He was sick, sicker than he had ever been before. His throat ached, his head span and his stomach felt like lead. He felt awful.
The light peeked through the window and he knew that soon he'd have to move, he needed to wake Arthur and there was some important council meeting that he needed to make sure Arthur had a speech for.
There was so much to do.
But the bed was warm and safe, and here he could bury into the thin worn cover and try and ignore the pain in his head.
He drifted between wakefulness and sleep, the transition between the two jolting and painful as he laid in his sweat slicked clothes. The sun rose a little higher throughout his doze and that's when the door banged open with a dreadful bang.
"Merlin!" The king shouted striding over to the bed with footfalls so loud it made the room shake. "Merlin it's almost noon, Gwen had to wake me," Arthur shook Merlin's shoulder to wake him and it was then the bleary eyes of Merlin met his own, "Mer- Merlin?" Arthur asked worriedly, pressing a hand roughly to his sweating brow.
"Ar-fur," Merlin said weakly, raising a hand to grasp at Arthur's arm.
"Merlin it's okay, I'll get Gaius. Where is Gaius?"
"Dunno." Merlin's eyes dropped again and Arthur panicked, he had no real experience with this sort of illness but he knew when his men were injured the worst thing they could do was fall asleep.
"Stay with me Merlin."
"Always," Merlin said with a slight smile, his eyes closing into slits.
"Merlin! MERLIN!" Arthur yelled but the man lay limp in the bed, his hand still weakly holding on to the Kings arm. Arthur sprinted to the top of the stairs, "guards! Guards!" He yelled, his voice cracking, seconds later two burly guards bundled in to the room, "fetch Gaius it's an emergency!" They paused in confusion, "now!"
He walked back into the room and grasped Merlin's hand, "it's alright Merlin, it's going to be alright."
A few days later Merlin looked upon Arthur's worry with confusion. Arthur continued to fuss, and would continue to fuss for a couple more weeks- the fear he'd felt at Merlin almost being stolen by something as commonplace as a flu. He'd realised in those moments what everyone else had known all along. He couldn't live without him.
A/N Hope you enjoyed. Arthur can be rather hopeless!