A Couple of Merlin Short Stories

They're Back Part 2: The Remembered

          As Merlin and his new friends became closer, and they started acting more and more like their ancient counterparts he began to wonder how he would get them to remember themselves. He had already tried several ideas indiscreetly like mentioning adventures they had had, or calling them by the names they used to mock each other with. It had been months now and nothing had worked, he was almost at his wits end.

Good things had happened though, to distract him from the problem, such as Gwen and Arthur starting to date. It had taken several painstaking weeks, hundreds of flirtatious remarks, and thousands of poorly hidden glances at each other to finally get the idea across that they both wanted the same thing. At the end of it however everyone was content, and Gavin made it his mission to tease the new couple. As it was the pair were in 'lover's lane' (as everyone called it), and had barely spent anytime with their friends. Merlin had felt especially out of place during this time as no matter how hard he tried, or how welcoming the others seemed, Gwen was really the only one he would talk conversationally to. Finally the couple had realized they were ignoring their friends and decided to have a get together.

So on the cool day of the twenty first of April the group of seven had met on campus grounds before deciding, in a majority vote of six to one, to go to the flat of Emitt Myrrdin, much to his displeasure. As much as he trusted them, he did not want to have to explain all the oddities he had collected over the years.

On the drive to his place he was frantically thinking of excuses for all his items, and whether he had food in the fridge, and whether he had shut his bedroom door that morning. He was panicking on the inside and the others were oblivious, as they always seemed to be, and thought he was just having a 'zone out' moment. These seemed to happen a lot with their friend Emitt, though no one really questioned it. They arrived much quicker than Merlin would have hoped or thought, but as soon as the car stopped he forsook his friends and ran into the building to maybe tidy his living arrangement up a bit. Perhaps it was the exciting sensation of finally seeing where their mysterious friend lived that made the rest hurry to find his flat, but it seemed to be no more than three minutes and the others were at Merlins door. They entered and Arthur, who was at the forefront, only caught a glimpse of his dark haired buddy quickly closing a door to the far left.

          A coat rack in the shape of a tree stood by the door with several shirts, pants, and scarves adorned on its boughs, with no coats or hats in sight. A spare set of keys rested on the tooth of a stuffed alligator head on a shelf above the tree, at eye level and it made Arthur and practically everyone that followed him jump in surprise. The main room of the apartment held several small coffee tables and beanbags, with one extremely long couch that ran the length of the wall. Resting on the couches arm was a horrifying bunny mask that they seemed slightly familiar with. The only other item of furniture that filled the space was a very large bookcase with rows of books and binders. Paper seemed to line every empty space there, everything written on the paper was done by hand in a scrawling style. The only technology in the room was a very old laptop sat upon the counter of Merlins kitchenette. They marveled at the utter chaotic decour of the room, and how all the belongings made it seem rather cozy as well as terrifying. Looking at all the things that littered the floor and walls, Gwen thought that she was a hoarder but that Emitts flat disproved that theory altogether.

         "Where the heck did you get all this stuff, Merlin?" Lionel asked his mouth open wide. He shrugged and answered,

          "S'ppose I just, sort of, picked it up over the years." Elijah looked at him like he was crazy,

          "So you just happen to pick up a couple of swords?" He asked pointing to an umbrella stand that held anything but an umbrella. Emitt just shrugged.