Deafening Silence

Limpidity

The early morning sunlight bled through Merlin's window and settled onto his pale face when the next day came, prompting the warlock's eyes to flicker open. Slowly, Merlin began to awaken properly and judging by how he was feeling, he able to figure out that this was not his ordinary awakening hour.

His feelings of discomfort would fade, however, when he remembered one little thought that he went to bed with.

Merlin sat up in his bed as if he'd just been startled and made to grab a book off of the floor. The whooshing sounds of the sheets being yanked away were clear as day to him but that was not what he was listening out for.

Holding the book in his hand, Merlin very carefully traced a nail over the spine and listened out for the scratching sound he knew should've joined it.

He noticed the difference immediately.

Merlin recalled the sound of the quill's end from the older night as he wrote away at Arthur's speech. He recalled his own little elation at the idea of being able to hear finer sounds again as drifted to sleep. The quill he could just about make out but this, Merlin could hear completely.

There was no ringing or buzzing, not even a faint buzzing. His head jerked up in the direction of his window as one clear sound replaced another.

He'd heard bird songs outside his window over the last few days, each day's song being sharper than the older. This was the clearest they'd been since the hunt.

Exhilaration bubbled within the pit of his stomach at the revelation.

His magic had cured the rest of his hearing overnight, just like how he'd predicted.

"Thank God." he thought. Everything could go back to normal now. Well, as normal as life was for the man also known as the 'greatest sorcerer to ever walk the Earth' who was living in Camelot.

In his excited daze, Merlin forgot about the fact that it was still early in the morning and headed for the door to greet his mentor with the news. He flung it open expecting to see the older man mixing the same potion from last night, only to stumble into the main quarters on him still sleeping.

The ward was about to shout a cheery "Good morning!" which he hadn't done in a while but was able to stop himself upon seeing Gaius sleeping. As quietly as he could, Merlin turned on his heels to head back into his own room, not counting on a perched broom getting in his way.

With a loud clank, the broom hit the floor, making Merlin both cringe at the sound that should've surely woken Gaius, and smile at the fact that he could hear it with no issue.

"Merlin, what are you doing?" a calm but also distinctively annoyed voice called from across the shared quarters. Merlin slowly turned back around and met eyes with Gaius, who was now lazily sat upright in his bed. He couldn't believe how clear Gaius sounded given his distance from him, there was no buzzing accompanying his question either.

"Uhm, you know, getting breakfast..." replied Merlin, trying to conceal the knocked over broom that lay next to him.

Gaius raised an eyebrow at Merlin's terrible attempt at hiding what he saw him do. "That broom won't pick itself up, you know." he stated whilst lifting himself out of the bed.

Now it was Merlin's turn for the witty remark. "No, unless I make it." he turned and smiled at his mentor, hoping he wouldn't get slapped for the magic joke. Luckily, Gaius was too far away.

It took a second for the physician to realise that his ward didn't seem to be lipreading or pausing very much before answering him.

"You can hear me?" he finally said, hoping it to be true.