Hi everyone! Thank you very much if you alerted/favorited this story, it means a lot! Thanks asdf and TeganL74 for reviewing! And thank you bedshaped3 for being an awesome beta!

This chapter is a bit different; it's a flashback chapter (the first of two). It elaborates a bit more on the missing months and the changes in Camelot. I promise, it is important for the plot and character development. So I hope you'll enjoy.

Chapter 3: The Grumpy King

Camelot was faring well for a change. Of course it wasn't all rainbows and unicorns, which was fortunate since that never ended well, Merlin reflected. He was currently wandering back into the city with a bag of freshly picked herbs. The most noticeable difference was in the people's spirits; the fear had gone from their eyes.

Somehow, the city seemed to have forgotten their past ordeals. Children ran by as they chased – and were chased – by a playful dog. Merlin wasn't positive, but they looked happy. Some old folk were loudly discussing the good old days, when everything was much better and parents didn't let their children run aimlessly in the streets.

He grinned for a moment. Yes, all was well; just sunshine and babies, he thought as he entered the courtyard. He quickly dropped off the herbs to a surprised Gaius. The physician hadn't asked for them, but Merlin noticed his stock was dwindling earlier that morning. Although Gaius may seem to some as strong as ever, Merlin couldn't erase the image of how frail he had looked after they regained the castle. So the young warlock had made it is personal goal to ease his mentor's days. Gaius did his best to act offended by these gestures, claiming he wasn't the old tart everybody presumed him to be, but Merlin knew better. He had been served his favourite meal for days in a row now.

There was only one big black cloud on the horizon, one insufferable prat of a cloud named Arthur. And that was where he was going now, to bravely endure the gale.

All of the current council members were appointed by Uther or by Agravaine. Because of the latter's betrayal, Arthur had grown wary of their advice and distrustful of their council. Merlin knew this, so he wasn't surprised when Arthur bemoaned the fact that a council meeting was scheduled later that day. What did surprise him was Arthur's next move.

"You go.", Arthur had said from behind his desk, which was always stacked with important parchments, a dozen books, ink, quills and so on. What he couldn't fit on the desk was steadily covering the floor, slowly growing like it was gifted with life.

Once, Merlin had tried to tidy it up, but stopped when he had seen Arthur's shocked expression – it was as if he had killed a duckling.

"Stop that immediately!"

"But it's a mess!" Merlin had protested.

"No, it's a system…can't you see the difference!"

Merlin really couldn't. With a jolt, he focused back on Arthur's more recent troubling news.

"Yeah, that will be fun. Just imagine me waltzing in there and…" Merlin, who had been picking up some discarded clothes, trailed off as he noticed Arthur's solemn gaze. "Oh that's your serious face; you're not joking."

"I'm going to regret this, but yes, I'm serious. You go, observe, take notes or something and report back. Don't look so worried," Arthur persisted, trying to reassure his manservant. "It's not as if you've never attended one before. You know the protocol, you know the councillors…"

"And they know me! They'll think you've gone insane, or that I staged a coup, killed you by lacing your dinner with aconite and hid your body in some abandoned alcove to be munched on by the castle rats!" Merlin protested.

"I'm not even going to comment how well thought through that is. Merlin, you're talking utter nonsense. Besides, some of them already think I am crazy after the treaty with the druids."

"I thought it was very honourable, Arthur." Merlin replied, the sincerity evident in his tone.

"Thank you. Therefore, me sending my incompetent fool of a manservant won't be considered such a stretch then, will it?"

"So I'm incompetent, but you still trust me to remember the lot of it and report back?"

"Shut up, Merlin and actually you do listen. I have proof, because you go out of your way to do the exact opposite of what I ask you to do."

And with that Arthur turned away from him, rereading the last letter Queen Annis had sent. Baffled by the exchange, Merlin nervously exited the room and headed over to deal with the bunch of self engrossed nobles old enough to be his grandfather. As anticipated, his reception at the meeting wasn't warm.

"This is state business, boy, we need to talk to King Arthur personally." Lord Roderick said after the few moments of tense silence following Merlin's surprise announcement. Merlin almost rolled his eyes, but refrained. He knew he had to be the better man – especially towards Lord Roderick who, in every aspect, carried the most weight among the council members. Still, that didn't mean Merlin would be the bootlicker...

"So, that's a no then? Okay, shall I go tell the Grumpy King you aren't going to honour his request, or do you want to communicate that directly to him as well?" Merlin asked innocently, all the while clamping his hands respectfully behind his back.

"Your lack of propriety is revolting."

"Yet I'm not the one contradicting the King's wishes." Merlin retorted, effectively cutting off further protests.

After such a rocky start, there seemed to be little hope of there being a foundation on which to build a trustworthy relationship. Surprisingly, after the nerve-wracking first meeting, most of the members had accepted Merlin's attendance. At the third meeting some councillors actively tried to draw Merlin into the debates and found themselves amazed by his wise insights. During the fifth meeting one councillor almost bit his tongue off after addressing Merlin as my Lord…

Gaius watched this all with growing amusement.

"Arthur, this is getting ridiculous! I don't mind going in your place. It trumps washing your socks any day, but it's still state business and this solo act isn't healthy." Merlin finally erupted, as he stormed into the sovereign rooms after the ninth meeting.

He was seriously worried about Arthur. It was almost like his solitary act a few months ago when they were facing Queen Annis' army. But far more testy.

Most of the time Arthur was locked up in his room, except for when he trained with the knights or checked the defences. Since Morgana's latest attack and her unfortunate acquisition of the plans to the citadel, the hidden passages and safe routes were useless. New ones had to be built, old ones needed to be blocked. The building spree wasn't restricted to the citadel alone. The Lower Town also faced some changes in order to make Camelot safer and more defendable.

Arthur's erratic behaviour had worsened in the last month, as reports with increasing severity kept pouring in. It seemed as if he considered every death a sign of personal failure. Even if the deaths didn't occur on Arthur's land, which was a rare occurrence, it still distressed him. This was a trait Merlin highly treasured in his friend, but there were limits to what a man could carry. He knew this from experience.

Merlin could see Arthur was handling it wrong. Not bothering with middlemen, the King read and answered all matters of state himself, only sharing his troubles with his Queen on one or two occasions and venting about it to Merlin on countless others. None of it improved Arthur's mood and Merlin was fed up.

"I don't want to be the buffer between you and the countless bootlickers and critics you're calling your council anymore. If you don't trust them, just choose other men. You're the King now, heck, you can even choose to consult with the stable horses if you wanted to!" Merlin concluded his outburst only stopping to breathe.

Arthur sighed and dismissed Merlin with a wave of his hand, vaguely registering that his manservant did have a point. He was King...

Merlin, knowing he had hit a stone wall, decided it was time for a full blown attack. Every battle needed a secret weapon…he wondered where would Gwen be at this time of the day?

Merlin found her in the kitchen, chatting happily with Lauren and a few other servant girls. This place had become a sanctuary for her in the past month as Arthur's study grew frightfully more shambolic.

"Gwen, can I talk to you?" Merlin asked urgently. Gwen immediately caught on to the seriousness of his request, handed Lauren the schedule of the new servant rotation they had been working on and followed Merlin outside.

"What did Arthur do now?" Gwen asked wearily as they reached an empty room.

"He's not good, Gwen. He won't even listen to my ranting anymore!" Merlin answered with frustration as he closed the door behind them.

"I thought that if I went along with Arthur's 'brilliant' suggestion that I attend meetings in his place he would, well he would change..." he went on, rubbing his eyes out of fatigue.

"I thought the same, but you're right – we have to do something. We've tolerated this long enough." Gwen said confidently.

"So, what do you propose? Forcibly removing him from his work? Disorder his papers and drag him outside?" Merlin shuddered as he envisioned the implications.

"That won't work, but I think..." she spoke hesitantly but continued nonetheless, "I've an idea, but I won't like doing it."

"Well, as long as it works, you have my blessing." Merlin tried to suppress a knowing smile, indicating to Gwen that he thought he knew what her plan entailed.

"Merlin! Not like that!" She huffed with indignation, blushing furiously.

"Well, my Lady, as my work is done here, I'll think I'll catch up on some reading." Merlin answered in good spirits as he bowed, leaving Gwen to mentally prepare herself for whatever her plan was.

"Merlin! You know better than to read magic books in full view!" Gaius cried in horror as he quickly closed the door behind him. "What if Arthur had walked in?"

He couldn't believe it. After all these years he still couldn't leave Merlin alone for an hour without the boy doing something potentially lethal.

"Then he could send me to the executioner and spare me the torture of reading this." Merlin answered, unconcerned. He was sitting behind a substantial stack of books, with parchments sprawled everywhere. Of course it wasn't half as impressive as Arthur's desk, but considering a third of the table was also covered with medicine bottles, a rickety scale and a stuffed bird, it was certainly as chaotic.

"It's not a magic book anyway." Merlin clarified. He held up the book towards Gaius without taking his eyes off the page he was reading.

"The Thrilling Tales of the Origin of the Mason's Gild." Gaius read out loud.

"Don't let it deceive you. The title is a blatant lie. Mason history is anything but thrilling. Uther should have launched a purge against scribes with dreams of grandeur. I would've helped." Merlin announced. He should have known that the books weren't 'fun' when Geoffrey had smiled so innocently as he went to collect them an hour ago. Librarians had a strange sense of humour.

"But why...?" Gaius was still very confused.

"Arthur. There is this long time dispute between two masons and their families. It escalated yesterday and, well I won't bore you with the details. It was brought before the council today. I thought it would be valuable to look into the start of the conflicts."

"Found anything helpful?"

"Not so far and I really don't want to read about the different qualities of brick and mortar anymore." Merlin moaned, "It's about rock."

Gaius chuckled and was about to move on as his eye caught sight of a very familiar cover.

"Merlin, why is your book of magic lying between this stack?" Gaius asked after closer inspection.

"It's part of my reward system, Gaius," Merlin answered still not looking up, "I read a boring chapter; I learn an exciting spell," he elaborated as he felt the burning gaze of his mentor upon him.

"If you're executed because you had to read a boring book, I'm going to have a good long laugh. I'm sure Kilgarrah will happily join me."

"Thanks Gaius, I'll remember that the next time I'm inclined to save you. Now, pick it up."

"What?"

"Pick it up and open it." Merlin insisted finally putting the book down and looking expectantly at him.

Gaius hesitantly reached for the magic book, weighing the chances of Merlin booby trapping it. Nothing unpleasant happened so far as he held it, so he carefully opened the book.

"It's blank!" He was shocked as he flipped through the pages. What had the insolent youth done to his old magic book, he thought as a wave of nostalgic fear wrapped his heart. His first spells used to be in here!

"Now lay it back." Merlin ordered, and then he took the book from the stack where Gaius left it and handed it to him. The old physician opened it again and was met with the familiar language and symbols of the Old Religion. He breathed in, relieved.

"I enchanted it. It's only a book of magic when I hand it to you and seeing as I'll probably never hand it to Arthur, he'll never find out."

"I'm sure even you wouldn't do something that foolish. If you did, now that would be the epitome of stupidity."

Around the same time, hell was about to break loose somewhere in the castle as an unaware, innocent girl entered the den of a grumpy bear...

The king didn't even acknowledge her arrival as Lauren carefully went in with freshly laundered clothes. She silently manoeuvred across the room, repeatedly glancing over at Arthur in her efforts not to disturb him. Unfortunately, the focus she put into her task would be her downfall, as she tripped over a stack of papers that weren't there that morning. Lauren managed to grab the clothes before they did too much damage, but it was too late. The clothes that had fallen brushed against the precariously balanced papers around Arthur's desk, causing some to topple over. His chair screeched against the floor with a frightening sound as Arthur Pendragon clambered out from behind his desk.

"I'm so sorry Sire, please let me help." Lauren apologised profusely. "How were they ordered? Chronologically? Alphabetically? By...colours?" She added hesitantly as Arthur's face slowly turned crimson.

"You clumsy wench!"

Lauren froze.

"You destroyed everything!"

"Arthur!" Gwen yelled as she entered the room. "What's going on?"

"Going on? I'll tell you what's going on, your maid is even clumsier than Merlin, she ruin-" Arthur spouted angrily, but was interrupted by his wife.

"Lauren, please go to the kitchen, while I have a word with my husband." She said sweetly to the quivering girl. She softly nodded as Lauren gratefully left the room.

When they were alone, Gwen turned to face Arthur, who looked utterly mad for a moment. He was mumbling inaudibly, pacing around his falling stack of papers, while running his hands frantically through his hair.

"You're exaggerating, Arthur." Gwen said as she walked towards him.

"Exaggerating? This could trigger a potential war!" Arthur yelled. "Not that you would understand it's-"

Gwen slapped him and then gently grabbed his arms.

"Wake up, Arthur and look around you," she desperately tried to make him see what everybody else saw: the unhealthy surroundings of a self-proclaimed hermit. Arthur was shocked for a moment, but only for a moment. It never occurred to him that having someone as sweet and caring as Gwen slap you meant there was probably good reason. Instead, Arthur's mind was immediately occupied again with his latest organizational disaster.

"This isn't the problem!" Arthur pointed across the whole room. "The problem is that girl!"

"Her name's Lauren, as you well know and you can't yell at her like that!"

"What do you mean I can't yell at her? I yell at Merlin all the time. Besides I'm the King, I can do what I want!"

"Then you can be king of the floor since that's where you will be sleeping tonight!"

As Arthur started to protest a sudden thought briefly entered his head: he was having a fight with Gwen... How did that happen?

"Merlin, this is all your fault!" Arthur almost shouted while bursting into Merlin's room an hour later.

"What? What is on fire!" Merlin was sitting up in his bed immediately, with his hair sticking up at one side.

"Nothing, Gwen shut me out. And it's your fault."

"Oh. Why?" Merlin was feeling very confused, sincerely hoping he wasn't having some bizarre dream – although the alternative wasn't much better.

"Because you're an idiot." Arthur declared simply, as if it would explain everything.

Merlin couldn't argue with that logic, not in Arthur's present state of mind. So he did the only justifiable thing he could in answer such an accusation. He turned around and tried to sleep again. However, Merlin didn't count on the persistence of this particular prat...

"Merlin, I need your bed. Move." Arthur ordered and kicked the bed.

Merlin opened his eyes again in wide disbelief. No, no, no! This was not going to happen. Only today he had been up before dawn, mucked out stables, helped in the kitchens, served breakfast, argued with Arthur, ran errands for Gaius, helped the owner of a collapsed market stand gather his supplies, made himself presentable for the council meeting, had the council meeting, argued with Arthur some more, talked to Gwen, ran into Gwaine and Galahad on their way to the Lower Town, saved Galahad from another tavern adventure with Gwaine, read up on mason chronicles and finally comforted Lauren.

"No."

"Wait, no?"

"You heard me. This stops before it begins. You can't steal my bed just because you've had a fight with Gwen."

"Yes I can, I'm…"

"Don't even say it, the crown is kind of a giveaway. Why are you even here? There are dozens of empty, more comfortable beds in this castle! Do your sleep of shame there! And leave me in peace!" Merlin shouted and turned his back once more.

"Merlin, Guinevere was really mad at me. I…" Arthur sagged miserably against the wall, clutching a pillow to his chest.

"I can't believe it, you actually want to talk." Merlin said as it finally dawned on him.

"I can't exactly get drunk in the tavern." Arthur reasoned despondently.

"True. If I listen, will you let me go back to sleep?"

"Probably." Arthur grumbled and told him about the argument.

"You shouldn't have yelled, but that's not the only thing Gwen was mad about.", Merlin summarized after Arthur finished talking.

"Oh, and since when are you an expert on women?"

"For one, I sometimes listen to Gwaine's stories and two, I um… kind of eavesdropped on her talking to Elyan about it," he lied quickly. Arthur didn't need to know of his talks with Gwen.

"So?"

"You're driving everybody mad, I told you that already. You may be king, but some things aren't meant to be carried alone. You should confide in Gwen instead of brooding about it. She's feeling lost as well, being a Queen isn't simple, especially if the King is such a dollophead. And stop yelling at the servants."

At this final statement, Merlin lay down on his side again, closing his eyes.

It was quiet for a long time. So quiet that Arthur thought Merlin had indeed fallen asleep. He certainly looked peaceful.

"Why are you hugging a pillow?" Merlin asked suddenly, opening one eye.

"I'm not hugging it, Guinevere threw it at me."

"It hurt, didn't it?"

"It's soft, you idiot."

"That's not what I meant." Merlin said and turned to stare at the ceiling.

Arthur sighed and proceeded to also stare up at the ceiling, leaving the room silent once more.

"It smells like her." Arthur sniffed finally.

"Arghh, for heaven's sake! Get up and tell her that! Or do you want to hug that pillow for the rest of the night?" Merlin kicked beneath his blanket out of frustration, fearing his patience would run out any second now.

"You're probably right, Merlin, but I'm. Not. Hugging. It," he said, finally getting up and emphasizing the last words by hitting Merlin repeatedly with the pillow.

"Prat."

"Idiot."

Arthur was back.

"Merlin, you were right!" Arthur said grinning widely the next day as he approached Merlin, Galahad and Gwaine near the courtyard.

"You know you can leave the surprise out of your voice." Merlin said tiredly.

"You're grumpy." Arthur observed keenly.

"I wonder why…" Merlin answered, not even trying to suppress a yawn. He considered that it was probably too soon to confront Arthur with the irony of that statement, but made a mental note nonetheless for future use.

"Well, I had the most wonderful night. Gwen and I made up-" Arthur started, but was rudely interrupted.

"What? Gwaine!" Galahad yelled, slapping Gwaine's hands away, which apparently were covering his ears only a moment ago.

"Sorry, grown up talk."Gwaine explained with a big smile.

Galahad shot him such a murderous glance, Arthur felt it prudent to intervene.

"Anyway, I had a brilliant idea." Arthur announced and looked at them expectantly, clearly waiting for further enticement.

"I'm going to go ahead and ask 'What?' before this becomes embarrassing." Merlin caved.

"You'll see." Arthur answered mysteriously. "But first I have to gather some others…" With that clarifying statement he walked away, whistling as he rounded the corner.

"He's driving me mad," Merlin announced with a headshake."It's either love-struck Arthur one day or moody, surly, unreadable Arthur the next. Frankly I'm willing to strangle them both."

"You could always use a crossbow, much more effective."

"Geez, Gwaine I wasn't serious," Merlin remarked, horrified.

"I'm actually getting pretty curious about his plan." Galahad beamed.

"Trademark of a kid." Gwaine taunted, which earned him a righteous punch.

As it happens they soon find out, as the next day a very excited Arthur resurrected the Round Table with all the original members – including the new young knight Galahad.

"Merlin, I still need you to attend the council meetings, which will be held every week, instead of every two days. They're not giving you any more trouble, I hope?" Arthur announced during the Round Table's opening session. He thought this would be a more diplomatic solution than disbanding the council entirely and subsequently rubbing a whole lot of nobles the wrong way. Besides, they still had their uses. Hopefully they would be content with this secondary advisory role.

"Actually it's going quite well. Lord Roderick invited me to dine with his family tomorrow evening." Merlin answered, a little proudly.

"Why? Do they need a jester?"

"Charming, Arthur, really. No, I suspect Lord Roderick wants me to …um meet his um granddaughter… I apparently made a good impression." Merlin began fidgeting with his sleeve. "Why do you look so surprised? Did you think I would go unnoticed?"

"Of course not, it just surprises me that the impression you made was a positive one."

And with that the first meeting officially kicked off.

Merlin soon found out that the Round Table meetings differed somewhat from the proceedings of the old council. There was less decorum and a lot more fun than there was in old council meetings. Mainly because everybody there was, well, old. Plus he could insult whomever he liked now without it being considered offensive. He and Gwaine had kept score until a put out Arthur found out during the fourth meeting.

Arthur won that round.

It wasn't pretty.

So what do you think? The confusing bits will probably become clear in the next chapter, which unfortunately will be posted in May... I'm going a research trip for uni so no time for writing fun stuff, only academic things.