DISCLAIMER: I do not own Merlin or any of its amazing characters. All I own is a laptop and this particular story.

Hello again. It's very late and I'm very tired, and as a result I ask you to forgive me for any mistakes in either spelling or grammar or really any kind of mistake.

Enjoy!

Arthur stared at Merlin.

Merlin stared at Arthur.

Camelot was one of the most powerful kingdoms, feared by all its foes and respected by its every ally. Even most of its foes, actually, respected Camelot to some degree. (Though they would certainly not admit it)

The king of Camelot was, in turn, a figure that demanded great respect and was very famous across the land for his kindness and fairness, but also for his courage and strength.

Camelot's Court Sorcerer was pretty famous too, rumored to be the most powerful magic practitioner to have ever lived and to ever live, and was, amongst most of the magical community, a king. But whether people believed him to be the most powerful or not, every person not living on another continent or under a particularly heavy rock knew he was indeed powerful, a sorcerer who could single-handedly defeat armies and raze kingdoms to the ground.

Taking all the above into consideration, one would find it very amusing to see the two figures of incredible power gawking at one another with the same idiotic expression on their faces, the supposedly most powerful sorcerer to ever walk the earth opening and closing his mouth in a very accurate imitation of a fish.

However, Arthur's mind was barely registering all of these, too busy trying to process all the information it had been offered. One moment he was standing there, frustrated at the prospect of explaining to a younger version of Merlin something he barely knew anything about, and the next thing his mind was reeling with all the memories.

In the split of a second, images, sounds, smells, memories of this accidental trip back in time of theirs had flashed through his brain so quickly Arthur wasn't entirely sure he had taken them all in completely just yet.

The king felt lightheaded, a sense of understanding the likes of which he had never felt before flooding through his every bone.

He remembered it all, only from a different perspective-he remembered it as a young prince: he recalled how it had felt like to see himself older(and hell, Merlin had been right-he had put on weight! Not that he was going to admit it, mind you), to see Merlin old, the shock, the confusion, everything.

"Merlin did you-" he half-gasped, half-yelled, too excited to continue.

The warlock apparently felt the same, for his answer came in the same out-of-breathly near-shout. "Yes I-"

"-I remember!" the king cut him off, only to be cut off himself.

"Me too!"

"But how-"

"I don't know!"

The king beamed at his sorcerer, his brain distantly aware of a mumbled "I need to sit down" coming from somewhere in the room, but too busy to actually dwell on it.

Merlin suddenly glanced around the room, as if remembering something, and Arthur followed his gaze to the table, where a very young, confused and tired looking warlock was sitting slumped into a chair.

The king struggled to contain the grin that was threatening to split his face, knowing that it wouldn't be appreciated. (Although judging by the deathly glare that was being sent his way by the young Merlin, Arthur was certain he wasn't exactly doing a great job)

While the king could remember now with amazing clarity what had happened in his past, when he had seen his older self, he couldn't recall that much about that day before that. He was pretty sure they had gone on a hunting trip, and judging from the other Merlin's appearance it had been one of those hunting trips. But that was about it.

Arthur threw his Merlin a look and was rewarded with a nearly imperceptible nod, before the warlock turned his attention back on the younger him. They were going to have to talk somewhere in private, because there were still things he didn't exactly understand, even though he knew most of what was going to happen. However, he was sure Merlin had, as usual, all the answers. He only just had to be a bit patient and let his friend do most of the talking.

The king turned his attention back on the situation at hand, enjoying the feeling of knowing all that was going to happen and just watching. This was going to be fun.

Merlin was pretty sure that nothing on this planet could ever shock him. Ever. Seriously, after everything he'd been through, everything he'd seen and done, he had developed a sort of numbness, shock-proof state of mind, if you want.

I mean yes, shocking and unexpected, technically impossible things still got to him, but only for a short while.

For example, an unfortunate string of shocking events would only result in one single wave of initial shock. After that, his defenses would go up and the shock-proof state of mind would take over.

Therefore, the warlock didn't even move a muscle as, out of seemingly nowhere, the older version of himself and the older version of Arthur(that mind you, had appeared out of thin air in Gaius' and his chambers) suddenly startled and turned to one another at the same time. Then they proceeded to stand there, gaping at each other like a pair of fish for a few seconds, the old Merlin's mouth twitching a couple of times in shock, before they started fretting over something obviously only they had seen, arms waving about frantically.

"Merlin did you-"

"Yes I-"

"-I remember!"

"Me too!"

"But how-"

"I don't know!"

"I need to sit down" mumbled Merlin to no one in particular, which was just fine because the other two men in the room weren't paying him any attention at all.

The boy proceeded to drag a chair from the small table, not finding the energy to care too much about the loud scraping sound the action involved. He slumped onto the chair, oblivious to the other two finally remembering he was there due to the sound.

When he raised his gaze, however, he found a sudden surge of annoyance running through him.

The other Merlin was regarding him with a mixture of amusement and pity, while Arthur was obviously barely managing to keep the grin off his face. One thing was clear though: whatever had happened during their strange exchange earlier, all of their confusion had disappeared and apparently been replaced by amusement.

Merlin hated being out of the loop, out of any loop-even one as strange as this-and there clearly was something he was missing, for he couldn't find anything in the least amusing about their current situation, so if his next words came a bit harsh or accompanied by a venomous growl, then he refused to take any blame for it. Besides, those two staring at him with idiotic and amused expressions didn't exactly help matters any.

"What?"

Merlin scowled as his question was met with a raised notch of pity from the other him and an instant grin breaking on Arthur's face.

The warlock crossed his arms over his chest and glared. Arthur's grin only grew bigger, and Merlin was already considering punching the older man when the old Merlin put a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"That's enough" he said and threw Arthur a look, then turned away and drew himself a chair across from him. Arthur followed after a few seconds, easing into the other chair and continuing to grin.

Merlin promptly ignored him, focusing his attention on himself instead.

The older him was watching him carefully, hands twined together on the table. He studied him for another couple of seconds, before finally seeming to come to some sort of decision and heaving a deep sigh.

Strangely enough, Merlin understood what he was going through. The warlock suppressed a smile: he understood what he himself was going through. How weird did that sound?

But the strangeness of the situation aside, the sigh the older him had given sounded so much like what he himself had done a thousand times, that he felt his annoyance diminish a little.

The warlock gave up, sighing a sigh of his own and turning to properly face the others. If he was going to make things harder, he could at least not make them harder on literally himself. There was always time to annoy Arthur, after all.

For now, he needed to understand.

Merlin looked up and was met by his own eyes, slight crinkles at the corners being the only difference between their intense blue gazes.

"Okay" the other man started, and Merlin found himself suppressing a flinch. It was strange, hearing his own voice talk to him. "You probably already know that we are really you and Arthur, I know you can feel it"

Merlin nodded, then threw a wary glance at Arthur, but the other man didn't seem to have any objections to what had been said. Either he hadn't noticed the part about him "feeling it", or he just didn't know what it implied. He was only watching the exchange, seemingly content not to interfere. The warlock turned back to the older version of himself.

"As you probably guessed by now, we come from the future-your future. To be more precise, fourteen years and a half into the future"

Merlin winced, though he wasn't sure why. He had guessed that there was something of a ten-year difference, but to hear it being said like that, so matter-of-factly…

"H-How did you get here?" he asked, and cursed the fact that his voice sounded so small.

However, the other man only smiled at him with a slightly unnerving knowing look, as if he knew what he had been going to say.

Actually, given the fact that this was himself from the future, everything had probably already happened to him, so knowing what Merlin was thinking didn't make that little sense.

"Uuh" the old him glanced at Arthur warily, while the other man just waved a hand in the air dismissively.

"We traveled trough time" he said, as if talking to a small child.

Merlin wasn't able to keep the sarcastic reply from rolling off his lips. "Really?" It seemed that even in the future, Arthur was still a prat.

"I'm sorry. I know this is all a bit confusing. Trust me, I've been there."

The warlock turned his attention back to the other him, who had an apologetic look on his face. He pursed his lips, seeming to consider how to go about this, running a hand through his hair and managing to ruffle it even more than it already was.

Finally, he opened his mouth to say something, but Merlin would never find out what he had been about to say(or, if he thought about it, he would, given that one day he would be standing in his place, but Merlin wasn't going to be that specific right now) because the door opened with an ominous creak.

"Merlin?" came the voice of Gaius.

Merlin didn't have time to panic as the physician entered the room, took a look around, his eyes falling on the three people at the table, and promptly froze, his jaw falling to the ground.

The warlock let his head fall on the table. Great. Just great.

Gaius had really been looking forward to a nice bowl of steaming soup and maybe a fresh apple, after his rather tiring trip to the near edge of the city.

A very panicked and desperate young man had come bursting into his chambers earlier in the day, excusing himself in between gulps of air and trying to explain to him what had happened to his father.

Gaius had wasted no time, even if he hadn't understood a word of what the boy was trying to say, but his appearance had told the old physician everything he needed to know: it was the haste and desperation of something really bad happening to someone you love. As such, he had grabbed his bag of basic potions and remedies and left.

Apparently, the boy's father had fallen off the roof while repairing it. The physician had been tending to the man for the past two hours, and after finally stabilizing him and telling his son to pass by his chambers every day in order to get the doze of potion needed, for the family lived too far from the castle for him to go and check every day, Gaius had begun the slow walk back to the heart of the citadel. He had promised, despite the difficulty, to come back and check on the man one every three days. It was the best he could do, given that he had rounds to do and people to tend to every day.

So it was a very tired and soup-wishing physician who opened the door to his chambers, hoping that his ward had already come back home. Gaius was very sure that that was the case, for it was already dark outside, but with Merlin one could never know.

"Merlin?" he called, not waiting for and answer as he pushed the door open and stepped inside.

He supposed that in the future, it would be better if he just waited outside. He could develop a code or something: if he asked "Merlin, are you there?" and the boy told him "Gaius, don't come in", then that would mean that no, his ward was in no mortal danger (and neither was Arthur) but yes, he had done something incredibly stupid and it was better for the physician if he just turned around and took a long walk.

Gaius made a mental note to talk to Merlin about this code idea, but for now he was too busy with what his eyes were registering.

At first, he had doubted his sight. After all, one would always doubt his sanity when faced with two Merlin's(one of which was significantly older) and an Arthur in his fourties.

However, Gaius then proceeded to remember this was Merlin he was dealing with, the most idiotic and reckless sorcerer to have ever and to ever walk the earth, and as such had to resign himself to the fact that what he was seeing was probably true.

Setting aside the disastrous implications of having two Merlin's in the same room, the old physician then froze in a wave of shock.

Finally, Gaius' mind settled for a state of ominous exasperation and acceptance.

The physician calmly stepped inside, closed the door behind him, and went to put his bag away, all the while very much aware of the three pairs of eyes watching him.

The old man then poured himself a cup of water and sat at the table, not looking at anyone as he sipped it slowly and with a sense of apparent calm.

"Gaius?" asked the younger Merlin, his Merlin, his voice very small and careful.

The physician set the cup on the table. He was gong to go very calmly about this, because apparently he was the only responsible adult here. It was obvious to him that he was surrounded by children: Merlin was a twenty two year old all powerful warlock with the mind of a ten year old, the heir to the throne of Camelot was a twenty three year old arrogant prince with a similar mindset and Uther, the current king of Camelot, more often than not acted like a teenager with very bad anger issues.

Gaius sighed. It seemed he was the only mature one there. (With maybe the exception of Gwen. Yes, Gwen was very mature)

The physician looked at the tree of them, noting the differences in the older Arthur and Merlin. He felt pride swelling in his chest at the sight of th older Merlin's robe, for even if the seal on it was foreign to him, Gaius could never mistaken that robe: it was the traditional robe of a Court Sorcerer.

The old man felt moisture gathering at the corners of his eyes. His ward had done it. If these two were real(which he somehow didn't doubt-only Merlin could get himself in a mess of these proportions), than it could only mean that Arthur was-would be-king and he had accepted and recognized Merlin for what he truly was.

Gaius shook his head, reminding himself that this was not the time. He had a mess to clean up.

"Which one of you did this?" he asked, struggling not to beam at the robes of the older Merlin, but failing. He couldn't seem to shake the dizzying sense of euforia off and he had to fight against the smile wanting to break out on his lips. This is not the time, he reminded himself, barely managing to force his focus back on the conversation at hand.

In response to his question(and probably Gaius' reaction to Merlin's robes too)Arthur's grin grew bigger, threatening to completely split his face in two, while the old Merlin only smiled knowingly.

His Merlin paled a bit, shuffling uncomfortably in his chair.

"I didn't do anything!" he protested, throwing his arms into the air. "I just came in and these two appeared here out of nowhere! I wasn't even in the room"

Merlin's cheeks were flushed as he tried to prove his innocence, and Gaius turned expectantly at the other Merlin, who looked a bit sheepish.

He rose an eyebrow at him. The eyebrow.

It was Arthur who spoke, his grin still very much in place. "No he didn't do it, at least not this time. This one did it" the king slapped the old Merlin across the back of his head and continued, ignoring the following "Ouch" and "Hey" and muttered "Prat."

"Merlin decided that trying a teleportation spell he could barely read, written in the old druidic runes and half smudged, was a good idea."

The protests came almost immediately. "It isn't my fault it didn't work! That could've happened to anyone"

Arthur rounded on him, forgetting for the moment about Gaius.

"No, it's your fault because you insisted on trying it, even after I've expressly told you it was a bad idea"

"You can't tell me what to do" Merlin crossed his arms over his chest, glaring indignantly at his king.

"Actually, I can. I am your king!"

Merlin the old snorted and opened his mouth to say something(probably insulting), but the younger Merlin was quicker.

"W-What?" he choked, staring at the two with eyes wide and panicked.

Gaius realized at the same time as the other two men in the room what had happened and why his ward suddenly looked like something had drained all the color from his face.

The old physician really hoped he wasn't out of that calming tea, because Merlin had just found out that Arthur was aware of his magic, and apparently he was a little surprised.

What did you think?

I hope you liked it and I know it's all a bit confusing, but then if I told you everything, where would be the fun in that? :)

Unfortunately i won't be able to update until after Wednesday, because Monday I'm leaving on a three-day trip with the class. But you will have the next chapter by Friday, even earlier if I can.

Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I'm really glad you like this story.

Until next week^^