Young one's = part 2.
The room was silent and had been for some time, Merlin and Arthur were stood leaning against the wall at the bottom of the stairs in Gaius' quarters, each with a less than sophisticated expression on their faces.
Christopher and Wade were slumped over the table, Wade was staring at a glass of water and Christopher was biting his nails, both boys kept shooting each other worried looks and letting out stifled sighs.
"Are you two hungry?" Gaius asked.
Merlin, Arthur, Wade and Christopher all looked towards Gaius, 'who was he talking to?'.
Gaius wasn't looking in any particular direction, instead he stood with his back to the room near the door.
"I am" Arthur muttered.
Merlin pushed himself off from the wall and made his way over to Gaius "I.. Maybe the boys would like some food" he said as he stood close to Gaius "they are young and me and Arthur can always get something later, in the castle".
Gaius smiled as he turned to face the two young boys "who likes broth, its mainly water, potato and carrot with a little chicken".
The two young boys raised their heads off the table "How much water?" Christopher said as he cocked his brow.
"About 85% water, but it's better than nothing" Gaius replied trying not to show his disappointment, he knew Christopher wasn't keen on the idea of what was to eat.
Christopher had a pained expression on his handsome sweet face, he forced a smile on to his face "erm do you have any bread?, that will be fine".
Gaius nodded and turned to get some bread.
"Broth is fine thank you, I would love some" said Wade as he stood up and wandered over to Gaius.
As he edged past the table he accidently caught a bucket of water and it fell off the table, as Wade saw it tumbling to the floor without thinking his eye's glowed copper and the bucket froze.
Christopher jumped up and grabbed it before anyone saw what had happened, but it was too late.
"How did you do that?" Arthur screeched as he ran into the centre of the room "how did you get it to freeze?" he kept repeating himself over and over.
He grabbed Wade's arm and spun him around to face him, Arthur's eyes burned into Wade and his grip grew tighter.
"You're a sorcerer.... are you both sorcerers?" his glare shooting to Christopher.
Wade stared at the floor, he knew he had really messed up this time and his secret was out but so was his father's secret.
"Christopher isn't a sorcerer, I am but I only use good magic" Wade's voice trembled with terror as Arthur's eyes grew wide and his lip quivered.
Merlin stepped up behind Wade and placed his hand on his shoulder "Arthur, he's a child, don't tell Uther please" Merlin begged.
Arthur shook his head and tightened his grip on the young boys arm "no, he's a sorcerer, you know the rules" Arthur's voice cold and harsh.
Christopher grabbed Arthur's hand and ripped it off Wade, then he threw himself in front of his friend "you kill him, then you have to kill me, I will not let you kill my friend" Christopher's tone as cold as Arthur's.
Arthur and Christopher both glared at each other with ice cold stares.
"I don't care who you are to me, I don't care if you don't believe me, If you kill Wade then you are no better than Uther, I will not let you kill my friend, I would rather die than let him die, its my fault we are here, if we never came things would be OK" the young boy yelled at the Prince, his father.
Arthur recognised something in the boy that he recognised in himself, his passion to do good and to protect his friend.
He backed away from the two young boys who were stood in front of Merlin.
Arthur stared curiously at the young boy who had just stood up to him with passion and without fear, something he has wanted to do with his father for so long where the people of Camelot have been concerned and his friends, he wished he had had the guts to stand up to his own father so many times, when Merlin was ill, when Gwen was going to be executed and when he had to help return the Druid boy Mordred back to his people as Uther wanted him executed.
Arthur felt his heart thumping in his chest, the young boy was becoming more and more familiar to him.
He stole glances at the boy, his eyes darting from Christopher to Merlin then to Wade.
His head was spinning, 'was this boy really his son?' he found him self thinking.
Merlin still had his hand on Wade's shoulder, he too was thinking 'is Wade really my own son? How can he be, he's here?'.
Merlin and Arthur both spoke at the same time breaking the silence, both men asked "why are you here?".
Christopher bit his lip, trying to find a way to explain just why they were in this Camelot without sounding crazy.
His thoughts were bouncing around his head and nothing he thought of sounded good or even not crazy.
"I cast a spell, not thinking it would work obviously, but never the less I cast a spell to help Christopher find something he lost out on a hunt" Wade's voice flowing soft and unnerved.
Wade leaned back on to Merlin's chest as if to make him self feel secure.
"I don't know why the spell brought us here to this Camelot, I cast a lost and found spell to find..." the young boy trailed off as he realised it should be Christopher who explained to his father that he had lost his dagger.
"I took your favourite dagger out on a hunt, you told me it brings you luck and that when ever you take it out you always catch something, I only wanted to make you proud by catching something, so I took your hunting dagger with me and I lost it" said Christopher as he followed lead from his friend.
Arthur raised his brow "my lucky dagger! You mean this one?" he leaned down and pulled out a small silver dagger from his boot.
He twisted the dagger in his hand "why is this dagger lucky for me? Other than it helps me catch things on hunts?" he asked curiously.
Christopher sighed and rubbed his head "because when you were younger, about 15 you wanted a dagger of your own, your father would not allow you to own a dagger in case you did something stupid, so you went out to the blacksmith and bought a dagger for yourself, when you got back you noticed the dagger had an imperfection on the handle, a scratch that ran pretty deep, a scratch that to you looked like AP, so you thought it lucky" Christopher explained.
Arthur smiled and nodded "I don't understand how you could know that, I have never told anyone".
Christopher smirked "you told me, that's how I know, that's why I took the dagger".
Merlin smiled to himself as he gazed down at Wade "I think the most unbelievable thing is, I have a son" he laughed as he saw Gaius' expression.
"Merlin I always knew you would have a family one day, your destiny was never to be alone" Gaius
replied in his all seeing all knowing tone of voice.
Arthur laughed and held his hand out for Christopher to take, his eyes were now soft, the icy stare had melted away and had left the Arthur that Merlin knew best.
The Arthur who would die to protect his friends, family and his people.
Gaius watched as the young boys left with their fathers.
'I knew it, I knew those boys were their son's' he thought to himself with a wide smile.
"You never did eat anything back there, we shall get you something to eat now" Arthur said as he lead the boys and Merlin into the castle.
They all walked calmly through the castle, passing guards who shot them odd looks.
The castle looked the same as it did in their time, 'it was still as cold too' Wade thought as he shivered.
Merlin wrapped his arm around the boys shoulders and pulled him close to his side.
Arthur watched the show of affection between father and son, he knew he had to do something to show affection to Christopher, 'but what if he wasn't a loving caring father? What if he was as cold and hard as Uther' Arthur thought as they scurried along the long cold echoing corridor.
"Here they are" echoed a sweet voice "aren't they just the sweetest ever, certainly nothing like Arthur" the sweet voice echoed along the corridor.
Morgana rushed forward and grabbed the boys with each hand and spun them around to face Gwen.
Gwen smiled sweetly and handed the boys two bowls with stew in, "I hope you like beef stew, there's a little bit of dumplings in there for you both" she whispered.
The boys smiled and hurried into Morgana's room to eat the food.
Merlin and Arthur followed "where's my stew?" asked Arthur as he slumped on to Morgana's bed.
Morgana and Gwen rolled their eye's as they rallied around bringing water and fruit for the boys to eat.
"You know where the kitchen is, you can get your own" replied Morgana as she sat next to Wade and poured him some water to drink.
"You two are so handsome" Morgana gushed making the boys blush.
"I cant believe you are...... you're really Arthur's son?" Gwen asked confused.
Christopher nodded with a smirk "yes my lady, I am".
Gwen smiled and her eye's lit up, "you have such wonderful manners, your mother must be a very noble woman" Gwen said her voice inquiring.
Merlin and Arthur shot each other a quick stare, they both knew the identities of the boys mother's was something they needed to know, but at the same time didn't know if they wanted to know.
Arthur knew Christopher's mother had to be a noble woman but as for Merlin, Wade's mother could be anyone.
He wasn't barred by the social barrier he could have married anyone, he wasn't like Arthur, he wasn't stuck to the noble people and his family didn't have any expectations of him to marry well and to produce a heir to the throne, unlike Arthur.
Christopher smiled at Gwen "my mother is the most wonderful woman in Camelot".
Morgana turned to Wade and raised her brow "how about you?" she asked.
Wade stared into the distance focussing on the window "my mother.... my mother is a wonderful woman also" his voice was sad and he fought to hold back his tears.
Merlin noticed the sadness in his son's voice and knew instantly that his mother was either no longer alive or no longer around.
Christopher glanced around the room and gazed up on some dolls on the dresser.
His heart flipped and he shot up "Anya" he yelled as his chair fell back.
"What if Anya got caught up in the spell as well" his voice full of panic.
Wade's expression fell into worry and he stared at his friend as he paced the room.
The adults all stared with concern at the two young boys.
"Who's Anya? Asked Gwen as her gaze followed the young blond pace back and forth in the chambers.
"She's his sister" Wade replied.
Arthur choked on some water as he realised he also had a daughter.
"I have a daughter" Arthur spluttered.
Wade nodded as he watched his friend continue to pace the room.
"She wont be here, she was outside with Gwe...... she wont be here" Wade said as he tried to console his friend.
"Are you sure? Are you sure she was out side with mother" Christopher almost screaming at his friend.
Wade nodded "yes she was with your mother, watching your father train.... at least she was supposed to be".
Merlin sat with Arthur on Morgana's bed and shook his head "so Anya could be here as well, how old is she?" Merlin inquired.
Arthur fell back on the bed and groaned "this is great, I have a daughter out there in this Camelot, she could be anywhere or with anyone".
Arthur was making Christopher panic more "she's 5 years old, she could be in the forest what if she's..... I can't think of it, it's too bad".
Gwen looked concerned "maybe we could all go look, just to be sure, it can't hurt, I mean she's a child, she could be lost or hurt, Arthur your daughter could be hurt in the forest" her voice full of sympathy.
Morgana grabbed her cape and passed Gwen hers "we must go now, a child could be in danger" Morgana gushed as she headed for the door.
"But you don't know what she looks like" Wade snapped trying to get people's attention.
Morgana turned to Wade "what does she look like?".
Christopher let his head drop in to his hands and mumbled "she looks like her mother".
Morgana did not hear what Wade had said and stared at him with a stern expression.
"He said she looks like her mother" Merlin replied when he noticed Morgana's expression.
"And what does her mother look like?" asked Morgana as she hovered in the door way.
Christopher looked up and squeezed his eye's shut, took a deep breath and swallowed hard.
"She has dark hair, dark eye's, she would be wearing a red dress, she hates girlie colours, she loves red because its what father wears, she will have a small doll, like those on the dresser" he stared at his father then back to the women.
"Just look for a little girl who looks almost exactly like..... Gwen, its your daughter" Wade cut in.
The room fell silent and Arthur stared in shock at Gwen.