I love the Harry and Merlin on the lam AU because I'd mentally plotted similar story where Kingsman is totally dirty and Harry is planning to leave on his own but he gives Merlin a chance to join him on a lark, and MERLIN DOES. Just like that. Because that's his best friend and the best man he knows and he knows Harry wouldn't go rogue over nothing. That's how Harry feels about Merlin, too. *weeping over their bond* I need an adult and a drink.
(So typing this again cause tumblr is a little shit and not in a good way)
Yasssssssss, I couldn’t have put it in better terms than you did dear!
You know things are even more fucked than what you previously suspected when gentleman spy Harry Hart decides to go rogue instead of trying to work it out through more official channels. And no way is Merlin not going with him, because he values his own sanity thank yo very much and Harry’s brand of crazy (the man’s a trained killer, of course there are some little things not quite right in his head) is the only one he can really stand. Also, Harry won’t make it alive for a minute out there without Merlin to watch out for him. The man can have the survival instincts of a suicidal lemming sometimes.
(And just imagine if this happen pre-movie but still after Lee’s death.
Harry would still have given Eggsy the medal, because it was before he made it back to HQ and saw how insensitive Arthur was to Lee’s death and really that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Harry, he cannot stand working for an organization that pretends to be working for the good of humanity but where their leader is such an elitist asshole.
And then
Merlin still keeps track of what is happening to the boy sporadically like Harry had asked him to do, before they start contemplating making a run for it. Maybe he shouldn’t, there’s not a lot they can offer the boy if it comes to it, but it’s worth it when he can find up an article about Eggsy’s win in a gymnastic competition and leave it on the table where Harry will read it with a proud smile.
Until he can’t seem to find anything through (mostly) legal ways and when he finally manages to dig up something on the boy, it only paints a worrying tableau because no way should a boy and his mum both go to the hospital quite that much. And they cannot stay there pretending they don’t know what is happening in the boy’s life because that’s part of the reason they’ve gone rogue, because shit like this kept on happening without any action being truly taken against it, because it didn’t mattered on the large scale and no. No way is Harry going to let Lee’s child live through abuse, even if the man hadn’t saved his life by sacrificing his own, he would have made anything in his power to help him, because that’s what Merlin and him have been doing all those years, helping people.
Okay, they might act outside the law and have some very lax morals when criminals are concerned, but they don’t ever go overboard because they keep each other grounded.
So they go back to England to save the boy and Michelle doesn’t want anything to do with them, but Merlin manages to make her see that yeah, she’s an adult and can make bad decisions if she wants, but that it’s not only affecting her but Eggsy too. And Michelle, well no way she’s going to follow the man who destroy her world, but she can see he really cares about her boy and she knows Dean can be dangerous and well, they can probably offer her boy more than she ever could, she’s a mess.
So they still are on the lam, but now with a teenager to take care of, and just imagine them working as a family (just that, Merlin and Harry being amazing father figures to Eggsy and Eggsy growing up kicking asses and slowly gathering people around him to actually change things thanks to the way his dads opened up for them)
Or else
They don’t have time to keep tab on the boy because Kingsman is really aggressively trying to take them down.
And Merlin is running through the streets of London trying to escape some agents, and really why the hell did they thought it was a good idea to come into Kingsman’s backyard? Okay they kind of need to make contact with whoever they’re making contact with, but couldn’t the have done it anywhere else?
And Merlin is fucked, he’s utterly and completely fucked and he just hopes Harry won’t be doing something stupid in reaction to his death, but then there’s that young chav that trips one agent that had been right on his heels and he just beckons Merlin to follow him and Merlin truly has nothing to lose at that point, so he follow the young man through side alleys and dark passages he never would have dreamed existed and the agents that where following him probably don’t either because they soon lose them and it seems to take only minutes before they get to where he’s supposed with Harry, because somehow Merlin has found himself telling the boy where he was going. (He blames it on the adrenaline rush, because Merlin knows better than to trust anyone who isn’t Harry.)
And of course Harry is already there, the only time in his life where he fucking is on time the little shit and if he looks relieved when he spots Merlin, it’s soon turn to distrust and Harry isn’t stupid enough to take out his gun and point it at the boy, but Merlin sees the man positioning himself so that he can quickly dispose of the threat if need be.
But before either of them can do a thing, the young man take a good look at Harry and exclaims. “Holy shit! It’s you!” And he’s taking something out from under his collar and they can both clearly see the Kingsman’s logo of the medal. “I guess you owe me two favors now.” He gets that shit-eating grin and really Merlin has enough problems with Harry and they don’t even know anything about the boy yet, he shouldn’t already be thinking of how Eggsy could help them.)