A/N after seeing the finale i couldnt bring myself to write merlin since it could never do it justice but i'm back! During my gcse's because i avoid life... Enjoy :3
Merlin slept for the remainder of the day, dreaming of Arthur banishing him from Camelot for using magic. The dreams soon turned worse with him getting sentenced to death which caused Merlin to wake with a start.
Arthur, who had been watching him curiously, didn't say anything and waited for Merlin to come to his senses.
The warlock was confused to say the least; why was he in the king's bed? Where was Gaius? He turned around and saw a very tired Arthur watching him with no expression. Merlin internally sighed, Arthur was going to banish him, and he just knew it.
"I'll just pack my bag..." Merlin said as he stood up to get back to Gaius' chambers and hoped Gaius had a solution.
"Merlin," Arthur stared at him and couldn't bring himself to hurt him, "you aren't leaving." Arthur told him, standing up and walking over.
"But-" Merlin started to protest.
"Yes, I know you used magic and it goes against everything I believe in so be glad you're a good servant because my sword needs cleaning." Arthur bossed and Merlin grinned and hugged the king.
Merlin soon remembered how Arthur hated hugs and quickly saw himself out.
When he was gone, Arthur sat back at his desk and placed his head in his hands. Would life in Camelot change as he knew it? What if Merlin's secret comes out to everyone?
At that moment, Gwaine and Percival chose that moment to crash through Arthur's door with frantic looks on their faces.
"Merlin-" Gwaine said breathlessly.
"Sorcerer-" Percival said equally breathless.
"Tree-" Gwaine said.
"Magic!" Both the knights exclaimed loudly which caused Arthur to snap into action and stride to the door to slam it closed.
"You two were drunk?! How do you remember?! Leon said-" Arthur asked.
"Well, Princess," Gwaine tried to put an arm around Arthur's shoulder only for it to get shrugged off which Gwaine ignored, "Percival and I are brilliant at handling any sort of substances without getting affected. Brilliant minds too!" Gwaine self complimented himself and Percival.
Percival looked at Arthur, "you aren't banishing him are you? He's too good to be banished!"
Arthur sighed, sitting back at his desk, "For now he isn't but it really does go against my rules..."
"Ah, but you are the king, and you have no rules to follow!" Gwaine grinned at the exasperated king who looked like he would collapse at any minute. "Besides, I think you, princess, need some sleep."
Arthur sighed again before giving in, "make sure no-one disturbs me." Gwaine and Percival nodded and left to stand outside the door.
The young king quickly collapsed in defeat to sleep at his desk.
"So it's true, eh?" Percival said to Gwaine outside as they sat down against the door (ever the professionals).
"I know! We need to find him after Arthur wakes up..." they sat in silence for a moment, "Or we could go now..." Gwaine suggested.
Percival grinned. "The king won't know so it's not like we're disobeying orders..."
So it was decided, the two knights with brilliant digestive systems towards alcohol would find the newly confessed warlock.
"Where do you reckon he is?" Gwaine asked.
"No idea!" Percival said and they laughed and headed in a random direction in the hopes of finding him - it normally worked anyway.
Fifteen minutes later, they saw him in the armoury cleaning swords.
"MERLIN!" They greeted him with over-enthusiastic hugs which took Merlin by surprise. "Can I help you guys?" He asked confused as to why they were hugging him in the first place.
Gwaine lowered his voice and grinned, "we know your little secret, Merlin."
The warlock paled a further shade at this. "But Arthur told me you two were completely drunk!"
"We can handle alcohol better than any other knight in Camelot!"Percival told him proudly.
"Could you show us... A little spell?" Gwaine asked carefully really wanting to see magic in action.
Merlin scrutinized the sudden five year old knights excited at the prospect of magic before sighing and holding out his hand.
"What are you doing?" Gwaine asked immediately.
"If you'd let me perform the spell, you'd see." Merlin said curtly.
"Sorry." Gwaine whispered.
Merlin stared at his hand and said a spell that made a fire appear in his hand.
"WHAT THE." Gwaine jumped back into Percival who had the same expression of surprise.
"What?" Merlin grinned innocently as he put the fire out. "Was that a good enough spell for you?"
"YEP." Percival answered before Gwaine. "Show us something else!" He begged and Gwaine nodded joining in.
Merlin sighed, it was going to be a long day...
Meanwhile, Leon, the only intelligent knight, had been with Gaius discussing all the possibilities of magic and Merlin's strengths. Gaius was happy to have someone to talk to about all of this stuff so told him everything.
"Gaius?" Leon asked.
"Yes, Leon?" Gaius wondered what on earth he wanted to know about now. He already knew the history up to Morgana's uprising.
"Do you think Arthur will be ok with it? After a while, I mean." Leon asked.
Gaius frowned, "that's hard to say... Arthur values their friendship although he would never say it."
"I talked to him earlier, he looked rather anguished about the whole thing" Leon sighed, "Camelot wouldn't be the same without Merlin, that's for sure."
"It's a decision we have to leave to the king, I'm afraid, we won't be able to change his mind." Gaius sighed quietly; he wished Merlin hadn't gotten knocked over by a tree in the first place now.
The king in question suddenly burst into the room causing Leon to knock over a vial full of liquid off the table. Leon immediately set to cleaning up the shattered glass.
"Where's Merlin?" Arthur asked Gaius straight to the point ignoring the broken vial.
"Haven't seen him sire, I thought he was with you?" Gaius replied hoping Merlin wasn't putting himself in more trouble.
"I sent him to clean my armour but he isn't there anymore!" Arthur said exasperated.
"He won't be far, sire." Gaius told him as he got a cloth to soak up the liquid on the floor.
"Thanks for your help, Gaius." Arthur said before leaving again.
"He looks worse than earlier..." Leon said, concerned for the king he had been loyal to for most of his life.
"Well stress is probably getting to him, I will make a small draft for him to take tonight while you," Gaius turned to Leon, "you will make sure Arthur doesn't do anything stupid when he finds Merlin, my bet is he is in the tavern."
Leon nodded, switching to knight mode, "will do, see you Gaius!" And he left.
"Oh, Merlin, what have you got yourself into now?" Gaius muttered to himself as he started to get the ingredients ready for a sleeping draft.
Now in the streets of Camelot were starting to look a bit strange to a regular peasant living among the houses. And by strange, I mean there were mushrooms growing everywhere and much of the straw in Camelot had disappeared - not so strange after all.
The straw in question was with Merlin, Gwaine and Percival who had decided to try a practical joke on someone. The joke in question was to be one of surprise. Merlin had morphed the straw into a human figure and after subtly taking a pumpkin, had placed it on top for a head. As for the mushrooms, Percival just thought a mushroom growing in the cobbles was cool.
"This will be brilliant! No-one ever expects to get scared around here- well... Not by a knight like me- ah, well, it's still a brilliant plan." Gwaine reassured himself.
"Gwaine, could you help me and Percival actually put this up rather than just standing and talking to yourself?" Merlin snapped as the weight of the straw figure started to get to him. The warlock was rather weak despite his magical power.
"Oh, right, sure." Gwaine quickly helped Merlin to tie up the straw figure to some rope they had also found, and Percival pulled the rope till the figure was out of view then tied it to a heavy looking rock. The rope had been looped through a nearby hole that was more convenient than useful in this story.
"MERLIN!" Arthur was shouting in the distance as he looked for the servant. Merlin gulped, if there was one thing he feared, it was an angry Arthur. "I don't think I'll live to see the joke guys, wish me luck..." Merlin sighed as he began walking over to the king who hadn't seen him yet.
"Good luck!" Gwaine and Percival chorused, and then began planning a plan of their own to make things right between Merlin and Arthur.
"Sire?" Merlin asked bracing himself for the shouting.
Arthur turned around and scrutinized him for a minute, "I told you to go and polish my swords and instead I find them abandoned!"
"Sorry, sire, I'll get back to it straight away-" Merlin started to leave.
"Mer-lin, I don't care about the swords- well, not yet anyway." Arthur sighed while Merlin raised an eyebrow wondering what on Earth Arthur was looking for him about then- oh... Magic.
"See, the thing is, Merlin." The king, usually confident, now reduced to thinking carefully about his words in fear of hurting Merlin's feelings.
"Go on..." Merlin said just wanting it to be over and done with and get banished. He had already expected it this morning so had a bag ready to take with him. Where he would go, was nobody's guess.
Arthur rubbed his neck as he tried to think of the words to say. However, before he could, screams erupted from the tavern as people ran out even the tavern owner, Cara who was afraid of no-one, not even Percival - who was having a lovely relationship with her.
Arthur pulled out his sword and ran blindly into the tavern without a second thought, Merlin sighed and ran after him, knowing he'd be needed somehow, he always did.
Inside was a sight he'd never thought he'd see in Camelot - two figures covered in black material all over so you couldn't see their faces with swords charging at Arthur.
"ARGH." Arthur shouted as he charged and began to single-handedly fight them. Now was Merlin's chance to show Arthur how his magic isn't something to be afraid of!
Merlin quickly made the two attackers fly backwards into the wall behind them with a crash. Arthur stared in wonder at the knocked out attackers then at Merlin.
"D-did you do that?" Arthur said shakily.
Merlin nodded slowly.
"Why?" The king asked simply.
"Because they were attacking you?" Merlin couldn't stop replying rudely and mentally cursed himself, now was not the time to call the king a prat.
"Yes, well," Arthur straightened himself up, "I clearly had them."
"Oh, really," Merlin grinned, "sure you did, Sire."
"But why do it? Why use magic?" Arthur ventured to ask.
"I always use magic to protect you, sire, it's the only thing I use it for." Merlin frowned and didn't look at the king while confessing this; it was hard enough admitting he had magic as it was.
"Protect me?" Arthur was speechless.
"Yeah, you're the prat who always runs blindly into the fire and I have to put it out for you." Merlin grinned hoping Arthur would take it lightly.
To his happiness, the king laughed, "Merlin you are one strange character, you know that?"
"I have been told... Who are these attackers anyway?" Merlin asked changing the subject subtly.
"Let's find out shall we?" Arthur said moving over to the two figures.
A/N who were the attackers? Will Arthur and Merlin finally have solved the issues between them? Will Gaius successfully make the sleeping draft? Tune in next time!
I decided to include Cara because hey, who doesn't like shameless promotion for my other stories? So go check out such an uneventful love life for a one-shot of Percival scoring the tavern owner ;)
And yes, if know, I did link in the actual reveal speech into this one a tiny bit but hey, it was a brilliant scene and mine will always be inferior.
