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Delivering the act (finale)

Arthur was gone. He hadn't left a note but his things were packed and a serving girl had told Merlin that Arthur had run off with his stuff without a word. Merlin didn't know what to think, or what to feel. He knew what he had done. And he knew he was wrong, but the stubborn part of himself refused to run after him. He even refused to connect the dots. He refused to acknowledge that after everything that's happened, Arthur's feelings were more than clear. The broken look in Arthur's eyes haunted him. And Merlin didn't deserve the meaning behind it, no matter how much his heart longed to believe it.

The worst part was, his anger had faded and Merlin was faced with exactly how unsensical his initial conclusion was. The way Arthur had behaved didn't speak of revenge. Arthur hadn't even taken Uther's call. Arthur had simply turned away from Uther. What about that was evil? The anger was now replaced by guilt and shame.

Merlin had been the one to ask Arthur for the whole charade. MERLIN had been the one who let it escalate to this point. Everything Will had accused Valiant of doing... hadn't Merlin done the same thing? Hadn't he been the one playing with Arthur's feelings? He hadn't even acknowledged their friendship before this weekend. Hadn't ever thanked Arthur for helping him and then he'd gone and lashed out at Arthur for doing the same? No wonder Arthur hadn't confided in him, Merlin was an arsehole.

Merlin's heart ached and burned, so he did the only thing he could think of doing besides calling Arthur. Because Arthur was on a plane and therefore would have his phone off, the idiot. Merlin closed his eyes.

'What am I supposed to do with this garbage?' Merlin still had the ticket. It rested in his hand, and thought by thought, Merlin could feel the weight of the ticket increasing. Arthur had kept this for years. Arthur had carried around like a promise and a treasure. And Merlin had called it garbage. "Who's the trash now?" Merlin mumbled to himself.

The phone rang for a couple seconds before a tired sounding Morgana picked up. "Merlin? The hell are you waking me up for? I'm on vacation, remember?"

Merlin bit his lip. "I messed up." His voice broke with his emotions.

Morgana was silent for a second before she seemed to shift wherever she was. "YOU messed up? Not Arthur? Now that I gotta hear. Does Valiant know about the-"

"I don't care about that right now. I-" Merlin interrupted himself. He hadn't thought he was still capable of cracking his voice but that had just happened. "Fuck, Morgana, I think I really hurt him."

Morgana seemed to wait for him to finish, before her voice dropped to a rare gentleness. "I doubt that you did. Arthur isn't easily hurt. Where is he now?"

"He caught an early flight home."

"Oh." Morgana sounded more than shocked. "What the heck? What on earth did you do to make him run away? That man didn't even run when Uther threatened to disinherit him for giving Gwaine a job!"

That... stung. "I honestly don't really know." Merlin swallowed. He did, but he couldn't really fathom it. He refused to accept it. Because the people who told him about Arthur's feelings were people whom they had fooled. "What do you know about the ticket in his wallet?"

Morgana's voice now turned cold and almost threatening. "What did you do to it?!" It resonated with her. Morgana KNEW.

"I called it garbage." Merlin wondered how much Morgana knew. What he took from her reaction was that she had definitely kew it was important to Arthur. Which meant that Penelope hadn't been kidding. This hadn't just been something Arthur said, even MORGANA was aware of it.

"That's all?" Morgana sounded confused. "You didn't like... steal it, or drop water on it?"

"That's all." Merlin felt somewhat relieved, although there was a hint of disappointment there. "I mean, I may have grabbed it rather tight when he gave it to me, but it doesn't look like I broke anything." Merlin ran his thumb over the laminated piece of paper, finding to his surprise that the ticket was worn, as if Arthur had done the same thing a dozen times.