Merlin groaned and buried himself further underneath his blanket. He felt like Arthur pounding the inside of his skull with a mallet, and his stomach was doing flip flops.
"Merlin!" Gaius called, making Merlin's head pound even more, "Get up! You're going to be late!" Merlin ignored Gaius and tried to fall asleep again. Gaius began to worry when his ward didn't come down so he marched upstairs and sighed when he found Merlin buried under the sheets.
"Merlin, Arthur will be furious if you're late" Gaius warned. Usually, that would get Merlin moving, but not today. Gaius ripped the sheets off of Merlin who simply curled up burying his face in his knees, shivering. Gaius studied his ward, Merlin's hair stuck to his sweaty forehead, which was much paler then usual. Gaius leaned over and brushed a hand over Merlin's forehead, shocked at how warm it felt.
"It seems you've come down with a fever Merlin" Gaius sighed, draping the blanket across Merlin, "I'll find someone to send another servant to take care of Arthur." But, Merlin wasn't listening, he was already fast asleep.
Arthur groaned when someone knocked loudly on the door. Why Merlin suddenly decided to start knocking was beyond Arthur. Groaning, Arthur dragged himself to his feet when the knocking continued. Arthur flung open the door and demanded,
"Honestly Merlin you've never…" He then froze when he realized that it wasn't Merlin standing in the doorway.
"Sire" The servant stammered hastily bowing while balancing his breakfast.
"Where's my servant?" Arthur asked.
"He's ill today sire" The servant replied hastily bowing again. Frowning Arthur stepped aside to let the servant in. Arthur tried to act like he was unconcerned about Merlin, but in reality he was worried out of his mind. Merlin never took sick days, even when he was almost dead on his feet he came to work, only to have Arthur send him back to Gaius. But he'd never not come before, meaning Merlin must be sick. Arthur tried to shove the worrisome thoughts of his servant to the back of his mind, new recruits were going to be at training today and he needed to focus.
"Where's Merlin?" Gwaine asked Arthur when Arthur arrived at the training field alone.
"He's sick" Arthur replied tartly.
"But he still always came…" Gwaine argued.
"I know!" Arthur snapped. Arthur ignored the surprised expressions of the other knights and continued, "We'll start with sword training…" Arthur pushed the knights harder then usual during training. The older knights knew that usually when Arthur worked them this hard it had something to do with Merlin, so they wisely kept there mouths shut. But, the new recruits didn't know this and moaned the whole time making Arthur even madder at them. After training Gwaine was heading up to see Merlin when he literally ran into Lancelot.
"Off to see Merlin?" Lancelot asked.
"Yep…you too?" Gwaine guessed.
"Yep" Lancelot replied. The two knights's continued to Gaius's chamber, there minds to preoccupied to talk. They weren't too worried about Merlin, they new that if it was that serious Gaius would have said something, but they new it had to be pretty bad for Merlin to willingly skip work. Gaius didn't seem all that surprised when Gwaine and Lancelot walked in.
"How's Merlin?" Gwaine asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
"He's feeling miserable" Gaius replied, "couldn't even get out of bed this morning." Gwaine nodded sympathetically.
"Can we go see him?" Lancelot asked.
"I think he's asleep but go ahead" Gaius replied. Gwaine softly knocked on the door and cracked it open,
"Merlin?" He asked as quietly as possible, hoping to not wake up Merlin if he really was asleep. Only the top of Merlin's head was visible under the several blankets that had been piled on top of him. Merlin groaned and turned away from the door and moaned,
"Go away…"
"Sorry….I thought you'd like my company…I guess not…" Merlin groaned,
"Gwaine…"
"Sorry" Gwaine whispered, stepping into the room, "I heard you had a rough morning…" Merlin pulled the blankets tighter around himself and whispered hoarsely,
"Yea…" Gwaine pulled a chair next to Merlin's bad and plopped down in it, while Lancelot sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Well you're not the only one having a bad day" Gwaine lamented. Merlin looked up at Gwaine curiously and Lancelot explained sarcastically,
"Gwaine's just annoyed that Arthur worked us a little harder then usual today…"
"The only reason he did was because he's mad that our dear Merlin here is sick" Gwaine declared. Lancelot rolled his eyes but didn't comment, "See Lance here even knows it!"
"Please don't call me Lance" Lancelot begged tiredly.
"But it sounds better then Lancelot…right Merlin?" Gwaine asked. Merlin groaned and pulled the blankets over his head, squeezing his eyes shut. Ordinarily Merlin enjoyed Gwaine's antics, but today it was making his head pound.
"Merlin?" Gwaine asked.
"I think he's asleep" Lancelot informed Gwaine. Merlin decided to just go along with it, hoping maybe then Gwaine would be quiet and his head would stop pounding.
"In all seriousness though" Gwaine began softly, trying not to wake up Merlin who was supposedly asleep, "whenever anything bad happens with Merlin Arthur gets so moody…"
"I don't think either of them would ever admit it, let alone to each other, but I know they do care about one another. I mean how can you not start to care about someone you've spent four years with."
"I guess" Gwaine agreed. Merlin shivered slightly and he felt someone pull the blanket more firmly around him, "but in general, I think it's impossible to not like Merlin period."
"I guess so" Lancelot agreed chuckling slightly. Someone entered the room loudly and Gwaine hissed,
"Arthur!"
"Sorry" Arthur whispered, truly sounding it as well.
"Come one Gwaine we better get going" Lancelot said.
"Why?" Gwaine moaned and Lancelot snapped,
"Come on." Lancelot dragged Gwaine out of the room who loudly protested until Lancelot snapped,
"Do you want to wake him up?" Once they were gone Arthur said,
"Alright Merlin you can cut the act now. I know you're really awake."
"Is it that obvious?" Merlin asked hoarsely.
"A little" Arthur admitted.
"Well you're oh so observant knights couldn't tell" Merlin teased a ghost of a grin on his face.
"Well I didn't knight them for their keen observation now did I?" Arthur retorted.
"Yea…you knighted them because you where desperate" Merlin teased. Arthur grinned and replied,
"Idiot."
"Prat" Merlin automatically responded. Both men had huge grins on there faces. Any further banter was interrupted by Gaius, who informed Arthur,
"Arthur, your father wished to see you." Sighing, Arthur stood up and told Merlin,
"Don't come back to work unless you're better ok?"
"I don't think Gaius would let me" Merlin informed Arthur, "but thanks." Arthur nodded his head before walking about. Merlin curled up under the blankets, yes Lancelot was right, they'd never really admit they cared, but that didn't mean they didn't.
End Notes
So how was it? Not to dreadful right? I have quiet a few other ideas for one shots so never fear! But I will always take any requests you guys may have for one shots, I LOVE to hear them. So review and tell me what you think!
