Arthur took longer than he had originally expected to travel from Morgana's chambers to the Physicians ones. He was stopped by nobles asking questions, servants passing messages and, to top it off, his father gave him a speech on training harder. With all the complications of just moving from one end of the castle to another, it took Arthur well over an hour and by that time he was not in the best of moods.

As he was about to knock on the door, the young prince heard hushed tones on the other side. One of the voices he recognised as Gaius' and the other was that of the idiot. He leaned closer to the door; his ear almost pressed flat against the thin wood, and tried to listen in.

"-simply refuse!"

"Merlin, you will not argue with me on this. You are doing it and that is final," Gaius' voice was close to boiling point- a point that Arthur knew took ages for Gaius to reach so he concluded that whatever they were talking about had been the subject of conversation for quite a while now. "It's the only job I could find and you will at least turn up tomorrow to see how things go."

"But, Gaius, I cannot, and will not, bow down and become some bootlicker like that prat will expect. Do you realise how many times I have met him and argued with him? Twice and I argued with him both times! He's going to kill me as soon as I walk through the door," Merlin seemed to be trying to reason with the older man but he was out of luck. An infuriated Gaius was a stubborn Gaius and you just don't argue with him. Not even when he was in a good mood.

Arthur decided to save the boys skin, probably the first time of many if he was the Emrys, by knocking before he could reply and feel the full brunt of the Physicians wrath (though, if asked why later, he would say that he was fed up of their bickering or just say he happened to arrive at that precise moment.) Silence was instantaneous on the other side of the thin door.

"Enter." Arthur wasted no time after hearing the permission. "Hello, Sire. What can I do for you?" Gaius asked.

"Actually, it's not you I need to speak to Gaius," Arthur's eyes flicked over to where Merlin was sitting. The darker haired boy swallowed silently. "May I have a word with Merlin?"

"Of course, I'll leave you to it," Gaius replied, giving Merlin a look which told him to be on his best behaviour and left without word.

"Can't this wait till the morning?" Merlin said his face moulded into a one of annoyance.

"What do you mean?"

Merlin heaved an exaggerated sigh. "You know when I'm serving you your breakfast and doing whatever else to set me to do." He managed to say it with a serious tone that didn't quite match up with the expression on his face.

Arthur was about to retaliate when he fully grasped the meaning of the other boys words. His mouth opened and shut a few times, doing an impressive impression of a fish out of water.

Merlin looked at him, blue eyes taking in the wonder of the speechless prince. "You didn't know I was going to be your new servant, did you? Gods that would have been as surprising for you as it was for me in the morning," the younger boy's face changed from one of annoyance to an amused version.

Arthur suddenly got his voice back. "OF COURSE I DIDN'T KNOW! MY FATHER TOLD ME YOUR NAME WAS MARVIN!" Merlin started to laugh uncontrollably and soon had tears running down his face. "THIS ISNT FUNNY, MERLIN!"

"Oh, but it is, Sire, it's very funny," Merlin struggled to say through laughter.

Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, waiting somewhat impatiently for the peasant boy to finish his fit of laughter. Eventually, Merlin did calm down but had to wipe away the tears that had leaked out due to how hard he had been laughing.

"Your father seriously thinks my name is Marvin?"

"Why would you care about that one detail? It's not like it will make your life any more difficult then I'm going to make it tomorrow," Arthur told him.

"No, it's quite refreshing, actually. There are times that I wish I were called something boring like John or Arthur," Merlin replied cheekily, a huge grin on his face.

"I bet you would," Arthur grumbled, not even noticing that Merlin had implied that his name was boring.

Merlin sized up the prince before him. He was broad in the shoulders but those same shoulders also appeared to be carrying the weight of the world on them. The blonde's eyes, blue as a clear sky, looked tired and older beyond his years. Clearly Arthur needed to learn to lighten up a bit as all work and no play made people very dull and, certainly in Arthur's case, very moody.

"Something on your mind, Sire?"

Arthur's hand moved away from his face and his eyes met Merlin's. The raven couldn't tell if it was out of shock that he was being respectful towards him for the first time or the fact that he was utterly sincere that had the prince looking at him the way he was right now. He hoped it was the former because the latter was a depressing thought if no-one was genuinely sincere towards their beloved prince.

"Nothing you need to worry your little peasant brain about, Merlin… Assuming you have a brain, that is," was Arthur's long awaited reply.

Merlin sighed. "You know what they say; assume will make an ass out of you and me but, right now, just out of you."

Arthur glared at him and, quite frankly, Merlin preferred the grumpy version of Arthur compared to his weak other half.

"I expect you at my chambers first thing tomorrow morning with my breakfast. I'll give you other chores in the morning and I'll expect them to be done at the time I requested them to be done by. Do I make myself clear, Merlin?"

"Very, Sir Prat."

Arthur's lip twitched. "And I hope you realise that if you insult me like that in front of anyone, you could be punished for it."

Merlin had to bit his tongue so he just nodded in reply.

"Good," Arthur curtly exited the Physicians chambers and left Merlin in a dazed state.

He was not looking forward to tomorrow any better than he had before Arthur had walked in. Not one bit.

A/N: I told you I'd have a chapter up before the 20th *smug look*

Thank you for everyone that review, followed and favourited after chapter 11. I woke up the morning after I'd posted it and literally all the emails through my blackberry were reviews and the like.

As I said in my last Authors Note, I would tell you guys how I did in my exams and they were as follows (1 being the highest and seven being 'you didn't even try')

English, Art, Biology, Craft and Design, History and Modern Studies were all a 2

Maths and French were a 3 (which were wayyyy better than I had expected). So, basically, I passed everything! YAYYYY!

Irene, my wonderful reviewer from down under, I'm afraid to say that I have never done fancy dress dressage and have never heard of it either. I've seen people at christmas dress up as fairies and put a santa hat on their horse for Show Jumping but never for Dressage (I think its something to do with The British Dressage Association being ran in England and the whole 'stiff upper lip thing'.. :) ) It was just plain old dressage for me.

Anyway, that is it for now. Thank you for reading,

Roxanne ;P