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A chain-link fence bit into his elbows, almost painfully. Someone had erected it. Probably a long time ago, if the rust coloring it orange were an indication. Most likely not structurally sound enough to hold his weight. But still here he was, trusting it with it. Far too close to the edge, too. And certainly not tall enough, easy enough to hop over. Before safety regulations were imposed, then.
Still, someone had put it up, someone had tried to stop the action he was about to take.
He wondered if they still would have put in the effort if they knew who they were stopping. What monster they were attempting to keep back.
The fall would surely kill him. The height alone should be able to do it. And if not that then the fast-moving water underneath. More white than blue as it slammed into the cliff edge, obscuring any rocks that he knew laid underneath. Churning and bashing with the power of an ocean behind it. Like Poseidon was throwing a tantrum just for him, just to egg him on that little bit more. Just to say, it'll only take a second, it'll all be over in a second.
The same salt that stirred the sea beneath him stung at his eyes as the tears started to fall. Yet there was a smile pulling at his cheeks, slight as it was. For he was about to rid the world of an abomination of the highest markings.
Despite its power, the water played a beautiful melody just for him. A siren's call tempting him further. Noises a babe would fall asleep too. Sounds that would be the last thing he ever heard.
A lean forward and a move from holding on by the elbows to holding with his hands. Greeting him with a better view of the depths below. The water looked almost black at this time of day. So little light to show the true colors, the blues and greens and everything in between. It was a shame really. Merlin loved the color green.
Death didn't seem that bad, not really. Not if you faced it with dignity, not if you stopped kicking and screaming and just let it accept you into its cold embrace. No living, living was the horrid thing to be avoided. The thing to hide from. The thing that should shroud everyone's nightmares.
Or maybe that was just him. Another beast scared of the light. Another coward taking the easy way out.
His grip loosened, being held by just his fingertips now. It would be so easy. So simple to just let himself drop.
“What’s a pretty boy such as yourself doing out here all alone?” a deep voice called from behind him.
Merlin jerked, his hands tightening on the cool, grimy metal as he turned, to be met by a bearded chin, shoulder length brown hair, a sharp nose, a sweet grin, and the very softest brown eyes.
The question threw Merlin for a loop. Confusion and turmoil playing in his mind, dancing around as if it were a ballroom. Merlin's eyes sought the water once more then back to the strange man in a leather jacket standing behind him. "What does it look like?"
Simply a shrug in response. This man moving closer, this stranger taking such a casual step. "I'm Gwaine. What do they call you then?"
This man might have been the strangest person to ever walk the earth, leaning slightly on the fence a few meters away, as if this were a casual conversation and not the last Merlin was to ever have. "Why are you so interested?"
"Call it curiosity. I want to know the name of the person I will be saving" the smile extending only on one half of his face.
Oh, so it wasn't just that this man was strange, he was cocky as well. Great. Just wonderful. The wind tousled Merlin's hair as he just stared at this stranger in such clear bafflement. "I don't need your saving" you need it from me.
There was a twitch of something on this man's, Gwaine's, face. As if he could hear the words Merlin had purposefully left unspoken. Something close to sadness but was gone so fast Merlin couldn't hope to categorize it. Enough though, for Merlin to feel a pang of guilt, just for hurting him that little bit. Just for robbing him of that easy going nature for even a moment.
"Alright then." That dangerous grin was back as if it never left, the one that just seemed so perfect on that face of his, as if he were made to make that expression. "At least let me match a name to such a lovely face. It'd be a shame for me not to have something to call out later tonight"
Merlin blinked once. Then again. Then once more just for good measure. Cause it sounded like this man was...
“Are you flirting with me?” He asked in clear amazement that the question even had to leave his lips at all.
“Aye” was the easy response, his eyes never leaving Merlin's own. Not a sense of lying in the single word.
“While I’m about to kill myself?” It was a question more than a statement, even though Merlin knew it damn well shouldn't have been. There was no way this ended without Merlin crashing into the waves turning so very far under him. No matter what this man thought or how brazen he was. Or how wonderful he looked in the low light. Or how this moment was filling his stomach with butterflies.
For the first time those browns left Merlin to look at the sight of his future grave. Nothing more than a quick look down and then back up. “Look, my bed is much warmer than what you’ll find down there, especially if the two of us heat it up” A suggestiveness slid into that tone of his, that husky voice turning somehow deeper, more erotic.
And somehow it had a laugh rising out of Merlin despite himself. "Is this how you get bedmates? By checking high ledges?"
"No" When he shook his head, his hair bounced, catching the moonlight and shining just a tad. It had Merlin mesmerized in its motion. "No, this would be a first."
"Probably for the best" Merlin forced himself to look away, to look back at his fate, his destiny to be strewn across the ocean depths. "I can't see this working out very well for you, despite that smile"
"Oh, so you like my smile" Merlin didn't need to be looking to hear the grin playing at his lips. Showing off, puffing his feathers hoping Merlin would see.
He didn't; his eyes locked on the swirl, the breaking of the tide against the cliff's edge. His feet inching ever so little closure. A stone fell by his push; the splash coming several seconds later as it found its way down, like Merlin soon would.
"You know, I fancy myself a swim as well" Gwaine grabbed at Merlin's attention once more. Swinging his head around to look at this mad man.
"What?" Slightly desperate for him not to have just said that.
Another shrug and another step nearer. "Just you make it seem so nice, and I could never turn down a good skinny dip" An eyebrow danced around that handsome face. "I guess I'll have to follow you down"
Merlin didn't even have a second to process that before this stranger was shrugging off his jacket and leaning over to untie his boots.
"You don't even know me" He finally got out once Gwaine had already pulled off one boot.
"Aye" His voice was so calm, so unwavering. "But you see, your eyes are far too kind."
Merlin's eyebrows twitched together at the non-sequential statement. "What does that have to-"
The man stood, successful in getting his shoes off, and started unbuttoning his jeans, the zipper loud as it was pulled down. "You have kind eyes" Gwaine interrupted, much softer now. "Kind enough that I know you could never jump knowing you were going to take someone with you"
The metal was harsh and unrelenting under his palm as he gripped dangerously tight to the fence. His brain moving a million miles a second as his body didn't move an inch. This man had made such a snap judgement and apparently was ready to stick to it with his life. But it seemed to be the right one, for Merlin knew all too well he wouldn't be able to go through with it if Gwaine stuck to his promise.
Frustration rose within Merlin at being read so very well by this person. At his plans being completely ruined by nothing more than an attractive smile and melt worthy brown eyes. "You're infuriating"
The shirt followed the trousers to the ground, leaving Gwaine standing in nothing but his knickers. Merlin's face heating ever so slightly as his eyes traveled the length of the now mostly exposed skin. Hoping for just that little bit more. That little extra tanned flesh.
Even in the cool breeze surely frigid with nothing stopping its path, that wonderful twinkle of a grin remained. "One of my best qualities, they tell me"
But then that smile was fading as he took the last step forward, the one where he could now reach out and touch Merlin if he wanted, grab him and pull him back. But he didn't. He left the choice up to Merlin. Just held his hand so very steady out for Merlin to grab. "You can complain to me all you want about it, once you're back over the fence" A little nod, pointing Merlin to his outstretched hand.
For a moment, neither of them seemed to breathe. Just both staring at the olive branch Gwaine was offering, the salvation he so easily extended. As Merlin weighed what to do. To accept this man's bluff, to find out if he was being truthful in the next life, or to try continuing this one, try seeing what more Gwaine could give, what other wonders the man had in store for him.
And then Merlin was letting go. One hand holding tight to the metal as the other found the warmth of a calloused palm. A thumb brushing over Merlin's knuckles, so gentle, so sweet, so caring in his touch.
"Good" Gwaine's praise made him feel lighter, less weighed down by the pressures of the world, the horrors that got him here. "Now let's get you up and over"
The instructions should have been easy to follow. A step to the first metal beam and another one over the links entirely. And Merlin was ready to take them, ready to get this man out of trouble, back home safely. But then the siren call seemed to not be done with him yet. The fence wasn't exactly structurally sound. And the rust was ever-present.
The beam fell away with the fence. Leaving Merlin to tumble. To fall.
A harsh grip to Merlin’s wrist. Gwaine sinking to his knees as Merlin dropped. But not letting go. Never letting go. There was no purchase under his feet, nothing he could grab onto, nothing to stop him ending up in the rapids other than Gwaine’s two hands tightening around his arm.
And Merlin knew, he knew like he knew how to breathe, that Gwaine was going to plummet down with him before he ever let him go. Recklessness seems infused into his very being. He was going to be dragged down with Merlin. Dragged down because Merlin had made this decision. This stupid, stupid decision to leave the world without that perfect smile.
The flash of gold in his vision, the very reason he found himself here in the first place, the awfulness that crept out of him through the sun's rays reflected in his eyes. And suddenly his feet weren't flailing against nothing, they had a sturdy support to kick him up. Up over the ledge. Up over the fallen fence. Up into Gwaine's naked arms.
They crashed to the ground. Safe from the edge once more. Merlin finding himself pressed to a firm chest as arms hugged him tight.
The thing was, Gwaine had certainly seen. His wide eyes never left Merlin's own even when the magic sprang through them. And yet, it didn't seem to matter, not in the slightest, not for Gwaine. He hadn't tried to let him go, hadn't told him he was a horrid creature whose fate belonged at the bottom of the sea, hadn't tried to take a step back, a step away, as Merlin showed him the thing that would have sent most running for the hills. For fuck's sake he was still holding him, still wrapping him in a delightful embrace even while knowing. Knowing the beast that lay just beneath the surface.
Sobs, thick and almost painful, crawled up through his throat. Hot tears finding nothing but warm skin to dry too.
Gwaine's sweet whispers of "It's alright", "You're alright", "I've got you" flooded his ears, drowning out the sounds of waves. So much more spellbinding than the call of Poseidon. Pulling Merlin back. Back from the ledge, back from the pain, back from it all.
Gwaine never stopped with his whispers, never once complained about the stones probably pressing into his back or Merlin's nails biting into his skin, never so much faltered in his hold on the warlock during the entirety of his tantrum. Just let Merlin weep into his arms. Until finally the tears started to dry up and Merlin could breathe once more, the same salty air but now filled with the scent of this man's sweat as well. And damn if Merlin didn't welcome it.
It took a while more until he felt like he had the energy to raise his head. "Merlin" He said once their eyes connected once more, blue meeting brown.
"What?" Gwaine's confusion was almost comical, after everything they just shared.
"You asked to know the name of the person you saved. My name is Merlin"
That precious smile spread, finding its way across Gwaine's face and onto Merlin's own lips.