Where Reason Fades

Chapter 4

A/N: Hi guys i'm sorry i didn't update on wednesday but i've been so busy!! hopefull this makes upf  it its one of my favorite chapters i've written. enjoy!! ❤❤❤

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After the first two weeks of apparently getting under Merlin's feet and arguing with him about almost everything he did, Arthur had been assigned kitchen duty, which mostly consisted of asking the kitchen staff how he could help and 'overseeing', or staning around feeling like a bit of a plank while they all got on with the jobs they knew how to do. All in all it had been an uneventful lunch, and now he was watching as Merlin bustled into the kitchen to check inventory and reassign anyone who was working for the whole day. Arther was leaning against a kitchen counter as he watched Merlin's wirey form. Merlin looked exhausted, with dark bags under his blue eyes, that did nothing to diminish his bright smile. Arthur's heart squirmed with emotion.

"Merlin works hard." Said Arthur to no-one in particular.

"He does," replied Sefa, one of the kitchen workers.

"Since I have been here I have bearly seen him sleep. He doesn't ever seem to stop. It's incredible how much he can get done in a day!! Even in my father's large castle, I have never seen anyone work so hard and without break!" he exclaimed, watching Merlin still as the man with hair as dark as outer space walked out of the canteen.

"I woulnd't say completely without a break." Smiled Sefa.

"What do you mean?" asked Arthur.

"I think he's off to mest his break now." She grinned suggestingly. Arthur swallowed hard and, without further comment, followed in the direction that Merlin had just walked out, creeping through the winding camp after Merlin to the space docks of the camp.

Merlin gave a long suffering sigh and turned around.

"You can stop hiding, I know you're there!" he called to the Prince. Arthiur was amazed. He had spent time training with his father's army and had learnt his stealthy skills from them, he should have been impossible to detect when tracking someone. The suns reflected and Merlin's eyes flashed gold in the light, but was gone as soon as it appeared.

"Who's that?" He asked, searching the shi's side for a name or icon that would tell him who it belonged to, or at least how it was aligned. It didn't look like an Albian Relief ship, but then; he'd never been much involved in the shipping and supply side of any of his charities. He glanced back at Merlin when he got no response and saw he was thight lipped and scowling, arms folded acrossed his chest. Arthur looked back to the ship in alarm fractically trying to remember the last time he saw Leon and curseing this Helish planet in the back end of the void with no freaking signal.

"Say nothing." Merlin said and gave him a meaningfull look.

Arthur watched uncertainly as the ship decsended into the dock in a cloud of kicked up desert dust which made him glad for his scarf and moored. Out of the brightness of the sky Arthur could see the mottled charcole greys of the ships outside dented with schorch marks and age. The name on the side in thick black text read Caerleon. Suddeny the door opened with a hiss and a thunk as it slid to the side, and a man emerged.

His hair was brown and longer than was descent, Arthur noticed, and it was mostly covered by a red bandana, his dark eyes glittered from their sockets and lit up at seeing Merlin. He wore tight black trousers that left little to the imagination and a flowing white shirt that billowed gentle in the desert breezer, it was unbuttoned undecently low and showed a suggestion of strong lean muscles as well as a smattering of dark hairs. Stubble lined his jaw and he walked forward in his black boots with a confident swagger towards Merlin, his long black coat swishing behind him. At his side hung a scabbard which held a cutlass, made of chains, rusted slightly, but still would clearly be deadly when deployed to lock together to form a long curved blade. Merlin was still scowling at Arthur's uninvited and unexpected presence, and this man wore a scowl as ferocious as the stormy skies of the planet Nox Eterna.