"What happened?" Gaius hissed at Merlin. Merlin shrugged.
"What we said, except Arthur was trying to protect me," Merlin replied in a low tone. Both of them turned to glance at Arthur, who was pacing up and down the room, head bobbing as he sniffed his way around the familiar room. He was clearly viewing it from an entirely new perspective, nose and tail twitching in interest. He paused at the end of the bench and sitting back on his haunches launched himself up, peering at the contents of the table, nose just over the top as he sniffed, then Arthur got bolder and rested his chin on the table surface, looking around.
"The sorcerer was aiming at you?" Gaius asked in a low tone, glancing at Arthur briefly as he wandered down the bench, still eyeing the items on the table. "Please don't jump on there Sire, you could dislodge something fragile."
Arthur turned to regard them for a moment before accepting the instruction. Instead he trotted to the end of the bench and jumped down, weaving past them and ambling up the steps towards Merlin's room. He scratched at the door a couple of times, but it didn't open, he trotted down again and started to examine the other side of the room. His nose questing into corners and under cupboards.
"Yes, but I think because I was there first. Arthur and the others just came on the scene a second later. It was just really random Gaius. At least I think it was."
"Magic is rarely random in Camelot, and he must have been preparing a transformation spell to cause Arthur's condition."
"Are you sure he'll just revert?"
"The power and concentration that goes into something like this, it won't last, Merlin. I can't imagine it even lasting as long as I told Uther. Arthur is not in his natural state, the enchantment may hold for a while simply because it's fresh, but Arthur's body, and mind, will want to return to it's normal state."
"Is he like a cat, or himself, or both, or what?"
"I'm not sure. I have never seen many cases like this. There are curses which do this sort of thing."
"Like Freya?"
"Yes, Merlin, but she wasn't in control of her other self, not entirely. You were the only one who broke through, but that could have been because of your own magic. Like attracts like."
"Why the hell am I the other side of Arthur's coin then?" Merlin asked. Gaius gave a disapproving smirk, but judging by the glitter in his eyes he wasn't all that disapproving.
"You understand what I mean?" Gaius told him.
Merlin nodded and they all jumped as there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," Gaius called. There was the sound of thumping and banging, as if whoever it was tried to open the door. Merlin and Gaius shared a look, Arthur popped his head out of the cupboard he was investigating and gave a rumbling murmur. As Merlin headed to the door Leon's voice announced.
"A little help here!"
Merlin opened the door. "Sorry, didn't realise, you were carrying that," he said as Leon came through the door carrying Arthur's armour, chain mail and cloak. He dumped it down on the nearby bench, making sure none of it toppled to the floor. Arthur trotted out from the cupboard to investigate, hoisting his front paws onto the bench and poking his nose into the armour.
"I didn't know where else to put it," Leon said. "If Arthur is meant to be with us then I don't really want to leave it in the armoury, or even his room."
"That's all right, I can store it in my room, I think I probably need to clean it first though," Merlin said, looking at the mud smeared on it, from where it had fallen off Arthur during his transformation. Leon shrugged, and then tensed. He glanced down, blinking in shock as Arthur brushed against him, weaving his way around Leon's legs, arching his back and twitching the tip of his tail as it stuck straight up in the air. Arthur started purring. Leon looked like he wanted to run away screaming like a girl, but didn't dare move. He looked to Merlin for help.
"He is a cat," Merlin reasoned. Arthur swivelled and pressed himself against Leon's right leg again, rubbing the top of his head against the knight's boot. Leon shuffled back and Arthur paused, looking up.
"Sorry Sire, but I have to get back to patrol."
Arthur meowed at him loudly. Leon backed up and disappeared out of the door as swiftly as he could. Arthur gave another rumble before turned back to sniff at his armour, lifting one paw to bat at a trailing corner of his cloak, watching it flap with an intense gaze.
"It would appear there is some cat instinct in him," Gaius mused.
"Will he be all right?" Merlin asked.
"I'm quite confident that he will, although it wouldn't hurt to try and control some of the more basic instincts," Gaius said as Arthur again balanced on his haunches and latching his claws into his cloak started to paw it.
"I'm not mending that if you ruin it!" Merlin informed him. Arthur stopped what he was doing, flailing as one of his claws stayed snagged in the material. Merlin reached down and took Arthur's paw, easing the material free of his claw. Arthur sat back and started to lick said paw.
"Well," Gaius said, turning to pick up his bag. "I may as well do my rounds."
"What am I meant to do?" Merlin said.
"You've got Arthur's armour to clean," Gaius pointed out. "And if you have nothing else to do, you can look through the books for me, see what you can find on transformations. A little research may not go amiss. It would be useful if we could both sound intelligent on the subject, should the king ask any more questions."
Merlin looked mulish. "It doesn't matter what I sound like, he thinks I'm an idiot."
Arthur gave a loud meow that sounded very suspiciously like complete agreement.
"Shut up!" Merlin ordered him. Arthur's ears slowly swivelled back on his head, and he shifted in his sitting position, regarding Merlin steadily. The purring had stopped. Arthur sat there for a moment before skulking under the table, sniffing the floor and hunkering down started to move around slowly.
"I think we really need to get him turned back. He's really being a cat."
"Not necessarily," Gaius said, hefting his bag onto his shoulder. "Arthur's a hunter, and a strategist, working out the lay of the land would be an entirely natural thing to do, but his senses are different now. He'll want to make sure he knows where everything is, escape routes, defences, all of it."
"How do you know so much?"
"I've been in Camelot a very long time," Gaius said. "I have seen more than you can ever imagine. Don't worry about Arthur, but keep an eye on him."
"Considering what Uther said, I ought to," Merlin told him. "I think if he so much as gets a whisker damaged I'll get my head cut off."
"The heir to the throne is currently a cat, you may need to be resourceful to keep him from harm. It's best you try and keep him in here and a litter tray might not go amiss."
Merlin pouted as Gaius left the room. Arthur's questing halted as he heard the door slam. He trotted to it, sniffed it and then moved along the wall, following a scent, and staying in his low position swivelled his head around. Merlin shrugged. At least if Arthur was wandering around here, he couldn't get into too much bother. Merlin started to sort through the armour.
He spent some time clearing a space, setting the various parts out and then looked for cleaning materials. As he was fiddling with the rings of the chain mail he suddenly realised there was outraged yowling from the far corner of the room.
"Arthur?"
He followed the sound and went to an old cupboard, pulling the heavy door open. Arthur shot out in a flash making Merlin recoil slightly. The cat turned round, tail up, fur fluffed out, eyes glittering with outrage. Merlin peered into the cupboard wincing at the jars inside.
"What did you go in there for?" Merlin asked. As he turned he caught sight of Arthur frantically licking his side.
"Do you need a wash?" Merlin asked. Arthur hissed at him and walked off. Merlin shut the cupboard door and sighed. "I'll take that as a no then."
Arthur turned and glowered at him.
"Well, as far as I know cats don't like being wet," Merlin informed him. Arthur tilted his head and thought about it, before wandering over to the space where Merlin had spread out his armour. Merlin went back to what he was doing, while Arthur sat on the nearby bench looking at what he was doing.
"Arthur, do you have to stare at me?" Merlin asked. Arthur gave a light meow and his shoulders moved in what looked like a shrug. It didn't seem to be a very cat-like gesture as Arthur did it and he resolutely carried on staring. Merlin ignored him, which turned out to be a fairly good tactic as Arthur eventually curled up on the bench, closing his eyes and apparently nodding off if the strange huffing breaths were anything to go by.
Once Merlin had finished cleaning he carried Arthur's armour up into his room and stowed it away. The noise had woken Arthur, who watched the procedure, and then watched Merlin gather up some of the books to start flicking through them. Arthur hopped onto the table, sniffed and poked for a minute or so before proceeding to curl up again on one of the books. Merlin rolled his eyes and said nothing.
Both of them looked up as the door opened, and Merlin smiled as Gwen put her head around the door.
"Hi Gwen."
Arthur yawned and stretched out his front paws, looking at Gwen with wide eyes.
"Hi Merlin, is Gaius around, I wanted to pick up a sleeping draught for Morgana."
"No, he's not here not at the moment. I don't know if he's got one ready, let me check. I can let him know anyway. I thought her dreams had calmed down."
"Oh they have, but now and again she has one. Things to do with… well, what happened," Gwen lowered her voice. Merlin huffed to himself, Gwen didn't notice, she became distracted as Arthur got to his feet.
"Oh, how sweet," Gwen exclaimed. Arthur trotted down the table to meet her as she stepped forward and he started to purr as she rubbed his head and then ran a hand down his back. Arthur arched up into her touch and closed his eyes in ecstasy as she rubbed him under the chin.
"Where did you get him?" Gwen asked, sitting on the bench. Arthur proceeded to jump into her lap, pawing at her apron and purring happily. Gwen glanced at Merlin. "It's a him?"
"Yeah, he's a him," Merlin said warily, watching as Arthur pushed his head against her hand to get Gwen to stroke him. Gwen was very happy to oblige, and Arthur started to settle down on her lap.
"Where did he come from? He doesn't look like a stray."
Arthur's purring went up a notch and he rolled over as Gwen started to rub his belly. Merlin didn't know whether to laugh or scream. He did wonder if Arthur was in total control of what he was doing as he purred and wriggled under Gwen's touch, tail flicking about and paws flexing. Gwen glanced up at Merlin, clearly waiting for an answer.
"Erm.. well… he's… I got him for Arthur."
The mention of his name did appear to bring the Prince back to reality. He flopped over on Gwen's lap again, front paws hanging over her leg and he looked up at Merlin, but his eyes narrowed again as Gwen rubbed his head.
"Arthur wanted a cat?" Gwen asked.
Arthur's eyes opened again, turning to look at Merlin, there was a question in the clear blue eyes. Merlin frantically tried to work out what to say.
"Well, not exactly, but there's a rat in his room, several of them actually," Merlin exclaimed, sounding rather overexcited by the thought. Gwen watched him with confused amusement.
"So you bought him a cat?" Gwen asked, and then she looked down at Arthur. "Are you going to be a big brave rat killer?" she asked the cat in a soppy voice. Arthur rubbed his head against her leg and wriggled about again. It gave Merlin thinking time, he couldn't say he'd bought the cat, with any luck the cat would be gone in a day or so, replaced by Arthur in his normal form.
"No, no! I've borrowed him, off… Sir Leon!"
Who was going to be nowhere in sight for a few days, and could not, therefore, drop Merlin in it. He'd better remember to tell Leon when he got back, or he would, quite by accident, drop Merlin in it. Gwen looked up.
"Leon doesn't have a cat, he hates them, ever since one bit him."
"Oh, no, he's not his!" Merlin stammered frantically. "But he knew someone who could lend me one. I've only got him for a few days."
Gwen picked up the cat and cuddled him against her chest. Merlin had to resist the urge to snatch Arthur away as he happily rubbed his cheek against Gwen's chest, his nose poking into her cleavage. Oblivious, Gwen just rubbed the back of Arthur's head.
"Aren't you just so handsome?" Gwen cooed.
Arthur purred at her. Merlin rolled his eyes, and shut the cabinet he had been rummaging in.
"There doesn't seem to be a tonic to hand, I can let Gaius know. He's only on his rounds so he shouldn't be took long. I'll drop it off later."
"Okay," Gwen said amiably, lifting Arthur's away from her chest and holding him around the torso with both hands. Unlike when Merlin held him like that, Arthur's didn't object, he just hung in her grip purring happily.
"Now, you be a good boy for Merlin," Gwen told the cat.
"Yeah, right," Merlin mumbled to himself.
Gwen stood up, putting Arthur down on the bench. Arthur gave a drawn out meow of protest, twitching his tail in the air again. Gwen rubbed his chin.
"I have to go, Merlin will make a fuss of you if you ask him."
'Will I?' Merlin asked himself. Arthur turned and looked at him. Merlin glared and then smiled at Gwen.
"I'd better go," Gwen said, brushing cat hairs off her front. "If he's supposed to be rat killing, shouldn't he be in Arthur's chambers?"
"Yeah, I'm going to take him there now," Merlin lied. Gwen nodded, petting Arthur again before heading to the door.
"Bye!" she said brightly. Merlin gave a feeble wave, Arthur lifted his paw, and then turned to look at Merlin questioningly.
"I suppose it's as good a cover as any for me having a cat about. It might not hurt to go and hang about in your chambers for a bit, and keep you out of trouble."
Arthur gave a questioning meow. Merlin leant down and poked Arthur on the nose.
"And don't you dare take advantage of Gwen again!"
Arthur made a deep rumbling sound and swiped at Merlin with his claws. Merlin snatched his hand back just in time.
"You know exactly what I mean! No using your fluffy status on innocent women, or for scaring knights who don't like cats! Or you can go back in that cupboard. Is that clear?"
Arthur hunched a little and gave the meow that Merlin had been interpreting as a yes but by the look in Arthur's eyes Merlin got the feeling Arthur was getting him back, one way or another.
