How Long Is Forever? - Merthur

the once and future queen

"I beg your pardon?"
Arthur threw his hands up in defense and pointed at Merlin.

"Oh, I had nothing to do with this." He stated.

Gwen crossed her arms. "So Arthur came out of the lake, and now we are under it?"

"Well it sounds a little weird when you put it like that." Merlin murmmered.

"But it is like that! Arthur has been dead for as long as I've been, THOUSANDS OF YEARS."

She quieted her self and started picking at the skin on her hands. "And how am I young again? I understand your destiny, but I lived through mine."

Her long wet hair was still dripping onto the floor when all of us sat around a table in the urgent care.

"I don't know," Merlin started. He cupped his hands around hers. "But you're here now and that's all that matters."

Gwen squeezed his hand back and sighed with a smile. "Me too." She looked back at Arthur. "I never thought I'd see you again." Her voice betraying herself.

After some silence, Merlin knew his place. He stood up and pushed back his chair. Giving them a awkward, half bow. "I'll give you some privacy, my lord."

He followed Cerdan back outside.

The fresh evening air seemed to take some of the tension off Merlins back and started to carry it away. It was nice to breath again. After a couple of days, the voices of others finally silenced. The sun dipping, under the horizon, Cerdan cleared his throat.

"Gwen."

Merlin looked at him confused. "What?"

"Hm."

"If you have something to say, I'd like for you to say it."

Cerdan faced Merlin, and adjusted the hood of his cloak. "All you ever will be to them is just their servant."

Merlin didn't know what to say and started to stamper. "I was...but I'm their friend, and they are mine." He said confidently.

"But you are the most powerful warlock to walk the earth, though they still treat you less. Maybe they would be your true friend...in a different life."

"I'm no less then them, but they are no less then me. And they are my friends. Even if they weren't, this is technically a different life time. But no matter that, they'd do anything for me and I'd do anything for them. No matter the life time."

Cerdan let out a huff. "I don't mean to disrespect you, but you don't deserve to be treated like a servant no more."

Merlin shuffled his feet around. "They don't treat me badly..." he hesitated. "Maybe I do just miss having someone to take care of."

"Even if they don't need you anymore?"

Merlin looked down at his hands. "I'd like to think that even if they don't need me, they would still want me around."

Cerdan lifted his chin and looked at the sun dissolving around them. "Maybe."

___________

Arthur and Gwen finally made it back to the motel where Merlin wandered off. Merlin was laying on the bed, shoes still on but nose dived into a book. When the two of them came in, he didn't even notice at first.

Gwen let out a small laugh and Merlin looked up. "Gwen." He said with a soft smile, putting a random piece of paper into the book and set it down.

"Even thousands of years later, this buffoon still reads." Arthur also said with a smile.

Gwen nudged Arthur with her elbow to silence him. "What book are you reading?" She said, sitting at the edge of the bed.

Merlin grinned at her, thankful she asked. "Well, I don't know where to start." Arthur sat on the other bed and shook his head. "Its about these gods, well not really, but people didn't think they were real anymore. Their skin was blue, their blood was red. The ones who survived lived up in a small unreachable, but see-able land that was floating above them. The gods all had different powers."

Merlin was just glad he had someone to talk to again. "The girl, had moths come out of her, but only at night. She could see through their eyes." Arthur scrunched his nose but merlin kept going for gwen. "The few of them were alone, but the girl could see the town underneath them by looking through their eyes and the moths could go into the peoples dreams. Till she found a dreamer like her." Merlin kept grinning, "that's where I am right now."

Gwen smiled. "I think I'd like to read that book, maybe after your done. If you don't mind?"

Merlin felt ecstatic, "of course!"

Gwen smoothed out the wrinkles of the bed. "If people don't believe in magic now, why do they write about it?"

Merlin didn't know how to answer that. He believed that people thought it was too wild, too unrealistic. Maybe a few of them wished for it, but never believed in it. Maybe they were afraid. Or just want something bigger in life but it's just a fools hope in their eyes. "Arthur caught me up on everything." Gwen said, after Merlin was silent for a moment. "I know everything, Merlin." She went forward and engulfed Merlin in another hug. Merlin has missed this so much, he felt so overwhelmed. The sight of her, the warmth she radiates from miles away. She finally pulled away and sat up.

Arthur sat up too. "Gwen, we can get another motel room for you and I."

Gwen looked between him and Merlin. "Oh no, it's okay. I'll just get a room for myself. I think I need some time to think anyway." She smiled again. "And after so many years, I think the king still needs his Merlin to take care of him." Arthur opened his mouth but shut it.

"I'll go help you with your room then."

_______

A few hours later, Merlin was ready to turn off his lamp and try his best to get some fitful sleep, till the door finally opened.

He turned to face him, though he just seemed to stand there for a few seconds.

"Arthur?"

He finally scratched his head and sat at the corner of Merlins bed. "Merlin...I've been thinking." He seemed to stare at a invisible spot on the floor, a clock was quietly ticking and echoing on the wall. "What if this isn't Gwen?"

Merlin sat up in the bed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean...we don't know how she's here, I'm glad she is, I swear it. But, when you were telling me things when I first came back, you said that lancelot was brought back from the dead because of Morgana, but he wasn't himself. What if this is the same thing?" Merlin could feel his worry come in waves, filling every corner in the room.

Merlin thought about it. It can't be, can it?