Chapter 5

Merlin had checked Arthur's room first, but the prince was nowhere to be found. Now Merlin was using his super fast running skills to try and find him… which was a lie. Merlin was average at best when it came to everything except magic. Still, he was running through the castle rather quickly. He was checking all the places he'd seen Arthur before. However, Arthur appeared to be nowhere. Morgana was in her room with Gwen and neither had looked up when Merlin had entered. It was probably because the door was already partway open when he'd entered and for all they knew it might have been the wind that opened it further.

Now Merlin searched the training yard. He passed the stretch of grass where Arthur oft practiced swordsmanship on other people or on straw dummies. He saw other knights, but no Arthur. He checked the stables from afar but saw no one in the stables, much less the prince. Then Merlin checked the range where Arthur practiced with his crossbow, as he had the night before.

Low and behold, there stood the crowned prince.

"Arthur!" Merlin called before remembering he was little more than a spirit. He frowned but ran to Arthur anyway. He wasn't entirely sure why he'd chosen to follow Arthur and not stay by his body, but at the time it had seemed to be the best idea.

Arthur was walking slowly between the spot where he'd been shooting from last night and the spot where Merlin had been standing. Arthur walked back to his spot and Merlin stepped in where he'd been. Arthur looked up right at Merlin's face.

Merlin could see the whole evening replaying in Arthur's eyes. He was trying to figure out a way to help Merlin by figuring out what might have been wrong. Arthur put his fist to his lips and looked through Merlin down the path he would have to take to get to Gaius's house from here.

"What was happening?" Arthur asked out loud and he began to walk. Merlin jumped out of the way as Arthur walked right past him. He wasn't sure what would happen if Arthur walked through him and he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Arthur took the same path Merlin had taken last night until he got to the courtyard. Then Arthur seemed more like a hunter. He walked carefully and surveyed the ground. Merlin followed him slowly. His eyes darted forward to the space where he'd fallen. He remembered it all clearly, even the pain.

As Arthur got to the right spot, Merlin knew he wouldn't be able to tell the difference. It looked the same as every other spot. Merlin nodded to himself.

"Right there," he said and even pointed. Arthur's feet stopped walking. He bent down over the area, and Merlin was stunned. How could Arthur tell? Well, he thought, Arthur would say it was because he was such a good hunter and had such a natural skill at noticing things others missed.

"Arthur?" a voice called. Arthur looked up and frowned.

"Oh. Hello, Gwen," he greeted and stood up. Gwen clasped her hands nervously in front of her. Merlin frowned. He was getting sort of tired of not being able to talk to people.

"What were you doing?" Gwen asked, looking around on the ground where Arthur had been staring. Arthur shrugged.

"This is where you found Merlin, isn't it?" he asked as though it should be obvious. Gwen nodded. "I was just trying to figure out what happened to him after he left me last night."

"Oh! Did he seem alright to you?" Gwen asked quickly and then covered her mouth. "I mean… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to suggest that you wouldn't have noticed if he was ill, I just… I mean, I'm sure you would have noticed, I'm just worried is all. Um, I'm sorry." The maid cast her gaze to the ground and nervously wrung her hands together. Arthur sighed and smiled.

"Gwen, it's alright. I understand. You're good friends," Arthur tried to calm her down. Here, he frowned. "I'm just trying to figure out why he wouldn't have told me. I mean, you don't just collapse of a strange sickness overnight… not unless you're -…," Arthur stopped his own sentence and looked around. "Merlin?" he asked.

Gwen raised a confused eyebrow.

"My lord? Merlin's not here. He's with Gaius.… Are… Are you alright?" she asked. Arthur turned his gaze to her and smiled gently.

"Of course. I'm fine. If you'd excuse me, I need to go tend to some business," Arthur explained quickly and strolled off across the courtyard, Merlin following close behind. A part of him wanted to stay and see how Gwen reacted to the Prince's oddness, but a bigger part wanted to see where Arthur was going after being so weird.

Arthur strolled down a familiar passage and up a few stairs. There he stopped and knocked rapidly on a door. Merlin frowned. Why was Arthur coming here to Gaius's house? They waited a moment, but Gaius did not answer. Arthur frowned curiously and opened it himself. Gaius was nowhere to be seen.

"Gaius?" Arthur called. The prince's eyes dropped onto Merlin and he strolled inside, closing the door behind him. "Why did he leave? You're in a sensitive state."

Merlin knit his brow together. Arthur was talking to him. That was unexpected. Merlin was touched, no doubt, but he was confused. Arthur never showed this much interest in him while he was awake. Arthur would have shrugged it off like he'd done when he'd saved Merlin from the poison.

Arthur knelt by Merlin on the bed. He tested Merlin's fever with the back of his hand and frowned. Merlin was fine, no fever at all. Then again, Gaius had said there was nothing he could find wrong with Merlin. Arthur nodded. His idea made even more sense to him now.

Still, looking down at Merlin's unconscious body, Arthur couldn't help forgetting why he was there. Merlin looked so cold lying there. Not cold as in temperature, but cold as in personality. He was so used to Merlin's smiles and wisdom, even when it wasn't appreciated. Arthur wasn't used to seeing Merlin's face so… blank, so emotionless. Arthur found himself leaning over Merlin's body. His hair fell a bit into his eyes and he let a shuddering breath out between his lips.

Merlin was unconscious so… so it was alright, right? But Merlin responded to Arthur's voice earlier. Did that mean he was conscious of what happened around him? Would Merlin hate him if he knew Arthur wanted to kiss him? Arthur leaned his head closer to Merlin's. His breath passed over Merlin's face and the boy's nose wrinkled at being tickled. Arthur smiled but his heart was hammering in his chest.

Merlin's eyes were wide and he felt frozen with anticipation. Was Arthur about to… to kiss him?! Merlin's heart thrummed wildly in his chest. He was having flashbacks to yesterday morning, when Arthur pulled him down to the bed and their faces were inches apart. Merlin worried his lower lip. This wouldn't be right. It was him getting a kiss, but at the same time it wasn't. Merlin would remember it from a third person point of view, not as though he was actually in it. So he wanted it, but at the same time he didn't.

"…thur," Merlin's voice escaped his body. "Ar…thur."

The prince pulled back, shock and embarrassment fighting for control of his expression. He took a deep breath and schooled his expression. Was he crazy? Kissing Merlin now would do nothing! Even if it didn't backfire, Merlin wouldn't remember it! What was the point? Not to mention it sort of felt like molesting the other male since he had no say in the matter right now.

Arthur ran a hand through his hair and sighed. Then he smiled.

"Yeah, I know, it'll give me wrinkles," he murmured. Merlin, despite feeling jumpy about the almost-kiss, smiled at the memory. Arthur frowned in a confused manner and looked at Merlin. "You know I'm here, don't you? You can… sense me, can't you? Somehow I know you can hear everything I'm saying."

Merlin knelt on the floor on the other side of his body. He leaned on the bed. For a moment, his arm looked about to pass right through it, but his body seemed to decide to stay solid enough to rest against the bed without showing he was there to anyone else. Merlin let his blue eyes drift down Arthur's face. The Prince had no defined features, no strong and high cheek bones. He had no manly chin. Arthur had soft features, a trait he no doubt got from his mother. He was handsome in a way other men were not. Merlin's eyes drifted over Arthur's lips and he blushed.

"Merlin, you have to hang on until Gaius figures out how to help you. I'd help you if I knew how. Right now I feel rather useless. Heh, this may sound strange to you, but I feel rather like I've lost a trusted knight in you. No… No, not a knight. You're not a knight," Arthur's voice dropped into a murmur and he pressed his fist to his lips as he'd done earlier. "You're not a knight, Merlin… But you should know, just in case this doesn't turn out the way we all hope it will, that you are more than a servant to me. You are my truest, closest friend."

"Friends don't try kissing other 'friends'," Merlin commented, voice scolding but soft. He too had the side of his hand pressed against his lips. "And I'm more like a knight than you think-…. Hang on," Merlin stopped himself and stood up.

A knight? Which is more important, the prince or the knight? At the time, Merlin thought the statue was talking about the two roles Arthur played in life but if he thought of it in a different light then everything changed! Arthur would be the prince but Merlin would be the knight, saving the prince at every given opportunity. Who are you? The important question was 'who are you?', isn't that what the statue had said?

"Who am I?" Merlin asked out loud, eyes falling down to his body. Was that what the statue was doing? It wanted to know who Merlin was?

'Emrys,' the male voice of the statue entered his head. Merlin jumped. He spun around in a circle. 'You prefer being called this name, do you not, Emrys?'

"My name is Merlin," the warlock replied.

'But you like being called Emrys. It makes your heart pump and your body fill with… emotion,' the statue whispered. Merlin shook his head.

"No. No I only responded like that because it was a different name than I was used to. I prefer Merlin," he stated firmly. The voice whispered from inside his head. Where was it coming from?

'Curious. That is the emotion. What is curiosity to humans? Show me what a knight means to a prince, Emrys. I'm curious as well,' the voice continued, once again ignoring Merlin. 'Memories show that the prince means much to his knights, but what does a prince care for such a secret knight? He has plenty more. Tell me, Emrys, you would die for him… but would he truly die for you? What emotion is this?'

"Where are you? What have you done to me?" Merlin asked loudly and impatiently.

'Show me, Emrys. Show me what it means to be truly human. Show me what I want to see,' the statue ordered gently and yet it sounded like a sort of threat.

"My name isn't Emrys! It's Merlin!" Merlin shouted angrily. The voice did not reply, but Merlin heard himself echoing softly. On the bed, his body mumbled. His head turned on its side, toward Arthur. His lips began to move and Merlin saw Arthur's head dart down to catch the words.

"…my …name… my… name... ah," the body let out a soft sigh. Arthur wrinkled his eyebrows.

"Merlin?" he asked. Merlin took a step forward and grabbed his head. The ringing was back in his ears, and he fell to his knees. On the bed, Merlin's face fell into a deep frown and his eyebrows pushed together. "Merlin?!" Arthur asked worriedly, hand reaching out to touch Merlin's forehead. He frowned. Merlin was hot!

"Ah! Stop it!" Merlin cried out on the floor, holding his head. "A-Arthur, get Gaius!"

If Gaius gave him that potion from the day before, maybe it would help. If Gaius could figure out what that statue had done to him, it would fix this! But Merlin's heart sped up and he felt panicked. He remembered the feeling of blood in his ears and he squeezed his eyes shut. He was frightened of that.

Arthur gasped and jumped up. Merlin's hand had twitched up off the bed and caught him by surprise. It made it only an inch before falling back down, but it had moved.

"Gaius!" Arthur called out. Where was that man?

"Prince Arthur?" he heard the old man reply and heard the door open. "What on earth are you doing in -… My goodness, Merlin." Gaius rushed in and grabbed the same bottle as yesterday.

Merlin's body was cringing all over the place and his right ear had started to bleed. Gaius frowned and forced Merlin to take the tonic. Almost instantly, Merlin collapsed on the floor. His body relaxed, but the ringing continued.

"Please…stop. This doesn't…. help," Merlin murmured into the stone of the floor. Almost immediately, the ringing stopped. Merlin took several deep breaths. So that was an idea. The statue wanted something… he wanted to see something. Merlin couldn't even think straight with the ringing so he couldn't 'help' the statue. Merlin smiled a little to himself. He had an idea of how to stop that horrible ringing from now on.

"Gaius," Arthur spoke up. Merlin didn't even get off the floor, he just stayed there. "Start thinking of enchantments, Gaius. I think a sorcerer got to Merlin."

"What? What gave you that idea?" Gaius asked as he wiped up Merlin's ear.

"I don't know… Nothing scientific, I can assure you," Arthur replied. "Just start thinking about it, Gaius, and don't let him die."

Merlin let out a huff of air against the floor. What a request.