"Arthur? I'm home!" Merlin walked into the flat, taking his bag over his shoulders and setting it down on the entryway in front of the door. He tossed his keys to the decorative China bowl and looked at himself in the mirror above the stand. His hair was askew from the blowing wind. It was going to rain soon, he could tell.

"Arthur?" He straightened his hair and walked further into the room, wondering if the royal prat had gone outside again. He'd better not, the last time Arthur went out into the streets he'd almost gotten run over by an automobile. At least his flat had a balcony to overlook London.

"Living room," he heard Arthur call out.

Merlin took his jacket off and hung it in the closet before making his way towards the voice. Arthur sat on the couch, a black box in front of him. "What's you get that out for?"

"I was bored," Arthur said. "There was no way on Earth I'd be using a... a microwave," he said the word as if it offended him somehow, "to heat up my meals. I prefer the old-fashioned way, with a stove."

"You didn't even know how to use a stove back in Camelot," Merlin challenged. "Well, guess what? I'm not your manservant anymore. You're going to have to learn how to make your own meals from now on."

Arthur scoffed. "As least then my meals would be warm. Seriously, Merlin, almost everything you brought me was lukewarm at best."

"Excuse me, Your Royal Highness, but I had other duties to perform. Was still Gaius's assistant at the time, I'll let you know." Merlin coughed.

Arthur looked up at him. "You miss him."

Merlin rolled his eyes. "Fantastic observation, Sire, what gave it away?" He sat down next to Arthur on the couch, a little closer than was strictly necessary, their thighs brushing against each other.

They were silent for about a minute until Arthur took Merlin's clasped hands and brought them to his lips to kiss them. "At we're together again."

Merlin managed a smile. "Yeah. God knows how much I missed your arse." He finally let out a laugh when Arthur let go of his hands and playfully pushed him away, only making him lean away before they were pressed together again. "Why'd you get this out, then?" He directed to the black box again.

"I was snooping through your things," Arthur said.

"Oi, you're invading my personal space, that's a felony in these times. I could have you arrested."

"No you won't," Arthur grinned. "Besides, you told me yourself. They don't have stocks anymore, only for gags."

Merlin rolled his eyes. He reached forward and and took the lid off the black box and took the ornate brown record player out. "It's a gramophone. It plays music." He set it carefully on the coffee table, wary less the legs scratch the glass.

"How does it work?" Arthur asked. "It looked just like a box with a needle."

"It's not just the box, you clotpole. It needs a record and the horn for it to work. Wait here, I'll go get them." He got up from the couch and went to the room that he and Arthur shared.

Before Arthur came back, it was only Merlin's room. It had his clothes in it, with a few tokens from times that Merlin kept for the past thousand years. There was the cravat he stole from the petty Beethoven, a pair of diamond earrings that Princess Diana had gifted him before she died, and even an exposition journal from when he and Charles Darwin ventured the Galápagos Islands. That time was a fun time.

Searching under the bed, he pulled out a small box of labels and the gold-colored horn. Returning to the living room, he found Arthur running his fingers against the intricate design on the player itself.

"What sort of wood is this carved from?" Arthur asked, not looking up and only hearing his footsteps. "I don't think I've seen anything like it. It's so... gleaming. And reflective."

"It's lacquer." He set the box on the floor next to him and situated the horn on place. "It's a protective coating for the wood. Gives it that shiny look. But the wood itself is redwood, I believe. It grows in the western part of America, which is actually where I got the gramophone from."

"America. That's the one across the ocean, right?" Since coming back, Arthur made it his duty to learn all about the new worlds that what's been discovered over time. Imagine his surprise when he learned that the planet was round that humans have been to the moon.

"Yep. About a hundred years ago. It was the first time I'd been back to states since..." He trailed off.

"Since what?" Arthur frowned, prompting Merlin to go on, but he didn't.

"Nothing." He cleared his throat and picked up one of the vinyls and setting on the player, moving the needle out of the way. "Here, this is something fun. Jazz by one Bessie Smith."

Setting the needle down and turning the small crank handle, low music began to exude from the horn. Merlin turn the dial next to the vinyl and the volume increased moderately.

Arthur listened, entranced at how blue the music made him feel. He voiced this out loud and Merlin grinned. "Probably why it's also called the blues," he said cheekily.

A woman sang reverently, her voice in tone with the way music seemed to vibrate in the air. It was beautiful. The world has made so much in such a short amount of time, it was amazing.

"Come on, dance with me," Merlin said, pulling Arthur up to stand in the space where they could move freely.

"Wh-What? Merlin, I don't how to dance to this! Or have you forgotten that I've been just a bit out of touch the past millennium?"

"It's not really dancing, it's more like swaying. Here, I'll show you." Still roughly the same height, but with Merlin favoring a about an inch or two, Merlin clasped his arms around Arthur's waist and Arthur's arms around his neck. "It's just moving back and forth in circles, that's it."

Arthur frowned, staying silent as they did exactly that to the song. When it ended, Merlin's eyes flashed gold and the vinyl was taken out and replaced with another one. This one was different, with a man belting long and loud tones.

"Jean-Vital Jammes, circa 19th century, French opera. Got this one in my last trip in America, as well."

"You said you haven't been since something. What was it?" By now, their foreheads were pressed against one another as they continued to swing. Arthur could feel Merlin's breath tickle his lips.

Merlin suddenly tightened his grasp. Not a lot, but enough that Arthur was able to tell. "I–"

Someone knocked on the door. The two of them looked up, but didn't spring apart. The knocking paused before it picked up again, noticeably more insistent than before.

"I better get that." Merlin reluctantly pulled himself away from Arthur's arms, but that didn't stop him from holding on as he followed Merlin to the door.

He stood back a few feet to allow personal space, but not so much so as to not able to protect Merlin should it come to it. But really, there was need for that; he didn't have his sword and armor anymore, and even Merlin himself said that most forms of magic were extinct, forgotten in history as nothing more than fairy tales.

Merlin looked through the peephole of the door and sighed. "Here we go," he said with annoyance in his voice. He opened the door and smiled warmly. "Hello, Mrs. Anne."

And older lady with lots of makeup and white hair look at Merlin. "Hello, Colin. I was wondering if maybe you could turn down your music? Just a little bit? Humphrey is still a growing boy, and he needs his sleep as he grows up."

Merlin nodded. "Of course, Mrs. Anne, nothing to worry about. I apologize. I was just in the middle of a date."

Mrs. Anne furrowed her eyebrows. "Oh, Colin. I didn't realize you had someone over." Her eyes flickered inside the flat and he caught Arthur's eyes. "Oh, hello."

Merlin turned around, not realizing that Arthur was right there. "You prat," he muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

He cleared his throat and said in a louder voice, "This is Brad. Bradley. Yes, Bradley... Jammes. It's French. It means James. Bradley James, that's who he is. James, comma, Bradley. Bradley James." He coughed into his fist. "Well, it was wonderful to see you again, Mrs. Anne, bye." He quickly slammed the door shut and sighed. "Beady-eyed hag."

Arthur was surprised at the amount of vehemence laced in his voice. But he still couldn't help but crack a smile at Merlin's fumbling. "'Bradley James'?" he said.

"I was put on the spot!" Merlin said defiantly. "I didn't have time to come up with a name like I did for me."

"She called you Colin," Arthur noticed. "Why?"

Merlin chuckled. "I'm surprised that hasn't come up, actually. Um, Colin is the name I use. I change it every few decades, so I can throw suspicious eyes off my trail, and I decided to go as Colin Morgan this century." He smiled brightly and clapped his hands in front of him. "So, you hungry? I can make dinner."

He started forward but Arthur caught him before they can leave the entryway. "Wait just a minute. You called your neighbor a hag after she politely asked you to turn the music down for the sake of her son. What's that about?"

"Humphrey's not her son. It's her dog. That stupid mutt kept me up for hours on end when I first moved to this flat that I had to resort to giving it a sick virus so it's shut up. The dog's fine, it's just so annoying listening to that inane barking from a pest."

"Like you've never barked inanely before," Arthur retorted.

"At least I didn't have the ears of a donkey and brayed like the arse you are," Merlin argued back.

Arthur groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I swear to God, Merlin. But I know you. You wouldn't just bring such ire to an animal because of what it does. There's something more, isn't there?"

Merlin coughed again. "It's nothing, Arthur. Let me get dinner."

Arthur only stood and watched as Merlin walked to the direction of the kitchen, already getting out plates and ingredients from the refrigerator.

"How about some lamb and rice?" Merlin called out. "Camelot never supplied on rice, it'll be an adventure for your tongue."

"I can think of other things I'd rather be doing with my tongue, Merlin," Arthur called back, not needing to see the sorcerer's face to know that he was red to the tips of his ears.

Once the King of Camelot, Arthur was surprised at how easy the peasant—or, as Merlin has dubbed it, the "middle-income class"—was to live. Granted, there were several confusing things about this time that he wasn't sure he'd ever understand, but at least he could see the use of them. Other times, not so much.

When he returned, he was wondering the streets in Cardiff with nothing but his name and modern clothing. He didn't know how he got there, where he was, or where to go. Merlin found him, and after a tearful reunion, they returned to London at his flat. It turned out that Merlin was in town under the guise of his own son; his previous identity was a friend of an older woman in Cardiff who Colin regularly visited to honor his "father's" memory.

"I remember what you said to me," was the first thing Arthur said when they walked through the doors. Before Arthur died in Merlin's arms, the king heard his manservant speak softly and tearfully into his ear.

I love you.

Back then, Arthur had left Gwen the queen dowager. Even though the last thing he remembered upon waking was dying, he felt as if a long time had passed. It was wasn't like going to sleep and waking up. It was more like going to sleep and watching the world live on until you woke up. Arthur missed Gwen, and so would Merlin, but his heart had moved on as time passed.

They kissed for the first time that night.

They talked about what their relationship meant. They talked about what the future had in store, and if Arthur was to be at his side forever, or if he would grow old with age and Merlin would have to succumb to watch the other side of his coin pass again, only to wait another thousand years before he can feel whole again. They simply didn't know.

So they dropped it altogether.

Now a month later, Arthur heard bits and pieces of Merlin's tales throughout time. Some of the good things, like new foods and new wonders, and some of the bad, like those who died that Merlin befriended, or how at the beginning, Merlin tried to starve himself to death to reunite with Arthur. In the end, the pain wouldn't stop, and he had to eat slowly so as to not bring his stomach any more pain than it had gotten used to.

"Were you with anyone else during all this?" Arthur has asked as they lay in bed that night. They tried sleeping in different beds that night, with Arthur in the guest room, but neither of them lasted the full first night.

"Do you mean romantically?" Merlin had said.

"I wouldn't blame you if you did," Arthur said in kind. "Though I can also understand if you didn't." For several reasons, really.

"A few times," Merlin admitted. "All with men. I told them all about you. How I loved a man who died before his time. They consoled me. But eventually, they knew to whom my heart belonged to. I never grew old with them, never saw them pass, never revealed the truth, never got intimate, and never saw them again. It hurt. But being without you felt worse."

"You don't have to worry about that now." Arthur remembered pulling Merlin into his arms and kissing his temple. "I'll always be with you for as long as you want."

They had sex for the first time that night.

Merlin looked up from his lamb and caught Arthur looking at him with a dopey grin on his face as he chewed, not looking away from Merlin's eyesight. "What?" he said with a mouthful.

"I love you," Arthur said simply before putting up another forkful of rice into his mouth. It was pretty good, if lacking in flavor.

Merlin grumbled under his breath. "You prat."

"Idiot."

"Dollophead."

"Clotpole."

In the end, they resumed their meal and went back to the gramophone forgotten on the coffee table.

"I've soundproofed the walls with my magic," Merlin said as he flipped through the labels in search of another song to play. "No one can hear us, so we can be a solid as we want."

"Oh, really?" Arthur said coyly.

Instead of blushing like an innocent maiden, Merlin rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that one's on me. Oh, this one! I loved the song when I found out about it."

Arthur watched as trepidation as Merlin slid the vinyl in place and directed the needle to its location. So far, all of the pieces that had been played were of a classic kind. The composers long passed but the spirit in the music still living, as if they were still here. All soothing, benevolent, dramatic, and most of all, quiet and peaceful.

Which was why Arthur was surprised when a noise that sounded like a sword being dragged along stone erupted from the horn, making him cover his ears to cover the pain. He wondered if something was wrong with the device when Merlin stood up and grinned, moving his head to the noise.

"Cool, right?" Merlin said. "It's from a show on the telly that I used to watch. The couple in the show loved this song and it came up often like a sort of running joke."

"This horrid scratching at the floor is music?" Arthur shouted over the need to hear himself while still pressing his hands to his ears.

"C'mon, Arthur, get with the times! A lot of people love rock music, it gets you moving your body more than the Macarena does."

Not for the first time, Arthur wondered if Merlin was well and truly touched in the head. Keeping his ears covered, he watched as the clotpole began to strum the air as of playing an imaginary lute, singing nonsense to lyrics Arthur didn't understand.

"Well I'm, hot blooded! Check it and see!" Merlin strummed his "air guitar" as he moved around erratically, kicking his feet at nothing. "I've got a fever of a hundred and three! C'mon, baby, can you do more than dance? I'm hot blooded! I'm hot blooded!"

When the song finally did end, Merlin was biting at his lower lip and still moving to a beat that didn't exist.

"It's like I don't even know you anymore," Arthur said in awe. "You're still Merlin, but you're also... Merlin from another time."

At this, Merlin stilled as he put the vinyl away. "I can't go back to how I was back then, Arthur," he said dutifully. "I've seen things. Things that today's history books have erased or neglected because they were deemed unimportant. I'm still Merlin, but not the Merlin you knew. He doesn't exist anymore. I've had to learn how to adjust to the period radically when technology advanced."

"No, I know that. I understand, it's just..." Arthur sighed. "This whole thing... with cars and, and the lift that got us here, the telly and the shower and the alarm clock and everything... I don't know how to handle it. But I can try. For you, Merlin, I can do anything." He sat by him on the couch and took his hand.

"You don't have to do anything, Arthur," Merlin promised. "Just stay." He leaned forward and kissed him softly. Their lips stayed together but didn't move, simply breathing each other in and savoring the moment.

"What else have you got that won't burst my eardrums?" Arthur said softly.

"Here, this is one you might like." Merlin places another vinyl and directed for them to stand, holding hands and with a small distance between them. "This one goes a little fast, but don't worry about keeping time."

When the music started up at a softer volume than the one before it, Arthur understood why. The background noise was some kind of drum, making the music even. The horrid noise of the guitar was just as moving, making Arthur want to tap his feet to the rhythms. Instead, Merlin took it one step further and actually pulled their arms to and from each other, still holding on tight. Their movements were quick and clumsy, but Arthur still found himself smiling as Merlin sang the lyrics.

"Oh, don't you dare look back, just keep your eyes on me. I said, 'you're holding back,' she said, 'shut up and dance with me'." Merlin laughed out loud as Arthur spun him, making him fall before the former decided to use the fall as an opportunity to dip him.

This woman is my destiny
She said, Ooh hoo
"Shut up and dance with me"

As the song continued on and Arthur listened to the lyrics as the two of them danced poorly, he understood why Merlin was so excited by this song in particular. Arthur was Merlin's destiny as much as Merlin was Arthur's. He had never entertained the idea of soulmates before, but here and now, and remembering what Merlin said as their destiny being Emrys and the Once and Future King, Arthur found himself believing.

Merlin's eyes shined gold as the volume increased again.

Deep in her eyes
I think I see the future
I realize this is my last chance

She took my arm
I don't know how it happened
We took the floor and she said

As the song came to sudden stop, Arthur captured Merlin's lips with his own, conveying all the he couldn't say. Merlin seemed to understand perfectly as he kissed back just as reverently.

"The last shindig I went to didn't end like that," Merlin said breathlessly, laying with Arthur on the couch and watching a rerun of Torchwood.

Instead of watching Jack and Ianto get it on, Arthur looked down at the sorcerer in his arms and frowned. "Shindig?"

"You know, a hootenanny."

"Hootenanny?"

Merlin sighed. "God, I'm speaking like I'm living in Massachusetts again." He cleared his throat and coughed again. "Here, I can change it something else, if you like. A period piece, something that reminds you of our time." He got ready to get up, but Arthur kept a firm grasp around his waist. "Arthur?"

"I don't want you to feel like you need to hide things from me." Arthur buried his nose into the crook of Merlin's neck. "Please, Merlin. What happened in America? Why such a grudge against a nice old lady?"

Merlin scoffed. "Sure, nice. That's just how she acts to get what she wants." He was silent before reaching for the remote and muting the show. "She doesn't take to couples like us."

"Us?" Arthur frowned.

"Two men. Two women. She finds it an act against God. I have no doubt that she's speaking to the owner of the building about us, but I know Beatrice. She's not against me."

Arthur nodded. "Okay. I can understand that. I didn't think the world would progress so easily, but at least she can be put of her place by this Beatrice. What happened in Massa… Mass… that place?"

At the least, Merlin was able to snort at how the mighty former king was unable to pronounce the word, but immediately sobered. "The Salem Witch Trials."

People died. None of them were witches, except for one; a little girl that lost her family and that Merlin had raised as her own. For the first time in his life since Arthur's death, Merlin felt whole. He fed her, clothed her, and when her magic showed off, taught her. Everything was perfect until they came for her. She was only seventeen years old. Merlin was able to fight off the pursuers by hand, but they managed to take her away. Merlin cried more than ever that night as her neck snapped, hanging several feet off the ground and swaying in the breeze.

"What was her name?" Arthur asked.

Merlin swallowed. "Gwendolyn," he choked out. "Her name was Gwendolyn. You would have loved her, she reminded me so much of Guinevere. She was just as broken as I was when I found her and her magic was pure with ice and wind. During winter, she would make such wonderful snow magic. She…" He struggled to speak. "She called me her father when she… was eleven… She…" He finally let the tears fall. "She was my daughter. And then she was gone."

Arthur let Merlin sob against his chest, having turned to face him at one point. Arthur didn't know what to say, but he only let the sadness continue, to let it out. He had no doubt that Merlin wasn't able to speak of this to anyone, only able to bottle it up for over three hundred years at this point.

They fell asleep on the couch after Arthur finally managed to figure out the remote to turn it off.

This wasn't the first time they had fallen asleep on the couch, and Arthur was surprised at Merlin's tactic. When Merlin first moved into the flat some months ago, he had the couch placed at an angle so that should he camp out here, the window shining sunlight wouldn't beam at his face. The curtains were drawn, so that way, there was less light to deal with in the morning.

Arthur woke up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, frowning. Normally, Merlin was the first to wake up and make the two of them breakfast. Since returning, he'd been particularly fond of pancakes and coffee, and even suffered a trip to the doctor when he drank straight from the pot. That was not a fun time.

On this particular morning, there was no smell of coffee and no pancakes cooking. Nothing sounded except for the busy morning outside of people going about their normal day. "Merlin?"

"Hm?" Merlin lay on the floor, his feet still raised on the couch in an angle that could not be good for his neck. "Wha?"

"Don't you have to work? What time is it?" Arthur looked around for the clock and frowned as he tried to remember how Merlin taught him to tell the time. The little hand was the one that signified the hour, right? "It's past nine."

"Ah." Merlin rubbed his neck as he woke up. "I have today off. God, I can't believe I haven't broken my neck given how many times I fell off a bed. Especially before they had carpet as floors." He groaned and stretched his limbs, Arthur following suit.

"What's your job again?" He watched as Merlin pressed his hand to neck and his eyes and hand glowed gold as he mended the sprain.

"I work in retail. I'm basically a shopkeeper, at this one clothing store." He grinned. "You remember the woman I was visiting in Cardiff when I found you? Her niece owns the store. It's nice that she hasn't sacked me given that she tries to flirt with me, even though I told her where my desires lay."

"I'm glad I've met such desires, then," Arthur said. "You always wake up before me, though."

"I thought we might go out in London today. So I can show you more about the world of today." Merlin must have caught sight of Arthur's face before he chuckled. "Just don't wander off and you won't have to worry. C'mon, you sod, I'll make some breakfast."

As Arthur showered, something he was afraid to use again because the first time the water was too hot and the second time it was too cold, he thought back to last night and the secrets that Merlin revealed. He went through so much. Even with Gwendolyn, or any of the other men, Merlin became sad in the end. Well, not this time. He was going to stay, even if he grew old and Merlin didn't.

As he made breakfast, Merlin had the same fears that he always had. That one day, he would be alone again. But this was Arthur, the man he loved and would gladly give his life for.

As he ran a hand through his hair he found a loose strand tucked just behind his ear. That was strange. His hair never plucked out, not even when he needed a haircut. It was just something that didn't happen due to his immortality. His hair can't fall out because it didn't age with the rest of his body.

Unless…

Arthur came back and watched Merlin cook. Merlin met his eyes and smiled, brushing his hands on the apron he wore. He remembered making fun of Merlin for being such a girl and wearing an apron before Merlin told him that such talk may give him a stern talking-to from strangers who didn't believe such traditions. It was confusing, but he generally understood that such talk was deemed offensive, and he could see why. Better to just stay quiet about it, then.

Merlin walked up and kissed him with such a passion that Arthur thought he might want him right then and there, with the pan still cooking the sizzling bacon.

"What was that for?" Arthur asked when the kiss ended, his brain a little dizzy and Merlin's hands holding his damp hair.

"Nothing," Merlin said. "Just glad that you're back."

They ate and went outside. Arthur was definitely startled by a few things, especially when they entered a Starbucks and he was overwhelmed by all the smells inside, if the smells outside weren't already exasperating.

They ended the day with Merlin's back pressed to Arthur's chest, arms wrapped gracefully and pressed to Merlin's chest. Their clothes littered the bedroom floor, and the music from the gramophone played softly and gently.

As Frank Ticheli's "Abracadabra" lulled them both to sleep, Merlin kissed the arm around his shoulder. Arthur sighed in his sleep but otherwise didn't move. This time, they'd make their own destiny that wouldn't be haltered by immortality.

He was sure of it.

Also posted on Archive of Our Own

Word Count: 5012

~CoronaCrown~