DISCLAIMER: I own nothing in this story but the story itself and the anonymous villains.
Hello everyone. This chapter will be shorter, just thought I'd warn you. I just had so much work to do these days I barely had time to write at all. School has gone insane, I'm telling you!
Anyways, thank you all for sticking with me so far and I promise the next chapter will be longer.
Enjoy!
The door closed behind them and he waited patiently until he could hear the other door close, too. When he was sure they were alone, he turned his attention to the boy in front of him.
Merlin looked pale. He looked so pale, had he been unconscious, Arthur would have thought him dead. The purple rings under his eyes and bruises and scratches standing out on his face didn't help but accentuate that, either.
The prince sighed. He was going to have to tread carefully, for whatever rage and lack of care had driven the very powerful young man before him to reveal his magic was clearly not there anymore.
"Merlin, look at me please."
When he didn't get any answer, he placed his hand on the warlock's shoulder. Merlin flinched out of his skin and turned to him, but the action seemed to have at least woken him out of his trance.
The boy stared at him with eyes so full of conflicted emotions: regret, guilt, relief, fear and others he could not name, it was all Arthur could do not to turn away. And then, just like that, the gale faded to a sad shade of blue. Resignation and regret was all he could see now in his eyes and in his face, but he knew all those other feelings were still there, somewhere, and that made him wonder what else exactly he did not know about his manservant.
However, he had made his decision. Nothing Merlin had to tell him was going to change that.
"I'm sorry, Arthur" he said, his voice surprisingly clear. His gaze had moved away, he was staring at his still hands.
"How long?"
To his surprise, Merlin gave a bitter snort/chuckle/laugh.
"How long what exactly?"
Now Arthur was beginning to get annoyed. What was the idiot playing at?
"Do you want me to spell it out for you? How long have you been practicing sorcery, Merlin?"
"I was born with it!" Merlin snapped, the intensity back in his eyes. The prince clamped his mouth shut, regretting his slip. Athur-foot-in-mouth strikes again. He really was a prat.
"Is that possible?" he asked softly, his voice betraying his shock. He had not expected that.
The raven-haired man studied the prince's face for a second, as if not sure where the conversation was going.
"You could try to study magic you whole life, Arthur, and you won't be able to do a single spell if you don't have an aptitude for it."
"Really?" Arthur asked frowning, then realized how stupid he must have looked in that moment. "I mean, surely you have to be mistaken. Anyone can practice sorcery, it is a choice people make." However, even as he said it, he doubted his own words, the words his father had told him.
Merlin shook his head slightly and the prince frowned again.
"People are born with magic Arthur. I didn't choose magic-I never had a choice. It chose me. I could move objects before I could walk-before I could speak"
The young prince did not know what to say. He had been expecting something among the lines of having started practicing sorcery so he would be stronger, protect Camelot or something, but this... No, this definitely hadn't been onto his to-expect list. Although, neither did Merlin being a sorcerer at all, if he thought about it that way.
"Mum told me how I used to summon cookies or send things I didn't want to eat flying all over the room" Merlin said, a smile ghosting across his lips.
Arthur snorted. "That I can believe, Merlin. You have always thought with your stomach"
Merlin glared at him, but it lasted only a second. Then he resumed looking at his sleeves.
"Mother sent me to Camelot when I started drawing too much unwanted attention. She thought Gaius could help me control my powers, since he'd practiced magic in his youth, before the Purge."
"And did he?"
"Yeah, although coming here was much more trouble than worth, to be honest" the young man snorted, and Arthur couldn't resist slapping him lightly across the back of his head.
They both smiled. This was easy, this was familiar territory. Arthur's face grew serious again.
"Why did you stay in Camelot?"
Merlin eyed the prince with an amused glint in his eyes the latter didn't quite like.
"Long story short: you"
"Huh?" was the intelligent response of Camelot's future king.
The warlock gave a short laugh.
"Please tell me the long story makes more sense than the short one" Arthur groaned and Merlin suddenly grew still. He nodded solemnly.
"How much time have you got?"
"What do you mean?" the prince asked, confused. And then, just before Merlin opened his mouth, he realized what his manservant/best friend/warlock had meant.
"It's a very long story, Arthur. You sure you have the time?"
Arthur wished in that moment with his whole being that he could tell him that yes, yes he had time. All the time in the world. He wanted to stay there and listen to Merlin's story, listen to his reasons. He wanted his friend to erase the ghost of worry tugging at his heart, worry about the decision he had made.
The prince grimaced. "My father wants me to attend council meeting"
Merlin nodded. "Than you should go, sire. You don't want to anger the king"
"Merlin?"
"Yeah?"
"When will you be up to a... kind of a meeting?"
Merlin eyed him suspiciously, and Arthur sighed. Did he have to explain everything to him? "You might want to tell that story when Leon, Gwaine and Elyan are there, too"
The boy's face paled a notch. Arthur could hear him gulp.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea."
The prince then sighed. "It's a very good idea-"
"Arthur-"
"-that has been put forward by the prince" he paused and gave him a patronizing glare."of Camelot, Merlin. The knights of Camelot have agreed to it" Arthur's tone was the very annoying and familiar I-am-the-future-king-you-shall-obey-me. Merlin sighed.
"I don't know. Ask Gaius. He probably won't let me do anything until he thinks I've recovered, so it's not really my decision."
Arthur gave a curt nod just as the sound of the door outside opening and closing could be heard.
Merlin flinched and the prince tensed. He then shrugged it off and cursed the warlock for making him edgy. They were in the physician's chambers, in his castle, in Camelot. There was hardly any need to flinch every time someone opened the door.
Although, the Arthur thought, maybe that was the problem. With so many people knowing his secret (a secret that in this particular kingdom was synonym with the words 'execution', 'beheading', 'pyre' and other such nasty things) and being so close to the king, Arthur could only imagine what it was that the boy was going through.
If he were to be honest, completely and utterly honest, he himself half-expected people to just show up out of nowhere, point at Merlin and shout 'Sorcerer!', but he wouldn't admit it in a thousand years.
"Gaius?" a voice called and Arthur relaxed. "It's just Gwaine" he told his friend, but that didn't seem to help the raven-haired boy, who was staring at the door very much not reassured.
The prince rolled his eyes as said door creaked open, Gwaine's brown head popping through the crack.
"Gwaine" Arthur said, standing up. "You're here just in time to take over for me. I have to go and take care of some business."
The knight gave a nod and grinned. "Right. I'll stay with Merlin, don't worry." The future king of Camelot was just about to protest that no, of course he wasn't worried, why would he be worried, whatever had given Gwaine that ridiculous idea, but the knight had already turned his attention to the warlock, who was sitting on the bed, avoiding everyone's gaze and fiddling with his sleeves.
"By the way, how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine, thanks" his manservant mumbled, and Arthur felt irritation rising in his chest when he saw the other man smirking. He was enjoying this, the bastard.
Because he was not overly protective of the injured manservant/warlock who was not his friend, Arthur stopped next to Gwaine on the way out and hissed, too low for Merlin to hear. "Wipe that grin off your face, will you?"
"Whatever you mean by that, sire?" If that grin would get any bigger, the prince decided he would wipe it off the knight's face with his fist.
"Stop being so annoying"
"I'll stop being annoying when you stop being a princess"
Arthur counted to ten in his head, determined not to let Gwaine know exactly how effective was his rile-up-Arthur strategy. Instead, he shot him the best glare he could muster, and refrained from snapping at him when the other man's smirk only grew.
He slammed the door a bit harder than necessary on his way out, making his way towards the council room with an angry look on his face that made all the servant scramble from his path.
The prince lay on the bed in his chambers, going over the conversation he had had with Merlin earlier that day.
He had talked to Gaius that afternoon too, and the physician had assured him he should recover enough to walk around with the aid of crutches in a couple of days or so, but that he shouldn't expect him to be back to his duties until at least a month. The old man had emphasized that point, and not even Uther himself could argue with the man when he used that tone.
He had spoken to the others and agreed to meet in Merlin's room (Arthur didn't look forward to being locked in a small room with three other knights and Gwaine) in three days' time.
Arthur ran a hand through his golden hair, sighing deeply. He really hated the idea of waiting three whole days to talk to his friend. Of course, he would check up on him every day, but he wasn't supposed to tire the warlock. Gaius had insisted that they give his ward at least two days to rest. Also, he had assured the prince that Merlin would probably be sleeping most of that time, anyway.
The others had agreed that the boy needed rest, and they all decided it was best not to make Merlin tell the story twice. As a result, Arthur was left itching for that meeting, which was, unfortunately for him, three days away.
The prince trusted his knights not to say anything until then, but he couldn't be 100% sure that, in all circumstances and situations, they would comply. What if something happened and one of them thought Merlin was behind it and decided to act?
Arthur shook his dark thoughts away. He trusted these men with his life and he knew honor was religion to them. He had made them swear, and they would keep their promise. Besides, they liked and trusted the warlock, too.
The prince sighed. His thoughts had been going in the same circles for the past two hours: his dislike of the fact that he had to wait three days for his answers, reasonable explanation as to why he had to wait, worry about his knights running to the king about Merlin, dismissing the worry because it was ridiculous and finally coming back to hating the three days' wait.
A knock on the door made Arthur jump out of his skin. "Who is it?" he shouted, annoyed at having been pulled out of his spinning train of thoughts.
"I-It's me, sire"
Arthur cursed under his breath and jumped out of bed, guilt at having snapped like that tugging at his heart.
"Come in" he called.
The door opened and Gwen came in, dressed in a pale pink dress that went perfectly with her coppery skin. Her hair was tied up in a low bun, a couple of rebel locks curling around her face, a silver tray in her hands.
She smiled softly at him. "You didn't eat much at supper tonight, so I though I'd bring you something to eat."
Gwen brushed past him and set the tray on the table in his room, a blush creeping onto her cheeks when the prince's hand grabbed her arm and pulled her close, his hands locking behind her waist.
She looked up at him, smiling. Her expression changed upon seeing the dark shades under his eyes and the emotion hidden behind those blue orbs.
"Merlin will be fine, Arthur. You know that, right?"
Arthur's own smile fell a little. He wished he could tell Gwen everything. Not only did he not like leaving her out like this, but he also needed to talk to her, needed her to confirm his own opinion about all these.
Besides, wasn't she Merlin's friend too? Didn't she have a right to know?
The prince stored the idea for another time. Gwen might be Merlin's friend and might deserve to be told, but it wasn't his place to do so. The least he could do was bring it up to the warlock himself, something his mind was already set on doing.
Arthur realized he had drifted off, as Gwen's brows were furrowed in confusion and a bit of worry.
"Arthur?"
"Yes, I know that. Of course."
The maid eyed him for a long minuted, time in which the prince tried to look as innocent and truthful as possible. Finally, either falling for Arthur's act or giving up trying to convince the stubborn prince otherwise (probably the latter), she smiled and stood on her toes to kiss him on the forehead.
"Good"
Gwen threw him one last smile and exited the room, leaving the prince to wonder and worry and wait.
So, this was it. What do you think? Hope you all liked it.
Again, I promise to make the next chapter(s) longer.
Thank you all for reading and liking this story. I am really indebted to you all. Also, thank you for all those beautiful reviews. Whenever I feel down or too exhausted to type a single letter, I see your comments and they literally warm my heart. Thank you.
I will update this Saturday.
See you all soon^^
