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Again (and I'm sorry to repeat myself, but I feel it's necessary), not Merthur. Don't like, don't read. :)

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

"Merlin, you're hiding something. What is it?"

Merlin stilled, slowly stopping the motion of his hands, letting them rest on the pair of boots he was currently polishing. He wasn't prepared for this question. Laughing nervously, he replied, "Me, hide something? I couldn't keep a secret if my life depended on it." He attempted to speak casually, but winced when the squeak and the crack in his voice betrayed him. Glancing up at Arthur, he tried to gauge whether or not the prince was buying it. Based on the height of his raised eyebrow, the young Pendragon wasn't even shopping, let alone buying.

Arthur spoke again. "You know I can tell when you're lying, Merlin." He paused to let his words sink in, then continued, "C'mon, you can trust me. You're always dying to tell me what's on your mind, usually when I don't want to know. Now that I'm asking you to tell me, you clam up?" he prodded.

Merlin sighed, lowering his head to escape the searching cobalt eyes of the prince. It didn't work; he could still feel Arthur's gaze. "I-I… w-well, i-it's just th-that…" he stuttered out.

Arthur laughed humorlessly. "Great. My best friend doesn't even trust me enough to tell me what's going on in his life."

Merlin's lowered gaze shot up to Arthur's face, a shocked question in his blue eyes. "Your- ?"

"Best friend, yeah," the prince interrupted, looking more than a little awkward. "I know it's not… normal for a prince to be friends with his servant but, well, after that sorceress attacked you and I couldn't do anything but watch you suffer, I felt lost… helpless," he mumbled the last bit so badly that Merlin almost couldn't hear it. The young Pendragon's face burned with embarrassment at actually admitting this out loud. "Imagining life without my idiot manservant in it… it – it was just wrong…" Arthur trailed off, running a hand through his blonde hair, exasperated with his failure to put the fear he'd felt at the point of his manservant's near death into words.

Merlin was taken aback at the prince's honesty. "Arthur, I – "

The blonde boy broke in, "I understand if you don't think of me as a friend. I know I haven't always been very… kind to you."

The raven-haired servant chuckled. "Since you're being so honest today, try 'never very kind.'" Arthur glared and tried to protest but Merlin talked over him. "That being said… Of course I think of you as a friend. I certainly wouldn't have stuck around a dollophead like you this long if I didn't."

The prince ignored the insult he'd become immune to after hearing it so often and grinned; his servant-turned-friend beamed back. Soon, both boys were laughing uncontrollably at the sheer awkwardness and implausibility of the situation. A few minutes later, Arthur calmed down enough to speak. "You still haven't answered my question though, Merlin. What are you hiding?"

Merlin sobered up immediately and became silent. When he didn't answer, Arthur sighed, exasperated with his friend this time, instead of himself. "You didn't really think I was going to forget about it, did you?"

The raven-haired boy shook his head, but remained quiet. After a moment, the prince opened his mouth to prod his friend again when Merlin spoke tonelessly. "What makes you think I'm hiding something?"

Arthur considered the question for a moment. Taking the lack of tone as confirmation of a secret's existence, he answered, "I've thought about it a lot and there are things about you that just don't add up. Like that sorceress attacking you. When a magic-user comes after me, I know why. But why would one go after you, and only you?" The young Pendragon paused, but Merlin didn't answer (though the servant had an idea that it might, just possibly, have something to do with the fact that he was the only thing standing between Camelot and the magical community out to destroy it, not that he was prepared to tell the prince that). Faced with his friend's unresponsiveness, the blonde boy continued, "And after we went out to confront the Great Dragon a year ago, you told me I had managed to mortally would it. Except there was no blood, not on the ground, not on me, not even on my sword." Again, Arthur waited for a reply, but his friend remained silent. "Or before that, with the Questing Beast. After it bit me, who killed it? The only other person in that cave was you and half the time you can't tell which end of a sword is which. No offense," the prince added, quickly, not really wanting to insult his friend.

"None taken. It's only the truth," Merlin replied, smiling slightly.

Arthur hoped the other boy would answer his questions now that he had finally spoken, but the raven-haired young man wasn't forthcoming. The silence stretched out into awkward territory.

"Merlin, you can't ignore my question forever."

The young man in question grimaced. This was, perhaps, the most difficult thing he'd ever done, even more than hiding his secret day in, day out, or knowing in every dangerous situation that he might have to sacrifice his life to protect the prince he now considered his closest friend. "Fine. If you really need an answer. Just… don't think that because I didn't tell you before this, I don't trust you. I trust you with my life, I just didn't want to make you confront this choice. Not yet. And I would NEVER betray you."

Arthur was confused, it showed on his face, and he didn't like it. At all. What in the heck was his idiot friend blathering on about now? Nothing could be as bad as Merlin was making this out to be. Except, well… no. Merlin? No. Just… no, it couldn't be. Not Merlin. Uh-uh. No way. As he'd so often said, that would require intelligence. But then… what?

Merlin took a deep breath and began stuttering his way through his confession. "A-Arthur, I, w-well, I-I… I'm a…" He paused then, gulping down his fears, continued in a whisper, "a warlock." The raven-haired boy turned his gaze to the floor, not wanting to see the hurt and betrayal that were sure to be in his friend's eyes. What he didn't expect was laughter, but that's what he got. After a short silence, Arthur began to chuckle, then to laugh outright. Merlin couldn't believe it. He'd been prepared for the prince to be upset but not for this total lack of belief. Was it really that implausible an idea? Frowning, the young wizard crossed his arms and waited for his friend to stop giggling and straighten up from where he was doubled over with mirth.

Calming down, Arthur wiped his eyes and shook his head in amused tolerance. Merlin could be such an idiot some days. "Good joke, Merlin. Very funny. Idiotic, but funny. Hilarious.Now, what are you really hiding?" Catching sight of his friend's frown and insulted attitude, the humor drained from Arthur's face as he realized the normally lighthearted boy was dead serious. "Merlin? You… no, you – you can't be a… a warlock. That just…" he trailed off when Merlin's expression only got harder, more insulted, more (there was no other word for it) pouty. The prince was slowly coming to the realization that maybe his friend was telling the truth. This could be a problem…

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Saoirse 3