997 NE, Autumn

It first happened when Will was sick. The healer, Gaius, had smiled at Will and said that he would get better soon, but had taken Merlin aside and said to make his farewells. His herbs could help no further.

Merlin stood at Will's bedside, sick with grief at the sight of his pallid, thin frame, and sweat-soaked hair. It wasn't fair. It wasn't Will's time yet.

His skin prickled and hair stood on end. The air felt heavy, and he could hear the small, hitching, delicate breaths, the rattle in Will's chest suddenly loud in his ears. The room brightened and he found himself on weak knees, holding himself off the floor with one hand on the bed.

"Merlin!"

Gaius came in and saw him, and pulled him out into another room. Small lines of fear were around his eyes, obvious with worry that Merlin was taking sick too. Merlin sagged, pushed with a firm hand onto a hard wooden chair. Gaius went to a shelf and pushed bottles aside with haste. Only moments later Merlin almost bounced to his feet, feeling a restless energy running through him.

Gaius pressed the back of his hand against Merlin's head, pushed open the folds of his eyelids. "Show me your tongue." He looked into his mouth. "Does your throat hurt?"

Merlin shook his head and shifted about, eager to get back to Will.

He grabbed Merlin's arm and pushed back the sleeve from it, looking closely at his skin, and then stood back. Gaius shook his head, and looked over his bookshelves. Merlin could almost see himself pressed into looking through the tomes.

"I'm fine, Gaius! It's Will who's sick, not me!" Merlin got up quickly and darted through the doorway back to Will. His friend's breathing was easier, the worrisome rattling gone. Gaius pushed past to Will's bedside, eyebrows climbing high at the broken fever and slow, regular breathing. He regarded Merlin for a long moment.

"Young Will is staying with us, after all," he said with a small smile.

Merlin beamed at him and sat back down at Will's side until duties pulled him away. His position as manservant to the heir of one of High Lords of Tear brooked no arguments regarding sick friends. Arthur wouldn't begrudge him, but Arthur's father would, and he had no fondness of the fishing boat to return to it.

That evening he rushed to return to the sickroom, and found Will awake and sipping broth, eyes fever-bright but awake.

"It's unlike anything I've ever seen," said Gaius. "I've never known of anyone to return from mudfish fevers once they've had it for over three days. You're a lucky boy," he said to Will.

Will smiled at him weakly, eyes drooping with tiredness. Merlin went over to him and pulled the blanket up as Will's eyes closed in sleep.

A week later Merlin shook with fever, mumbling incoherently. It came upon him one evening and he dropped the dinner tray as he entered Arthur's rooms.

"Merlin, really, you are clumsy at the most inopportune times," said Arthur, turning from the window.

Merlin looked down at the tray, his eyes not focussing and a lightness overcoming his limbs. He heard Arthur say something, and found himself on the floor. He was vaguely aware of being picked up and moving through the halls, Arthur's set face wobbling in and out of view, and a sharp worry to Arthur's voice as he called for Gaius, slamming back the heavy wooden door.

It wracked him for a day, and then lifted. Gaius had no explanation.

"A touch of the mudfish fever? But it never comes across people like that," he said to himself quietly as he turned away, going to his library to look up the fevers.

Arthur put a hand on his shoulder when he next saw Merlin, stopping him at the door. "You are no longer sick?" he said, with apparent unconcern.

"No, Arthur." Arthur's hand felt hot on his skin, and Merlin stopped himself from looking down at it.

"So. You can stop slacking off," said Arthur, taking his hand away with a small push.

Merlin felt where his hand had been like a brand, aware of Arthur's nearness. A small shiver came over him, and he stepped back quickly, skin prickling.

"I'll just get to it, then," he said to the air vaguely, and made for the door.

Will was out of the sickbed soon after Merlin recovered, and they returned to their fights, bickering through the halls as they went about their errands, fevers and other strangeness quickly pushed from mind.