Disclaimer: Merlin's not mine.

By the end of the second full day without Merlin as his shadow, Arthur was realizing why he had always been so willing to go off on heroic life-saving quests whenever Merlin was ill or dying from some supernatural ailment. The risk for Arthur was always very real, and the life of a crown prince or king is hardly one to be gambled about with little forethought. But at least if he was off questing for some noble purpose, he wouldn't have had to deal with a different manservant every time that Merlin got a stomachache from eating too quickly or drinking poison or something else that seemed to happen surprisingly often.

The boy knocked at his door. Arthur wasn't sure what his name was; he didn't really care. He hadn't asked, and the boy hadn't taken it upon himself to tell him. So Arthur had a feeling that he wouldn't be in the position for very long.

Arthur yelled for him to enter. It was amazing how difficult it was for him to become reacquainted with the ways of a respectful servant. Knocking before entering, bowing upon exiting, speaking when spoken to…it was as though he had woken up and was suddenly Prince Arthur once more, in the days during which there was no backtalk or insolence or disagreement within his chambers. It was as though Merlin had never been there; his room certainly showed none of Merlin's trademarks. There weren't any articles of clothing or bits of armor sticking out from behind pieces of furniture, there were no mysterious locks of hair under his pillows, he did not have to be suspicious of any of his meals…it was very proper, very polite, and very very lonely.

The boy shuffled in, already sunken into his unnecessarily low bow. Arthur raised his eyebrows; it was a very impractical way of entering a room. He was so distracted by imagining the many ways that a situation could go immediately wrong by entering a room sideways while staring at the floor that he almost didn't register when the boy began to speak, his quavering voice barely able to brave its way across the room to the grouchy king.

From what Arthur could discern from the boy's mumblings, he had come to announce the arrival of someone or other. His lip had begun to quiver noticeably by the time that he reached the end of his sentence, and Arthur felt too sorry for the frightened boy to order him to repeat it. He'd find out soon enough.

It was Gaius.

Arthur felt himself stand up immediately, moving to pull a chair out for the older man. He usually did not so obviously try to accommodate him, to allow him the dignity of not requiring the aid of a younger man. But Gaius seemed to have aged a decade since the last time that Arthur had seen him.

Arthur couldn't help but feel a twinge or two of guilt about that. He had been pointedly avoiding Gaius ever since the incident with Merlin that had led to the young man's seclusion in the dungeons. He couldn't fathom going to face him, to tell him what he had done to his ward, his assistant, his surrogate son…so Arthur had taken the coward's route and sent Sir Percival to inform the physician. If anyone could break difficult news without trying to compensate with overspeechifying, it was Sir Percival.

Arthur was even able to keep busy enough that it would have been difficult to go to see Gaius at a decent hour if he had genuinely been trying to. As it was, he managed to make it through two days guilt-free without seeing Gaius. After all, could the king of Camelot really be expected to go chasing after physicians who harbor criminals when his castle was falling apart and his staff either fleeing before his feet or cold-shouldering him? He led a busy life.

But if he had seen Gaius, seen the way that the loss of Merlin was affecting him…

He gestured for Gaius to sit down, and it occurred to him for the first time that perhaps Merlin's absence as an active presence in Gaius' chambers was affecting the physician in more ways than emotional.

"Gaius, are you all right? You do not look well."

"I have been better, sire." Arthur detected and accepted the hint of reproach in Gaius' voice. It hadn't been among his most sensitive of questions.

"Of course. I'm sure that you've been very busy lately, what…with...the, uh, collapse in the council room…and everything?" Arthur heard himself falter, the inadequacy in his own words weighting them down until they were all but inaudibly stilted and weak. All for the best, really, if Gaius couldn't hear that pathetic excuse for a sentence.

"There is always plenty for a physician to do in a place like this, my lord."

Arthur hated it when Gaius called him that. The man was three times his own age; if one must be calling the other "lord," it did not seem proper for it to be from Gaius to Arthur.

But he could not bring it upon himself to be too annoyed with Gaius just then; the man looked…shrunken.

"Gaius, you are unwell. Let me assign you a servant, someone to gather your herbs and make your deliveries for you. You shouldn't have to—"

Gaius held up a hand, and Arthur automatically stopped speaking. When they were alone, it was so simple for them to revert back to their roles as adult and child as had dominated Arthur's youth.

"Please, sire, I did not come to discuss my work at this time. I would just very much like to see my boy, if it would not be too much trouble."

And Arthur had thought that his heart could break no more.

"Of course, Gaius. Of course you may see him. Have you been down…?"

"No, sire. I had been planning on doing so, but I received word that he was being refused all visitors. From the various reports, it did not sound as though it mattered what station a person held. All were kept from seeing him, and my knees are not what they used to be for constant trips to and from the dungeons."

Received word? Various reports? Who the hell had been trying to visit Merlin? And spreading word of it?

That wasn't the point.

"It is true, Gaius, that he is not currently permitted visitors."

"I have heard that you were very firm on the matter." There was that hint of reproach again.

"I was. I am. Gaius, I'm sorry, but Merlin is a criminal. He must be locked up for his crimes and for the safety of the people of Camelot." Arthur sounded as though he was grasping for reasons, and he cursed his own voice for it.

Gaius pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded, not as though he agreed with Arthur's claim as to the cause of Merlin's seclusion, but as though he was hearing exactly what he had expected to hear. It was so very similar to Merlin's expression as Leon was refusing to be approached by him.

Arthur wasn't sure if this made him extremely mad or extremely sad. He settled for silent disapproval as he waited for Gaius to respond.

"I am quite familiar with Camelot's laws regarding magic, Arthur. I have seen them enforced more times than you could possibly know."

Arthur nodded, looking down at his shoes, feeling strangely ashamed, although he could not see why he should. He could not help the violence that had preceded him.

Gaius continued. "I am not here to make any pleas for Merlin's life or to try to explain away what happened when you two last spoke in the council chamber. I only ask if I might please see him."

"Of course you shall see him." Gaius bowed, hearing a hint of finality in Arthur's tone, and began to slowly walk away. He was nearly to the door to Arthur's chambers when the king suddenly called out after him.

"Gaius, wait! Let me write you a note, giving permission. I do not mean to impugn your reputation, but I fear that the guards may not believe you if you can give nothing but your word that you are to be allowed to see him. They have had…their instructions on the matter are very clear. They know my hand, they'll know that this is no forgery. You know what, I'll give it the royal seal as well. If you could just pass me that candle there—thank you, Gaius—I'll seal it right up for you now." Arthur could hear himself rambling. He heard it and, had he been babbling in front of anyone other than Gaius, who had been treating him for all manner of embarrassing ailments since his infancy, he would have been mortified. As it was, he wasn't feeling his most kingly.

Unfortunately, the more that he was aware of his rambling just kept making it all the worse. "There. They shouldn't give you any trouble now. If they do, let me know, and I'll have words with them. Send one of them, you shouldn't have to walk back and forth twice…In fact, if you would come to see me after you speak with him, I'd really appreciate it. I haven't really had reliable word, because no one really goes near him…I guess my orders are followed pretty closely, which is good for, you know, Camelot, you could say…anyway, I would go down with you myself to vouch for you, of course, but I'm terribly busy today, in fact, you caught me right in the middle of—"

Arthur gestured vaguely back at the desk where he had been slumped prior to Gaius' entrance. There was nothing but a goblet of water and a penknife with which he had been carving his name and title into the wood.

Ah, a day in the terribly busy life of a king.

Realizing that there was no possible way to end that sentence without humiliating himself further, Arthur settled with not ending it at all and handed Gaius the note that would give permission for the physician to meet with his ward, the wax of the royal seal still warm to the touch.

And purple. One of Guinevere's candles must have gotten slipped into his chambers by the new manservant who clearly didn't know better…Arthur would let it slide, this time, knowing that his embargo on lavender candles was one of his more obscure idiosyncrasies.

Maybe he should also allow his new manservant to visit with Merlin. The boy seemed somewhat terrified—somewhat extra terrified whenever his predecessor's name was mentioned or alluded to, but he probably could benefit from an interview or two with Merlin. While a servant such a George was the far superior teacher when it came to cleaning or etiquette, Merlin was widely recognized as the authority on all things Arthur.

The young manservant knocked again and Arthur sighed before calling for him to enter. This was going to get very old.

He surveyed the boy, ignoring the blush that spread over his face as he felt the eyes of the king. Judging by the way that he quaked with the knowledge that Arthur was looking in his general direction, Arthur figured that there was no way that he would be able to go near Merlin and speak with him without assuming that the sorcerer was going to jinx him into Mercia or turn him into a muskrat or some other sort of rubbish. It wouldn't have been the most bizarre of the rumors of the peculiarities of Merlin's powers.

Arthur watched as the manservant walked out again, bowing and nearly dropping Arthur's retrieved bed linens in the process. He had clearly taken note of Arthur's handiwork on the table, but the concept of commenting on the king's unusual method of passing the morning was certainly unlikely to enter the mind of the young man.

Arthur sighed again and took up his penknife once more. "Pendragon" wasn't going to carve itself into his desk.

By the time that Gaius returned to Arthur's chambers, the king was just completing a flourish on the t at the end of "Mighty King of Camelot." It was a fine piece of work, if Arthur could say so himself.

Gaius seemed less struck by the vision, but Arthur assumed that he was just distracted by his meeting with Merlin. He supposed that that was slightly understandable. Although it was a very ornate flourish…Arthur shifted in his seat with as much subtlety as he possessed and beckoned to Gaius so that he might have a clearer access to viewing the artistry.

But wait. Why was Gaius even here? Arthur figured that a talk that involved anything that Merlin had to say about the king just then probably wouldn't make anyone feel like they needed a friendly chat with Arthur. He could understand if Gaius had come back to see his carving, but Gaius hadn't really seemed to take note of its beginnings when he had been in earlier. He had been somewhat distracted. Well, he was a man of science, not art.

He nodded at Arthur respectfully, as was his habit. "Sire."

Arthur nodded back. "Gaius."

There was a pause in which each looked at each other. Arthur felt himself start to bristle under the shrewd gaze of the old physician. Surely it was up to Gaius to explain his presence! Arthur wasn't very well going to begin a conversation when he didn't know the intended topic.

"So, Gaius. I trust that the guards allowed you through?"

"Indeed they did, sire."

"Did you have any trouble to report?"

"None at all."

"Then…I do not mean to sound rude, Gaius, but I have to wonder why you have come back. Surely you have more on your mind now than small talk with me."

"I do indeed, Arthur, but you asked me to come back to see you after my meeting with my ward."

Arthur didn't remember this, but he did not doubt the physician's word. No doubt Arthur had slipped it in somewhere amongst his ramblings.

"Ah…so I did. Thank you for remembering! I just wanted to check to see if you…were pleased with your visit."

Yes, that certainly sounded as though he had had a plan for this conversation.

"I was, very much. Thank you, Arthur. It did me a world of good to speak to him, to see with my own eyes is the is alright for now." Arthur could have sworn that he heard emphasis on for now. Filing that thought away for later, Arthur attempted to continue their friendly banter.

"You were not very long."

"After our mutual relief at finally being permitted to see each other, we did not have much to discuss. Merlin is…not willing to bend on a few matters of great importance, and I believe that he did not want to get me into any trouble with the guards by keeping me for too long."

Well, that was incredibly sad and touching. Damn Merlin…

Arthur cleared his throat and attempted to look stern and kingly. "Did he try to pass you anything?"

"No, my lord. I believe that the guards could have been able to see and report it to you if he had done so, but again, I do not believe that he would risk endangering my safety in the castle. And honestly, Arthur, what on earth do you think that he could have in there to pass out? Have you seen his the state of his cell?"

Arthur chose to ignore the rebuke implied in Gaius' final sentences. Petulance was the far more appealing option, and he was certainly not going to admit that he hadn't gone within two corridors of the dungeons since Merlin had taken up residence within. Petulance it was!

"Oh, well, then does he send messages to all of his little friends in the castle?"

Gaius raised an eyebrow, ever-dignified. "No, sire. He sends no messages. But he has requested that I make a query on his behalf."

Arthur raised his own eyebrows in an attempt to mirror the gravity of the man facing him. "A query? Of whom?"

Gaius nodded toward the king. "Of you, sire."

Arthur bristled even more. "Is that so? Well, go on then, Gaius! We wouldn't want to disappoint him. What is this query of his?"

"It is a simple matter, sire, but somewhat difficult to phrase delicately." Gaius seemed to be debating with himself as to whether he should phrase it as Merlin had or as he would when addressing the king. "He wonders…"

Arthur rolled his eyes, nearly dizzying himself with the weight of his own forced bravado. "Go on, Gaius! Don't worry, I'm not going to have you executed for repeating something that he said."

Gaius winced slightly at Arthur's mentioning of execution, but he nodded at the king's demand. "It just that he'd like to know if you've decided yet what you're going to do with him."

Damn Merlin. He had been having a perfectly functional day, and then he had to go and ruin it by throwing his indecision into Arthur's face. It was bad enough that people throughout the town were beginning to whisper about Arthur's lack of a ruling over Merlin's fate, but to hear it voiced aloud by the man himself! How brazen and offensive!

And by proxy!

Arthur squared his shoulders and glared, raising his voice so that he could hear it clearly over the sudden and very irritating ringing in his ears. "He's finally worried, then? Good. Good! The least that he can do is show a healthy fear befitting a man in his state. That proves that he's at least still sane. Did he seem like he was getting nervous, then?"

This was it, this was when he would feel it again, when he would start to feel as truly powerful and deserving and legitimate as a king as he had before, when his life would be flipped right side up again, when the king's world would cease to revolve around the servant and each would take their rightful places in power and status. By proxy indeed! Arthur began to swell in pleasure, already formulating his gracious response to Gaius' admission of Merlin's increasing edginess.

But then Gaius simply shook his head, a very slight and very respectful movement back and forth. "No, sire. I got the distinct impression that he was merely rather bored."

And Arthur had nothing to say.

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Thank you for the reviews, as always! I wasn't going to update today, but they sort of talked me into it. :)