There might have been a slight dragon egg problem. Actually slight is more of an understatement, and by problem, it might mean that Merlin had kind of, sort of… hatched a dragon baby from it's egg. But he couldn't help it, he had no choice. Now, at least the Great Dragon wasn't the last dragon anymore. Merlin only hoped Aithusa was just a little bit less annoying than Kilgharrah, even a little would be an improvement. Not to mention, Aithusa, the baby dragon, might have been the cutest thing Merlin had ever seen.

Of course, he couldn't tell Arthur any of this though, for obvious reasons. But it seemed Arthur had been watching him, the night before, as Merlin snuck out off Camelot grounds to meet the Great Dragon. Luckily though, Arthur thought he was off doing something else entirely, or maybe not so lucky.

"You seem to be in a good mood this morning," Arthur commented, as he watched Merlin fluff his royal pillows. "Why is that?"

"What is there to be unhappy about?" Merlin asked, in a bit of a muse. He could almost feel Arthur's eyes burning into his back at this. He got to the point then.

"I saw you sneaking out of the castle last night, Merlin," he said, droll in his tone. "Who did you meet?"

"What?" Merlin asked, whipping around to look at the king so fast, he hurt his neck. "I…I didn't meet anyone."

"Please, Merlin, why do you lie to me so much?" Arthur sat back in his chair, behind his desk and studied Merlin closely. "You were acting strangely yesterday and then I see you sneaking out of the castle late at night, and now this morning…you are cheerful and dare a say, have quite a hitch in your step. It does not take a genius to figure out where you have gone."

"What do you mean…?" Merlin asked, though, he had an idea of what Arthur was getting at, and he was rather offended. "I was just…I only…"

"Was he nice to you?" Arthur asked then, raising an eyebrow. "Did he at least buy you a drink beforehand?"

"Arthur…"

"No, I want to know…" Arthur said, rather pointedly. " What was he like? Oh for the love of god, please don't tell me he was some kind of whore…it wasn't a whore, was it?"

"No…" Merlin dropped the pillow, flustered; he didn't know how to go about fixing this conversation in another direction. "I wasn't…I didn't…"

"Was it someone I know?" Arthur stood up then, crossing his arms over his chest. "Was it Gwaine?"

"Gwaine?!"

"He would have a roll with anyone."

"It wasn't…"

"Alright, so it seems you don't wish for me to know," Arthur shrugged, heading for the door then. Probably off to do kingly stuff. "Just know, I can't wait to meet him…I'm sure we'll be good friends."

Merlin didn't like the sound of that at all and this person, Arthur thought he was going to see, wasn't even real. Merlin didn't want to think it, but it seemed Arthur was rather upset about Merlin seeing someone, but then he remembered…Arthur thought Merlin was in love with him, he was probably offended Merlin had found someone knew so quickly. Oh well, Merlin thought, at least he would get over the Merlin being in love with him thing.

Merlin finished up in the king's chambers then, wrangling up all the dirty clothes in one pile as he headed out. It was down the hall ten or fifteen steps, that he bumped into Gwen.

"Oh, hi..." he said, as he tried going around her, but she stopped him.

"Arthur told me you met someone," she grinned, flapping her dress a little, in a very girly way. "What's he like?"

Merlin couldn't answer, his mouth was too busy being hung open. How did Arthur have enough time to go and tell Gwen that Merlin had met someone? And Arthur had always said he hated castle gossip, so it seemed…he was the one starting it as of late.

"I haven't met anyone…"

"Come on!" Gwen reached out and shook his arm. He almost lost a pair of Arthur's pants. "You can tell me, we are friends after all."

"Uh…I…" he sighed, he figured then, that she wouldn't be happy until he at least told her something. "I met him in town a few weeks ago."

"And what's he like?" she asked. "Is he handsome?"

"Oh yeah, of course…" he trailed off. "He um…he's very nice."

"What does he look like?"

Merlin huffed, trying to think of what might be handsome to Gwen. He also wished, that he wasn't holding Arthur's dirty clothes right now.

"He's um…he's blonde, strong…has really nice blue eyes…" Merlin mumbled. "He's…he's got quite the backside."

"Merlin!" Gwen giggled and he couldn't help but laugh too. "So, what's he like? Is he romantic?"

"He's a prat," Merlin said quickly, a little too quickly. "He's not very romantic either…he has no idea what he's doing with girls."

"Sounds a bit like Arthur…"

"Oh…he's nothing like Arthur," Merlin corrected her, he might have based the bloke off of Arthur, maybe just a little bit, and might have just a little bit too much. "He's not as rude as Arthur, he doesn't go around calling me an idiot or useless, he treats me right and doesn't make me clean his dirty socks," Merlin made a face then and Gwen giggled again. "Speaking of which…"

"I'm sorry," Gwen smiled, moving out of his way. "I just had to ask, I want you to be as happy as I am, Merlin."

"Yes, thank you, Gwen," Merlin smiled at her, as she headed down the hall. Merlin continued on his way too and rolled his eyes as he went.

After Merlin had washed all of Arthur's clothes and put them back in the king's chambers, he went off looking for the king. He wasn't exactly sure where he had gone off to and normally by this time, the man wanted his lunch and acted like a child when it was late, so a waylay Arthur was rather strange and a tad alarming. It was Merlin's job to protect Arthur, and he couldn't do that if he was missing in his own kingdom. Merlin was just starting to worry Morgana was at it again, when he bumped into Leon and Percival.

"Ah, Merlin," Leon greeted, smiling upon seeing him.

"Have you seen Arthur?" he asked, this was no time for a chat.

"Yes, he's in town," Percival said, with a shrug. "We had seen him about an hour ago."

"Good," Merlin let out a sigh. At least he wasn't in any danger, but that still meant Merlin had to go find the prat and discuss matters of lunch. "Thanks."

"No problem," Percival smiled. "We were just looking for Gwaine."

"I haven't seen him either." Merlin shrugged. "If I do I'll tell him you're looking for him."

"Thank you, Merlin," Leon said this time, patting him on the shoulder as they walked away. Merlin rubbed his forehead then, heaving a sigh as he marched off toward the doors.

It was a lovely day, Merlin had only been outside once, in the morning, to get water and it was rather cold then, now, it was much warmer, but still had a cool chill in the air, it was a perfect spring day. He wondered if this was why Arthur had chosen to go into town today, he went so few times. But Merlin really wished, that at least Arthur would have taken him with him, not that Merlin didn't go to town quite often, but it was almost impossible to find anyone on a nice day like this and most likely, Arthur was trying to stay hidden. Everyone would be on his tail if they knew the king was visiting the town. Merlin looked every place one could look, soon he was concerned again, he was almost through the entire lower town, and still, there was no Arthur.

"I swear, if Morgana kidnapped you...I'll let her keep you!" Merlin barked, to himself as he reached the gates. But just then, out there, beyond the gates of Camelot was a flash of blue cloak. Merlin knew that cloak and, rather quickly, followed.

Merlin was doing something that resembled a loyal dog again, tracking his owner, but it was Merlin's job to protect Arthur and how safe was Arthur out in the woods somewhere all alone? Arthur never normally went off on walks like this without Merlin.

Merlin finally reached a spring, where he found the blue cloak covering it's owner as he sat on the ground. Well, Arthur was acting rather strange today.

"Um…Arthur…?" Merlin mumbled, trying not to be too loud or too threatening, Arthur might try chopping his head off again. Merlin had learned this lesson the hard way.

"I knew you were following me…" Arthur replied, not bothering to turn around.

"It might have been nice to stop and let me join you then..." Merlin told him, trying to hold back the scolding; he was the king after all.

"You seemed to be having fun…or maybe you were hoping I was your new lover," Arthur retorted, as Merlin sat down next to him. "Is that how you met him too? By tracking him down?"

Merlin sighed, "No, we met in town," he said, using the same lie he had told Gwen. "I didn't have any reason to track him; he's not my king who went running of like a little child."

"I will do as I please," Arthur told him, boredly.

"You could have at least told me you were going to town…"

"I'm king, I don't answer to you, and I hardly need to tell you where I'm going."

"Well, you're in a good mood…" Merlin said, sighing.

"You could have at least brought me some lunch…" Arthur remarked, yet again. "Since you decided to follow me."

"I thought you might be in danger."

"And what would you have done if I was?" Arthur asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Tried to save you," Merlin shrugged.

"Because you could?" Arthur asked. "Because you are skilled in what sort of weaponry?"

"Not everything has to be won with weapons…." Merlin told him then, uncomfortable with the way Arthur was looking at him.

"I see," the king nodded then. "But as you can see, I am perfectly safe."

"Luckily…"

"You know, I don't quite understand you, Merlin," Arthur said then. "One week you want nothing to do with me, the next you follow me like a puppy."

"You seemed so butt hurt over me being busy with other things, I figured I would make up for it now," Merlin answered, though that wasn't exactly true. It was more like he had just given up on trying to avoid Arthur, he didn't wish to be tackled in a hall again.

"I was not butt hurt," Arthur said, turning back to the shallow running water of the spring. "So, Is somewhere around here, where you met him?"

"Wh-Oh...yeah, somewhere around here," Merlin lied, rolling his eyes. Arthur needed to get off this man business. Even Merlin was starting to believe it was true and he was the one making up all the lies.

"Hmm…" Arthur hummed. " And did you take dip together? Or perhaps make love by the running water?"

"Arthur…" Merlin sighed.

"What?" Arthur barked. "Why can you not tell me? Am I not your friend?"

"You're my king…"

"Is that all I am to you? You're king?"

"No, I just…" Merlin shook his head and wished he could drowned himself in the spring. "I just don't want to talk about it, alright? It still makes me feel uncomfortable."

"I see..." Arthur trailed off.

"You wouldn't tell me about that stuff either…you know you wouldn't," Merlin told him. "Although, I'm always there on your outings with Gwen…thanks by the way, those are fun days."

Arthur chuckled then, "I know you enjoy them."

"Oh yes, watching you stick your tongue in her mouth is my favorite part of the day," Merlin retorted, to which Arthur chuckled even further.

"I cannot help that you're in love with me."

"I'm not."

"But you are, Merlin."

(A/N: This chapter isn't as funny as the rest of them have been and I guess that's okay, not every chap can be funny. Serious plot has to take place, but this was sort of a filler. And also, I have finally figured out where this story is going, yay! And it will be a 3part short story thingy...I'm cutting it up because I don't want to take away what this story is about or what the others will be about, they will all have different plots, but all have the same main plot, if that makes sense. Anyway, for now just enjoy this part of the story.)