Hello, it's me again, for my second story. This is my own version of the first part of the season four finale, when Merlin casts the spell on Arthur to make him a simpleton X3

"Thank you," Arthur said to Merlin, lifting the bowl to his lips.

"A please and a thank you, all at the same time that's amazing," Merlin mumbled.

Arthur put the bowl down and looked at Merlin. "Is it?"

"Hm, well, let's just say manners… aren't your strong point," he replied.

"Really?" Merlin nodded. "What way?"

"Rude, thoughtless, insensitive, and that's when you're in a good mood."

"Sorry to hear that."

Merlin suddenly had an idea. "I don't think you realize how hard I work for you. I know you're the king, but it would be nice if you could do one small thing for yourself, as a, gesture, mark of respect."

"Sorry to have been a disappointment, Merlin." Oh, how Merlin was enjoying this! "I'll try harder in the future."

"Oh, well I look forward to that." Merlin smiled to himself. "On the other hand, why wait?" Merlin handed Arthur his bowl. "That pot will need rinsing out as well."

"Of course," Arthur said.

Merlin couldn't help himself, "And when you're done with that the horses need a rub down, too."

"My pleasure," Arthur said without hesitation. He got up, lifting the pot by its handle.

Merlin grinned. He pointed. "Over there." Arthur went over there, tripping on his way, the pot making a lot of noise. Merlin smirked and lied down. "You alright?" he asked.

"Yeah."

Merlin continued to lie there, listening to the sound of the king washing the bowls and pot, enjoying every moment of it. Soon, the sound of washing stopped, and Arthur came back, setting the pot and bowls down, and going over to the horses.

Merlin was relishing every single second. Arthur would do anything he wanted right now, and wouldn't remember in the morning.

Wouldn't remember in the morning…

Arthur walked back over to Merlin, apparently done with the horses. "Is there anything else, Merlin?"

Merlin smirked at the sentence. "No, there isn't anything else."

Arthur nodded and sat down on the ground.

Merlin hesitated, not sure whether or not to do what he was about to do. He might never tell his king this, and if he did, he would've probably had to practice it.

"Arthur…" Merlin started. His king looked up, a dumb expression on his face that made the warlock smirk. "I have something to tell you." It won't make any difference, but he'll at least be able to have it in his mind that he had told Arthur, even if he had a spell on him that made him dumber than a stale piece of bread.

Merlin took a deep breath, "I have magic."

Arthur stared at him dumbly for a minute. "Okay."

Merlin, who had forgotten momentarily that Arthur had a spell on him, had not been expecting that answer. When he remembered the state his king was in, he sighed. That had not given him any satisfaction at all. He realized that he wanted to tell Arthur — the real Arthur, not this simpleton version of him.

Despite his thoughts, Merlin still wanted some pleasure out of doing this. "My name isn't Merlin."

Arthur stared at him dumbly. "Okay."

Merlin stood up. "My name is THE GREAT AND POWERFUL EMERYS!" his hands burst into flame.

"Okay."

"I have the power to kill you right now!"

"Okay."

Merlin sighed. "Will you please stop repeating that word?"

"Alright."

The flames covering Merlin's hands died and the sorcerer sat back down in defeat. Of course he wouldn't get any reaction out of the simpleton Arthur. But the prat Arthur would most likely kill him.

"I'm a dragonlord, too."

"Alright."

"I've saved your life countless times." Merlin realized what he was doing; he was confessing everything, letting out everything that was bottled up. And it made him feel better.

"Alright."

"You didn't kill the dragon."

"Alright."

"I saved the last dragon egg."

"Alright."

"I…I killed your father."

Arthur hesitated before repeating the word, "…Alright."

"I knew Morgana had magic."

"Alright."

"I am the old man."

"Alright."

"I love you." The words had just tumbled out of his mouth, like the other confessions. The sorcerer gasped, covering his mouth, looking over at Arthur.

The king of Camelot was staring into space. He hadn't replied with his word. The warlock wondered in horror if the spell had worn off quicker than he'd thought. It was supposed to last the entire day, but there was a chance it had.

Merlin waited, staring at the king, waiting for him to say, "Alright," but he didn't. Instead he just stared off into space, saying nothing.

The young warlock was growing impatient. "Well?"

The expression on Arthur's face was indecipherable. It was almost blank, like it had been since he cast that spell on him, but now it wasn't entirely blank. Did that mean… the spell was wearing off?!

"Well, Arthur, it's time to go to sleep, we need to get moving tomorrow," he said. Arthur nodded, lying down next to Merlin, making him shiver despite the warmth of the fire.

Arthur woke up, feeling really warm. He must have been in his bed. But he didn't hear the sound of Merlin's voice. He woke up by himself for once?

The king of Camelot sat up quickly, almost letting out a yelp when he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He suddenly remembered the events of the day before, or at least everything until Gaius said something about something that was going to hurt and his own scream of pain. Everything that came after that was blurry.

He looked around. He was in the forest, and it was dark, so it must have been night. There was a pile of ashes near him, from a fire. Merlin was sleeping next to him. He looked down at himself, seeing commoner's clothes. What the hell had happened while he was…? He didn't even know.

He opened his mouth, ready to yell at his manservant, but when he looked at his face, he could remember something of what happened the night before.

Merlin had said something about "Emerys." There was something about fire, and then he started listing off things. When he got to one thing, he had covered his mouth after he said it, his face turning red. The rest was just blurry, only a few things sticking out to him.

What Arthur couldn't understand is how he could just forget everything — or at least, almost everything. He wasn't unconscious, so what had he been? He decided to find out.

The king took his fist and punched his servant, about as hard as he did to his knights. Merlin yelped and sat up quickly, his hands going up to his face protectively.

"Relax, Merlin, it's just me," he said. "Then again, you shouldn't relax because I'm about to kill you!"

Surprisingly, Merlin's eyes flashed with fear. "W-what? W-why?"

"Well I don't know, maybe it's because I don't know where the hell we are or how the hell we got here!"

Merlin seemed to relax. "Don't worry, you just passed out and the knights and I got you out of the castle."

"If I was unconscious, how do I remember a few things that happened?" Arthur asked, more confused and curious than suspicious.

"W-what? Y-you remember what happened?" That same fear crept into his eyes again.

"Well, not everything… in fact, almost nothing at all. The things I do remember are blurry."

Merlin relaxed a little bit, and said, "What do you remember?"

"Well, I remember we were going somewhere," Merlin nodded, "And we stopped, and you said something about… 'Emerys', I think." When Arthur mentioned that foreign word, his manservant turned white as a sheet. "Then, I think you started listing things. And when you got toward the end of your list…" Arthur tried to remember more, but then he remembered something else. "Wait, what are we doing here? Morgana has taken over Camelot!" The king got up, and he felt another burst of pain in his chest.

"Sire, we can't go back! We just barely saved you from Morgana!" Merlin stood up, grabbing onto his shoulder.

"I can't just abandon my people!" Arthur ripped his shoulder from his manservant's grip.

"Please, sire, Elyan sacrificed himself to Morgana for you. Please don't let that be in vain; he could be dead by now."

Arthur nodded solemnly, sitting back down. Merlin got up and went off, mumbling something about firewood. A few minutes later, he came back, and put the firewood on the ashes. Then he took out two stones and kit them together, making a fire. Then he sat down next to the king.

The two men sat in silence for a while, before Arthur spoke up. "Merlin." His servant looked up. "Why did you react so strangely when I said 'Emerys'?" Merlin remained silent, the fear coming back into his eyes again. "Merlin! There's that fear in your eyes again! Are… are you afraid of me?"

"O-of course not, sire!" Merlin replied.

"What are you afraid of, then?"

"Nothing!"

"It has something to do with 'Emerys' doesn't it?" Merlin remained silent. "Merlin!" he was getting irritated.

Merlin sighed. "E-Emerys is…" he hesitated. "Arthur?"

"What?"

"D-do you promise you won't hate me for what I'm about to say?"

"Merlin…"

"Please! Just promise me!"

Arthur realized how desperate his servant was. "Okay, I promise."

Merlin took a deep breath. "I-I am Emerys."

"I don't know what that is."

"I-it's my druid name."

"Druid name?!" Merlin sighed.

"I-I-I have, uh, magic."

Arthur was shocked. "M-magic?!" The thing that had killed his father?! "H-how long?"

"Since I was born." Arthur reached for his sword, but found it was not at his hip.

"Y-you've lied to me for—for—for four years!" Arthur wasn't angry, just extremely shocked. He looked at Merlin's face, and saw his servant wasn't looking at him. There were tears in his eyes.

"I am so sorry," Merlin said, the tears about to spill over. "I couldn't tell you. If I had…" Arthur understood. If he had had his sword on his hip, there was a chance Merlin wouldn't be speaking.

Then, the king suddenly remembered something. "You were listing things. You're a dragonlord. You saved the last dragon egg. You… What else did you say?" He still wasn't mad; he was curious.

Merlin hesitated, and that fear crept back into his eyes.

"No—that's not my question. Why were you listing these things? You are very hesitant to answer me, but you were listing those things in front of me."

"Oh." Merlin stared at the ground. "Gaius told me to put a spell on you so you would lose your will. We wouldn't have gotten you out of there any other way."

Arthur frowned. "Gaius knows too." It wasn't exactly a question. "I could execute you both." Merlin's eyes got that fear in them again. He was starting to hate that fear. "Don't you dare think I will! I…" he trailed off, and glared at Merlin. "You thought I would execute you. That's why you didn't tell me." Merlin nodded slowly, his eyes looking at something far away.

"I swear, there's no way in hell I would have ever executed you," he said, his voice firm. Merlin's tears finally spilled over.

"That's not true," he said through his tears, his shoulders shaking.

"Yes, it is," Arthur said softly.

"I killed your father!" Merlin exclaimed, turning his head and looking into Arthur's eyes, probably to see his reaction.

Arthur was instantly struck with anger, fueled by grief. He almost punched his servant with all his strength, but the look in Merlin's eyes was… he couldn't even explain it. It was like… as soon as he looked into his eyes, he knew Merlin didn't mean to kill his father. He understood Merlin.

"But you didn't mean to," the king whispered, almost too quiet for he himself to hear. "You were trying to save him, and h-he was dying, anyway." He suddenly remembered something. "Gaius said Morgana and Agravaine… But I didn't…" Arthur let out a cry of anger. "He wasn't—you weren't—trying to kill my father!"

Merlin's tear-filled eyes sparkled, making his blue eyes even prettier than usual. Arthur gritted his teeth. "I hate Agravaine and Morgana!" he could feel tears streak down his face.

"I'm so sorry, Merlin," he said, using his thumb to brush away some of his servant's tears.

"There's nothing to be sorry for," Merlin whispered. "You did nothing. I murdered your father. Nothing can compare to murdering the king."

"Merlin," he said sternly, catching his servant's attention. "I already said, it's not your fault. You should know that."

Fresh tears spilled from Merlin's eyes. "You have no idea how many times I have imagined how you would react, and you either executed or banished me." Arthur choked. He couldn't imagine doing anything to harm his servant.

Arthur put his face closer to Merlin's, searching his eyes, trying to see what he was thinking. The sorcerer's face flushed, his eyes widening. Arthur suddenly realized why.

His lips were on his.

Arthur's eyes widened as well. What the hell was he doing? However, neither of them pulled away.

It was like Guinevere almost completely disappeared from his mind. Not entirely, though, but he finally accepted the fact that he would never be able to marry her.

Merlin pulled away, looking at Arthur, astonished. "Wh…why…how… how did you remember?" The sorcerer suddenly looked shy.

"Remember what?" Arthur asked, confused. Merlin's face reddened.

"Oh." His eyes went down to the ground again. "It was… something I said while you were… under my spell." His eyes slowly went back up to meet with Arthur's again.

Arthur suddenly felt something. It was strange. Something pushing against him, but not physically.

"I love you," he'd heard Merlin's voice, but his mouth hadn't moved. Arthur's eyes widened and his mouth practically dropped to the floor. After seeing Arthur's reaction, Merlin's eyes widened as well.

"You could… you could hear me?" his manservant said in astonishment.

"Y-yeah," he replied, still completely shocked.

"That means… you either have magic or you're close to magic." By that time, Arthur couldn't even hear what Merlin was saying. His mind was reeling. Merlin's in love with me. Merlin's in love with me! How? When did it happen? Is that why he didn't pull away? I just thought he was too shocked to pull away!

"Arthur." Merlin said it in the same tone as the king always said his. Arthur looked up, into Merlin's eyes, and the warlock instantly looked away.

"My god, Merlin, you're so frustrating." Arthur grabbed Merlin's chin roughly and pulled it up, catching his lips with his own.

Merlin's breath hitched, and Arthur pulled away slowly.

"I love you, too," Arthur admitted, smiling a bit when Merlin's entire face brightened, including his eyes. Oh, his pretty blue eyes. He'd never seen prettier ones.

"We'd better get some sleep. We're most likely being chased," Arthur said.

"We are."

The two men lied down next to each other, almost instantly falling asleep. Neither of them thought about keeping watch.

This is the longest thing I have ever written in one chapter. In one day. No, seriously. I started this this morning. It's 2,643 words. It's eight pages on Microsoft Word. To be honest, it was so long, I didn't feel like proofreading it... so it's probably horrible. And Arthur and Merlin are most likely OOC.