Arthur:

"Have you always had to sleep on the floor?" Arthur asked his manservant quietly. After having seen the village and the people that Merlin had grown up with, the prince had become strangely interested in how his… not-friend… had lived before he came to Camelot. It also didn't help that he couldn't get to sleep because of the rocks sticking out of the ground and into his back.

A noncommittal "yeah" was the only response he got before merlin elaborated. "The bed I've got in Camelot is luxury in comparison." Arthur immediately started feeling sorry for the boy.

"Must 'a been hard" he muttered, staring at the ceiling.

"Mm, its like rock" the young man murmured in response and Arthur had to fight back the "idiot" that rose to his lips.

"I didn't mean the ground, I meant… for you, it must have been difficult." He explained.

"Mm, not really" Merlin muttered almost annoyed. "I didn't know any different. Life's simple out here. You eat what you grow and everyone pitches in together. As long as you've got food on the table and a roof over your head, you're happy" He explained and Arthur felt that he was starting to get an insight into the previous life of his manservant. He tried to imagine living like that, with no huge bed and no servant's waiting on his every need but couldn't seem to quite grasp it.

Still, "sounds…" he tried to find a word that wouldn't be rude, "nice." Merlin snorted.

"You'd hate it."

"No doubt" he replied immediately but still there was something he couldn't understand. "Why'd you leave?"

There was a beat of silence, then, "thing's just… change."

"How?" Arthur could tell that there was a story behind the sentence and he was not going to just let it go, so he did the only thing he could think of. He rubbed his foot on Merlin's face. "Come on, stop pretending to be interesting. You can tell me." He pulled his foot out of Merlin's grip and smiled.

There was another moment of silence, then, "well, Ida left, and… I just didn't fit in anymore… I wanted to find somewhere that I did."

"Had any luck?" Arthur smirked.

"I'm not sure yet."

There was silence until Arthur broke it by saying "I'll start training the men tomorrow."

"I hope you realize that Ida isn't just gonna let you just train the men." He could hear Merlin's grin from where he was. "She's the 'swords man' of our village. That's why she got so mad at Will today. She couldn't believe that her brother would be what she considered cowardly."

"Her Brother!?" Arthur almost yelled before realizing that Hunith was also in the house and was trying to sleep. She looked nothing like the round-faced boy, if anything she looked more like Merlin but a more dangerous, female version. "You mean that she is related to that…" he struggled to find a word that wasn't offensive, "that guy!" he whisper shouted.

"Well, adoptively" Merlin started but didn't elaborate. There was something sad in the way he said it and Arthur could tell that he would get no more information out of him.

"Well… no matter what she does, tomorrow is going to be a long day." He rolled over into a more comfortable position and whispered, "Kill the candle."

Merlin, for once, obeyed with no witty remarks.

Ida:

Ida glanced at her reflection in the glass of the window as she pulled the hood of her cloak back over her strait raven locks. When she was young and she would hang out with Will and Merlin, people had always said that she could have been Merlin's sister with her pale skin, high cheekbones and piercing eyes, "not to mention your lovely dark hair" they had said, but in the end it had been Will's family that took her in. Ida's lips quirked into a smile as she remembered all the tricks they would play on the village but then let it drop.

She was not a child anymore and she couldn't afford to act like one.

With that depressing thought she turned away from the window and continued her early morning stroll. Ida enjoyed the silence dawn brought and made the most of it when she could but when she turned the corner to go to the main street, she saw that she was not the only one up at this hour.

The Prince was stepping out of Hunith's house and into the bright sun with a woman that Ida assumed was the notorious "Lady Morgana" and an extremely pretty, darker skinned girl that Merlin had called Gwen the night before. Her curiosity begged her to follow them but she also knew that if Merlin was not with the Prat at this time then he would be with his mother, it may have been a few years but something's just never change.

As she slipped towards the doorway Ida heard voices from inside.

"It's more than that…" Ida could hear Hunith's gentle tones from inside. "He's here for you."

Ida moved closer to the window, her curiosity getting the better of her as it had so often done in her childhood.

Merlin's tone was dismissive, "I'm just his servant."

"Give him more credit than that. He likes you!" As much as Ida hated to admit it, Hunith was right. She had seen the way that the prince's eyes followed her old friend, making sure that he was all right. He was here for Merlin and did care about him a great deal. Ida didn't get it.

"That's because he doesn't know me," Merlin rebutted again. "And if he did, I would probably be dead by now." Merlin gave a false little laugh and Ida could almost hear Hunith's mothering instincts take over.

"You don't really believe that, do you?" She asked her son sadly. His silence was her only answer and yet the feelings behind it were clear.

He didn't know what to believe.

Ida quickly leant against the side of the house as she heard Merlin start towards the door and watched as he quickly made his way towards the forest. A piece of her heart broke for her friend as she watched him go but she didn't follow, shame holding her in place.

"He missed you, you know?" Ida whirled around, hand at her dagger, to see Hunith watching her from the doorway. "He didn't know what to do with himself after you left." Ida hadn't noticed it the previous day but Hunith looked far older and more drawn than she remembered. The lines in her once youthful face had sunken to reveal the trials she had face these past years and the pain that came with them.

Ida looked down in guilt before leaning back against the old house and sighing. Looking out at the awakening village she replied, "I told him not to." She glanced back, "He was supposed to move on. Forget about me and live his life here without me mucking it up again and again." The shame was apparent in her tone and she started again as a small, calloused grabbed her own.

"That shouldn't have been your choice to make." The words were quiet but firm.

"I know." Came the guilty reply.

There was a moment of silence between the women as they both looked out at the village, watching as the people rose to start their day. Ida noticed the sun glint off the blond hair of the prince as he started to gather the sleepy townsmen together for what looked to be a becoming a cheap lesson in combat.

She snorted as he tried to explain his plan to the men in front of him. They clearly would have understood him more if he were speaking gibberish.

"I suppose I should try and help him where I can, shouldn't I?" Ida muttered with only a small amount of derision. She had to respect that the royal was trying his best, even if that best wasn't working as well as he planned. She made to go join the group but the hand still gripping hers halted her in her tracks just long enough to hear the quiet words of it's owner.

"He's forgiven you, you know?"

Ida took one last long glance at Hunith before replying and continuing on her journey.

"He shouldn't have had to."

...

Hi there Merlin fans! I'm back a million years later to hopefully continue this story. However, I will be honest, I'm kinda not sure if I want Ida and Arthur to be the true end game. They will definitely have a thing but I kinda really love Arthur and Gwen and I find Merlin in seasons four and five to be actually super hot... IDK... you reckon I should change it? Anyway... If you have come back to this story because of this update then I thank you so so much for sticking with it even though there wasn't really much to stick with. Again, please review what you are thinking and please feel free to let me know of any errors i have made because I'm sure that there are some that I've missed.

Lots of love,

Smudgster