, "And everything he did as a prince made him a king! So I will call him Prince Arthur!" 

On this particularlly cold fall evening Merlin was grouching over the fact that he no longer had a whining blond man stumbling over the times with him complaining about the weather. He wished he had the blond man next to him, even in his old age. He wanted forgiveness for not explaining that he was a sorcerer and that he could be the same boy that Arthur had grown to love. 

"Arthur, come home to me..." Merlin moaned to himself, trudging back to his little cottage that was where the castle of Camelot had been long long ago. He missed his stuffy bedroom that he almost never slept in and the old man who taught him everything he knew, but most of all he missed the king. He missed the prince that promised he could take him apart in one blow and Merlin disagreed, he could take him apart in less than that. It was rather true in fact. They'd probably fallen in love that day, no one knew, but they were aware of the fact that they had fallen in love with each other. 

The next week was the same. He threw random facts at his students and lectured them about the true meaning of being in power, which had undertones of the true meaning of being in love. 

"He was a wonderful man, who could never quite grasp the world." As usual he finished his class with the sentence he'd decided proved Arthur a human and a lover. Although he was chilled as ever he felt a little bit less frail that day.

As the months flew by Merlin slowly became stronger and color returned to his hair. He shaved his itchy beard and found that his young and healthy skin had returned. He out on the red scarf he'd retired so many years before and jogged into the school building. The changes had been so gradual over the year that no one seemed the notice the man's spryness return to him. It was as if it'd been merely days since his loss of Arthur, not centuries. He didn't really notice either, although his clothes seemed to be rather baggy on him, so he went out to buy a brand new wardrobe of button ups and skinny slacks to match his job. The girls in the staff room seemed to lose interest in their phones and into him when he walked in and all was quite well. He still missed Arthur like he'd just lost him though. Heartache couldn't be taken away by what seemed to be a miracle. Of course Merlin knew it wasn't it was magic, but he didn't care where it came from.

He walked home the day after telling his class about the fate of Arthur when a hurling rain started. Even though he should've been taking the fastest way home he walked past the lake, like he always did. A clap of thunder took him slamming to the ground and a burst of lightning struck the top of the crumbled tower. The entire lake lit up and a single person became clear in a silhouette. 

"Arthur!" Merlin yelled, running into the water with no fear of being electrocuted or drowning. He swam straight for the middle of the lake, his mind on only one thing... Arthur. 

He pulled the blond out of the water. The king spluttered water and coughed, his eyes squeezed shut. 

"Arthur! Arthur! Arthur, open your eyes! Look at me. Please, love," Merlin pleaded, putting his fingers to Arthur's erratically slow heartbeat. He gave a slickly cough and opened blue eyes to meet the sorcerer's.

"You utter... cabbage head! Don't ever do that again!" Merlin yelled, kissing Arthur's cold almost blue lips. Arthur took it by surprise, but kissed him back, letting the warmth from Merlin's hand on his cheek warm his body. 

"Merlin, we have to get out of the rain..." The dark haired old man laughed and helped Arthur to his feet and took him through the woods to Merlin's shack. Merlin didn't want to force Arthur into understading the world till after Merlin got him. 

♡♡♡♡♡♡

"Arthur?" 

"Yeah?"

"Could you get the take out? I have a little bit more grading to do," Merlin explined. Arthur smiled and nodded, leaning over behind his boyfriend and pecking him on the cheek.

"Be back in a flash. I love you, Merlin."

"Love you, cabbage head." As soon as the door closed Merlin jumped into action, pulling their friends from the fire escape. Gwaine, Leon, Elyan, Pecival, Lance, and Gwen had all returned into a knew life after Arthur came back. They hauled in pieces of a wooden table, tin plates, old curtains and everything else they could use to turn Arthur and Merlin's apartment into Arthur's old bedroom. When it was done all of them were tearing up at a look into the past. 

"Thank you guys so much! Make sure you don't let him know you're here at all," Merlin said before standing where he would when Arthur came in from practice. He was wearing the rags he used to call clothes in the centuries before and took a deep breath before putting on a hard face. A key rattled in the lock and Arthur pushed the door open and called to Merlin while trying to pull the key out of the lock.

"We need to fix the lock, it's fault..." he looked up at the room that used to be his. 

"M-Merlin?" He asked, looking exactly where Merlin should've been waiting. Instead his manservant was standing completely dressed in his stupid outfit. 

"Get out plates and silverware... for two," he ordered with a smile and took a seat. Of course that was already in place and Arthur was forced back to standing.

"Arthur, I've waited for you for almost two centuries and I love you more than I have ever and will ever love anything. I have never needed someone... or something more than I need you. I would give up anything for you to have not gotten stabbed in that fight and for our time then be forever and I never want to lose you again so before Gwaine pees his pants will you marry me?" Merlin gasped out, looking up at Arthur from one knee.

"Of course!" Arthur nodded, pulling his shorter boyfriend and kissing him and then hugging him, before turning around and looking into blue eyes.

"Now what is this I hear about Gwaine peeing his pants?"

"Nothing at all, cabbage head. I love you."

"I love you."