Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin, although I do own the season one box set... which I watch very often.

A/N: Wow guys, seriously! I can't believe that you guys are liking this, I mean... I can't see anything that good in it, but I guess I'm just very bias about my own work. In the last chapter, a few of you might be wondering who Anguis was, now I'll say this now, it is not a real character from the series, but instead, it represents a character from the series. It is latin, and means 'dragon'... apparently... I was hoping some of you might have picked up on that, but oh well. He will be making an appearence in the following chapters, though. Anyway, as I promised here's the next one, I hope it's alright... reviews are always loved! Enjoy!

As the day cooled down, and night arrived, Merlin began prodding his dinner with his fork. He really wasn't in the mood for eating anything after his first day at Camelot.

"You have to eat something," Gwen said shoving a forkful of mash potato in her mouth.

"I'm not hungry," Merlin replied lying his fork down on the plate. Down the table Morgana and Arthur were sitting next to each other talking.

After the canoe incident earlier, Merlin had tried to apologize to Arthur, but it didn't seem to matter what he said, the prat either didn't want to talk to him, or just ignored his presence entirely. But whichever one it was, the message was quite clear, so Merlin left it at that.

Morgause had caught up with him after class had finished, and he explained what happened. How Valiant and Nimueh had splashed them, which in turn caused the canoe to tip because he tried to retrieve his oar. Needless to say she believed him, and immediately walked off to find the two.

"Is this about Arthur?" Gwen asked curiously, glancing down the table towards Arthur and Morgana.

"Of course not!" Merlin lied, but unfortunately Gwen didn't appear to believe him for a second.

"Sure," Gwen placed another forkful of mashed potato into her mouth, and didn't speak another word.

Glancing once again down the table, Morgana was no longer sitting with her stepbrother. Instead she was passing her empty plate to the kitchen staff and leaving the dining hall, most likely to head back to her cabin.

"Wait up!" Gwen called out, quickly eating the remaining food on her plate. Once she had, Gwen rushed over and gave her plate to the staff also, running out the door to catch up with Morgana.

Only about seven people remained eating their dinner now, including Arthur who also didn't appear to have touched his food at all.

Knowing that he wasn't going to end up eating his food, Merlin walked over to the bin and scraped every last scrap off the plate. He then gave it to the staff, and decided to walk back to his cabin to get some sleep.

The night was fairly humid at the moment, though it was pleasant, almost relaxing when he thought about it. Breathing in a lungful of the forest air, Merlin made quick pace down the dirt path that lead towards Cabin Four.

Almost getting lost in the darkness, Merlin eventually found his way to the cabin. Just as he approached the door, a hand launched out from behind him, gripping onto his shoulder with tremendous force.

"Hello," Valiant snarled, flipping Merlin around so he was facing him. Merlin didn't reply, instead he kept his mouth closed as Valiant pushed him up against the door violently.

"You told on me, didn't you?" Valiant asked placing his face inches away from Merlin's. Right now, common sense was definitely not on Merlin's mind as he refused to respond. This in turn caused Valiant to pull Merlin forward, only to slam his back even harder into the door. Just as his back connected with the wood, Merlin felt a sharp pain as the handle jammed into his spine.

"You're hurting me!" Merlin yelled as Valiant placed one hand steadily around his neck, while using the other to keep Merlin rammed up against the door.

"It's your own fault, you shouldn't gotten me and Nimueh in trouble," with a sense of fear, Merlin watched as Valiant pulled his fist upwards, ready to strike him down where he stood. Covering his face with his hands, he anticipated the worst possible scenarios.

For a moment, Merlin began to wonder what was taking Valiant so long. Opening his eyes a crack he couldn't believe his eyes as Arthur yanked Valiant off him, punching him squarely in the face.

"Don't you ever touch him again, do you understand?" Arthur growled, raising his fist again as Valiant recovered from the overwhelming shock of being hit.

When he didn't reply, Arthur punched him right in the stomach, causing Valiant to keel over in pain.

"Do you understand?!" Arthur shouted, and this time Valiant replied in a short gasp.

"Yes."

"Good. But I swear, if I you lay even one finger on him, I will break your legs," Arthur warned, and Merlin couldn't help but stare in disbelief as Valiant ran off into the darkness in pain.

Once he was out of sight, Arthur turned to him, examining him closely.

"Did he hurt you?" Arthur sounded genuinely concerned as he momentary looked into the darkness where Valiant had disappeared to.

"My back hurts a bit," Merlin replied as he reached behind his shirt to touch where his back had hit the door. "Ouch!"

"Come on, let's get inside so I can get a good look at it," Arthur said, helping Merlin make his way into the cabin.

Turning on the light, Merlin lowered himself onto the bottom bunk, carefully making sure he didn't move too quickly.

"Take your shirt off," Arthur said as he walked over to his cupboard, and immediately began searching through his things until he pulled out a small box.

Feeling slightly embarrassed, Merlin did as Arthur had told him, removed his shirt. It wasn't that he didn't mind feeling slightly exposed, especially to Arthur, but he felt severely self-conscious because of his body. Bones stuck out on awkward angles that made him look like a shrivelled up corpse, although he did have some fat, but not enough for his liking.

"Does this hurt?" Arthur asked, gently brushing his fingers over his back until he touched the centre, instantly Merlin flinched in pain.

"Only a bit," Merlin answered untruthfully. It didn't just hurt a bit, it hurt like hell.

"Liar," Arthur retorted as he opened the box he had placed on the bed. The box seemed to contain a basic survival kit; band-aids, antiseptic, alcohol wipes, and a few other things that Merlin couldn't quite see.

"There's a pretty nasty bruise on your back, I'm going to put come cream on it to stop it from swelling." Pulling out a small tube of ointment, Arthur squeezed the white paste onto his fingers.

"I need you to lie down," Arthur asked, and Merlin obeyed, swinging his body around so his belly was against the mattress of the bed.

Before Merlin knew what was happening, he felt the cool ointment being rubbed over his back in a circular motion. He had to bite down hard on the mattress to prevent himself from moaning in pleasure. Once Arthur had finished, Merlin quickly put his shirt back on so he would no longer feel vulnerable.

"Sorry about earlier," Merlin apologized as he walked over to the mirror, turning around as he pulled up the back of his shirt to see the deep bruise that was beginning to form.

"Well next time, listen to me when I say something," Arthur replied with a slight tone of annoyance.

"So... does that mean we're friends?" Merlin asked nervously.

"It depends. You seem to have a way of getting yourself into to trouble," there was a slight pause before he continued. "There's something about you, Merlin, but I'm just not quite sure what."

"I could say the same about you," Merlin laughed as he lay flat on his bed once again.

"Shut up," Arthur snapped back, but it didn't take long for a smile to crawl across his face.

"Anyway, I'm going to get some sleep," Merlin added a loud yawn before snuggling into his pillow, he really didn't want to get changed in front of Arthur.

"Same here," replied Arthur, and immediately he stripped off his shirt and shorts until he was in nothing but his boxers.

Climbing up the small ladder, Merlin waited until he was sure Arthur was lying down on the bunk above him. Reaching over, Merlin then turned out the lights, leaving them in the cabin that was briefly illuminated by a narrow beam of moonlight that shone through the window before disappearing behind the clouds.

"Goodnight," Merlin mumbled, closing his eyelids.

"Goodnight Merlin," Arthur whispered back, but Merlin never heard as he was already fast asleep.

*

The following day Merlin had to admit was much better than his previous. Breakfast was at eight o'clock, and as he didn't eat last night, devoured three bowls of cereal before continuing to his first activity.

Today was mostly chemistry and maths with Gaius, which Merlin tried to understand, but got lost somewhere after Gaius's explanation about quarks and subatomic particles. Even Gwen was having a hard time understand the teacher.

Arthur didn't sit near him at all. Instead he and Morgana were sitting together on the far side of the room talking quietly to one another.

"What do you suppose they're talking about?" Merlin asked Gwen in a whisper, pretending to take notes on a blank piece of paper they'd been given.

"How should I know?" Gwen replied, taking a quick glance at the two, then back to Gaius as she continued writing down notes.

"You're right, of course you wouldn't know..." Merlin let out a sigh and continued listening to Gaius.

"...many people believed that you could turn lead into gold, but if you took here the number of protons contained in lead is eighty-two, while gold has seventy-nine protons. Alchemists believed this to be possible, but to literally change lead into gold you must change the number of protons they possess..."

Gaius continued rambling, but to be honest Merlin had no clue what he was on about, instead he nodded occasionally so that he wouldn't suspect he wasn't listening anymore.

Once the class had ended, Merlin got up and left the small building as quickly as possible. Usually he would've preferred staying inside, but the fresh air was just so spellbinding he could no longer resist it.

"What do we have next?" Gwen asked walking up behind him.

"Free time for the rest of the day, I think," Merlin replied, looking behind him to see Nimueh talking to Valiant who now had a black eye. The two of them caught glance of Merlin, and then Arthur who was now exiting the building.

"I wonder what happened to him," Gwen said noticing Valiant's black eye also. Before long the two bullies walked away out of sight, towards the lake house.

"Well, if I were to guess, I'd say he got punched," Merlin couldn't help but smile as he remembered how Arthur had appeared out of nowhere, protecting him as if he was Merlin's guardian angel.

"Do you know something I don't?" Gwen whispered quietly. When Merlin nodded, she couldn't help but giggle, stopping just in time as Morgana walked up beside them.

"Hey Gwen," Morgana said, looking at Merlin briefly before continuing. "Could I speak to you for a minute?"

"Sure," Gwen replied not moving an inch.

"In private," Morgana directed at Merlin who, overcome by her somewhat harsh tone of voice, walked away until found a log to sit down on.

Merlin began to wonder what was so private that she needed to speak to Gwen about. Shrugging off these questions for the meantime, Merlin waited patiently as the girls chatted quietly to each other a few meters away.

"How come you're over here by yourself?" Arthur asked as he sat down next to Merlin, much closer than he would have liked.

"Gwen and Morgana wanted to talk..." Merlin directed over to the girls before he added, "privately."

"Oh," was all Arthur said as if he wasn't quite sure what to make out of it. "How's your back feeling?" he asked concerned, after a few minutes of silence.

"Well, it doesn't hurt as much as it did last night, whatever you put on it seems to have helped," Merlin couldn't help but smile as Arthur turned his face away from him for a moment.

"That's good," Arthur said looking back, for a moment Merlin could have sworn Arthur was all red, but it was most likely the sever heat from the sun now that it was midday.

"Do you have any plans for this afternoon?" Merlin asked, looking over at Gwen yet again, it was quite obvious that she wasn't going to be hanging around him today. It was either Arthur, or nothing, and right now Arthur was looking like the best option.

"Not anymore," Arthur stood up, blocking the sunlight from Merlin's face. "Come on, I feel like a swim."

Feeling his face grow warm, Merlin stood up and walked with Arthur back towards Cabin Four to collect their swimming gear.

A few meters away, Gwen and Morgana watched as the boys walked down the dirt path towards the cabins.

"Do you think they realise?" Morgana asked Gwen, eyeing her stepbrother as he let out a laugh at one of Merlin's jokes.

"I doubt it..." Gwen replied as she couldn't help but feel happy as she watched the boys disappearing into the trees.

To be continued...

A/N:So guys, what did you think? As I pointed out many times, I'm still very unsure about this story... I feel as if there's something obvious that I'm missing in the characters, and, well... everything. Reviews are loved guys, and now that school's ended for the year I can update more often!!