I don't own Merlin, though I wish I did. Please read and review as I am not a very confident writer and would like to know how to improve.
Chapter 1
Arthur isn't completely stupid,well not as stupid and oblivious as Merlin thought and when Merlin anouced he had magic in order to save Gwen from the pyre, he didn't forget: well not intirely. He pushed it to the back of his mind, but he didn't forget.
So when a few weeks later, when a tree branch coincidentally fell on an enemy while they were saving a young girl and her father from some bandits and he heard his manservant mutter some words of another language, it brought it to the forefront of his mind again. Could Merlin really have magic?
The girl and her father turned out to be Sidhe and attempted to kill him but he was saved by Merlin of all people. He decided to make a list of everything Merlin did that could possibly be magical then, if the list became convincing enough, he would ask him directly. Arthur wasn't sure what he'd do if Merlin did have magic, it was still outlawed and punishable by death under his father's reign. He knew he would have to tell his father and Merlin would be executed because magic was evil, it couldn't be anything else. On the other hand, though he had not known his manservant for long, he had proved himself to be loyal, brave and compassionate, he had been given plenty of opportunities to kill Arthur and his father but had never taken them. No, Arthur decided, he would tell Merlin to leave and never come back.
Slowly, over weeks, he began to gather evidence but none of it was definite until he went to Ealdor, in the final fight with Cainen he had seen Merlin summon the wind that help the villagers win the battle and he confronted him and Will about it but Will had taken the blame instead and had then died saving his, Arthur's life.
At first he was angry, not necessarily about the magic but because Merlin was hiding it from him and had let his best friend take the blame, he briefly considered turning him over to Uther but then decided not to because Hunith and Gaius would be destroyed by it, he then thought about sending Merlin away but he couldn't bring himself to do that either. He wanted to talk to Merlin about it on the way back to Camelot but he was still distraught at the loss of Will and Arthur found himself unable to talk to him.
Overtime, Arthur felt his anger lessen, after all Merlin was obviously worried about what would happen if he knew, so in the end he decided to keep an eye on Merlin and he would tell Arthur of his own accord when he was ready.
But Merlin never did, not even when Morgana took over Camelot and drove his father into madness. It was only when they went on a hunting trip gone wrong that it happened.
It was just the two of them, neither one fully trusting the other, riding out on a hunting trip so Arthur could have a rest from running Camelot, he had left ruling to his Uncle Agravaine while he was away.
There had been a lull in the usual banter that often occurred between the pair, when with a great cry thirty or forty bandits ran down the steep sided banks on each side of the track and surrounded them, Arthur managed to take down quite a few but eventually one stabbed him in the back with a dagger, "Merlin, use your bloody magic!" he yelled has he collapsed.