Merlin looked around the little flat with interest. This was Arthur's own private space, something that was quintessentially his. On the wall in the hallway a neat row of coat hooks had been secured, and a plastic mat underneath had been set up to form space for boots and shoes. Automatically Merlin paused close by to pull of his trainers and he carefully put them on the mat.

"You don't have to do that," Arthur said.

"You do."

With his retort happily there, and while Arthur took his boots off and put them exactly in place, Merlin wandered further, padding into the open plan living space in his stocking feet and again looking around curiously. The kitchen area looked clean, although several items still occupied the draining board and few items cluttered up the small table at the far end. Merlin smiled at the fruit neatly piled in the fruit bowl, a pile of papers and junk mail and, oddly, a cluster of neatly rolled pairs of socks. Merlin pushed the socks about with one finger.

"I always forget to put bits like that away," Arthur said. "And I haven't spent much time here recently what with Christmas and stuff."

Merlin paused prodding, raising his eyebrows. He knew what the reference 'stuff' referred to. Instead he turned and looked around the living space. The television looked quite small, and under that, in the cabinet, sat a dvd player and a video machine.

"I thought those were extinct," Merlin said pointing at the video.

"I've just not got round to getting rid of it, mum bought me the DVD player a couple of years ago, not that I use it much."

Merlin shrugged and turned his attention to the other side of the room, beyond the sofa a computer desk and lap top were set up, and close by a set of shelves containing files and psychology books. Merlin almost tiptoed over to it, the entire desk, pigeon holes and little filing cabinet at one side looked so purposeful and business-like. That section of the room had clearly become Arthur's working area. To soften it, even thought it was again a working area, stood an easel with a painting that Arthur appeared to be working on; his portrait of Igraine. On a second, smaller desk tucked up into one corner, lay a stack of sketch books and pencils.

The room was large enough to prevent it from looking cluttered, but it made the space seem busy, an area of the flat that Arthur used more than any other. Merlin turned as Arthur started pottering around the kitchen, pouring water into the kettle and hunting for clean mugs.

"Coffee?" Arthur asked. "Or tea, or I'm sure I've got some hot chocolate somewhere."

"Why? You don't like chocolate."

"I'm not sure," Arthur said opening the jar and poking the contents with a spoon. "My mother probably convinced me that it was polite to cover every eventuality and I'm certain this is a little bit stale."

"I'll have the chocolate." Merlin said easing away from Arthur's private domain to go back to the kitchen space. "No one ever died from chocolate a little out of it's time. One more... just a little one."

Arthur had dumped two heavily laden teaspoons and Merlin added the other.

"The best before date is January, it's nearly twelve months off," Arthur said, finally finding the information on the faded label.

"I dare say I'll live. I've suffered worse."

"No one takes that lightly, Merlin," Arthur said pouring water into the mugs. Merlin pulled out one of the chairs around the table and sank down into it.

"I don't either, by any means."

"Sorry. If it's hideous I can find something else." Arthur passed the mug over and Merlin took it in both hands and sniffed it.

"No, it isn't and no you couldn't. I'm not too keen on tea or coffee."

"I guess I don't plan for every eventuality, my mother will be cross with me. Which reminds me I had better ring and tell them where I am. You'd better ring Hunith."

Arthur picked up the cordless phone nestled on his kitchen counter and he took it over to Merlin. He looked at it uncertainly as he pressed the buttons to dial Hunith's mobile. He glanced up at Arthur, and held the phone out.

"Could you do it? It might sound better."

Arthur wasn't entirely sure of that, but he shrugged and took the phone. Merlin had dialled and Arthur waited while he listened to the phone ring. It got picked up on the third ring.

"Hello?"

Hunith didn't sound terribly stressed but he heard the concern in her voice, probably because it was an unfamiliar number.

"Hi Hunith, it's Arthur. I wanted to ring and let you know that Merlin is with me."

"Oh!" Now she sounded surprised, but the concern appeared to have faded.

"Merlin called me. He and Will had gone down to the pub and it became a bit too much for Merlin. He couldn't find Will so he went out to the phone box and called me."

Arthur spoke in a perfectly normal tone, making it seem as if Merlin had behaved in a rational fashion, simply going to find the help he needed. Running over the emotions that he had felt over the last hour or so Merlin didn't think it was completely true; but he had, in the circumstance, done the right thing. Arthur waited, listening to Hunith.

"I saw Will before I left, and sent him back in, he knew people in the pub."

There was another pause.

"It's not his fault. Just doing something normal like that does work for people, they can just seem to snap back into a routine they know. I have seen it before, but it's not going to work in Merlin's case," Arthur said, so Merlin guessed that Will's motives had been called into question. He sipped at his chocolate while he listened intently, not minding the fact that he was the subject of the conversation. The chocolate tasted a little over powdery but it was fine, he took another sip and considered his actions.

Had he been behaving rationally? He hadn't been able to cope and had left the crowded, noisy pub. The people pressing on him had made him feel claustrophobic, and almost ready to vomit. In the end he knew he had just wanted to get away, for a moment he had frozen, letting the world pass him by as he started to lock himself away. Then something had pulled at the back of his mind and Merlin had activated, heading for the door. The cold night air had made his body tingle and looking round he had seen the phone box and known who he had wanted, and how to get him.

Not for a moment had Merlin doubted Arthur's response. He had felt entirely certain that Arthur would help, that he would come running. It made Merlin feel a little guilty, falling back on Arthur's good nature, but Merlin needed to cling to it. He went back to listening to Arthur's side of the conversation.

"Trust me Hunith, he's fine. I brought him over to my flat, I can put him up in the guest room and drive him back in the morning."

Arthur looked up, frowning at Merlin, looking slightly amused.

"No, I don't mind. He's right here," Arthur said taking the phone from his ear and holding it out to Merlin. Since Arthur had done most of the groundwork Merlin took the phone off him. Once he had passed the phone over Arthur picked up his mobile, waving his hands to indicate that he was going to call his parents. Merlin nodded, going back to his own phone conversation.

"Hi Mum."

"Are you all right sweetheart?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it was all right when the pub was quiet, then it got a bit crowded and... I'm all right." Merlin's voice sounded confident to his own ears. He did feel better now. Arthur's drifted into the hallway to make his own call, and to give Merlin some privacy.

"Hi mum," Arthur said as Igraine answered. "Everything's fine. I brought Merlin back to the flat. I don't think he's up to dealing with anyone really, I can put him up in the spare room."

As he drifted into the hall he turned on the light to the spare room. It didn't look any different to any other time he entered it.

"Have you got clean towels?" Igraine asked him. Arthur rolled his eyes, of all the things to worry about in the situation, his mother was guaranteed to think of something like that. He smiled to himself and opened a cupboard, finding, as he always did, the guest towels on the top shelf.

"Yes, I do," Arthur said.

"Okay. Have you let Hunith know?"

"Merlin's just on the phone to her now. I've spoken to her as well."

"Are you coming back tomorrow, sweetheart?"

"More than likely. I'm not sure when, it's late now and I don't know if either of us are particularly tired, so we may sleep in. I'll ring you again when I get up."

"Okay, sweetheart. Your father wants to speak to you."

Arthur gritted his teeth and left the spare room and went into the bathroom to see if he had a spare toothbrush somewhere. He rummaged through the box that he put all his unopened toiletries in.

"Arthur, is everything all right?"

"Yes, Merlin's fine, Hunith knows where he is, I spoke to Will and cleared that part up, and I even have clean guest towels, plus a spare toothbrush."

"Arthur, don't be facetious."

"Sorry. The point being I can look after Merlin. I know what I'm doing."

"I know. I just think..." Uther paused.

"What?"

There was a slight pause before Uther decided to answer him. "There is a point, Arthur, at which you and Merlin become a rather volatile combination. I know you two need to discuss things, but just be careful."

Arthur blinked, unable to answer for a moment. It was the closest anyone had come to openly admitting that there was something unexplored between them.

"I know. We'll be fine, and careful."

"Okay. Phone your mother in the morning. I'll call you when I get a chance."

"Fine, see ya," Arthur hung up before Uther could correct his grammar. He debated turning his phone off and then thought better of it, just in case someone tried to call him. As he turned he jumped. Merlin had finished his phone call and almost silently wandered out to find him, taking Arthur a little by surprise.

"Sorry," Merlin said. "I told my mum I was fine, and that I would call her in the morning."

"I did the same with mine, and I have a spare toothbrush and towels in the guest room for you."

Arthur pointed in the direction of the room. Merlin turned and looked into the room, stepping over the threshold carefully and probing his toes into the thick rug that spread across the laminate floor.

"It's very neat," he said as Arthur reached to pull out some towels.

"I don't use it very much. When I decorated I sort of thought my mum might visit, or I'd have friends over, but I always go to my mum's rather than her coming here."

"And no friends?" Merlin asked with a smile. Arthur frowned.

"Lancelot used it once, when his boiler packed up and it took them a week to get it fixed. And Elena locked herself out one night and came round at two in the morning as I was cheaper than dragging out a locksmith at that obscene time."

"Charming," Merlin said flopping down onto the bed.

"She did have a point, and she didn't make that much mess."

Merlin giggled. "I can imagine that."

"I was dating her at the time," Arthur mused. Merlin stopped giggling and looked stunned.

"Really?"

"Yeah. A few dates anyway, it didn't really amount to much. Do you need a bath towel? You can have a shower if you like."

Merlin sat up on the bed, hunching his shoulders a little and letting his hands drop into his lap.

"In the morning, maybe. I don't know. I don't really know what I want to do."

"Do you want to get some sleep? Or just rest for a while...?"

Merlin frowned, screwing up his face and sighing. "I don't think so. I'm not tired, but... it's just one of those weird feelings, like you've reached a bit of an anti-climax and don't know what to do next."

"Fight or flight instinct. You started the flight instinct and then didn't sort of... end with a real flight, if you see what I mean. Sorry, I'm being a psychiatrist there."

"No worries, you are a psychiatrist. I almost started the fight part but something stopped me."

"Fight?"

Merlin huffed. "I went very still, like I did before. Not that much!" Merlin added loudly as he saw the look on Arthur's face. Arthur looked uncertain, carefully putting the towels down on the dressing table.

"I wasn't doing it totally, it was just like you said, instinct, then I sort of snapped back. The world around me seemed to slow down, like every little detail just went past and I could watch it so carefully. Then it sort of speeded up and I got out and called you."

Arthur had put the towels down and he backed up slowly.

"I got the feeling that something wasn't right. I felt really pent up before you called and then you rang me. My father is right, we do make a volatile combination if we aren't careful. I'm sorry for what I did the other day."

"What?"

"When we were out walking and I sort of opened my mind. I'd never tried anything like that before, I've never thought about it."

Merlin shrugged. "It took me by surprise. I've never had anyone get in like that before, not even Morgause. Although she tried."

"There is a difference Merlin."

"What?"

"You let me in long before then."

Merlin stared up at him and slowly nodded. Arthur relaxed a fraction and smiled.

"As we aren't tired, I can look at what DVD's I have, or videos."

He watched Merlin's shoulders slump further as he relaxed dramatically.

"Okay."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Merlin didn't pay that much attention as Arthur argued with his DVD and video players to get one of them to play something. He fiddled with the remote controls while Merlin again drifted to Arthur's working area in the flat. He brushed his fingers of the edge of the computer table, where Arthur clearly worked. It seemed a bit of a violation to touch that so Merlin instead moved past that to look at the portrait of Igraine.

Staring at the likeness that Arthur was in the process of painting, Merlin vaguely remembered her. She had been in the room, when he and Arthur had been recovering from the kidnapping. Although he hadn't really registered her that much visually he had gained a strong sense of her, not just in herself, but through Arthur.

The calm exterior that Arthur seemed to have inherited from her did not match the simmering emotions that Igraine had been feeling at the time. But she had been angry, because Arthur had been hurt, and because Uther had excluded her, excluding her from something to do with their son, which Uther had, in her mind, no right to. Merlin knew there had been extenuating circumstances but those wouldn't mean anything to a woman whose child had been in mortal danger.

"Oh!" Merlin suddenly announced in surprise. While he had been musing he had started to flick through one of the sketch books and he blinked at the sight of a picture of himself. Arthur jerked his head up, pressing buttons randomly, which seemed to suddenly make the DVD want to load up properly. Arthur let the copyright warning trail across the screen, forgetting it for a moment as he got up to look at what Merlin had found. Obligingly Merlin lifted the sketch pad to show him.

"Oh, sorry about that. Not very ethical."

"When did you do it?" Merlin asked turning the pad back so he could look at it and try to work that out.

"After the nightmare. The one Lancelot called me into the hospital for, when you drew the first victim. Not the first... first, but the one after you had been admitted to the annexe. That one!"

Arthur wondered if he was describing that right as Merlin's face closed up and he put the pad down carefully. And Arthur knew it was not a very good thing to have done anyway, when Merlin was upset, and so damaged. Merlin swallowed very carefully, his hand rested on the sheet of paper, which his eyes remained on intently, as he said,

"That wasn't the first one."

"No! I never drew you before that, and I haven't since..."

Merlin didn't move as he added, talking in a low, subdued, tone.

"It wasn't the first victim."

"Oh."

"After I was rescued and before I told you that," Merlin clarified. His tone of voice lay very flat.

"That's not your fault, Merlin."

"But I could have told someone. Maybe not before, but when I woke up."

"I think it is accepted that there are more victims than we know of, than even you know of. No one will assume that you know more, and if you are not ready to tell anyone then... we just need to wait."

"And is that right for them?"

Arthur flinched. He didn't want to drag Merlin into something he didn't want to do. Or make it to obvious. But it was a clear need in Merlin. If he knew people had been victims of something how could he honestly be happy knowing that he had not even bothered to tell someone. Arthur's hand drifted to pick up another sketch pad and he held it out to Merlin.

"Do you want to draw them?"

Merlin glanced at the pad, staring at it for a long moment. Arthur flipped the pages about to leave Merlin with a clear unblemished page. He held it, and a pencil, in one hand and with the other he twined his fingers with Merlin.

"Come on, sit down. We can watch this and think about it."

Merlin nodded and allowed Arthur to lead him to the sofa.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Four exhausting hours later they had six pictures. Arthur didn't spend too long examining the faces that Merlin drew. Neither did Merlin, he didn't look at the sheet of paper as his hand moved. He stared at the screen as Arthur tried to find stuff to watch that would not upset Merlin.

As he sifted through his small collection he realised he didn't really have anything that didn't have violence. He liked horror films and science fiction. In the end he decided to watch the Alien trilogy box set that he had acquired from somewhere.

"I like films that are a bit gross, and I sort of like to watch how people react."

Arthur sounded like he was apologising for something. But he studied certain things to see how people dealt with things. He wondered if there was something in it. When it was needed he had done the exact same thing. He chose to protect himself and Merlin. It was not much of a choice, both of them locked away, with no one else to help them, and Merlin...

Arthur paused and thought.

Merlin had been vulnerable but not helpless. He had done things to aid Arthur; and Uther was right, there was something between them. Arthur had felt the need to take charge, and help Merlin. In response to that, Merlin, in his own way, had taken responsibility for Arthur.

As Merlin tore off another sheet of paper Arthur stopped staring at the screen and turned to look at Merlin. He looked tired, the dark circles under his eyes had increased in prominence. Reaching out Arthur took the pencil and paper away.

"Stop for a bit Merlin."

"I need to do this."

Arthur shifted on the sofa, turning to face him, taking Merlin's twitching right hand.

"I know. I know you do, but you look tired, and you've drawn six. They are gone Merlin, you're still here, and you have to look after yourself, just a little. When morning comes I will talk to my dad, and he can take the pictures, and probably give them to Leon to sift through. It won't take him that long to work out who they are."

"But I can't just leave it."

"You can for a few hours." Arthur put everything to one side and stood up and he eased Merlin up with him. "Come on, you need to get some sleep."

Merlin nodded, looking down, blinking slowly and swaying on his feet.

"I don't want to stay on my own."

Arthur blinked, and then shrugged. "You can stay with me, come on."

Determinedly Arthur led him out of the living area and towards the bedrooms. Instead of going into the guest room Arthur turned the other direction and flipped on the light in his own bedroom. Again it was tidy, and neat, and looked as it did every other day he entered it. Merlin looked around, sleepily, probably not really taking much in. Arthur didn't bother asking if Merlin wanted to wash, or brush his teeth. He looked to tired for anything. Arthur led Merlin to the bed.

"I'll go and turn everything off, you get in and I won't be long."

Merlin nodded, his head still down and he slowly tugged at the hem of his jumper to pull it up. Then his head jerked up suddenly and he looked at Arthur in alarm.

"Have you locked the door?"

"I'll do a check while I'm turning everything off," Arthur said soothingly. Merlin looked uncertain but he nodded.

Once he had turned off the electrics Arthur went to the door. He knew he had locked it up when he had come in, but checking it would make Merlin feel better. Once he felt sure of that he looked around the flat one more time before heading back into the bedroom. He had left the small bedside lamp on. Merlin had tucked himself up in the bed, huddled under the duvet, but on the chair in the corner Arthur spotted Merlin's discarded clothes.

Arthur undressed swiftly, sliding on the loose trousers he always slept in and he lifted the duvet to slip in, seeing just enough of Merlin's skin to realise he had stripped, taking off everything except the scarf around his neck. Arthur didn't comment, whatever made Merlin comfortable, and able to sleep, would be fine. On the flip side Arthur didn't want to contemplate what anyone thought if they found out.

He felt Merlin shift slightly, his hand reaching out to find Arthur's, holding to him tightly. After a moment Arthur felt Merlin relax, his breathing steadied out and he gave a light snore to indicate that he was indeed asleep. Turning as carefully as he could, so as not to disturb Merlin, or lose his grip on Merlin's hand, Arthur settled down closing his eyes and following Merlin into sleep.