The two boys stared at each other for an immeasurable amount of time. Their eyes were wide and disbelieving, but Merlin's had an added hint of fear to them that Arthur misunderstood as one of being caught in the act. Finally, the Prince blinked a few times and gaped dumbly, his eyes going back and forth from the wood to the pale face across the room. "Who are you? Did you break that?" he demanded incredulously.
Without warning, Merlin dropped the pieces of the stool like they were hot coal. He shook his head fervently and lowered his gaze as the splintered wood clattered loudly against the hard floor.
"I won't tell," Arthur promised. His expression of disbelief had first turned to pure awe in thinking this boy could split wood with his bare hands, and now it was full of vague amusement as he watched Merlin continue to shake his head like a toddler. "You can tell me," the Prince urged, "and then you can teach me! You won't get in trouble if you're with me. Gaius won't mind."
As Arthur babbled, Merlin nudged the broken wood away from him with the tip of his foot as if it were dangerous and really would get him into a lot of trouble.
"What's wrong? Are you lost?" Arthur asked.
Petrified to the core, Merlin was still shaking his head. It had almost become an automatic reflex over the last few days and Arthur, thinking he was scared because he was the Prince, simply grinned at the other's expense and delighted in the fact he'd found someone his own age.
"Do you live here?"
Merlin looked to the door where Arthur was standing, finally meeting his stare. "No," he mumbled. Arthur nearly had to ask him to repeat himself.
"Oh!" Arthur exclaimed, his eyes becoming wide again as he put it together in his head. "You're from outside of the castle, aren't you? Are you sick then?"
Merlin frowned. "No," he mumbled again.
"Is your mother sick?" Arthur asked.
There was a pause but the Prince thought nothing about it, nor of the way Merlin was refusing to look at him again.
"Gaius is in the council chamber," Arthur announced proudly, apparently pleased to be able to inform Merlin of this and not have to be the one to be told everything for once.
Merlin's eyes were pulled back to the floor, the boy becoming more anxious by the second. He shuffled as Arthur left the doorway and came over to him.
"I dunno when he'll be back. You'll have to wait until he can help you."
"S'ok."
"I won't tell him you broke the stool," Arthur promised earnestly, standing in front of Merlin now. He bent down to pick up the two halves of the wood. "Do you think I could break it again?"
Merlin shrugged.
Arthur held out the pieces to the smaller boy before him. "Can you show me?"
"Can't."
Arthur's face fell. "Why not?"
Merlin's blue eyes found Arthur's and he shrugged yet again.
"Please?"
When Arthur realized he was going to get no response – again – his outstretched arms fell and he frowned angrily.
"I can do it," he declared defensively. "You don't think I can, do you?"
Merlin couldn't help but shake his head; mainly because he didn't know what else to do and because he knew that the Prince didn't possess magic.
"I can!" the Prince shouted loudly, his seven-year-old self becoming increasingly annoyed. "I swear I can if you stop standing there like an idiot and you showed me!"
Merlin stared at the Prince in the same lifeless way he usually stared at Gaius when he was speaking.
"Why won't you talk?"
The dark-haired boy's shoulders rose and fell and his eyes shifted to the door. Arthur watched them as they turned pleading in his fright, and then it hit him that the boy was looking at someone.
It was Gaius. "Sire?"
"Gaius!" Arthur cried.
"What are you doing here?"
"I came to ask about why I was ill… and stuff… why…" he said with a quick glance back to Merlin and a point of his finger. "I was gonna wait for you, but he was already here."
Gaius looked over the blonde hair of the Prince to the trembling mess behind him. "Merlin? Are you okay?"
Merlin's head bobbed and Gaius recognized it as the boy's immediate reflex reaction; it had become almost a type of safety blanket for Merlin. Gaius turned his attention back to Arthur, who was looking indignant.
"Merlin? He doesn't speak much, does he?"
"I'm afraid not, sire," Gaius sighed, noticing the wood Arthur was holding in either of his hands.
Arthur dropped the stool in the same unceremonious fashion Merlin had done, acting like nothing had happened. Gaius went along with the boy's pretense and walked into his chambers.
This was new. It had been a learning curve trying to deal with Merlin 24-7, but two boys between the ages of 6 and 7 was taking some extra adjustment.
"So what would you like to know, sire?" Gaius asked as he passed them.
"Well – er – I think he – Merlin – wanted you first. I think his mother's sick."
Gaius cast a curious glance towards the back of Merlin's head, who was hovering by the table stoic and silent with his fists balled tight. "Merlin lives here, sire," the old man told the Prince casually.
"He said he didn't!" Arthur said with in same indignant tone he had used previously.
"He's staying here with me – for now, at least, until we can figure out what's going to happen."
"What is going to happen?" Arthur inquired nosily.
Merlin was now positively trembling by now. If he hadn't been scared then, he more than certainly was now. He didn't want to move. He didn't want to leave Gaius and go back to Ealdor without his mother. He didn't want to go back to Will and see him with his parents and feel lost. He wanted to stay.
Gaius moved from the bookshelf with three heavy books in his arms and he spread them on his table before clumsily patting Merlin's head reassuringly. He had decided that he would have to confirm the symptoms Gorlois was displaying before he visited. Uther wouldn't stand for time wasters.
"That's what we're going to figure out," Gaius murmured distractedly, opening the largest book he had pulled from the shelf.
"But why?"
Gaius pulled his glasses off his nose and pursed his lips thoughtfully before answering, and all he could come up with was something irrelevant and confusing. "Merlin's village is a long way from Camelot."
Merlin had been standing quietly at the head of the table, his fists balled tightly as he shook and tried to keep the warmth of his magic under lock and key. It was hard to believe that this boy who had been fitting and having nightmares almost a week ago was being so nosy and annoying.
"Why is he here then?"
"She died," Merlin whispered brokenly.
"… Who?" Arthur asked. His voice had suddenly become quiet and timid, too.
Gaius had to take a second to swallow his surprise. Merlin hadn't said a word in days, and now he was freely telling Arthur his mother had died. It was quite a turn of events, and Gaius couldn't help but think back to his conversation with the Great Dragon. "His mother, sire. That's why Merlin is staying with me."
"Oh."
"Yes."
Gaius came around the table and lay a hand on Merlin's shoulder, almost protectively.
Arthur moved nervously. "Sorry, Merlin."
"S'ok," Merlin whispered.
"Um. I'll come back later."
And then Arthur Pendragon darted from the room so quickly that Gaius was trying not to laugh about the fact Merlin had succeeded in making a royal guilty – despite his young age. The old man was baffled. Arthur had made Merlin talk and Merlin had made Arthur make a hasty exit out of the room.
"You're talking now, huh, Merlin?"
Merlin turned to the physician. Annoyingly, he shrugged. Gaius bit back his frustration and vowed to get the Prince back into his chambers as soon as possible.
"Well," he huffed. "We have to go out soon I'm afraid. We have an errand to run."
The warlock nodded and made to leave to his room.
"Oh, and Merlin?"
Merlin hesitated on the steps and looked back to Gaius.
"What you said to Arthur about this not being your home, you do know you don't have to go back to Ealdor, don't you? You can stay here. With me, I mean," he added. "I'm sure we can… Well, we can make Uther see sense."
For the first time in five days, Merlin smiled.
Disclaimer in a time of magic: Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Julian Murphy and Johnny Capps own Merlin, and I love 'em for it.