"Merlin, what are you doing?" He never thought that one question could send such fear through his body.
He had been doing his daily chores: shining armor, polishing boots, washing laundry, the usual duties that come with being the Prince's manservant. Only, he had been using magic to complete these tasks. Gaius had warned him not to use his powers when someone could easily walk through the door. Merlin should have taken him a bit more seriously.
Now, standing at the doorway to his chambers, Prince Arthur had an expression on his face that mixed confusion, anger, and betrayal into one moment. His armor and clothing fell to the ground making a huge riot as everything collided with the stone floor. Merlin's eyes changed from a golden hue back to their original cerulean as he realized the situation he found himself in. Arthur had just seen him using magic.
Gaius is going to have my head for doing something so stupid! And let's not think about what Arthur is going to tell the king and what Uther will do. I guess this means I don't have to finish my duties for the day. Merlin did not like that his mind was thinking of being lazy at a time like this. He could not figure out how he was going to explain this to Arthur, who was still positioned in front of the door as if he were frozen in time. "Arthur, I know what this looks like but-"
"Leave." Arthur's words felt as if they were laced with ice.
"What?" Merlin wasn't sure if he had heard correctly. Shouldn't Arthur be shouting for the guards at this moment? He should be getting arrested and thrown in the dungeon at this point, but Arthur was just going to let him walk out of here freely?
"Get out of my room. I need to sort through the reasoning behind my manservant keeping something like this from me. Even though I know that he knows he can trust me." Merlin noticed Arthur's voice made him sound as if he was hurting more than he was angry.
"If you would just let me explain!"
"Do you ever listen to a word I say, Merlin? Get out!" and with that, Merlin walked across the room with his head fixed on the ground beneath him. He did not look up once, even when he passed by the Prince on his way out the door.
Merlin returned to the Court Physician's chambers not long after his encounter with Arthur. As he sat down at the table, he combed his hair with his fingers and let his head fall limp upon the wooden surface. Gaius took note of the look on his face immediately, and left his work to sit down across from him placing a bowl of porridge in front of him.
"By the look on your face, I'm assuming you won't be dining in the main dining room this evening. I'm not sure if I want to know what you did to make Arthur so mad at you."
"What makes you think he's mad at me?"
"You look as if he banished you from his room permanently. It surprises me that you were so reluctant to serve him, but now you desire to continue with your duties once he's decided that you are of no use to him anymore."
"He saw me, Gaius." Merlin chose his words carefully, hoping that easing into the subject will make things easier. It did not.
"Saw you doing what, perhaps? Do not tell me that Uther's son knows about your secret." Gaius stared right at him with a serious look upon his face. "Well?"
"He walked in on me cleaning. Since he had assigned me a dozen different jobs to get done in such a short amount of time I couldn't see how else I was going to get everything done! He looked so shocked when he saw his boots floating in his line of vision that I swear his jaw touched the floor. I don't think he was completely angry with me though, but more confused. He sounded somewhat hurt too." Merlin inhaled deeply after spouting so much information in a short amount of time. He braced himself for Gaius to start scolding him, but instead he only folded his hands and rested his head against them while sighing.
"I only pray that the Prince is not like his father and is a bit more open to the ideas of magic. Otherwise, you might not live to see many more days."
"I think I'm going to go to sleep now. Thank you for the dinner, but I don't think I could stomach anything right now." Merlin lifted himself slowly from his seat, and began to walk in the direction of his room when Gaius stopped him.
"If Arthur let you leave his room without being escorted by guards, I don't think you have much to worry about. Keep that in mind."
"Thank you Gaius," Merlin let a weak smile appear on his face before retiring to his room for the night.
Once he shut the door behind him, he exhaled loudly and let himself sink to the floor. He untied his crimson scarf and let it fall next to him, letting his jacket and shirt follow shortly after. Merlin practically crawled over to his bed, and collapsed on top of the woven sheets as he felt sleep overtake him. He wondered whether or not tomorrow would be his last.
"Merlin…Merlin…Merlin!" Something was shaking the young wizard from his slumber. He could not think of the name that was associated with that voice, but it sounded familiar and somewhat friendly. He let his eyes open slightly to see a blurred vision of a young man with golden blonde hair and deep blue eyes above him trying to wake him up. As his eyes focused, he could see the face on the man above him was one that he knew well, but the distressed expression was one that did not appear on it very often.
"Arthur?" Merlin sat up and leaned against his headboard, trying to make sense of everything that was happening. "Do you realize what time it is?"
"Good, you're awake! I thought I should let you know that tomorrow you will need to finish your tasks as well as get my horse ready for training in the afternoon. I'm supposed to teach them how to joust, who knows how that's going to work out." Arthur smirked at his own remark before sitting down on the edge of the bed next to Merlin. The smirk turned into a stifle of laughter when he saw the utterly confused face Merlin was making at him. "Oh, and it's a little after midnight. Don't think I'm at your level of intelligence.
"What about earlier?"
"What about it?"
"You're not going to burn me at the stakes, cut my head off and use me as an example of what happens when you break the laws of Camelot?" Arthur laughed and mussed Merlin's hair, as if he found the idea of killing him a joke.
"I thought it over. You had a good reason for keeping this from me, and despite feeling angry and betrayed; I decided that I'm going to use this as proof that there is some good magic in the world. Even if it is sparse, and few use it only for good. Your job from now on is to make sure that no one else knows about this. That way you can live long enough to see me become king and then I can have you be the court's magician! Doesn't that sound great?" It was Merlin's turn to laugh as he saw the grin upon Arthur's face at his idea of how the future was going to play out.
"This means I'm going to be literally serving you until the day I die?"
"Didn't you say you'd be willing to do that? I do recall you saying you were glad to be my servant and would do so for the rest of your life. Think of it as a kind of promotion."
"I highly doubt it's going to feel like one."
"You won't have to clean ever again." Arthur could see the childish smile Merlin had on his face at the thought of never having to wash a single tunic, trouser, or boot and being able to use magic whenever he wished in exchange.
Arthur did not know whether it was a spur of the moment idea or if he had been secretly harboring this feeling for a long time, but something about that instant caused him to lean towards Merlin. The grin was soon gone from his face as Arthur tilted his head and kissed Merlin, letting one arm rest above them on the wall and the other to gently stroke his cheek. When he realized that he was the only one reacting, he began to pull away. Merlin acted quickly, not wanting it to end so soon, and wrapped his arms around the Prince's neck and let his fingers get tangled in the gold locks upon his head.
Only out of a lack of oxygen did the too finally break apart, breathing heavily and resting against each other's foreheads. Merlin turned bright pink when he looked Arthur dead on. The wizard could see a fortunate life ahead of him in the Prince's eyes, one with a promise that he would never have to experience such fear as he had the previous afternoon. He smiled at this thought and moved slightly, to give Arthur room to lie next to him. Arthur stretched out onto the bed and relaxed him upper body against the headboard in the same fashion Merlin was.
"You do know that you still have to clean tomorrow, right? And every day after that until my father's reign is over."
"I think I can live with that."
"You seemed so against cleaning earlier."
"Yes, I am, but if it means I can be close to you in the privacy of you chambers, I think I'm going to be alright with it." Merlin's face held a very mischievous grin as he thought about the possibilities, especially after what had just happened between him and the Prince only moments ago.
"Why did I not see this coming?" Arthur turned his head toward Merlin and chuckled at his expression before wrapping both of them in the blanket that seemed to be all but forgotten at the foot of the bed. "Come on, we're going to have to get up before the rest of the court does if we don't want to be caught."
"You mean, if you don't want to be caught. This is my room." Merlin curled closer to Arthur and found comfort resonating from the body lying beside him. Arthur entangled his arms around Merlin's chest before closing his eyes.
"I'll say you enchanted me down here." Arthur opened one eye briefly and let a smirk form on his face.
"You wouldn't!" Merlin gaped at him in shock only to see that he was smiling, providing evidence of his bluff.
"Of course not, we have a future together, don't we?"