WHO: Chloe Sullivan and Merlin WHAT: Merlin visits her in the wake of her sunburning, and there is flirting, healing, and storytelling. WHEN: The day she was hurt WHERE: Her place WARNINGS: Flirting, and mentions of long ago deaths and violence STATUS: Closed and Complete
Merlin was still smiling as he finished preparing the unguent. He had known how to do this one for a very long time, and he had made sure the vial he prepared was extra-strong. Her sunburn would vanish as it if had never been, within just a few hours. He didn’t mess around with burns, for he hated them. He had once been burned alive, heavily hurt, by a dragon. It had stuck with him ever since.
As he packaged the unguent up, he nodded and focused on the address young Chloe had provided him with, and spoke a word of power in his mind. A moment later, he appeared just outside her door, checked around, then knocked.
He wore a simple suit, one which looked like finest silk, a shimmering midnight black color, which, if one looked close enough, had stars faintly glimmering in it from far off, without a tie, and his white button up shirt was unbuttoned a few buttons as he raised a hand to knock.
***
Merlin was coming over. THE Merlin was coming to Chloe’s to help her with her stupid sunburn. She had barely been able to restrain herself from hammering him with questions online. Having him here in her apartment...she was going to have to glue her lips shut!
She had a smile on her face when she answered the knock on her door, but as soon as she got a look at Merlin her brows lifted.
“Wow,” she said. “You didn’t have to get all dressed up.”
***
“Milady, this is hardly me getting dressed up. I simply like things that feel nice.” Merlin grinned to her, eyes warm. “Tis a benefit of magic that one can learn to do many things one could not otherwise, such as make clothing that is very well fitted, and very comfortable.”
And his suit was both.
He lifted one hand, the pouch with the unguent in it there on his palm. “I have your medicine here.”
***
“Huh!” Chloe chuckled. “Well, that’s convenient. You could make a killing as a personal stylist.” She chuckled again then stepped back. “C’mon in.”
Chloe was dressed in a loose fitting sundress, and her skin was indeed bright dark pink. It looked uncomfortable if not outright painful, and judging by the cautious way Chloe moved she was not enjoying life right now.
“Thank you!” she said, relief flooding her tone of voice. “So what do I do with it? Is it like a lotion? Because that’d be awesome. I don’t want to look like a peeling lizard in a few days.”
***
Merlin grinned. “I have done such work, before. It is fun, some.” He chuckled as he nodded, stepping in, then looked her over, smiling with a wince.
“It is a lotion, yes, one you spread carefully over the areas, and it will speed your healing, and relieve pain.” He hesitated, then spoke softly. “Twould be no imposition if you needed it applied for thee. I promise thee no impropriety would occur.”
***
Story of my life was Chloe’s thought. No one who looked as good as Merlin ever gave her a second glance, but she was so used to it that she just smiled. “That’d be great. I’d have to be far more dedicated to yoga than I am to get lotion on the back of my shoulders.”
She closed the door then minced her way toward the kitchen. “Do you want something to drink? I have coffee, tea, diet coke.”
***
Oh, he looked, but he did his best not to touch without consent. And never as a healer. Should she seem amenable after… that was a different matter.
He smiled back, and nodded. “As you wish, milady.” He followed her, grinning at her steps.
“Tea, please, of any kind. I find the steam soothing, once my day has started and i’ve downed my pot or two of coffee.” Unlike those of later times in his country, Merlin did appreciate coffee, and often wished it had been around when he was young.
***
“Heh. A man after my own heart.” Chloe set a kettle of water on the stove to heat up. “I could empty a Starbucks given enough time.” Opening a cabinet revealed that Chloe had a variety of tea to choose from. She pulled down some Scottish Breakfast, two mugs and set the bags in them.
“So I’m really not usually this stupid,” she said with a sheepish smile on her face. “I just got wrapped up in the work I was doing.”
***
Merlin chuckled, settling to watch her a few feet away. “Aye. They do have rather delectable delights, filled with aromatic caffeine.” . Her movements revealed a grace he enjoyed, even if he was not paying attention.
“I understand. The mind grows into introspection, diving deep into that layer of fullest imperviousness to distraction as we plunder the delights of our mind’s eye, the work of our hearts, and the labor of our best and worst days.” His grin was lopsided. “When such happens, not even the highest or lowest can butt in.”
***
And she wasn’t even moving like she normally did thanks to the sunburn. Nor was she aware she was being admired. If she did that would make this even more awkward than she felt it already was. She was DYING to pepper him with questions!
“Sounds like something you told Arthur.” And now she felt like facepalming because that fell right out of her mouth. “....sorry…”
***
“Why? Milady, Arthur was a large part of my life, once upon a time. Referring to him will not harm me, nor anger me.” He chuckled.
“And as for that, no. Arthur had no mind for philosophy, nor for poetry. He was a good ruler, most times, and a good kind, most ways, but wisdom of the mind was not his forte.” His lopsided smile held a tinge of old sadness, but only a small hint, and was gone quickly.
“Nay, twas Madb, my first pupil, who I first talked philosophy with.”
***
“I figure you get asked stuff all the time and are probably sick of it.” Chloe flinched after she tried to shrug a sunburnt shoulder. It became obvious that she was using making the tea as a way to keep busy to keep from looking more like an idiot than she already did.
***
“I actually manage to avoid it, most of the time. I do not mind some questions. But first, perhaps, let me treat you. Watching you in pain is quite… not nice.” he did not like seeing others in pain, most times.
***
“It’s probably like being an astronaut and being asked how you go to the bathroom in space over and over.” Chloe chuckled as she sat down at the small kitchen table. “Some people might say it’s what I get for being stupid and forgetting to put on sun block.”
***
Merlin laughed. “Very carefully.” He nodded and moved to her side as she spoke, opening he package of unguent, and surveying her shoulders. “Is it under your top as well?”
And he scoffed at her words. “We all make mistakes. Saying someone deserves the wages of a mistake is saying that people do not deserve a chance to better themselves without pain. Sure, it might be one way of learning, but it is hardly conducive to people wanting to learn, if it will be painful.”
***
“Fortunately,” Chloe said as she gingerly slid the straps of her sundress off her shoulders. “It’s just my shoulders, chest and arms.” Her blonde hair was short enough it didn’t need to be pulled to the side, but that was also the reason the back of her neck and shoulders had gotten burned. “I wasn’t so stupid as to sit in the park in a bikini or anything.”
Not that she’d be caught dead in a bikini. Chloe didn’t lack self-esteem, but she had a few blinders about her appearance.
***
Merlin nodded to her words. “Alright. If you’ll sit and relax, I will start.” He waited fo her to get comfortable, and he moved behind her at first. One hand dipped into the unguent and then he began to slowly smooth the lotion like substance over her red skin. His fingers were strong and a little calloused from a life time of hard work and tool use, but they touched her skin with a gentility that spoke of a doctor’s touch, or rather, what that touch should be.
“Just nice deep breaths, dear lady.” With a gentle stroke, he spread the lotion over her upper back and shoulders, then down her arms as far as it went, a careful touch, slow and easy, as he did so. He left her upper chest for the last, his touch still just as gentle as he moved around her, carefully keeping hands and eye on the affected area only. Though the urge to look lower was there. His hand moved with a broad stroke, covering her skin there slowly, gently, and carefully.
After a few long breaths and a nod, he stood straight again, and smiled to her. “Did I miss any areas?” He was rather close to her at that moment.
***
Okay. If there was anything that was more sensual than that Chloe wasn’t sure what it was...or that she wanted to know. By the end of it she was glad for the sunburn since it hid her blush! The very last thing she expected was for Merlin to look like he just stepped off the cover of Rolling Stone.
“Nope,” she said definitively. “Got it all.” And she’d like a drink now.
***
Merlin stepped back then, and smiled, a lopsided thing, putting the unguent aside. “It should soon heal thee.” Then he nodded, doctor self aside, and grinned. “You have very nice skin, aside from the burn.”
***
She kind of missed the part about being healed so quickly once her mind froze up on his compliment. One corner of Chloe’s lips pulled to the side into a sheepish smile. “Uh. Thanks,” she said. That was a new one. “Irish pale as if you couldn’t guess with the last name Sullivan.”
***
“I have known a few of that name in that fair land, aye.” He grinned at her, eyes on hers, hooded a little, as he watched her. “A very fine kind of skin, on a very fine woman.” His voice was soft, considering, then he glanced aside just as the water began to boil. “Looks like the tea is almost ready.”
***
Hot guy with fascinating history eyeing her like she was gorgeous? What is the recipe to make Chloe flustered? Follow it up with that compliment and she was left squirming a little in place.
“Tea!” Huzzah! Something to do! Chloe got up from the table to get the tea that had been steeping this whole time. “Milk? Honey? Sugar?”
***
“Honey, please.” And if there was a touch of chuckle in his voice, it did not show in his face, but rather he continued to watch her, curiously, consideringly. Because she was, indeed, beautiful, and some of what she had said showed her mind as being far brighter than most.
Intriguing, indeed.
“What do you do here, milady? What work so compelled thee to make thee lose track of time?”
***
Chloe got the honey bear out of the cabinet then set it and his mug of tea on the table near him. “I work for a computer repair company. Today I was debugging a customer’s system remotely. I lost track of time as I was rebuilding their firewall so it wouldn’t happen again.” Maybe she reprogrammed the firewall to keep hackers out too. Ahem.
She fetched her own coffee, which she took without anything, then sat back down at the table.
***
“My thanks.” He pressed some tea within, and then sipped it and nodded. Settling to watch her from opposite her, he smiled. “It sounds like an interesting job. Not my sort of thing, but I did some time, for a brief period, as a computer tech.” So to speak. His spirit had, anyway.
“Such work is the work of a defender, a shaman.” His grin was warm, for he thought all such of special importance.
***
That made Chloe almost choke on her tea before she let out with coughing laughter. Her? A defender or shaman? HA! Not. Well...not exactly.
“I just...do what I do,” she said with something of a sly smirk on her face then she took a drink to hide her expression behind her tea.
***
Merlin chuckled. “So say those who do not desire to be seen as what they are.” He grinned wider. “Which is fine, of course. Not everyone wishes to be a defender out in the open, to be seen and acknowledged as such. Such a spot in the light is exhausting.” He hated such a thing.
***
Chloe shrugged a shoulder, this time without a wince as her sunburn was steadily diminishing without her realizing it. “Back home I did a lot more. I could and did hack into any system I wanted. No one could keep me out if I wanted in. I used it against the bad guys.”
She eyed Merlin as she sipped at her tea, wondering if she should tell him what she’d been up to here. She didn’t know if she could trust him after all.
***
“It sounds like you did very good things. I’d be interested in hearing more. Most of my dealings are with magic, and always have been.”
Such was the nature of life as a wizard, and of life as Merlin, in particular. Even when he tried to get involved with computer things, he ended up with a magic case to crack.
Silly life.
***
Chloe shrugged again. “I did what I could.” Which was all she could do as a plain old ordinary human. She still didn’t realize she had something from exposure to meteor rock. “Most of my friends could do...extraordinary things. I put my skills to use to help them.”
***
Merlin nodded, listening. “Which is more than most people do. Even those with extraordinary abilities, most never do a thing.” He smiled to her.
“A brave person, indeed, to stick to the shadows, to aid others, and to do all you can.”
***
He really seemed to mean it. Chloe tilted her head as she seemed to ponder his words. If he really was who he said he was he’d seen enough in his time to know. But was he blowing smoke up her ass and if so, why?
“Thanks,” she said finally. Might as well take the compliment. “I like to think so.”
***
Merlin smiled wider as she took it and sipped his tea. “Now, ask whatever you wish to ask, milady. I’ll take no offense, I promise thee.” He nodded again, and settled back to listen and wait for her words. And for her to realize her skin was very nearly clear again.
***
Hey, she didn’t need to be invited twice! Chloe got an excited grin on her face as she sat up straighter in her chair. “Okay,” she said then pointed at him. “But remember. You asked for it.”
She took another drink of her tea then leaned her arms on the table as she looked straight at Merlin. “The whole aging backwards thing. Is that for real?”
***
“I will.” He chuckled and set himself, watching her as she spoke.
Her first question made him laugh. “No, milady. I used the suggestion of it as a ploy to confuse an enemy once, and Arthur wouldn’t stop acting like it was true, and so of course, someone wrote it down and before you know it everyone thinks it’s true.” He shook his head.
“Nay. I simply have not aged, as far as i can tell, for more than 2000 years.”
***
Chloe giggled. “That’s what you get for playing games.” She shook her finger at him, but moved right along with her questions.
“Camelot. Arthur. Lancelot. Gwynevere. There are so many versions of the stories it’s hard to know what parts are true and what parts aren’t.” She raised her brows expectantly.
***
Merlin shrugged, but his grin showed he did not mind. He was all too aware of how one got hung on one’s own petard. It had happened to him in all too many ways.
Her words brought a sigh, then a nod.
“Well, first, you must understand that versions of it happened three times. There were three Camelots. And as sometimes people in that time had somewhat.... Unimaginative names, they were all brought together three times. As if Fate herself was unwilling to be denied.”
He scrubbed his face. “In the first version of Camelot, it was a mess. Arthur rose as king of Camelot by pure worth, but people started doubting him. He created the Round Table and it’s knights from all the parts of his Realm to further unite the kingdom, but in doing so brought Lancelot to the castle. Arthur and Guinevere met and fell in love, but Lancelot and Guin… they held a lust for one another that burned at them like a fire and would not be denied. Arthur found out and, as he had rested his kingdom on law and order and on the idea that no one was above that order, he sentenced Lancelot to exile and Guin to exile or imprisonment in a nunnery. She chose the latter.”
He shook his head. “People.” Then he sighed and continued. “When threats rose, I was tricked by a maiden who was corrupted by an enemy, and imprisoned in a tree. And there I rested for a long time, watching as Camelot fell, for Arthur, without his wisest counselors, soon was at war, and then was lost.
I wandered the world for many years after I broke free of the tree, and eventually found a woman with whom I could settle down. The need to aid the world still burned in me, but fainter. The woman, a young girl who possessed much magical aptitude, became my first apprentice, before she was tricked and stolen away by both the unkindness of the Fae, and her own ambition. She was a mighty queen, was Madb, but she was never happy again.”
He finished his tea, but kept on. “I chose to raise another Summer Kingdom, and a boy named Arthur, son of a scullion, bested all other comers, and was revealed to be the son of a thought dead lineage, that of the Pendragons. He became king, and Guinevere his wife, and by their side was Lancelot. Politics felled this Camelot, for I was away some of the time, and could not aid Arthur in becoming wiser. And so the second Summer kingdom fell and darkness fell with it on the land.”
He sat back, closing his eyes, and pain entered his voice as he spoke on. “Close to a thousand years after the fall of the second Camelot, and more than twelve hundred after the fall of the first, both had been forgotten by mortals, and much of the magic in the world was growing wild. Most men had forgotten it, but those who remembered wrought wonders. And ran from those who would kill them, assigning such powers to the Devil of the newly risen to full power Christian Church. I chose to aid a new young man, a simple hard worker, and good, honest person, of good will and wise demeanor. His name was Wart, and he pulled a sword, thrust there by the first Arthur, from an ancient stone, a legend of kingship. And he became king, and they renamed him, yes, into Arthur.”
He shook his head. “I should have stayed away. I should have known it would come to not, but I could not resist the hope. And so I came to Camelot once more, and along the way found a new apprentice, a young woman named Morgana. She was bright, and brilliant, and happened to be Arthur’s half-sister. She was ambitious, and I feared that a little, for it reminded me of Madb. And I was right to. Madb, from her home in Faerie, was watching, and had not been idle. She had been, as she was, ambitious, striving to conquer all that which threatened her.
She was seduced, as I had been so long before, by one whom she trusted, and corrupted therein, and when she saw, from her throne in Winter, me taking a new apprentice, she was wroth, and raged. And began to plot.”
He smiled sadly at Chloe. “Not all tales are good tales.”
But he went on, anyway. This third Arthur’s Camelot rose and lasted many years, close on to thirty, under Arthur, if my mind recalls correctly. And then, bad times struck, An innocent girl, with much magical possibility, was apprenticed to Morgana, who had taken up her own staff by then. Her name was Nimue, and I, fool that i was, fell in love with her. But Morgana was tricked by Madb into losing control of herself in a magic spell. She and Arthur, all not knowing who the other was, slept together, and Morgana became pregnant. She bore Mordred, who was filled with loathing from a young age, a loathing that no kindness could touch. And Morgana, And Mordred were the downfall of Camelot. I would have intervened, but in the end, I could not, for Nimue, all unknowing, had been tricked as well, and she imprisoned me in an ancient fortress outside of time, and from there I was helpless to do anything but watch. And so I was imprisoned for some two thousand years.”
He stumbled to a stop.
“Forgive me please, for laying such sadness on you.”
***
Chloe listened, enraptured in the tale. There was something about the way Merlin told it that made it sound like the truth as opposed to just someone retelling a story. Chloe had heard her fair share of bullshit. This had that ring of truth. It struck Chloe somewhere deep inside her curious tendencies almost as if she had, finally, learned too much.
“No…” she said in a hushed tone with a short shake of her head. “I’m sorry for making you relive it.” There were things in her own life that Chloe wouldn’t want to recount.
***
“I do not mind telling the tale. It is not one of great joy, but it is the truth, and my history. There is more to it, and more detail, including great mistakes I made. But perhaps that will wait for another day.”
He smiled to her, rueful, but okay. His life had been insane, but he had found a way to survive and live onward.
“Here and now, in this place, I live a much better life.”
***
Chloe still had a million questions, but she got the idea she should let it drop for right now. She returned the smile then tilted her head. “How long have you been here? I’ve heard that I was here before, but a future me which makes my head hurt to think about.”
***
Another day, he would entertain many more questions.
“Some months now. Now long enough to see that you, which is a shame, for she was likely just as much a beauty. But, I’ve been here long enough to see people come, go, and come again, sometimes with memories, and sometimes without.”
He chuckled. “This place is rather amazing, and sometimes both saddening and confusing.”
***
“I think it’s fascinating,” Chloe said with barely contained excitement in her voice. Her eyes lit up, however, giving away her enthusiasm. “I mean sure, it kind of sucks that we’re all stuck here, but where else are you going to get the chance to learn about so many different alternate universes?” She chuckled as she gestured toward him. “I’m having tea with freaking Merlin, for Pete’s sake! How cool is that?!”
It was possibly noteworthy that she was more interested in the points of origin more than the people. To be honest, Chloe felt like an itty bitty fish in a pond of sharks, but even she didn’t realize it. She just followed her instinct to focus on the whats and wheres instead of the whom.
***
“There are wonders revealed here, i feel, that might be, nowhere else. And meetings, of course, that could not be elsewise had. And I would be sad to not meet thee.” He spoke the words softly, but went on,
“There are many universes it seems, and some are close in kind to others, while others seem to echo across multiple worlds.” His own story, for example.
***
A sheepish smile came to Chloe’s face and a blush colored her cheeks, but she didn’t duck her head or look away. She wasn’t used to compliments, but she wasn’t the kind to demure under them either.
“It makes me wonder if there are alternate universes of this place, but it strikes me as a singularity.” She shrugged. “There’s no way of knowing, and it’s probably not important.”
***
“Aye. Maybe not of this place, but this kind of place, surely. If one nexus exists, likely so do others.” Merlin nodded, wondering what others might be like.
He smiled to her.
“I fear I must soon depart, but… perhaps we might have dinner anon and speak more on ideas, and stories?” He raised an eyebrow to her.
“I could cook?”
***
Was the Merlin asking her out? The Merlin! Asking her, Chloe Sullivan on a date?! No freaking way. He had to just be being nice. Still, Chloe wasn’t going to turn it down.
“Sure!” she said with a smile. “I’d like tha-...” Chloe blinked when she finally took notice of the skin of her arms. “Holy crap!”
***
“Then I shall be glad to entertain thee, milady.” He grinned wider as she finally noticed the healing and he rose from where he had sat.
“When might be convenient for thee?” He felt some excitement, indeed.
***
Chloe’s smile broadened. This was actually kind of neat! Almost like courtly romance type stuff she’d read about but thought didn’t exist anymore. Heady stuff! If she wasn’t careful she could actually fall for this.
“Surprise me,” she said with a hint of challenge in her voice.
***
“As you wish, milady.” His eyes danced with amusement, and mischief.” He snapped fingers and held out a golden-yellow rose exactly the color of her hair. “Then i ask you this. Keep this, and hold it with you when you are not busy with work or other things. That will tell me it is a time it is okay to surprise you, and not one where you would be missed, or would perhaps make a mess.”
His smirk grew as he nodded.
“Then simply prepare for a surprise.”
***
Chloe’s breath caught in her throat for seeing some actually real magic. The creation of something from nothing was the very definition of alchemy! Well, maybe not the actual definition. That would be turning one thing into another thing, but this was even more impressive thank you very much!
She accepted the rose with a covert smile that could mean anything. Her mind turned this over as only Chloe would. After a moment of silence she grinned up at Merlin. “Wouldn’t trying to prepare for a surprise negate the whole purpose of a surprise?”
***
“A little, yes. But I prefer some prep, unless you wish to take the chance of a surprise happening when you are at work, or doing delicate work on your own projects, or in the shower?” He did like playing pranks, but when he was trying to be nice, he tried very much so. Even if Chloe tempted him to be very naughty.
He hmmed, then playfully reached for the flower. “On the other hand…”
***
“Oh no!” Chloe said with a laugh as she pulled the flower out of reach. “You aren’t getting out of it that easily.” One corner of her lips pulled to the side as she eyed Merlin.
“If you’re anything like the legends then you are perfectly capable of knowing when I’m not at work or…” she grinned, “...in the shower.” A challenging spark came to her eyes. “So you’ll either live up to your reputation or crash and burn.”
***
“As you wish, milady. I was giving thee that control, but as you wish“ He swept her a low bow and gave her a wink, full of mischief and absolute smirkishness. “Until we see each other again.”
And with a simple nod, he vanished, there one second, gone the next, his laughter, full of warmth and joy, rolling out for one moment longer…