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Again, not Merthur. Don't like, don't read.

Merlin TV show and characters (c) BBC and their respective actors.

Light streamed through the windows of the palace at Camelot and the hush of midmorning, when everyone was occupied with something and no one ever seemed to be in a hurry, pervaded the halls. Merlin moved slowly down the corridors of the castle, wincing with each step on his still tender foot, although that had been the least of his most recent batch of injuries. Fortunately, the broken ribs had healed (though they were as yet pretty sore), the lash wounds on his back had almost faded, and the poison had long left his system. Thinking back to the witch's attack a few weeks earlier, the boy shuddered. The kidnapping had been terrifying, the beatings horribly painful, but the poison had been, by far, the worst. Paralyzed, unable to even whisper, fighting to see, to breathe, and feeling his system slowly shut down… Merlin bit his lip to hold back the terror he had felt at that moment. If Arthur hadn't found him when he did… If Gaius hadn't been able to do the magic required for the antidote… The boy didn't even want to think about it.

The raven-haired young man still wasn't feeling his best (his sprained ankle was even now giving him difficulties and his breathing hadn't yet returned to normal, resulting in a hacking cough that sounded worse than it really was… so he said) but Merlin couldn't stand to be confined to his bed a moment longer. The rest felt nice for the first few days but the sun was shining, the birds were singing, Camelot was bustling, and the boy soon became bored to the point of tears. Besides, Arthur's room was sure to be a mess after his servant's long absence (the prince seemed incapable of doing even the slightest chore for himself and every other servant, except Gwen, couldn't stand him for more than a few moments when he was in a foul mood, as he had been since Merlin's kidnapping), and the manservant wanted everything back to normal as soon as possible. So, after much arguing, pleading, and promises, Merlin, against his guardian's better judgment (and Gaius's certainty that it would just land his charge back in bed for another week), the young man was allowed out of his room on one condition: that he limit himself to one task a day for at least a week, so he had a chance to regain his strength. Merlin had sworn up and down he wouldn't overexert himself, anything to escape the dull confines of his room and feel that he was being productive again. (Because, really, as much as he complained about having too much to do, the opposite was even worse.)

Traversing the familiar path from his room to his master's, the goofy-eared servant braced himself for the utter chaos he was sure to see upon entering the prince's chambers. Taking a deep breath as he reached the door, Merlin pushed it open… and winced. It was bad beyond even his expectations. The closet hung open and clothes were strewn about the room; the bed was unmade, the bedclothes almost falling off the mattress; a plate of food that looked (and smelled) about three days old rested on the table, flies having a heyday with it.

The blue-eyed boy sighed and shook his head. He and Gaius had decided on the relatively easy task of polishing Arthur's boots as a good way to spend his first day back at work, but that food had to go. Merlin couldn't exactly complete his task if he couldn't breathe. Sticking his head back out the door, the raven-haired servant flagged down a passing fellow servant carrying an empty tray and asked her to take the plate of rotten food down to the kitchens for him. Besides the fact that everyone in the castle knew what he'd just been through (gossip travelled like wildfire in the palace), Merlin looked so tired and pathetic (not to mention simply adorable) that the maid just couldn't say no. Smiling prettily up at him, her sea-green eyes playful, she took the tray and, batting her eyelashes flirtatiously, asked if there was anything else she could possibly do for him? The manservant grinned back and told her not at the moment but he'd let her know if anything came up. Blushing and giggling, the brunette continued down the hall.

Merlin shook his head and laughed a little. For some reason, most of the female servants in Camelot (with the notable exception of Gwen) found him inexplicably attractive. The young manservant chalked it up, albeit just a tad sarcastically, to his good looks, wit, and charm; Gaius explained it away with two words: maternal instinct.

Crossing through the hazard zone of the prince's room (which he'd clean later when he wasn't quite so exhausted) to the closet and pulling out Arthur's ten pairs of nearly identical boots (did anyone really need that many pairs of shoes?), Merlin sighed at the state they were in. Each pair would probably take him a half an hour or more, so he had, at best, five hours of work ahead of him, mostly because he'd have to do all the labor by hand, as he wasn't up to even that much magic quite yet. At least he wasn't confined to his bed anymore and had something to do other than twiddle his thumbs or read about the various uses of willowbark… Sitting down next to the bed, the raven-haired young man set to his task with a willingness to work not often seen in him, at least for jobs like this (although it wasn't nearly as bad as mucking out the stables, something Gaius had expressly forbidden until Merlin was completely well again).

An hour or so later, the young man well into polishing the third pair of boots, the door to Arthur's chambers banged open. Knowing it had to be the prince (no one else opened a door quite like the young Pendragon), Merlin looked up. But the customary snarky greeting died on his lips when he noticed the determined gleam in the blonde boy's cobalt eyes. The raven-haired young man gulped, wondering what he could possibly have done now (besides, of course, the things he couldn't help, namely his kidnapping, near death, and weeks-long absence to recuperate); when his master looked like that, it usually didn't bode well for the manservant…

Arthur couldn't take it anymore. He stepped back from the scarred wooden dummy on which he'd been exercising his sword skills and pushed his sweaty blonde hair out of his cobalt eyes. Nothing was working, not jousting, not mace practice, not even sword work. The image of his manservant's bloody, mangled, paralyzed body seemed burned in his mind. Thinking back to Merlin's abduction and the sight that met the young Pendragon's eyes when he'd finally found the raven-haired boy, not to mention the utter helplessness he had felt when he couldn't do a thing to protect or help heal his friend, made the prince shudder. And yes, the boy was his friend, realized Arthur, as unlikely as it seemed. Because, really, a prince who thought of his manservant as his best friend? It just didn't happen! Only… the raven-haired boy was the most loyal and caring person the young Pendragon had ever met. The blonde boy thought back to the moment his manservant had drunk from a cup he'd known was poisoned, simply to save the prince's life. The remembered image, clear as crystal, of Merlin collapsing lifelessly to the floor led straight back to the sight Arthur had been attempting to erase for the last several weeks. 'At least', he thought bitterly, 'I was able to help that time. This time I could do nothing.' Those musings, in turn, brought the blonde prince up against a question he'd been asking himself since the witch's attack: Why? Why would a sorceress attack Merlin, and only Merlin, of all people? Sure, he was manservant to the prince of Camelot, but then bribery would seem more logical, not a full out magical attack. That gained nothing for anybody. Unless… unless the raven-haired boy was hiding something. That was the only explanation the young Pendragon could come up with. And besides, too many other things didn't make sense, now that he thought about it, unless his friend was concealing some sort of secret. Watching the knights working all around him in the bright sunshine of the practice field, but not really seeing them, Arthur made up his mind. He just knew his manservant wasn't telling him something and the blonde boy was determined to find out what it was.

Pausing only long enough to grab his brown leather vest (it was a miserably hot day so he had been practicing his sword work without armor or chainmail, since it didn't really matter what he wore to hack away at a wooden dummy), the prince strode back to the palace. Stopping at Gaius's chambers, sure Merlin was still on bed rest, Arthur was surprised to learn that his manservant had begged to get back to his chores, just to be doing something that might alleviate the boredom, and was probably in the young Pendragon's room now. Rolling his eyes at the idiocy of his friend (because the prince agreed with the physician that going back to work now could only land the raven-haired boy in bed again) and the sheer oddity of the situation (imagine, Merlin wanting to work…), the blond boy continued on towards his chambers.

Upon reaching his room, Arthur paused, gathered his thoughts and arguments, and threw open the door. His manservant was seated on the floor next to the bed, in the middle of the chaos that was the young Pendragon's quarters, polishing the prince's boots. The raven-haired boy looked up, a sarcastic half-smile already on his face, no doubt ready with some snarky comment. But when he caught sight of the blonde boy's face, the humor leached from his own. Arthur heard Merlin gulp loudly. Taking a deep breath, not exactly sure how to start but determined to find out his friend's secret, the prince just dove right in, beginning with the most burning question.

Again, thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or story/author alerted! I appreciate it so much! But, as much as I appreciate it, I won't have time in the next few weeks to thank everyone by name at the beginning of the chapters like I did this time. Just know how much I adore and love you all for your kindness! And I do reply to each and every review I get, that won't ever change, so if you review, I'll give you virtual cookies in my response!

There is more to come, so keep reviewing!

Saoirse 3