EPISODE TWO : VALIANT

PART ONE : ARMOUR

Later that day, Merlin and Arthur were standing on a patch of grass behind the castle. The young warlock was dressed in battle attire and Merlin, for the life of him, couldn't understand why Arthur didn't train with one of his knights. Surely they were much more qualified to provide Arthur with training than he is.

Merlin sheathed his sword at his left hip and Arthur watched him with mild exasperation, because Gods, how can one person look so clumsy just wearing knight attire? Instead of looking at the way his man-servant was looking all to adorable - and since when did Arthur have the word adorable in his vocabulary? - in the outfit, he focus getting in some training.

"Ready?" The blonde asked, turning around and away from Merlin to compose himself and put his game face on.

"Would it make any difference if I said no?" Merlin asked as a last resort.

"Not really." The Prince told him, twirling his sword in his hand. Arthur turned back to Merlin and took a defensive position. Merlin draws his sword clumsily, clearly not used to his and Arthur attacks.

"Body. Shield. Body. Shield." The sound of metal hitting metal could be heard as Arthur spoke between his attacks.

"Shield."

"Head."

"Head?" Merlin asked in confusion before Arthur hit him on the head with his sword. "Ow."

"Come on, Merlin. You're not even trying." There was laughter in his tone as the Prince rounded his servant. Arthur tags Merlin in the back of his knees lightly.

"Ow! I am." The young warlock protested.

"Once more." Arthur ordered.

"Oh, no." Merlin grimaced, dread filling him.

"To the left. To the right. And left. Head." Metal clashing on metal sounded around them.

"Ow!" Merlin cried, trying - and failing - to dodge the blonde's attacks.

"Come on, Merlin! I've got a tournament to win." The Prince complain and to be quite honest, Merlin felt sorry for the poor souls who has the misfortune of fighting against Arthur.

"Can we stop now, please?" Merlin asked. Arthur ignored him and started swinging his sword in Merlin's direction again. "Ow! Shield. Body."

"Shield."

"Shield. Ah." Merlin winced when Arthur hits him on the head. "Ow." Then the young warlock topples over backwards and his helmet rolls off.

Arther stepped closer, a little bit impressed with his man-servant. Glaring blue eyes locked on his amused blue ones. "You're braver than you look. Most servants collapse after the first blow."

"Is it over?" The skinny boy asked hopefully.

"That was just the warm up." Arthur answered, much to the disappointment of Merlin. "How's your mace work coming along?"

Arthur swings a mace over his head. Merlin falls back to the ground with a resound sigh. He layed there and felt sorry for himself for all of two seconds before he got back up. "Wouldn't it be better if you trained with your knights?"

"Better? Yes. As much fun? No."

Merlin pulled a face. "Oh, yes. Having fun at the expense of your man-servent seems like a decent thing to do."

Arthur rolled his eyes. "You complain as much as a girl, Merlin."

"And you fight like a girl." In hindsight, Merlin knew, as he ducked out of the way just in time to avoid Arthur's mace to his head, that those words might - okay it definitely wasn't - his smartest choice of insult.

MERLIN

When they finally finished, Merlin made his way back to Gaius' chambers. His body was stiff as a board as he walked into the room, around still on. And before he could leave, he had to remove the prat's armour first. The physician chuckled when he saw Merlin's slow and stiff manner of walking, his helmet and shield dropping out of his hands. "So, how was your first day as Arthur's servant?"

Merlin taps his head. "Do you hear clanging?" Merlin took of the rest of his armour and sits at the table wearing his tunic. Gaius massages Merlin's shoulders.

"Ah! It was horrible and I've still got to learn all about tournament etiquette by the morning." He complained, looking around briefly and made a split second decision to do magic. "Onhríne achtung bregdan!"

After he casts a spell, a book slides to Merlin on the table and opens up. "Oi!" Gaius objected as slaps the back of Merlin's head. The young warlock winced. "What've I told you about using magic like this?"

"If I could actually feel my arms, I'd pick up the book myself." Merlin retorted, looking up at his guardian before turning back to the book.

"Never mind your arms. What do I do if you get caught?" Gaius asked, looking down at Merlin with his overly expressive eyebrows raised.

"What would you do?" Merlin turned back to his guardian, looking up at him with curiousity.

Gaius leaned backwards, he didn't know what he would do because he didn't want to think about it. "Well, you just make sure it doesn't happen, for both our sakes."

Gaius goes back to treating Merlin's right shoulder, a pained expression on the young warlock's face. "Ah! I save Arthur from being killed and I end up as a servant. How is that fair?"

The physician moves to Merlin's right hand. "I'm not sure fairness comes into it. You never know, it might be fun."

Merlin scoffs, thinking about all the chores the blonde Prince gave him. "You think mucking out Arthur's horses is going to be fun? You should hear my list of duties."

Gaius moves over to Merlin's left shoulder. "We all have our duties. Even Arthur." The white haired man tired to reason with his ward.

"It must be so tough for him with all the girls and the glory." Merlin commented snidely, face twisted with discomfort and pain.

"He is a future king. People expect so much of him. He's under a lot of pressure." Gaius told him, trying to make Merlin understand. He presses down hard on Merlin's shoulder, bones cracking under the pressure.

"Ah!" Merlin yelled out. "That makes two of us." Gaius suppressed an eye-roll, there was no way he would get it into Merlin's head to feel sorry for the Prince of Camelot or even sympathize with him.

MERLIN

The young warlock knew he needed help with remembering all of the armour. Preferably before Arthur cut of his head because he got something wrong. Which is how he ended up walking to Guinevere's house the next morning before the first day of the tournament starts. Gaius told him that if there is someone who could help him, it is the young servant girl.

"So, you've got voiders on the arms." She helped him put it on over his own body - it was earlier to learn something if you did it yourself. Merlin hummed, showing Gwen that he was listening to her and that she could continue her lesson. "The hauberk goes over your chest." She turned to him and pressed her hands on the piece of metal.

When Guinevere passed him and walked to the table, he silently mumbled to himself. "The chest. The arms. The chest."

She picked up the last piece of equipment and held it out to him. "I guess you know what to do with the helmet."

The warlock grinned at her. "Erm, yeah. Yeah, that was the only bit I'd figured out."

Gwen giggled and Merlin took the helmet before putting it on. His voice was slightly muffled. "How come you're so much better at this than me?"

"I'm the blacksmith's daughter." She told him, pointing to herself and Merlin smiled. Guinevere looks down a bit. "I know pretty much everything there is to know about armour, which is actually kind of sad."

Merlin shook his head, wide grin visible even with the helmet. "No, it's brilliant!"

MERLIN

"You do know the tournament starts today?" Arthur asked, slightly irrtated. The longer Merlin stood this close to him - so close that he could feel the younger boy's body heat - the faster his heart beated and his irretation grew with the brunette.

"Yes, Sire." Merlin looked up at him, finally fixing the buckle on the gorget. "You nervous?" He asked, seeing how the Prince was tensed up. What he didn't know is, is that the blonde is about to snap.

Arthur's jaw clenched, Merlin was getting on his nerves again. "I don't get nervous."

"Really? I thought everyone got nervous." Merlin was honestly just trying to make conversation to relax the Prince.

It wasn't working.

"Will you shut up!" The blonde thundered, finally snapping and Merlin considered wacking him over the head. Instead, he grabs Arthur's cape, looking at the ties confusedly for a second before he ties it on him, and hands Arthur his helmet.

He rested his hands on his hips, looking the Prince over. "Great, yeah. I think you're all set."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Arthur asked bitingly, he is nervous but he would never admit it. "My sword."

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, sorry. Guess, uh, you'll be needing that." Merlin fetched the sword and Arthur grabs it and marches off with an annoyed expression and nerves eating at his stomach. Merlin turned around and smiled to himself. "That went well."

At the tournament grounds, Guinevere and Morgana sit excitedly in the stands as the competitors enter the arena. Merlin peeks around the entrance as Uther struts past the front line of knights. "Knights of the realm, it's a great honour to welcome you to a tournament at Camelot. Over the next three days, you will come to put your bravery to the test, your skills as warriors, and of course, to challenge the reigning champion, my son, Prince Arthur. Only one can have the honour of being crowned champion, and he will receive a prize of 1,000 gold pieces."

A box is opened revealing the gold and an excited whisper breaks up amongst the crowd. "It is in combat that we learn a knight's true nature, whether he is indeed a warrior or a coward. The tournament begins!"

The crowd cheers and the knights exit the arena. Uther stops by Arthur on his way to the stands and speaks to him in a low voice. "I trust you will make me proud."

Uther slaps his back and walks away. Guards take Arthur and the other knight's capes, and they put on helmets. The crowd cheers and Guinevere whoops. Arthur and the knight starts their fight.

"Yeah! Come on!" Merlin finds himself unexpectedly cheering for the arrogant blonde. Arthur's ears catches his man-servant's voice and all of his nerves disappears and a surge of confidence flows through his body. Arthur wins and the crowd cheers.

"Yeah!" Merlin cheered once again and Arthur worked hard to hide a smile. He walked to his man-servant and watched as Merlin grinned at him, a fuzzy warm spreading in his chest. "Congratulations, Sire."

Arthur bit down on his bottom lip to hide the grin that wanted to take over his face. He didn't know what to say to that - because a simple thank you or even a smile was totally out of the question, he's the Prince of Camelot for heaven's sake - and decided to be an idiot about it. A cocky smirk painted his lips. "Did you think I would lose?"

"Yeah, I did. I mean, I told you, you fight like a girl." Merlin smirked, and Arthur glared at him - cocky smirk dropping - while Merlin started to help him out of his armour. The Prince and his man-servant watch Valiant fighting.

"Knight Valiant looks pretty handy with a sword." Merlin notes, watching as the knight took down his opponent with aggression.

"No more than I." The blonde told Merlin with a confident look on his face. He wondered if Merlin really thought he fought like a girl, or if he was just joking?

"How do you carry that gigantic head around?" Merlin wondered aloud, clearly teasing, tone having no bite and the last of Arthur's tensed muscles relaxed.

"With my gigantic muscles." Arthur gave a half smile, pointing to his bicep and Merlin huffed a chuckle. Valiant exits the arena and stops near Arthur.

"May I offer my congratulations on your victories today?" The knight with the yellow cape offered to the Crown Prince.

"Likewise." Arthur nodded.

"I hope to see you at the reception this evening." Valiant said before he leaves with his servant.

Something was off with that guy. Merlin wasn't sure what exactly but it was something. "Creep."

Arthur snorts an amused huff and so does Merlin. The two males stared at each other before the Prince caught himself and mentally smacked himself - what the hell am I doing?

"Uh, for tomorrow you need to repair my shield, wash my tunic, clean my boots, sharpen my sword, and polish my chainmail." He walks away but stops and turns back to his servant after a few feet, noticing Merlin wasn't following him. "Merlin! Come on then, I haven't got all day."

The young warlock rushed to catch up to Arthur, slightly out of breath when he reached him. "Must you always be so impatient and rude?"

"I'm not impatient or rude. You are just slow and sensitive." Arthur retorted, smug smirk on his face.

"Well, at least I'm not thick and arrogant." Merlin snapped back easily, making Arthur gape at him for a few seconds before he shoved him and stormed to his chambers, glaring - and indirectly frightening - anyone who so much as looked at him.

Later that night, Merlin was in his chambers. The Prince, who was like a big baby is you looked at it from a certain point of view, was bathed and fed and in bed to get a good night's rest. While the young warlock was reading his magic book, Arthur's shield was repairing itself, his cape washing itself, helmet polishing itself, boots cleaning itself and his sword was sharpening itself.

The door of his chambers opened and all of the objects that was magically cleaning themselves, dropped to the floor. Gaius stepping in and looked around the room before asking, "Are you using magic again?"

"No." Merlin shook his head, magic book on his chest.

"What's all this, then?" The physician asked, gesturing to the items on Merlin's floor. For lack of an better answer, the warlock shrugs and didn't give a verbal answer. "I just came to tell you that supper's ready."

Merlin breathed a sigh of relief when the door shut behind Gaius. He stared at the door for a few seconds before his eyes glowed golden and Arthur's things began magically cleaning themselves again.

MERLIN

Early the next morning, Merlin made his way to the armoury to fetch the rest of Arthur's armour - the parts he didn't have to clean. The royal prat wanted his armour put on in his chambers today.

Suddenly, a hissing noise sounded, catching Merlin's attention. "Hello? Is there someone there?"

Merlin follows the noise and bends down. He finds Valiant's shield and sees one of the snake eyes blink. He moves to touch it when someone puts a sword to his chest. Merlin gets up slowly.

"Can I help you with something, boy?" Knight Valiant asked, sword still pointed at Merlin's chest.

"Nope." He denied, heartbeat speeding up and thundering in his chest. "I'm good. I, I was just... I was, erm, gathering my master's armour."

"Then you'd best be on your way." Valiant suggested but it sounded more like and order. The warlock didn't mind, he just wanted to get away from the creepy man that had a sword pointed at him.

"Right, yeah. No problem." Merlin picks up the armour and stumbles on his way out. The warlock thinks back to the blinking eye. He shook his head, it must have been a trick of the morning light.

Merlin made his way to Arthur's chambers, where the Prince was waiting with a rather impatient expression. Merlin rolled his eyes as he walked in the room.

The blonde looks at him skeptically, "You did all this on your own?"

"Yes, Sire."

"Now let's see if you can get me into it without forgetting anything." Arthur said snidely and Merlin resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the royal ass. Merlin puts on Arthur's hauberk and surcoat, followed by the gorget, vambraces, pauldron, and couter. Next, his mail coif, belt, sword belt, dagger, and sword. Merlin hands Arthur his helmet. "That was much better. Not that it could have got any worse."

"I'm a fast learner." Merlin told him optimistically.

"I hope, for you sake, that's true." The blonde Prince retorted.

"Good luck." Merlin beamed at Arthur and the blonde let out a scoff.

"I don't need luck." But even as he spoke those words, Arthur's spirits lifted and most of the nerves he felt, faded away.

Author's Note: do you guys mins the extra dialogue I put in??