Drop by drop of blood fell to the ground, flowing through the skin, staining the corners of the red clothes, and converging in the light to form patches of mottled bright red silhouettes.

In this small bar, the bustle has receded, peeling away into a suffocating silence. Everywhere tables and chairs toppled over, glasses shattered to the floor, and all eyes were focused on the brown-haired boy at the bar, watching him clutch his bleeding arm, frowning and silent.

"Are you okay?"

Leaning closer to West, he asked, a little worried. Lancelot slowly helped him lay his injured arm flat on the bar, and looked around, as if looking for something to stop the bleeding temporarily.

"I'm fine."

He replied in a low voice, signaling his companion not to worry, and West didn't even look at his miserable arm, but he wasn't reckless. After all, he had been injured too many times worse than this, and he just bled a little more, and he really shouldn't and didn't need to make too much of a fuss.

However, some people don't think so.

"Tie this up to him, and don't move."

Turning around, he ripped off the tie around his neck and threw it to Lance. Merlin's voice sounded calm, even gentle, but those who knew him knew that the archmage had been completely by now.

Together with Arthur and Gao Wen, he confronted a few tall strangers in front of him. He looked at the bloody wound on West's arm, and his heart burned to the fullest, and he wanted to use magic to throw the culprits into the Thames.

Ten minutes ago.

When Merlin was so unsteady that he was about to break the jar with West's head in a hot spot, a shrill shout called his sanity back in an instant. When I turned my head to look, I saw that a few drunk people were looking for trouble, surrounding a girl to talk, and their movements became more and more inappropriate, and there was even a faint tendency to be forced.

- A very common drama in bars.

This should have nothing to do with them, but it can't stand Arthur's chivalrous demeanor even if they are reincarnated. Soon, Gao Wen, who couldn't see the girl being bullied, took the lead in putting down the wine glass and walked over, saying good words to dissuade him, but instead lit the anger of both sides in the pushing, pushing and shoving, and he had to do it if he didn't agree.

At this point, it is impossible for Merlin and West to continue to sit in peace.

stepped forward to stop Gao Wen, who was about to swing his fist, and Merlin patted Arthur, who was clattering his knuckles, and the hermit didn't want to watch them fight. After all, it is impossible for him to expose his ability in public, although he is not afraid of anything, but if anyone is pointed at and scolded by others, he will not be very happy. Therefore, he glanced at the mage and asked him to appease the group of hot-blooded young men of the Knights, while he took two steps forward, intending to communicate with the other party, and if he could talk well, he would not do anything.

Outcome.

Before he could say a word, a wine bottle smashed directly into his face.

There is no reason for drunk people to talk about it, and West thinks he really shouldn't forget that. In addition, he couldn't dodge, and he didn't dare to reveal his identity, so he could only raise his arm to protect his head in desperation, and took a powerful blow, and the broken glass slag was embedded in the flesh, although it was no big deal, but it did hurt him.

The hermit was smashed on the spot.

- Who can bear it now?

Rubbing his eyebrows, Arthur took a few steps forward, his expression as ugly as swallowing a fly.

There was a dark light flowing from his eyes, and even his pale pupils seemed to be dyed with a layer of coldness. Merlin pulled the frowning boy past him and tucked him behind him, the corners of his mouth gradually pursing into a sharp arc.

He was indeed mild-tempered and did not want to argue with others.

However, this does not mean that you will be indifferent if you are stepped on the bottom line.

"Get out of here, never let me see you again!"

After all, he was once a famous Knights of the Round Table in Great Britain, and even if he didn't remember anything after his reincarnation, the fighting skills of the Knights were breathtaking. Soon, contemptuously looking down at his opponent who could only hum and chirp on the ground, Gao Wen disdainfully pressed his knuckles, drawing the perfect end to this bar farce.

Retracting the magic secretly cast by his fingertips, the golden light in his eyes gradually faded, and the archmage snorted coldly, as if he was deeply dissatisfied with these guys being so careless.

- I still like to stumble behind people's backs, Merlin.

Shaking his head helplessly, no matter how hidden the mage was, he couldn't escape West's eyes. Involuntarily reminded of the memories of his time in Camelot, and then thinking of their current situation, the boy could only smile bitterly.

"How's your arm?" Instead of cleaning up the mess with Arthur, he turned around and sat down beside him with a frown, Merlin's face was still unhappy: "I'll take you to the hospital to bandage right away." ”

"No, I'm not going to the hospital."

As a mutant, he is relatively special, and unless he is forced to do so, he generally does not take the initiative to go to that kind of public medical setting, so as not to leak biological information.

So, without even thinking about it, West opened his mouth and choked Merlin, who was about to pull himself up.

"Just let me go home, I can handle it myself when I get home."

"The broken glass slag in your wound hasn't been cleaned up yet, what are you going to do with it yourself?"

His eyebrows were almost twisted into a flower, and the mage glared at him disapprovingly, as if he was wondering if he needed to ask Percival to carry this guy who might be very drunk directly, "Follow me to the hospital, go now." ”

"Nope."

However, unexpectedly, West, who has always been very talkative in front of Merlin, bites the bullet at this point. No matter how much he coerced and lured, he insisted on going back by himself. Afraid that his wound would suffer for a long time, in the end, Arthur couldn't stand it, and his hand quickly pulled away and almost punched the mage who was about to punch the handsome face of the hermit, and made a compromise suggestion.

"Isn't Gaius at home?" The former King of Carmellot sighed faintly. Although he didn't want to care about the two enemies at all, he really couldn't turn a blind eye: "Since West doesn't want to go to the hospital, he can only ask his personal doctor to bandage him...... I guess he shouldn't mind if you bring someone back so late? ”

That's a good idea.

It's just that Arthur hasn't noticed that when he hears Gaius's name, both Merlin's and West's expressions become a little subtle.

Because Gao Wen and the others had to stay here to compensate the boss for the damage, they couldn't leave for a while, so Merlin took the wounded back to the apartment alone. On the way, West learns intermittently from the mage that Gaius still loves his medical career in this life, and becomes a doctor in a private practice, and Merlin has lived in his house while studying at Oxford. Listening to the young man, he couldn't help but sigh at the magic of such a thing as fate, even if he was reincarnated for thousands of years and forgot the past, he could still copy everything in the past with such a realistic attitude.

Perhaps, Arthur, Merlin, the Knights, and even Gaius, they were indivisible in the first place, and they would not have been separated no matter how many years had passed. He thought so quietly, his footsteps stepped in the dim shadow of the street lamp, and in a flash, he dissipated under the dazzling starry sky.

And he was just a complete intruder from beginning to end. If it weren't for the accident of dislocation of time and space, he and them would have been strangers who had nothing to do with themselves, one was as fresh and bright as ever, and the other was still up and down in bitter hatred.

"Here we are."

The hoarse voices of the people around him exchanged for his sanity. West looked up and was surprised to find that Gaius's house was actually only one street away from his residence, but because of his back-to-back, he and Merlin would go to different streets every day, so there was no chance encounter.

…… So, have they always been destined?

Shaking his head with a wry smile, he shook off these thoughts. West watched Merlin take a few steps forward and knock on the door, clenching his fingers a little crampedly, suddenly feeling a rare nervousness.

In fact, he was glad to see him again.

The doctor who was really good to him, and treated him wholeheartedly as his own child.

"Come in."

There was a 'squeak' and the door was opened from within. I don't know if the mage had told him something in advance, but the gray-haired old man poked his head out from behind the door, not surprised by the young man's visit, but smiled at him gently. Just like every day he lived in Camelot thousands of years ago, no matter when, he would leave a light for them to return home.

The gentle light scattered from the house shone on his body, and a straight silhouette fell on the ground. Probably noticing that the boy had not moved for a long time, Merlin also turned his head from the threshold and looked with Gaius, his eyes calm. Like many, many years ago, they stood side by side in front of the hut, waiting for West to come out of the shadows of the castle, with the breeze and the stars shining behind him.

Lowering his eyes, he smiled slightly.

… …

Neither in the past nor in the present, the Hermit had never doubted Gaius's medical skills, let alone a small wound that was not even a minor injury. If Merlin hadn't insisted on letting him go home alone, West believed he would have been able to handle the injury.

"Alright. Do not get wet for the next few days and change the dressing on time. Carefully fasten the bandage, and admonish a few words of unease. Gaius closed the medical kit, gave the mage a look, and began to clean up the mess on the table.

Naturally understood what he meant. Merlin, who had been leaning against the wall and watching, understood, straightened up, and motioned for West to come with him: "I'll find you a piece of clothing to wear." ”

Because his shirt and trousers were stained with blood, and the smell of rust was really torturous, and the mage's face was not very good-looking when he came out of the bar, West didn't have the courage to disobey again. It's just that when he was about to stand up, he encountered some small obstacles - Gaius's cat, a white long-haired puppet, somehow did not dislike the hermit in the slightest, and he was lying on his knees all the time, and he couldn't get rid of it.

- Am I so fated to meow?

One arm couldn't exert force, and the Ragdoll's weight meant that he couldn't lift it with one hand. Remembering that the folded ear raised by Bucky in the Avengers Mansion also likes to lie on his chest to bask in the sun, West shook his head helplessly, wanting to touch the puppet's head, but was slapped on the back of his hand by a paw, obviously a very temperamental cutie.

"Looks like Abby likes you." Putting away the last strap, Gaius watched as West and his cat competed with each other, looking unintentional, "Although she is usually clingy, this is the first time I've seen someone other than me and Merlin have such a crush on her." ”

"Is that so?" Looking at his hand that had been scratched with three red marks, and not feeling the slightest kindness from Abby, West could only smile bitterly.

"Of course, although she seems to be throwing a tantrum with you, she does want to be close to you."

His brows were full of love, and Gaius glanced at Merlin's back, which had already walked upstairs, and remembered the mage's visibly angry face when he entered the door, and winked at the young man:

Sometimes, she just doesn't know how to express herself. But you have to believe that as long as you are willing to spend more time with her, you will find that she is really trying to show kindness to you. ”

"After all, there's no rule that you can't like someone when you meet for the first time, do you?"

After struggling to catch the cat's hand, West looked up almost in a hurry.