This was only meant to be a four part story, but it now has to have another, but only one more chapter, just to finish off.

Arthur made no comment about what had occurred when he returned. They didn't have time, the opening of the tournament had been delayed but still had to go ahead. Arthur had delivered his report to Uther, who had found it a little unsatisfactory, but his opinion of the truth would have been far worst. Merlin was just a servant, Arthur should not go around hammering the living daylights out of knights to protect Merlin's honour. Arthur had found that he couldn't help himself, when he had seen what had been happening.

He put Merlin in enough dangerous situations, and odd humiliations that Arthur should have been able to let the incident go, but he couldn't. Glancing at Merlin, who looked pale, paler than usual, Arthur knew he couldn't. Merlin was quite obviously utterly innocent when it came to things like that. Arthur had never really seen Merlin show any interest in anyone. There had been hints that he was interested in Gwen but never seemed to have come to anything. Arthur couldn't remember anyone displaying any interest in Merlin. Not that Merlin ever had much time, if he wasn't tailing Arthur around Gaius usually had Merlin running around on errands.

That settled Arthur's feelings on the subject, he didn't want Merlin getting distracted. He didn't want Merlin losing his innocence, certainly not in such a manner. Arthur also had the feeling that despite the Mercian knight's silence several of the other knights had an inkling of the reason behind what had happened.

Merlin paid no attention to the stares they were receiving. Arthur getting into his armour was almost as much of an attraction as the tournament itself. It was one reason that once he was in his chain mail that Arthur stood outside the tent and Merlin finished off dressing him in full view of the crowds. Uther had almost insisted on it from the moment that Arthur attended tournaments. It annoyed the prince a little, he wanted to concentrate on getting himself prepared for the oncoming fight, not stand about like a prize bull. The situation did make him a little snappy, but Merlin had long ago learnt not to say anything to Arthur, because Arthur wanted to think. He ignored the crowds, he ignored the other knights, and stayed locked in his own mind. It was the one and only time Merlin did truly know to shut up.

Now he seemed overly quiet. Even if Merlin wasn't talking there was a level of energy about him that made it seem as if all his effort was going into not saying anything. Arthur, currently, couldn't sense that. Merlin was just subdued. The only problem lay in Arthur not knowing if it was a result of what had happened, or what he himself had done. He probably wasn't going to find out until much later.

Arthur lifted his arm so Merlin could fasten the buckle and then he turned to gather up Arthur's belt, wrapping it around his waist. Arthur gave up on trying to catch Merlin's eye and looked around instead. Meeting the gaze of the knights who were around, several of whom had their eyes on Merlin. Arthur made a note of some of them, wondering if he would meet them later in the tournament.

"Sire?"

Merlin glanced up and frowned.

"Sir Leon?" Arthur said, fiddling with his gloves, tugging them up his arms, he had yet to take them off. The feast tonight would be interesting, he couldn't wear his gloves, he'd have to somehow make it look like the bruising had been received during the upcoming bouts.

Arthur ignored Merlin's increasing frown as he saw Leon's right arm bound up.

"Everyone is ready."

"Thank you," Arthur said, not even looking at Merlin as Merlin handed him his sword. Merlin wasn't sure if the thank you was for him or Leon. Arthur gave Merlin a quick glance.

"Gaius will probably need you now."

"Yes Sire," Merlin huffed. Arthur glared at him and then stalked off. Merlin headed off after him. Gaius would be close to the ring, Merlin might as well go the same way. He felt a little better about it, especially as Leon trailed along with him.

"What happened to you?"

"I strained it, I don't think the old injury had healed," Leon said.

"That was nearly two weeks ago," Merlin said. Leon shrugged, which didn't seem to hurt his shoulder half as much as it should have done, in Merlin's opinion.

"I had been training more this week, it's unfortunate it happened but…" Again Leon shrugged. Merlin's eyes narrowed.

"Gaius didn't bind that."

"He's been busy, I didn't want to bother him."

"I'm sure he wouldn't have minded, do you want me to look at it?"

"Merlin, it's fine, just a little strained." Leon reached out to push Merlin back, as he had tried to get at the bandage. Merlin didn't resist him but it gave him enough of a chance to look at the knots, and he recognised the work immediately.

"Arthur did that, he bound the wound."

Leon frowned, glancing down at the bandage wondering how Merlin knew that. It gave Merlin a second to reach forward and squeeze Leon's shoulder, which had suffered a dislocation originally. If it had been strained, there should have been some reaction, however Leon just grabbed his wrist and removed Merlin's probing hand.

"Enough Merlin."

"You're not injured, why are you pretending you are injured, you should be in the tournament."

"And now I'm not," Leon said, his eyes following a group of Mercian knights as they made their way to the ring for the opening. A few of them glanced at Merlin, then most of them looked away as they realised Leon was glaring at them. Merlin glanced at them and then back to Leon, taking a step back from him.

"Arthur told you."

"Yes."

"So you pretended to be injured so you could spend the day babysitting me. Arthur made you do that?"

"No, I offered."

Merlin gaped for a moment, and then scowled. "For heavens sake! I don't need babysitting!"

"If you say so," Leon said.

"I am going to kill Arthur, I'm going to…"

Leon reached out with his un-bandaged arm and grabbed Merlin, pulling him back as he started to stalk off.

"Leave it Merlin."

"Why? How many other people is he going to tell? And…"

"Keep your voice down!" Leon hissed, yanking Merlin closer. "Arthur wants to protect you, just let him do it."

"Oh, because he bothers so much about it the rest of the time!"

Leon paused and thought about that. "This time he does."

"Why?" Merlin demanded, pulling himself away from Leon. The knight assessed Merlin carefully and then sighed.

"You don't know much about Camelot's traditions."

"I guess not."

"One of them is that the knights in training, when they are younger, act as pages for competing knights."

"So?"

"That included Arthur."

"So, what does that have to do with…?" Merlin paused and tailed off, staring at Leon as he realised exactly what Leon was implying. Merlin blinked, slowly, before staring at Leon again.

"Arthur? It happened to Arthur?"