Disclaimer: I own nothing, all rights belong to their respective owners.
This is based on episode one of series 5, so don't read if you haven't seen it. I just had to write something!
To start with, Annis thought that she had been wrong. Yet as the Camelot party drew ever closer, she knew that there could be no denying what her own eyes were telling her. The man at King Arthur's side was the same man that it had been all those years ago. The servant who was prepared to follow his master and even risk war in order to make sure that the man was safe. Annis was no fool, she knew that the boy had not just been eavesdropping when her men had caught him outside the tent on the battlefield. The look in his eye had said so much more – he had been genuinely concerned about his master.
Considering how quick Arthur had been to place another favour at her mercy and ask for the boy's life to be spared, she knew without having to look that the same concern would have been burning in the monarch's expression. Of course, having been raised a king, Arthur would have been able to mask the look on his face a lot more successfully than his servant, but he hadn't been prepared to let anything happen to his fool, despite being prepared to die himself if it meant protecting his men.
If she was honest, Annis hadn't truly spared the servant another thought after that day. She had never found out his name, and what was just another servant? Arthur had been the one she was interested in, and knew that he would make a great King. Possibly better than she would ever make a Queen – they might have both been quick to act at their first meeting, but it had been the young man who had risked his life in order to avoid war. She would have taken what wasn't hers – just like her husband had done. Arthur had given her a chance to change the way things were done with her people, and Annis had spent the last few years building on her alliance with Camelot.
That was why she hadn't even hesitated when Arthur had requested safe passage. Her kingdom was being plagued by the Saxons, and if this young warrior intended to do something about his treacherous half-sister, then who was she to stand in the way of that? But now, watching them approach, Annis felt her eyes widening in surprise.
She was now more convinced than ever it was that same youth at Arthur's side, even if she knew that she couldn't quite justify calling him a boy anymore. There was a haunted look to his face, as if he had seen something terrible that he would rather forget. But as Arthur dismounted and chucked his servant the reigns, she knew their relationship had not changed. The boy clearly made some kind of comeback that made Arthur pause and raise his eyebrows. The servant grinned cheekily as his king rolled his eyes and turned to greet Annis. Whatever they had between them, it was more than a simple master/servant relationship. Maybe things were different if a King could be friends with his servant?
Deciding to put it to the test, that was the very reason why she had requested the boy –Merlin, as she had now discovered – to entertain them. She wanted to see what Arthur would do. Annis wasn't sure whether she had expected the King to protest and ask her to spare the boy again, or whether he was going to go along with it. Despite their conversation being muttered, she heard every word and found that she was hard pushed not to smile. That was definitely a friendship present – one that was plagued with troubles and the whole world telling them it cannot be. But this was the King who had married a servant, why should he not befriend another? Considering how strong Camelot was right now, Annis wondered whether she should start taking a leaf out of Arthur's book. After all, if they were not allies, she might have found herself concerned with how well Camelot had flourished under the young King's reign.
Despite Arthur's informal tone, his servant clearly knew that he would have no way of getting himself out of this. Yet Annis found that she was watching Arthur's face more than she was watching his fool. Astonishment and surprise clearly showed that he hadn't ever called upon the boy to perform, and that he was genuinely impressed by what was in front of him. The Queen knew Arthur well enough to know that his servant would never hear a well done cross the monarch's lips, but the expression on his face said it all. They had been together for years, through thick and thin if the way they spoke to each other was anything to go by. But Annis could remember the look on Merlin's face when he had been forced to his knees in the tent, and she could see the look on Arthur's face now. They knew each other so well – and yet both still managed to surprise the other. The servant hadn't been aware of what his master was up to that night when he had followed, and Arthur had no idea that Merlin could juggle.
They still had barriers between them, despite everything.
That was why Annis felt the need to say something. She had watched the way Arthur was with both his servant and his men. It was clear the knights respected him and were more than prepared to die for their king if they were asked to. In turn, Arthur treated them as individual men rather than just soldiers there to do his bidding. But there was something different between king and servant. That bond of loyalty seemed to go even further. It was as if they weren't just prepared to die for one another, they were prepared to risk absolutely everything whilst at the same time making sure the other knew precisely what they were thinking about it. Merlin wasn't Arthur's fool – he was his friend. Perhaps a far truer friend than she herself had ever experienced. Whilst Arthur could see this, Annis wasn't sure he completely understood what his servant would be prepared to give up for him.
So when she told the young King to hold onto his allies as well as he could for they were hard to come back, she was not talking about her treaty with Camelot. She was telling him to hold onto his friends, to keep them close and make sure that nothing tore them away from him. A King without friends was a dangerous and unstable king indeed, Uther had proven that. Arthur needed to hold onto Merlin, for a friendship like that would not come about again, of that Annis was sure.
Watching the party ride out barely a day after they had arrived, their eyes darting everywhere and their bodies tensed, Annis smiled. Merlin had gone to ride next to his king again, regardless of their difference in stations. She only hoped that Arthur heeded her words and realised that it wasn't just his wife that he needed to treasure. His servant didn't mind speaking his mind about what he thought, and that kind of counsel was nothing something that could be obtained by money or an order. Arthur would need Merlin before this was over, Annis was certain of it.
She just hoped that the king realised that himself before it was too late.