#anywaaaay

+ MM bingo squares: forced proximity, POV third person, episode fix it (5.01), past tense, magic reveal.

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They were finished with the insults and the fighting, the struggling and the blame.

As they lay suspended in the rope net, shoulder to shoulder in the rapidly dwindling light, Merlin had the sickening realisation that it was now or never: nobody knew their whereabouts, there was no help on the way, and the temperature was already close to freezing. This was not a fitting or dignified end, but the end it would be if he stayed silent—and if Arthur had him executed afterwards, then at least he would have saved his life one last time.

'Arthur?'

'Mmm?'

When it came down to it though, the words grew barbs and stuck in his throat—after a decade of lies and excuses, they were unsure how to be spoken aloud. He closed his eyes and swallowed hard, wondering if Arthur could feel the brief shiver of fear rattle through him.

'What's wrong, Merlin?'

How could he even begin to answer that question? He felt Arthur trying to shift to get a closer look at him, and he found he was relieved he could avoid being face to face for this. He was brittle. On edge. But he tried again:

'Remember earlier, I told you I have many talents?'

Arthur snorted. 'Yes.'

'I also swore to protect you or die at your side. As I have sworn to you every day since—'

'Merlin—'

'Arthur!' The shout surprised them both, 'I need you to remember I made that oath before I get us out this damn net!'

In the silence that followed his outburst, Merlin heard the catch in Arthur's breath—felt his body stiffen next to him.

'Arthur, I—'

'Wait.'

It was spoken quietly, somewhere between a plea and a command. Merlin would have preferred shouting—calm on the surface of his king often masked a dangerous undercurrent.

'Just…a minute. I would like one more moment like this. Like us. Before you say what you have to say—and everything changes.'

Merlin gave a wary nod, though he doubted Arthur could see. Twilight had almost fully turned to darkness, but in the last remnants of light he watched the meandering clouds of steam made by their breath in the cold air—separate, entwined, and then lost to the great expanse of sky.

The moment stretched. After an interminably long time, Merlin used the final dregs of his his courage to hesitantly turn and face Arthur.

'There you are,' Arthur said, voice soft.

Merlin's heart leapt.

'If you're ready to show me—I think, I'm ready to see you.'

Merlin stared.

'You mean it?' He finally managed to croak.

'I mean it.'

'Okay…' Merlin squinted into the dark, trying to remember just how far away the ground was, 'I can't promise a soft landing—but we can go on, at least.'

As I was debating what kind of wacky situation I wanted to draw Torchman in, I read on his Wiki page that he's a robot made to give lectures on fire safety. Very respectable indeed. As my libraries certified safety officer (no idea if that's the right English word for that), I can tell you that fire safety is a very very important subject matter. Double so if your surrounded by very flammable books. If I catch a student smoking near our books, I have the legal obligation to murder them. (Don't fact-check that)

Another thing I noticed while reading his Wiki page is that he's very similar to MMFCs Fireman. The whole "learning to control his anger so his flames don't go out of control" and the "Torch-jutsu", whatever the hell that is, reminds me a lot of Fully Charged Firemans issues. Only instead of some made up form of martial arts, Fireman is really into doing yoga. As you know from my 11000+ word essay on Fireman and Waveman, if someone knows these characters, it's gotta be me. So yeah, they're very similar.

Sorry in advance that this has somehow turned into a Fully Charged essay once again. (not sorry at all) Since I'm really into shipping Fireman and Waveman and I've been thinking about giving them a post canon (fan?) child, I thought that it's gotta be Torchman. At first, I thought about Magmaman (since, yknow fire + water = magma or something like that), but I wasn't really sure since his body type is completely different from both Fire and Wave. But after I drew Torchman holding a little kitty cat and saving it from a blazing inferno, I realized that if they do have a kid together, it's gotta be the Fully Charged version of Torchman. I have to draw fanart of that, hoooly shit. I still have so many ideas for Fully Charged content in general, but the robot master chart takes priority for now. And in case you were wondering, Fireman is the one who gets pregnant, obviously. (How that would work, I have no clue, just use your imagination)

Scott being a math nerd is something I think is very cute. Also being a nerd about planes, he'd very much be into that. he and Kayo would get into soo many debates over which is the best non-thunderbird aircraft

John is obviously a bit of a sci-fi geek - his favourite show is Stingray (pretty sure that's the one playing on the screen) and also he loves tech and coding etcetc. also SPACE! i like to think he and Brains get to nerd out about things as well as the classic space bros combo

Virg loves art and music (I would love to know his favourite art movement for certain but I bet it's impressionism) but also the moment he nerds out the most is over Kip Harris!! I love imagining baby Virg learning all about firefighters (maybe he watched the og Fireman Sam when he was really little)

Gordon obviously loves ocean animals and Into the Unknown. he seems like he would've watched Deadly 60 as a kid and then graduated to David Attenborough documentaries - he and John would've fought over watching that vs Brian Cox space/physics docs.

Alan's video game obsession is so sweet to me and so is his love of space and flying. There was probably a moment where Scott thought he'd finally have a sibling that he could nerd out about planes with before Alan revealed he preferred space flight (John rubbed it in his face for months)

Make Optimus a screaming mess while getting back shots from Megatron ahahaha-

Tried to play a bit with perspective with mixed results