Moqueur

So, to get myself back into the swing of fanfic, here is my first one shot. Its Hurt!Merlin and Worried!Arthur, cause who doesn't love that? Fun fact, the name of the story is the French verb for mocking.

Merlin just knew that it was going to be a bad day when an already awake Arthur greeted him. Merlin had accidently slept in, which is something that never happens. Most of the time, he is late for work because he is unconscious somewhere or off on some adventure to save the kingdom. You know, the usual. However, after all of the drama with the king dying and the new dragon, he was completely worn out.

As he ran out of his room, quickly throwing on his usual clothes, he prayed that Arthur was still asleep. Normally, the prat would take his sweet time to wake up in the morning, and Merlin would have to endure getting everything from pillows to candles (thankfully unlit) to really anything in the king's bed being thrown at him to get his royal, lazy ass out of bed.

So, when he entered Arthur's room and saw that Arthur was already awake, dressed, and fed, he knew he was in for it.

"Ah, there you are Merlin, thank you so much for taking your precious time this morning," the king said sarcastically. "I hope you enjoyed your beauty sleep, but, if you don't mind, you better get your ass moving. The horses need to be saddled and ready to go in an hour. Also, polish my armor while you're at it, and make sure my room is spotless before we leave. I don't liking coming back to a mess."

"Where are we going?" Merlin asked.

"There have been reports of bandits in the woods, and we are going to patrol with the knights and hopefully scare them away." Arthur was looking at a map on his desk, trying to find the places in the surrounding forests where the bandits could be hiding.

"So, when you say 'we are going to go with the knights, you mean…" Merlin said, looking for clarification. Arthur just gave him an angry look, clearly peeved about the warlock's lack of enthusiasm to the idea of wasting his time away in a forest with a bunch of bandits.

"Right, I'll get on that." Arthur was clearly not in the mood to be messed with. Merlin figured that he should just do as the king told him, and hopefully he would be better later. Oh how wrong he was.

After having to leave an hour behind schedule because Merlin was clearly incapable of doing his job, Arthur and his servant were heading to the forest with the knights of Camelot.

The only reason that Arthur hadn't fired the idiot yet was because of his loyalty. Merlin was a true friend to Arthur, someone he could always trust to tell him the truth and give him an un-biased opinion. As a manservant, thought, Merlin was completely incompetent. There are times when he is late, or doesn't even bother showing up to work at all, and he doesn't even bother to come up with good excuses. Arthur knew that his manservant loved the tavern, but he had a kingdom to run.

As the group rode off into the forest in silence, Arthur could feel his blood starting to boil with frustration just thinking about Merlin's ineptitude. It never occurred to him that maybe he was being a bit unfair as he came up with ways to tease the servant once they had stopped for a break.

After a whole day of wandering the woods, Merlin was hot and tired. He didn't want to show it though, afraid that it might just make his master even more pissed off. They hadn't found any bandits in the damn forest. Hell, they didn't find much alive in the forest. They had simply rode around all day, with no break, and to no avail.

Merlin glanced over at Arthur briefly to see if the king still had that look of annoyance on his stupid face. After confirming that the king was still very much annoyed, Merlin tried to brace himself for the night ahead of him. It was already starting to get dark, and because they had been entirely unsuccessful in the journey thus far, they would most definitely be spending the night in the woods. Which meant that, in prat's foul mood, Merlin would have to do absolutely every chore the king could think of. Just perfect.

As if he was reading Merlin's mind, the king stopped his horse and turned to the party. "Halt. Let's set up camp here for the night before it get's too dark." The knights got off of their horses and started to unpack, while Arthur stomped over to his servant. "If there isn't a meal for these men in an hour, I will put you in the stocks."

Merlin, not wanted to piss of his so-called friend more, held his tongue and went to collect firewood. It was going to be a long night.

Gwaine never understood how Arthur could be such an asshole to Merlin sometimes. Merlin was a kind and loyal friend, possibly the best friend Arthur would ever have. Yet Arthur still got all riled up about the smallest mistakes the young servant would make. Sometimes, Gwaine just wanted to slap the royal princess over the head and tell him to get over himself.

The knight watched sympathetically as the young, black haired man wandered off to do whatever chore the king had ordered him to do. He could tell that Arthur was in a bad mood about the late departure this morning. Hell, he could practically see the smoke coming out of his ears, but Merlin didn't deserve this. Merlin was not a fighter, probably shouldn't even be on this mission of theirs, let alone be going out into bandit-infested woods alone in the dark. Gwaine could just tell that something was going to go wrong.

He was relieved when Merlin emerged from the woods, caring a pile of wood to start a fire. He placed the wood at the center of the camp and prepared to start a fire when Arthur decided that he needed to be more of a dick to Merlin.

"Do you really think that this is enough wood to sustain a fire for the night?" Merlin looked at his master, knowing that there was no right way to answer that question.

"Go and get some more, and be quick about it." Gwaine just rolled his eyes, knowing that Arthur was going a bit too far. Maybe his royal highness was having a bad day, but that didn't give him the right to treat Merlin like dirt.

Merlin sighed in exasperation. Oh you want some more firewood. Well, why don't you get your lazy ass up and get some more while I make the meal that you ORDERED me to make. He knew that Arthur and him were destined to be good friends and protect Camelot and blah blah blah, but couldn't he just skip to the part where he doesn't have to be the king's servant.

Lost in his thought, he didn't realize how dark it had become. He also didn't realize how far from the camp he had wandered. It was only when he heard a twig snap near him that he became alert to his surroundings. He looked around, but it was too dark to see anything.

He thought about lighting a fire with his magic, but thought otherwise. The camp was not far away, and he would risk exposing his secret. So, he stood still, scanning his surrounding for any movement.

After a few minutes had passed, the manservant figured that it might have just been an animal of some sort. He figured it was best to go back to the camp though. He could barely see three feet in front of him, none the less any more firewood on the ground.

Carefully, he turned around, trying not to trip over anything, and made his way back. He walked for a few minutes, looking for a fire that hopefully the knights had started so that he could find his way back. After about ten minutes of walking though, he saw nothing.

"Oh well done Merlin, you've gone and got yourself lost in the middle of the woods in the dark. Arthur will be furious," the young man said to himself. He turned around, looking for anything that could tell him which way to go. In the distance, he saw a flicker of light, and was immediately relieved.

He walked a few steps towards the light when he heard a crack under his feet. Suddenly, he felt himself falling down, though he couldn't see where exactly he was falling to. He yelled, hoping that someone would hear him. Then, he all of the air in his lungs get knocked out of him as he landed on the earth. He heard a sickening crack, and his arm and his head erupted in pain, making him yell once again.

He tried to process what happened, but he had a hard time focusing. His head started to swim, and he couldn't focus on anything. Before he could try to fight it off, he was lost in oblivion.

Gwaine was starting to get worried. He had lit a fire at the camp sight, hoping that Merlin had not gotten lost. He looked at Arthur, who clearly couldn't seem to process that Merlin might actually be in trouble.

That was when he heard it, a yell somewhere in the distance. He couldn't be sure it was Merlin, but he sure as hell wasn't going to take any chances. He looked up at the other knights and at Arthur.

"Did you all hear that?" He asked. The knights, startled out of their daydreams, looked at Gwaine in confusion.

"Hear what?" Elyan asked as he studied Gwaine's worried expression.

"I think I heard a yell. I'm going to go check on Merlin and make sure he is okay." This suggestion seemed to get Arthur's attention.

"What do you mean?" The king asked obliviously.

"Merlin has been gone for a while, it's pitch black out there, and I just heard a yell. I think he is in trouble, Arthur, and I'm going to look for him." Gwaine tried to sound as concerned as he possibly could, hoping that he could get Arthur to see his childishness. When Arthur's seemingly permanent look of annoyance chance to a look of worry, Gwaine could tell that he had succeeded.

"I'll come with you." Arthur grabbed his sword, and they immediately went to the forest to look for their lost friend.

Arthur couldn't believe how selfish he had been. There was plenty of firewood to get them though the night. He just wanted to prove a point to Merlin, and instead had put his friend in danger.

As he walked forward carefully with Gwaine, he could hear men whispering up ahead of him, and he could see two torches. He grabbed the knight's arm, trying to tell him that they needed to be as stealth as possible. Once they got to a point where they could tell what the men were saying, they crouched down on the ground and listened.

"Well, this one sure ain't a knight, I'll tell you that much. With these rags that he is wearing, I'll bet he's just a servant."

"At least we now have something we can use as leverage against the knights and the king. Apparently, King Arthur is a noble man. I doubt he would let us kill the boy, even if he is just a servant." Arthur almost jumped at them, enraged by this last bit of information. They were threatening Merlin, and that was all he needed to know to run them through. Gwaine stopped him, though, knowing that they did not know how many men there were.

"Alright, let's tie him up and get him back to the others. I'm sure they will be happy with our catch." Arthur heard a moan of pain, and knew that he had to act soon. These men were going to move Merlin, which means Arthur could lose sight of him. They would have to wait until morning before getting a chance to find his manservant, and that just wasn't good enough.

He tapped Gwaine on the shoulder, letting him know to get ready. They both unsheathed their swords and leapt forward. The two men were completely caught of guard, dropping their torches in panic. They turned to run, but Gwaine caught them before they could get very far. Arthur picked up one of the torches and scanned the area, looking for his friend.

It didn't take too long before he found a limp form lying next to a big hole in the forest floor. He was immediately at Merlin's side, turning the warlock carefully onto his back. Arthur was shocked to see how pale the young man was, and was almost sick when he saw one of Merlin's arms, which was bent in an unnatural way and very swollen.

"Merlin? Merlin, wake up!" Arthur gently shook the pale figure, but received no response. Guilt hit him like a giant wave. This was his fault. If he had not let his temper get to him, Merlin wouldn't be in this situation. From the corner of his eye, he saw Gwaine tying up the two men who had taken his friend captive to a tree.

"Sire, these men are apart of the gang of bandits we have been tracking, and they have so graciously agreed to lead us to the main camp." Arthur looked at Gwaine, who was obviously pleased with how intimidated these two bandits were of him. His stance was broken, though, when he saw Merlin.

"Sire, we have to get him back to Gaius." With that, Gwaine ran off to tell the others about the change of events.

Merlin felt like he was floating in an odd place of tranquility. He couldn't seem to think about anything, though he tried. All he could do was remain in this peace that his mind had put him in to protect him from the pain of the real world.

When he finally started to come to, he was lying on something soft. His vision was blurry, making it hard to see where he was. His head pounded as he tried to remember how he might have gotten to wherever he was.

"Merlin?" He heard a voice say his name. Blinking a few times, his vision cleared, and he could see a blonde man leaning over him. Arthur.

"How do you feel?" His master asked, concern filling his voice. Merlin wanted to ask why Arthur was worried, where he was, and what had happened to him, but he could only manage to get out one word before he went back into peaceful bliss.

"Arthur."

It was about a day and a half before Gaius's young ward finally was able to remain conscious long enough to explain what he remembered. Given the concussion that the young man had, it was not surprising that he remembered very little of the fall he took in the woods.

According to some of the knights, who tracked the bandits back to their base camp while Arthur and Gwaine took Merlin to the physician, there were deep holes everywhere in the forest, designed to trap people so the bandits could rob them of their possessions or ransom them off if they were worth anything.

Since Merlin had returned to Gaius's care, Arthur had barely left his side. Gaius could tell that the king felt responsible for Merlin. Though it may not have made much sense to anyone else in the kingdom, Arthur always seemed to have an instinct to protect his servant. Gaius understood it though. Merlin and Arthur had spent four years together, and in that time had become loyal friends.

When Arthur finally sat down with his friend to talk with him for the first time since the incident, Gaius couldn't help but overhear their conversation.

"You're finally awake! How are you feeling?" The king said as he greeted his friend.

"I'm alright. Little sore, but I'll manage."

"Well, you did take a nasty fall." Arthur went silent and looked down at his hands, trying to find the right way to apologize. "Merlin, I want to apologize for what happened. I shouldn't have gotten so angry at you for being late."

"It's alright, Arthur," Merlin said, trying to release the king of his guilt.

"No, I was being selfish. I should have just let it be, but instead I treated you like dirt."

"Arthur," Merlin cut off his master. "I get it. You were being a prat, but there is no way you could have known what would have happened. Let's just put it behind us." The young warlock smiled at his master, hoping that they could just forget about the whole incident.

"Alright Merlin, but promise me that you will be more careful next time. I know you have no problem telling me when I'm being childish, and you could have said something."

"Oh right, like THAT would have gone over well. I can hear the insults now. 'Oh don't be such a girl Merlin. Afraid of the dark, Merlin? Scared of all of the wild squirrels in the forest, Merlin?" Even Merlin had to admit that the last one wasn't that good, but he got the point across.

"Well, you would be the one to fall into a giant hole in the ground. Clumsy fool."

The two friends continued bantering for over an hour before Gaius finally sent to king away to give his ward time to rest. Gaius was relieved that the two were back to where they were. In fact, they were probably closer because of this incident. As the young man slept, he had a small smile on his face, and Gaius couldn't help but be proud of the young warlock and the king. Like any other good friendship, they would fight and hate each other at times.

But through it all, they would always have each other. Gaius looked forward to what destiny held for Arthur and Merlin.

So, the last line was kind of cheesy, but I was never good at ending stories. I will be publishing the first chapter of my multi-fic soon, so look for that. As always, reviews are love.

See you soon!

tora2010