A/N - I am so sorry for the late update; some of that stuff I had to do came back to haunt me. Hopefully I should be able to get all three that are scheduled polished and up by the end of tomorrow, so that I can be back on track for Monday.

This one is focussed on Merlin and Lancelot (who I so wish we'd seen more of), although the character appearing at the end even took me by surprise. I hope you enjoy it, and please let me know what you think!

-JKelly

Admonish:

v. warn or reprimand someone firmly

advise or urge (someone) earnestly

warn (someone) of something to be avoided (archaic)

"I don't know Lance…"

"Look, no one's here to see you except me. You may as well, Merlin. Unless you want to do it by hand…?"

Merlin and Lancelot were standing over a basin of water in Gaius' chambers, contemplating the best (and least hazardous) way to deal with Arthur's worn socks.

Merlin had vetoed Lancelot's suggestion of just burning them and buying new ones, because Arthur would be going around barefooted in the meantime, which Merlin felt added a particularly cruel aspect to his usual job of scrubbing the floors. Merlin suggested slipping them into the washing basket of some poor, unsuspecting maid, but Lancelot informed him that as a knight of Camelot, he couldn't possibly do something so terrible to an innocent citizen, as this would surely constitute breaking the knight's code.

There was only one solution left for them.

Magic.

"No one's here right now, but what if someone walks past and sees? I'd rather like to keep my head on my shoulders, you know." Merlin protested weakly. In truth, he would usually just magic them clean and be done with it, but he was feeling especially cautious today after a recent close encounter involving a goblin (he really hated those things), a mop, and an unusually observant guard.

"I'll keep a lookout, okay? Don't worry about that part." Lancelot assured him.

"...okay, fine. I guess this is better than actually having to touch them." Giving one last furtive look over his shoulder, Merlin whispered his spell: "Áfeormian fullfremed!"

As his eyes flashed gold, the water in the basin began to bubble and smoke, the spell apparently having some difficulty with the particularly pungent socks that Merlin had tasked it with cleaning.

"What's it doing?" asked Lancelot, who had turned around at the noise and was now staring in fascination at the dirty yellow smoke that was slowly floating up to the ceiling.

"Yes, that's very much what I would like to know. What exactly is going on here?!"

At the voice, Merlin and Lancelot froze, before turning to stand face to face with their observer.

"I - um - look, I promise it's not what it looks like." stammered Merlin, as Lancelot began backing away, apparently trying to blend in with his surroundings.

"Merlin, I may be old, but I'm not a fool. I know exactly what you're doing. How many times have I told you not to use your magic for your chores? How could you possibly be so stupid?!"

At this, Lancelot took pity on Merlin. "Look, Gaius, it's not really Merlin's fault - he didn't even want to do this, so-"

"So I should be blaming you for leading him astray as well as blaming Merlin for being foolish enough to listen to you?

"Gaius...it's Arthur's socks. I cannot think of any other way to get them clean without coming down with some awful disease, and, really, if you look at it from the perspective that these are certainly a powerful weapon that could be used to bring down Camelot from the inside, I'm really just using my magic to save the kingdom...again...like I'm supposed to."

Looking at one another, the two boys burst into laughter at the whole situation. Merlin, magical defender of Camelot, couldn't even overcome a pair of the Prince's socks without his powers.

Just then, Lancelot glanced over at Gaius in the doorway, and his grin died on his face.

"Lance? What's…oh." Merlin followed his line of sight and saw Gaius, glaring at them meaningfully. But that wasn't all. No, the glare they might have been able to handle, but what they saw before them had them both trembling at the knees.

Gaius had broken out his Eyebrow of Doom.

"Now. Lancelot, you're going to finish washing the socks - in the regular way - and Merlin...I think my leech tank has been looking like it could do with being cleaned recently."

"But Gaius-" Merlin's plea was cut off before it really began.

"No buts! Perhaps cleaning the leech tank will help you remember about consequences next time you're tempted to use magic for such a frivolous chore! I could have been anyone - a guard, a patient, I could have been Arthur walking in to see what was taking you so long. Merlin, you have a great destiny, and I would hate to see it cut short because you were executed after being caught using magic to wash the prince's socks."

"I...okay, Gaius. I won't use magic to clean Arthur's socks." Merlin very much hoped that Gaius couldn't see that he had his fingers crossed behind his back.

Lancelot, however, did notice, and began sniggering far too loudly for Merlin's liking.

"And you!" Gaius turned his famous eyebrow on Lancelot once again, and suddenly the whole affair seemed infinitely less amusing to him. "You are a knight of Camelot! Not only are you sworn to uphold the law of the land, although of course I'm very grateful to you for overlooking certain things where Merlin's involved, but you know full well what sort of punishment someone would get for having magic! I have to say, I expected better of you, Sir Lancelot. But, if as Merlin says, the socks are in fact a great danger to the kingdom, surely it should be a knight of Camelot like yourself who deals with them?"

"...right. Yes, I'll just...wash the socks."

Now well and truly admonished, Lancelot and Merlin turned to their respective tasks. Gaius took one step further into the room, smelt the lingering odour of what he could only presume to be the offending socks that had started this whole mess, and immediately turned around. He was sure he could make himself busy for a while, just until the room had aired out...

"And remember," he said, pausing for a moment on his way out of the door, "no magic!"

In the hallway outside Gaius' chambers, Leon stood frozen in shock. He had been on his way to see Gaius, or Merlin if Gaius wasn't there, to get a small training injury seen to. Instead, he had stood, dumbfounded, as Gaius had shouted, first at Merlin, then apparently Lancelot, about something to do with magic, and destiny, and...socks.

When Gaius stepped out of his chambers a few moments later, giving the chastised occupants one final instruction of 'no magic', Leon's jaw had still been hanging open, and now he and Gaius were simply staring at one another. Leon decided to be the first to break their shocked silence.

"Gaius...I…" Leon got no further before Gaius' eyebrow began climbing up his face, before coming to rest at an expression that had sent some of the cockiest and most battle-hardened knights that Leon knew running off with their metaphorical tails between their legs.

Perhaps this was one of those things that it was better to forget he'd ever witnessed, Leon mused, if only because he really did not want to see Gaius' wrath if Merlin got in trouble. Besides, he knew Lancelot to be very noble of heart, and he clearly didn't have any problems with the whole magic business. And...it was Merlin. The mere notion of him staging an attack on Camelot was laughable. Yes, better to imagine that he had shown up a few minutes later, and witnessed none of this confrontation at all.

"You may want to come back later, if you can wait," Gaius informed him, "Lancelot is washing the prince's socks, and Merlin is cleaning the leech tank."

And with that, he walked off. A moment later, Leon followed his lead.

After all, he'd smelt the prince's socks before. If he had magic, he'd probably use it to wash them as well.

The spell Merlin starts using to wash Arthur's socks should translate to something like:

Áfeormian fullfremed - Purify completely