Alright, tonight's the night bitches will die, thought a ten-year old Arthur Pendragon as he helped a bruised Merlin wipe blood off his face.
"Merlin, who did this?" he demanded for the millionth time.
"It's fine, Arthur," said Merlin, giving him a weak smile. "I've had worse."
The blonde sucked in a breath. "Who-?"
"N-n-nobody."
"Merlin! They broke your nose! Tell me so I can murder them violently," Arthur snarled. Merlin whimpered slightly and the blonde realized he may have went a little far. He dropped down by his friend and squeezed him with a side-hug. "Okay, I wouldn't have murdered them. Maybe just hurt them really bad."
Merlin nodded, but hung his head. "Arthur, why do you care? Why do you care if I got hurt?"
"Merlin." Arthur put a hand under his chin to make him look up. "You're my best friend. I have to care. And remember what I said on our first day of kindergarten?"
Merlin nodded.
"I said I would protect you from anything."
"Um," Merlin coughed. "I think you said 'anything scary.'"
Arthur rolled his eyes. "Thanks for ruining the moment."
Merlin snorted, which caused him to wince and blood dribbled out of his nose. Arthur took a cloth and wiped it away, noticing that Merlin was staring at him funny.
"What?" he asked.
"Hmm?" asked Merlin, confused. "Oh, sorry. I just noticed….your hair is blonde."
"After five years, you just noticed that?"
Merlin shook his head and Arthur put the cloth back under his bleeding nose. "No, it's really blonde. Golden. I don't know. I'm crazy."
"Delusional from blood loss," Arthur agreed jokingly, for Merlin couldn't have lost a lot of blood from his broken nose. Merlin grinned.
"If I'm delusional, would I do this?" He gave Arthur a mock sloppy kiss on the cheek, as if to annoy him. It did not annoy him, however.
"Hmmm. Yep, you're completely loopy," Arthur assessed, blushing slightly.
"Loopy? But I don't see any Fruit Loops."
"Now you're just not making sense….." Arthur sighed. "You've really lost it."
"De-lu-sion-al from blood loss," Merlin sing-sanged.
"Know what we do with nutcases like you?" Arthur stood up and grabbed both of Melrin's wrists. "We put you in the nuthouse!"
"Where is the nuthouse?" Merlin teased. Arthur pulled him up and dragged him to the back yard. There they sat under a tree. Merlin looked confused. "This is the nuthouse?"
Arthur smiled mischievously. "Yep. Because….." he grabbed his friend from behind and pulled him on top of himself. He restrained Merlin's arms with his own. "They don't let you out!"
"Let go! Let go, you prat!"
"Nope. You're loopy. Can't let you go."
"Eventually you will!"
"Nope, never!" Arthur laughed. "I'll never let go of you!"
Merlin struggled for a while but slumped on Arthur after half an hour. "Okay, you win."
Arthur smiled, and did not release his friend, who in turn did not push off. They stayed there for a while, under the tree. Merlin snuggled into Arthur as the sun set.
"Merlin?" asked Arthur, running his fingers through his friend's raven locks. It was so soft. "Are you okay?"
Merlin blinked. "What do you mean?"
"I mean sometimes you look so…sad. And you're always hurt somehow," Arthur quietly said, running his finger lightly over Merlin's broken nose.
Merlin closed his eyes, opened them again, and smiled. "I'm fine. You're here."
The blonde pondered this for a while as Merlin's breathing grew steady. Of course, he had fallen asleep. Well, it was almost ten o'clock, according to Arthur's watch. He adjusted Merlin in a better position and fell asleep himself.
In the dead of the night, Arthur woke up to something thrashing in his arms. His eyes flashed open and he instantly drew the writhing Merlin tighter.
"No," muttered the sleeping boy. "No, p-p-please."
"Merlin, you idiot, wake up."
The raven-haired boy moaned and tried to get free of Arthur's grasp. He kept calling out, as if someone would come. The blonde shook him, but it only seemed to make it worse.
"P-p-p-p-please, don't hurt her," Merlin sobbed, still asleep. "Hit me instead."
Arthur was suddenly struck by brilliance. "Merlin, I won't hurt her."
"You won't?"
"And I'll never hurt you," the blonde promised. Merlin seemed to calm down and he relaxed, only to wake up a second later.
"Arthuuuuuuuuuuur." The raven blinked blearily about, then turned around so he was chest to chest with his friend. "Why are we outside?"
Arthur decided not to bring up what just happened. "We fell asleep out here."
Another blink. "Oh." A look around. "I don't wanna move."
The blonde smiled and said (maybe a bit huskily), "We can stay out here." He wrapped his arms around his slighter friend again, who in turned, buried his face in Arthur's neck. This was one thing that never changed throughout the years; they always slept curled up together. It was really more out of habit and both agreed it was warmer.
"Arthur," whispered Merlin, half asleep.
"Yeah?"
"You're my best friend."
"You're mine too."
"Night, Arthur."
"Night, Merlin."
"Blaaaaaaaaaaaah," said Merlin, falling back on the grass, a few days later. The smile on his face was huge. "I'm dead now."
Arthur shook his head with amusement. "Then why are you smiling?"
Merlin sat up very quick, nearly knocking heads with Arthur. "Because," he said, serious expression on his face. "I'm completely loopy!"
Arthur scrunched his nose and narrowed his eyes in what was an oh what have started expression (almost like a facepalm minus the hand). "Not going to let that go?"
Merlin laid down on the grass again. "Nope! Never! I'm crazy! De-lu-sion-al!" His smile brightened. "Loopy!"
Arthur rolled his eyes. "Yes, you're completely insane! I'll have to take you to the nuthouse again!"
"Okay!" the raven replied brightly. He pounced on top of Arthur, the blonde getting knocked over in the process. "Look! We're on the ground!" the very loopy boy cried happily.
"Merlin," Arthur started.
"Arthur!" mocked Merlin, smile wide as ever. "C'mon, let's go run around." At that, the raven sprang up, tugging Arthur by the hand. They ran all over the Pendragon's backyard then out into the empty street. One thing lead to another and they were at the town park, after fifteen minutes of straight running. They collapsed under a tree, one Arthur recognized.
"Merlin, look," he said, staring up at the branches. "It's our tree, the one where we basically met."
Merlin looked up too, but then caught his friend's eye. "Wanna climb it?"
Arthur shrugged. "Is it safe to let loopy people up in trees?"
"Of course! How else do people know we're loopy? We stand in trees and yell about it." Merlin stood up and so did Arthur. They found a good place to start and slowly scaled it. About half-way up, Merlin stepped on a lose knot of wood that was rotting away. He had intended to put his full weight on it and pull up with his arms, but it gave away, making him plummet to the ground.
"Merlin!" Arthur called, jumping from where he was, not caring that he didn't land in the best or least painful way. Merlin was on the ground, one hand pressed to his back and the other to his stomach. He didn't move. "Merlin?" the blonde tried again.
"One – moment," the raven said through gritted teeth. Arthur stooped down next to him, panicking slightly when he saw red liquid soaking through his friend's shirt. Branches and tree bark had scratched him. "I-I should be fine now," Merlin gasped, in pain, as he sat up.
"Merlin, you're bleeding. We should take off your shirt and-"
"No! No! I'm fine!" The raven plastered a very fake grin. "See, I'm fine!"
Arthur rolled his eyes and awkwardly pulled off his unprotesting friend's shirt. What the tree did wasn't so bad, but what had already been there was scary.
There were long, thin scars across Merlin's back, as if something had whipped him. There were other miscellaneous marks everywhere. And there were bruises. So many bruises. When Merlin turned to face Arthur, the blonde emitted a sound between a gasp and a growl.
In the center of Merlin stomach, was a large round, pink circle that made the skin look melted. A burn. A burn like that doesn't happen on accident.
"Merlin," said Arthur, voice deadly. "How-?"
The raven suddenly burst into tears. "Please. Please don't ask. Please."
Arthur was quite shocked at his at friend's reaction, but of course sat closer to him and hugged him. "If you don't want me," he whispered softly. "Then I won't."
The raven whimpered softly, burying his head in Arthur's shoulder. "I can't tell. I can't! If I did – if I did-" the boy started sobbing again.
"Shhhhh. It'll be alright."
"No it won't!" Merlin yelled, breaking away from Arthur for a moment. He looked so sad, so broken. Arthur pulled him back, but this time so Merlin's head lay on his lap. " 'M sorry, Arthur."
"It's okay," said Arthur, looking down at his friend in concern.
"Arthur why are you my friend? Why do you do this? Why don't you hate me like everyone else?"
Arthur sighed. "We've been through this. We're best friends. That's why. I could never hate you, even if you lied to me about something for years. And why would you think people hate you in the first place?"
Merlin shook his head and turned over, facing down on Arthur's legs. He moaned and did not answer. When he turned up again, he popped a question.
"Can I put my shirt back on?"
Arthur laughed. "Of course. Back at my house well put band-aids on your scrapes."
Merlin looked down at himself. "They'll have to be pretty big."
Arthur smiled. "They will be."
Merlin didn't get up. "Arthur…Arthur, it hu-"
The blonde swooped down and picked up his friend without him saying the words. Merlin was already red from almost asking the question and Arthur was all too happy to comply.
"Really, Merlin," Arthur commented. "You weight nothing."
The raven rolled his eyes. "Would you rather I weight a million pounds?"
Arthur snorted. "Yeah, of course. It would mean I couldn't carry you anymore, which I know you hate."
Merlin smiled. "Maybe not anymore."
"Why?" The blonde's heart skipped a beat for some reason.
"Because I'm loopy."
A/N: Sorry this chapter's so...loopy, but half of it was written at two a.m. Again thank you to all reviewers, who again get something magaical and doesn't "exsist," which think this time will be homunculuses (or homunculi?). Well, it's two a.m. Bye.