A/N- Woo hoo! Chapter 3! And this should be a bit longer, for those of you that wanted it to be. I'm exhausted, but determined. Seven reviews, yay!

When Hunith finally heard her son come home, she was greatly relieved. He had been gone a bit too long for her liking, and was starting to get afraid he had gotten lost or captured.

"Merlin?" she called out.

"Yes Mother, I'm here, just let me put the firewood in the back." She heard Merlin call this out from the open front door.

When he finally came back around she realized he wasn't alone, but had another boy with him. He was a bit older than Merlin, and dirty. Very dirty. Like he had been living in the woods for a week. At first she just stared and then turned to her son.

"Merlin, who is this?"

"Ummmm… well, this is- this is Arthur," he said nervously. Then he burst out saying, "But look, Mother, I found him all alone in the forest and he ran away from home and has no where to stay and doesn't know anyone and I just thought that he could stay with us and-"

Hunith cut him off with a look. "Merlin, you know better than to invite someone to come stay with us before asking me."

"So are you not going to let me stay?" Arthur spoke for the first time. He looked genuinely worried. He had been counting on living here until he found work.

"No, of course not." Hunith turned her gaze on Arthur, and it softened. She looked so motherly; Arthur was a bit captivated by the look. He hadn't known his mother and had grown up without a mother figure. But as she turned back to Merlin, he saw the stern parent look again, and it was almost worse seeing it on her face, rather than his Father's.

"Sorry, Mother," Merlin apologized without even being told to. A few seconds asked before he piped up, "What's for dinner?" And suddenly the whole atmosphere changed in an instance. All of a sudden Merlin and Hunith started making a fire and cutting up vegetables, leaving Arthur to stare there in amazement. His father never forgave so easily. Sometimes he would give that stern look to Arthur for days, before adopting his normal, impassive face. He also never laughed or joked with his father like Merlin was doing with his mother now.

"Arthur?" Arthur looked up from his reverie to see Hunith looking at him with kindness and a bit of concern.

"Yes?"

"Would you like to come help stir the pot?"

"Ummm… sure."

Arthur walked up to the pot, unsure what to do. He had never been to the kitchens, let alone made his own dinner. He grabbed the big spoon awkwardly with two hands and started stirring the only way he knew how, like he was swinging his sword. Stew started sloshing out of the pot, and Hunith hurried over.

"No, no, no," she chided gently, "you need to relax your arms a bit and stir more loosely from the wrists." Arthur did as he was told and the stew stopped sloshing everywhere. But then he heard suppressed giggles coming from the other side of the room, where Merlin was still chopping up some vegetables.

"Do you have a problem, Merlin?"

"Well, I mean, you can't stir stew! Everyone can do that!"

"Oh yeah? Well most people can walk over some simple tree roots without tripping all over themselves too."

This caused Merlin to blush slightly and look back down at the carrot he was cutting up.

"Mmhmm, that's what I thought," Arthur said as he turned back to the stew.

Hunith watched the whole exchange, debating between scolding the both of them and laughing out loud. There was just something about the two of them. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she felt there was a connection there.

*Line Break*

After a modest dinner of vegetable stew and stale bread, the two boys helped Hunith clean up the dishes. Both were a mess afterwards since Arthur started scrubbing too hard and ended up splashing water all over himself. And when Merlin couldn't contain his laughter, he ended up with a rag of sudsy water in his face.

"Why don't you boys go clean up in the creek?"

"The creek?" Arthur asked in surprise. At home, he had always had his baths drawn for him in his room.

"Yes, the creek. Now here, you'll need some new clothes, I suppose." Hunith picked out a shirt that was still too big for Merlin to wear, a green one, that looked like it would be just the right size, as well as some black trousers she had planned on mending to fit Merlin.

Merlin led the way to the creek with two wash cloths. When they got there, Merlin stripped down to his pants and jumped in. "Come on in, Arthur. The water's fine!"

Arthur hesitated when he started thinking about how it was a creek. Fish had probably swum in that water. Heck, there were probably even fish in it right now! And there was no way he was going to bathe in the same water as fish.

Merlin, seeing his hesitation and misreading it as fear shouted out, "That is, unless you're too much of a coward!"

Now, Merlin had not yet learned that if there was one thing you did not do in life, it was call Arthur Pendragon a coward. Arthur, now with a determined look on his face, quickly undressed to his pants, and jumped straight into the water, sending a giant splash over Merlin. When he finally resurfaced, it was too see a spluttering Merlin.

"Still think I'm a coward, Merlin?"

Merlin was still to shocked and angry to answer. The, the prat! He had just splashed him on purpose! So, Merlin did the only thing a child can do in retaliation. He splashed him back. Which led to a full on splashing war between the two, only ending because the sun was setting and they had yet to clean themselves of the grime and dirt they had collected.

When they arrived at Merlin's home, they found that Hunith had laid out a spare bed next to Merlin's, with some night clothes for Arthur to change into.

"We're going to sleep on the floor?"

"Oh yeah," Merlin said a bit sheepishly. "I mean we only have one bed, and Mother gets it because, she's well my Mother, and we don't have money for another one for me."

"Oh," was all Arthur said in response. He was again struck with just how different peasant's lives were from his own. He often forgot to stop and appreciate how well off he had it being a prince.

When they had both gotten ready for bed, and Hunith had blown out all the candles, Arthur asked a question that had been on his mind for awhile.

"Where's your father?" He turned his head to his left to look at Merlin, whose head was next to his.

"What do you mean?" Merlin wasn't sure how to answer that question.

"I mean, is he out for the week? Like hunting or something like that?"

"Oh, no." The tone of Merlin's voice made Arthur fear the worst.

"Oh, uh, I didn't mean, I- I, is, is he dead?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? How do you not know something like that?"

Merlin turned toward Arthur with sadness in his eyes. "I just, don't. Mother never told me anything about him, and he was gone before I was born." Then he turned away again.

"Oh."

They laid there in silence for a few moments before Merlin turned back towards Arthur. "What's your father like?" Merlin had always wanted to know more about other people's fathers. It helped him pick and choose what he would, or in some cases wouldn't, want in his own father.

"My father?" Merlin nodded. "He's… difficult to explain." Arthur was trying to skirt around this question. Talking about his father could mean bringing up other questions about is life, questions he could not answer if he hoped to not be discovered.

"Try," Merlin persisted.

Well, Arthur thought, there is no real harm in telling him the truth, at least part of it.

"He's strict and hardly ever expresses how he feels, if it all. He cares little about other's feelings, unless the people themselves are important."

"Is that why you ran away?" Merlin quickly decided he would pick none of the traits from Arthur's father. He seemed callous, and Merlin liked to think his father was more open, and would care about him more than Arthur's seemed to care about him.

"Partially."

"Why else did you leave?"

"I just, didn't like my responsibilities anymore. I wanted to try something different. Simpler."

"Oh." They fell silent, and eventually, both of their breathing slowed and steadied, sure signs that each was asleep.

Hunith got up from her own bed and lit a single candle on her writing desk. She had a letter to write, but didn't want either of the boy s to find it. When she was complete, it read as follows:

My Dear Gaius,

I would like to firstly let you know that Merlin and myself are fine, even thought I haven't written in awhile. But more importantly, I would like to inform you that I believe Prince Arthur is in my care. Merlin found him alone in the forest today and I'm not sure who else to tell. I wish for you to take whatever action you see necessary to ensure that the boy is safely returned home. I'm entrusting you with this since I know you are my friend and are probably the only person who can convince King Uther that his son is safe with me.

Hunith

Satisfied, she rolled and tied the letter with a piece of string. She would send it with a messenger, telling him it was of the most importance. It would take about a day and a half for the rider to arrive at Camelot. And it would probably take another two days for Uther to assemble his men and come and retrieve his son. That means Arthur would be gone in about four days.

She looked over at the two sleeping boys and sighed. She could only hope they would get along till then, and that Merlin could keep his secret. She could only hope.

Yay! I realize now what people mean about characters getting away from them. Like I didn't know Arthur was going to admire Hunith's motherly ways or that Hunith would insisit they clean up! Anyway, please review. And hope you enjoyed!

-princessmelia