Chapter Text
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
“Of course I don’t, Merlin.” Arthur rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Merlin groaned out his annoyance. “Come on, Arthur. I’m serious. Why would I make this up?”
“Because you’re an idiot that likes to annoy me?” Arthur offered, which was quite reasonable if Merlin thought about it.
“How can I make you believe me?” Merlin pleaded.
“How can you make me believe that I’ve been reincarnated for thousands of years and you’re an immortal wizard?” Arthur pretended to think about it as he tapped his chin. “Oh I know!” He snapped his fingers. “You can’t. Come off it, Merlin. This prank has got to be the stupidest one yet.”
“Prank!” Merlin yelped in outrage. “Arthur! I’m being serious here! And I’m a warlock, not a wizard.”
“Whatever.” Arthur said. “You can do magic. You’re eyes glow gold. I get that.” Arthur pointed to Merlin, indicating his magic. It hadn’t been too hard to convince Arthur that magic was real, especially after Merlin saved him (for the billionth time). He had seen Merlin in full action after he stopped a space cruiser from crashing into the window of the Avalon Space Station, where Arthur was standing. The man in the cruiser was already dead due to a heart attack (which just confirmed Merlin’s beliefs that some people shouldn’t be given their space pilot’s license) but Arthur had been quite alive when he’d seen Merlin raise his hands and his eyes glow.
At this point in his life (about two thousand years old), Merlin had stopped caring about the big reveal. As soon as he realized that he and Arthur worked splendidly together once they established that Merlin had magic, he was always too eager to get to that part. It hadn’t always been easy though, the memories of his first life still to dominant in his mind.
Now they were on Avalon S.S.4 (Space Station 4). Arthur was a pilot for the United Solar Systems (USS) and Merlin was an engineer. A long time ago no one believed in aliens, and now they were part of the crew. A long time ago no one believed that long distance space travel was possible, and now they were millions of light years away from Earth. Now Arthur was hung up on the fact that Merlin was an immortal warlock. It hadn’t even been this hard when Arthur was a lord in the 18th century!
“Come on Arthur you have to believe me!”
“Alright Merlin. Let’s say I believe you, which I don’t by the way. But if I did, how many lives have I ‘lived?’” He made quotation marks with his hands over the words.
“Seven!” Merlin said. “Unless you count your first life, which I don’t really. It’s not really a reincarnation unless it’s re. So seven.”
Arthur raised a brow, looking unconvinced.
Merlin held up his fingers. “One in the 1300s during the Black Plague. Then you were a lord in the 1700s. Then WWII. Then we had the 70s. Man that was a strange time. Then there was the early 2000s, which was weird because you came back so soon. Then in the 2300s when the First Contact happened. And NOW, YOU DOLLOPHEAD!”
“Then how come I don’t remember any of this?”
“I don’t know. You usually only remember Camelot for some reason.”
“I think I would remember being the great King of Britons.”
Merlin wanted to gouge out his own eyes. Arthur may have been reborn with a different life than back in Camelot, but he was still the same insufferable prat.
“Arthur!” Merlin groaned.
“Merlin!” Arthur mocked back.
Merlin grumbled and slumped into the chair of their living space. He folded his arms and pouted, trying to think of what he had said to the other Arthurs to make him believe Merlin. He went through each life, which wasn’t as hard as one might think. The times in between Arthur’s lives all melded together, but when Arthur was alive, Merlin’s memory was perfect.
As his eyes scanned the room, falling on the screen across the way of the couch, his mind pulled out an old memory. “Aha!” he yelled and dashed into his room. He hoped to all the gods that he still had it. He prayed silently as he muttered, “Come on, where is it, where is it.”
“What in the worlds are you looking for?” Arthur asked as he leaned against the door frame. Merlin scrambled through all his things. He threw an old scarf behind him and pushed aside several old electronics which weren’t used in this century.
“Aha!” he declared again. This time he had a flat round reflective object in his hand.
“What is that?” Arthur asked.
“This is a DVD.” Merlin said smugly.
“Where the hell did you even get that? Been rummaging through antique stores?”
“I got it from the 21st century.” Merlin smiled and tried to find something that would play it.
“Of course you did.” Arthur said, sounding more concerned than annoyed.
Merlin found his (very) old laptop, turned it on with a bit of magic, and popped in the disc.
“Stars, this technology is old.” They sat down on Merlin’s bed, with the laptop in Merlin’s lap. Arthur squinted at the screen as if it wasn’t clear enough, though the computer had been top of the line in 2020.
The video started to play and Merlin made it full screen. It was Merlin and Arthur’s flat in London, roughly 2022. Merlin stood in front, looking very much like himself, except with the clothes of the time. He had on a pair of skinny jeans and a jumper, with a scarf around his neck.
Arthur looked a little confused, looking back and forth between the Merlin on screen and the Merlin next to him.
“Arthur get in here!” said Merlin on screen.
“I’m coming, give me a second!” Arthur voice yelled back. Current Arthur stiffened a little but he didn’t say anything.
“Arthur was and will always be a prat.” Past Merlin said into the camera. “Never forget that.”
Merlin felt his heart tug a little as he watched the video. He hated it when Arthur wasn’t alive. He remembered watching this video on lonely nights in the 22nd century. Somehow he hadn’t had the strength to watch it after that, and had all but forgotten about it.
On screen, Merlin turned his head to look at someone who was just out of view. “Oh, the King grants me with his presence.”
“Shut up, Merlin.” Arthur said in the video, the same way he always did in every life time.
Then Arthur walked into the camera’s view and Arthur gasped. On screen, this Arthur didn’t look very different than the one sitting next to Merlin. He had the same height and build with the same blonde hair and blue eyes. In the video, Arthur sat next to Merlin, ruffling his hair as Arthur in every century.
“Hello future Merlin!” Arthur said to the camera. “And hello to possibly future me. That’s a bit odd isn’t it?”
“God Arthur, I don’t even know if they’ll even have DVD when you come back again.”
“Well then. You’ll just have to convert this disc until it’s up to date. I want my future self to remember this.”
Merlin paused the video.
“Do you believe me now?” he asked, turning to a very pale faced Arthur.
“You’ve doctored that.”
Merlin sighed and calmly said, “No I haven’t.”
“But…”
Merlin raised a brow at Arthur.
A long time passed where Arthur looked at Merlin, then back at the screen.
“Wow...” Arthur’s wide eyes looked to Merlin. “Really?”
“Really.” Merlin confirmed.
Arthur grinned. “I was the great King of Camelot?” He looked as smug as he had looked in Camelot.
Merlin rolled his eyes and pushed Arthur’s shoulder playfully. “No. You were a clotpole of a king.” Merlin’s smile betrayed his true thoughts.
“How come I don’t remember then?” Arthur asked, his brows furrowed and his lips pursed.
“Don’t know.” Merlin shrugged. “It’ll probably come back to you. It will take a while.”
“Let’s watch the rest of the video.” Arthur leaned over and tried to press the laptop’s buttons, but Merlin hurriedly stood up.
“No!” he yelled, hugging the laptop to his chest.
“What the hell is wrong with you!” Arthur huffed. “Come on. Past Me wants Current Me to watch it.”
“No…” Merlin didn’t look Arthur in the eye.
“Merlin! You just told me I’ve been reincarnated seven times, and you’re not going to let me see the video of a past self? Be reasonable!”
“It’s personal!”
“Personal!” Arthur exclaimed, “I’m in it too!”
“No! Well. No you you. The other you.”
“That’s still me!” Arthur lunged at him, trying to get the laptop.
After a brief amount of slapping and pulling, Arthur managed to get the laptop. He pressed play as he held Merlin back with a single arm.
The Merlin on screen smiled at the Arthur next to him. “And what do you want Future You to remember?”
“This.” Arthur leaned in and kissed Merlin rather passionately. His hand ran into Merlin’s hair as Merlin pressed closer. Noises filtered through the speakers of Merlin’s whimpers and Arthurs groans and laughs. In the current century, Arthur’s grip on Merlin slackened and his mouth was wide open in shock. With the lack of restraint Merlin jumped forward and stopped the video. His face was burning and he couldn’t look his best friend in the eye.
Though Merlin wasn’t looking, he knew Arthur was staring at him.
“You…” Arthur started. “But I’m not… But I thought I was straight!”
“In this lifetime you are.” Merlin said. “Not so much in the past, though.”
Arthur made a squeaking sound which Merlin couldn’t interpret. “You…and me?”
“Um. Yeah.” Merlin wanted to crawl into a hole and die. He shouldn’t be embarrassed that Arthur had found out about their own relationship, but somehow he was.
“How many times? How many times were we…you know.”
Merlin rubbed the back of his neck.
“Merlin.” Arthur growled.
“All of them!” Merlin looked into Arthur’s eyes, feeling a little shaken. “Okay? All of them.”
Arthur sat back onto the bed, looking more panicked about this news than the fact that his best friend was an immortal warlock.
“You don’t have to do anything, okay? You can forget it ever happened. I won’t bring it up.” Merlin set down the laptop and pretended it didn’t exist. “See? Never happened. Good? Okay, good.”
“Do you love me?” Arthur asked, his voice only above a whisper as he looked up at Merlin.
They had established in this life that they loved each other as friends. Merlin had been drunk and he had told Arthur that he loved him. Arthur had said ‘Of course you do. We’re best mates. If you don’t love me, we’ve got a problem.’ This time was different though. Merlin swallowed, his voice thick when he said, “’Course I do.”
“But, in the best-friend-love kind of way? Or you know, the I-want-you kind of way.”
“The I’ve-been-saving-your-royal-backside-for-over-two-thousand-years-and-I-don’t-care-if-you-don’t-love-me-back-I’m-not-going-anywhere, kind of way.” Merlin said resolutely.
Arthur stood up suddenly, grabbed Merlin’s face and kissed him. Their teeth clacked and Merlin stumbled backwards, almost falling over, but Arthur had him pinned. Arthur pulled away, looking shocked at his own actions.
“Get that out of your system?” Merlin asked, a little out of breath.
“Hell no.” Arthur dove right back in, taking Merlin’s lips with his own.
In between breaths Merlin said, “You don’t have to, Arthur, I swear.”
“Merlin?” Arthur said next to Merlin’s ear, as he pulled on his ear lobe with his teeth.
“Yeah?” Merlin gasped.
“Shut up.”
Arthur continued to kiss Merlin senseless until he lost track of time and all he could smell, taste, and feel was Arthur. When Arthur pulled away, his forehead on Merlin’s, he said “We should probably watch the rest of the video.”
“Er…” Merlin looked up before diverting his gaze. “There’s not much left on the video.”
“Merlin…” Arthur growled again.
Merlin blushed.
“What? Merlin, what can it possibly be this time? Sex on tape?” He laughed but when he saw Merlin’s blush he choked on his own laugh. “Merlin!” he sounded scandalized.
“You started it!” Merlin yelled back.
Arthur sputtered. “That wasn’t me! Well, it was but- You know what I mean!”
“You can watch it later.” Merlin declared, “After we have sex now.” Merlin pushed him back onto the bed, and Arthur couldn’t form a coherent argument for the rest of the evening.