Title: How Arthur and the Knights Learn Merlin Has Scars (and Magic too)
Description: Merlin gets injured while on a patrol with the knights. He pushed through the pain and dealt with his wound like it was just a normal Saturday afternoon. But, a wound like that would make even the toughest of men pass out from pain. So how can silly, clumsy, idiotic Merlin act so... normal? SCAR-FIC and Magic Reveal!
Word Count: 3,487
Part: 1/1
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I can't believe I haven't written a scar-fic before now? Also this isn't proof-read so… sorry about any mistakes. And sorry for the bad title too.

"It'll be a quick patrol, Merlin. We're just going to take a look at the bridge, and then we'll be back. It won't take more than a day, we'll be back before nightfall."

"These patrols always take longer than you say they will, Arthur. Is it really necessary for you to go?"

"Yes!"

Arthur paused.

"Although, you aren't a knight. You aren't obligated to go, you know. You can stay here-"

"And leave your sorry ass unprotected? I don't think so."

"I'm not going to be unprotected Merlin. I have plenty of good knights going with me. And I'm the prince! I can take care of myself."

Merlin snorts.

"Yeah, okay."

"Be ready by noon tomorrow, Merlin."

Merlin rolled his eyes.

"Yes, sire."

Why must it always be bandits?

They were surrounded by ten or more of the cursed creatures. Nothing the knights couldn't handle, at least, with Merlin's help anyways. Arthur took out two of them almost immediately. Another three were handled by a couple falling tree branches and suddenly red hot swords. The final five were taken care of by the remaining four knights (Gwaine, Percival, Elyan, and Leon) without Merlin's aid. They all sighed in relief when they saw that there were no more bandits. They had won.

Merlin's eyes caught on before the rest of them, when he saw an arrow fly out from the tree line and head straight for Arthur.

"Arthur, look out!" he yelled, and ran towards him to push him out of the way.

He instinctually slowed down time so that he could reach Arthur before it was too late. He shoved him out of harm's way, and nearly made it to safety himself. Nearly. The arrow caught his left bicep, just as time began to race normally.

"Merlin!" he heard Arthur yell as he fell to the floor.

He only just processed Elyan racing into the trees to chase the fleeing bandit.

"Merlin you idiot! Why would you push me out of the way?"

Merlin chuckled, sitting up and leaned his back against a tree.

"Someone had to."

"Don't try to sit up. You've been shot in the shoulder. But don't worry, we'll get you back to Gaius and-"

Merlin cut off his ramblings.

"Stop being such a prat, I'm fine."

Arthur looked at him incredulously.

"Fine? Merlin, you were just shot!"

Merlin scoffed and murmured under his breath, "Yeah, what else is new?"

"Will someone bring me my medical bag?"

Gwaine was the one who ended up bringing it to him, but instead of handing it to him, he handed it to Leon. By now, all of the knights were surrounding the injured man.

"Okay, we'll need to pull the arrow out, clean it thoroughly, and then wrap it up tight so that Gaius can-"

Merlin rolled his eyes.

"I don't need Gaius, and I certainly don't need you lot making this wound worse. Give me the bag, I'll do it myself."

They all blinked at him.

"Haha, Merlin, very funny," Arthur said sarcastically, "We both know you're in too much pain to do this on your own."

Merlin sighed in annoyance.

"If you don't hand me the bag right now I swear-"

He was cut off by Leon handing him the bag. When Arthur gave him a look, he returned it with one that said, "This will force him to ask for our help."

Arthur sighed and turned back to Merlin to see him studying the wound, his sleeve torn completely off. Then, out of nowhere, he grabbed the shaft of the arrow and pulled. His eyes were squeezed shut and his jaw was clenched, but Merlin didn't make a sound. The knights, however, made sounds of worry and shock. How could he just… do that? They were all too stunned to speak, and Arthur didn't even know that Merlin had asked for a bowl of water until he was cleaning his wound with it.

Once it was cleaned, Merlin made a sound of… frustration? Annoyance? Inconvenience? Which one it was, Arthur wasn't sure. Why, however, he had a pretty good guess. The wound was deep. Deep enough to need stitches.

"Okay, Merlin. You've made your point," Percival congratulated him, "Now let us wrap that up so we can take you to Gaius."

Merlin looked at him.

"It needs stitches right now. We can't wait for Gaius."

"Then let me do it," Leon offered, not wanting Merlin to do it himself.

Merlin gave him a look.

"Who's the physician's apprentice here, you or me?" without waiting for a reply, he continued, "I think I'm way more qualified to administer stitches."

"But, you're injured," he said slowly.

"Back to stating the obvious then? Yes, I'm injured."

He reached for his medical bag and no one stopped him. Not once he threaded the needle. Not even when he lifted it to his shoulder. By the time any of them thought to stop him, he was halfway done and hadn't so much as let out a groan in pain. He finished fairly quickly, and wrapped his shoulder up tightly.

When he was done, he continued on with the night like normal. Unlike the others. They were silent, unsure how to react to… whatever just happened. After dinner, Arthur cleared his throat.

"So," he began, "tomorrow Merlin, Elyan, and I will head back to Camelot and the rest of you will-"

"What?" Merlin asked, looking confused, and when the other clearly found his confusion misplaced, he explained further.

"We still haven't looked at the bridge yet."

"Well, Merlin, if you'd only let me finish my sentence, I was about to tell Percival, Gwaine, and Leon to continue to the bridge without us."

"What's the point in turning back now? We're closer to the bridge than to Camelot and you said that you specifically needed to go."

Arthur rolled his eyes.

"But obviously things are different now. You, Elyan, and myself need to head to Camelot immediately."

"Yes, you've said that. But why? Nothing's changed."

They all stared at Merlin.

"What?"

"Merlin," Elyan said slowly, as if explaining something to a toddler, "You're injured."

"So? I've stitched the wound and bandaged it properly. It's fine now. It's not anything that would hinder me."

"Merlin, just why are you acting like everything is normal!?" Arthur exploded, "You almost died, and you're acting like it's an average Tuesday!"

There was a beat of silence.

"Actually, today's Friday."

Arthur groaned and ran his hands through his hair. He paced back and forth twice before he stopped and calmed down.

"I'm headed to bed. Leon, you're on first watch, then Gwaine, then myself. Wake me for anything else and I swear somebody better be dying," he announced and stalked off to lay in his bedroll, just a few feet away from the fire, but far away from the others.

"Looks like somebody didn't get enough sleep last night," Merlin whispered, but to his surprise, none of the knights responded.

He looked up at them.

"Don't tell me you agree? He's just being overdramatic!"

"Merlin, mate, I love that you can just go all badass and pull a damn arrow out of your shoulder, but… that's not normal."

Merlin scoffed.

"Well, obviously not. It's not like I've been doing that my whole life. Sometimes, you just get used to things though. You know?"

"Used to what things?" Leon asked.

Merlin hesitated.

"I mean, with how clumsy I am, it's a wonder I'm not dead already."

Percival furrowed his eyebrows.

"Surely you aren't that clumsy. I never see you seriously injure yourself. I only ever…" he faded off, realization showing on his face.

"You only ever what?" Gwaine asked.

"I- I only ever see the injuries. Or, the effects of them. You know, limps and winces and that sort of thing."

The other knights fell silent at this, and Gwaine could swear he saw Arthur's steadily breathing figure suddenly pause.

"Merlin is- is someone hurting you?" Gwaine asked.

Merlin blinked back his shock.

"Is someone what?"

"It's okay to tell us what's going on. We won't let them hurt you. If it's blackmail or a threat of some sort we can sort it out. Are you indebted to them? We can-"

"No! You've got it all wrong. No one's hurting me."

"Then explain why you can just give yourself stitches after pulling an arrow out of your shoulder!"

Merlin shrugged, but winced because of his fresh wound.

"I guess I just have a high pain tolerance. Really, no one has been hurting me."

"Can you promise me? Truely?"

Merlin didn't speak. Technically, no one person was hurting him regularly. But… Saving Arthur has made him some enemies. One's that have hurt him.

"I promise it isn't what you think it is."

"That's not what I asked."

"Well I don't know what you want me to say!" he yelled.

"Just promise me that no one is hurting you and I will back off."

There was another pause.

"I'm going to bed," Merlin said finally, ignoring Gwaine altogether.

The knights, thankfully, just let him go. Still, even after he'd been laying down for a while, sleep eluded him.

Why couldn't they just let this go? Why must they choose today to be the day that they put the pieces together?

Finally, Merlin did sleep. It wasn't a particularly restful sleep, but it was better than nothing. And he was going to need it for what the next day was sure to hold.

The next morning, no one really spoke, but there seemed to be an unspoken agreement that someone was hurting Merlin and they needed to find out who. I guess they had decided that going to the bridge would be okay for Merlin, as Arthur had said as much (along with a not so subtle hint that if Merlin showed even a single sign of discomfort he would personally take him back to Camelot). Still, it was a short trip. They looked around for a bit, noticed nothing unusual, and were on their way. It wasn't until that night that anyone spoke of what had happened the night before.

"Merlin," Gwaine began, "Please tell us who it is. If it's something you did, we don't care. We won't judge you or-"

"Gwaine. There isn't anything you can do."

"No! I refuse to accept that."

"Gwaine," Percival made a warning sound, as if to say don't push this.

"Please. We're your friends. We only want to help," Leon added.

"There isn't anything you can help with, okay? I'm fine! Nothing is wrong!"

There was silence for a while before Percival asked to see Merlin's wound.

"Let me help you re-bandage it."

A look of fear crossed Merlin's face. He was no longer wearing the shirt he was the day he got the wound, the one with the sleeve ripped off. Which meant that to show Percival his arm, meant he would show him his scars.

"No thank you, it's fine."

"Merlin, you need fresh bandages. It'll get infected otherwise."

"I said no, damn it!" he yelled, and that burst of unMerlin-like behavior clued them all in that something was definitely wrong.

"Merlin, please don't make us force you. We need to get it wrapped again."

"I'm the physician's apprentice and I say it's fine. Can't you just leave it alone!?"

"Merlin. Take off your shirt."

Merlin looked at Arthur.

"Wow. Really want to see me naked that bad, huh?"

"This is not the time for jokes Merlin! You either take off your shirt and let us rebandage your arm or-"

Arthur's rant was cut off by Merlin tugging off his shirt. It was a bit of a struggle, seeing as his shoulder was injured, but he managed.

And boy, did that shut everyone up.

Merlin's chest alone was riddled with scars. There was a huge burn covering most of the left side of his chest and reaching just above his belly button. He had slash marks everywhere and some stab wounds that definitely looked purposeful. On top of all that, his wrists were scarred by what looked to be manacles. Only a prolonged period of time being cuffed would cause something even remotely similar to that, but those scars definitely didn't look natural (magic was probably involved). And that wasn't even the half of it.

"Dear god Merlin," Elyan gasped and Leon looked like he was about to throw up. Gwaine looked like he was going to punch someone and Percival looked ready to give Merlin a hug. Arthur though, Arthur just stood there, mouth wide open.

"Look, you wanted to help me with my shoulder. Okay? So can we just do that so I can…" he faded off but they all knew what he was going to say.

"Of course," Leon said, "No use having your shirt off for any longer than, er, necessary."

The actually rebandaging of the injury took Percival very little time, but when it was time for Merlin to put his shirt back on, Arthur stopped him.

"What- What happened?" he asked.

Merlin shrugged and opened his mouth to reply, but Arthur spoke first.

"Don't you dare say "nothing" because we both know that this isn't nothing!"

Merlin closed his mouth.

"I don't know what you want me to say. That they were all accidents? That I got them by falling down the stairs or running into tables?"

"The truth would be nice Merlin."

There was a brief pause before Merlin responded.

"Truth hurts Arthur. And this truth will hurt you too. All of you," he looked around at the other knights.

"It will be better than lies."

"Will it Arthur? Will it really? Can you stand there right now and promise me that you won't banish me? That you won't kill me?"

"Yes. I promise you Merlin. I could never banish you or kill you. Never."

Merlin chuckled lowly.

"You say that now."

"Whatever it is can't be that bad," Elyan said, "You know us. We're your friends."

Merlin didn't say anything for a long time. And when he did, all it was was "I'm sorry."

"By the looks of it, you have nothing to be sorry for," Gwaine said, and Merlin smiled sadly.

"You're good people. You're honest and brave and noble," Merlin stated, "I am none of those things. I lie and hide. I'm a coward and I have done things that I am not proud of."

"It can't be that bad Merlin."

Merlin nearly blurted out his secret right then and there. But years of fear and hiding caused him to bite his tongue.

"Ask me. Whatever you want to know. I'm sure you're wondering."

They all hesitated, as if waiting for someone else to do the talking.

"On your back," Percival spoke first, surprising everyone present, "You've been stung by a serket and survived. How is that possible?"

Merlin gave him a questioning glance, as none of the knights were behind him and haven't been since before he took his shirt off. Percival blushed before explaining that he noticed it when he was bandaging Merlin's arm.

"I- Well, I guess… I mean it was just-" he stopped, repeating what he wanted to say in his head before putting it into words, "An old friend saved me."

"When?" Arthur asked, "When did this happen?"

Merlin hesitated before answering, "A few years ago. Right after we found Morgana."

"In Camelot?"

"Most of these scars happened in Camelot."

"Who did this to you?" Gwaine asked, "Just point me in the right direction and they won't be a problem anymore."

Merlin smiled.

"Many different people and things. Camelot isn't always the safest place for… someone like me to live."

"Someone like you?" Leon asked, confused.

"I- yeah."

When Merlin didn't say anything more, Elyan asked another one of the hundreds of questions everyone was thinking.

"What about the burn?" he asked.

"What about it?"

"How- What caused it?"

Merlin thought for a moment.

"Fire."

Arthur fought the urge to roll his eyes.

"Will you tell us the story behind it?"

"It's not a very interesting story."

He paused, but no one spoke, so he continued.

"It was just after Arthur got bitten by the Questing Beast. There's no cure so… I went to the Isle of the Blessed to trade my life for Arthur's," he paused again, but no one dared to interrupt him.

"But, she didn't take my life. She took my mother's. At least, she tried to. Gaius went to trade his life for hers, and when I got there he was as good as dead. I-"

Only now did someone interrupt.

"Who is this "she" you keep referring to?" Elyan asked.

"Nimueh."

Arthur and Leon, being the only two who recognized the name, both gasped sharply.

"I was angry at her for killing Gaius. I-" he paused, taking a moment to breathe, "I killed her. The Old Religion traded her life for Arthur's and that was that."

"But what about the burn?" Leon asked and Merlin blushed at leaving out the reason he told the story to begin with.

"She threw a fireball at me. She must not have been as powerful as she thought, because it didn't kill me."

"How on earth did you kill a High Priestess!?" Arthur asked not too calmly.

Merlin shrugged.

"Luck I guess."

"Luck?"

"I- Well…"

"Emrys?"

Merlin's head shot up to look at… Percival?

"What did you just say?"

"Emrys. It's you… isn't it?"

Merlin's mouth went dry and his hands felt clammy. Percival knew about Emrys. He knew about him.

"I-"

He couldn't speak, so he only nodded timidly.

"That's what some people call me. Although, my name is Merlin."

"Emrys?" Gwaine asked, "I've heard that somewhere before… Emrys. Emrys. Where have I- Oh."

He turned to look at Merlin, his face blank. After a couple seconds he looked up at Arthur and back down to Merlin. Then, a grin fell onto his face and he burst out laughing.

"I- You- He's got… Emrys washing his socks and- cleaning his… stables!" Gwaine's sentences were broken up by wheezing and laughter.

Merlin turned bright red.

"I- Now hold on a moment, I never asked to be Emrys! I was born this way."

Gwaine, now calmed down, was looking at Merlin seriously.

"Exactly. So, if you ever need to… run, you can count on me standing by your side."

"Will someone explain to me what exactly is going on!?" Arthur shouted and Merlin looked him in the eyes.

"Remember your promise not to banish me or… kill me."

Arthur struggled to maintain eye contact, but he eventually nodded and Merlin looked away, his feet suddenly becoming extremely interesting.

"I guess I can't hide forever."

He looked back up at Arthur.

"Emrys is a- He's a warlock: A sorcerer born with magic."

Arthur froze, Leon and Elyan were equally as shocked.

"That's me, Arthur. I'm Emrys."

He shook his head.

"No. No, no, no. You can't be a sorcerer. I'd know! I'd…" he faded off. The genuineness in Merlin's eyes was alarming.

"I've used it for the good of Camelot. There's a prophecy. One that says you're to unite the lands of Albion, with Emrys as your side as your protector. And friends.

It took Arthur a long while to collect his thoughts and get words to tumble from his lips.

"So you've stayed in Camelot because of some… prophecy?"

"No! I mean, maybe at first, but once I got to know you, I couldn't care less about some stupid prophecy. I believe that you are a fair and just king. And a good friend."

"All this time…"

"I'm so sorry, Arthur. I'm sorry you had to find out like this."

There was yet another pause.

"Were you ever going to tell me?"

Merlin hesitated for just a second too long.

"Yes. It just… never felt like the right time."

Arthur nodded.

"Right, because I've been slaughtering you're kind for years."

"Your father is to blame. Not you. You grew up hearing his propaganda and lies. I believe that you will be different Arthur. Be the king I know you are."

"I promise to try," he said and meant every word. Merlin wouldn't suffer anymore. Never again.

No one spoke for a while.

"So, what now?" Merlin asked.

Arthur didn't hesitate to reply.

"Now, you need to help me draft a repeal for the ban on magic."

Merlin smiled.

Elyan cleared his throat.

"So… magic, huh?"

Merlin nodded, scared of what his friend might now think of him. Leon cut his thoughts short when he suddenly spoke.

"Is this a bad time to mention that I'm probably-most-definitely also immortal?"

Oh gods not Leon, Arthur thought.

"Wait," he spoke aloud, "also!?"

He turned to look at Merlin who smiled sheepishly.

"Surprise?"

"That's it. I'm too tired for this," he proclaimed, and went to lie down.

Arthur doesn't get nearly enough sleep for this shit.

The End