Lancelot placed the books on the nearest available space, an achievement in itself in the clustered room of the court physician before raising his eyebrow slightly at Merlin.

"Is, um, is everything ok? Arthur didn't hit his head or anything?"

Merlin snorted, tears of surprise still flowing down his face as his mind registered what Arthur had just done.

"No, I don't believe so," he began slowly as everything that he and Arthur had just said to each other filtered in, a small smile growing on his face. "He wanted to apologise, and… talk. It was, thoughtful of him. Lance, I- I, what am I doing?"

Merlin collapsed forcefully onto the bench, his head in his hand, panic wracking his features as his breath sped up.

Lancelot quickly moved forward, rubbing his hand on his friend's back, not saying anything, knowing that all Merlin needed was someone to be there for him as the weight of everything came crashing down on him.

"I- He, he said that he always wanted me, to be me, Lance. I- you were right. I should have just told Arthur the truth. I mean, it's not too late is it? I can still tell him, right?"

Merlin stood up at this, wildly looking to Lancelot, as if he held all of the answers, and could tell Merlin that what he was doing was the right decision.

Lancelot closed his eyes.

"Merlin," he began softly, walking over to sit down next to him, wrapping his arm around Merlin's shoulders. "Whatever decision you make, you know that I will stand by you, right?"

Merlin nodded, his breathing settling down to manageable hiccups.

"Besides, if you tell Arthur about your magic, we won't get to illegally look through these magic books I stole from the library. Also, imagine the things we could find here! Perhaps we could prank Arthur again."

Merlin sniggers, mischief twinkling in his eyes.

"Ah, Lancelot! You sure know the way to my heart!"

Shaking his head, Lancelot picked up the books from where he had placed them, and made his way to Merlin's room.

"Well then, shall we begin?"

Researching magic with Merlin proved to be more fun than Lancelot thought. Sure, he couldn't read most of what was in the book, but watching as Merlin showed him spell after spell in the books, some that would prove more useful than others, while others were purely just for fun.

There was a book which explained druidic symbols and their use in spells and holding magic for further purpose, which Merlin put aside for later.

There was another book which listed out spells to help with agriculture and farming issues.

Another which was primarily filled with healing spells, which Lancelot watched as Merlin practically devoured, seeing as he was absolutely terrible at healing.

The last book made Merlin burst into embarrassed laughter, and took much cajoling for Lancelot to get the name of the book from Merlin.

Unfortunately, none of the books proved fruitful for the information that Merlin needed to split himself in two.

Eventually, after perusing through the four new magic books, plus going through Merlin's own book, the two of them gave up, flopping on Merlin's bed side by side.

Merlin sighed, one of disappointment.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Lance. If I don't show up as Merlin, then Arthur will come looking for me, and then when he finds that I'm not here, he'll just assume that I'm at the tavern again."

Lancelot made a non-commital grunt. It had been a long day, what with riding back to Camelot, then spending the next couple of hours being Merlin's magical test dummy as he got distracted with various spells.

But it had been fun. Watching as Merlin's face lit up everytime he managed to cast a spell, and the way he would throw his head back and laugh at whatever effects it had on Lancelot. However, now that feeling was bridled with a feeling of disappointment. They hadn't found anything, well, Merlin hadn't found anything at least that could even prove useful.

There had been of course an illusion spell, which Merlin had attempted, but with only a few days until the impending "arrival", it would not do. The illusion hadn't even looked like the Dolma. It could possibly take weeks, months even for Merlin to master it, which was time he didn't have.

Sighing, Lancelot shuffled closer to his friend, wrapping an arm around his shoulder.

Before he suddenly brightened. By Camelot, Merlin was probably going to kill him for this suggestion.

He felt Merlin pull away from the embrace, his eyes narrowed in confusion and outright wariness of what Lancelot was about to say.

"You could just pull a disappearing act, pretend you've been at the tavern all day?"

The question comes with a mischievous glint in his eyes, as he watches Merlin's confusion and wariness change to a half-hearted glare.

"That's not funny, Lance," Merlin threw his hands up in exasperation. "Arthur already thinks I spend too much time there, can you imagine his fury when he finds out I fobbed off my duties 'go to the tavern'?"

Lancelot shrugged, it had been worth a shot, and besides it had dragged Merlin off of the dark ledge that he had been about to fall down.

Merlin sighed once more, pulling his body into itself, as he pressed his face into his hands. Lancelot could see it, the struggle within, had seen it from the moment they had first met. The only difference now being that Merlin was older, and whereas before, had the optimism of youth, now looked every bit the haggard old man he could transform himself into. Lancelot knew the weight that Merlin was struggling under, although he did not know it himself, and it hurt. It hurt to watch as his friend struggled with it, day in and day out, with himself only being able to offer a shoulder to lean on when things got hard. He could see it, especially in these quiet moments, when it was just the two of them, and Merlin let his mask slip, let the burden ease off of his shoulders for just a minute, before replacing it, rebuilding the mask to make it stronger, and heavier to combat every little problem he had to deal with everyday.

Merlin's shoulder's stiffened, and he sat up, a brilliant smile suddenly gracing his face, as he turned back to Lancelot, eyes wide.

"I have an idea."

A/N sorry about the delay in getting this chapter out, it was supposed to come out last week, I swear! I just forgot I was going away for the weekend, and, well you get the gist. Chapters should be expected once a fortnight on a Sunday from now on. But if it's any longer, school has probably gotten to me, but they should come out relatively quickly.

I hope you enjoyed!