Author's note

Wow, so happy that you guys like this, and thanks for commenting, really appreciate it :-)

I hope it's easier to read now that there's more space, what do you think, is it better?

Vaughntronic:
Wow, thank you so much *blushing*

missmerlyn1994:
Merci beaucoup, et j'ai aussi fini le prochain chapitre ce soir :-) Il y aura encore deux chapitres, au moins... yay!

Amethyst49:
I don't know what to say, thank you so so much, and love your puns too, really (p)awsome ;-) Comments like these make my day!

Phanstarlight:
Must sound pretty one-sided yeah ;-)

Nance:
So glad you like it, and thanks for reading and commenting, it really helps me improve my writing :-)

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from BBC to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any

Secrets and lies

Secrets are hard to keep…

The rest of the night they spent going through pile after pile of old dusty books to find a cure. At some point Arthur had fallen asleep on top of the volume that he was reading and at the sight of the ginger cat, head resting comfortably on his front paws, Gwaine smiled and nudged Merlin with his elbow.

"He's a lot cuter like this, isn't he?" Arthur's eyes flew open.

"I am not cute" he hissed furiously.

"Whatever you say, Mittens" Gwaine shrugged nonchalantly and then had to jump out of the way when Arthur launched at him. "Easy there now, almost caught me."

"Cute apart from the claws" Merlin said conversationally, put a hand on Gwaine's arm and murmured a quick healing spell.

"Apart from that, yeah" Gwaine agreed, eyes a little wide as he saw the cut disappear as if it never had been there. Arthur scampered off to lie down in front of the fire and sulk, making sure to deliberately turn his back on the two others.

The sun rose the next morning and still they weren't any nearer a cure. Arthur's mood was worse than ever and he almost bit Gwaine who (not so) accidentally stepped on his tail in revenge for the fact that Arthur licked his face to wake him up. It didn't help that Merlin and Gwaine had contentedly munched on his delicious breakfast, while he got served a bowl of milk, but Gwaine had insisted that Merlin should get Arthur's breakfast as usual to avoid suspicion, even if he couldn't eat it himself. To add to the tense mood they were really running out of excuses to tell people and Arthur's patience soon snapped.

"Come on, Merlin, even you can't be this useless" Arthur snarled.

"Hey!" Gwaine intervened. "He's doing his best."

"Well it's not good enough, you bloody idiot!"

"Whoa, Mittens, if it was up to me you could stay like that forever" Gwaine retorted, shooting a foul glare at the cat.

"Enough!" Merlin shouted. "I can't think with the two of you bickering like this. Gwaine, thanks for defending me, Arthur, I'm doing what I can." Arthur still looked angry. "Please, I'm trying to help you, I'm doing everything I can, and it's just that something like this has never happened before…" Arthur's anger melted away under Merlin's imploring look.

"I know, I'm sorry" Arthur turned his head to look at Gwaine. "Tell Gwaine I said sorry, will you?"

"Gwaine, Arthur says he's sorry."

"Yeah, me too. Probably would've done the same if I woke up as a cat." They settled back in a comfortable silence and continued browsing for a cure when Arthur suddenly broke the silence again.

"What if I'm stuck like this forever?"

"You won't be" Merlin reassured him, tossing aside the book he'd just finished and opening the next one with grim determination. "We'll find a cure."

"And even if we don't, I promise that I'll hit anyone that even tries to laugh at you" Gwaine said. "Except Percival" he added thoughtfully, "because he's too big for me to take on." Arthur huffed out a laugh/meow and went back to reading, feeling encouraged and slightly better about the whole situation. Of course they would figure something out, they always did. He felt his muscles relax and, wait, was that him purring? Horrified he tried to stop the content sound that emerged from his throat and looked up quickly to see if the others had heard. If they had they tactfully didn't let it show and Arthur gratefully continued to read. They had to do something, preferably before he started licking himself. Arthur shuddered at the thought.

A knock on the door broke their concentration a couple of hours later. At last they'd made some progress, Merlin had found a chapter that looked promising but he needed Gaius help to translate most of it. But it was something and greatly improved the mood on everyone involved.

"Who is it?" Merlin asked cautiously.

"It's Gwen. Why have you locked the door?"

"Ah, well…" Merlin started and looked at Gwaine for suggestions.

"Tell her you're ill" Gwaine whispered quickly.

"I don't feel so well."

"Oh no, poor you." Gwen sounded concerned. "Do you need anything?"

"No, no it's fine" Merlin answered hastily before he realized what he'd just said. "I mean it's not fine since I'm ill but I'm fine enough that I don't need anything, you know?" He babbled nervously and Gwaine gestured for him to shut up.

"All right" Gwen said puzzled. "I'll come back some other time then. Have you seen Gwaine by the way?"

"No, I mean, yes, he's here" Merlin said frantically. "And he's also ill. Don't come in, we don't want you to get ill too. It's really bad. But not so bad that we need help so don't worry about that." Gwen was quiet for a while.

"I guess I'll see both of you later then" she finally said, sounding unconvinced, and they could hear her footsteps fade away.

"You are just the worst liar ever Merlin" Arthur couldn't help but say and Merlin pulled his tail in retaliation, happy to have found at least one good thing with the mess they were in. Arthur yowled angrily and demonstratively sat on his tail to keep it out of Merlin's reach, which sent Gwaine into a fit of laughter and promptly earned him another scratch from Arthur's claws.

Before long, Gwen was back at the door and she'd brought reinforcements this time. Merlin's strange behaviour and Gwaine's disappearance didn't add up and she went to speak to Leon, who immediately grew suspicious. Every time that he'd asked for Arthur, Merlin or Gwaine had given some weird explanation for the king's mysterious absence and he couldn't help but think that they may have something to with it. He asked Elyan and Percival to come with them and all four of them then headed to Gaius' chambers.

"Merlin, let us in" Leon ordered sternly after he'd knocked. On the other side of the door he could hear something heavy drop to the floor with a large thud, frantic whispering and people running back and forth.

"Ah, just a minute, Leon" Merlin called out. "I just need to… ow!" By the sounds of it, Merlin had run into a chair and knocked it over. Leon knocked again, harder.

"Open up right this instant!" he barked but he door stayed closed and Leon nodded to Percival. It only took one hit from his massive shoulder for the bolt to break and the door swung open to reveal Gwaine and Merlin frantically running around, trying to put away a large amount of books.

"What are you doing?" They stopped dead in their tracks at Leon's question.

"We were just… cleaning?" Merlin said hesitantly.

"Yes, cleaning, that's what we're doing" Gwaine filled in. "Gaius asked us to clean his chambers for him while he was away and that's exactly what we're doing, nothing else." The other knights looked at each other, and Gwen, in disbelief.

"I thought you were ill?" Gwen asked almost accusingly and Merlin blushed furiously.

"Yes, well…" he began but Gwaine interrupted him.

"We were, but now we're feeling better so we decided to help Gaius a bit."

Realizing that they weren't getting anywhere, Leon decided to try a different approach.

"Where is Arthur?" he asked brusquely. Merlin and Gwaine looked at each other and then the two of them began to speak at the same time.

"He's ill" Merlin said, while Gwaine blurted out: "He's at the tavern." Leon didn't look too impressed with their respective explanations but before he could do anything, Merlin turned his head towards his bedroom and frowned.

"Are you sure?" he asked. After what seemed to be a brief confirmation he turned to face Gwaine who nodded and then looked back to the others, who looked confusedly at the exhange. Merlin took a deep breath.

"Arthur's had a bit of an accident."