AU: Set in a school...

Old fic, made a little better (hopefully!)

Disclaimer: Don't own Merlin

Merlin, aged 16, was not used to boarding schools. They weren't his kind of thing, not really anyway, and he doubted it would be his thing now- not that he was going to do much about it anyway. His 'Uncle' Gaius had already sent provision for him to go, and now it would be time to go from his sleepy village.

"Merlin this is an amazing opportunity." His mother had said. "Camelot school for boys is the best in the country."

His view of the place did not change when he saw the first sights of the building. There was no denying that visually the building was stunning, built with white brick it was a picture of beauty on a cliff face, but the air surrounding it had an feeling of no freedom. Constricting in its very nature, there was no loud noise coming from the building. It was the most beautiful building he had ever seen, and even that could not redeem it.

"I don't like it here." Merlin said quietly to himself.

There was no one there to listen though. His mother hadn't come, too far she said, so instead of having someone there to comfort him he stayed in the presence of a grumpy looking taxi driver in his late forties. He didn't seem to like the place much either.

"Are you new around here?" The taxi driver asked.

"Yes." Merlin answered.

Was it that obvious? If a random taxi driver thought that what would the boys say?

"You can tell." The taxi driver continued. "Not many of the boys stay so quiet in the back."

"What do you mean?" Merlin asked.

"There all on those new mobile things, never seen the point myself." The taxi driver said back. "Talking about them fancy balls they go to, and all their money oh and of course those fencing and rugby tournaments."

"Fencing?" Merlin said.

It was rather a stupid thing he thought. The taxi driver nodded and rolled his eyes. He was gruff, the sort of folk Merlin was used to in his village, and Merlin Hung on every word he said. He seemed quite perceptive, even if his breath was a little potent.

"I know right old fashioned sport, way past its prime but I guess it suits the headmaster then." The taxi driver said. As they pulled up to the front gate and a grey haired man walked forward the taxi driver turned and whispered to him. "Speak of the devil."

Mr Pendragon was far less imposing in person that he had looked in pictures. He possessed the look of a man who had once had many things in life, but like the lines on his life they had changed with age. He wore a black suit, with a tie of red and yellow, which was tailored to fit his body perfectly. Merlin got out slowly of the car, and was handed his two suitcases.

"You may go now." Mr Pendragon said.

"'Course sir." The taxi driver said, and within moments he drove away.

Mr Pendragon looked Merlin up and down without much satisfaction. Gaius appeared from behind him, his face with a small smile, though of course if you did not know him you would not catch it. He quirked his eyebrow as he saw the lack of luggage.

"Are these all of your things?" Mr Pendragon asked.

"Yes." Merlin replied back before quickly adding. "Sir."

"The tuxedo?" Mr Pendragon asked.

Testing him, his mother had warned him about Mr Pendragon. Mad as a box of frogs Will had told him, but then again Will said a lot of things. Gaius had warned him to watch his manners, but apart from that no glaring warning really.

"Yes sir." Merlin replied.

"The books?"

"Yes sir." Merlin said.

"The sporting equipment?"

Ah...there had to be something that he forgot. He could see Gaius in the background shaking his head slowly in disapproval. Merlin looked back at Mr Pendragon and looked down to avoid the gaze.

"No." Merlin replied back.

"I'm sorry what was that?" Mr Pendragon said loudly.

He already disliked the head teacher, even after trying to go in with an 'open mind' as his mother had told him to. There were the blurred figures of boys behind the window who were openly staring at him, whilst their faces were undistinguishable Merlin could just make out that in front of them all was a blonde haired boy.

"No sir." Merlin said back.

They were laughing behind the window, they were actually laughing, before disappearing away from sight. Merlin, red eared and faced, looked away from the head teacher. Mr Pendragon gave him a nod and said.

"Go to Miss Matthews for room allocation and your time table and the front desk." Mr Pendragon said, before walking over and saying. "Gaius."

"Sir." Gaius said back.

- :) -

Merlin mumbled swear words under his breath and grabbed his things. 'Uncle' Gaius walked along side him, his long coat sweeping across the courtyard. The boys had long since gone, though as they entered through the double doors he could hear their voices from a room down the corridor. As they turned a corner, and the sounds of voices faded, 'Uncle' Gaius began to speak.

"You really do know how to create quite a first impression Merlin." He said.

"It's not my fault, he's out to get me." Merlin said back.

The two walked down another few corridors. There were pictures on each side, some photographic whilst others painted and drawn. Some were more imposing than others, with group photographs of previous grave faced boys from throughout the years, whilst others were more calming. A picture of a great dragon, painted on a large gold framed canvas, stood by the trophy cabinet.

As Merlin turned away from the trophy cabinet he turned around and his suitcase knocked over a vase. As it was about to hit the floor his eyes turned amber and he bent down to catch it. Others would have looked shock, in his experience at least, but Gaius reacted with his usual eyebrow twitch. Merlin put the vase back and turned away.

"What?" Merlin said.

"Your gifts have grown since we last saw each other." Gaius said.

'Gifts', that was an unusual way to say it. Will had always called it his 'thing' (or 'thang' during a thankfully short gangster phase of his) and his mother had always just called it a 'little talent'. Gaius had always been the one who had understood it the most, but even when he said it the emphasis on the word made even Merlin feel a little uncomfortable.

"But I can tell you now that they will not be appreciated here." Gaius continued.

"Why not? They can help people." Merlin said.

"Mr Pendragon has banned all forms of trickery from the school." Gaius said. He looked cautiously on both sides before saying. "On pain of expulsion."

It didn't sound like such a pain to Merlin, getting out of the God forsaken school and back to his brilliant village. Well not brilliant really, it was a bit quiet and the people there were not the most outstanding members of the community, but at least there he had friends. He couldn't imagine befriending anyone who looked like the boys in the picture on the wall.

- :) -

Room 13 was to be where he would be spending the term. He would be in the same dormitory as all of the other 7th years and a few 8th years as well. 'A Good Bunch' Miss Matthews had told him eagerly as she pushed the forms to him over the desk, 'No Mean Ones' she had assured him.

Merlin looked down at his map and tried to navigate his way back through the corridors. As soon as they had reached the main desk Gaius had disappeared, talking about something to do with a guy with 'measles' or who was 'measly'. Merlin never really had been one for listening too carefully.

As he got closer into the dormitories he noticed a lot of boys, stern looking ones of his age and up, patrolling the corridor in red sashes with 'PREFECT' written in large white letters. Not one of them was smiling, instead more imposing with an air of grandeur about them. They laughed amongst themselves but as soon as anyone else came to sight their faces turned to stone. One of them, a younger looking one with longer dirty blonde hair, was something of an exception.

"Are you ok?" He said to Merlin.

"I'm looking for my room." Merlin said back.

"Well I'm afraid you're going the wrong way, the 4th years sleep down that way." He said.

Was he joking? From the grin on his face he might be, but that may have just been his natural expression. The other two didn't seem to be taking much notice, instead more interested in discussing a rugby game, or it could have been a cricket game, Merlin wasn't really that sure.

"I'm actually a 7th year." Merlin said.

"Really?" The dirty blonde haired prefect said. He looked him up and down and smiled. "So you're the one replacing Gwaine then."

"Who's Gwaine?" Merlin asked.

"Ah that's not important." The prefect said back. "Can I see your forms?"

Merlin handed them over, half reluctantly and watched as the prefect scanned his forms. He didn't really show expression much, only the slightest twitches of the corners of his mouth was enough to guess that he was somewhat happy.

"You're a very lucky guy." The prefect said. "You're sharing a room with the head boy."

"Is that good?" Merlin said.

"A lot of guys would give their right arm for it, I would know...I'm one of them. Gives a good advantage with the head if you know what I mean?" The prefect said. He extended his arm for a handshake and said confidently. "I'm Leon."

"Merlin." Merlin replied, shaking his hand eagerly.

Down the corridor and to the right, that's what Leon had been saying. Was he joking though? It was hard to tell with people here. They weren't like the people back home, expressing emotion wasn't something they were good at. Or maybe they were, they just knew how to control it. He guessed he was getting close though. Room 15 was just to the side.

- :) -

As he approached his room he heard noises from inside. Merlin paused for a moment at the door knob, hesitating for one second, before entering. There was a boy, his age at least, holding up a folder as a shield whilst three others, lead by a tall blonde haired boy, chucked pens at him.

"Come on Ben you got to move a bit." The blonde haired boy said. "You're supposed to be a moving target after all."

"No I'm supposed to be tutoring you." Artie said, shielding himself from the flying pens, as the others laughed.

Merlin stepped in and shut the door behind him. This momentarily distracted everyone who turned to face him. Merlin placed down his two suitcases heavily on the floor and walked closer into the situation. Artie looked gratefully at Merlin whilst the others sneered at his arrival.

"I think you've had your fun mate." Merlin said clearly. "Now if you could leave that'd be great."

"I'm not your mate and this is my room." The blonde haired boy said, advancing quickly on him. "And what business of yours is it anyway?"

"This is my room too." Merlin said back.

So this was the head boy? The head bully given responsibility. Merlin wasn't going to like it here, he could tell. Artie took his chance, and using Merlin as a scape goat he quickly went out of the way. The head boy walked up to him and raised one eyebrow.

"I could take you apart with one blow." He said.

"I could take you apart with less than that." Merlin said back.

The head boy chuckled and walked away from him. Merlin let out a sigh of relief and made his way to what he presumed to be his bed. As he did so he noticed that the head boy was pulling out a box and retrieved two fencing swords. Merlin got up and looked at them.

"What's wrong?" The head boy asked. "All words, no action?"

The head boy held out the fencing sword to him and Merlin took it reluctantly. The head boy looked him in the eyes and held out his sword as they did in the movies. Merlin tried not to laugh, and mimic the smirk on the head boy's face.

"You've got to be joking." Merlin said.

"I never joke about fencing." The head boy said.

The head boy advanced towards him and lunged towards him. Merlin ducked and the fencing sword pierced through one of the cushions, leaking feathers as it went. Merlin looked open eyed at the pillow whilst the others laughed.

"And if I refuse?" He said.

"You won't." The head boy replied.

Merlin blocked one of his attacks with minimal ease. He staggered up and looked at the boy. The others laughed heartily at the scene. This was all a joke...a joke?

"Who do you think you are? The head teacher?" Merlin said.

"Not quite." The head boy said back. "But I am his son Arthur."

This was bad.

The blade moments away from his chest, Merlin looked up at Arthur. He wasn't going to kill him that would be illegal, at least he thought that. But there would be some humiliation- that was undeniable. The sound of the door handle cracked ever so slightly and all of the boys in the room turned to face it. Mr Pendragon, the head teacher, walked in, his eyes livid and unblinking.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Mr Pendragon said.

"Father..." Arthur said quickly, dropping his sword.

"My office." Mr Pendragon shouted. "Both of you."

- :) -

Merlin and Arthur stood in the pouring rain with litter pickers in their hands. The waterproof coats provide by Mr Pendragon were bright red with the school emblem bang in the middle. This wasn't community service, not in the least bit, this was ritual humiliation. Several teenagers went past them sniggering as they went. Merlin attempted to cover his face whilst Arthur just gave them snide looks.

"Does your dad normally do this?" Merlin asked.

"Shut up Merlin." He replied.

Despite the rain the town was well populated by teenagers. Presumably another local college was having its lunch break, or maybe they had broken up for the day. They dropped litter liberally, which either Merlin or Arthur picked up reluctantly. Merlin's ears glowed with red tips as a group of giggling girls passed.

"What have we here then?" The girl in front, with dark flowing hair said. "A Camelot boy picking up other people's rubbish? How the mighty fall."

"Morgana." Arthur said, nodding his head in acknowledgement. "Shouldn't you be at school?"

"I could ask you the same question." She said.

Morgana turned away from Arthur, flashing a smile as she went, and turned a full circle to face Merlin. She smiled at him, and put one finely manicure hand on his shoulder, whilst her other one held up a black lace umbrella, shielding them from the rain.

"Don't listen to him." She said. "He's always been too big for his own boots."

She then gave him a little kiss on his cheek before walking away. A girl in the back, with curly dark hair, gave him a shy smile before following them quickly. Merlin stood with a dopey smile on his face staring after them. Arthur hit him in the back of the legs and Merlin turned to face him.

"What are you looking at?" Arthur asked.

"Nothing." He replied.

"Good, she's a Pendragon you know." Arthur said.

Was there anyone in this town that wasn't a Pendragon, or anyone who wasn't at least a massive fan of them? Merlin rolled his eyes and the two boys stood in an uncomfortable silence for another hour. Their community service had to be over soon, this was ridiculous, there were even more teenagers now.

- :) -

Two teenage boys by the corner of the street were quickly advancing on a young boy with raven hair. They were mugging him, mugging him in daylight. Merlin tried to shuffle away, call the police or something but the precious head boy had other ideas.

"Excuse me Merlin." Arthur said.

"No..." Merlin said, reaching out to pull him back.

Arthur walked over to them with his usual pompous stride. Merlin did want to help him, but his innate desire to have all of his limbs was pulling him back. The two thugs were just grabbing the boy's phone as Arthur tapped on the tallest shoulder.

"Unhand him." Arthur said.

"Oh don't kill me..."The tall one said, laughing openly. "What are you going to do about it Camelot boy?"

Arthur extended his litter picker and held it to the tall boy's chest. The tall boy dropped the boy and his phone. The raven haired boy scrambled, got his phone, and hid quickly around the corner without so much as a thank you. The two boys laughed at Arthur, not even bothering to cover up their humour.

"Oh I'm so scared!" The short one said.

"You should be." Arthur said.

Arthur twirled around his litter picker and hit the big one on the face, knocking him to the ground. The other one began to lunge for him. As they though several more came to join him from left, right and centre. Merlin looked in horror as they began to get surrounded.

Merlin moved a discarded crate with his magic, tripping over two of the boys, which luckily went unnoticed. Arthur was surrounded there must have been at least six of them, or five and one giant. He was doing well, for now, but he was starting to get hit a lot more.

A boy on roller blades skated over, his face unshaven and long brown hair skimming over his shoulders. On his left hand shoulder hung a leather satchel with several badges of motorcycle gangs stitched crudely onto it. He pushed down the bag and skated over to Merlin. He pointed to his litter picker.

"Hand me that." The brown haired guy said.

"Who are you?" Merlin asked, handing it over gladly.

"Oh wouldn't you like to know." The brown haired guy replied.

The brown haired guy twirled around and made his way to the fight. He tapped one of the larger ones on the shoulder and gave him a dashing smile. The fight stopped for a moment as they all laughed at him. Arthur in the middle, was surrounded, and could not see anything.

"This is your back up?" The tall one laughed.

"Well that's not very nice is it?" The brown haired guy said.

He smacked the tall guy around the face with a litter picker, knocking him flat over. He skated around them, litter picker low, tripping them over as he went. A large one came towards him, running in for a full rugby tackle. Gwaine jumped on top of him, holding on for a piggy back, as he span around.

"Oh I forgot the fun of hanging around with you princess." He said loudly as he knocked the person to the ground.

Arthur ducked to avoid the tall guy's punch and rolled him over. People were starting to crowd around now, Morgana taking a front row seat. They ducked and weaved the punches, taking them out as a good pair. Arthur picked up Gwaine and span him around, the wheels of his blades hitting all remaining standing guys to the ground. Those who could ran away, and those couldn't simply staggered. The crowd cheered.

- :) -

"Go on then!" The brown haired guy shouted. "Run..."

"What the hell are you doing here Gwaine?" Arthur asked.

Gwaine smiled back at him, taking a bow. He chucked the litter picker back to Merlin and hooked up his own satchel. Taking out a large apple, he took a bite and grinned. Arthur rolled his eyes and began to walk away from the crowd.

"Not even a thank you?" Gwaine said, skating after him. "Well that's typical of the brilliant and bold head girl."

"I told you not to call me that." Arthur said, turning back to him.

"Sorry Princess." Gwaine said back.

Gwaine skated around Arthur in mini circles, like a vulture to a dead carcass. Merlin followed them closely, not liking the prospect of being alone if the group of boys ever came back. Arthur sniffed twice, and upon smelling gin, turned to face Gwaine.

"Are you drunk?" Arthur asked.

"Depends what time is it?" Gwaine replied tossing the apple up and down, before chucking it into the bin.

"It's four in the afternoon." Arthur said.

"Then yes I most certainly am." Gwaine said, retrieving a bottle of gin, and holding it up. "Do you want a bit?"

Arthur rolled his eyes and continued to walk on. Gwaine laughed and took a large gulp himself, he held it out to Merlin with a large smile on his face. Merlin too shook his head, though he looked far less disapprovingly at the boy.

"Bit early for me." Merlin replied.

"All for me then." Gwaine said. "So what are you doing with Princess Arthur...sorry I don't know your name?"

"Merlin." Merlin said.

"Gwaine, pleased to meet you." Gwaine said to him, shaking his head. Three police officers got out of their car on the other side of the town centre, just in sight, with their sirens sounding out. Gwaine smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Sorry would love to stay and chat, but that's my cue to leave."

He turned around and skated furiously in the other direction. The three police officers noticed him, and ran quickly towards him. Arthur sighed and turned away from the scene but Merlin watched on in humour laughing loudly at Gwaine skating in between two elderly women in their two mobility scooters.

Maybe he would like this place after all.

The young boy with raven hair looked at him from around the corner. His eyes piercing into Merlin's calm. There was something strange about the boy- something that was not quite right about him.

"You've made a big mistake Emrys." A voice said, a voice of a little boy, but his lips unmoving. "You will curse the day you rescued me."

Well that was weird...

Thank you for reading :)

LISM :)