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It was a perfectly normal Friday afternoon, until Merlin burst into Arthur’s room.
"I found a baby dragon!”
Arthur rolled his eyes. “A bit early to be drunk, isn’t it Merlin? Dragons have been extinct for centuries.”
Merlin flailed his arms. “That’s what I thought! Well except Kilgharrah of course. But I found one!”
“Excuse me, except who?”
“Kilgharrah.” Merlin said with a very ‘do keep up’ expression, “The dragon who lives in that cave on your family’s estate.”
Arthur laughed. “Yeah okay. There’s a dragon living on our estate and you found a baby dragon. Very funny Merlin. What are you trying to do, practice for a stand up comedy routine?”
“What? No! Arthur.” Merlin sounded put out. “There really is a dragon. He told me to go to Oxford with you. He’s always on about our shared destiny this, and two sides of a coin that. Did he seriously never bother you with all that muck?”
“A dragon told you what uni to choose? I know you went to the local school, but I did assume they had guidance counselors.”
Merlin rolled his eyes. “Gods, she was bloody useless. But that’s not the point. I need your help taking Aithusa back to Camelot. Kilgharrah will know what to do.”
“Who the hell is Aithusa?”
“The baby dragon!” Merlin made it sound as if the question was ridiculous.
“Of course you named the fictional baby dragon.”
“She isn’t fictional! And she named herself.”
“Can baby dragons talk? For that hypothetical matter, can dragons talk?”
“Of course they can talk!” Merlin sounded outraged on behalf of dragon kind. “Well, not with words. It’s more telepathically. And I’m not sure Aithusa can talk to normal humans yet. But she will eventually.”
“Normal humans?! As opposed to what? Didn’t you imply she spoke to you?”
“Dragon lords, obviously. But I’ll explain in the car. Come on!” Merlin grabbed Arthur’s arm and dragged him up. Arthur, who didn’t have any weekend plans anyway, and somehow always ended up indulging Merlin’s crazy schemes, let himself be dragged.
“Can I at least pack some things? Or do you expect me to drive back as soon as we dropped off the dragon.”
Merlin rolled his eyes. “You’re such a spoiled brat!” His eyes flashed gold and a few of Arthur’s belongings flew out of their usual places and into a bag. Arthur watched in awe, Merlin's magic never failed to amaze him, even after knowing Merlin almost all his life.
“Those better be folded properly,” he complained. “What about your packing?”
Merlin’s eyes flashed again. “Waiting in my room. Now come on!”
Arthur sighed deeply and followed Merlin to the car.
“So where is your supposed dragon?” Arthur asked once they were in the car.
“In the park. We need to get her.”
“Will it even fit in the car?”
“She! And yes she will. With a tiny bit of magic.”
Arthur turned to look at Merlin in shock, almost missing a turn. “You’re not using magic on my car! I know how your magic messes with technology!”
Merlin rolled his eyes. “I’ll be careful. It’s much less dangerous than you driving apparently.”
“You don’t even have a license!”
“It’s not my fault that cars don’t like me!”
“It’s because you keep trying to use magic on them!"
Merlin huffed and Arthur knew he was pouting. He chose not to look at Merlin, because he knew how distracting Merlin’s pouts could be.
Once they arrived at the park, Merlin jumped out of the car. “Can you park as close to the back entrance by that abandoned factory as possible? I’ll meet you there in ten minutes with Aithusa.”
He was gone before Arthur even had a chance to fully process what was happening. He sighed and resigned to his fate of hoping not to get in trouble for parking in an off limits area.
He got lucky and didn’t encounter any law enforcement until Merlin showed up with a white dragon, that was about the size of a big dog.
"Bloody hell, that's an actual dragon!"
Merlin rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I told you. Now open the door, will you?" Arthur scrambled to open the door to the backseat as far as possible and Merlin tried to convince the bloody dragon to climb into the car. Which it - she, apparently - did with some hesitation and not without scratching the car. Arthur cursed under his breath.
“Shit, sorry! I can try to fix it later.”
“Didn’t I just tell you no magic on my car?”
Merlin looked a little caught out while trying and failing to get a seatbelt around the dragon. “I’ll try… a polishing cloth?”
“It was a dragon claw, I doubt a pice of fabric will stand a chance.”
Merlin didn’t reply, but gave up on the seat belt. “It’s no use. You’ll have to drive carefully and I’ll tell her to hold on.”
Arthur took a look at her claws on his seats and sighed. “She’s going to ruin the upholstery, isn’t she?”
Merlin made an “uhhh” sound and looked sheepish.
Arthur sighed again. “It’s fine. Let’s just get her to Camelot, yeah?”
Merlin agreed, finally closed the door and buckled up. In the back seat.
“That makes me feel like a taxi driver,” Arthur complained, but started the car and made their way out of the city. “What happens if someone see’s her in the backseat?”
“I put a glamour over the car, so people should only see a big dog. Unless they look really closely.”
Arthur sighed, defeated and decided not to raise the ‘no magic in or on my car’-argument again.
Aithusa seemed to enjoy the car ride and getting to see more of the city. She was constantly looking out the window and Merlin was explaining what they were passing. He explained some very random things and sometimes it almost seemed like he was answering questions.
“Do you really think she’s interested in that lady’s hat?”
Merlin shrugged. “She asked about it, so I assume so.”
“She asked about it?”
“Yeah telepathically, so you can’t hear her. I told you that.”
“Why aren’t you answering telepathically?”
“It’s kind of… exhausting. Requires a lot of focus and practice. It also feels a bit rude with you in the car.”
Arthur wasn’t so sure of having a one sided conversation in front of his really was any less rude, but he appreciated the effort.
Once they hit the motorway, looking out the window seemed to become less interesting and Aithusa curled up on the backseat and fell asleep. She even snored a little. Arthur had to admit, it was a little adorable.
And then, Merlin fell asleep as well. He somehow managed to time his snores exactly between Aithusa‘s snores and ended up leaning on the window in the goofiest position possible. Arthur refused to find that adorable, but he couldn’t help but smile fondly.
Driving a car with two sleeping passengers was terribly boring though, so Arthur decided to put on some quiet music to keep himself company while he drove towards Camelot. From time to time he allowed himself to steal glances at Merlin in the rearview mirror. He knew his crush was pathetic, and he was too old for it at 28, but he couldn’t help himself. He’d had a crush on Merlin on and off since he came home from boarding school one summer and suddenly Merlin had been… not different exactly, but he’d still been Merlin, clumsy, funny, bloody annoying and his best friend, but something had shifted. And Arthur couldn’t look away anymore.
Nothing ever happened. After their A-levels, Merlin came out to him as gay and Arthur… didn't. He just kept pining and not defining his own sexuality even to himself. Sometimes he thought maybe there was… something between him and Merlin, but Merlin never made a move and Arthur couldn't bring himself to either. So they were friends. And flat mates. And Arthur had learned to be ok with that.
Merlin woke up just after they left the motor way and yawned with a truly distracting stretch. His shirt rode up exposing a bit of skin and Arthur might have swerved slightly. Fuck, this wasn't fair.
“Oh Mr. Sleepyhead is awake. Must be nice to have a personal driver so you can take naps.”
Merlin raised an eyebrow. “Arthur, your father employs two chauffeurs. You’re one to talk.”
“And I haven’t been driven by either of them since I moved out. You on the other hand ask me to drive you everywhere and barely ever pitch in for petrol.”
Merlin had the decency to look sheepish at that and mumbling something about paying to fill up the tank on the way back. Arthur would probably offer to pay half anyway. It had been a bit since he'd been home and sometimes he needed an excuse to actually make it there. He should probably be thankful to Merlin for providing one. But he certainly wasn't going to tell Merlin that until he pulled out his wallet at the petrol station.
They made idle conversation for a bit and Merlin filled Arthur in on the latest office gossip. For some reason Merlin always knew more about Arthur's co-workers than Arthur did. Even though Merlin didn't even work at the company full time.
"How do you know that? You're there twice a week for a couple of hours and I'm there every day for at least eight! And yet, the juiciest gossip I heard all month was Geoffrey putting a casserole with slightly pungent cheese in the microwave."
"You're the son of the CEO, of course they don't tell you stuff." Merlin shrugged. "But if it makes you feel better, I didn't know about the cheese incident."
"That's a lie and you know it." Arthur glared at Merlin. "You were in my office when George came in to complain about it."
"Oh right. Sorry, forgot about that."
They were saved from a potentially awkward silence by the car hitting a pothole hard enough to startle Aithusa awake. The problem was, that she instinctively tried to hold on to something and dug her claws into the seat, destroying the upholstery.
“No! Shit! I’m so sorry Arthur!” Merlin exclaimed as he tried to carefully extract the dragon claws from the seat without doing more damage. “I’ll fix it, I promise.”
Arthur gave a resigned sigh and decided to start brainstorming stories he could tell the car repair people to explain the damage to his car. Maybe he could make up something about a crazy ex? It probably depended on how much damage Merlin would do when attempting to fix things with magic.
Merlin was able to calm down Aithusa pretty quickly and the rest of the drive passed without any further incident.
When they saw the first sign for Camelot castle, Arthur asked: “So what exactly is your plan for when we arrive? We can’t exactly show up at the front gate with a dragon in the car.”
“I can probably hide her with magic for a few minutes, so we can pass the gate. And then we have to go to that back service way in the forest. You know the one we always used when we wanted to go swimming. Kilgharrah’s cave is a little south of the lake.”
They passed through the gate with nothing more than a curious look from the guard, who was probably wondering why Merlin was sitting in the back.
Arthur drove around the back of the house, having to stop a few times to unlock gates that kept visitors from going down paths they had no business going down. Aithusa got more and more restless every time they stopped. She seemed to be over the car ride.
Once they reached the area Merlin had described, Arthur parked the car and Merlin attempted to get Aithusa out of the car without causing any more scratches. He almost succeeded, but at this point Arthur didn’t care anymore. His car would definitely be a story the mechanics would be telling their friends about for all eternity.
“Do you want to wait here while I bring her to Kilgharrah?” Merlin asked.
“What? No, I want to meet the dragon that’s supposedly been living here for centuries without any of us knowing!”
“Lots of people know about him. Gaius, my mother and I for example.”
"Well, no one important knew." Merlin's raised eyebrow was enough to make Arthur regret his words instantly.
"Shit, that's not what I meant, I mean, no one… uh, official knew."
Merlin just shook his head and headed into the woods. "Clotpole."
"I mean- oh bloody hell, don't…" Arthur hurried after him. "Mer-lin!"
Merlin clearly knew the way very well, because he walked fast and sure footed, which left Arthur scrambling after him through the brambles. He stumbled a few times, his legs getting caught on branches. He was almost convinced Merlin had used magic to make that one branch move in front of his shin and where it left a painful bruise.
"Ouch! Merlin! Can you slow down, please?"
"We're almost there, stop whining."
After a few more minutes of stumbling through the forrest, Merlin stopped in front of a rock formation, that Arthur had never seen. He'd lost track of Aithusa during their walk/torture session, but now she was suddenly right there again. Had she flown, or used some other type of magic?
Merlin stopped in front of the rocks and looked hesitant.
“Uh… So, Kilgharrah is… well, if you come in with me, he’ll probably be on about destiny and us being two sides of the same coin and uniting Albion… He might even call you the once and future king.”
Arthur frowned. “A dragon that has an obsession with Arthurian legends? Interesting.” Could dragons read? How would they even hold a book?
“Well…” Merlin looked strangely uncomfortable. “He’s convinced we are the reincarnations of the Arthur and the Merlin of legends, so… He is a little obsessed.”
Arthur laughed. “Okay, I’m warned. Let’s go in. It can’t get much stranger than going on a road trip with a dragon.”
Merlin didn’t look convinced, but he put his hand on the stone, muttered a few magic words that made the stone glow in a similar gold as his eyes and they open for him. “Follow me. You too, Aithusa.”
The three of them walked into the dark cave. Arthur reached for his phone to turn on the flashlight, but Merlin shook his head and conjured a magical torch that he handed Arthur. “Technology doesn’t work in here.” He conjured a torch for himself too and lead them down a narrow path.
After what felt like an eternity of winding paths and rough stairways that Arthur would never ever find his way back trough, the narrow tunnel opened into a huge cavern that looked big enough to fit most of Camelot Castle. Merlin called out another of those strange ancient druid phrases he used for his magic and a row of torches along the cavern walls lit up. Arthur looked around in awe.
But it was nothing compared to the deep voice he suddenly heard in his head. “At last you have brought your King to see me, young warlock.”
A huge shape appeared from below the cliff they were standing on, and suddenly there was a large, dark dragon sitting on a rock platform across from them. Arthur gasped, but Merlin stayed completely calm.
“I didn’t bring Arthur to see you, Kilgharrah. He just drove.” Arthur scoffed but Merlin ignored him and continued speaking. “I brought you Aithusa.”
The dragon looked surprised. “Aithusa? I have not seen her in millennia.” He peered past Merlin and Arthur and Arthur wondered if dragons could be near sighted.
Merlin waved over Aithusa and she hesitantly stepped closer, seeming very nervous about facing Kilgharrah. Which Arthur felt was very understandable.
Once she was in Kilgharrah's sight, the three of them seemed to have a silent conversation in their minds without including Arthur. Or at least that's what he assumed when they spend an uncomfortable amount of time staring at each other without saying a word. Their body language didn't really tell Arthur much, expect that Merlin seemed a little annoyed and getting more and more exasperated. He had to admit though, that he didn't know much about reading dragon body language.
Eventually Merlin got agitated enough that he spoke out loud again. "Oh, come on! What would Morgana want with a dragon?!"
"Morgana?" Arthur was confused. "My sister Morgana? What does she have to do with any of this?"
The dragon turned to him and almost seemed surprised, that Arthur was still there. “She seeks to destroy you and prevent you from fulfilling your destiny. Aithusa could be a powerful tool for her.”
“Morgana and I don’t always get along, but she doesn’t want to destroy me. And what destiny?"
Merlin sighed deeply and mumbled something about “here we go.”
The dragon moved his huge head closer to Arthur. “Has Merlin not told you? You are the once and future King, your destiny is to once again unite Albion and bring peace and prosperity.”
Arthur looked back and forth between the dragon and Merlin. “Are you serious? Is he serious?” Merlin might have warned him, but he thought he was exaggerating.
“Of course I am serious, young king. Never before have so many of your knights and comrades returned at once. The time of your return to power must finally be upon us.”
"You can't seriously think I'm King Arthur! I'm just some bloke."
Kilgharrah raised an eyebrow. Arthur hadn't even known dragons had eyebrows. "Are you? A bloke who happens to be named Arthur Pendragon of Camelot, who is best friends with a powerful sorcerer named Merlin Emrys. Not to mention your half-sister Morgana. Or should I list your friends, Lancelot, Gwaine, Percival, Elayne, Leon and Guinevere? I don't think you need me to remind you of the names of your parents."
Arthur chewed on the inside of his cheek. "That's… That's just a coincidence." He glanced at Merlin, hoping for help.
Merlin shook his head. “Don’t look at me, I gave up trying to talk him out of this ages ago. Just nod and smile. He’s taking care of Aithusa, that’s all we want.”
The dragon growled, which produced a worrying cloud of smoke from his nostrils. “I’m not some child that needs to be placated!” Kilgharrah’s voice boomed and Arthur took a nervous step back.
Merlin just sighed. “Then stop acting like one. And stop being so dramatic, you’re scaring Arthur.”
“I’m not scared.” To Arthur’s relief he sounded more annoyed than scared.
Merlin sighed again and mumbled something that contained the word 'children', before speaking up. "Okay. We brought Aithusa here, you'll take care of her and we'll be back on our way, hanging out with our friends and possibly bringing about a prosperous Albion. Everyone agreed?"
Arthur and Kilgharrah both huffed, a little annoyed. But at least Arthur didn't release any smoke when he huffed.
"Good." Merlin continued. "If anything happens, you know how to reach me, Kilgharrah."
Kilgharrah nodded and Merlin turned to leave the cave.
"Hang on," Arthur stopped him "how can he reach you all the way in Oxford? It's not like he has a cell phone, does he? Can his telepathy reach that far?"
"Of course it can. He's a powerful dragon and I'm a powerful dragon lord. If we want to communicate, we can."
“You still haven’t explained that dragon lord thing.”
“Let’s head back, I’ll tell you on the way.” Merlin said and started heading in the direction of the cave entrance. “Bye Kilgharrah!” He called over his shoulder. The dragon only huffed and Arthur heard the flapping of wings as he hurried after Merlin.
“Mer-lin! You said that before!”
Once again Merlin seemed to know exactly what path to take to get back to the forest, even though none of it looked at all familiar to Arthur. He decided to stick as close to Merlin as possible and even considere grabbing hold of Merlin’s shirt to make sure they didn’t get separated.
"Slow down! And start explaining."
Merlin sighed, but did slow down a bit. "There isn't really much to explain. Dragon Lords have the ability to speak the language of the dragons and command them when using it. We can also hatch dragon eggs. Which is a pretty useless skill nowadays, since until yesterday, I was completely sure Kilgharrah was the last dragon in existence and obviously unable to produce an egg."
"So why did you become a dragon lord? And how? Is there a course one can take?" Arthur chuckled at his own joke but Merlin just raised an eyebrow.
"You don't become a Dragon Lord, the title and abilities are inherited. I became one when my father died a few years ago."
"Your father?!" Arthur stopped in his tracks. "I thought you didn't know who your father was."
"I didn't until I met him on that camping trip you and Gwaine dragged me on. He was that old hiker we met." Merlin didn't seem bothered at all, he just took Arthur's elbow and pulled him along. "Come on, it's getting dark soon."
"What the hell? How did you find out? Why are you so calm about this?!"
"He had magic too. Our magic helped us recognized each other and he explained a few things to me. Like the Dragon Lord thing, and the fact that he was sick. We exchanged contact info and he even talked to Mum one more time before he died, but… you know." Merlin shrugged. "I never really needed a father. Mum was always enough for me. It was nice getting to meet him and learning where my magic came from. But in the end he was just some guy I talked to a couple of times."
“Hm.” Arthur walked along in silence for a bit. If he got a chance to meet his mother and then loose her again only a short time later, he imagined he would be devastated. But he supposed, the situation was very different. He never got to meet his mother, but she had always been a presence in his life. There were pictures of her and stories that the people around him had always told him. For Merlin, his father had always only be a theoretical concept. Obviously he must have had one, but no one ever spoke of him, he didn’t know his name or what he looked like. And of course Merlin’s relationship with his mother had always been much better than Arthur’s was with his father.
“I’m still sorry you and Hunith had to go through loosing him so soon after you found him again."
"Thanks. I think it was harder for Mum than for me."
Arthur hummed in vague agreement. "I'm just… I would have thought you would have talked to me about it."
Merlin sighed. "I- I wanted to. But I didn't know how. You had a lot going on at work and were fighting with Uther and Morgana… I just didn't find the right moment."
Arthur stopped Merlin by putting a hand on his shoulder and turning him softly so he could look into his eyes. "Merlin. No matter what I have going on, you can always talk to me, ok?"
“Thanks Arthur.”Merlin gave him a soft smile that made Arthur’s heart stutter. “And thanks for helping me with Aithusa today. I know it was a lot to ask. I’m really sorry about your car.”
Arthur waved him off. “It’s fine. Maybe it’s time for a new one anyway.” He put his arm around Merlin and they started walking again. “Something sporty. And red. What do you think?”
Merlin laughed. “Gods no! Imagine how pissed you’ll be if my magic messes with that. What about something sensible. A Prius maybe?”
“Bloody hell, Merlin! I can’t be seen driving a Prius. I’m a Pendragon!”
“A clot-pole is what you are.”
They bickered and laughed all the way back to the car and even though his car was badly damaged and Arthur had been insulted by a crazy dragon, he was in a great mood and couldn’t stop smiling the entire way home. Spending time with Merlin often had that effect on him. For now he was looking forward to Hunith's amazing cooking and the lumpy mattress in her guest bedroom that he usually slept better on than all the luxury beds he'd ever slept in. Maybe he would even pop in to see his father tomorrow before they headed back home.
He smiled warmly at Merlin when they got into the car, both in the front this time, and Merlin's responding smile made him feel so happy and hopeful that he couldn't care less about the huge scratches on the back door that made it close slightly crooked or the torn open back seat with the visible foam stuffing.
"Hey," Arthur nudged Merlin softly. "I had fun today. There is no one I'd rather reunite Albion with, than you."
Merlin laughed and Arthur could have gotten lost in the way that made his eyes sparkle. "Me too."