The next ten months had been incredible. Arthur had been the happiest he had ever been in his life. While he thought he could tell that something was wrong with Merlin at first, it turned out that he was just being paranoid. Merlin had been amazing, someone who he never wanted to be without in his day.

And now he never had to.

He looked over at the raven-haired man who was asleep next to him in his bed. He always looked sweet while he was sleeping. His hair was a state though. It had all been ruffled up while he slept. Arthur wanted to tidy it up a bit, but he knew that doing so would wake him up and waking him up would just lead to a moody man stomping around the house.

Arthur looked at his hand and smiled. He played around with the ring on his finger, spinning it around as he thought about anything. The engagement had been fast. They hadn't even been together for a year yet, but both Merlin and he felt like they saw nothing else happening. They trusted each other, and wanted the best for each other. Merlin commonly told Arthur that 'whatever he needed to do he would support him'. Arthur smiled at the thought. He knew that Merlin would always be at his side.

Merlin was the one who raised the idea. Arthur asked him to move in a couple of months in, and since then Merlin had been supporting him with everything. One day he took him to the top of Everest and they had a picnic – some of the people climbing the mountain were puzzled by the strangely warm weather at the peak that day. One that day Merlin had offered him a transparent ring, made from crystals that he found deep in the earth in an underground cave. A pocket of space in the earth that no one else had visited, where he carved out the purest diamond and made two rings. Arthur smiled at the ring. It was completely smooth around the edge. Some would call that a waste, but when Arthur looked at it he could see the light dance inside of it. It was unusual, but beautiful. Or as he would say, Merlin.

Arthur moved himself out of the bed and started to get ready for work. He showered, got dressed and then went downstairs. When he got there he saw Merlin in the kitchen, cooking some breakfast. He was wearing one of Arthur's long-sleeved t-shirts that drowned out the skinny man, but he did not look bad at all.

"Hey." Merlin called out, not moving his attention away from the pan, as he cracked another egg into the pan, "Give me a few more minutes. I'm making bacon and scrambled eggs on toast, is that alright?"

"Sounds good to me." Arthur smiled, as he settled down on the sofa and turned on the news. The top stories were announced, but only one piqued Arthur's interest – The case against the person said to have 'controlled juries and outcomes in the courtroom', a case that he would be residing over today. Morgause Paravel. Arthur had read the files. If she had done what she is accused of, then she had control of most of the world. The people she allowed to walk free would do whatever they wanted for her, and the people that got sentenced would never trouble her again. This case was not going to be easy.

Merlin brought the plates over and handed one to Arthur. They watched it in content silence as Arthur thought. Merlin knew what he was thinking about. While Arthur did not discuss what happened in the courtroom, Merlin wasn't stupid. He saw his reaction whenever the subject of Morgause was raised. He also knew that Arthur might be the one person able to stop her. This wasn't due to skill of conviction, Arthur was just as good as the next person, but this required someone who was incorruptible – something that Merlin believed that Arthur could be. Merlin knew that in order to be that he would have to support him to the best of his abilities, to make sure that everything was balanced everywhere else in his life so he was only having trouble at work.

Arthur smiled at Merlin as he finished his plate, "That was wonderful. Thank you." He kissed Merlin, who laughed as he took the plates away. "Just be lucky you chose to marry someone who can cook you something, you'd probably be dead by now otherwise."

"I survived before Merlin!" Arthur shouted through to the kitchen.

"Right, if you call what you did surviving. You've got to admit, this tastes much better than anything you got before." Merlin called as he washed the plates up.

"I dunno, the breakfast sandwiches from that stand outside of the court were good." Arthur teased, he could see Merlin pick out a knife from the knife rack and twirl it in his hand. He decided silence would be better at this point.

Merlin finished the washing up and then sat down next to Arthur, "Are you working at Gaius' today?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah. I'm doing a few hours just to make sure he's alright. He's been getting a lot of new customers since the other shop down the road shut, so he needs an extra pair of hands to make sure everything gets done." Merlin explained. Arthur nodded, "Is there anything I can get you for later Arthur?"

"Nah, nothing in particular," Arthur answered. He then stood up, "I'd best be off."

"Alright. Fancy a ride?" Merlin grinned, causing Arthur to smirk back.

"I'll take the taxi today. There will probably be enough press around that me magically appearing will make people get the wrong idea." Arthur laughed. He then kissed Merlin again, "I'll see you later."

"Bye." Merlin called as he walked out of the door. Merlin then pulled his laptop over. While he was telling the truth that he was going to help Gaius today, he didn't mention that he also had something else planned. He had started circulating rumours about his next performance, something he was hoping would be able to lighten Arthur's mood after work today.

But when he went onto his twitter account he noticed something strange. Hundreds of thousands of people were tweeting something linked to him, but also to something else with the hashtag #themagicianreveals. Merlin clicked on it and was linked to a selection of videos. He clicked on one and saw a man, dressed in black with a mask concealing his face.

The man was talking on the camera about Merlin's performances, then as the video progressed he said, "And now its time I show you how you do it. The magician never reveals his tricks, but maybe it's about time he does." Merlin then looked astounded as the masked man gave an explanation of how Merlin could have done one of his first tricks, where he levitated everyone standing outside of Buckingham Palace. Merlin knew that the explanation was wrong, the 'magician' was explaining it using fancy equipment instead of the answer that Merlin knew, but the scary thing was that he then performed the trick and it worked. At the end the man, who Merlin could tell was smirking even behind the mask said, "What do you say Emrys? Why don't you tell us how you did it? Reveal to us how you do your tricks! Tell us your secret!"

The video ended, and Merlin looked vacantly at the screen.

He scrolled down his twitter feed, and saw the public outcry for him to 'reveal his tricks', 'tell his secrets' and 'show us how to do it'.

"That's not good," Merlin muttered.

There were only a few ways for this situation to go. Merlin could reveal his secret, which would just lead to more questions as Merlin didn't really have an answer for how he did it, and the answer he could give would probably get him locked away in some institute somewhere (he was honestly surprised that they hadn't tried to do this before). Merlin could reveal that the guy making the videos got it right, but then he may have to explain tricks in the future and he doesn't know enough to explain them in that way that the guy had. Also it took away a lot of the fun from the tricks. Finally Merlin could not say anything, in which the public was tear him apart and he would never be able to do tricks again without people raising up against him.

Overall things were not going to be the same again, and none of those ways were appealing to Merlin. He would have to do the fourth way, to vanish. But he didn't like that. While he didn't have to do his tricks, they did make things a lot more fun. They had become a large part of his life and, of cause, were how he and Arthur met. He would hate to stop doing them. This added with the fact that people would recognise him, meant that he would not be left alone without people asking 'what his secret is'. It was not a good situation.

And it was all happening when he needed to be supporting Arthur and making sure that things were not happening to distract him from his case – just brilliant.

It was at this point that he got an e-mail. He noticed it was from TheDarkMagician. "Yu-Gi-Oh reference?" Merlin joked in his head as he clicked it. It read:

"Emrys,

I am the person who is currently destroying your online reputation. By now you should have realised that there is no easy way to save yourself – and you might just not want to. But we both know that my explanations are not how you do your tricks. We both know about your very real magic.

But I'm not interested in you revealing that. All I want is for you to tell Arthur the truth, the truth about all of us that you have been keeping a secret for a long time now.

I suggest you meet me in Trafalgar Square at 15:15 today to discuss this. If you do not then I may be forced to take more drastic actions, like revealing to the nations where you and your precious Arthur live. Or maybe I'd tell Uther about everything you and his son have been up to? Trust me Emrys, I have many more plans than this that I'll enact if you don't meet with me.

See you soon,

The Dark Magician."

Merlin felt panic spread through him. All these things would be destabilising for Arthur. Whoever this person is, whatever they plan to do, Merlin could not let them do it. He seemed to know a lot about them, about Merlin personally. Merlin would normally be cautious, but the fear of the effect this could have on Arthur piled up on him. Merlin knew that he needed to be strong for him; otherwise Arthur would never be able to stop Morgause. If Arthur was weak for a minute, then he could end up agreeing to something he doesn't want to do and could lose himself forever. This case could change Arthur forever. Merlin had to do everything he could to help him, which meant he had to protect him from everything else in the world. He typed back,

"Looking forward to it.

Emrys."