Peabodythecat gave me this wonderful idea after I posted "Percival's Plight". This will just be a series of one-shots that should remain relatively upbeat. I'll try and put warnings on the darker ones.

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin

Why the stupid prat had to go on another one of his stupid hunting trips again Merlin would never know. They always ended badly with the group being attacked by bandits, attacked by sorcerers, attacked by monsters, and attacked by sorcerer bandits with pet monsters. After awhile it got hard to tell the attacks apart.

This time it was bandits. No, wait mercenaries for hire. Actually it was probably -oh never mind. It didn't matter what form of criminal the group aligned themselves with, all that mattered was the fact that they had caught the Knights of the Round Table off guard. They outnumbered them greatly, and they now held the knights, the king, and Merlin as prisoners in a makeshift camp. This day couldn't possibly get any worse.

"Make sure to tie up the big one nice and tight!" One of the bandits, who Merlin decided to call Toothless, shouted as three more men lunged at the already struggling Percival. It was only due to size that Percival had incapacitated about five or so men since their capture. The knights were all putting up a brave fight. Kicking, punching, and biting their way to the camp, making their dislike of being captured very clear.

Merlin wasn't putting up much of a fight. He instead opted for the route of staying quite and out of the way. He knew that he would fetch the lowest bounty and therefore was rather dispensable. The less attention he drew to himself the better.

"Ah!" Another bandit cried backing away from a livid Gwaine, "Bastard bit me!" He shouted to no one in particular. Merlin quickly updated the tally he had been keeping in his head. So far Gwaine had kicked 6 men, bit 8, and punched 3. Arthur had knocked out 4, kicked 1, and punched 7. Leon had kicked 9 and punched 14, Elyan had bit 4 and kicked 2, and Percival knocked out 10, kicked 15, and threw 3 like rag dolls across the camp.

"Come on, keep them under control!" Toothless barked at the men who had managed to get Elyan and Leon tied to trees but were still having no luck with the rest of the knights. One picked up a club and beat Percival over the head. He cried out in pain and stopped fighting long enough for the men to secure him to the tree. Distracted by the cry of distress, two men each had quickly taken down Arthur and Gwaine. The leader of the camp made his way to the incapacitated knights and began to speak.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" the leader, Baldy Merlin decided, smirked.

"The king of Camelot sir," One of the bandits said, clearly pleased with their newest capture.

"I see," Baldy said leaning down over Arthur. They had yet to realize Merlin was still fully capable of moving, something that could be used to their advantage.

"And to what do we owe this pleasure, your highness?" Baldy practically spat out the last few words making Merlin shudder. Baldy looked around at his laughing men, clearly pleased with the oh so creative insult. His smile faltered.

"Why is the boy not tied up?" He demanded. All of the knights physically paled as all eyes shifted to Merlin.

"Thought he didn't pose a threat," Toothless said as he stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Still, we can use him as leverage. It looks like the knights and King are rather fond of the boy," Baldy continued, looking slightly annoyed. Merlin matched his tone. He wasn't a boy. Why did everyone insist that he was a boy? He was of age and wasn't some adolescent with spots. Wait a second, Merlin had an idea that could actually keep him free and possibly save the knights.

"You there," Toothless shouted, pointing at a random bandit, "get the rope and tie the kid up," He jerked his head towards Merlin who had yet to move. Quickly, Merlin changed his demeanor. He bowed his head and slumped his shoulders submissively. He started making tears come to his eyes, not enough to start crying but enough to get them wet.

"Alright come here you runt," The bandit, Rotten Teeth was a good name for him, said as he came to a stop in front of Merlin. Merlin glanced up at him, the bandit faltered as he saw Merlin's eyes. Merlin had a knack for getting them impossibly big and innocent when he wanted. It was a trick he learned how to do back in Ealdor when he wanted something from his mother. He dropped his gaze back down to the ground and began picking at the hem of his tunic, making him seem even younger.

Gwaine struggled against the ropes, trying to get to Merlin. Arthur just stared at him, dumbstruck at what he was seeing. It was true that Merlin wasn't coordinated, wasn't physically strong like the other knights. Hell, he even managed to attract a unicorn and cry over dead things like a girl. But this, this wasn't normal Merlin. His emotional side was never this bad. Merlin wasn't a five year old or a weeping maiden but dammit he was sure acting like it. Arthur was about to tell him to get a grip and man up but Leon caught his eye. Apparently he wanted to leave emotionally compromised Merlin alone and dragged the boss's attention back to the knights by kicking him in the knee. The boss yelped and whipped back towards the knights, effectively taking his eyes off of Merlin. Arthur hoped both Merlin and Leon knew what they were doing.

"Now you listen hear," Rotten Teeth cleared his throat and continued, "I have to tie you up," Merlin inwardly smiled as he noted Rotten Teeth was trying to convince himself more that Merlin.

"Please don't," Merlin whimpered, his voice incredibly quite. Rotten Teeth sighed and turned around to the boss, who was still taunting Arthur and the knights, unaware the Merlin was conning the hell out of Rotten Teeth.

"Stay right here, don't move," Rotten Teeth said as he turned and started towards Toothless. Merlin let out a sigh of relief, hopefully Toothless was just as easy to convince as Rotten Teeth. All he had to do was look as innocent and nonthreatening as possible and the bandits would be like putty in his hands.

"I don't care how cute he is the boss man said to tie him up," Toothless hissed at Rotten Teeth. Rotten Teeth was clearly exasperated by the situation which was good. Even if Merlin was tied up he could probably convince Rotten Teeth to release him after all of the bandits had gone to bed.

"Seriously!" Toothless shouted, causing Merlin to jump. "You can't tell me that some little brat looked at you with big googly eyes and caused you to wimp out!"

"You try saying no to him!" Rotten Teeth hissed, looking at Toothless.

"He is just a kid, you are a hardened criminal! You shouldn't be put off by some puppy dog expression," Toothless was becoming frustrated at Rotten Teeth's resistance.

"For God's sake just go over there and tie the bastard up. It isn't difficult, it isn't time consuming. Just get it done," Toothless was nearly shaking with anger by the end of his rant.

"You'll have to do it then because I can't," Rotten Teeth shoved the rope into Toothless' hands and walked away to go sit by the fire.

"All right you little runt," Toothless said as he began to make his way towards Merlin, "I don't care what that useless man says there is no way you can convince me to keep you loose," Toothless stopped in front of Merlin.

"Hold out your hands," Merlin looked up at him, widening his eyes even further and making tears fall down his cheeks.

"Please don't," Merlin was proud to make his voice quiver so effectively. Toothless' hard expression softened.

"I have to kid," he stated, wide-eyed at the boy in front of him. Toothless cursed under his breath. He was apparently in quite a dilemma. On one hand, Merlin was sitting there looking impossibly cute and innocent. There was no way this kid was a threat. On the other hand the kid should not be affecting him like this. He was a hardened criminal, the kind of man people fear. He was not some softy who was about to go easy on a boy because of some tears.

Merlin sensed that Toothless was starting to harden his heart again and decided to pull out all of the stops. There was no way Merlin would leave this with his pride in tact. "It'll hurt," Merlin whispered dropping his eyes back to the ground and picking at his hem again.

"Not if you don't struggle. I won't tie it that tight, you'll be fine," Toothless' voice softened considerably. As he reached out and awkwardly clapped a hand onto Merlin's shoulder.

"I won't runaway, I promise," Merlin stated again, trying to put a pleading note into the statement. Toothless groaned and looked around. After that little display there was no way he could tie up the boy. Even if he did it gently he would still have to face the hurt look in the kid's eyes as he bound the rope. But he couldn't just leave the boy here with any explanation. Toothless removed his hand from Merlin's shoulder and ran it through his hair, clearly in a dilemma.

"I'll go see what I can do kid," Merlin flashed Toothless a watery smile and looked back down at his hands while toeing the dirt. Toothless jogged off back to Baldy who was entertaining himself by playing with Gwaine's hair. Toothless whispered something into Baldy's ear causing him to stop and his smile to falter. He looked at Merlin, as did Gwaine and Arthur. Baldy got up and made his way to Merlin. Merlin groaned. He didn't think he would be able to keep this up much longer. True he had convinced what appeared to be the right-hand man. But the leader was probably much tougher and wouldn't be softened by quivering lips and big eyes full of innocence. Still, Merlin put back on his mask and began to shift from foot to foot.

"Well, you certainly don't seem like trouble," Baldy stated as he hooked a finger under Merlin's chin which forced him to look at Baldy. Merlin wasn't thrilled at the contact.

"If I don't tie you up, are you going to behave yourself like a good little prisoner?" Merlin felt a pang of annoyance at the way the man was talking to him. Then again he did work really hard to create this look, apparently it paid off.

"Well are you?" Baldy stated again. Merlin nodded his head, which was probably more innocent than actually saying the word 'yes'.

"Alright then. If he does something to screw up our catch, it will be on your head," Baldy stated as he turned to Toothless.

"Look at him boss, he wouldn't hurt a fly," Toothless called as Baldy began listing which men were to take which watch. Toothless turned back to Merlin and ruffled his hair before marching through the camp to make preparations for the evening. Merlin looked at the awestruck knights and smiled at them before settling down against a tree. Baldy took one last look at Merlin, who yawned and curled up into a ball.

After a few hours Merlin woke up to discover someone had put a blanket on him. He chuckled as he stood up quietly and looked around. The knights all appeared to be asleep as did most of the bandits. There was only one other man up, Rotten Teeth. Merlin said some words in the old religion and Rotten Teeth quickly slumped over, fast asleep. Merlin crept towards the fire and picked up a dagger before making his way to the knights. He decided to start with Leon first since he was the one least likely to kill Merlin upon being awakened. Once the bonds were cut away Merlin covered Leon's mouth to prevent him from crying out and shook him gently. Leon jumped awake and turned to face Merlin who simply put his fingers to his lips. He handed Leon another dagger and they set to work cutting free the rest of the knights. Once everyone had been released they quickly made their way into the forest and back to Camelot.

"Why didn't you tell us you could do that Merlin?" Gwaine hissed as they ran through the trees.

"I really don't like acting that way. It's exhausting!" Merlin exclaimed quietly as he tripped over a tree root, Elyan catching his arm before he hit the ground.

"Well you are really good at it. You looked ten years younger," Percival said as he clapped Merlin on the shoulder.

"Not the mention the fact that he looked like a kicked puppy," Gwaine snickered.

"It wasn't that great, the bandits were just dense," Arthur said. Merlin could practically hear him roll his eyes as they continued out of the forest and in through the front gates of Camelot.

"At one point you bought the act just as much as the bandits," Elyan said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"What matters is that we are out of their hands and no one got hurt," Leon said quickly to avoid Arthur's pride stinging any more. Gwaine snorted, while Arthur huffed indignantly.

"Well at least now we know how useful Merlin can actually be," Percival chuckled as they entered the castle. Merlin was slowly getting redder throughout the entire conversation, not wanting the incident to ever be brought up again. He already had enough trouble with the castle maids and their incessant need to mother him. If word got out about this, the mother henning would multiply by a tenfold. Merlin shuddered to think about what would happen if the smothering affections got any worse. Oh the horror.

That was the first installment of this little series. Hopefully the ideas will keep coming though I wouldn't mind suggestions. I would like to extend a huge thank you to Cottontail, who is a wonderful editor and worships my every step. Just joking about the worshiping part, she probably hates me for making her read all of my incredibly bad grammar. Thanks for reading and hope to see you all soon.