It was not good at all. Maybe a little bit as now he did not need to be careful with his magic, but still not good at all. Being alone was something that he didn't think would cause an issue, but now that every person in this godforsaken place had vanished without a trace, made it one.

The worst of this all was that he had no way of knowing what happened as it was not even a second that he stood in the store and suddenly all the people vanished. It for sure caused him a lot of distress and made him wonder what he should do now.

For others, this might be a good thing, but for him, it was the worst possible thing that could happen. Merlin was lonely and having some contact with people helped a little bit, but now there was not even this. Weirdly enough he was not too surprised about this.

There had been a lot of things that were caused by his magic, so this was not too weird, but still eerie. A sigh went out and he decided to take his stuff and vanish to his home. Merlin might as well just get to his house, calm down, and then look into this.

That was what he did after an hour of Merlin having to calm down, and when he had finished looking into it, he felt his blood run cold. It was just at his place, but every place had suddenly no human activities. It was as if they had to leave in a rush, making him dread finding out.

Even as he tried to find out, there was nothing. Merlin could not understand it at all. Where was the threat that he was thinking of?

Even after weeks, it had not changed and it was getting to the point that Merlin felt as if he was losing his mind. A reason why he was probably hearing things. It was first, small whispers, but at times it was getting louder.

Weirdly enough, Merlin could never understand what was whispered, even when using his magic. Then at night, he could have sworn that there were shadow apparitions, those that were not good to be touched.

The thought alone caused him to shiver and made him wonder how much more he could take before Merlin lost all of his sanity. A groan went out as he had another sleepless night. It was getting harder to fall asleep when feeling himself being watched, yet that shadow figure was not even moving. They stayed where they were and all he could do was stay frozen in pure terror. A thing that he didn't imagine ever having to feel.

"Merlin....come to us." That was until he heard that eerie whisper that caused his blood to freeze and caused him to dash toward his safe space. A place that his magic made for him to protect him from anyone. It had many fluffy pillows and there were also some soft big plushies that he never would have told anyone about out of embarrassment, but the fluffy touch of those calmed his anxiety down.

He trembled as he hugged the big bunny tightly and squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see them any longer. Merlin hated this and wished to be somewhere else. Even his safe heaven doesn't seem to feel safe any longer. Sobs wracked through him as he tried to figure out how to stop anything more from happening. Merlin was finished and wanted this to be over with. It was then that he fell asleep and his magic went haywire.

.

.

.

Merlin did not know where he was, but from the feel of this, he was sure that he was for certainty not any longer in his safe space with how the floor felt really hard. The only soft feel he had, was the thing that he was clinging onto and his head was on top of his bunny plushie.

"What the- wait Merlin is that you?" An awful familiar male voice made his eyes snap wide open as he looked in the direction he swallowed.

In front of him was Gwaine, and his first thought of this being for sure imagined again. After all, everything else he has done, and causing him to cling onto the bunny plush even more feeling his heartache for his best friend and crush.

"Hey, Merlin how about you take deep breaths for me, mate?" It was asked with such a soft voice that it made him shudder but slowly done as told.

"Now that you're calmer, what happened?" The man's voice was genuinely concerned and he opened his mouth but closed it while shaking his head. The thought alone of this being a sick twisted imagination, made him ignore his best friend, muttering under his breath to get his shit together, and that this was not real.

"Well, Merlin how about you pinch yourself, or do I need to kiss you to wake up?" It was said first with a muse, but then the last part was said with his normal cheeky yet flirty tone. A tone that always made his heart flutter and it was not changing now either.

With one hand he continued clinging onto the bunny and with the other one he pinched his shoulder and winced at the pain that came with him.

He blinked furrowed, as he was still not convinced that this was real. For Merlin, it was challenging to think of anything else, than this being imagined and that Gwaine was not there. That was until he felt the clear kiss on his temples. This made him hopeful that Merlin was not imagining his crush.

"Gwaine?" He softly with a surprised undertone gave him the same concerned look as before.

"There, now that you know that this is real,...you good?" Even the voice was the same and there was even a pause before asking the 'you good' part.

It caused him to shudder as a reaction and shake his head. It was now that he realized that this all was very real that he felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment and shyness, from both holding that plushie in front of his crush and the fact that Gwaine had kissed his temples, a thing that he had never done before.

"Okay, how about I make tea and you go sit on the couch?"

Once more he could just nod while standing up, yet not being capable of letting go of that bunny. The softness grounded him and even though he was an adult he could not care right now. The male had not even said anything about this and for that, he was glad about it.

As he watched Gwaine leave he wanted to call the other back and tell him not to go, but paused, closing his mouth. It was ridiculous thinking like this. Gwaine wouldn't vanish, yet he had not relaxed fully until his best friend came back with a steaming mug of tea for sure.

The mug was put into his hands, and he gave a grateful look towards the other. There was silence for a moment before he started to explain with pauses in between as if he had not talked in a very long time.

After this, there was silence once more, making him anxious that was until the sigh was heard and him being pulled into a hug.

"That explains your reaction. I don't know how you got there, but am sure that it will be fine. We will figure this out, I can promise you this." It was softly yet reassuringly said and he nodded as he melted into the hug, realizing how much he missed physical touch. But now that he was finally meeting Gwaine, he felt more at ease and somehow he felt as if everything would end up okay.

A/N, I hope you enjoyed this one. When you have any suggestions you wish me to write with this pairing, write it in the comments. With this hope you have a fantastic day and hope to see you in my next chapter.