❝ No, ❞ comes in a quiet voice. His mouth curves into a thoughtful smile and for a while, he simply allows himself to sit by her side in silence. A strange sort of feeling bubbles right below the surface of his skin, but in a manner of habit, Merlin chooses to ignore it. There’s a number of things he refuses to consider, all put away into neat little compartments he leaves closed and shoved to the back of his mind. Some semblance of perfection comes from practice, after all, and if immortality has given him anything, it is the abundance of time to find himself almost a master of all the things he used to condemn. Still, he finds himself watching the people walk past them without knowing who they are — or what they are, if one chooses to be literal. All focused on their lives without knowing how brittle they are, how quickly they’ll pass, how more people just like them will come in their place; or perhaps knowing it too well. He can no longer remember what it was like to walk like them, yet finds himself envying them all the same.
Shoulders jerk in a little shrug. ❝ I’m a little envious, if I have to be honest. ❞ There it is. A little admission that brings a small, but sad smile on his face. ❝ They keep making the same mistakes, sure, but they also keep fighting, and they don’t wanna give up. They want the same things from life they’ve always wanted, and will do anything to get them, good or bad, because they know eventually all things must pass. There’s a comfort in knowing there’s an end to all of this. ❞ For that comfort, he longs more than anything.