Supermerwholock One Shots

Return of the King - Part Two

“Oh, I'm so sorry!” exclaimed the clumsy young woman who had just caused Merlin to spill his lukewarm tea all over himself. The young woman had chestnut brown hair - which had teal highlights in. At the point in time when she first meets Merlin, the teal is starting to fade. Merlin uses magic to sort this out for her, at a later date. Her hair is shoulder length and has a full fringe. Her eyes are halfway between pitch-black and very, very dark brown. Her skin was paler than a china doll’s.
“It's quite alright,” Merlin replied, casting a spell to sort everything out. Over the centuries, he had perfected the art of casting spells silently.
“How did you do that?” she asked, in shock and awe.
“I'm Merlin. I suppose you must know of few wizards, then?”
“Wizards​?” she asked. “The only 'wizards’ that I know are the members of the band 'Wizzard’.” She looked him in the eye. “Do you know many wizards?” she asked him, eyes narrowing at the word 'you’.
“I used to. But now it's just me, and 'Wizzard’,” Merlin replied.
“What's your name?”
“My name's Merlin. I said a minute ago.”
“Oh, sorry. I was still shocked about the thing you did.” It took her a while to find the word 'thing’. She had been searching for something more appropriate.
“What's your name?” Merlin asked. After she'd said about Wizzard, he'd been intrigued to discover this information.
“I'm Gabriel. Spelt G-A-B-R-I-E-L,” she told him. “To get this out of the way before anything else, I know my name is spelt like the Angel Gabriel, but it's pronounced: 'Gabrielle’. Got it?”
Merlin nodded. “I know the Angel Gabriel,” he said to himself, relieved. In all of his long time on the Earth, he hadn't heard of half of the people that people were named after.
“What? As in, personally?” she asked, incredulously.
“What?”
“The Angel Gabriel?”
“No!? I meant that I'd heard of him,” Merlin replied, taken aback. Gabriel sighed with relief. “So many people are named after obscure people these days that I don't know who at least half of them are.”
She laughed. “Oh, yeah?” she said. “Who are you named after? The wizard in Arthurian Legend?”
“No.”
“Who, then?”
“There are two reasons why I'm not named after the warlock, Merlin. The first doesn't sound like a reason, but it explains the second…”
“Just tell me already,” she sighed impatiently.
He laughed. “Okay. Well, one, because it's not legend but actual history. And two, because you can't name someone after themselves, can you?” Gabriel just looked at him.
“You can't be,” she said, eventually. “Even if it was true, he's been dead for hundreds of years.”
“You haven't read the so-called 'legend’, have you? Merlin doesn't die. He lives forever, vowing to assist King Arthur in Albion's hour of greatest need. He also guards where Arthur is being kept, ready for when that time comes.”
“Okay, you win,” she moaned, shifting her weight from foot to foot. “You've out-nerded this avid Arthurian Legend fangirl.” She looked at him, momentarily perplexed, then said: “Is it all true, then? Even the talking dragon in the dungeons?”
Merlin nodded. “I distinctly remember asking them not to write-in the talking dragon. He was never any help,” Merlin groaned. “He only ever…”
“... Talked in Riddles!” Gabriel finished excitedly. “One of my childhood friends and I would always try and come up with what the dragon would say in this day and age!”
“Well, if he was still in the dungeons, not much other than: ‘Emrys, get me out of this dungeon’.”
Gabriel looked momentarily perplexed by the ‘Emrys’ bit, then remembered the legends. She laughed. “One time, I actually suggested that and she just said: ‘Don’t be silly, Gabby. He’d given up on Merlin letting him out by then.’ I almost punched her in the nose.”
Merlin laughed. “There are more subtle ways,” he stated.
“Oh, I know. I bet 99 of yours involve magic at some point,” Gabriel interjected.
“I’ve got 99 comebacks and magic is in every one!” Merlin replied, smiling. It was Gabriel’s turn to laugh.
.x.x.x.x.
Arthur yawned. “Merlin. Polish my armour while I’m asleep,” he said, only half-awake. Before Merlin could reply, Arthur fell asleep, exhausted from returning from death.
Once they were sure that Arthur was asleep, Gabriel sniggered. “Did he really get you to do that all the time?”
Merlin nodded. “Though, while I was off saving Camelot with magic, our cover story was that I was in the tavern. That was Gaius’ fault, he always thought of that first.” He looked over to the bed, holding his king, from his chair. Gabriel walked to stand beside Merlin’s chair. Eventually, he stood and rested his hand on her shoulder. “Come on,” he whispered to her. “Let’s follow the king’s lead and call it a day, huh?” Then he led her out of King Arthur Pendragon’s new room.