AN: Alright. I had...originally not planned to write another chapter for this. But as it stands, I believe it was called for this time.

To those who reviewed:

jasminingram12: I'm glad you do!

AnotherWorld3111: Wow...that's...the longest review I've ever gotten, I believe. I'm glad you seem to enjoy the story! Thank you so much for your constructive criticism, it was gladly received. I'll admit that I was content to get through with the previous chapter, as it was late for me when I wrote and posted it - the idea simply wouldn't leave me alone until I'd wrote it. And I know what you mean, I've seen stories where such a plot was drug out for a while, and while it was amazing I grew tired after a few chapters. I'm more for writing short fics for Merlin, otherwise I lose interest in them too quickly, as some of my previous ones have demonstrated.

Also, after re-reading the previous chapter, there are a few mistakes that I made, but I am far too lazy to try to correct them all. Kindly look over those, if you would.

Enjoy.

Ever since Merlin first came to Camelot and became Arthur's servant, he'd been subject to jokes from not only the Prince, but the knights as well. It was obvious to him that they were just that - jokes. But considering everything, he could help but take some of what they said to heart.

He didn't let it affect him outwardly, instead keeping his sarcastic remarks going easily, allowing himself to feel happy whenever he would exchange words with any of them.

But every time, it never failed, as soon as he was alone in his room, he let the happiness fade and thought about all the remarks, trying to see if there was any truth in the words.

Several months into his service for Arthur and he had started to take these jests to heart, not allowing anyone to see the pain it caused him, instead preferring to throw a remark of his own back jokingly and continue about his business.

People came and went, and Merlin kept his masks up tight most of the time. He knew that his emotions had broke through a few times, usually in front of a knight, but never the prince. And so, by the time that Gwaine had joined their ranks as a knight, Merlin was startled to find that they'd shifted to where they didn't joke about him as much.

It didn't dissuade the prince's remarks, but everyone else noticed the shift - it was slowly becoming abundantly clear that Merlin was under the Knights' protection and insults towards him would not be tolerated very well.

Merlin was one of the last to realize this shift, and eventually had to ask about it while they were waiting on Arthur one morning for a training session.

Leon had been the one to answer his question about the change. "It's hard not to see the pain it's caused when you let your masks fall, Merlin," he offered. "You believe it all, don't you?"

Merlin found himself without words to argue the point for a change. He looked away from them for a moment before he shrugged. "I've believed worse than anything any of you could say of me." he countered after a bit of thought.

Percival clapped Merlin on the shoulder with an easy smile, and Elyan found himself speaking. "We never meant to cause you any pain, for you to believe our jokes. You're a wonderful friend, Merlin, and I can barely believe that someone could say something bad about you and mean it,"

Merlin smiled faintly, nodding his thanks just as Arthur arrived, effectively stopping the conversation.

But it didn't mean that Merlin stopped believing the jokes thrown at him. Some of the Knights still threw light-hearted jests around to try to get him to smile and get involved, and while he had a time believing they were correct, he still had the doubt hiding in his mind.

It took time, but eventually the Knights stopped throwing jests at him at all, instead focusing on making sure any damage they had potentially caused was minimal.

Arthur continued, but Merlin had accepted that would never change, and he felt he could deal with it coming from one person.

And whether he believed it or not didn't truly matter to Merlin because he'd be damned before he'd mention the pain some of the comments caused him.

After all, all that had really changed about Merlin since his first week in Camelot was the strength of his masks and how well he could act like nothing in the entire world was wrong when he felt like he was falling to pieces inside.

I can officially say I did my best to write this. Sorry for any mistakes.

-Sky