WARNING - Spoilers

AN1 - I enjoyed the film, it had some good stuff in it. It also had too many attempts at symmetry with the first one for my taste, which made it unnecessarily cheesy in parts and it now requires at least one major fix-it. I've only watched it once so I am going to fluff lines here. If your memory is better than mine, you'll just have to forgive me.

I am not going to try to save the whole table in this fic, maybe later, but Goddamnit Merlin is making it out alive, even if there are untold horrors in his future... Here is how... (Yep, it's Malahad, but it is really mild.)

Harry has always been surprised by Eggsy's almost instinctive trust in him. Deeply flattered by the undisguised hero-worship too. His boy cannot stay angry at him simply because he wants Harry to be right. Even in the face of what he clearly considers to be glaring mistakes of judgement brought on by mental instability, he is as open with his thoughts, feeling and anxieties as he has always been. It is as if they have moved seamlessly from Eggsy's first successful saving of the world straight to this new crisis without the inconvenient loss of time where Harry was believed to be either dead, or more positively, a lepidopterist.

"I had a girlfriend." His boy says as Harry fixes them drinks.

Harry has accepted that he will always consider Eggsy to be his boy. He feels a dreadful guilt about abandoning him to his fate after the death of his father, and then in a rage after the failed dog test. And yet again, albeit involuntarily, in front of that blasted church.

Harry listens carefully, accepting the proof of Eggsy's continued trust.

And he considers.

Merlin will have known about the girlfriend. No matter how careful the boy thinks he has been Merlin will have known because Merlin knows everything. It is his job. No intervention has been made, regardless of how against Kingsman regulations such a relationship is, so it is someone Merlin approves of, and who he is willing to tolerate having an unprecedented level of knowledge about their organization.

Someone judged absolutely suited to, and worthy of, Eggsy by the fussiest judge of character Harry has ever met.

Which is surely all any father figure should demand in relation to their protege's paramour? Harry wishes that had been the case with his own father.

And finally, slowly, with a martini in hand for moral support, Harry unbends himself inside enough to repay some of the openness Eggsy has always unquestioningly shown him, and that the boy is frankly owed as his due for adopting Harry as some kind of catastrophically badly suited, ill-equipped and inexperienced, but very obviously deeply loved, role model.

And since Harry is unbending in the direction of one relationship, and because he has come to realize many things since getting his memory back, when he speaks his words are meant for more than one set of ears.

Merlin knows everything because Merlin is always listening. Harry has stopped consciously thinking about it, but he is still aware of the fact. Merlin listens with an intensity that Harry has often admired when he has joined him in his control room in the past, watching him guiding other agents late at night when Harry has nothing better to do and did not wish to be alone in his empty house full of beautiful dead things.

Merlin listens to everything. Even the things that are said in the gaps between words.

"I was lonely." He admits and it is a relief to get it out there where it can finally be acknowledged. "It is better to have something to live for." He says, talking about a future that suddenly has the potential to be less... Repetitive. "Let's save your girl." He says, because even though he has no memory of the time that has passed as this version of himself, he misses Eggsy, and the closeness that should have developed, in retrospect. He loves Eggsy. He does not want him to live the same life he has lived. He wants him to experience only the good parts of it. He wants Eggsy's happiness.

And he has finally realized he deserves his own too.

His father is dead. The old Arthur is dead. Who the hell is there to stop him now? Merlin is apparently prepared to look the other way for the right partner, so why not test the theory?

When Merlin appears in his suit, it is Eggsy who compliments him. Harry has not unbent enough to manage to get any suitable words past his uncooperative tongue. It has glued itself to the roof of his mouth and refuses to move.

Merlin has not worn a suit in Harry's presence for nearly as long as Eggsy has been alive. He remembers Kingsman's tailor Andrew regularly raising a highly skeptical eyebrow at the sartorial decisions of the then agent Gareth and thinks there is much room for improvement in the choice of cut and cloth even now, but, although Eggsy seems to be sharing a joke with the man, Harry is getting a different message.

Merlin has made an effort with his appearance. And it is not just for the safety provided by the bulletproof fabric because Merlin is also clean shaven and wearing a subtle scent that Harry recognizes as his own favorite cologne. Merlin has understood his message. The only question is whether he understands it was meant specifically for him, or whether he is merely indicating his own interest.

Harry feels his heart-rate increase. He wonders vaguely if Merlin is monitoring it. Wonders if he will interpret it correctly. They are approaching a potentially deadly situation, true. But that has never caused a variation in his heartbeat before and Merlin has years of experience to draw on to know that. He catches his colleague's eye and wets his lips deliberately, communicating he is consciously aware of an attraction and allowing the physical evidence to back him up.

Eggsy is right, Merlin does look good. Harry is however clearly biased because he always thinks Merlin looks good. And Harry knew Merlin the unfortunate, but fortunately brief, comb-over phase, so that is really saying a lot.

Merlin gives him a professional looking nod of acknowledgement, that means something entirely different, and they move on. There are other, more important, matters to deal with first before there is time to seek a "connection".

They have a saving the world situation on their hands.

Merlin is a sneaky, sodding bastard. Of course Harry knows that. And Merlin knows how much Harry and Eggsy mean to each other. Sneaky, sodding, all-knowing bastard.

The only consolation Harry has is that he is sure Merlin has a plan and does not intend to actually die. He just doesn't want to waste time arguing with Eggsy or have the less experienced agent distracted.

If he though he was going to die, he'd surely have been singing Loch Lomond.

Harry can listen too. Merlin is telling him he may well be injured by whatever he plans to do, but he will be able to make it home. With assistance. Eventually.

So Harry puts on the familiar mental armor of Galahad and allows Merlin to provide a distraction, so that he and Eggsy can take care of the business of saving the world.

Later, as he is catching his breath with Sir Elton John after battling a robo-dog in a bowling alley, he chooses to be optimistic. He asks for two tickets and convinces himself Merlin is still listening.