[Unexpected Surprises]
In all honestly, it wasn't Merlin's fault. Or at least that's what Merlin claimed.
It wasn't like he had asked to be jumped by the five burly bandits that graced the outer corners of Camelot. If he hadn't been surprised by them and if Arthur hadn't been right there, Merlin would have used his magic to blast the bandits to kingdom come and would been on his merry way back to Camelot.
However, Arthur had decided to choose that moment to show back up at their campsite, just as the bandits had stormed it.
Typical.
"Tell me, Merlin, what were you exactly doing when the bandits stormed our camp? Hmm? Did you call out, did you try to fight?" Merlin could feel Arthur's glare on his back.
"Did you do any of those things, Merlin?" Now he felt a finger poke him in the back. Merlin narrowed his gaze.
"No, Merlin. You know what you did? You curled up into a ball on the forest floor and you let them take you. Like a complete girl."
"Well, what did you do?" Merlin retorted, no real heat in his voice.
"I couldn't very well fight them when they had my very incompetent servant in hand." Merlin felt a smile creep onto his face.
When Merlin had allowed himself to be taken by the men, Arthur didn't try to fight. He wasn't going to do anything that might place Merlin in danger. Merlin knew that Arthur would never admit to that, but they both knew it was the truth.
"How are we going to get out of here?" Merlin asked, turning his mind to more important matters. He threw a sly look around at the small bandit camp that they had been bundled into.
The two of them sat in the middle of it all, their hands bound with thick ropes. They sat in beside each other, with Arthur behind Merlin.
"I don't know." Arthur replied. Merlin could feel him looking around. "Just give me a second to think."
Merlin waited a whole two seconds before he spoke again, "Do you have any idea now?"
There was an annoyed sigh from Arthur. "Merlin."
"Yes, sire?"
"Shut up."
"Yes, sire."
Merlin waited again, this time he kept his mouth shut. His blue eyes scoured the small camp area, hoping to find some sort of way out of this mess.
There were only five bandits, which Merlin knew he could easily take out with a flick of his wrist. However, there was the small problem of Arthur. If he saw Merlin using magic it would be the end for him.
What to do? What to do?
He was jolted out of his thoughts, when a hand prodded him in the back. "Ouch." Merlin complained. "Really, Arthur, there are better ways to get my attention. Like, I dunno, maybe just saying my name."
"I know that." Arthur's voice came, "but that's not half as fun as hitting you."
"Oh, really?" Merlin muttered. "I'd like to see how much fun you'd have if I was the one hitting you."
"What was that, Merlin?"
"Nothing, sire."
"Hmm." Arthur said suspiciously.
"What did you want?" Merlin asked, bringing the conversation back to the matter at hand.
Arthur wasn't able to tell Merlin his brilliant plan for escape because the bandits had come back. One of them strode over to Merlin and roughly jerked him up. He grasped Merlin's bound hands and dragged him away from Arthur.
Merlin dimly heard the shouts of outrage from Arthur and he assumed that they were treating Arthur in the same manner.
They came to a stop and Merlin was roughly shoved into a kneeling position in front of a fearsome man, who Merlin presumed to be the leader of the bandits.
Arthur suddenly plopped down next to him, a dark glare on his face.
"Alright there, m'lord?" Merlin asked out of the side of his mouth. "Did they bruise you with their rough handling?"
"Shut up, Merlin."
"Yes, sire."
The leader spoke, his voice rough and low, "I'm Kalem and you are my prisoners."
Merlin nodded slowly. "I see." He said and received a sharp jab in the back of his neck for speaking.
Kalem glared at Merlin, who pretended to quake in spot. The bandit then turned his gaze on Arthur.
"And who are you?" He asked.
"Your prisoners." Merlin spoke up, obviously forgetting that he wasn't supposed to be talking.
This time his head was roughly shoved forward.
"That's not helping, Merlin." Arthur said in an annoyed voice and then turned his gaze on Kalem. "I'm called…Arth-Archie and this is my dimwit friend, Merlin."
Merlin shot him a glare.
"Those are funny names." Kalem noted.
Merlin piped up, "Yes, we know." Arthur glared at him again, but Merlin chose to ignore his friend.
"What are you going to do with us?" Merlin asked.
Kalem crossed his arms over his chest. "I haven't decided yet, boy."
Merlin waited for a beat. "Don't you have any ideas?"
"Merlin."
"I am considering selling you boys to the next slaver that comes through." Kalem said thoughtfully, looking over Merlin and Arthur.
"There aren't any slavers around here!" Arthur protested, forgetting himself. "I would know if there were. My father-." He was cut off by Merlin's elbow into his ribs.
"Yeah?" Kalem urged sudden interest in his voice. He peered closer at Arthur and rubbed his chin. "You look familiar." He finally said.
"Really?" Merlin said, before Arthur could say anything else that would give them away. "He gets that all the time. People always think that they know him. Just one of those faces, I guess."
Kalem stood up, looming over them. Merlin gulped, hoping that Kalem had bought the lie.
"No." Kalem said slowly, still staring at Arthur, who was trying his best to look common. "No..I know who you are…I just need to think for a moment."
"Don't think too hard." Merlin said his mouth running away from him. "We wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."
Kalem's eyes bulged and his face turned red. He reached forward and buried his hand into Merlin's red kerchief. He jerked Merlin forward, his face inches from the Warlock's.
"I've had enough of you, boy! I doubt even the slaver would want you and your insolent mouth!"
Merlin cringed away from the spittle that flew from Kalem's mouth and bit his tongue to stop himself from saying something more insulting to the man.
Kalem pulled Merlin to his feet and began to drag him away from Arthur and the others.
"Wait!" Arthur called out, his voice betraying his panic. "What are you going to do with him?"
"Kill him." Kalem answered calmly, continuing to walk out of the camp; he didn't want the blood to get everywhere when he killed Merlin.
"No!" Arthur yelled, struggling to get to his feet. "Don't!"
"Arth—Archie, shut up." Merlin called to his friend, trying to warn Arthur not to do something stupid like—
"—I'm the Prince of Camelot! I am Prince Arthur!"
…Like that.
Kalem stopped and slowly turned around to face Arthur. There was a triumphant grin on his face.
"I knew it!" He crowed and began to drag Merlin back to the others. "I knew there was something about your face."
Merlin was dumped back on the ground next to Arthur.
"We'll get a pretty penny for you, my boy." Kalem said, rubbing his hands together as he looked at Arthur.
"Wha' about the other one?" One of Kalem's men said, nodding at Merlin.
"You can't do anything to him." Arthur said hurriedly. "He's my personal servant and I shall be very vexed if you hurt him in anyway."
Merlin looked up at his friend from the ground, frowning. "Vexed?" He said, outraged.
Everyone ignored him.
"No harm will come to the little squealer." Kalem promised.
"I don't squeal!" Merlin protested, jerking around to glare at the bandit.
No one paid him any attention.
Kalem and the others were watching Arthur, their complete attention on the Prince. It was then that Merlin knew he could act.
His eyes flared gold and the ropes that bound his hands snapped. Merlin scuttled away from Arthur and pressed himself against one of the surrounding trees.
He peered at the men, who still hadn't noticed his absence and with a nod one of the five men suddenly fell backward into both Kalem and the remaining men.
They fell in a tangle of limbs and curses.
"Arthur!" Merlin called running over to his friend. Arthur hid his surprise well, when he saw that Merlin was free.
"Cut me loose." He said, "Hurry."
With the help of a little magic, Merlin tore through Arthur's ropes. He gripped his friend's arm and jerked Arthur to his feet as the bandits were struggling to get up.
"RUN!" Merlin yelled and shoved Arthur away from him before taking off after the Prince himself.
They were well into the forest, the cover of the trees hiding them from the bandits who were sure to be chasing them, when Arthur skidded to a halt.
Merlin, too, stumbled to a stop and looked back at his friend. "What is it?" He huffed, short of breath.
"I can't be running away." Arthur said his breathing much more controlled than Merlin's. "As the Prince, I can't let scum like that running loose."
Merlin didn't even bother to hide the disbelief on his face as he stared at the stubborn Prince. "Are you…" Merlin bit off the rest of his question as it wasn't too polite and wasn't something you should really say to a prince.
"Yes, Merlin?" Arthur asked pleasantly, a small smile on his face. "Do you have something to say?"
"Only that you're the biggest idiot this kingdom has seen." Merlin muttered under his breath.
"What?"
"I said, whatever you think we must do to keep your honor intact, m'lord." Merlin said louder and began to trudge over to his friend.
"Good." Arthur said and turned on his heel. "Then let us be off."
"Where on earth can they be?" Gwen asked worriedly, turning to Giaus. "It's been over four hours. We told Arthur we only needed three at the most." She couldn't keep the worry out of her face. "You don't think something happened to them?"
Giaus shrugged. "This is Merlin we're talking about. Anything could happen."
"Giaus is right." Morgana put in, walking forward to her friend and offering her a small smile. "But the thing to remember is that they always come home. No matter what might have happened they always return back to us."
Gwen bit her lip, but she nodded. With a sigh, she sank down onto the bench that Giaus kept at his small table.
It was at that moment that the three of them heard a noise and then voices.
"I can't believe you made us go back!" It was Merlin's voice.
"Don't be such a girl, Merlin." There was no mistaking Arthur. "I told you, we couldn't allow those men to keep terrorizing the countryside."
"All I heard was that we couldn't allow those men to get away taking your dignity with them." Merlin retorted, which brought smiles to all three of the members in the room.
There was the sound of a whack and then Merlin complaining about not being appreciated.
The door handle shook as someone gripped it in the hall and Giaus ushered Gwen and Morgana into their places, around his table.
"Honestly, Merlin, I don't know why you claim that I abuse you." Arthur was saying as he pushed open the door. "I hardly even touch you."
Arthur strode into the room, his eyes landing on the others. A knowing grin was on his face as he stepped to the side to allow Merlin into the room.
Merlin's head (which was full of leaves and twigs) was bowed as he followed Arthur into the room. "You hardly touch me?!" Merlin repeated. "Ha."
It was then that he noticed his other friends in the room and in one voice they all shouted. "Happy birthday, Merlin!"
Merlin's eyes widened and he was, for once, speechless.
Arthur laughed and clapped his friend on the arm. "Don't stand there gaping like a fish, Merlin." He pulled Merlin over to the table where Gwen and Morgana had spent all morning preparing a small, but delicious meal for Merlin.
Merlin stared down at the food, his eyes zeroing in on the chocolate cake that sat in the middle of the table.
"You did this…for me?" He asked softly, looking up. He was met by smiles from all of his friends.
Giaus came forward and pulled Merlin into a hug. "Happy birthday, my boy." Giaus broke out of the embrace and laughed. "You didn't think we would remember, did you?"
Merlin shook his head. "No. I was sure that none of you even knew what day it was."
"Well, I knew." Arthur said airily, coming to stand next to his friend. "My job for your birthday was to keep you distracted while Morgana and Guinevere got everything ready here." He added.
Merlin shot him a long look, "You mean to tell me you planned for those bandits to capture us?"
Arthur suddenly looked uncomfortable as the girls demanded to know what bandits they were talking about.
"Um. No. That wasn't part of the plan." Arthur said, shooting Merlin a glare, "Besides, we both know that it was your fault that we were caught in the first place."
Merlin rolled his eyes, "And was it my fault for wanting to go back and take care of them after we escaped?"
Arthur mumbled something, but it was lost as Morgana and Gwen laughed.
"Come on, Merlin. Let's eat your cake. We've been waiting for hours." Morgana said.
Merlin grinned in response and as he looked around at his friends, and at that moment he knew that where ever his friends were he would be home.
The End
A/N: This is my first attempt at a Merlin story. So I don't know if I got the characters right...
I wrote it for my friend's birthday (which was back in April) and finally decided to post it. Anyway, tell me what you think.