Arthur, son of the Goddess Queen, thought Merlin was an idiot.
He was one of the Healer's kids and knew his way around herbs, sure, but he was useless in a fight. Unfortunately, he managed to sweet-talk his way past lord Tristan every time and end up on whatever quest Arthur embarked on. One of the more memorable times was his quest to slay the Questing Beast. Merlin had screamed and everything went blurry. The next thing he knew, he was in the Healer's cabin, Merlin and an old man looking down at him in extreme relief. It would be weeks before he stitched the pieces together and realized that had been Lord Gaius.
Merlin only really had two friends in the whole of the camp, despite the fact that everyone loved the shrimp. One was a vagrant named Gwaine, who spent as much time in juvy as he did in the Undeclared cabin; absolutely worthless, he was, always spouting off rubbish about the Lord Emrys walking among them. Never mind the fact that Lord Emrys had been missing from the Council for the last seventeen years.
The other was, surprisingly, Sir Lancelot, the immortal child of Lord Emrys and his wife, the Lady of the Lake. He was on the quiet side for a god, preferring to spend his time wandering the forest and lake or training the demigods on the fields. Merlin, despite being the fragile one of the two, was an absolute mother hen over Lancelot, forcing him to take breaks from training, and gods be good, visit his mother, of all beings. Which was only further evidence that Merlin was an idiot - one day the god of fortitude and loyalty would have enough and skewer him.
He was an idiot, yes, but he was a brave one. One their first quest, Merlin had thrown himself in front of the Afanc to protect Arthur and his half-sister from his father, Morgana, daughter of Lady Viviane. Ridiculous son of the Healer. His skills didn't lie in battle, but he charged in anyway.
And Arthur couldn't help but admire him for that. So, maybe Merlin had more than one mortal friend at camp. But it took Arthur two and a half years to admit it.
By that point, Morgana had betrayed them and joined forces with the evil goddess of revenge, Morgause. Life got harder with the whole of the camp looking to him to save the day, but Merlin was always there with wise words and the devil's luck to save them.
He disappeared before the final battle and Arthur cursed him a coward. He didn't know, he never knew, until he saw Merlin, twenty feet tall and wearing a golden robe, sitting to his mother's right.
Lord Merlin Emrys had disappeared from the council nearly twenty years ago because Morgause had stripped him for his immortality in a bid to keep him from defeating her as was prophesied. Gwaine, her only demigod, was to kill the god. Instead, he grew fond of Merlin and Lancelot, who watched over his father while Lady Nimueh and Lady Freya searched for a way to restore Emrys.
Huh. maybe he was the idiot from not seeing what was blatantly in front of him for years. Go figure.