"Merlin!" Arthur smiled happily seeing his friend standing in the huge expanse of white just as he had been last night. He ran forwards to greet his friend but Merlin stepped back.

"Do you hate me?" He asked, voice barely above a whisper, "For lying to you?"

"No, Merlin you cant help it if you were born with magic" Arthur shook his head, "Its not like you studied it by choice"

Merlin made a face, "I cant keep visiting you Arthur, you need to move on"

"He isn't you!" Arthur finally cried, "He is like you but he isn't you Merlin!"

"Robin?"

"Of course"

"Why didn't you ever talk about him?"

Merlin looked at his feet looking uncomfortable, he lifted his hand and rubbed his neck, just like Robin did when he was struggling with something.

"Arthur I need to go, please can't you try and move on" Merlin almost pleaded, his eyes shining, "I don't want to go but...I have to"

"Why didn't you ever tell us anything?" Arthur continued to question, "Why do I need to learn about your life second hand?"

"Arthur..."

"Tell me!"

"I got used to keeping secrets..." Merlin whispered before biting his lip "I shouldn't be doing this..."

Arthur was about to ask Merlin what he meant before the boy began to fade out of sight and into the endless white beyond, which was slowly fading with him. Arthur opened his mouth to cry out but Merlin's stare stopped him.

"Wake up Arthur"

Arthur jerked awake, blinking a few times to get hid bearings, by the look of things he had been asleep for only a little over an hour. He sighed and tried to fall back into slumber, it was harder knowing it would be a normal sleep this time. But Merlin would comeback tomorrow night, he would, wouldn't he?

Lancelot

He hated being on watch, it was always so dull. Well, that wasn't strictly true but the bad thing about an interesting watch usually meant bandits were trying to slit his throat. He stapped to attention when he heard a small gasp coming from the camp, he turned to see Arthur blinking himself awake from some dream looking sad. Lancelot had no doubt Merlin had been in it. Robin had been gone a long time now, he had wandered off to get firewood or water, something along those lines almost an hour ago. Lancelot gave Percival a nod and walked off in the direction Robin had headed off in. After a few minutes he saw the shape of a thin man sitting on a small piece of earth jutting out into the clear water on the lake. Lancelot was about to walk around to the small peninsula when the man turned his face allowing the moon light reflecting on the clear water to light up his features, revealing the young warlock who had not been dead for a week.

Lancelot was left gaping as Merlin stood up looking at the ground sadly before turning and spotting the knight staring at him. After a few seconds of mutual staring Merlin stepped back into he tree's deep shadows and began heading for Lancelot. The overjoyed knight ran to meet him hallway but his joy was short lived.

Robin stepped out of the trees, wearing the same clothes Merlin had been wearing, no that wasn't true, they were never Merlin's clothes. Robin saw the fall of his face.

"Did I, do something wrong Lancelot?" He asked looking confused but also knowing.

"Sorry, my eyes played a trick on me, thats all" Lancelot sighed

"You thought I was my brother didn't you" Robin muttered knowingly, Lancelot nodded, "It's ok, I wish I was him too"

Lancelot had been about to argue but Robin didn't give him the chance before walking off into the trees towards the camp, leaving the very guilty feeling knight behind.

Merlin

The next day of hunting had been tense to put it lightly. Arthur had been quiet, too quiet it was almost as if he had regressed into himself. He barely even hit his targets. It was because of this they had decided on an early return to the city in which Arthur had immediately taken to the training field to bash another dummy senseless.

Merlin mentally berated himself for the dream idea. It had only made things worse. Not only was it making Arthur more depressed he had almost been caught by Lancelot last night, it had taken a lot of magic to correctly transform himself back into Robin before Lancelot reached him. He wished he could of slept more. Gods he was tired. The chores, the hunting, the powerful magic needed to astral project himself into Arthur's dream and to transform back much faster than he was used to only seconds after had exhausted him. He was to be the first one up to cook and clean the camp as well. This resulted in very little sleep.

His stomach churned as he thought about the food waiting for him in Gaius's chambers, usually he took what ever food he could but for some reason he was just too tired to eat. Like a loyal servant however he waited by the training grounds while Arthur sliced all the limbs off the training dummy and then quickly walked with him to his rooms and served dinner.

The smell of food on Arthur's plate made his stomach twist, he didn't feel well. Luckily for him his work out had made the prince hungry and he didn't take too long to eat before dismissing Robin.

Merlin trudged into Gaius's chambers, earning him a cold stare from the physician before he slumped into his bed.

"Mer-Robin, dinner!" Gaius called somewhat irritatedly. Gaius couldn't risk calling him Merlin, the doors were too thin and the chance that somebody could hear was too great. Merlin moaned in reply, he was too tired. He was vaguely aware of Gaius draping his blanket over him but after that he fell asleep.

Arthur

He had been lying here for hours. He closed his eyes, relaxed, tried his best to fall asleep but Merlin's voice didn't wake him and there was no white light. Merlin wasn't going to visit him tonight.

Arthur wondered if he had gone on already. Maybe he was in Avalon now, maybe he was happy. Selfishly Arthur secretly wished he was still here, able to talk to him in his sleep. He quickly brushed that thought aside however, Merlin deserved to be in paradise, Arthur shouldn't hold him back.

After a restless night with very little sleep Arthur finally awoke to the sun streaming through a crack in his curtains. Slowly he got up and threw them back revealing that he should of been awake an hour ago. Guess Robin and Merlin weren't all that different. He quickly dressed and headed down to Gaius's chambers to give the servant a good yelling at, he knew he shouldn't but he needed to yell at somebody and Robin just so happened to piss him off first.

He marched into the chambers to find Robin sitting at the table with Gaius who was holding out a vile of clearish green liquid to the man who made a face.

"Have a nice sleep in did we Robin?" Asked Arthur in mock concern, Robin made a face. It was then Arthur noticed his face was flushed a deeper shade of pink than it should be, "What's wrong with you?"

"He was simply overworked is all" Gaius half scolded making Robin shrink a bit, "He didn't eat dinner last night either meaning he had trouble getting up this morning due to the fever he worked himself into"

"I'll be fine soon sire" Robin insisted making a face as he downed the vile's contents, "I'll go start on the armor, it will need polishing after all that target practice yesterday afternoon"

The servant quickly dispatched himself, leaving an annoyed and yes, slightly worried Arthur in his wait.

Im sorry! I know this chapter is late! I'm working on the next one, I swear it wont take as long!