Mama

Summary: Some moments between Merlin and Arthur during their time together before they went to Liones and Merlin rejoined the Seven Deadly Sins. Request from OneWhoCharms.

Characters: Merlin, Arthur Pendragon

Relationships: Merlin/Arthur (Mother/Son)

Looking down at the small boy before her, Merlin awaited him to tell her what he wanted. The small boy was named Arthur and he was to be the King of Camelot one day, Merlin herself was training him to grow up to be a strong king for when that day came.

Merlin was a secretive woman so no one besides herself knew why she was doing this. Merlin didn't usually like spending a lot of time with children, she generally didn't really like children at all but even so she was training this child to become king so obviously she had some reason for doing this.

Of course Merlin did get along with some children. The young prince looking up at her was one of those exceptions. Merlin hadn't intended to start liking the boy really, alls she was trying to do was train the boy so Camelot wouldn't crash and burn under his rule, Camelot had suffered enough under the rule of Uther Pendragon, it didn't need to suffer even more because its next king was incompetent.

The training of the child wasn't all there was to her motivation though, well actually it was, but there was a different kind of training he needed to go through in addition to the king thing. This boy was powerful, although he did not know it himself; he had a strong power inside of him that had yet to be properly awakened.

"Merlin… I had a nightmare." Arthur told her, Merlin sighed, she liked the kid but she wished he hadn't come to her because of a nightmare. She was no stranger to nightmares, but she was a stranger to making people feel better after one. Arthur would have been much better off going to his adoptive father than to her.

"You couldn't go to your father?" Merlin asked him, Arthur shook his head and told her that his father had a job to do and had left him and his older brother alone. Merlin supposed that she was a better option than Kay, that kid meant trouble, he may be Arthur's older brother but he certainly wasn't about to act like one unless he thought it would get him what he wanted.

"No, Dad's working and Kay threw a book at me and told me to go away." Arthur told her, Merlin frowned slightly at the boy's words about Kay; she should have known he would have gone to his brother first, she supposed something had to be done to keep Arthur as protected from his older brother as possible.

"I see. In that case why don't you tell me about it, it might help you feel a little better."

Merlin looked around Camelot, trying to keep calm. She hadn't seen Arthur in quite a while and neither had anyone else that spent a lot of time with the young future king. Arthur didn't usually pull stunts like this, if he was going to go somewhere for a while, he'd tell someone about it. So the fact that no one had seen him and no one knew where he was, was quite concerning.

"Merlin!" The voice of who she had been looking for rang out from behind her. Merlin's head perked up and she turned around, almost instantly finding Arthur she kept her eyes on him, her eyebrows furrowed in a frown and waited for him to run up to her.

"Arthur, where have you been? You're lessons were to start 5 hours ago." Merlin scolded the small boy; Arthur winced and looked up at her apologetically.

"I'm sorry Merlin; I was with Kay he said he had something to show me." Arthur told her, averting his eyes from hers.

"And what did Kay want to show you?" Merlin asked him, she was sceptical of his words for sure, she knew Arthur wasn't lying to her (he would never) but Kay would certainly lie to Arthur and Arthur would be none the wiser.

It wasn't like Arthur was stupid far from it, it's just he was a little too trusting, at least when his family was involved. Merlin couldn't really say whether or not he was naïve with people that wasn't family, she hadn't really seen him interact with someone Arthur didn't consider family. Merlin had seen him interact with other people but it was on a very small level (she usually only saw him during his lessons or when Arthur sought her out for one reason or another) so she couldn't really make any judgement.

"I don't know, he wanted to show me something in the forest but we ended up getting separated." Arthur told her pointing towards the forest in question, or at least in the forests general direction, you couldn't actually see the forest from where they were standing. "Merlin, you've gotta find Kay. He's still in there!"

Merlin wasn't sure he was. She was positive that Kay had left Arthur in the forest on purpose, so he had likely left but if he hadn't she had no doubt he'd know how to get out. Merlin wasn't about to go looking for Kay, the only way she would was if she was sure Kay really did want to show Arthur something. Kay had a way of finding interesting things, things Merlin was often interested in experimenting with, so if Kay really was going to show Arthur something then Merlin would have definitely gone looking for him.

But Merlin couldn't just leave Arthur worrying like that so instead of going to look for Kay she decided to reassure him that Kay would be fine. "I'm sure Kay can make his way out. If he was going to show you something than he surely knows his way in and out of that forest. If he's not back home by the time your lessons are over than we'll go look for him okay."

Arthur nodded his head in agreement and from there Merlin took Arthur back to his home and, although this didn't usually happen, taught him there instead. Merlin had left all the books at her own living quarters so she had to teach him without them this time around but it wasn't so bad, she didn't really need the books anyway.

Arthur was sick, he was running quite a high fever and was coughing and sneezing and he had a runny nose.

He was currently lying in his bed, breathing rather heavily thanks to his illness and trying to get some sleep under his father's orders.

His father had requested that Merlin come and look after him, he would do it himself but he had some important Holy Knight business he couldn't get out of. Merlin had agreed, and set off for Arthur's house.

Once she had arrived, Arthur's father had thanked her, apologised for the trouble and then quickly left the house. As soon as he was gone Merlin walked up to Arthur's room and knocked on his door before opening it.

"How are you feeling?" She asked him from the door way, she would have walked further in but she had figured she would just end up walking out the room again soon so she didn't see the point in doing so.

"…Merlin… I don't feel so good…" Arthur told her opening his eyes and looking in the direction he had heard her voice. He didn't sound so good either, his voice was awfully raspy and not to mention quiet, Merlin had barely heard his response. Although she didn't really need to, she could honestly tell he wasn't feeling too good by simply looking at him.

"I see. Just let me go get some stuff and I'll be right back okay?" Merlin told him, Arthur nodded his head and coughed slightly before closing his eyes once more.

Merlin closed the door to his room and teleported down to the kitchen. She didn't really know where everything was but luckily it didn't take her long to locate everything she needed.

She had gathered a large bowl filled with cold water, a flannel and she was in the process of making chicken soup. Because of all of this she had never been gladder about Kay's absence she certainly didn't want to be caught doing this.

As soon as the chicken soup was done and she had gotten a spoon, she teleported herself and all her gatherings back up to Arthur's room.

Dipping the flannel into the bowl of water on the floor, Merlin gently used it to cool down Arthur's face and clean it up. After she had done that she placed it on his fore head. He shifted slightly at the cold but, much to Merlin's relief didn't try to remove it.

"Is that any better, Arthur?" Merlin asked the small boy, who gave a small 'uh-uh' in response. Merlin nodded and picked up the chicken soup and the spoon, placing the bowl in her lap and dipping the spoon in the soup she brought the spoonful of chicken soup to Arthur's mouth. "Open wide Arthur, this will help you feel better too."

Arthur complied and Merlin put the spoon in his mouth, after he had swallowed the soup and let the spoon go, Merlin continued to feed him the chicken soup until the whole thing was gone.

"Thank you." Arthur told her, a yawn escaping his mouth.

"You're welcome. Get some sleep Arthur." Merlin told him, stroking her hand through his hair softly. She had heard that can help you to sleep (well that and singing a lullaby but she wasn't going to do that).

Slowly the boy fell asleep, opening his eyes occasionally only to shut them shortly after. Once she was sure Arthur was asleep Merlin was about to leave the boy in his room to sleep.

"…Love you… Mama…" Arthur said in his sleep as Merlin was getting up from the floor. The mage paused at the words, having not expected them at all and turned to look at him. A small smile crossing her face, Merlin leaned down to place a kiss on his flannel covered forehead.

"Sleep well, Arthur."

I don't really like this one so much. I feel like Merlin and Arthur are out of character, Merlin more so than Arthur. But other than the OOCness I suppose it's not so bad.