Ready for the next chapter? :P Silly question ey.. Thank you again for all the reads and follows and favs. This time we are celebrating 200 reviews ;) Thank you so much.. It makes me smile every day.. And I also have a little announcement to make: There will be no update for this fic in the weekend, but before you start pelting me with tomatoes, let me say, I'm planning to update another one of my fics ;) Which one? It's a surprise...
But for now.. on with this fic!
Enjoy~
.*.
"Arthur!"
"I'm alright! I'm alright!" he protested the fuss, squeezing his eyes shut. He just recalled nearly tumbling down the stairs a little while ago, and he guessed only the nerves and the adrenaline kept him up until now. Yet again, thankful for Leon being there.
"Lay him over here." He heard Gaius's upset voice.
The prince decided not to protest further. Knowing exhaustion will catch up sooner or later anyway; and each moment the physician spent on other things was a moment spent away from tending to Merlin, so Arthur cursed inwardly and let himself be dragged to the makeshift bed and laid on it, blinking a few times in an attempt to get his vision to focus. He saw three worried faces, and it made him feel even worse.
"I just got dizzy. I'm fine." He said, schooling his voice to sound confident.
"You put too much strain on yourself, Sire." The physician said in a reproachful tone. "Sir Leon, you should help the prince back to his chambers."
"No!" Arthur shot a look at the knight. They will need him here, to move the manservant around if it's necessary. "I rather just.. stay here." He mumbled closing his eyes. He didn't want to be sent off to his own chambers, like some small child; (That would be too embarrassing.) He just didn't want to be in his own room to begin with. Not where he would be alone; with himself, his own thoughts; and perhaps his father, should Uther decide to visit him. - He didn't want to think of it as cowering, though he realized at some level that that's just what it was. But he just didn't want to see the man.
And he didn't want to leave Merlin. – For some reason even he couldn't figure out why, but he just didn't want to leave his servant and already made up his mind to resist with whatever excuse he can make up to keep himself from getting evicted from the court physician's chamber; even if he wasn't being much of a help - well, no help at all, Arthur thought - it just felt right to be there, and logical to think that; as if his mere presence was essential. He wondered if exhaustion was doing all this.
"I'm alright, Gaius." He said quietly, rubbing his eyes, hoping the old man will understand, and seemingly he did, as the next moment he felt the elderly man's hand give a squeeze of his shoulder, then he heard him move away from the prince.
He needs to tend to Merlin now; Arthur mussed and was determined not to give any other reason to Gaius to get distracted from that task.
He lifted an arm and laid it over his head, covering his eyes. He had his own wounds tended to and even drank a horrible tasting tonic for the pain; there wasn't anything else the physician could do for him at that time, it was up to blonde to rest and heal; and not to aggravate his condition.
Arthur listened in to their quiet fiddling as Gaius gave instructions and both Gwen and Leon helped out; the knight mostly just putting things into their hands as they requested. Merlin involuntarily hissed as the cool poultice was applied on his wounds, and he whimpered when something happened to be too painful, but despite his occasional stirring, he didn't wake and the prince was glad about that in a way.
"He.. uhm.. he had a cut on his side, that bled a lot and would reopen from time to time.." Arthur said all of a sudden, remembering the rest of the damage gathered at their imprisonment. "On his left side." The rest had slowly healed; or new ones were added. He tried not to think of those days.
"Ah.. I see. Well.." there was a moment of silence. "It would seem a burning stopped the bleeding." Gaius said after some time, his voice sounding somewhat empty.
Arthur scoffed bitterly. "A lot of good that did.." He spat. "I'm sure my father will be pleased to learn of his assistance to help with Merlin's condition.." his voice came out a mixture of a wavering growl and a condescending chuckle, as if the words tasted foul in his mouth and he needed to spit them out and fast; forgetting for a minute that there were two other people present, not just the old physician.
"Arthur.."
Don't tell me not to be angry. Arthur thought, but bit his tongue before the words could roll out of his mouth. He kept quiet.
Looking up he could only spot Merlin's slightly turned head, facing the other wall, the rest of him being blocked from his view by the physician working on him. - You're in good hands. Everything will work out, you'll see.. Arthur thought. He felt a sense of calmness settle over him, despite the obvious consuming worry.
He didn't know when he drifted off to sleep.