`-I don't own Merlin-

[Author's Note: I don't know where this idea came from. Either way, I hope you like the story]

Excalibur

Tristan DuBois is one of the most charming men Merlin has ever met. He's Arthur's uncle from his mom's side, and has been away on business. When he comes back, with a deal overseas, and looking for people to come with him there, Merlin thinks that all the people who get to go along will be extremely lucky. But then he has to go and ruin what Merlin thinks about him.

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Tristan Dubois doesn't always want to kill Uther.

But he's an older brother, so he always holds Uther responsible for what happened to his sister.

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There's a big party when Tristan comes back. Which means Merlin and Gwen get time off. They had planned to go see Darci, but seeing as she was at the party they ended up going to a Gwen's father's cafe. They eat a bit to much sugary pastries, and have a few to many sweet coffee drinks. Merlin made it to the lobby of the building before he was throwing up in a bathroom stall. It tasted terrible, and he vowed never to drink anything but plain coffee from this day forward. Which was a total lie, but Merlin's stomach felt like it might explode, so he swore it any way. When he stumbled out of the stall to wash his hands and mouth, there was a man outside looking concerned. He may have been in there earlier, but Merlin had been focussed on emptying his stomach contents.

"Are you okay?" the man asked as Merlin used water from the sink to swish around his mouth.

He spit. "Yeah, I just had to much to drink." Merlin realized that this made him sound like some sort of alcoholic, but was much to busy concentrating on getting the sugary tasting bile taste out of his mouth.

"I know the feeling." the man said with a laugh. Merlin doubted this, because only he and Gwen were foolish enough to use coffee drinks to play a drinking game. "I'm Tristan DuBois."

He wasn't what Merlin had imagined. Uther and Arthur both had blonde hair, piercing eyes, and hardened personalities. Tristan had light brown hair, kind eyes, a friendly smile, and a very open personality. "It's nice to meet you sir." he said giving his best professional smile. "I'm Merlin Emrys."

Tristan's eyebrows moved a bit. "You're Guy's assistant?"

"Umm..kind of. If I'm not busy being Arthur's persona house keeper, I'm helping Guy. How do you know him?" Merlin said reaching for paper towels.

"He and I went to college together. You?"

"My mom went to college with him." he wiped his mouth.

Tristan looked at Merlin for a few seconds. "Hunith Emrys?"

Tristan had that look on his face. The 'I just met my bastard son while he was throwing up in a bathroom' look. "I was born by artificial insemination." Merlin said quickly to prevent that awkward conversation.

Tristan laughed. "I take it that happens a lot?"

Merlin sighed. "A lot more than I would like."

"Well, if I'm gone any longer my PA will probably have a heart attack. It was nice meeting Merlin." Tristan waved and then was out of the room.

Merlin was plagued with nightmares that night. In reality, it was just one of his dreams, but ti was a lot worse than the others. There was a knight that was killing the people he fought, who ended up being a zombie. There was also a lot of running around a castle late at night. The part that freaked Merlin out the most was when the dragon in his dreams acted mental over something was fixed by whoever he was throwing a magical sword into a lake. He woke up in a cold sweat. He threw up some more of the sugary junk he had ate, and on the way back into his bed he grabbed a pencil and his sketchbook. The drawing was simple, except for the details on the sword. It showed the sword from Merlin's dreams submerged under water. It was stuck upright. The water had been shaded, so the sword appeared to glow. There was some sort of writing that was inscribed on the sword that Merlin didn't understand. When he finished the sketch it was almost six, so Merlin decided to get ready for work. He took a short shower, got on his clothes, and went to help Guy until he had to go to work for Arthur at 8. He ended up doing his normal chores, and since Arthur was busy moving people around to join Tristan's company, Merlin had a lot of break time. When he found Gwen she looked just as bad as him.

"So, were never doing that again." he said seriously joking.

Gwen laughed. "Just another thing to add to the incredibly long list." Darci was yet again busy, so Gwen and Merlin went to bother Lancelot. He wasn't busy training with anyone, so all three of them just sat around and talked.

And with Lancelot, talking usually meant him telling Merlin he should work out.

"I'm eating way more than enough. In fact I ate so much last night I threw up." Merlin said trying to defend himself since Lancelot had just accused Merlin of not eating.

Lancelot looked even more worried than he had before. "Merlin! That's extremely dangerous. That's probably ruining your esophagus."

"It..." Merlin pouted. "It was Gwen's idea!"

"Hey!" Gwen exclaimed looking annoyed. "I suggested we go to my father's cafe. You were the one who wanted to play 'I never'. And since we know each other, we knew exactly what to say, and you drank too much."

"How much coffee did the two of you have last night?"

"Between the two of us?" Merlin said looking at Gwen. "Seventeen or eighteen cups.

"Seventeen cups?" Lancelot's mouth was open.

"You're going to catch flies." Gwen reprimanded.

"How did the two of you ever get to sleep?" He looked exasperated. "That much caffeine probably kept you up for hours."

"Well actually, throwing up is very successful at making you sleepy. I could barely keep awake after I got out of the bathrooms."

Gwen lightly batted Merlin's arm. "Lucky. I couldn't sleep at all. I still have a ragging head ache."

"Really," Lancelot said sighing, "I thought I wouldn't have to babysit the two of you after I left high school." The two younger people in the room rolled their eyes and scoffed. "But really, have either of you ever heard of eating healthy?"

"Um excuse me, are you calling me fat just because I don't eat some special diet that you suggest?" Gwen said in her mad voice.

"No, Gwen, that;s not what I mea-"

"You already said it. I'm sure you'd love to have a skinny little muscly girl friend instead of flabby old me!" she roughly grabbed Merlin's arm and stormed out of there. Merlin always hated when he was there when the two of them fought. The only thing that was worse was being there when they made up. Because there was usually a lot of groping and kissing and pet names. So while Gwen complained Merlin just nodded in the appropriate places. Gwen decided to clean, because that's what she did when she was mad, and Merlin went to help Guy since he wasn't busy.

Merlin spent the rest of the day running around for Guy. From what he could gather, Owain's office, and Pellinore's office would be headed overseas. Most of the employees were excited about it except for the few who had fiances, children, or families. He was delivering sleep medicine to Morgana when he heard her and Arthur arguing.

"Because he's our uncle Arthur, it's a good job opportunity, and you'd own the company while he was away, which is a lot."

"Morgana, you know he's only offering me the job because he's my mother's brother. If I stay here I'll inherit everything."

"Uther wouldn't disown you if you went overseas. And-"

"Why do you suddenly want to get rid of me?"

"I don't want to get rid of you, I just don't want you to pass up a good job opportunity because you're still trying to please your father."

"I like my job here. I know everyone here, and I don't want to leave them. I'm going to decline the offer."

"That's awfully impolite."

"I'll give him some art work or something. To show him that I'm doing fine here."

"He's a big fan of Darci's work."

"I know, but he's already bought most of her stuff, and I still don't feel exactly comfortable going up there just to ask for art so I can decline an offer from Tristan."

"What are you doing?" Gwen whispered coming up behind Merlin. He nearly dropped everything he was holding, but thankfully didn't.

"I...uh... didn't want to interrupt the conversation they were having." Merlin said sheepishly.

"But listening in on it is okay?" she said with a teasing smile.

"Maybe... I didn't exactly mean to." he handed her the medication bottle. "Anyways, this is for Morgana, so... yeah. Give that to her please." he quickly walked away.

The last delivery was to Darci. It was headache medicine along with her normal allergy medication. When he got there she was frantically going through even more art work. "I found even more in a closet I didn't even know I had." she said sound cheerful. "He wants more of my new work, which I'm not going to give to him, but then I found this and I really have a bit to much of this stuff don't you think?" she did this quick little laugh that sounded strained. "But it's so hard to give away. And then you, with your...Anyways, what are you doing here? Want some tea? I put it in the fridge, so it's cold, but I think it's good. I liked it. So, how come you came here?"

Merlin realized that she had asked the question twice, but she still seemed to be rambling about the tea and how she put lemon in it because she added to much sugar. Her hair was sticking out in awkward angles and her eyes appeared to have bags under them. She looked a little crazy, and Merlin didn't really know what to do about it. "I brought you some medicine." he set it on the table, which bumped into something and caused a plastic cup to fall off.

"Oh thanks. I've been having such bad dreams. You won't believe them. I'm a dragon in them." Merlin was about to point out that she had told him this before but she kept talking. "It's so messy right? I should really clean it up. Or get rid of some of the art. Would you like any? I don't really wanna give any of the new ones to Uther. But... You could some to the people you know. Like Gwen or Morgana, or Arthur... or Guy. Maybe the cafe."

"Darci are you tired? I think maybe you should lay down for awhile."

Darci smiled lazily at Merlin. "Yeah... I am tired. But, if you need any of the art... for.. whoever. Could you get me some water? For the head ache medicine."

"You really wouldn't mine if I took one for Arthur? For a gift?" He filled up the glass with water and handed it to Darci.

"For Arthur?" she motioned to the far corner. "There's the 'Embrace' set. Do you think he would like that?"

"I'm sure. It's for someone who loves your work." Darci's eyes were already drifting shut. Before he left with the paintings he looked around. The room was covered in trash or stuff that should be picked up and placed some where. The next time he had more time, Merlin decided to come up and help Darci clean the room. He went down to Arthur's room hoping to find him there. Instead it was Uther. Who noticed Merlin and the painting right away.

"What are those?" he said as Merlin set the painting down.

"I..uh.. they were some paintings for Arthur."

Uther was by the pictures and looking at them. "This is Darci's work."

"Umm.. yeah. She said I could give them to Arthur to give to Tristan as a gift. Since he's probably not going overseas with him."

"Even if he wanted to, he wouldn't be going." Uther was still looking at the paintings. She's my artist. Her work should be coming to me. So I'll be taking these. Arthur has already given Tristan an old piece of Sophia's." Uther grabbed the two paintings and headed towards the door.

"I.. Wait, but they're fo-"

"You are a good employee. You've shown that you care for my son's safety, you get your job done, and even have time to help an old friend of mine." Uther's face hardened. "But if you are the reason that Darci is becoming the way she is, I will not hesitate to have you fired, and keep you from getting hired at other places." Uther left before Merlin had time to protest.

That night Merlin's dreams were plagued with hazy fake memories of a king trying to kill him. They seemed a lot different from his other dreams, so he didn't really understand what was going on. Once again he woke up feeling sick, but he didn't throw up. When he tried to remember the dream he could recall anything that happened except being scared for his life.

The next few days he was busy doing Arthur's chores. At night there was a big party where everyone said good bye to Tristan, Owain, Pellinore, and all of their employees. Uther unveiled the two painting of Darci's and she looked like she may have attacked Uther right then if there hadn't have been people in the room. The next day Merlin helped with cleaning out the offices of Pellinore and Owain's workers so they could get people in their places soon. THat night Merlin had to bring allergy medicine to Darci. He was barely into the room when a glass mug was thrown in his direction. It shattered against the door. He turned and saw Darci standing with a mad look in her eyes. It was dark and only a few candles were burning. The room had a creepy glow about it, and Merlin felt trapped. Merlin though he may have been dreaming again, but then she threw a book, which hit him and it hurt. Merlin was relatively sure that things didn't hurt in dreams.

"You! she said angrily almost screaming. For a few seconds he thought of his dream with the angry dragon. It had felt just like this. "I said it was for Arthur and you give it to his father?! Those were important. I wanted him to have them! They were so he would see. Not for his FATHER!" she grabbed another thing off of the table she was near. It was a glass vase. She threw it against the wall that was behind Merlin. The pieces hit the ground. Luckily none hit him.

He dropped the medicine and ran towards her. "Stop." he said grabbing her.

"Let go!" she yelled and flailed against him. Unlike Sophia, she had better aim and caught him in the nose. It started bleeding, and Darci stopped acting like a crazy woman. "Oh God." she crumbled to the ground.

Merlin tilted his head up. "No, Darci, it's fine. I've had a bloody nose before."

"And me throwing glass at you? That was okay?" she was shaking.

"If you got me some tissue...then probably." That got a shaky smile from her. "Your medication is somewhere on the floor."

"You dropped it? How careless?" she laughed. Merlin managed to fake one. Something was going on. She was going crazy, or at least crazier. She was able to get up and got toilet paper from her bathroom. Merlin was sitting on the couch with toilet paper up his nose. "I'm sorry for freaking out like that. I mean, I'm sure he threatened to fire you or something. So, all is forgiven for now."

"Darci, what is going on? You're acting... crazier than you usually do."

Darci took this deep breathe that sounded like a sigh. "I'm not taking allergy medicine Merlin. It's stuff I take so I don't try to commit suicide. Except, I've been avoiding taking it, and it's starting to make me high strung. And ten times crazier than normal. I think I roared this morning when I woke up. Like a dragon would." she did this pathetic little laugh. "So... when your nose stops bleeding, can you help me find the medication? I don't think I'm exactly ready to ween myself off of it yet."

So Merlin helped Darci find the medication, she took it, and then went to sleep. Merlin decided this would be a good idea to do this himself. He snuck in to his room so Guy would worry about the bloody nose, and fell asleep before he had the chance to change out of his clothes.

{Author's note: Sorry that Darci is going crazy. The next chapter will focus on more Arthur/Merlin. i found a blood type that will work perfectly, so thank you to everyone who left suggestions. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please leave reviews.}