As it stood right now, Morgana was actually Arthur's sister, making her really Uther's secret love child. She had taken over Camelot with her half sister Morgause. Merlin had attempted to murder her again and failed, and now he, Arthur, Gaius, and a few other people from Camelot were all sleeping in a cave. Also Gwaine, Gwaine was here, too. He didn't like to be left out, he liked to mention that fact a lot. Arthur was acting like a sad, little boy partly because he had a sister, he also used to fancy said sister even though he would never, ever admit that now, and he was probably feeling some way about that. On top of the fact that not only had she been lying to him about her loyalties for the last year, but now he also knew his father had lied to him, about yet another thing, all of his life. So, maybe he really wasn't being a prat, just very overwhelmed from all of this coming out at one time, and now he refused to eat.

"Let him starve," Gwaine said, after the sixth time Merlin tried to get him to eat something. "When he gets his ass handed to him by a mostly dead army of knights he will wish he had eaten..."

Merlin only frowned at that, but left Arthur alone for that afternoon while he focused on other, very Merlin like stuff. He had also sent a message along with a traveling knight for Lancelot to come and help them. They had no army, so to go back into Camelot, to at least get Uther out of the cells Morgana had put him in, it was going to take arms. They didn't even have Leon, he was also stuck, still, in Camelot. Along with Gwen, but Merlin was sure Gwen was fine, Morgana had always cared for her, as long as she at least pretended to side with Morgana, she would be fine. It was night time by the time Merlin had returned to the cave and Arthur was still in the same exact spot Merlin had left him in. Merlin was starting to get worried, not even about him eating, but about his mental state. Maybe this was all too much for him, he was terrible with feelings, and to have to deal with so many at one time, maybe it had broken him. Elyan, Gwen's brother, who they had met up with as they had escaped Camelot, had caught a wild chicken and Gaius cooked it up. On a very nice, large leaf Merlin offered a chicken leg to Arthur.

"No," he said dryly, and then looked off, over at the wall.

"But chicken's your favorite..." Merlin trailed off, worried and at a loss as to what to do to help Arthur. Gwaine came up to him then and slunk an arm around his shoulder.

"Ain't moved all day, just sat there," he was telling Merlin. "Didn't even get up to pee..." Gwaine sighed, then reached down and took the chicken leg off the leaf. "I'd never say no to you, Merlin, remember that."

He winked and walked over to Elyan, who was eating some chicken himself. Merlin rolled his eyes and looked back at Arthur now, who instead of looking at the cave wall as he was doing a minute ago, he was glaring at Merlin, and then over his shoulder at Gwaine. Merlin frowned at this. And then Arthur spoke, lowly and with great dislike, "And he is here why...?"

"Because we need help..." said Merlin, slowly, leaning down and coming to stand on his knees in front of Arthur. "He's a good fighter, and he said yes..."

"He's obnoxious," complained Arthur. "Loud, rude...thinks he can flirt with you."

"Can't he?" offered Merlin with a small smile and Arthur glared at that.

"No."

"I'll make sure to tell him you say he's not allowed," Merlin offered, with a bit of an edge. He was trying to push Arthur back into some sort of normalcy, they bickered and teased each other all the time. But Arthur only sighed and looked away from Merlin again. Merlin let his shoulders fall, upset. He just wanted Arthur to be alright, and he wasn't sure if he ever was going to be again. He felt betrayed and Merlin couldn't help him with that, in fact Merlin could only make it much worse. He reached forward and touched Arthur's knee with a hand and Arthur didn't move it away. At least that was a good sign, at least Arthur was allowing Merlin to be near him again. When they had first arrived at the cave Arthur wouldn't even talk, and shunned Merlin away at even the smallest of touches.

For the rest of the night, Arthur still didn't eat and only sat in his same spot, throwing death glares Gwaine's way every time he spoke or laughed, which was quite often. By the time everyone had trickled off to sleep, Arthur didn't, he was still sitting there, glaring at Gwaine's sleeping form. Who, had fallen asleep sitting up, during a thrilling story about seducing some bar maiden. Merlin wasn't asleep either, he had several blankets wrapped around him, as he laid near the put-out fire. It got cold in the cave. He had chosen this spot of cave as his bed because if he turned one way he could see the entrance to the cave, and if he turned the other he could see Arthur. Arthur was the way he was facing tonight, he was worrying over him again. Arthur seemed to realize after a few minutes that Merlin was still awake, too, because they're eyes met in the semi-darkness for a second or two, and then Arthur quickly looked away and back to the wall, rather than glaring at anyone anymore at least. Merlin got up after that, and gathered his blankets and walked over to Arthur, stepping over Gwaine's legs as he did so. He nearly tripped twice, but he got there and then threw his blankets down. Sitting down and looking over at Arthur. Arthur took his time to look back, he looked annoyed as he did, as if he didn't want bothered.

"I need you-" Merlin started and the annoyed look on Arthur's face suddenly washed away into that of surprise. He only stared. "I need you to be alright..."he continued, and Arthur sighed, looking down then. "I can't do this without you, they can't do this without you. I know you're hurt-"

"I'm not hurt, Merlin," Arthur stopped him. "I'm angry, I am more angry than you can possibly imagine."

"Great," said Merlin and the surprise look was back in Arthur's eyes, as he quickly looked up again. "Use that. Let that motivate you to actually do something, Arthur. Because if you don't...I don't know what's going to happen."

"I don't know who to trust anymore..." said Arthur. "My father? Morgana...? I thought I could trust them, I would do anything for them, I have done. I have done unspeakable things for my father, and what has he done for me? Lied to me about my mother's death, lied to be about Morgana's true parentage...and Morgana...how can I trust anyone after this?"

"You can trust me?" offered Merlin a bit ironically, but he would worry about that later. Arthur only looked at him, rather seriously, but also a bit like Merlin was stupid.

"You're the only one I do trust...you're the only one who has ever truly believed in me," said Arthur. "Everyone else only expects me to preform my duties and if I don't-"

"I do believe in you," Merlin cut back in then. "I believe you are the biggest prat I've ever met, but I know what's in your heart. You will always do what's right, even now...I know you will save your father even if you're angry at him, and you will save Camelot."

"Do you really think we can?" asked Arthur then, eyes filled with something dark, like deep unsureness. "Do you think we can take back Camelot? She has an undead army. Merlin."

"We can," Merlin nodded, smiling now. "You can..."

Arthur pondered this for a moment and then leaned closer to Merlin, and pressed his lips gently against Merlin's right cheek bone. "Thank you, Merlin," he whispered and Merlin felt that all too familiar feeling of his stomach doing strange things, like dropping and flying all at the same time. He bit his lip as Arthur pulled away from him and Arthur smiled at this a little bit. "I also happen to think I am a much better person to sleep next to than Gwaine...but I suppose if you've made your choice."

Merlin wanted to say many snotty things all at once, but since Arthur was still dealing with far too much, Merlin didn't say any of them. "Well, I could stay here...if you wanted me to..."

"I'm not going to stop you."

(A/N: Here is another update, if it is not edited well I am sorry, I am in a rush tonight but wanted to get another one out soon. Thanks and enjoy!)