"Are you hiding in the bushes again, Merlin?"

Merlin looked away from the night's last stars to where Arthur stood, a dozen paces away at the edge of the Queen's Garden. "If I'm hiding from anyone, it's Gwaine," Merlin said, wincing when his own voice sent a short spike of pain through his head.

"Get you drunk, did he?" Arthur laughed at his pained nod. "Saved from the courts, only to fall victim to your friends. You should have known better. Gwaine can drink just about any man under the table. What did you think he was giving you? Spring water?"

"I wasn't really thinking about it, honestly. I was still a bit in shock, after all. Never expected a court case to go in my favor like that. I figured I'd be convicted and booted out of Camelot in one fell swoop." Merlin sat back against the hawthorn tree and tugged at the laces of his half-gloves.

Arthur sat down, cross legged, with his elbows braced on his knees. For a moment, he looked like the ridiculous young prince Merlin had met all those years ago, not like the noble king he had become. "Not everyone in Camelot hates you, Merlin, and not every deck is stacked against you. The head judge today, Judge Thorne, well," Arthur shrugged, "he's always lived up to his name. He was a thorn in my father's side from the day he was named to the position. Uther tried to have him removed more than once, but never managed to find a way to do it within the law. So buck up." Arthur clapped him on the shoulder. "You have a few allies here. Probably more than you know." He frowned at the ashen shade Merlin's face had turned. "Are you all right? You're not going to faint on me now, are you?"

"No." Merlin tried to speak without moving his lips, to breathe without moving his chest, or indeed, tried not to move at all. "But thank you, for bringing back this spectacular headache. I'd missed it. Really." The amount of sarcasm Merlin injected into his voice was breathtaking.

"Well, now you'll know to beware of Gwaine when he bears gifts," Arthur said.

"The Greeks come bearing gifts, not Gwaine." Merlin opened one eye enough to glare at Arthur.

"Who?"

"The Greeks. At the end of the Trojan War, they built a giant horse in order to breach the city walls, and…" he trailed off at Arthur's confused look and decided to stop talking for once. Explaining that particular story called for a day when he had more time. And less of a headache. "Never mind. I'll explain it another time. Right now that story doesn't even make much sense to me." Merlin rubbed his eyes and willed the headache away. As long as he sat still and breathed slowly, it seemed to subside. A little. "I'm going to get him for this. Gwaine had better watch himself."

Arthur laughed. "I'll let him know you said that. And I'll make sure he's assigned duties here in Camelot for the next fortnight. That should give you plenty of opportunities for revenge."

"Oh, you're helping me out for once? That's uncommonly kind of you."

"Well, I'd just hate to see you clear the treason trials, only to have you end up in the stocks because you were staggering around in a drunken haze and turning people's chickens into frogs or something. Or end up in the bed of some girl you hardly know." Arthur's smile turned sly, like there was some bit of information he had that Merlin didn't have.

"Why are you looking at me like that? It's disturbing." Merlin scowled, but his thoughts turned to the scrap of parchment in his pocket and its message to Niniane, inviting her to court. His cheeks burned for a moment, and he was glad the pre-dawn darkness hid the rising color."Anyway. I don't have a girl."

"Ah." Arthur didn't sound convinced. "You do remember what I told you last night? About the Druid girl who wants to come to court? You weren't quite three sheets to the wind at that point, but a lot might have happened between now and then. There was certainly a lot of ale involved."

"I don't need the reminder about that." Merlin rubbed his eyes again. He had a feeling he would need one of Gaius's remedies before the morning was out. The thought of it was enough to turn his stomach and kill any desire he had to drink ale, mead, wine, or anything else of the sort ever again. "I wasn't a complete idiot last night." He fished the note out of his pocket and held it up between two fingers. "I'm just waiting for a bird."

"I thought you didn't have a girl," Arthur teased.

Merlin shot another glare at him. "You know what I mean. Bird, as in owl. I'm not waiting for a girl."

"Whatever you say."

"You're all conspiring against me," Merlin grumbled.

"In one way or another, yes. I suppose we are. But we mean well. You can't blame the lads for trying to make you smile for once, after you've spent the past week looking like you have your own personal thundercloud following you about." Arthur looked up at the sky. Dawn was breaking now, brushing a pale pink light over the towers of Camelot. "You should probably go in soon, if you're so hungover. The sun's almost up. I'll give you one day off to plot your revenge against Gwaine, but that's it. There's work that needs doing since you've spent the last few days slacking off in your chambers."

Merlin threw the king a decidedly unamused look. Half a dozen spiky retorts came to mind, but he thought better of it. "I'm not even going to grace that with a response," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"That's probably for the best," Arthur said. "And with that said, I'm going to go. Vital kingdom's work to be done, and all. Don't even bother trying to 'help' today. If you're still so hungover, you'll be more of a hindrance than anything. You'd probably fall down the stairs or throw up on an ambassador and then what would I do?"

"Put me out of my misery?" Merlin suggested.

"I'm sure I'd be tempted to." Arthur climbed to his feet and brushed the bits of grass off his trousers. He turned to go, then glanced back at Merlin, a broad smile spreading across his face.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. Just keep waiting for your bird. I'm sure she'll turn up soon enough," Arthur chuckled and disappeared back through the door he'd come from.

"'Keep waiting for your bird'," Merlin grumbled, then sighed. The memory of Niniane's smile appeared in his mind, and his own faint grin answered it. Perhaps he had revealed more to Arthur about his own desire for Niniane to come to court than he realized. And maybe that wasn't such a bad thing, after all. There were worse things to endure than a bit of gentle teasing about his feelings for a girl. And if she returned those affections, then the irritation was more than worth it.

Merlin shrugged off the chill of foreboding he felt at those thoughts and turned his attention to the shivering tree branches above, and the little owl fluttering toward him. He coaxed the bird out of the air and settled it on his knee so he could roll up the note and carefully tie it to the bird's leg. "I'd tell you to rest for a while, but you were up in the trees the whole time, weren't you?"

The owl's answering squeak was neither a confirmation nor a denial. Merlin laughed and brushed a finger down the bird's back. Then he whispered a word of magic and a wash of power flowed from him into the owl. "Take this safely to Iseldir. You know him." The bird squeaked again and launched itself into the air, riding the currents of air over the towers, toward the forest.

"Come find me, Ninane."