[team one] Once and Future part ??

[green-eggs101.livejournal.com]

I've lost track of the "what if Kingdom hearts was the same but Merlin was the Merlin from BBC's Merlin" AU parts, but here's ~1400 words of a section of it. (hinted merlin/arthur, gen) 

“Gold star...” Arthur mumbled.

“Huh?” Merlin glanced over from where he was cooking them breakfast. Or rather, watching the stove cook them breakfast. Merlin had learned long ago that trying to take over the stove’s morning routine only led to scorched fingers and burned bacon.

“Your eyes,” Arthur yawned, the words caught in his throat. “When you do the... magic thing. It’s like a gold star— or rather two gold stars. I guess.”

Merlin grinned, glancing at the kettle. Though he couldn’t see his own reflection, he knew when his eyes glowed— Arthur’s own blue eyes snapped towards his, his mouth opening a bit in admiration.

The kettle immediately leapt into action, pouring Arthur a cup of tea. The teacups used to fight each morning over which Arthur would use that day until Arthur finally had to imitate his own rotating schedule.

Today was the green teacup with the lacey blue trim.

“No one else’s eyes do that,” Arthur mentioned after he took a long sip. “And— Sora? — he said your eyes didn’t do that when you disguised yourself as an old man.”

“I am an old man,” Merlin grumbled, but he got Arthur’s point. “Magic is... different here. You’ve seen how nearly everyone can use it?”

Arthur nodded. Merlin knew it had unnerved him a bit at first, but like most things, exposure led to tolerance, then to acceptance.

“Well... that's because the magic they use is around us. It’s more of an external force. It’s why a lot of the beginner magic is more elemental. At least until you can start training up the magic muscle.”

“So it wasn’t... an external force in our.. world?” Arthur’s voice was a little unsure on the last word. And Merlin couldn’t blame him.

Though Camelot was also a separate world here in this realm it certainly wasn’t the realm Merlin and his Arthur came from.

“Not like this,” Merlin tried to explain. “Magic in our Camelot was more... it was still all around us. I could feel it in the trees, the land, and the animals— but only it took more... something... for people to be able to use it. The Druids used it much like the people here use this sort of magic. But not everyone could tap into the power. Not like they can here.”

“But not everyone uses magic?”

Merlin shrugged. “It’s a preference. Some people become well rounded in fighting with and without magic, like Sora and Riku, others prefer to use mostly all magic attacks, like Master Aqua. Or there’s one’s like Lea who focus on just one type of elemental magic.”

Arthur’s lips pursed in thought, his finger tapping the teacup absently. “But the eyes?”

Merlin grinned. “Its just how magic manifested in our world. Now that I’ve reverted more to how I looked back then, my eyes glow again when performing magic. I could probably train enough to where it didn’t do that anymore—”

“Don't!” Arthur spat the word out faster than he clearly thought it. Even he looked shocked at how quick he’d made his demand.

Merlin hummed in thought, taking the finished breakfast food from the stove and plating it quickly before walking to the small table. Passing Arthur his plate, Merlin took a seat. “Then I won’t.”

Arthur took a big bite of eggs to stop any other sort of words from heatedly making themselves known. Chewing slowly and thoughtfully, Arthur finally swallowed.

“I told you I didn’t want you to change,” Arthur said solemnly. “You should listen to your King, Merlin.”

“I always endeavor to do so,” Merlin said dryly, taking a bite of his own eggs.

Arthur nodded in agreement scooping up another bite, pausing for just a moment before his next statement.

“And... they look like stars.”

Merlin felt his cheeks grown warm. “yeah?”

Arthur nodded firmly, seemingly more for himself than for Merlin’s sake. Then he took another deep breath.

“When— the first night after I came here. You took me out stargazing, remember?”

Merlin nodded. It had been the first thing Sora had wanted to do when he got back. They had all gone up to the top balcony of the castle and watched the stars, hoping for a meteor shower. Sora and Riku even pointed out the worlds they knew, and how far each one was from Radiant Garden.

“They were familiar for everyone else,” Arthur said quietly. “But for me they were— all brand new. Nothing was familiar here, not even the stars.”

Merlin frowned, reaching out to grab Arthur’s hand. Arthur smiled, turning his hand over to lace their fingers together.

“Nothing except you of course. Once you lost the beard and fancy hat.”

Merlin huffed. “You and that hat.”

“I’m gonna find out where you hid it someday,” Arthur teased before his face grew serious once more. “You did magic— some silly trick to get Sora to smile when he’d started to cry in relief at being back home. But when you did, your eyes glowed and I remember thinking ‘finally, some familiar stars.’”

The romantic, if a little cliched, words made Merlin nearly choke on his breakfast, and he hurriedly swallowed, reaching out to grasp Arthur’s hands in both of his own.

“You’re such a prat. Trying to be all romantic at the breakfast table,’ Merlin huffed, swallowing around the tears of joy. He didn’t think he had any tears left for centuries. But now they seemed to be all coming up at once.

“It’s true!” Arthur grinned. “A sea of unfamiliar stars, but your starlight eyes brought comfort.”

Merlin choked on his tears. “Stop. That was... horribly romantic.” Merlin wiped under his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Romantic huh?”

“Trust you to miss the “horrible” part.”

Arthur chuckled, taking his hand back to finish eating his breakfast. “In all seriousness your eyes... I’m glad that remained the same. I feel like I missed so much time knowing you with your magic. This is a second chance to get to know that part of you and i don’t want to miss any part of it.”

Merlin grinned, “That’s all I ever wanted.”

They finished breakfast over more conversation about how magic worked in this realm, how keyblade masters used their blades vs the magicians and their wands, vs whatever Merlin decided to do that day.

Arthur’s favorite topic though was the somewhat sentient magic Merlin had someone unintentionally placed on his home goods and housewares. The teacups were an early fascination when Arthur was first staying in Merlin’s home, but that soon grew into discovering the new ways the books would rearrange themselves, or the nonstop disagreements between the sugar pot and the creamer bowl.

“How do you unintentionally magic things to have their own personalities?” Arthur asked, watching the sugar pot and creamer bowl go for another bout. Merlin figured he’d be fixing another piece of chipped porcelain before noon.

In answer to Arthur’s question, Merlin shrugged. “It’s less of a spell and more of a — century or so of just carrying them with me. My magic is part of me, so by placing the same spells every morning, I leave a bit of it behind on every object. The magic has to go somewhere, so...”

“So magic dishware,” Arthur finished, gently prodding the creamer bowl where it was now lying on the table, the handle snapped cleanly off. The sugar pot triumphantly marched in front of the rest of the tea set, the smallest of the teacups rattling slightly in fear. “You stop that now, you only won because you cheated.”

A soft fond grin spread over Merlin’s face as Arthur continued to talk to the magical tea set. Something like this would have never happened when Merlin first stepped foot into his Camelot— so long ago now.

And even then— for centuries, Merlin occasionally entertained the idea of Arthur learning to just tolerate the small magics if — when — he came back.

But now— answering Arthur’s questions, listening to him talk with magical items— Merlin couldn’t believe just how lucky he was.

“Merlin!”

Arthur’s panicked voice startled Merlin out of his musings and he quickly looked to where Arthur was pointing.

“I think the dish is running away with the spoon.”

Next up is nichi! I'll tag you on discord! line: "“I think the dish is running away with the spoon.”