Gwaine chuckled and swung his feet back onto the floor. "Story time with Merlin. Never ever doing that again."

Arthur had been right when he thought he'd want that ale.

oOo

That had been two days ago. In the days since Gwaine had caused uncountable amounts of trouble simply by knowing Merlin's secret. Arthur decided that just this once, he wouldn't shout at Merlin for hiding something like this from him. He was still angry and betrayed, but he'd store it and let it out at Merlin another time (probably when he found out something else Merlin had hidden from them).

Since knowing the secret Gwaine had attempted to get Merlin drunk three times and managed to get Merlin to reveal his magic to Agravaine, and by extension, the whole of Camelot. In two days.

The second problem Gwaine had caused had caused a lot of paperwork for him. Legalizing magic had killed a lot of trees. And almost killed Merlin.

He'd fainted at the news – magic was legal again! – and hit his head quite hard on a table.

Arthur would never let him let it down.

Gwaine had found it hilarious.

oOo

One week, three shocked Council meetings and six taverns (for Gwaine) later Agravaine was still being well – aggravating. Had he been this aggravating before and he just hadn't noticed?

Probably.

After all – he hadn't noticed his manservant had magic.

Merlin had been trying to convince the Court that Agravaine was with Morgana. This had not helped the Court's attitude ('accusing the King's uncle like that!' 'Agravaine – side with the witch? Never').

Arthur still couldn't get any more secrets out of Merlin. It was very frustrating. It seemed that only Merlin and Gaius knew what Merlin had 'forgotten' to mention, and neither were talking. Arthur wanted to throw something – preferably in the direction of Merlin.

Sadly since Arthur's discovery of his magic, Merlin had been using it to freeze items thrown at him in mid air. And do his chores.

It had taken half an hour for Arthur to think of something else for his manservant to do.

He was then forced to give Merlin the rest of the day off.

...Maybe he should promote Merlin to Court Sorcerer – he'd have so much paperwork and he'd have to do it all by hand. That was a good idea.

He'd suggest it to the Council next week – get all the new 'radical' ideas out at once, hopefully without killing anyone. After all most of them were over the edge of forty and had spent most of those years feasting and doing politics – a heart attack was not good at their age.

oOo

The next few weeks were positively boring.

No magic attacks.

No armies marching towards Camelot.

No plagues or mysterious outbreaks of illnesses.

There was even less paperwork! (Apparently Merlin could use his magic on some forms of paperwork.)

It was almost too quiet.

In fact it was too quiet.

Something horribly dramatic was going to happen now that he'd thought that, wasn't it?

He'd jinxed it hadn't he? (He was only allowed to think the word jinx – it was habit, when his father had been King, mentioning the word jinx was likely to get several people arrested.)

Yes, he had.

oOo

In the middle of a boringly ordinary Council meeting, in burst Morgana, throwing yet another hissy fit about how she should be Queen. This time she ousted Agravaine as a traitor and Merlin did a little I was right dance in front of the Court before proceeding to save their lives in a powerful display of magic.

After this 'battle' had ended (it was very obvious from the start who was going to win) the Court conveniently forgot all of their previous misconceptions and blamed everyone else as to why Merlin was not made Court Sorcerer sooner. Very convenient.

At least with Agravaine gone, everything was less ... aggravating. Arthur hadn't realised how much of an influence his Uncle had on him, until he was gone.

And Arthur still had that horrible feeling that Merlin was hiding something from him.

oOo

At the next revelation Arthur was at cross-roads. Should he draw his sword or hug Merlin? (Maybe a clap him on the back instead – he didn't do hugs).

Merlin was Dragoon.

Dragoon had killed his father.

Dragoon had also saved Gwen.

After hearing about Morgana's involvement in both incidents, he went for the clap on the back and a slight warning. After all he couldn't execute Merlin without upsetting all of the druids – and that would be a bad idea. This was just his official excuse of course.

And Arthur knew that there were still secrets.

He was starting to hope he never found them out – the last few had almost killed him and most of the Court and Round Table (heart attacks were not good had become his mantra).

Sadly he knew he was fated to find out more of Merlin's secrets probably in the most public and dramatic way possible.