Author's note.

The story starts off during episode 5x05 "The Disir" after the group returns home from the patrol where the sorcerer Osgar was killed.

"Gwen?" Arthur whispered tentatively as he stroked his fingers along his wife's back as they lay in bed together.

"Yes, Arthur?"

"Have you noticed anything odd about Merlin lately?"

Gwen turned around to face him. "Not really. Why do you ask?"

Arthur sighed and moved from lying on his side to flat on his back with fingers entwined over his stomach. "It's probably nothing." He sighed again. "It's just-"Arthur broke off, not knowing how to finish the sentence. He felt her shift so he turned his face towards her and met her eyes. "Perhaps it's nothing more than there being a rough week, but he's suddenly so... serious."

"You should talk to him." Gwen pushed herself up on her elbows and softly pressed her lips against Arthur's.

"I will." The king replied and then watched his queen fall asleep on his chest before he drifted away.

The next morning Arthur tried to hang onto the blissful innocence of sleep as long as he possibly could. It wasn't until the birdsong outside his window became too loud to ignore that he surrendered and sat up. He noticed Gwen had already left, so he was alone in chamber to sit and ponder.

Arthur tried to think up a timeline, so he could find out why his manservant was acting so strange. He could not remember Merlin laughing, or even smiling yesterday, not even when the knights tricked Mordred into riding while facing his horse's tail. Actually, Arthur found it hard to remember Merlin smiling at all recently. As he thought more about it, he realized it had been at least three whole days since he had seen Merlin smile.

"Knock knock!" The sudden sound startled Arthur out of his thoughts.

"Enter!" he called out. As the word left his mouth he remembered that he was still in bed in his sleeping wear. Arthur hastily sat up and made sure the blanket covered the lower part of his body. He tried to look as nonchalant as he could as the door opened. To his relief and surprise it was Merlin who opened the door. Surprise because, since when did Merlin bother knocking?

"Good morning, sire." Merlin greeted and placed the royal breakfast on the table. He didn't smile.

"Are you feeling alright, Merlin?" Arthur finally brought himself to ask. Merlin hadn't said anything during breakfast other than answering Arthur's casual questions as shortly as he could, repeatedly adding a 'sire' or 'my lord' at the end of every answer. It was driving Arthur mad, and although he was trying his best to be patient he couldn't keep all of the irritation out of his voice.

"Quite, my lord." Merlin replied as Arthur was walking behind him on their way to the physician's courters.

There it was again! Perhaps it was time to try another strategy? If asking didn't help he would have to try something else. "More and more, I find your face resembles the back end of a cat."

The only thing this resulted in was making Merlin walk even faster away from him. "See! You don't even laugh at my jokes anymore. Seriously-" Arthur broke off because finally Merlin turned to face him. "I haven't even seen you smile in these last three days."

"I am not sure there is a great deal to smile about."

The honesty in Merlin's voice was so annoyingly heart-breaking that Arthur didn't know what to say. He just wanted to shake him until Merlin's teeth rattled and force him to speak up about what was troubling him. However, he didn't. Instead he followed after Merlin in silence. If Merlin wouldn't tell him he would just have to figure it out himself.

Author's notes.

Firstly, thank you for reading my first posted fanfiction. I am going to post the next chapter as soon as I can.

Secondly, I would like to thank my beta, writingfish, for helping me out. I hope you like the title. ;)