note: because I had this idea and nobody else was writing it, so I've been toying with it for ages
It was the please that caught his attention. One simple word spoken calmly by this... this boy. All of the other prisoners had shown the common decency to be terrified of the Dread Pirate Roberts, and flung themselves at his feet begging for mercy. Naturally, Arthur had killed them all as the Dread Pirate Roberts leaves no survivors. It was a great reputation they had worked hard to cultivate. Besides, all that pleading and sniveling for their lives was so very irritating. Yet, here was this boy, probably a stowaway from the look of him, looking Arthur directly in the eye with an expression that made Arthur feel like a simpleton. Arthur did not approve.
"Please, I want to live," the boy said, apparently taking Arthur's silence as an invitation to speak. It had been no such thing, but the words seemed to make something shimmer in the air around them.
"Alright," Arthur replied. "What's so important that you have to live for?" he asked. Not that he cared.
"Destiny," came the perplexing response.
"Destiny," Arthur repeated flatly, hoping for some further elaboration. When none seemed to be forthcoming, Arthur tried one more time. "Would you care to add to that rather petty excuse? You must realize that only an idiot would think that some sort of mysterious destiny would be enough to frighten the Dread Pirate Roberts himself into letting you continue breathing on his ship?"
"No," replied the boy, with a smile that Arthur found instantly infuriating. "I think the word, 'destiny' will make the Dread Pirate Arthur very curious, and even a complete prat would allow a probable stowaway from a captured ship to live just a little longer if only to discover how he knows that there is no pirate aboard called 'Roberts.'"
Arthur stared for a moment before lowering his sword. "Right," he said, his voice hoarse. He cleared his throat. "Right," he said more strongly this time. He considered the odd man kneeling before him. "You have a name, master destiny?"
"Merlin."
Something in the air shifted. "Merlin," Arthur repeated, tasting the name. It felt familiar, though he knew he had never heard it before.
"Alright then, Merlin," Arthur began, stretching the name out as he said it just to irritate the boy, "I've never had a valet. You can fill that position while you are with us, which probably won't be long as I will most likely kill you in the morning." Arthur enjoyed a moment's satisfaction at the surprise that flickered across Merlin's face. Arthur did have lots of annoying little chores with which he could torture the boy, and the crew might enjoy a bit of a break. This could prove to be quite entertaining.