Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin
That was a week ago. There has still been nothing.
I hear a knock on my door. I ignore it; I don't want to talk to anyone right now. They knock again, and then enter anyway.
"Arthur?"
Looking up from the paperwork I have been staring at for who knows how long, I find Gwaine standing at the doorway.
"Go away Gwaine, I'm not in the mood"
"You will want to come with me Arthur, this is important" He hasn't been his usual self since Merlin left Camelot, laughing and joking less, and he didn't talk to me for while after I banished Merlin, I don't even know why he stayed in Camelot. He has only really started talking properly to me again when I said I wanted to find Merlin and I wanted to lift the ban on magic.
"What is it?"
"There's an issue Gaius needs you to look at, he's in his chambers"
"What's wrong? Has something happened?"
"Come and see for yourself"
I stand up from my desk and walk to Gwaine at the door. I feel as though something isn't quite right about what he is saying, but I don't really fancy questioning it. We walk in silence towards Gaius's chambers, somewhere I've rarely gone recently due to guilt and sadness. I can hardly look at Gaius without feeling horrible for what I've done to someone he considered a son.
When we get there, Gwaine walks in first, and I follow behind. Gaius, Gwen, Leon, Elyan and Percival are all already there, and I quizzically look at Gaius, trying to work out what this problem is. He doesn't seem concerned at all. He speaks.
"Sire, you said the other day the chambers for Merlin's new room were ready to have his belongings put in them, so I need to ask you to give me a hand moving his stuff"
I look at him, then at the door to Merlin's old room. Indeed I had had new chambers cleaned and sorted out for if Merlin returned, as he was to become Court sorcerer and first advisor if he still wanted to stay after what I had done. But moving his stuff meant going into his room, somewhere that I have not entered since Merlin's banishment.
"Come on Arthur, we need to do it" Leon said, gesturing for me to go first. My mind questions why they are all here. Merlin didn't have that much stuff (the guilt washes through me at those words) and even then a lot of it will have gone with him when he left. I look at the others, who all stare back. Well, it looks like I have no choice. I walk very slowly towards the small steps leading to the door, but it still seems like no time at all until I'm stood at the top, hand on the door. I slowly push it open and walk in. I freeze at the sight in front of me.