plz_gtfo_dragon

[Sveta had felt this before- that sick, aching feeling in the pit of her stomach- but it was easing the closer she got...somewhere. So she followed it out of the infirmary, almost knocking into Valmont as she did so.]

Oh...sorry.

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[Valmont stepped back as Sveta nearly bumped into him.]

It's fine. [He replied tersely, before stopping as he registered who she was.] Wait, are you taking your break now?

[As far as he could tell, she was the only sane, pleasant person on the medical staff, and he didn't really want to be lumbered by being treated by any of the others.]

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[She wasn't feeling all that well, but she did manage a small nod.] Yes. Why? What's wrong?

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[He brought a hand up to sweep through his hair, leaning against the wall, his stomach felt like it was tying itself in knots.] I've not eaten, but my stomach is still determined that I try to vomit something up.

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[He was describing what she felt and she felt a small flash of fear at that. Had the Admiral introduced some kind of disease?] Are you running a fever? Come inside and I'll check.

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[Valmont lifted one hand up to press the back of his wrist against his forehead, frowning.] If I am then I can't tell. Thank you though, I appreciate it. [He followed Sveta into the infirmary, watching the doctor carefully. She was the one who'd cursed all of them a little earlier, what had she said about herself... that she was the light? And look what had become of her? He slid his hands into his pockets, trying not to let the idea that had sprung up in the back of his mind bleed through to whatever else might be listening in the recesses of his mind.]

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[She led him to a cot and went to retrieve his file. When she returned, she placed it down and took out a thermometer.]

When did all of this start? Were you feeling bad last night?

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No, [He replied,] No problems last night. It's really only come on in the last hour or so. [Valmont mentally calculated how long it would take, if he was right, to grab her wrist before Shendu went out. Last time it had only been a few minutes, perhaps this time he could do the same.]

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[She frowned.] That's about the time that the Admiral's announcement came. [Which is when she started to feel sick, too. Like she was doing now.]

Spammm!

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Spammm!

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Spammm!

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Spammm!

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Valmont wasn't fighting the Barge anymore. He didn't care where it was taking him. For a small window of opportunity, even if he was sick to death and being dragged around by some force larger than himself? He was alone inside his own head.

He should have thought of this sooner, it had been far, far too long since he'd even been able to pretend he was alone. So he wandered towards the pull in his stomach, towards wherever the hell he was supposed to be in all of this, and thought of whatever the hell he wanted.

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Merlin, for his part, had been fighting an odd sense of unease since the flood began - a sense that there was somewhere else he needed to be, although it was difficult to work out where that was since it seemed to keep changing.

He'd gone back to his room eventually, trying to ignore that disquiet feeling, and he'd been studiously getting no work done whatsoever when it just - vanished. And there were footsteps outside. Without really thinking it through, he went to the door immediately and hauled it open to find -

Oh.

"Oh."

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Valmont wasn't sure why he'd stopped outside that particular door, but when Merlin opened it to look out at him, he felt the slight tugging in the bottom of his stomach, and like it or not, any doubt he might have had that this was the place he was supposed to be skittered away. This was it. He was supposed to be here.

"My apologies for the intrusion, Merlin, isn't it? I'm afraid I've been... steered here by what I'm guessing is another flood." He slid one hand into his pocket smoothly, extending the other by way of greeting, as he added, "I don't believe we've spoken without any outside influences before, have we?"

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"No, I don't think we have." He smiled and shook Valmont's hand easily enough, although the term outside influences jolted his memory back three months with uncommon speed. "Nice to meet you - again. Properly. Do you - want to come in? I need to check something."

Specifically, his Item. Other people had been talking about random reassignments, and this sudden sense of attachment to Valmont might have signalled bigger things.

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Valmont nodded slightly, studying the young man as he stepped into the room. His memory of their previous encounter was hazy, He remembered leaning on Merlin, and walking through streets together unevenly. They had definitely kissed at some point, but he was fairly certain that it had ended there.

"So, are you the actual Merlin?" He asked idly, more just to make conversation than anything else, "I always sort of got the impression he'd be older."

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Usually Merlin was fairly circumspect about these remarks but this time he was starting from a position of unusually high stress. He put his grimoire down on the nearest clear surface, unlatched it and started flipping through to the page which normally kept him informed about his Inmate.

"You do know that old people were young at one point, yeah?"

His cabin had expanded recently, encompassing Gaius' workroom as well as the tiny closet-like antechamber he actually slept in. Surrounding the workbenches there were shelves stacked precariously with leather-bound books and rows of tiny glass bottles containing all kinds of ingredients and components.

Edited Date: 2011-08-28 10:35 pm (UTC)

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The Admiral had been kind enough to give Merlin has own bathroom without having to be asked for it, although it was all a bit technological in a way that hadn't been very intuitive. The shower in particular had been tricky. (And there was a bidet - although its shape and functions hinted at a likely purpose, Merlin had no idea what it was called and it seemed like a stupid thing to ask about).

Everything in there, thankfully, was arranged so that he could (just) sit down against the closed door while Valmont was showering on the other side. Occasionally he felt that weird taut-rope pull in his stomach, but so long as it didn't drag him through the door that was just fine.

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Oh, Valmont had missed showering alone. He had really really missed it. Admittedly, when Merlin had first offered him use of the facilities, he'd kind of been expecting to find a wooden hut with a pail of cold water in it and a hole dug in the corner. Instead? He'd found one of the most cutting edge (and immaculately clean) bathrooms he'd used in months, and (despite the admittedly... limited shampoo selection) having at least the impression of privacy was wonderful.

After twenty blissful minutes, he wrapped a towel around his waist and headed for the bathroom door, he'd brought a comb into the shower with him, and was just beginning to work it through the front bangs of his hair as he reached to open the bathroom door.

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Merlin hadn't been paying attention. The door opened inwards, he toppled backwards and barely managed to regain his balance (by way of a swimming-in-midair arm flail) before seeing Valmont from one of the least flattering angles available. He very quickly scuttled across from the doorway to the wall next to it without really standing up.

He glanced at Valmont. Nudity didn't inherently bother him - communal bathing had been something of a necessity in Ealdor, and Arthur wasn't what you'd call modest - but his mind seemed to distinguish between Arthur simply not wearing much and Valmont being half naked like there was any practical difference.

He stopped glancing. Coughed.

"Good shower?"

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...Well that was more of a reaction than Valmont had been expecting, he frowned, and tugged the comb the rest of the way through his hair, "Yes, thank you. Ironically, it was more privacy than I've had while washing in some time."

Valmont grabbed his robe from where he'd left it, draped over the back of a chair, and pulled it around his shoulders. He turned, briefly, to make the transition between wearing a towel with an open robe to wearing no towel under a closed robe, without giving Merlin what he imagined would be a traumatic eyeful of his junk, before moving to sit on the edge of the bed, close to Merlin.

"So..." he began, carefully, "...I'm going to go ahead and guess that at the time of that breach where we first met, you had never kissed another man before."

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Merlin just gave him an entirely wide-eyed stare for a moment. They were having this conversation, here and now? During this flood? That was just...unfair.

"No," and when he realised his voice was a little high he forced it down. "No, I never had."

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God, this was awkward. Valmont had never had to help someone with the uncomfortable journey out of the closet before, and he felt pretty under qualified for it.

"It... seems like you may be struggling with it a little?" He offered, a little lamely.

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"With what? It was a flood, it wasn't really us. Those two people were - " He realised he couldn't actually think of the word for it in twenty-first century parlance. " - but we're not."

There was a brief pause in which Merlin reviewed the conversation so far and realised he may have miscalculated.

"....I'm not?"

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