Merlin had washed Arthur's clothes, polished his boots, even mucked out the stables to show how much he appreciated what the prince had done for him. But when he arrived at Arthur's chambers to let him know he was done for the day – and to thank him, which he had not done yet –, the prince was not in his room, nor in the main hall with his father, nor on the fighting grounds. Arthur was nowhere to be found.
Merlin didn't dare to ask the king: they both would get into trouble for that. He did ask Gwen and Morgana, but they hadn't seen Arthur all day.
Merlin had mucked out the prince's stables, and knew Arthur had not taken his own horse. But Merlin had not checked the other stables. When he went down to see if the prince had taken another horse, Merlin ran into the stable boy. Literally. With a loud crash the two boys collided, and the stable boy dropped the stuff he was carrying.
"Excuse me," Merlin said politely, and picked up the shovel and pitchfork. While he gave them back, he saw whom he had ran into. "Have you seen prince Arthur?"
"That depends," the boy answered, taking back the stuff Merlin was now holding.
"Depends on what?"
The stable boy looked at him. The golden coins were almost visible in his eyes. Merlin noticed, and it became clear what the boy wanted.
"You're blackmailing me?" Merlin exclaimed, his eyes wide with surprise. The boy just smirked at him and held out his hand. "You gotta be kidding me," Merlin hissed, and handed him a coin. "Now, tell me! Where did the prince go?"
The boy shrugged.
"I only know he went that way," he said, pointing to the right. Merlin, who couldn't afford any more information, scoffed and turned to walk back to the prince's stables. There was no way he was going to take a horse from that…boy.
"And don't think I won't tell this to the king! He'll have you in the stocks!" he yelled, and lifted his fist at the stable boy, who just shrugged again and smirked.
The stables were indeed very clean and smelled just like flowers, mixed with the smell of horses, of course. Merlin mounted the first horse he could find, and led it to where the stable boy had pointed.
That boy was going to be in so much trouble if he couldn't find Arthur in this direction…
Merlin wasn't the best tracker in Camelot, but he could see that a horse had walked the same route not long ago. There were footsteps in the mud and some branches were broken. Anybody could follow that trail… Merlin hoped it to be Arthur who had passed, so he would be following the right trail. If not…
Why was he actually trying so hard to find Arthur? He was just a servant and Arthur his master. Arthur could do anything he wanted to do without checking it with his manservant. Okay, he had to ask permission with the king sometimes…
But Arthur had gone missing, and Merlin had the feeling it had something to do with him and the thing that had happened earlier that day. Merlin's face turned red as soon as he thought about it.
He definitely had to find the prince and talk about what happened.
It had rained yesterday, but hadn't rained since that time, yet the forest floor was muddy, and the footsteps were very visible. They led all the way to a horse, which was tied up to a tree. But the horse was completely alone and Arthur was nowhere to be seen.
"Arthur?" maybe calling out the prince might work, Merlin thought. "Arthur? Are you here?"
"Are you here?"
Arthur could recognize that voice anywhere and he clutched his knees even tighter. Merlin was somewhere outside the lair. Thankfully, he was never going to be able to find the entrance to this place.
"Arthur! There you are!" Merlin suddenly said, freakishly close. The servant had found the entrance and was standing in the light of the door. While he walked over, he looked up and around him, admiring the cave. "Nice place…"
"Thanks," Arthur said, quickly wiping his face. He hoped Merlin hadn't seen the tears on his cheeks. A prince…the future king of Camelot…crying? Ha!
"Are those…tears?"
Oh, great. Arthur sighed. Merlin was on a roll today… He was standing next to Arthur, towering over him.
"No, there not. Water from the ceiling fell on my face, that's all," Arthur stated.
"Oh, okay," Merlin decided not to go on about the subject, being a very sensitive one. Arthur sighed again. But suddenly, Merlin sat too, not to far from where Arthur was sitting.
A long pause, the boys were waiting for one another to say something. Merlin was still looking around and his eyes followed a bat which squeaked when it flew over. Arthur was fidgeting with his trouser leg. Finally, it was Merlin who broke the silence.
"So how are you doing?" he said.
Arthur looked up at him.
"Why didn't you tell me?" his eyes were filled with tears again.
"Errr…" that was very straight to the point. Merlin hadn't expected that. Nor had he expected more tears.
"I thought…" Arthur continued, but stopped midsentence. With his sleeve he dried his eyes.
"You thought what?" Merlin asked gently.
"That you were my friend, and that you would tell me stuff like this, but you didn't and now I'm stuck here feeling miserable," Arthur said in only one breath. There, he had poured out his mind and heart. Merlin now knew how Arthur felt about him. He looked at his servant to see how he was picking up on all of the information.
Which was quite well, for he was smiling.
"Your friend, really?" his bottom lip was almost trembling with happiness.
"Yeah," Arthur said softly. "But don't go telling everybody. You're still my manserv-…" he lost his breath when suddenly two arms got wrapped around him, holding him tightly.
He was surprised to see Merlin hugging him.
"Merlin, what are you doing?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Giving you a hug," Merlin said, not moving away.
"Why?"
"Because I'm so proud of you!"
"And why is that?" this was getting weirder by the second.
"Because you finally admitted that I am your friend! Oh, and by the way, you are my friend too," Merlin said, smiling. He wanted to let go of Arthur, but stopped when he felt two arms hugging him.
Arthur was hugging back. The prince hadn't had many friends in his life, and most of them just hung around him just because he was the prince. For example those boys who he'd had around when he was teasing Merlin, weren't real friends. Merlin, on the other hand, was the realest friend he had ever had.
"Arthur?"
"Yeah?"
"Can't…breath…"
Arthur let go quickly so Merlin could gasp for air.
The silence returned. Merlin was thinking about the stable boy, how he had been right about the whereabouts of Arthur. But still he was going to report the blackmailing. Maybe he could even try to get his coin back.
Arthur's mind, on the other hand, had gone back to the beginning of the day. Merlin had been later than usual, so Arthur decided to check it out. But when he opened the door to Merlin's chambers, he encountered something he really hadn't expected. All of the thoughts flowed through his mind again and the only thing he could do was say…
Aaah! I'm so sorry for this big clifhanger! But it was all for the best, I promise you! I didn't reply to your reviews, because I was afraid I was going to spoil the rest of the story. Sorry for that, and anyway: Thank you for believing in me! I always thought my writings were rubbish...
