Chapter 6

Merlin was steadily improving.

It had been a long, long four weeks of bed confinement, then another two of having his movements restricted, being worried over and what felt to him like being coddled to death, until Merlin was finally allowed back to work.

Merlin woke early, a grin on his face, and clambered out of bed. He made his way quickly to the kitchens, to grab breakfast and then on to Arthur's chambers.

Arthur was sprawled on his bed. Hair golden in the soft morning light that filtered through the gaps in the curtains. His face was relaxed in sleep, calm and serene. Anyone would have found it a shame to wake him. Merlin grinned, striding over to the curtains, whistling obnoxiously and off key, and throwing them open.

He was rewarded by an annoyed groan from the bed.

"Merl'n?"

"Yup!" He grinned delighted. "I'm back!"

Arthur mumbled something into the pillow that sounded an awful lot like "God help me", though he raised his head and smiled sleepily as he heard Merlin's laughter ringing pure and clear, like a bell, from somewhere to the left of him.

"Time to get up lazy!" And he proceeded to all but drag Arthur out of bed by his leg. Soon they were laughing helplessly, sprawled across the floor, until Merlin dragged Arthur up and forced him into a chair. Not that Arthur would ever admit he was forced to do anything by his skinny manservant.

"Breakfast!"

"Merlin!" He moaned at the chirpy call (Merlin was always far too happy in the mornings, in his opinion), then turned and beamed at the raven-haired boy, "thankyou".

Merlin froze for a second, before collapsing into a limp pile on the floor.

Arthur's breath froze in his lungs, his eyes widened, and he leapt up from his chair, dashing to the side of his fallen manservant. His friend. His heart beat wildly against his ribcage, blood pounding in his ears. Had Merlin had a relapse? Was he having a fit? Was he going to...

"Merlin!" Arthur knelt by his side, extending a hand towards him, willing it to stop shaking "Merlin are you all right? Can you hear..."

He was broken off by the badly disguised sound of laughter spluttering from the form next to him of the floor. The laughter broke out into full fledged whoops of hilarity, as Merlin rolled around on the floor, laughing.

"Oh your face!" the boy wiped tears of mirth from his eyes, hooting with laughter.

"Merrrlin!" Athur growled "You nearly gave me a heart attack! What in the name of the King were you thinking? Why did you faint, you... you... idiot!"

"You... you..." Spluttered Merlin between laughs "said... thanks... so... I... pretended to... faint... in... shock!"

And a grin broke out of Arthur's scowling face. Did he really not thank his servant at all? He grinned, no, he supposed he didn't. Arthur made a mental note to thank him more often. He made to stand up, trying to keep a serious, angry facade up, but Merlin's laughter was infectious, and Arthur found he couldn't stay angry for long. Soon he was laughing every bit as much as his manservant.

His friend.

His warlock.

If possible, Arthur's grin grew wider.

"So... Merlin...you're an all powerful magician-guy then?"

Merlin froze mid-laugh, and his servant's eyes became wide and round as pennies, before his jaw dropped and he began to splutter; "What... me... I...?"

"Yes, and now you're evidently all better, you have a nice, long list of chores that have piled up and are just waiting for you to get on and do them." And he strode away, leaving the spluttering, baffled warlock behind him.

Looks like Merlin would be alright after all.

He'd be around to bother Arthur for a long time yet.

Magic or no.

The crown prince of Camelot managed to startle four guards and creep out at least three servants as he strode through the castle. An obnoxiously large grin plastered across his face.

A.N: Hiya peoples of teh internets! Thanks so much for reading! Lenle really appreciates it! :D

If you liked it so far please drop me a review! They're hugely appreciated! :D

I was going to end it here, but thanks to the persuasion of emenemdj, I've decided to stick a couple more chappies on the end... extra ideas anyone?

Thanks again for reading!

xxx