A/N OK, so here we go! My very first fanfic. I'm very nervous but exhilarated.

I have the basic outline of this whole story but it's not yet complete so I'm afraid I'm not sure how long this'll take to finish. But I will finish this. Anyway I'm pretty proud of this plot so hopefully you'll like it too.

Oh, and this story will contain Merlin/Freya and Merlin/Arthur pairings, as well as, Gaius/Alice. Also an off-screen character death and possibly some minor violence and language.

That's all I think. So, to the story.

TheStoryDancer

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"...He is a good boy, I know he is. But he has never really fitted in to this little village of ours. And after he met that Will boy, well... I guess he just got into bad company. And now I don't seem to any control for the boy. I'm completely lost at what to do anymore. Maybe he needs a man in his life. I know this is a lot to ask but I have no one else to turn to. He has just so completely stopped listening to me..."

Gaius released a heavy sigh, rethinking the conversation he had with his half-sister. Apparently he didn't have much more authority to his nephew than boy's mother.

Hunith had asked him to take the boy to live with him after Merlin had been expelled from his school as the new school was too far for him to attend from his home and relatively close where Gaius lived.

Gaius had agreed to take the boy knowing how stressed Hunith was. However he had been pretty sceptical of his abilities to look after the boy. After all he didn't have any children of his own.

Merlin had arrived on Sunday so he would have time to settle in before going to school. Gaius had been delighted to meet his nephew he hadn't seen in nearly three years, though he found it hard to accept just how much his little boy had grown.

Everything had started just fine. Merlin had gone to his new school on Monday, and everything had gone well, at least that was what Merlin told him. Obviously it wasn't easy for a seventeen-year-old to change school, especially in the middle of the semester, but Merlin had been quite happy to go school for the rest of the week, he had even said that he had already made some new friends.

After school Merlin had been helping Gaius with his GP practice. Mostly that contained lifting heavy boxes of medicine refills and anything that required crouching or climbing letters. Of course Gaius would have been able to do all that by himself, he was, after all remarkably fit and agile for his age. The fact the lightbulb from the hallway had been out for nearly a month was purely due the fact he had been too busy to change it. Anyway it was only the beginning of October and still light, so no need for electric light, right.

Gaius had been nervous of how the weekend would turn out, but on the Saturday morning Merlin had just asked if he could go for a coffee with his new friends. At first Gaius hadn't been quite convinced that it was a good idea, but wanting Merlin to have a possibility to make new friends and adapt to his new school as well as thinking that the boy couldn't get into too much trouble in the middle of the day he had obeyed. He even knew one of the youngsters Merlin was going out with: Guinevere Smith whose family doctor Gaius had been long before the dear child had born. Gwen was a kind, good hearted girl and Gaius trusted her to keep things under the limits of good taste.

It seemed that his trust wasn't misplaced, Merlin got home at dinner time just like they had agreed. They shared a rather pleasant meal chatting nonsense.

After they had eaten, Gaius had felt a bit tired so he decided to go and take a nap. As he went to his bedroom telling Merlin to wake him up in an hour.That turned out to be not so clever idea.

Gaius woke up feeling heavy and thick. He cracked his eyes open and saw that it is as getting dark outside. Startled he sat up and checked the time from the clock on his beside table. He had slept nearly three hours.

Groggily Gaius got up and exited his room ready to scold Merlin for not waking him up. However Merlin was nowhere to be seen. Only indicator of the whereabouts of the boy was a short note at the kitchen counter:

"Gone out with some friends.

No need to worry or to wait me up.

Merlin"

Obviously the note had only served to make Gaius worry more than he earlier had. He picked up his phone and called Merlin. The boy didn't answerer, so Gaius called again, and again. He was getting a little frantic as he started to type him text messages asking where he was and why he didn't answer his phone.

His all attempts to contact his nephew ignored, Gaius got just frustrated. If the insolent boy didn't bother to take control of his own life, he most certainly wasn't going worry about it. So, he seated himself into big, soft armchair on the living room and started to read the Christie he had only read about two hundred times.

Four hours later Gaius was still sitting in the armchair, his book laid on his lap, long forgotten. His determination of not to worry about Merlin had lasted for nearly half an hour. He had kept picturing Merlin at the place of the novel's victim, lying dead and cold in the middle of nowhere. Even as the rational part of his mind kept telling him that such scenario was very unlikely, he found himself once again calling at the boy, panic rising inside him as he was once again ignored.

He had even called at Mr. Smith and asked to talk to his daughter. Rather confused Mr. Smith had obeyed, but Gwen hadn't seen Merlin since they left the coffeehouse and didn't know who he might be with. She however promised to let Gaius know if she'd hear something about Merlin.

Gaius had also thought about calling to Hunith and even the police! but soon dismissed both of the ideas. He didn't want to worry Hunith or cause Merlin any unnecessary troubles. He was probably just overreacting any way. After all it wasn't exactly uncommon for teenagers to go to party at the weekends.

Yet Gaius was worried, too much so to even think about sleeping or any other thing with much sense in it other than calling and sending messages at Merlin over and over again.

And that was why he found himself sitting in his armchair at twenty to two, his body sore and stiff from fatigue and sitting still for too long time, reminiscing the conversation he had had with Hunith and wondering how he had managed to fail so thoroughly so quickly.

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Merlin had never felt so happy. There were beer, weed, music, a lot of happy people and girls, pretty girls. One of which was leading him in one of the many bedrooms of the manor the parties was held. This were the best parties ever!

He had been a bit doubtful of that if it was a great idea to go to the parties so soon after he came to live with Gaius, but Gwain a guy he had met at school had told him that these were the parties of the year. And he had been right.

The rich kid who held the parties, Arthur Pendragon, was a real prat, at least that was what Gwain had told him. Merlin had only seen him at a glance in school canteen. But he sure knew how to throw a party!

His thoughts were interrupted when Freya, the girl currently accompanying Merlin, pulled him close. Slowly they united their lips and got lost at the passion and lust.

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Some time later, after Merlin and Freya had once again joined the party, both feeling rather flustered, Gwain came to Merlin and with a devastated voice told that Percy, the boy who had promised to stay sober and drive them home was about to leave. Merlin gave an irritated huff, it was so much fun in there, but he followed Gwain.

The car drive however was nearly as much fun as the parties, the car was fully packed and someone had brought one last bottle of some clear booze. They got lost more than once, everyone suddenly finding it terribly hard to remember where they lived. Apart from Gwain, Merlin was the last one to get dropped of and by the time he was in front of Gaius' house he was struggling to stay upright.

Yet with a heroic amount of concentration he managed to walk to the door without falling. Grinning broadly due this fine achievement he rang the doorbell, when the door didn't immediately open he rang it again, then finding the sound of it quite delightful he started to play a tune with it.

Suddenly the door opens revealing worn looking Gaius staring at Merlin with a mix of anger, annoyance and worry.

"Merlin, my boy, where in earth have you been? Why didn't you answer me? Oh, God I've been so worried." Gaius had backed away from the door as he spoke, gesturing Merlin to come in and then closed the door.

Merlin was confused, Gaius didn't seem happy. Why would anyone not be happy? Merlin was happy and he wanted Gaius to be happy too. Maybe if he'd hug Gaius he would be happy. Yes that was a good idea, everyone was happy when they were hugged, right.

Gaius watched in horror as Merlin, standing good five feet away from him, spread his arms wide and started to lean forward until falling face down to the floor. All the while grinning broadly as if he'd never done anything quite so funny.

As quickly as his aching knees allow him to Gaius crouches to the ground next to Merlin, calling boy's name and shaking his shoulder in attempt of waking him. "Merlin, Merlin can you hear me? Oh, Merlin what have you done? I need you to wake up, you can't lie there all night, and heaven knows I can't carry you up those stairs, not with this blasted back of mine."

Suddenly Merlin opened his eyes, still grinning. After a moment his smile however was replaced by a frown. Gaius still didn't look happy, if anything the old man looked even more worried than earlier. Why hadn't the hug worked? And how on earth did he end up in the floor?

Deciding that the answer to those questions was not interesting enough to keep him laying on the floor so he accepted the hand Gaius gave him and stood up a bit unsteadily.

"There you go my boy. Let's get you to bed now, okay?" Gaius babbles as he tries to balance Merlin and think how to manoeuvre the drunken boy and his own aching joints up the stairs.

"But I don't want to go to bed. I'm not tired, not the least. Look, my eye's are wide open, I'm moving my hands and all. I'm positively bursting with energy." At this point Merlin sounded suspiciously like a petulant five-year-old, a very tired five-year-old.

With a sigh Gaius took a firm hold of his nephews wrist and started to pull him towards the stairs in a manner that didn't accept any counter arguments.

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Hope you liked it!