Chapter three – Brighter side of life

Maybe Arthur's plan wasn't as ingenious as he first thought, but at this point he had stopped caring. Merlin, now, was all that mattered, and getting him help.

At one point, Arthur had considered telling the neighbours, but dismissed the idea for one reason. Arthur doubted they would believe him. All those rumours did not help, and from what he had learned in his week of living here, he had learnt that the neighbours were pretty uncaring people. But also, because Arthur had no really solid evidence; there were plenty things to pin Merlin's to. The skinniness could just be his body type, he could just be clumsy. Honestly, if it were up to him, he would be going to the police right now, but there was a chance that the evidence wouldn't be enough, and Merlin would just be punished.

So instead, Arthur decided to do what he had done yesterday, but this time bring a wrapped up parcel of various food. Fruits and vegetables, sweets of all colours, packets of dried food, some bread with stuff to put on it and a few bottles of different drinks. Arthur would have thought their house had water of some description, but he couldn't take risks.

Today was Sunday, so if he screwed up, he'd have very little time to fix it tomorrow – he had school, still, after all.

"Arthur, I'm going out today." Arthur hears his father announce from the other room, and he'd never been as glad to hear his father's departure as he was that night.

So, when he was certain his father's car had pulled away from the driveway and was long gone – he even waited five minutes after, in case his father forgot something – he left his house, with the intent of saving a boy from possible death.

-Merlin-

Arthur couldn't find Merlin. He couldn't find him, and now he was panicking. What if he'd been hurt? Or worse?

While attempting to keep his breathing under control, he searched and carefully peeked through all the windows around the house, until he came to the bathroom window. He steeled himself, part-expecting to find someone on the can – that would be an image he'd never get out of his head – but instead found Merlin bandaging his arm, of which was bleeding pretty bad.

"Hey." He whispers, and the poor boy nearly jumps out of his skin.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" He whispers, sounding stressed. "It's dangerous!"

"I'm not gonna let you starve, kid." He responds, lifting the blanket of food.

Merlin gapes at him for a second, and Arthur notices the look on his face that makes him think that no one had never been nice to him, ever.

That was probably true.

Arthur pushes the bag through the window, taking note of the glimmer of hope behind those scared, blue eyes of Merlin's. He runs to catch the bag, probably to not make any noise and further aggravate whatever asshole Merlin's living with.

"Those pyjamas don't fit you very well, do they?" Arthur asks, and Merlin goes on the defensive.

"What's it to you?" He gives in response, slightly hostile, then after a pause, adds; "Clotpole."

"Excuse me? What the bloody hell is a 'clotpole'?"

"Definition: Arthur." He responds, a small smile on his face, then looks down at the bag, and asks in a tiny voice; "This is seriously for me?"

Arthur nods happily, a big grin on his face.

"How did you hurt your arm?" With that question, the entire mood drops down.

Merlin glances at it uncaringly, and mumbles something about being clumsy. Arthur fixes him an unbelieving look, and Merlin shifts under his stare for a minute, before a loud voice interrupted them.

"Merlin?" It called, and Merlin's eyes filled with panic. "Where are you?"

"You have to go!" Merlin whispered, hurriedly standing up.

"What?" Arthur whispers back, just as panicked now. "Who is that?"

"Never mind, just go!" He's close to hyper-ventilating now, in the throes of a panic attack. "And take your food!"

Before Arthur can interject, Merlin's shoved the bag outside, closed the window with a slam and Arthur left out in the cold.

No less determined to help him.

(A/N: You know, reviews really are nice...Totally not hinting. At all. Also, could you tell me if Merlin feels OOC? I don't know, he just kinda feels OOC. Maybe it's just me.)

As usual, I don't own Merlin, probably not even in my dreams.