A/N Thanks to my good friends in the Whimsical Wanderings chatroom for brainstorming with me on this one, and sending well-deserved love and eternal devotion to beta LyricalSinger.

Warning: This one will be rated T as there is an adult, misuse of authority (not graphic) aspect to the theme and a touch of violence.


Hard-Working – Part 1

Merlin stifled a yawn of fatigue as he stood behind Arthur, carafe of wine held precariously in one hand. Leaning forward to top up the Prince's goblet, he whispered, "How much longer do you think they are going to be talking about that stupid fair?" as he cocked his head in Lord Reginald and Sir Derrick's direction. "I'd really like the chance to at least see my bed before I have to start my morning chores."

The two brothers were seated across the table from Arthur, and were engaged in deep conversation with the King. They had come to Camelot well in advance of the weeklong tournament that was to be held to honour the 30th anniversary of Uther's crowning. Like most others of the 30 or so nobles that had been invited to have dinner at the King's table that evening, they were hoping to take care of some business with the King before the start of the competitions.

"Not sure," mumbled Arthur, trying not to show that he was discussing anything other than cup-refills with a servant. "They need my father's grant of permission to hold one on their lands, but I've not heard them put forward much of an argument to support it." He glanced up at Merlin and took a swallow of his wine. "I'm pretty sure that what they propose will compete with the fair at Sorfield."

"Oh," said Merlin, stepping back out of the way again. The servant barely let his back touch the wall before boredom drove him once more towards the Prince. "And is that good or bad?" he asked, pouring more wine as an excuse to approach the table again so soon.

Unfortunately, Arthur's goblet was already so full that Merlin only managed to make it overflow, the wine dripping down the side of the cup and pooling on the table in a half-circle around the base, where the Arthur had set it.

"Idiot," hissed the Prince, grabbing the cloth that was draped over his servant's arm and wiping his hand, which had been resting on the stem of the goblet. "Watch what you are doing next time!"

Merlin's eyes widened when he realized what he'd done, but he relaxed since Arthur's words had been said without any real anger. "Sorry, Sire," he said, but as he tried to take back his cloth, he jarred the goblet causing it to wobble dangerously and slop even more of the wine onto the table top.

Merlin quickly began to soak up the mess. He desperately hoped that nobody had noticed as, for whatever reason, Merlin's clumsiness at the dinner table had made its appearance several times in the last few days, and usually just at times when the King was looking his way.

The King did not miss it this time either, and Merlin gulped and almost dropped the entire carafe when he glanced up and saw Uther glaring directly at him. To make it worse, his mishap had not only caught the King's attention, but also that of the two brothers who had been talking with him. Merlin wondered if the entire room had seen him spill the wine and thought that maybe he should just throw the jug and the cloth and perhaps a few plates across the room, do a jig and then jump out the window to make his mortification complete.

Arthur's slap across the back of his head brought his attention back to the Prince. "Merlin, only you!" he said. "I'm not sure why I put up with you."

"Me either," the servant agreed with a sad shake of his head, adding "…OW?!" as the fact of being hit finally registered.

"Can you just leave that?" Arthur said, seeing that Merlin was now spreading the mess around more than he was managing to clean it up. "One of the other servants will do that. I think you need to go home and find your bed."

Merlin looked up at the Prince, hurt. This time there had been anger in Arthur's tone. "It's … well it was a long day, and I'm tired," the servant complained. He had been up before dawn and had run around doing errands non-stop for the rest of the day. It was always busy at the Castle in the time leading up to a tournament.

Arthur scowled, "Yes, well for whatever reason, you are useless now," he said. "So go. I'll see you early tomorrow with my breakfast, and don't be late," he warned.


Lord Reginald watched with interest as Arthur waved the young, dark-haired servant out of the room and called over another boy to take care of the mess that the first had caused. The noble's eyes followed the departing boy as he left the room, and he smiled when he noticed that Sir Derrick also had his eyes on the slim figure.

"Sire," Reginald said, turning to the King, "are Camelot's servants always so entertaining?"

Uther scowled, "Well, entertaining is certainly not a word I would use for that one," he said. "Disaster would be better, though I prefer not to think about him at all."

Reginald looked towards his brother and caught his eye. The two men were always on the lookout for a pretty boy to add to the collection they already had serving at their manor.

"If you do not wish to keep him, we could take him off your hands," Derrick said. "We are short on servants just now, and we could offer a good price for him. After all, we would then have the privilege of boasting that we have a Camelot-trained man in our household."

Uther narrowed his eyes, wondering if the knight was serious about taking the boy off his hands. If so, it could be a good opportunity to rid his son of the idiot and find a replacement worthier of serving a Crown Prince. "I will … consider it …" he said he said slowly.

Uther continued to mull over the possibility. The boy was not a slave, so Uther could not very well sell him outright, as Sir Derrick had implied. However, it would be simple enough to force the servant to comply with his King's demands, should Uther come up with a reasonable justification for his reassignment. The problems were that first, he, himself had taken on the boy in a very public hiring, and second, for some incomprehensible reason Arthur seemed to like having the useless servant around. Uther knew he would need a good reason for trading the boy to Sir Derrick; some proof of him being unfit for his job that his son would agree with, or at least could not refute.

He looked over towards Arthur several times during the rest of the evening and saw that he was being efficiently seen to by an unobtrusive young servant. One who knew his place. And kept busy serving things. And did not spill wine all over the table. Or interrupt a Prince to ask questions about things that were none of his business.

Uther sat back with a sigh. He had had enough of thinking about servants for one night. But, although he did not usually take any notice of them, he knew that he would need to make an exception if he wanted an excuse to get rid of Arthur's manservant. He decided that he would keep an eye on the boy until the beginning of the tournament. The servant already had a reputation for laziness; surely it would be easy to collect enough evidence of it and have the boy packing even before the first round of the competition had begun.


"Ah, Merlin," said Gaius as his ward straggled down the stairs the next morning. "I was wondering when you would get up."

Merlin stepped off the bottom stair and stopped to rub the sleep out of both eyes before moving forward again. "Why?" he asked, raising a hand to cover a yawn. "It's still early, isn't it?" Merlin squinted to look out the window and confirmed that it was only just past dawn. Even though Arthur had banished him from the dining room before the dinner was finished, that had still been after the midnight bell had rung, and he'd had a few things to clean up in Gaius' chambers even after that before finally being able to head to his own room. It seemed like he had only just closed his eyes when the morning light cracked through his window, and he grudgingly pulled himself out of his bed once more.

"I need you to go fishing," Gaius said, giving a last stir to the bowl of oatmeal he was preparing.

Merlin stopped in his tracks, uncomprehending. "Whaa?" he asked, sure that his tired brain must have scrambled Gaius' words.

Gaius chuckled, "Yes, you heard me right. Fishing," he repeated as he set the bowl down at Merlin's place and brought over two cups and a pot of steaming tea.

Merlin sat down and picked up his spoon, taking a bite of the hot cereal while he waited for Gaius to fill in the details.

"There is a rare type of perch that can be found only in the lake just outside the city for a few days every few years," Gaius said. "Sir Leon came by yesterday and to tell me that he spotted one while he was out on a patrol near there."

Merlin took another bite of his oatmeal, "Perch..." he said. "Um… why? Are they made of gold or something? We can't just fish for the regular type once all the fuss with getting ready for the tournament is done?"

"No, I'm afraid it cannot wait," Gaius said, chuckling at Merlin's expression of doubt. "Leon knows I keep an eye out for them. They are very useful medicinally," he explained enthusiastically. "The oil, the scales, the fins and even the bones and eyes form the base for many of my more esoteric preparations."

Merlin grimaced, hoping that he would never ever have to drink down a potion made up of those particular ingredients.

Gaius smiled at Merlin's obvious distaste, "And if you manage to catch any, we will also have a very good dinner tonight as an extra benefit," he added.

"That right there will make it worthwhile then, I'm sure," Merlin said with a smile. "But I have to check with Arthur and the Steward first. They've been keeping me busy with all sorts of extra chores because of this tournament." The warlock shook his head, "Did you know that Arthur sent me all the way to Milton yesterday just to get a new button for his dress cloak? Milton! For a button." Merlin scowled, "He said he needed one with the special dragon inlay that only they can do. I couldn't even use my magic to make one and avoid the trip," he said. "I didn't know what the stupid thing looked like."

"Just do your best," Gaius said, hiding a smile at his ward's outrage, "I cannot ask for more than that, but knowing you, I have no doubt that you will find a way."


Merlin did eventually find some time head out to the small lake just beyond Camelot's eastern gate. As he'd expected, Arthur and the Steward kept him busy mucking horses' stalls, cleaning windows and washing more floors than existed in the entire village of Ealdor. It was exhausting work, but was not really unpleasant if truth be told. Since all of the other servants in the castle were just as overloaded as Merlin, it was a time of camaraderie as they helped each other out, and commiserated over all of the extra chores. Merlin even saw George wipe away a bead of sweat! Apparently the world's perfect servant was human after all.

It was Cook who finally provided the opportunity he needed. She wanted some watercress collected for dinner that evening, and insisted that the most succulent plants grew by a stream that fed into the same lake that was home to Gaius' perch. Most of the other servants did not like to venture outside of the Castle walls, but Merlin was delighted when Steward asked if he would mind taking on the task.


"What is that?" Arthur asked as Merlin arrived at his chambers bringing his lunch. "You look ridiculous!"

Merlin looked around and, seeing that the Prince's desk was covered with scrolls and parchments, set the tray down on the small table by the fireplace. The servant smiled and let the large round woven bag he was carrying slip off of his shoulder. He held it out to Arthur to inspect. "It's Cook's," he said. "Yeah, it's a good thing she is talented in the kitchen, because she's quite horrible at embroidery." He laughed and pointed to a black mass of stitches with some white spikes at the ends, which Merlin took to be claws. "I think this is meant to be a cat," he said.

"Cat?" Arthur asked, pulling the bag in for a closer look. "I would have guessed it was some sort of swamp monster or something," Dropping the bag he looked back up at his servant, "But why do you have Cook's bag?"

"She needs watercress for dinner tonight, and Steward told her I would go out to the stream and collect it for her," Merlin answered. "As long as you don't need me for anything urgent, that is," he added.

Arthur looked at him, and then glanced around the room. "As long as you clean up in here, and are back in time to pour my bath, I should be able to spare you. Besides, Cook does this thing… with bacon… and… yes, by all means collect her some watercress."

Merlin snickered. "As much as I can carry, I promise," he said. "I also need to get some sort of medicinal fish for Gaius, so I will do that while I am out there."

"Medicinal fish?" asked Arthur raising his eyes skeptically. "No, I don't want to know," he said, holding up a hand to silence Merlin when it looked like the servant was about to explain. "Just be back to pour my bath."


It did not take long for Merlin to finish cleaning up the room. Not once Arthur had left for the training ground, and the warlock could safely send a couple of tendrils of magic to speed things along, in any case. He let the papers on the desk organize themselves and the laundry float its own way to the basket, while he swept the floor. That done, he secured Cook's bag on his shoulder, picked up the basket and the dirty lunch dishes and left Arthur's chambers.

Merlin hummed tunelessly as he walked along the pathway leading from the road to the bend in the stream where Cook had said the most succulent watercress grew. Once he got closer, he deposited everything but the cat/swamp monster bag near a large rock a few paces away from the banks of the stream, and headed over to take a closer look.

"Oh, well that's …" he muttered, peering out into the water in dismay. There was plenty of luscious-looking watercress, all right, but it was right in the middle of the widest point of the stream, where the water was at least waist deep. "She didn't tell me I was going to need to go swimming for it!" he complained to himself.

Merlin scowled, hands on hips for a moment before he got an idea. "Maybe there's a way…" he said, looking about for a long stick or something that he might use to pull some of the plants towards the shore. "I know; my fishing rod should do it!" he decided, trotting back and retrieving the pole from where he had left it.

"Now, if I could …. just…" he said, crouching down and reaching out to try to corral the plants. But, no matter how far he leaned, he still did not come near to even touching the closest of them. He gave up on his idea when he tottered and almost lost his balance, only preventing himself from slipping right down the bank and into the stream by flailing his arms until he was able to right himself enough to flop down on the muddy bank.

Merlin lay there for a moment, breathing heavily. Once his heart had stopped pounding from his near miss, he stood up and looked around, hoping that he might get away with using his magic to move the watercress towards the shore. He discarded the idea straight away; there were just too many people on the road nearby. He shook his head sadly, "So… well… I guess I'm wet already…" he said, and resigned to an imminent plunge in the cold stream, he began to remove his jacket.

Once his jacket, belt and neckerchief were folded and put beside his other things, Merlin climbed down the bank and waded out to where the plants were growing. With not much purchase on the rocky bottom, it was hard work cutting through the roots of the plant, although at least this far from the road Merlin could use a subtle bit of magic to help untangle them. Still, by the time the warlock filled his bag and dragged himself out of the water, he was completely drenched and was breathless with exhaustion.

"I hope that Cook does not need more of this any time soon," Merlin groaned from where he lay in the grass at the top of the bank. Once he felt able to move again, he pulled himself up to a sitting position, and allowed himself a tiny trickle of magic to warm himself and get at least some of the water out of his clothes. It was late spring and though the sun was warm, the stream had been cold enough that his fingernails were still blue-tinted from being in the water so long. Shivering, he dared to repeat the spell before he finally forced himself to his feet. "I guess that will have to do," he said, leaning over to grab his jacket and the other clothes he had taken off to go wading. Once he was dressed, Merlin hefted his cress-filled bag, picked up his fishing rod and the rest of his various packs and bags and sloshed his way slowly along the banks of the stream.


Merlin had to walk quite a long way along the lakeshore past where the stream fed into the lake before he found a spot that was likely to attract fish. "This should be perfect," he said, looking around. Nodding with satisfaction, the servant sat down on a grassy place on the bank, divested himself of all his luggage and leaned up against a large tree that overhung the lake. He cast his line and checked to be sure his hook was where he wanted it, and after looking around to make sure nobody was about, he cast a luring spell on the bait.

"Now, I wait," the warlock sighed. He hated this part of fishing, but there was nothing more he could do until the fish decided to investigate. He just hoped that Gaius' perch were close enough that it would not take too long to catch the five the physician needed. Merlin had already been away from the castle much longer than he'd expected and along with getting Arthur's bath ready he had plenty of work waiting for him once he returned.

Merlin leaned over to take another look into the water. "Still nothing," he said, and then chuckled at himself, since he had really only just cast his line. The servant settled back against the tree trunk once again. At least he had thought to bring Arthur's boots to polish along with some of the clothes that were waiting to be mended, so waiting for the fish to bite would not be a complete waste of time. He used his knees to hold his fishing rod, adding a securing spell to ensure that it would not slip, and took out the first boot.

He managed to polish both boots and start on the mending before he felt the first nibble of interest. "Oh, maybe ….," he said, catching his lower lip between his teeth. Taking a firm hold of the rod with both hands, he waited eagerly, only for the movement to fade away. When he was sure the fish, or whatever it had been, was not on his hook he let out a sigh of disappointment and went back to his mending.

After three more tempting nips that did not go any further, Merlin gave into his frustration and risked strengthening the luring spell he had used earlier. Unfortunately, even this did not seem to have any effect.

"That's it," he said to himself, starting on the last bit of mending. "If I haven't had a bite by the time I finish this sock, I'm going to have to head back to the castle." He adjusted his rod a little bit, "Gaius will just have to hope that I can get away again tomorrow."


When the last sock was mended, Merlin reached over and put it into his pack, "Ok, well that's enough of this," he said, getting ready to release the fishing rod from between his knees. But the fishing gods had other ideas, as just then a strong tug on the line pulled the rod right out from between his knees, and sent it heading straight towards the lake.

Merlin dropped his bag of mending, and scrambled to retrieve his gear, grabbing it only to have another yank almost take it right out of his hands again. The servant's eyes widened with surprise; Gaius had obviously neglected to tell him that the 'rare' perch was also some sort of monster. Luckily, he'd done his fair share of fishing in Ealdor, and so he knew how to manoeuver the line and bring a hard-fighting fish in closer and closer until he could finally drag it out of the lake.

Breathing hard from the exertion, he took it off of the hook and rebaited. "Ok, looks like this is going to be war," he chuckled and rather than sit by the tree, he clambered down the slippery bank and waded out into the water until it was knee deep. Perch typically swam in schools, so if he was lucky, he could quickly catch the rest of the five he needed. It would be much easier to get the fish out of the water from his new location.

It did not take very long to hook two more, each putting up a bigger fight than the last. "I'm lucky my arms have not fallen out yet," Merlin breathed as he pulled in the third. "And taken my shoulders right with them."

Merlin climbed back up the bank, trying not to damage the fish that he had tied together with a hemp string and hung over his shoulders. He grasped at the slippery stones, trying to pull himself upward. Once he reached the top of the bank, he slumped to the ground and sat resting for a moment until he found enough energy to remove the fish from their hooks and put them in the bag with the first.

"There is no way I am going back down there again," the servant said with a grimace. He leaned back against the tree trunk for a few moments before deciding that he could just stay where he was. Surely he could catch the rest of the fish in the same way as he'd caught the first.

Merlin sighed, and reached for the rod and bait, and cast his line into the water once more. It seemed that the school had moved off, as he had no nibbles and the water was still. "Maybe just one more little luring spell," he decided, his eyes shining golden for a brief moment. That done, the warlock shifted to find a more comfortable position against the tree.

Unfortunately, with no mending or polishing left to distract him from the hypnotic sound and view of the calm water gently lapping against the bank of the lake, and since the sun was high in the sky, the day was warm and the tree trunk was surprisingly comfortable, it was almost inevitable that the tired young servant nodded off to sleep.


"Sire, I had heard that Camelot was beautiful, but I did not know that it extended to the countryside outside its walls," said Lord Reginald, bringing his horse almost alongside the King's.

Uther had organized a tour of the towns just outside of the city, and many of the visiting nobles and knights had joined him. The King wanted to show his retainers some of the features of Camelot's watch towers, as he expected them to fortify their lands in the same way. Sir Derrick and Lord Reginald had been among the first to add their names to the list to accompany the King, hoping to find more time to put forward their case for their fair, not to mention their offer to take possession of the young, lithe, dark-haired manservant. Uther had told them he would decide on the latter within the week, but the brothers were anxious to get the boy under their command.

Uther grunted his agreement to the noble, "Yes, it is, but it is also highly defendable," the King insisted. He was getting ready to point out a sentry post on the roadway beside the small lake the group was nearing when he noticed several bags sitting beside a tree and a fishing line in the water.

The boy holding the rod came into sight as the road they were on rounded the corner and began to follow the lake. "Is that not the servant who spilled the wine last night?" asked Sir Derrick coming up behind his brother.

Lord Reginald stood in his stirrups to get a better look. "Yes, and it looks as though he's found a way to give his master the slip," he said with a laugh. "Derrick, I believe a new set of shackles may be needed once the boy becomes our servant."

Uther scowled in anger. All of the other servants in the castle were busy preparing for his 30th Anniversary celebrations, and here was Arthur's manservant fishing. Fishing and sleeping when he should be attending the Prince. It was exactly the type of laziness he had expected from the boy, and to make things worse, it was in full view of important, visiting nobility. The King had a mind to hand the servant over to Lord Reginald that moment and only held himself back with difficulty. Arthur would likely find some excuse for the idiot, so he decided that it would be better if he found more evidence before making his final decision.

Merlin never noticed the group that passed him by and continued along the road, and so missed both the look of disgust that the King aimed at him and Sir Derrick's lecherous smirk.


A/N This installment -'Hard-Working' - will have approximately 5 chapters. Stay tuned for the next in about a week.