Hello fellow fanfiction readers and writers! This is a little plot bunny that's been stuck in my head for almost two weeks now so I decided to write it. This is my very first Merlin fic so you all have gots to tell me what you think. I might continue this story, or I might not. It all depends on what you lot think. Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin. I wish I did, but unfortunately, I do not.

It was a beautiful morning. There was fresh dew on the grass and the birds had begun their songs. Through a field, lavender flowers brushed at the ankles of a lone traveler and gently scenting the bottom tail of their blue cloak. The traveler had nothing but the clothes on their back and a wheeled trunk that they pulled behind them. They gazed beyond the end of the field and over the top of a pine forest at the glistening jewel that was Camelot. The sun was rising just behind it and seemed to shimmer off the peaks of the watch towers, almost as a beacon for all to come.

"Perfect" the traveler thought, "only about a mile away. I can be there by mid day."

Trunk in hand and goal in mind, they went on with their journey to the heart of the kingdom.

"Merlin! Time to get up! Arthur may have given you the day off but I still need your help!"

The young airlock groaned into his pillow. One day. Maybe one day he could get some proper rest. Perhaps he would even sleep in, but for now, he had chores. Merlin reluctantly pulled his tired body out of bed and attempted to make his way to the cupboard that held his clothes. He was trying to work out a crick in his neck when trip over one of the many things strewn across the floor of his room.

"Wonderful way to start the day, huh Merlin?" he asked himself in his head.

As he tried to get up off the floor, a sharp pain pierced through his left ankle and he promptly fell back down to the ground.

"Merlin?" Gaius called through the door. "Merlin are you alright? Have you hurt yourself again?"

The servant only groaned in frustration into the floor.

Merlin sat on the bed in the front workshop and winced as Gaius wrapped a bandage tightly around his swollen ankle.

"It's not too bad a sprain, you should be fine by tomorrow evening the latest, but you must keep off of it. If you absolutely must, you can use the crutches in the corner to get around but I'd much prefer it if you'd just sit down and keep you ankle elevated. I'll send a messenger to tell Arthur that you will not be at work today or tomorrow."

The young man sighed, knowing how much work he would have piled up when he returned to work. Merlin sighed and allowed Gaius finished with the bandaging.

Merlin had spent most of the morning reading his book of spells in the chair by the unlit fireplace with his leg propped up another chair and a pillow. Before Gaius had left for the lower town to tend to the baker's sick son, he insisted that Merlin stay off his ankle. Merlin hadn't felt like arguing with the physician so he did as he was told.

Around noon time, Merlin had his nose buried deep in his spell book. He was in the middle of learning a spell that would make a swarm of butterflies appear out of thin air when he heard the familiar sound of the old wooden door opening.

"Hello Gaius," he began, but did not finish. Standing in the doorway was a perplexed looking young woman. A rather pretty young woman if he may add. She was around his height with a petite build. Her straight dark brown hair was partially tied back by two small braids on either side of her head that went from the front to be tied together in the back. There was enough of her hair left loose that Merlin could tell it fell to a length somewhere between her shoulder blades, and the thin braids kept it out of her face so that you could see her fair skin and delicate features. In his opinion, her beauty rivaled that of the Lady Morgana herself. She looked as though she could be a princess, but her pale pink and white peasant dress told Merlin otherwise. He took in every detail. Even the way the end of her blue cloak piled on the floor as she stood still and how she held her brown leather trunk on its wheels by its handle. He noticed everything.

Finally, he spoke. "You're not Gaius."

"Neither are you" she replied, equally confused.

It was then that the real Gaius arrived. He was not confused like Merlin and the girl were, but more shocked than anything.

"Katelyn, I wasn't expecting you until Friday." Gaius said in a tone that was almost disbelieving.

"Today is Friday" she replied.

"Oh" the physician said quietly, realizing that the dates had gotten away from him. "Merlin, this is girl I told you about a few weeks ago. The one who has become my second ward."

"Second ward? Gaius, you never told me anything about this." the young man exclaimed.

"Yes I did, and you would have remembered it had you been listening and paying attention." Replied Gaius.

Now that he thought about it, he did remember Gaius mentioning something a few weeks prior.

"Merlin, I need to tell you something before I forget." Said Gaius.

"Hmm?" Merlin responded.

The pair was eating dinner at the time, Merlin too busy thinking about the work he had to get done that night for Arthur to focus on what Gaius was saying. He only caught bits and pieces of it. Something about a girl, a ward, an apprentice and two weeks.

"I just wanted to inform you beforehand. She the same age as you as well. I think you too will get along quite nicely." Gaius finished.

"Mhhm" Merlin replied, still not truly connected with the world around him.

"It's good to see you two have met." Said Gaius.

"Actually, we haven't gotten the chance yet." The girl replied.

Gaius was picking up several bottles from the potion shelf and putting them in his bag. "Well I must run back to the lower town, Mrs. Margret, the blacksmith's wife has fallen ill as well. I shouldn't be more than an hour. I'll let you two get acquainted."

And as quickly as he arrived, he was gone again, leaving the two teenagers to introduce themselves.

"Alright then," she began, "I guess I'll go first. My name is Katelyn, but please, call me Kate. And you are?"

"Merlin"

"Well Merlin, it's very nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine." Merlin said, subconsciously rubbing his neck again, attempting to work out the crick. This did not go unnoticed by Katelyn.

"Merlin? Is your neck bothering you?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, a bit. It's nothing though, just a crick is all." He answered.

"Would you like me to help you?" She asked "I was educated in a special form of healing for the neck and back so I should be able to fix you right up."

"That's alright, thank you though, but it's nothing, really." Merlin said stretching his neck out, deciding that he could take care of it himself. Any hopes of that had been shattered by one wrong move that sent a jolt of pain through his neck. "On second thought, could you?" He asked a slight wince still present on his face.

Katelyn smiled. "Of course"

She walked around to the back of his chair and from behind, placed her hands on the right side of his neck and left side of his head. Slowly, she began rolling his neck around to loosen the muscles and asked where he felt the most strain.

"Right there" he told her, referring to a spot on the lower left part on the back of his neck. Katelyn placed two delicate fingers on it and could already feel how tense it was.

"Alright" she said. "You're going to hear a something of a cracking sound. Don't worry, it's perfectly safe and I promise it doesn't hurt. Are you ready?"

He nodded the best he could to tell her that he was indeed ready, he hoped.

"Alright then, I'm going to countdown from three."

"Three"

Now Merlin was having second thoughts about having a stranger mess with his neck.

"Two"

What if something went wrong?

"One"

"Wait!" Merlin shouted, but it was too late.

Crack!

With one swift move, it was done.

Merlin just sat there with his eyes wide and mouth agape. At first, he didn't dare move his neck, but once he got over the initial shock and began cautiously moving it around, he found that the crick was completely gone as well as any other pain he was feeling in his neck.

Katelyn was completely unphased by the loud noise and had started gently massaging the area to relax the muscles as well as look for anymore trouble spots. Thankfully, she didn't find any in his neck but lower down proved to be another issue.

"My God Merlin!" She exclaimed, "Your shoulders! They're riddled with knots! Would you like me to do those as well? Don't worry there won't be any cracking here."

Merlin hesitated, "Only if you don't mind, honestly, I don't want to bother you."

"Nonsense, it's no bother at all." She told him as he she began the massage. Only two minutes in, Merlin was practically melting under her gentle, trained hands and would occasionally groan in relief. She knew exactly where to put pressure and just how much to use. It felt so amazing, it almost magical. No one had ever done anything like that for him before. There was the one time when he had just started working for Arthur. Gaius had attempted to help him, but he was a bit rough and it didn't feel nearly as good as Katelyn's.

An hour past much faster than either of them had anticipated and Gaius walked in right as Merlin was in the middle of a rather loud moan of relief. So it wasn't much of a surprise when the physician simply stood in the doorway, staring at the pair in disbelief. The pair themselves stared right back at him, as though they were children caught doing something wrong.

It was Merlin who decided to break the extremely awkward silence. "Uh,…hello, Gaius. You must be wondering what exactly is going on. Well, I can explain. There was a crick you see. I had a crick in my neck, and Katelyn here, was just…helping me."

"Oh,…alright" said Gaius, not completely believing it, but granted, he did just walk in on his ward, who was like a son to him, groaning while being….rubbed…by his other ward, who he hoped, in time, would become like a daughter to him. "Just don't rush into anything."

"Gaius!" the shouted in unison.

"We have no intentions to fornicate with each other, Gaius! We've only just met! It was merely a kind gesture, he was in pain so I helped him. What kind of people do you think we are?!" Katelyn exclaimed.

Gaius smiled at his ward's embarrassment. "I didn't expect you two to do anything of the sort. I was simply referring to perhaps a romantic relationship. 'Love at first sight' and such."

"Gaius, it was just a kind gesture, I can assure you."

Hours were spent talking and getting to know each other until the sky turned dark. Katelyn's father, Bartholomew, had been a very wealthy merchant in one of the outlying towns and left her and her mother a fortune when he had died soon after his daughter's birth. Her mother, Victoria, was kind but extremely paranoid about her daughter's safety. Going as far as having her trained in several fields of weaponry including the sword, mace, daggers, and bow and arrow. She was very close with one of the estate's servants, Thompson, who she considered a surrogate father, and his son, Gavin. She would often go hunting with the two and enjoyed the sport. Her mother made plans for her to be sent to live with her old, close friend in Camelot, Gaius, when she turned sixteen to become his apprentice.

She told them that once a month, a servant would be sent to Camelot with money for her to be used on things she needed, which ended up being more than Gaius and Merlin brought home in a month. Despite Gaius's arguments, she insisted on putting all of the money with Gaius's and Merlin's to be used by all of them so that they could live better.

Once it was time to retire to bed, Gaius shared a bit of news he had forgotten to before.

"I'll have to get another bed tomorrow, but Katelyn, you will be staying in Merlin's room."

The girl shook her head. "Gaius, I can't take Merlin's room. I'll just make up a bed in the corner."

"No no, I think you misunderstand. Merlin will still be in the room, you two will be sharing it. I know it's a bit strange, but I'm afraid we don't have much space around here."

"Oh, no, it's perfect. I just wanted to make sure to I wasn't displacing anyone. I don't want to intrude. Thank you for letting me stay here." Said Katelyn.

Gaius hugged her. "Don't even think of it. It has been so long since I've seen you. You were only a few months old I believe. Look how you've grown. You definitely got you looks from your mother."

"Thank you Gaius, I just hope I can make her proud."

Merlin hobbled around on the crutches that Gaius had given him and led Katelyn to their now shared room.

"Sorry, it's a bit of a mess." Merlin apologized on their way in.

"It's fine, I was never one for tidiness either. It's never as cozy." Katelyn said.

"Well, you can take the bed." Merlin told her.

"Absolutely not. It's your bed, I couldn't." She replied

Merlin sighed. "We have to figure this out somehow."

And that's how Gaius woke up the next morning, shaking his head when he found both of his wards tangled in their blankets, sleeping on the floor on opposite sides of the empty bed.

What did you think? I hope you all enjoyed it. As I said before, this is my first Merlin fic so I gots to know. How'd I do? All feedback is more than welcome and all reviews are magical! See you all next update but for now, this is RA88, signing off with a smile. :-)