Merlin fic: Shadowplay -- Chapter Ten
Aug. 31st, 2012 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adelagiaTitle: Shadowplay
Summary: Stood down from duty on convalescent's leave, secret agent Arthur Pendragon wonders if sheer boredom might just do him in. But when his handler saddles him with a caretaker who is by turns completely inept and strangely brilliant, and invites trouble wherever he goes, Arthur has to concede that death by boredom looks less and less likely. Death by goon squad, high-speed car chase, poison, or fiery explosion, however...
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur
Rating: NC-17
Chapter word count: ~3,200
Notes:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
venivincere's secret super power is beta reading. Shh, don't tell anyone.
Previous chapters: Prologue + One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine
There were only so many variations of Yes, Arthur, I'm fine; please stop asking that Merlin could repeat, and though he'd already run through them all at least twice, Arthur still couldn't help the niggling feeling inside that something was wrong with Merlin.
Merlin wasn't doing or saying anything any much differently than usual that Arthur could objectively identify as off, but there was something all the same, a kind of brittle air, maybe a little stiffness in the way he carried himself today.
He couldn't bring himself to ask outright whether Merlin was thinking of reneging on their agreement from last night, to be, for want of a better word, fuck buddies. It wasn't a term he particularly liked, denoting as it did something meaningless and throwaway, but then that was exactly what they had.
In the starkest terms, once this case was over -- whether they solved it or one or both of them died trying to -- everything about them was over. It was no use thinking or hoping otherwise.
Not that he was hoping otherwise. Getting attached to someone was part of a life he didn't lead, didn't... want.
Out the car window, the city drifted by in greys and browns, shadowed under a drizzly sky. Inside, Arthur left the iPod alone this time, letting Merlin listen to the peppy, juvenile rubbish he had on it, though he wasn't sure Merlin was listening at all, the way his knuckles kept tightening around the steering wheel for no reason except for whatever secrets he kept in his head.
They reached the agency with barely a word exchanged between them, although it wasn't so much a strained, unpleasant silence as it was anticipatory, somehow, like they were on the verge of tipping over into something completely new, and unknown.
Arthur shook his head, shedding the feeling along with it, chiding himself for all the inner dramatics. Probably he was reading far too much into the situation, maybe projecting a little of his own confusion onto Merlin for a convenient scapegoat.
The truth was that he didn't need a romantic relationship, but the deeper truth was that he hated the idea of never seeing Merlin again. And somewhere in the middle, it seemed like a good, if slapdash, compromise for them to keep sleeping with each other until they couldn't anymore.
Or at least it had seemed like a good idea at the time that Arthur had suggested it.
It didn't solve anything on the long term, really, but as long as they were both willing parties to it for now, there couldn't be any harm, could there?
Arthur sighed inwardly, trying to force himself to be content with that thought for the time being. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work that well, so Arthur shut the thought down, pushing it into the shadowy corners of his mind where it could gather mounds of dust and cobwebs and serve it right for making him feel so... full of feelings.
Feelings clouded his enjoyment of necessarily casual sex, and what he wanted from Merlin, and incidentally, from himself, was a relationship that centred around nothing but the brilliantly explosive sex they kept having. Yes, that was what he wanted.
Arthur found himself nodding, like his brain needed the extra corroboration. As if to make the point stick, Arthur found himself taking Merlin by the elbow and steering him towards one of the men's washrooms.
"Er, what's happening?" Merlin asked as Arthur pushed the door open and ushered him in.
The lavatory was empty and bright, its tiles and surfaces shining with the cheeriness of the recently cleaned.
"We're early. We still have--" Arthur checked his watch "--at least twenty minutes before I'm due in physiotherapy." He cocked his head and looked at Merlin meaningfully.
"Oh. I-- er," said Merlin, his brow furrowing.
For a thoroughly embarrassing moment Arthur's stomach churned with the fear of Merlin turning him down, and it wasn't just the prospect of rejection of a quick fuck in a toilet stall that was making his heart pound relentlessly. What if it was a rejection for... forever?
But Merlin gave him a sudden smile, and there was his answer.
*
He was weak, he knew, assenting to Arthur's impulsive proposition, knowing full well that approximately half an hour from now he'd be turning in his resignation letter to Morgana and walking out of this life forever.
But this was the last time he could have Arthur, and at least it would be on his own terms.
Merlin drew Arthur into a stall; it was spacious, as toilet stalls went, but there was still a bit of squeezing and breathy, awkward, are-we-really-doing-this laughter as Merlin reached around to move the lock into place.
He did nothing at first, save for crowding into Arthur's space so that Arthur had to back into the partition until there was nowhere else to go. They stood there for a moment, chest to chest, their heartbeats finding and matching each other.
Then, with his fingers lifting Arthur's chin, Merlin tilted his head and fitted his lips to Arthur's in a slow, lingering kiss. It wouldn’t matter to Arthur just what Merlin meant by it, but this goodbye wasn't his to understand.
Even so, Arthur seemed not to mind the unhurried pace, his lips meeting Merlin's sweetly. Sweeping his tongue across the seam of Arthur's lips, Merlin coaxed his mouth open without resistance. With hands at the small of Arthur's back, Merlin tugged him forward till their hips touched, and though neither of them was hard yet the contact gave their languid maundering a new urgency.
Merlin pulled his mouth away and kissed the underside of Arthur's jaw, moving up along its edge. He dragged the tip of his tongue around the whorls of Arthur's ear, making Arthur puff out a breath of surprised pleasure.
Arthur turned his head and caught Merlin's mouth in a kiss, harder this time, openmouthed and heated, their breaths hot on each other's lips, and Merlin could feel Arthur's cock hardening alongside his own.
Merlin dipped his hands underneath the waistband of Arthur's trousers, skimming down the curve of his arse, pushing Arthur tighter against him though they were already flush against each other. He dragged one finger up and down the crease, just barely grazing the hole, and Arthur swallowed a moan.
"Tonight," Arthur rasped. "Tonight you fuck me, Merlin."
Those words alone almost broke him; all in a flash, he could see himself pressed deep inside Arthur, both of them naked and shining with sweat, their fingers laced, their hips bucking, Merlin pushing, pushing, pushing until Arthur came in shudders all over the bed, or on the floor, or up against the wall, with Merlin's name dancing on his lips.
Spurred with desperation and the thoughts of things that would never be, Merlin ground his hips against Arthur, both of them fully hard now. He unfastened Arthur's trousers and pulled them down along with his pants, letting them sag and pool around Arthur's ankles, forgotten.
Merlin sank to his knees, rubbing his face against the rigid smoothness of Arthur's cock. He licked a hard, flat line up its length, and reached a palm between Arthur's thighs, stroking his balls, drawing a tight groan out of Arthur.
Then, getting to his feet again, Merlin folded a loose fist over Arthur's cock, squeezing him slowly, gently, setting a torturous pace that made Arthur grimace, frustrated with need.
Building up his pace by degrees, Merlin could feel Arthur's breath on his skin quickening, the tightening clench of his fingers at Merlin's hips as Merlin lured him closer to the edge. Merlin slowed his hand again, returning to the light, languorous strokes he'd started out with.
Arthur groaned, too caught up to find words, and bit Merlin on the shoulder in retaliation.
To distract him, Merlin nudge his head up and licked his lower lip, and Arthur caught it at once in his mouth, sucking at his tongue, his lips, whatever Merlin had to offer.
"Two," said Arthur, between long, wet kisses, "can play at this game."
He brought his hands down to Merlin's cock, unzipping his trousers slowly, the fabric stretched tight over the hard curve of his erection. Arthur reached his fingers in past the zipper, and gently drew Merlin's cock out, thumbing over the head, smearing the wet shine of pre-come over its ridge.
Merlin bit down on his lip, and Arthur swept in at once to lick the sting away.
They watched each other with dark eyes as their hands matched rhythms in a slow burn. Merlin kept his gaze trained on Arthur's face, determined to watch him as he fell apart under Merlin's hand.
Stroke by stroke, Merlin began to pump his hand faster, stripping Arthur's cock from base to head and down again, and Arthur followed suit, frantic with need. The friction and fire of Arthur's hand on his cock made Merlin nearly delirious, but he held off, clenching his jaw in concentration, working Arthur over.
Arthur broke first with a short, tight cry, his breath juddering out in wordless noises against Merlin's neck as he spiralled towards release, come spilling over Merlin's fingers.
He blinked at Merlin for a moment, the hand on Merlin's cock momentarily stilled, his eyes glazed.
There was come dripping off Merlin's hand, and Merlin sucked it off one finger. Arthur made a low sound in the back of his throat at this, jolted back into focus. He darted forward and kissed the taste of his come out of Merlin's mouth.
That mixed with the mounting heat surging under his skin as Arthur started stroking his cock again with renewed force, it took no more than a minute before Merlin was gasping through his own release.
Winding several layers of toilet paper around his hand, Arthur tore off two handfuls, giving one to Merlin to clean the drying come off his fingers.
Arthur chuckled breathlessly to himself as he pulled up his trousers and tucked his shirt in.
"What?" Merlin asked.
"I just--" Arthur shook his head. "We need to have sex all the time."
Merlin worked up a smile, and unlocked the stall door, going over to the sink to wash his hands. He avoided looking in the mirror, and instead kept his head tucked down, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Arthur at the adjoining sink, watching those quotidian movements he wouldn't ever see again.
When they were dried off and presentable, they left the lavatory, coming to a hallway that split in two directions.
Arthur looked at his watch. "And still with a few minutes to spare," he noted brightly. "Well, physiotherapy for me. You'll be up in Morgana's lair, I suppose?"
"Yeah," said Merlin.
"All right. I'll come and find you in a couple of hours."
Struck with the need to touch Arthur one last time, Merlin shoved his hands behind his back, pinching his fingers. "See you later," he said, and watched Arthur turn on his heel and stride off.
Taking the opposite corridor, Merlin walked with slow steps towards Morgana's office, the letter in his satchel burning a hole through. There was time to reconsider, he thought.
But he didn't. Merlin reached the office and, with her assistant's go-ahead, rapped sharply on the door. Hearing Morgana's instruction to come in, he pushed the door open and reached into his bag, his fingers closing around the envelope.
"Agent Emrys," said Morgana, rising from her chair. "There's something I need to talk to you about."
Merlin shut the door behind him and took the letter out. "Me too."
*
Arthur rolled his shoulders, relaxed, as he sat in the canteen, sipping at a small cup of tea. Between Merlin wanking him off in the men's toilets and the physiotherapy session that followed immediately afterward, Arthur was feeling pretty good.
He had been waiting, though, to hear from Merlin for about an hour now. He'd gone up to Morgana's office looking for him but her door was closed, her assistant informing him that Morgana was in a meeting and not to be disturbed under pain of disembowelment.
A phone call had got patched straight through to voicemail and a querying text message hadn't been returned yet, so Arthur figured Merlin was either off doing something important for Morgana or visiting Gaius or had got himself locked up again. Either way, he'd turn up eventually, fingers crossed.
Arthur finished his tea and was about to get up and throw the cup away when his mobile went off. A little thrill coiled in his chest as he looked at the display, expecting Merlin's picture to pop up, but it was only Morgana's.
"Arthur," she said, dispensing as usual with a standard greeting. "Come up to my office."
The connection clicked closed before Arthur could even say anything. Tossing his cup in the bin, he wound his way towards the office. Morgana's assistant didn't threaten him with anything this time, only gesturing him past her desk and towards the door. It was ajar. Arthur gave it two perfunctory knocks and let himself in.
"Agent Pendragon," said Morgana, giving Arthur his cue to stand a little straighter, now that it was about business and not sisterly nonsense.
There was another man in the office, standing at attention in a suit cut just a tad too tight for his overabundance of muscles. Arthur glanced at him, gauging an impression in a split second; he looked like a carefully shaved gorilla.
"This," Morgana said, indicating the burly bystander, "is Agent Kay. Effective immediately, he'll be taking over Agent Emrys' duties."
"Pardon me, ma'am?" Arthur said, feeling a strain in his voice already.
"Agent Emrys is no longer with the agency," Morgana said. As if sensing an imminent fight with Arthur, she nodded to Kay and said, "Agent Kay, if you would wait outside for a moment, please."
The gorilla lumbered out.
As soon as the door shut, Arthur stalked forward and demanded, "What the hell is going on? Where's Merlin?"
Morgana gave him as an apologetic look as she could muster, which was only slightly less severe than her usual sharpness. "Classified."
"Bollocks," Arthur accused.
Morgana folded her arms over her chest and sighed softly. "I'm sorry, Arthur, but we've had to let him go."
Arthur stared at her, so flooded with disbelief that for a moment his voice was drowned in it. "What?" he managed finally.
"Look, it wasn't my decision," she said, her hands held up placatingly. "This one was out of my hands."
"You mean our father, then?"
She hesitated. "Uther wasn't happy with how the funeral operation went down."
Arthur spun on his heel, stalking towards the door, fully intending to have it out with his father, but Morgana held him back with a firm hand to his shoulder. He threw it off, but it stopped him moving forward. Arthur took a deep breath; it went down with difficulty, his chest tight with rising anger.
"Arthur, it's done."
"What went down with Alvarr wasn't Merlin's fault!" Arthur barked. He knew he was shouting at the wrong person, but she was the only one there. "If anyone's getting fired it should be me."
"You know that's not happening."
"Why should Merlin have to-- Look, you had Merlin pulled out of retirement specifically to bodyguard me because you didn't have anyone else to do it; how is getting rid of him going to help?"
Morgana shook her head. "Things have changed since then; we have Kay available now, and he can do just as well as Merlin. And," she said, "Merlin was... fine with it. This job was taking a big toll on him; he was happy to go."
Arthur took a step backwards, breath rushing out of his lungs as though he'd been struck in the chest. He might have been okay with Morgana playing around with all her little agents like chess pieces -- that was just what she did and was paid to do, but hearing that Merlin hadn't had any problems at all being pulled away from Arthur hit him so fiercely he didn't even know what to say. He opened his mouth uselessly, and then closed it again when he realised nothing had come out.
"He'll be fine," Morgana said. "With a recommendation from Gaius, Merlin will be able to find a job anywhere."
Arthur stared, feeling more wretched than ever. It hadn't even occurred to him that Merlin wasn't just off this case, but kicked out of the agency entirely and unemployed now, even though his previous position in R&D had nothing to do with Arthur at all.
"Besides," Morgana said, in softer tones, as if she could read the distress in his face, "you were always complaining about him; I don't know why you're making such a fuss now. It's all the same, isn't it, whether it's Merlin or somebody else doing bodyguard duty?"
"No," Arthur said quietly.
Tilting her head, Morgana gave him a curious look, as though trying to gauge his reaction. "Why not?"
"Because-- I can't--"
She waited, letting him struggle, but her face held a measure of encouragement.
"Because I've only just got used to him. And... we work well together," he finished lamely, unsatisfied with his own answer but unable to bring himself to say any more than that.
Morgana took a deep breath and let it out in a quiet sigh, her shoulders sagging slightly, like she was disappointed as well. "Well," she said, "I'm sure you'll get used to Kay, too."
Arthur looked at her, his jaw shifting with frustration, but he only nodded.
"I've arranged," Morgana said, sounding more like her brusque self again, "for your things to be transferred to your new lodgings. I'm putting you up in a hotel for now, but we may have to move you every few days for safety's sake."
"Yes, ma'am," said Arthur, drawing himself up.
Morgana called Kay back in, reviewing the finer details of what needed to happen next -- transportation, signing off on the list of weapons they were taking out, working out a general schedule, and so forth -- but Arthur could barely pay attention to either of them. And even when he did bring his focus back in, it was only to resent Kay's presence.
The resentment worsened hours later when, newly settled in the hotel with the belongings that had got magically transported from Merlin's flat, Arthur discovered that Kay's impersonal, laconic helpfulness knew no bounds, insisting on calling Arthur 'sir' all the time and standing in the corner motionless like a palace foot guard, looming obtrusively over the whole suite.
Arthur looked in on the bedroom, where an inviting king-sized bed dressed in opulent gold shone at him, and all he could think of was the worn duvet on Merlin's bed and the warmth of Merlin's chest at his back.
He sagged down into an embroidered chair, the warring anger and ache in his chest a sad, savage reminder that getting attached was always, always a mistake.
Continue to Chapter Eleven
Summary: Stood down from duty on convalescent's leave, secret agent Arthur Pendragon wonders if sheer boredom might just do him in. But when his handler saddles him with a caretaker who is by turns completely inept and strangely brilliant, and invites trouble wherever he goes, Arthur has to concede that death by boredom looks less and less likely. Death by goon squad, high-speed car chase, poison, or fiery explosion, however...
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur
Rating: NC-17
Chapter word count: ~3,200
Notes:
venivincere's secret super power is beta reading. Shh, don't tell anyone. Previous chapters: Prologue + One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine
There were only so many variations of Yes, Arthur, I'm fine; please stop asking that Merlin could repeat, and though he'd already run through them all at least twice, Arthur still couldn't help the niggling feeling inside that something was wrong with Merlin.
Merlin wasn't doing or saying anything any much differently than usual that Arthur could objectively identify as off, but there was something all the same, a kind of brittle air, maybe a little stiffness in the way he carried himself today.
He couldn't bring himself to ask outright whether Merlin was thinking of reneging on their agreement from last night, to be, for want of a better word, fuck buddies. It wasn't a term he particularly liked, denoting as it did something meaningless and throwaway, but then that was exactly what they had.
In the starkest terms, once this case was over -- whether they solved it or one or both of them died trying to -- everything about them was over. It was no use thinking or hoping otherwise.
Not that he was hoping otherwise. Getting attached to someone was part of a life he didn't lead, didn't... want.
Out the car window, the city drifted by in greys and browns, shadowed under a drizzly sky. Inside, Arthur left the iPod alone this time, letting Merlin listen to the peppy, juvenile rubbish he had on it, though he wasn't sure Merlin was listening at all, the way his knuckles kept tightening around the steering wheel for no reason except for whatever secrets he kept in his head.
They reached the agency with barely a word exchanged between them, although it wasn't so much a strained, unpleasant silence as it was anticipatory, somehow, like they were on the verge of tipping over into something completely new, and unknown.
Arthur shook his head, shedding the feeling along with it, chiding himself for all the inner dramatics. Probably he was reading far too much into the situation, maybe projecting a little of his own confusion onto Merlin for a convenient scapegoat.
The truth was that he didn't need a romantic relationship, but the deeper truth was that he hated the idea of never seeing Merlin again. And somewhere in the middle, it seemed like a good, if slapdash, compromise for them to keep sleeping with each other until they couldn't anymore.
Or at least it had seemed like a good idea at the time that Arthur had suggested it.
It didn't solve anything on the long term, really, but as long as they were both willing parties to it for now, there couldn't be any harm, could there?
Arthur sighed inwardly, trying to force himself to be content with that thought for the time being. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work that well, so Arthur shut the thought down, pushing it into the shadowy corners of his mind where it could gather mounds of dust and cobwebs and serve it right for making him feel so... full of feelings.
Feelings clouded his enjoyment of necessarily casual sex, and what he wanted from Merlin, and incidentally, from himself, was a relationship that centred around nothing but the brilliantly explosive sex they kept having. Yes, that was what he wanted.
Arthur found himself nodding, like his brain needed the extra corroboration. As if to make the point stick, Arthur found himself taking Merlin by the elbow and steering him towards one of the men's washrooms.
"Er, what's happening?" Merlin asked as Arthur pushed the door open and ushered him in.
The lavatory was empty and bright, its tiles and surfaces shining with the cheeriness of the recently cleaned.
"We're early. We still have--" Arthur checked his watch "--at least twenty minutes before I'm due in physiotherapy." He cocked his head and looked at Merlin meaningfully.
"Oh. I-- er," said Merlin, his brow furrowing.
For a thoroughly embarrassing moment Arthur's stomach churned with the fear of Merlin turning him down, and it wasn't just the prospect of rejection of a quick fuck in a toilet stall that was making his heart pound relentlessly. What if it was a rejection for... forever?
But Merlin gave him a sudden smile, and there was his answer.
He was weak, he knew, assenting to Arthur's impulsive proposition, knowing full well that approximately half an hour from now he'd be turning in his resignation letter to Morgana and walking out of this life forever.
But this was the last time he could have Arthur, and at least it would be on his own terms.
Merlin drew Arthur into a stall; it was spacious, as toilet stalls went, but there was still a bit of squeezing and breathy, awkward, are-we-really-doing-this laughter as Merlin reached around to move the lock into place.
He did nothing at first, save for crowding into Arthur's space so that Arthur had to back into the partition until there was nowhere else to go. They stood there for a moment, chest to chest, their heartbeats finding and matching each other.
Then, with his fingers lifting Arthur's chin, Merlin tilted his head and fitted his lips to Arthur's in a slow, lingering kiss. It wouldn’t matter to Arthur just what Merlin meant by it, but this goodbye wasn't his to understand.
Even so, Arthur seemed not to mind the unhurried pace, his lips meeting Merlin's sweetly. Sweeping his tongue across the seam of Arthur's lips, Merlin coaxed his mouth open without resistance. With hands at the small of Arthur's back, Merlin tugged him forward till their hips touched, and though neither of them was hard yet the contact gave their languid maundering a new urgency.
Merlin pulled his mouth away and kissed the underside of Arthur's jaw, moving up along its edge. He dragged the tip of his tongue around the whorls of Arthur's ear, making Arthur puff out a breath of surprised pleasure.
Arthur turned his head and caught Merlin's mouth in a kiss, harder this time, openmouthed and heated, their breaths hot on each other's lips, and Merlin could feel Arthur's cock hardening alongside his own.
Merlin dipped his hands underneath the waistband of Arthur's trousers, skimming down the curve of his arse, pushing Arthur tighter against him though they were already flush against each other. He dragged one finger up and down the crease, just barely grazing the hole, and Arthur swallowed a moan.
"Tonight," Arthur rasped. "Tonight you fuck me, Merlin."
Those words alone almost broke him; all in a flash, he could see himself pressed deep inside Arthur, both of them naked and shining with sweat, their fingers laced, their hips bucking, Merlin pushing, pushing, pushing until Arthur came in shudders all over the bed, or on the floor, or up against the wall, with Merlin's name dancing on his lips.
Spurred with desperation and the thoughts of things that would never be, Merlin ground his hips against Arthur, both of them fully hard now. He unfastened Arthur's trousers and pulled them down along with his pants, letting them sag and pool around Arthur's ankles, forgotten.
Merlin sank to his knees, rubbing his face against the rigid smoothness of Arthur's cock. He licked a hard, flat line up its length, and reached a palm between Arthur's thighs, stroking his balls, drawing a tight groan out of Arthur.
Then, getting to his feet again, Merlin folded a loose fist over Arthur's cock, squeezing him slowly, gently, setting a torturous pace that made Arthur grimace, frustrated with need.
Building up his pace by degrees, Merlin could feel Arthur's breath on his skin quickening, the tightening clench of his fingers at Merlin's hips as Merlin lured him closer to the edge. Merlin slowed his hand again, returning to the light, languorous strokes he'd started out with.
Arthur groaned, too caught up to find words, and bit Merlin on the shoulder in retaliation.
To distract him, Merlin nudge his head up and licked his lower lip, and Arthur caught it at once in his mouth, sucking at his tongue, his lips, whatever Merlin had to offer.
"Two," said Arthur, between long, wet kisses, "can play at this game."
He brought his hands down to Merlin's cock, unzipping his trousers slowly, the fabric stretched tight over the hard curve of his erection. Arthur reached his fingers in past the zipper, and gently drew Merlin's cock out, thumbing over the head, smearing the wet shine of pre-come over its ridge.
Merlin bit down on his lip, and Arthur swept in at once to lick the sting away.
They watched each other with dark eyes as their hands matched rhythms in a slow burn. Merlin kept his gaze trained on Arthur's face, determined to watch him as he fell apart under Merlin's hand.
Stroke by stroke, Merlin began to pump his hand faster, stripping Arthur's cock from base to head and down again, and Arthur followed suit, frantic with need. The friction and fire of Arthur's hand on his cock made Merlin nearly delirious, but he held off, clenching his jaw in concentration, working Arthur over.
Arthur broke first with a short, tight cry, his breath juddering out in wordless noises against Merlin's neck as he spiralled towards release, come spilling over Merlin's fingers.
He blinked at Merlin for a moment, the hand on Merlin's cock momentarily stilled, his eyes glazed.
There was come dripping off Merlin's hand, and Merlin sucked it off one finger. Arthur made a low sound in the back of his throat at this, jolted back into focus. He darted forward and kissed the taste of his come out of Merlin's mouth.
That mixed with the mounting heat surging under his skin as Arthur started stroking his cock again with renewed force, it took no more than a minute before Merlin was gasping through his own release.
Winding several layers of toilet paper around his hand, Arthur tore off two handfuls, giving one to Merlin to clean the drying come off his fingers.
Arthur chuckled breathlessly to himself as he pulled up his trousers and tucked his shirt in.
"What?" Merlin asked.
"I just--" Arthur shook his head. "We need to have sex all the time."
Merlin worked up a smile, and unlocked the stall door, going over to the sink to wash his hands. He avoided looking in the mirror, and instead kept his head tucked down, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Arthur at the adjoining sink, watching those quotidian movements he wouldn't ever see again.
When they were dried off and presentable, they left the lavatory, coming to a hallway that split in two directions.
Arthur looked at his watch. "And still with a few minutes to spare," he noted brightly. "Well, physiotherapy for me. You'll be up in Morgana's lair, I suppose?"
"Yeah," said Merlin.
"All right. I'll come and find you in a couple of hours."
Struck with the need to touch Arthur one last time, Merlin shoved his hands behind his back, pinching his fingers. "See you later," he said, and watched Arthur turn on his heel and stride off.
Taking the opposite corridor, Merlin walked with slow steps towards Morgana's office, the letter in his satchel burning a hole through. There was time to reconsider, he thought.
But he didn't. Merlin reached the office and, with her assistant's go-ahead, rapped sharply on the door. Hearing Morgana's instruction to come in, he pushed the door open and reached into his bag, his fingers closing around the envelope.
"Agent Emrys," said Morgana, rising from her chair. "There's something I need to talk to you about."
Merlin shut the door behind him and took the letter out. "Me too."
Arthur rolled his shoulders, relaxed, as he sat in the canteen, sipping at a small cup of tea. Between Merlin wanking him off in the men's toilets and the physiotherapy session that followed immediately afterward, Arthur was feeling pretty good.
He had been waiting, though, to hear from Merlin for about an hour now. He'd gone up to Morgana's office looking for him but her door was closed, her assistant informing him that Morgana was in a meeting and not to be disturbed under pain of disembowelment.
A phone call had got patched straight through to voicemail and a querying text message hadn't been returned yet, so Arthur figured Merlin was either off doing something important for Morgana or visiting Gaius or had got himself locked up again. Either way, he'd turn up eventually, fingers crossed.
Arthur finished his tea and was about to get up and throw the cup away when his mobile went off. A little thrill coiled in his chest as he looked at the display, expecting Merlin's picture to pop up, but it was only Morgana's.
"Arthur," she said, dispensing as usual with a standard greeting. "Come up to my office."
The connection clicked closed before Arthur could even say anything. Tossing his cup in the bin, he wound his way towards the office. Morgana's assistant didn't threaten him with anything this time, only gesturing him past her desk and towards the door. It was ajar. Arthur gave it two perfunctory knocks and let himself in.
"Agent Pendragon," said Morgana, giving Arthur his cue to stand a little straighter, now that it was about business and not sisterly nonsense.
There was another man in the office, standing at attention in a suit cut just a tad too tight for his overabundance of muscles. Arthur glanced at him, gauging an impression in a split second; he looked like a carefully shaved gorilla.
"This," Morgana said, indicating the burly bystander, "is Agent Kay. Effective immediately, he'll be taking over Agent Emrys' duties."
"Pardon me, ma'am?" Arthur said, feeling a strain in his voice already.
"Agent Emrys is no longer with the agency," Morgana said. As if sensing an imminent fight with Arthur, she nodded to Kay and said, "Agent Kay, if you would wait outside for a moment, please."
The gorilla lumbered out.
As soon as the door shut, Arthur stalked forward and demanded, "What the hell is going on? Where's Merlin?"
Morgana gave him as an apologetic look as she could muster, which was only slightly less severe than her usual sharpness. "Classified."
"Bollocks," Arthur accused.
Morgana folded her arms over her chest and sighed softly. "I'm sorry, Arthur, but we've had to let him go."
Arthur stared at her, so flooded with disbelief that for a moment his voice was drowned in it. "What?" he managed finally.
"Look, it wasn't my decision," she said, her hands held up placatingly. "This one was out of my hands."
"You mean our father, then?"
She hesitated. "Uther wasn't happy with how the funeral operation went down."
Arthur spun on his heel, stalking towards the door, fully intending to have it out with his father, but Morgana held him back with a firm hand to his shoulder. He threw it off, but it stopped him moving forward. Arthur took a deep breath; it went down with difficulty, his chest tight with rising anger.
"Arthur, it's done."
"What went down with Alvarr wasn't Merlin's fault!" Arthur barked. He knew he was shouting at the wrong person, but she was the only one there. "If anyone's getting fired it should be me."
"You know that's not happening."
"Why should Merlin have to-- Look, you had Merlin pulled out of retirement specifically to bodyguard me because you didn't have anyone else to do it; how is getting rid of him going to help?"
Morgana shook her head. "Things have changed since then; we have Kay available now, and he can do just as well as Merlin. And," she said, "Merlin was... fine with it. This job was taking a big toll on him; he was happy to go."
Arthur took a step backwards, breath rushing out of his lungs as though he'd been struck in the chest. He might have been okay with Morgana playing around with all her little agents like chess pieces -- that was just what she did and was paid to do, but hearing that Merlin hadn't had any problems at all being pulled away from Arthur hit him so fiercely he didn't even know what to say. He opened his mouth uselessly, and then closed it again when he realised nothing had come out.
"He'll be fine," Morgana said. "With a recommendation from Gaius, Merlin will be able to find a job anywhere."
Arthur stared, feeling more wretched than ever. It hadn't even occurred to him that Merlin wasn't just off this case, but kicked out of the agency entirely and unemployed now, even though his previous position in R&D had nothing to do with Arthur at all.
"Besides," Morgana said, in softer tones, as if she could read the distress in his face, "you were always complaining about him; I don't know why you're making such a fuss now. It's all the same, isn't it, whether it's Merlin or somebody else doing bodyguard duty?"
"No," Arthur said quietly.
Tilting her head, Morgana gave him a curious look, as though trying to gauge his reaction. "Why not?"
"Because-- I can't--"
She waited, letting him struggle, but her face held a measure of encouragement.
"Because I've only just got used to him. And... we work well together," he finished lamely, unsatisfied with his own answer but unable to bring himself to say any more than that.
Morgana took a deep breath and let it out in a quiet sigh, her shoulders sagging slightly, like she was disappointed as well. "Well," she said, "I'm sure you'll get used to Kay, too."
Arthur looked at her, his jaw shifting with frustration, but he only nodded.
"I've arranged," Morgana said, sounding more like her brusque self again, "for your things to be transferred to your new lodgings. I'm putting you up in a hotel for now, but we may have to move you every few days for safety's sake."
"Yes, ma'am," said Arthur, drawing himself up.
Morgana called Kay back in, reviewing the finer details of what needed to happen next -- transportation, signing off on the list of weapons they were taking out, working out a general schedule, and so forth -- but Arthur could barely pay attention to either of them. And even when he did bring his focus back in, it was only to resent Kay's presence.
The resentment worsened hours later when, newly settled in the hotel with the belongings that had got magically transported from Merlin's flat, Arthur discovered that Kay's impersonal, laconic helpfulness knew no bounds, insisting on calling Arthur 'sir' all the time and standing in the corner motionless like a palace foot guard, looming obtrusively over the whole suite.
Arthur looked in on the bedroom, where an inviting king-sized bed dressed in opulent gold shone at him, and all he could think of was the worn duvet on Merlin's bed and the warmth of Merlin's chest at his back.
He sagged down into an embroidered chair, the warring anger and ache in his chest a sad, savage reminder that getting attached was always, always a mistake.
Continue to Chapter Eleven
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on 2012-09-02 04:46 am (UTC)