"Oh, hello no!" Aithusa screamed as she tackled Morgana. "You did not just knife my Dragonlord!"
The baby dragon wrestled the sorceress to the ground as the prince knelt in front of his friend.
"Merlin, no," Arthur said, eyes disbelieving of the sight in front of him. Merlin, that idiot, had, yet again, saved his life. By jumping in front of a knife.
"Oh, hey Arthur," Merlin said with an odd smile on his face. "What's up?"
"Merlin," the prince said in a warning voice.
The warlock smiled as his eyelids drooped. He yawned. "I'm tired."
No shit, you're just bleeding out, Arthur thought as he eyed the red liquid pooling on his servant's shirt. "You'll be fine."
"Yep," Merlin said, eyes glazed. "I'll be fine, you'll be fine, and everything will be okay." He looked around briefly. "Hey, where's everyone else?"
Arthur gulped. He didn't care where the others were. He just wanted this moment alone, just him and his…..little brother. (Yes, he dared to think that!) "Don't know," he responded.
Merlin frowned. "That sucks, man."
"Merlin…." Arthur tried, but faltered.
"Yeeeeeeees?"
"You're going to be okay," he whispered. Merlin rolled his eyes.
"We've accomplished that."
"I don't care. Merlin, don't…die. Please."
The warlock laughed, making blood bubble at the corner of his mouth. "You know I don't follow orders!" He pushed Arthur weakly. "Prat!"
"Merlin…."
"I'm not going to die, Arthur."
Prince blinked away tears. "Merlin, don't. Merlin, before you….go, I want you to know that….you're not just a servant. You're the knights' best friend, Gwen's best friend, and probably a hell load of other people's best friend. Most of all, I-I hope I'm your best friend, 'cause your mine. I-I'll miss you." A tear actually leaked out.
Merlin chuckled. "Seriously, I'm not going to die."
Arthur nodded and let more tears slip. "Sure. You're going to be fine, you're coming back to Camelot with us and becoming court sorcerer. I'll free magic once I'm king. And – and…." Arthur was running out of things to say.
Merlin rolled his eyes without the emotion behind it. "Arthur, I'm not going to…." The warlock's eyes widened and he took a rattling breath. Pain flashed on his face. Suddenly, his eyes slipped closed and he stopped breathing.
"Merlin, Merlin, no!" The prince shook the servant. "Merlin!"
The warlock didn't respond. (Well, duh.)
"Please…you're my best friend…my little b-brother….please."
No answer.
"Do you think we should tell him?" Leon whispered to Kilgharrah as they watched Arthur cry over Merlin. The dragon smirked.
"Nope. I knew Arthur really cared about Merlin! This just proves all my theories…"
Percival stepped out of the way as Aithusa and Morgana came wrestling past them. "Aithusa knows, right?" asked the largest knight.
Kilgharrah nodded. "Yeah…she's just PMS-ing right now, so she's a little emotional."
Gwaine cocked his head to the side. "Merlin will live, right? 'Cause that's a lot of blood." He eyed Merlin's bloody chest.
"Hmmm…" Kilgharrah turned his attention away from the cat-fight. "What? Oh, yeah, yeah. Merlin's fine." He suddenly yelled. "Go for the neck, Aithusa! The neck!"
Gwaine sighed and turned his eyes to the cat-fight. It was quite good, actually.
"Yeah, go baby! Kick her ass!" Elyan cheered. Aithusa winked at him before pulling Morgana's hair.
"Merlin…come back," Arthur whispered for thousandth time. He forgot all about his title, his honor, and even the fact that the knights were probably watching, and he held Merlin. As in in his arms. (In a completely brotherly way.)
"Please," he tried again. "C'mon, idiot, just come back!"
He started sobbing again, bowing his head and letting them fall.
"Sentimental prat."
Arthur laughed as more tears fell. "You're dead, Merlin. You can't insult me anymore."
"Don't pretend you don't love it."
The prince shook his head. "You're impossible, Merlin." He frowned. "Merlin…you're d-dead."
"No I'm not."
Arthur gulped. "You are. I'm sorry, it's my fault. And I never told you…."
"Yes?"
"I never told you…"
"Yes?"
"I never told you…." Arthur looked down. "You're not dead!"
Merlin laughed. "Well, duh."
Disgruntled, but relieved, the prince did something he'd really never done before; he hugged Merlin. Then pushed him away and slapped him.
"IDIOT! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"
"I'm not."
"HOW?"
Merlin rolled his eyes and stood, swaying slightly. "Puh-lease! Bitch, I'm Emrys!" He seemed to flip his hair back. "And if you'll excuse me, I have a fight to break up."
Arthur watched as Merlin strode bravely up to the dragon and sorceress fighting.
The prince stared after him, but smiled. Merlin wasn't dead.
His little brother wasn't dead.
Three weeks later:
"So, you're alive because you're immortal?"
"Yep."
"How come everyone knew and I didn't?"
"Well, they said Kilgharrah told them, but you were too busy worrying about me to pay attention."
"Was not."
"Just admit it. Besides, Kilgharrah told me what you said."
"Said about what?"
"That I was your 'little brother'."
Arthur stopped, smirking, and grabbed his manservant by the collar of his shirt. He soon had him in a head lock.
"What was that?" the prince mused and tightened his grip.
" 'Gharrah – 'Gharrah told me that – you prat!" Merlin tried to get out as Arthur started messing up his hair. Their laughter rang throughout the corridor.
"Won't you two ever grow up?" Arthur released Merlin as Kilgharrah walked up to them. "Besides, you're doing it all wrong – you've got to grab him like this-" The thousand year old dragon then proceeded to show the prince (and regent-king!/nearly king because Uther was practically on his death-bed) how to give a proper noogie.
Meanwhile, the knights and Aithusa were just hanging on the training fields.
"Okay, then I was like 'cool, a free muffin basket.' I didn't care that it was from Morgana – hey, I always thought she had a thing for me – but when I tried one of them, it was horrible. It was like my life flashed before my eyes, and then they came to life. They grew these funny little eyes and legs, started crawling towards me. Luckily, I had my sword-"
"Wait, wait, wait," Percival interrupted Gwaine's story. "You're telling us that Morgana sent you a basket with evil muffins?"
"Yep," Camelot's least sober chirped. "Scariest moment of my life was when I bit into one."
There was a mutual eye roll at the thought of Morgana sending Gwaine evil muffins. Speaking of Morgana….
"Hey, why did Merlin let Morgana go free?" Aithusa asked suddenly.
"No clue, but it was really poor planning on Mer's part," Gwaine answered. "I mean, she could attack Camelot any day now."
There was a mutual face-palm.
"Merlin," Elyan said. "What an idiot."
Leon shrugged. "Our idiot."
There was a mutual sigh.
Once again, things were boring – I mean, peaceful! – in Camelot.
For now….
A/N: Hellos. *bangs head into keyboard* What up?
Okay, well I said there would only be like ten chapters, but now there's going to be like eleven or twelve. hashtag deal with it.
Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up...I was writing an original story. (Anyone interested in a story involving human-phoenixes, these things called ice-demons, human-dragons, mermaids, magic-users, vampires, werewolves, revolutions, revolts, characters with odd names, a lot of unanswered questions, a prophecy, a lot of teenage kids, mead, breaking traditional views on status and gender, betrayal, love, friendship, family not ending in blood, medieval kingdoms, war, illegal drugs, and a bunch of other stuff?)
Oh, and thank you to all the reviewers! ^.^ You make my day. Hopefully, many cookies will come your way.
(And I doubt you really care about this, but... I got my kitty, Merlin. Now, if you visit my house, all you will hear is "Merlin, you idiot! How'd you get your claws stuck again?" or "Merlin, you little shit!" with my mom laughing in the background.
Weeeeeeeeell, I hope the magics are forever in your favor.