Chapter 1

The afternoon sky was gray, humid, and threatened chance of a storm. This was Gaius' favorite time to do some reading. The town was quiet, for no one would play outside in this weather, the air sweet with the smell of rain, and no one ever seemed to bother him.

Gaius sighed as he settled down in his comfiest chair by the open window that was carrying in a fresh breeze and began reading.

This book was about the Great Purge, a tragic moment in Camelot's history, but important none the less. Gaius knew he would always remember his role in the Great Purge and how he saw all those innocent people die, so he no clue why he continued to read books about it.

Suddenly the door slammed open urgently and Gaius snapped his head up in both fear and surprise.

"I'm sorry did I scare you?"

Gaius gave a smile mixed with friendliness and relief when he realized who it was and placed his book on the table next to him.

"Hunith. What brings you to Camelot?"

Hunith smiled at her old friend and took something down from her back helping it stand up the floor.

"Came for some supplies, but I didn't want to get caught up in the storm that's sure to come…..So I thought why not come and visit you?" Her smile dropped and then she looked at the boy clutching her leg and suddenly smiled again remembering Gaius has never met her son. "This is Merlin, my son." She tugged at the boy's hand that was tightly gripped around hers to bring him to light. "I don't think you've had the pleasure of meeting him"

Gaius smiled a warm smile "No. No I don't think I have."

He squatted down, not without some loud popping from his knees however, and held out a large gentle hand to the boy hiding behind his mother.

"Hi Merlin, I'm Gaius. Don't worry I'm an old friend of your mother's"

Merlin looked up at his mother and she nodded in approval. Merlin slowly reached out his hand holding Gaius' and Gaius began to gently shake his hand with the same warm smile.

"Nice to meet you Merlin"

Merlin finally returned the smile and shook back "Nice to meet you Gaius!"

Gaius was shocked to hear the sudden expressiveness in the boy's voice, but he smiled anyways looking up at Hunith.

"He sure is quick to trust someone"

Hunith laughed "I know. It could get him into a lot of trouble someday"

XXX

Gaius decided to let Hunith and little Merlin stay at his place until the storm ended.

"It's a good thing I made plenty of stew" he chuckled as he scooped three bowls full of homemade vegetable stew and set them on the table for his guests.

"It's not much, but it'll suffice for now" he pointed at a door that up until now Merlin had assumed was a broom closet "you two can share the guest room"

"Thank you" Hunith spoke gratefully watching Merlin search curiously around the room at the jars full of colorful potions.

There was a knock at the door and three pairs of eyes shot to the old wood door.

"Who is it?" asked Gaius, confused as to why anybody would be here with the storm coming.

A little voice yelled from behind the door "Arthur! Papa said I was being annoying and to leave him alone and now I'm bored!"

Merlin sat expressionless starring at the door, but in his mind he was excited to hear what sounded like another boy possibly his age. A possible friend.

Gaius opened the door to reveal a cute but square faced boy with a mop of blonde hair smiling at Gaius.

"Arthur…I don't know how you expect me to entertain you."

"Come on Gaius you always have the coolest things to play with and those cool…"

He strayed off as he peeked behind Gaius "Who is she?" he asked gesturing towards the young woman sitting at Gaius' dining table.

"This is Hunith" Hunith nodded her head and Arthur bowed his.

"I'm Arthur. Hi!" he smiled a wide grin causing Hunith to giggle at his childish cuteness making Arthur's cheeks to go red and avert his gaze elsewhere. He decided to settle his sights upon the small boy that sat behind the woman. Was he always there? He thought, but decided to shrug off in hopes of befriending this new boy.

He pointed to the pale raven haired boy "Who is that?"

"Arthur, it's not polite to point" Gaius replied.

Arthur almost automatically put his finger down, he didn't need to get in more trouble with his father. "But who is he?" He raised an excited eyebrow "can he play with me?"

Merlin tried his hardest to suppress a giggle. He really wanted to play with this funny boy, but he knew his mother had some sort of rule against strangers and to wary of them.

"This is Merlin, my son." Hunith finally answered after seeing Merlin try not to giggle out of the corner of her eye. She knew he wanted to play with Arthur, but she didn't like Merlin playing with new kids she didn't know much about, let alone just met. On top of that there was always the risk of Merlin's little secret getting out, and Camelot was the worst place for that to happen.

"Mom? Mom?" A tug on her sleeve summoned her back to reality "can I play with him mom? Pleeeeaaaase?" Merlin flashed her the sweet innocent smile that he slowly learned could bend his mother to let him do whatever he wanted. He didn't like to use this on his mother often, her poor heart didn't deserve it, but in this particular case he was bored and a quick solution to solve it.

Hunith rolled her eyes and smiled, gesturing him to go off. "Be back before dusk"

Before she could even finish the sentence the two boys ran out of Gauis' lab already laughing at their future adventures.

A/N: This is my first fanfiction so I hope you enjoy! Please rate and comment!

Disclaimer: Don't own Merlin. Sorry.