Merlin stood totally paralysed as the trail of blue smoke made it's way towards him. He was unsure whether his inability to move was caused by this unknown strong magic, or by his own crippling fear. It homed in on Merlin and snaked it's way into his trouser leg. He felt as it moved up his body. Cold, cold as the grave. His senses screamed at him to move, to try to flee, to repel it with his own magic, but he could not. As it crawled up his spine he felt all the hairs on the nape of his neck stand on end and as it wrapped around his face and invaded his body through his mouth and nostrils he fought the urge to vomit, feeling utterley violated. Suddenly his breath was stopped in his throat. He no longer had any control of his own body. His mind screamed in panic but he could do nothing to fight it. His last semi-coherent thought was that he would certainly die from this. Utterley helpless and hopeless he fell forward, the sound of his terrified rabbit-fast heart beating loudly in his ears as his sight dimmed and he passed from consiousness.

...

He started awake to the sound of a thumping that kept time with the too-rapid beating of his own heart and to a loud angry shout from Prince Arthur. He sat up in bed and gasped and blinked about him in blind panic not knowing where he was. He was just beginning to make out the shapes and shadows of the Prince's antechamber in the moonlight from the window when Arthur bellowed again, demanding his presence. He jumped up, hurredly scrubbing the unexplained dampness from his eyes and tried to chase the memory of the dream that had put them there. All he could remember for sure as he struggled to pull on his trousers and boots was a suffocating fear and sense of helplessness - any other details evaporated from memory the third time that Arthur bellowed his name, this time in extreme irritation.

'Damn that prat' thought Merlin darkly as he stumbled through into his master's chambers, 'he won't even leave me alone to sleep in peace!'

"Are you deaf?" was the charming welcome that greeted him. The Prince stood before him, sleepy eyed and topless with sleep-muzzed hair. Despite his irritation Merlin couldn't help admiring the view, the moon casting soft shadows across perfect biceps. As he looked on, he became aware of the thumping and banging through the walls which sounded like it was shaking the very foundations of the castle.

"I wish" replied Merlin, wondering if the noise from below the castle caused him to have such a vivid and frightening dream.

"I want you to go down there and tell them to stop" said Arthur, already turning around and stumbling toward his bed.

"But they're working under the King's orders" argued Merlin. He very much did not want to trapse all the way into the bowels of the Castle on this chilly evening on a fool's errand which would no doubt result in him spending time in the stocks again once Uther got wind that he had made the diggers stop their work...no matter that it was at the Crown Prince's behest. Merlin sometimes wondered if the King somehow sensed his magical abilities, because he seemed to intensly dislike Merlin despite having been the one to appoint himm to the Royal Household!

"Yeah, and you're working under mine" retorted Arthur dismisively, already crawling his way beneath blankets and snuggling into bed.

Merlin watched him dissapear into the bedding and suddenly had a rather naughty idea that might just prevent his pointless errand. He kicked off his boots and shucked off his trousers at top speed and crawled in after the Prince before the blankets had settled around him.

"Merlin!" exclaimed the Prince indignantly, spinning around to face the bed-intruder, "what the hell do you think you're doing?"

Merlin straddled his master and pinned him to the bed with the weight of his body and just the tiniest bit of magic. He leaned in and murmered right next to Arthur's ear, "Well Sire, I thought that if you can't sleep then I could perhaps tire you out or at least take your mind off the noise". As he said this he nuzzled the space behind Arthur's ear and rolled his hips suggestively, eliciting a surprised gasp from the Prince.

"What the..." stuttered Arthur, fighting without success to throw Merlin off, "MERLIN! GET OFF ME!"

Merlin didn't budge. Instead he pressed his shoulders and chest into Arthur's, weighing him down even more, and pulled Arthur's arms up above his head. Arthur had no idea how he was suddenly unable to fight off this weedy lanky manservant of his. He figured that it must be due to extreme fatigue - this was the third night that his sleep had been disturbed by the excavations.

"Sire" purred Merlin into the Prince's ear, "Do you really want to contradict the King's orders?" He bit - quite roughly - the tender flesh beneath Arthur's ear causing him to gasp in surprise. "And with all this noise going on, well, you can be as loud as you like..."

"Merlin..." said Arthur in a warning tone, "move off of me now or so help me I'll..."

Merlin suddenly came to his senses and jumped up from the bed, taking the blanket with him to cover himself up until he had put his trousers back on. What the HELL had posessed him to be so shameless? He wasn't sure if he was more alarmed at this totally out-of-character behaviour or the fact that a now blanketless and exceedingly irate Prince was charging at him like a raging bull. He threw the blanket in Arthur's general direction and rapidly ran from the room, grabbing his boots on the way and pulling the door hard behind him, keeping it closed with a little magic just in case Arthur decided to chase him along the corridors and decapitate him for being so cheeky. Once out of harm's reach, Merlin slowed to a walking pace and shook his head in disbelief at his brazeness before descending the staircase to fulfill his Master's command.

Arthur meanwhile, had fought his way through the blanket Merlin had thrown at him, hammered the door in frustration when it would not open and shouted obscenities for a few minutes after Merlin's departure before grumpily gathering up his bedding and crawling back into the haven of his bed. Sleep was not forthcoming however, even when the banging miraculously stopped a few minutes later. He wasn't sure if his sudden insomnia was caused by his extreme irritation at Merlin, or the fact that he'd found the boy's unexpected onslaught worryingly arousing.