Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin, the BBC does.
Arthur noted bitterly, as he lay face down on the stone floor of his room, that he had never noticed how uncomfortable his floors were. The guards that had dumped him on the floor of his room smirked and kicked him once more in the side before spitting at him and leaving. The blonde groaned and rolled onto his side, spitting out the blood that had pooled in his mouth. He was glad his time in the dungeon was up, he really didn't know what he would have done if he was kept in those cells for another day. He couldn't really remember much, only the beatings; he had drifted in and out of consciousness for days, the beatings getting more and more severe as the time went by.
On what Arthur thinks was the fourth day, Uther paid him a visit. The king smirked down at his bloody, broken son and laughed before sneering "Oh Arthur, how the mighty have fallen."
"Have your moronic guards located Merlin yet or are they still chasing their tails?" the prince retorted knowing that his cocky response would earn him some more rough treatment. His father's superior expression faltered for a second before he smiled maliciously and kicked his son's chest, causing the blonde to roll and gasp for breath. The impact to his chest coupled with what Arthur suspected was the beginnings of a rather nasty chest infection caused him to splutter and cough as the air stung his lungs.
"You can't hide him forever and by the time we find him all of my sympathy and understanding will have run out boy." Uther couldn't remember ever hating anyone as much as he hated his son at that moment, of all the people in the kingdom Uther thought that he would be able to trust his son but apparently not.
"Oh, father dearest, you don't have the intelligence to find him." He laughed, a croaky laugh that sounded more like an old mans than a young boys. His father walked out of the cell and re-locked the door behind him before addressing the guard.
"Has the boy been fed since the beginning of his stay?" he asked. The guard cleared his throat nervously and looked down at the floor.
"No sire." He answered.
"Very good, now I want you to personally see to it that the prince doesn't receive anything to eat for the remainder of the duration of his stay."
"Very well sire." The guard said diligently, unsure as to what the prince had done to warrant such treatment, but knowing that holding his tongue was the best approach with the irritable king he said nothing and decided to later refer to castle gossip to find out what had happened.
Uther walked away from the guard and his son, returning to the comforts of his room and a ludicrously young serving girl who definitely did not give her consent for his following actions.
Arthur heard the heavy doors to his chambers open and tried to pull himself away from the intruder to limit any further injuries. "Please don't." he muttered quietly, tears of shame at what he had been reduced to sliding down his cheeks.
"Gaius!" came the frantic call of Merlin's voice as he rushed to Arthur's side and collapsed next to him, not even noticing when his legs made abnormally hard contact with the floor.
The old man rushed into the room, medical bag in hand as he walked as quickly as he could towards the boy that he loved like a son. He had heard that the prince was being released and had decided to bring the young warlock back before he started bouncing off the walls. Gaius had seen Merlin's distress grow the longer he stayed away from the prince and he knew that when the brunette woke that morning that he was chomping at the bit to see his prince again.
"Oh my boy." He muttered as he carefully, with Merlin's assistance, rolled the blonde onto his back and began to assess his injuries. Fractured ribs: two, broken ribs: two… no three, fractured fingers on both hands, sprained ankle, concussion, chest infection, multiple lacerations to abdomen, chest and back; back lashes consistent with a horse whip and the cut on his chest consistent with a blade. Gaius took note of the prince's bloodied sword next to his hand and decided that his own weapon had been used against him to cause him pain.
"Arthur wake up, wake up," Merlin pleaded with his prince, wiling him to wake. "Please Arthur, wake up." He sobbed, pressing he forehead into the prince's already sore chest, letting his tears mix with the prince's blood.
"Merlin, get up now. You're not helping Arthur by doing this and you need to get off him so I can treat him. Now, help me move him to the bed." Merlin sobered at the physicians reprimand and helped the old man move the blonde to the bed.
Merlin sat and watched as Gaius treated the prince carefully with his deft hands. It took a long while but Merlin only let go of Arthur's hand to let the physician remove his tattered shirt. Merlin felt so guilty, Arthur had been hurt protecting him from Uther and it was all his fault.
Gaius had left a little while later, leaving Merlin with a small vial containing a clear blue liquid and instructions to give it to the prince twice a day or when needed, it was for his chest infection. He also had a larger vial with a pale yellow, waxy looking salve which he was meant to put onto Arthur's cuts once a day. Merlin had taken his role very seriously and had set up an entire shelf in Arthur's cupboard just for the prince's treatments. He had also added extra pillows and blankets to the bed to ensure the blonde's comfort; he checked the prince's temperature with his hand frequently, adding and removing the blankets to adjust his loves temperature to make sure he wasn't too hot or too cold.
He was relieved when he noticed the prince's fever breaking halfway through the night, thankful that Gaius had shown him what to look out for. Arthur woke about an hour later, mumbling for Merlin and water, he seemed disorientated and weak and Merlin wasn't sure if it was because of Gaius' remedy or his illness. He fetched the prince some water from a jug on the table before rushing back over to the bed, tucking one leg under his bum with his legs off the side of the bed. He brought the cup up to Arthur's lips and lifted his head so that he could drink from it.
Arthur gulped from the cup and then spluttered and coughed as he choked on the water. Merlin helped to pull him up so that he was sitting against the headboard and then he rubbed the blonde's back soothingly until he stopped choking.
"Merlin I-" Arthur began but the brunette cut him off by placing his lips against the prince's. They kissed softly, Merlin bringing his hands up to Arthur's face to hold them together. After a few seconds they pulled apart and rested their foreheads together.
"Hello." Merlin whispered and Arthur smiled gently, a kind of sad nostalgic smile.
"Hello." He replied before kissing the warlock again, preventing him from saying anything else. Merlin pulled away first this time, he tugged Arthur down so that he was laying with his head on the pillows before settling on the blonde's chest, listening once again to his heartbeat.
"I missed you." Merlin whispered into the fabric of Arthur's chest, gently turning his head so that his chin was resting on the blonde's chest and he could look at his prince. "I was terrified Arthur, I was so scared that you weren't going to come back." He paused, swallowing back his tears. "When you saved me you taught me what it was like to love someone and to feel loved in return, I don't know what I would do if that was taken away from me now. I don't know what I'd do without you." He said slightly shy as to how the prince would react.
The blonde's head had been foggy when he had first woke up but the fog had lifted at Merlin's round about declaration of love. He had honestly, over the past week of beatings, prepared himself for, and accepted the fact that the warlock would never return his feelings, but hearing the brunette admit that he felt the same made him want to cry with joy. However, he settled for a kiss, wincing as he jolted his sore ribs.
"I love you, my Merlin." He murmured against the other boy's lips and the brunette smiled lazily before kissing him back.
"I love you too, my prince." He whispered before wrapping himself around the prince and drifting off to sleep.
Arthur didn't sleep that night; he had conditioned himself over the past few nights not to need sleep. The first night he had slept, he had fallen victim to a gang of the more permanent inmates. It seemed they had a certain agreement with the guards; let us out for the nights and we will return in the mornings not having mentioned to anyone the indiscretions that we see and hear you commit.
They had unlocked the cells of six of the residents that evening and Arthur had slunk back against the furthest corner of the cell hoping to evade notice. It hadn't worked though and after the men had stretched out for a couple of minutes they had soon turned their attentions to the crown prince of Camelot.
"Awe," the largest, ugliest of the lot sneered at the blonde. "Did pretty boy get left all alone?" Arthur shivered in disgust as six pairs of eyes roamed around his body, sizing him up. He had never been happier to be locked in a room in his life; at least they couldn't touch him.
"Guess what Arty," the second piped up, and Arthur turned to face him, raising his eyebrow slightly, inviting the red-head to continue. "Daddy left us a key." He said as the cell door swung open, Arthur scrambled up quickly, fear, adrenaline and betrayal coursing through him. He knew his father hated him, but to leave him to the mercy of six men was more than Arthur thought he would inflict on anyone, let alone his own son. He was glad that he had only been in the cell one day, he wasn't going to go down without a fight and he would need his strength to remove the brutes. The middle man came at him firs and Arthur easily side-stepped, sending the man head first into the concrete wall, knocking him out stone cold. The second followed relatively quickly as well; he came at the prince and swung his fist, Arthur deflected his fist and sent the man turning to the side after loosing his balance, as the man turned Arthur bought his elbow down heavily on the back of the man's head sending him crashing to the floor. He was just about to knock the man out when the first man (the one who started talking) wrapped his tree-trunk-like arms around him and squeezed him tightly against his chest.
"I do like it when they struggle." He said before licking the shell of Arthur's ear. The price wretched in disgust and then cracked his elbow against the brute's nose, blood flowing out of his nose and onto Arthur's shoulder the boy stumbled back and landed heavily against the wall.
"You're going to love me then." He said as he lurched towards the bleeding man. The remaining three hooked their arms around the prince's waist restraining him and protecting their friend as he struggled whole-heartedly.
The bleeding man ripped off a strip of his linen tunic and allowed it to soak up the worst of the blood pouring from his nose before wrapping the rag firmly around the blonde's mouth, securing it behind his head. Gagging him.
Arthur could feel the panic welling up inside him, he legs and arms were being held so he couldn't move, he concluded that he could thrush his hips backwards and it might get them off, however, Arthur decided it most likely wouldn't work and they would make some sick twisted jokes about him wanting them. So he stood strong and waited for the opportune moment to escape. The largest man, the first one, placed both of his hands on the collar of Arthur's shirt and ripped it halfway down the middle, revealing a pale chest and light golden hair.
"Oh Arty, you're so beautiful." He laughed and reached for the princes breeches. Arthur was suddenly glad he had donned undergarments when he had gotten dressed the previous evening. The tree trunk could clearly see the outline of the prince's flaccid cock through the thin material and suddenly Arthur could feel the tears welling up in his eyes and constricting his throat.
Arthur shook his head vigorously and smashed his head backwards; however the men behind him seemed to have anticipated this and dodged easily out of the way. The ring leader gestured at the other thugs and they pushed the prince down to the floor, arse in the air. The men who were restraining him moved into more comfortable positions, trying to enjoy the show Arthur laughed bitterly at his dry humour. Tres drole.
Hands were beginning to find their way into the prince's trousers when the weight off all of the men and the feeling of the hands suddenly disappeared. He rolled away quickly and pushed himself against the wall and buried his face into his arms as he pulled his knees up to his chests. He listened to the thuds and the sweeping noises of swords that he knew so well as something unknown happened to the grunts that had attacked him. He flinched lightly when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up at the owner of the hand wide eyed and teary.
"L-Leon?" he asked unsure as to why the knight was even down here. Arthur didn't really know what was happening next but he had very quickly thrown his arms around the knight's neck and was sobbing openly into the man's neck. "Thank you, Thank you." He said over and over, unsure if he was ever going to be able to repay his friend.
"Shhh Arthur." Leon comforted the prince, glad that he had decided to come alone; he could deal with this situation and he didn't really want any of the other knights to have any idea of how venerable their leader really was.
"Leon can I trust you?" Arthur asked as he lent back and dried his eyes.
"Arthur I know you've never really interacted on a friendly level with many of the knights, but I swear to you, I will not share this with any of the other knights or anyone else. I have always watched you Arthur, tried to share some of your burden but I've never really succeeded, I feel guilty that everything happened to you and I am so ashamed that I didn't notice what Uther was like sooner, but I promise you that you will always be able to trust me, no matter what. My loyalty has and always will be yours."
The knight's speech touched Arthur and he very nearly started crying again, instead he cleared his throat and responded.
"Currently, there is a boy named Merlin staying with Gaius, he has magic and he has had a very hard life. I am here at the moment to protect him and would gladly lay down my life for him…" Arthur paused; his voice had lowered considerably just to make sure that no one could overhear their conversation. "I love him Leon, more than I have ever loved anyone and I can't loose him, I can't. I need you to find him, tell him who you are and explain to Gaius as well, they will both be wary so you need to give them this," he said handing over his mothers ring that never left his little finger on his right hand. "With that they will know that you are telling the truth, make sure Merlin wears it though. Anyway, you have to protect him, I don't care how, but please keep him safe at least until I can get out of here." Leon nodded digesting everything that Arthur had told him.
"You love him?"
"Enough that the thought of him not being in the world makes me want to take my own life." The prince responded quickly and without hesitation.
"What happens when you get out?"
"I recuperate, I am not going to get out of here in the best condition and then I plot. I plot and I plan and I get together a team and under the law of crimes against the people we arrest, try and punish Uther Pendragon."
"Punish?"
"I'll kill him," Arthur explained as if it were the simplest thing ever. "I destroy him and take Camelot, and then Leon, we rebuild it on foundation that we will be proud of when we are old." Arthur's face was taken over by nostalgia. "I want to be able to tell my children that I took a stand against my father's wrong doings. I want be able to tell them that I saw something was wrong and did something about it. I want to be proud of myself and I want Merlin to be safe from persecution and to live a happy and full life with me." He looked over at Leon, seeing a strange look of pride on his as the prince explained his plans. "I want to be free." Arthur concluded with a smile on his face.
Leon looked at the prince for a moment, trying to ascertain if he was being serious or not, deciding that he was serious he took a deep breath and gave the blonde his answer.
"Count me in."
Please Review
tres drole = Very funny (french)
