A Marriage that Started a Legend

by IJustShowedUp

Follows canon but with my own arranged marriage spin on it. What happens when Hunith makes a mistake and is forced on the run with her infant son? What happens when Camelot knights find her twenty years later? What happens when Arthur learns he's betrothed to a peasant boy? Will Merlin be able to stand among royalty? Will these two different boys survive each other? Review!

67. Chapter 67

"You know, you really shouldn't worry about it to much." Merlin said with an uneasy laugh as he carefully moved into Gwen's line of sight before she could get a real good look at what was really going on. Has anybody ever tried to move the body of a full grown man? Pass the entire city, including friends who'd stop you to make conversation or ask questions of what you were doing? It wasn't an easy task and Merlin-with his heart racing faster than a jackrabbit for fear that Gwen might actually realize what they were really moving-found him wishing that the situations were reverse. He wanted to be the one pushing the cart as fast away as he could from the scene, rather than the one distracting Gwen.

"This project of yours…" Gwen said slowly as she tried to peek over Merlin's shoulder once again. But Merlin caught the movement so he was able to slide easily enough into view, and with Gaius' larger build as the older man tried his best to push away as fast as he was able to, there really wasn't much that Gwen could make out past the blanket tumbling over the edges of the cart to hang just inches off the ground. "It must require some pretty heavy equipment. It's no wonder you needed such a large wagon…" although she still wasn't sure why Merlin didn't get some of the guards to help push it. Surely they would do better than a teenage boy and an old man. It had worked great the last time, when they'd gotten those guards to move the dog statue for them, she still didn't know what Merlin had done with the thing as she hadn't seen it since.

Merlin stuttered, brain working in overtime to come up with a good excuse. Or maybe some really good lie that Gwen would believe to cut this conversation off. Gaius was still in sight so he couldn't risk just saying his goodbyes if she just ended up following. They were going in the same direction after all, Morgana's and Gaius' chambers both resided inside of the castle but at least were on opposite sides of the place. "It's…nothing really." Merlin finally went with, a weak smile playing on his lips at the poor excuse.

Gwen stopped trying to peek around Merlin to focus her attention on him, lifting this very curious eyebrow at the taller boy, "Are you moving something gross? Is that why you've not wanted to tell me what you needed to use it for?" Because Gwen wouldn't care what he was using it for. The family's wagon had most likely already seen it all before anyway, they'd even had to move horse dung on it this one time. The smell was awful and stung at her nose for months afterwards, but it wasn't any worse than walking into the stables during the twice a day cleaning of the horse stalls. But maybe Merlin thought she was a bit more delicate to things like that, being a girl. She'd even washed a manner of unknown and very mysterious stains from random garments in the laundry room when she helped out some of the other girls so rarely would anything get to her.

Merlin smiled wearily, a wince building on his shoulders. He figured he could give her just a little something without telling her everything that she definitely didn't need to know. Not if Gaius still needed to study Jerome's body to know the exact cause of the disease. Gaius was right about them not needing to start a panic before they even understood what they were dealing with. "….er, you 'really' don't want to know." He checked over his shoulder to see his uncle's progress but Gaius was just now making it to the drawbridge. There was two knights standing on either side guarding it and they were looking at him strangely but neither seemed as if they were going to say anything to Gaius. It still sent Merlin's heart in his throat and he whipped back around to the maidservant, eyes wide with panic. "But I will promise to have it thoroughly washed before returning it."

Only if it wasn't contagious, Merlin thought as a sweat-induced by nerves-started a very slow descent down the base of his neck. As they weren't sure what the disease was, they might get lucky and it was a one time thing to happen to an unfortunate Jerome. For all any of them knew, maybe Jerome had gotten into something he shouldn't have and that simple thing had caused the sickness, subsequently his death. Good god, let's hope that was all it had been and that this wasn't just the start to something so much more horrible…

Gwen smiled at him as Merlin started to inch his way backwards to make his grand escape after his uncle-the kind of smile that looked to be a cross between uncertain and joking, "It might be best if you just keep the whole thing entirely." Her family needed the wagon but it was also something that they could get new if they really had to. This might set them back a few months, but it would be doable as well.

Merlin didn't even try to argue against this as he was sure if Gwen knew the truth of what they were really transporting, she wouldn't be able to say 'keep it' fast enough. Even in this time and era, people were weary about mysterious diseases. One thing could lead to another and before anybody would know it, it was the next Great Plague popping up to take out dozens and dozens-if not entire cities-of people. "I think that would be best."

Gwen's smile dropped in an instant as the girl realized this was a bit more serious than she had thought it was. She had only been joking after all, but if Merlin was looking as weary as he was now…the best course of action might be to burn the thing entirely if Merlin brought it back to them later on.

And seeing her expression, Merlin panicked for fear that she might guess the truth. And as much as he wanted to admit the truth so she could be prepared if the worse would happened, there was no telling who Gwen may try to warn on her own: then full blown panic would strike the city as the news started their spread. Frantic to make Gwen forget that he had said anything, Merlin's eyes shot down to the handful of flowers she had clenched into her fists and shot out the first thing he could think of, "Did somebody get your flowers?"

Merlin liked flowers but it was also something that girls liked…right? He didn't know all that much about girl's, but he was sure he hadn't heard Gwen mention anything about having a boyfriend. Or having a potential courtship-as that was something considered more serious than 'dating. Dating implied you were merely checking each other out, playing the field or so to speak. It made you official but that was also liable to change. But being courted and having a courtship had a different meaning to it, more serious. It pretty much meant the two parties involved had every intention of having a marriage ceremony someday.

Gwen seemed to be embarrassed by Merlin's questioning but took it in stride, letting go of her questions as she giggled, "Oh, no. It's not anything like that." She said, looking down at the flowers she picked. She hoped that Lady Morgana would like them, they were not near as beautiful or as elaborate as some flowers she'd been sent by possible suitors over the years that she would ultimately turn down. As a spur of the moment decision, she decided that she could spare one of her little flowers and plucked one off. "Would you like one? A purple one. I think purple would suit you quite nicely." She held out the flower, so small that it would look lovely as part of a flower crown a child might make. But fearing she may have put her foot in it again, she quickly corrected himself, "Not that I'm saying red doesn't suit you."

She glanced down at his orange shirt which in a certain light, did seem to have a red look about it.

"Really?" Merlin asked surprised, eyes almost gleaming by this kind act. Gwen had always been kind to him, from encouraging him to stand up and fight back against Valiant when nobody believed him to letting him have use of her family's wagon for an unknown reason. He knew that Arthur-way back when Merlin had been helping him with his armor for the first time-had claimed Gwen was only being nice to him because she thought she had to. Because she's just a servant and he was the consort but he had never gotten that kind of impression from her. Even now she eluded a kind of kindness that-after the last couple of days he'd had by literally being kicked to the curb by everybody in the city-was something he didn't realize he needed quite so much. It was touching, and Merlin almost couldn't get the flower from her quick enough, treating his new flower as if it was made of glass from the gentle hold he had on it. "Thank you, Gwen. I don't think I've ever gotten a flower before…"

And then Merlin looked as if he didn't know what to do with the flower. He couldn't hold on to it because he needed both of his hands to be free to help Uncle Gaius-who he really hoped had at least made it off of the bridge at this point-but he didn't want to get rid of it either. But he couldn't just put it in his pocket either otherwise it would be squished and be ruined before he even got back to Gaius' and his chambers.

"Really?" Gwen asked with an almost curious smile as she saw Merlin contemplating what he should do with her flower. "So does that mean Arthur's never…" she trailed off when she realized she probably really had put her foot in her mouth this time. It had been quite some time since she had mentioned Arthur in front of Merlin and the last time hadn't gone all that well. Merlin had all but shut down on her that time, so much that it had frightened her and she had been tempted to go running for help before he had snapped out of it. But she couldn't stop herself. Surely a married couple had exchanged little gifts and what-not's to commemorate them becoming a couple. Flowers seemed pretty basic to her, even commoners could get their hands on flowers. But maybe that was the problem as some nobles turn their noses up at them as they were so easily gotten. Flowers weren't something just for nobility.

But Merlin didn't shut down on her today. He laughed-more like a breathy chuckle-before shaking his head at the thought. He could still vividly remember the way Arthur had been so patronizing to him, treating him like an unruly child, and it-bitterly-amused him greatly just thinking of somebody like Arthur sparing him a minute to bring him flowers. "Ah, no." Merlin told Gwen, a sad smile on his lips as he was slowly coming to terms with the lot in life his 'relationship' had fallen into. "He's never gave me any flowers before." Merlin shrugged as if it didn't really matter to him-although he truly hated that it did. All Arthur had handed to him was this wedding ring that he was starting to hate. Wanted to throw it at Arthur's head and tell him to get lost but he couldn't, it wouldn't change anything. He would still be married to an arse. So he might as well wear it just for a reminder to not get close again, or to imagine signs that were only in his head. "I guess that it's probably for the best anyway. Arthur, he'd probably get me something extremely stupid and very generic like roses."

Merlin didn't have anything against roses or the like. But they were so romanized that the craze was insane. And he liked them as much as the next guy but maybe he did have a bit of trauma considering they were the flower of choice at his wedding. The wedding he didn't get a say in choosing for himself. The roses had been everywhere and the cloying scent it had left him with for days after lingering in his nose gave him a bad taste.

Merlin gave Gwen a wry kind of smile as he tried to steer the conversation towards much happier topics, "Personally, I'm more parcel towards wildflowers. There was a field near my village that just grew them everywhere in the summer months. They were-" Merlin then made a funny sound with his mouth, shaking his head in absolute wonder as his heart was aching for any touch of home that he could get his hands on. "Absolutely beautiful."

Ealdor lacked a great many things. A proper shopping district, stables for their one and only horse in the village, a dozen or so extra farmers to take some of the workload and the strain off of the people who had been there for years. Proper knights who would defeat the bandits that tried to raid their village once every few years that wouldn't take advantage of the hard working people that lived there to struggle making ends met. But the one thing Ealdor had in abundance had been plenty of wildflowers, the small field growing just off to the side of the village. It would have been the perfect field to add to the harvest if there had not been so many flowers that it was almost impossible to dig all of them up to make room for the planting seeds.

One of his most favorite things to do back home was sneaking out in the middle of the night. He'd go out to that field and lay about in them, their soft scent filling his nostrils as he watched the stars. When he was thought to be to young to do this, his mother would know to find him there and drag him back to the hut. He was always positive that she'd be mad at him because of how serious she took his safety. One could never be too safe when they were raising a sorcerer-who had plenty of problems controlling his ever growing magic. But after the first few times where she would drag him home in a hurry, whispering to him how dangerous it was to be out so late without anyone the wiser, she'd stopped her dragging. And instead, would lay down with him. Together, they would make up their own little stories about the constellations made up from their own imagination-usually some little silly story about a brave sorcerer who saved an entire village from ruin and how the gods were so grateful that they created his image in the stars themselves. It was one of those things his mother would do to try and make him feel better about himself, try to give him a bit of hope that he wouldn't always have to hide himself.

But as the saying goes, time waits for no man and while he was now old enough to be able to appreciate what his mother did for little child him, he was also old enough to recognize the false hope for what it was. By the time Merlin had been taken to Camelot, his mother had deemed him old enough to go himself and left him to his privacy. It had been his favorite spot in the whole village because he was able to relax in a way he usually couldn't, always looking over his shoulder in his daily life for fear that people might eventually get smart and realize why Merlin always acted oddly to the rest of them. All of the weird excuses and running away directly after an extremely odd occurrence that while strange, was possible to be explained away without accusing magic of being involved. Not even Will had gone to the field with him, claiming that all the flowers there aggravated his hay fever. So it was like it was Merlin's spot-something unbreakable and not yet touched by the hands of men.

Merlin took this opportunity to find a spot for the little flower Gwen had given him. And he stuck it-quite proudly-into the little gap the neckerchief he wore had between the cloth and his skin. The little flower looked silly and out of place on him, but maybe that was the perfect place for it. Because it was just like Merlin was in the city, something that looked silly and out of place. But he was proud of the stupid little flower, it brought him joy to what was already an odd day, what with finding the body and all. Plus, it was worth it to see how it brightened up Gwen's entire face, her smile lighting up when she saw the place of honor Merlin had stuck her flower in.

"I was right," Gwen noted and upon Merlin's confused look, she clarified herself with her usual sweet demeanor, leaning in as if she was about to start talking conspiratorially, "Purple does suit you." Not many boys was able to pull off wearing flowers, yet alone was able to have this genuinely sweet aura about them as they did so. But Merlin pulled it off.

Merlin felt the color coming to his face till he was sure he had a faint red blush shown onto his cheeks. But all that blushing did was give him a sort of glow as he straightened himself up, feeling quite a bit more proud of his little flower than he had a moment age. He wanted to show it off, to show it to all of the people around here who belittled or outright hated him, that ha! There was somebody here who thought him worthy by gifting him something so small and innocent..that there was another in the city that didn't actually hate him.

"And for the record," Gwen told him as she leaned back, the larger bouquet tucked up against her chest. "Arthur's an idiot who does not know how largely he's messing up."

Merlin ducked his head before squinting back at her in the sunlight. He has already came to terms of how Arthur thought of him, and now his only mission was finding a way back to his roots. Finding this little missing piece of him on the inside that he felt Camelot had stolen from him, trying to erase his identity and who he was in favor of this perfect consort that nobody wanted him to be in the first place. It was still nice to know that it wasn't all in his head, that somebody else saw how the blond behaved was inappropriate and not just this something that he deserved for not being nearly good enough for a prince. "Somehow, I don't think Arthur is gonna care much about it. And that's if he ever realizes how much of an arse he is."

Merlin-as great as it was to hear Gwen who was a serving girl-boldly calling her prince an idiot just to cheer up Merlin, he did have this other expectation on him. Which meant that he couldn't stay here chatting up Gwen and keeping them from their lives. Gwen had this Lady to get prepared for the day and Merlin had to help a physician study a body.

With nothing else keeping him there and his uncle making it a good distance away-well at least far enough that Gwen wouldn't be able to get a good look-he flashed her a smile and ducked his head as he waved good bye, "I do need to get going. So er, I'll see you around."

Gwen nodded, whatever confusion or weary she may have been feeling about what was going on with her wheelbarrow vanished in the light of trying to give Merlin whatever bit of comfort she could give him when it could be seen so clearly that Arthur was lacking in making sure his own consort was doing okay for himself, "Bye." She called out after him.

Merlin, already striding away, glanced back over his shoulder to flash her one more smile that still had a tinge of sadness creeping into the edges. He hurried away in the direction of his uncle, the sadness surrounding him gone for this brief period in time where Merlin had more important things to worry about than his own pain.

Gwen, left behind at the beginning of the bridge, brought her flowers up to her nose and gave them one more generous sniff. She may have one flower less, but she would've given Merlin the whole thing if she thought it would bring that smile back more often. She frowned in thought, one that didn't have any of the sadness that seemed to be creeping in him more and more as the days past by. She shook her head as she realized the time, her lady would be expecting her…now actually.

X

Morgan's was just coming out of her dressing chambers when she saw Gwen entering into her main bedroom. The Lady had got herself dressed and ready for the day in the light of her maidservant taking a bit to long to get to her this morning. But she didn't mind. Gwen worked so hard, it was nice to know that she was taking a bit of time to herself. Which she must have done if the flowers in her hand had been any indication. But she also had kind of a conflicting expression on her face, shown easily as she hadn't realized Morgana was up already for the day.

"You look worried." Morgana noted before she frowned. Gwen was usually so chipper in the morning's, or anytime really. So it was this strangest feeling that something was wrong. "Did something happen?" Maybe Gwen was going through some hard times? Or it might be that her father had taken ill…it could have been any possibility under the sun. Whatever it was, Morgana wanted to help get that look off her face.

Gwen's head snapped up at the sound of her mistresses's voice. She cleared her throat to straighten herself out, "Oh, it's nothing!" She said quickly, not wanting to do or say a thing that may upset Morgana. The horrible night terrors had really taken their toll on Morgana if the bags-as she had yet to put on her make up for the day-under her eyes were any kind of indicator. It was clear that last night must have been another tough one and Gwen did not want to bring anything else to her door so the maidservant quickly held out the flowers she had collected. "I've picked these for you," hoping that if she couldn't erase Merlin's pain then she might be able to ease Morgana's. It was a lot to put on a small little thing of fresh flowers but it was all she had to offer.

It seemed to do the trick as Morgana's facial muscles eased into a more gentle expression of appreciation, "That is so sweet, thank you Gwen." Morgana said as she took the flowers from the maidservant. It was true that it was very small compared to the usual flowers that adorned her bed chambers, but these were so much more special. Gwen had went out of her way to pick them for her when she didn't have to. Nowhere in Gwen's job description did it say she had to work on her off hours to bring Morgana special little treats. Morgana quite happily brought the flowers up to her nose and let the sweet lavender fill up all of her senses. Already she could feel the tense muscles her nightmares had given her start easing up.

"It was just a little something to cheer you up." Gwen smiled, relieved she was at least able to do more for one friend than the other. At least she could help somebody. Gwen then turned more sympathetic, "I know you're not sleeping well." Gwen would have been more than happy to stay with Morgana during the night to help her get through her night terror. And every now and then when things had got particularly bad and Morgana was struggling with the strain of them, did she allow her to stay and help her through them. But now it seemed more often then not that Morgana was turning her away with vague excuses she didn't want to accept. Things like how she didn't want Gwen seeing her like that, or how she had a life outside of work and shouldn't spend every moment making sure Morgana was doing okay.

Morgana's face softened even more, knowing how much Gwen worried for her, "You cheer me up." She insisted, lowering the flowers to her chest. Something about Gwen who wore a smile as often as she wore her clothes-and that was obviously an everyday occurrence as Gwen hadn't taken on the habit of running around the place naked-had always given her some kind of relief from her terrors. Dark and terrible things in her dreams that-half of the time-she couldn't even make out since it was so dark and surrounded in shadows. But she supposed that was a scary aspect, wading in the shadows like the muck of a swamp, alone and knowing nobody would come no matter how loud you screamed. She'd rarely ever be able to remember the actual details of what happened in her dreams but she knew that something did. Because every night she'd wake in a cold sweat with her heart inside her throat and several times she would almost be able to swear that a sword had just stabbed her in the chest. Right up through her under belly and into her heart. It would take a long while to convince herself that she was really alive and hadn't just been attacked by some unknown assailant breaking into her room.

Gwen's presence made her feel warmer, and made her remember easier that she hadn't fallen into the blank darkness that she feared awaited her after death. But something was clearly wrong, Morgana was able to tell from the way Gwen's eye's crinkled in the corners. She wasn't as happy-go-lucky, content with her lot in life, like she usually was and it was worrying to her.

Gwen reached out for the flowers, smiling at her, even if the smile was off it had been a good attempt, "Would you like for me to put them in water for you?"

Morgana nodded her consent and handed the flowers back to Gwen. She watched as Gwen strode across her room to an empty vase that had been sitting on one of her little tables set against the wall where she kept most of her extra journaling supplies. And Morgana was watching as Gwen went to work sliding those flowers into the vase before she'd started to pick at them, moving the flower arrangement around to give it the best look. "Gwen," Lady Morgana started, leaning against her desk to watch. "I feel like there is something wrong, is there anything you would like to tell me?"

Gwen denied it at first, a long strand of her curly brown hair falling into her eyes when she glanced up, "No M'lady. It's nothing you should worry yourself about…" she trailed off when she saw Morgana watching her with a look of skepticism and sighed. Her hands got frozen against one of the flowers she tried to move around, "I just had an extremely weird encounter with Consort Merlin is all."

Morgana frowned, remembering how she had seen Merlin just last night making his way off into the castle. With his little bag slung over his shoulder. Maybe she should have chased after him to find out what had happened that had made him decide to leave now instead of any other time that came before, "Odd, you say. How?" She was worried that he might be doing things he shouldn't, like getting himself drunk in the middle of the village. Personally, she didn't care herself. She would say have at it, he deserved it after whatever idiocy Arthur must have pulled after he ran off to find him yesterday. She could only imagine what the blonde had done that made Merlin literally pack up his bags and take off into the night. But something like that may have been done better in private. In a kingdom where one's reputation was literally everything, Merlin was only going to make things so much worse for himself if the people started seeing him as nothing more than a drunkard. At least she could comfort herself with the knowledge-as Gwen had seen him this morning-that he was still hanging around. Uther would have been relentless with him if Merlin had ran off and the guards had to drag him back.

Gwen finally stopped playing with the flowers and turned to her with a curious expression, "He wanted to borrow my wheelbarrow," she started with as she wasn't sure how she was to broach the conversation they had about Arthur.

"…A wheelbarrow?" Morgana asked surprised and not entirely sure what Merlin would need one for. Whatever he was planning, maybe it was something innocent or maybe she would need to intervene. She'd heard whispers of the rumors and such-how people had been doubting Uther's decision to bless the union between Merlin and Arthur because it'd been clear after the council meeting that Merlin had no idea what he was doing. So she had been trying to help out without telling Merlin that was what she was doing: giving him just a few pointers on how to correct himself if he ever found himself in a similar situation. She could not believe his education had gone amiss, nor that people wanted to complain all about it. She'd even done a few practice runs by giving him mock situations, something her tutors used to do so she could get some kind of practice in without the consequences of the real thing if she screwed up. He clearly needed a lot of work and maybe it was just the mood he was in during that month of his self-isolation, but he hadn't taken it nearly as serious as he should have. But maybe she needed to up those lessons, take it further than just how to talk during a council meeting when everybody was focused on what you had to say, and how one wrong word could cause you to be seen as a problem. Merlin should know the fundamentals about being consort, the kind of power that he had now that he was married to Arthur. Merlin should not have to go bothering servants like Gwen to get a wheelbarrow. She was sure that one could be scrounged up from around here at someplace. And anyone of the guards could have moved whatever it was he was doing so he wasn't doing it himself. Morgana was the first to say she cared very little for what other people said, but Merlin was already having a rough go at it…she didn't want anything else to happen that would set it off and make any thing even worse. "Whatever for?"

Gwen shrugged with a helpless little look on her face, she never did actually find out what he was doing with her wheelbarrow. "He told me that I didn't want to know and when I ran into him later, I'm almost liable to agree with him. But…I fear what the prince may be doing to him. He just looks so sad lately, and I could swear that it's getting worse by the day." She shook her head quickly, deciding to go back because this was verging on her talking ugly about the prince. She often allowed herself to get free with Morgana, anybody else would have been an entirely different story. Hoping to cause a distraction and not worry Morgana about any of this when she still had her own issues to work through with her night terrors, Gwen picked up the vase to carry it to the window to get the most sunlight, "I hope that you do not mind, but I did give Merlin one of these flowers. It seemed to have cheered him up a little bit. But did you know his favorite kind is wildflowers? I might try to go find some and gift him with them."

Morgana allowed the distraction, glancing at the little spot Gwen had shown her. And there was this little green stem hiding among all of the flowers that didn't have an actual flower attached to it. "Of course I don't mind." She told the maidservant. Gwen could have given Merlin the whole thing if it made him feel any better. It was the least Morgana could offer him to try and make up for Arthur's extremely poor behavior. But, she thought curiously, the information was curious. Wildflowers, huh? It would be the type of information she would feed to Arthur, you know, if he was working at courting his husband. Or just trying to make him happy. Or was trying to flirt…but none of that would happen as Arthur had been very clear to her about his orientation. Arthur had no reason to want to know anything about his husband, so why would he care for what the boy's favorite flower was? Morgana shook her head of those thoughts, even if she knew she was going to stop pressuring Arthur to get himself together and at least try to make things work out with Merlin, that didn't mean she approved of anything Arthur did. She still smiled teasingly at Gwen, "But Gwen, forgive me as I didn't know that you felt that way for Merlin? You have realized that he's a married man, haven't you?

Gwen, who had been settling the vase down on Morgana's windowsill, flushed hard across her face, "No! No! It's not like that at all!" She blustered in a panic. It would have been very wrong for her to try and get with the consort, and she flushed even harder at the thought of being so bold as to go after a married man. But to think of that man as Merlin…no…Merlin was someone she was coming to care for a good deal but she had never once saw him as anything more than a friend. He was more goofy-when he wasn't being sad-and Gwen had a type for a real 'rough, tough, save the world' kind of man. Even though she refused to admit even that out loud. Gwen ducked her head to hide her flushed cheeks, "You've must forgive me, m'lady. It's bold to say this but I have came to see Merlin as a dear friend but that is all."

"Please Gwen, don't be so formal with me." Morgana said as she dismissed this. The two girls usually had to behave in a formal servant and mistress way because Uther would have had both of their heads if he thought for one second that Morgana was getting to be 'way' to friendly with a servant. But they did push that boundary often. And here in her private chambers, they should be much more free or open with the other despite their difference in status. But Morgana could understand why Gwen was so hesitant as she had the most to lose. Gwen would have never been so bold to admit that if she worked under anybody else in the household. A servant who saw Camelot and it's Consort as her friend? She probably would have been flogged to get something so ridiculous out of her head. "And besides, I think it's a good thing for Merlin to have all of the friend's that he can get."

Only the heavens know that Morgana wished she could be there more for him, be a sort of stand in support, something that should have been Arthur's job. Dedicating her free time to try molding Merlin, giving him tips on what to avoid saying and how even his tone should be when he said them depending on what the situation was-even though she feared the most was everything just going in one ear or out the other. But she had her own duties and her own obligations-a life of her own-that she couldn't just put on hold because Arthur had decided it was best to neglect his duties as Merlin's husband. Like Gwen, she'd came to see Merlin as a friend in a very short time and it pained her that she often felt as if she was only doing the bare minimum to help him out.

Gwen smiled, knowing that she wouldn't be scolded for being so free with her emotions. But the smile was gone far to soon and the young maidservant sighed heavily, her hands playing in the folds of her skirts, "I just wish there was something more that we could do for him. I think he's having a pretty rough go at things around here. The things I've heard some people whispering…" she shook her head in disgust. Some people were just truly vile. She hadn't told Merlin anything about it, not wanting him to hear of the more awful or horrifying suggestions or mockery's. But she knew Merlin wasn't dumb. He knew what the people thought of him, even if he might not have realized how bad it was. Or maybe he had, she didn't know, but she wasn't going to be the one to bring it up.

Morgana's lips thinned because she had also heard the rumors. Maybe not as much or as often as Gwen, most servants wouldn't have talked so freely in front of a lady, but she had heard some to be concerning. "Yes, and I'm sure it's only going to get worse if something isn't done. But Arthur is clearly not going to be any help." She hadn't even bothered with bringing it to his attention. The rumors didn't make Arthur himself look bad so she doubted that he would care much. In fact, some things she had heard painted Arthur as some kind of unsung hero. Putting up with the idiocy of his commoner, acting as if Merlin was some kind of charity case who'd just lucked out with the marriage. If only they knew…

Gwen brushed one of her erect curls out of her eyes, "And Merlin doesn't exactly hide his feelings very well. You don't suppose…things might escalate." She said this last part in her very hushed voice, almost scared to speak of it any louder for fear somebody else might be listening in. Heaven forbid a servant form the mere suggestion that somebody may try to actually harm a member of the Royal family, especially if any of those she was thinking of who could do such a thing was a noble knight of the kingdom.

"Of course not!" Morgana protested, but she had a worried frown as well. As if she wasn't believing her own words. But Morgana shook her doubts out of her head, "Nobody is going to dare touch Merlin. All we have are rumors and gossip from petty people. Unwanted or not, he's our consort and anybody laying one finger of him would be considered treason."

Gwen still frowned because as Morgana had said, a lot of people claimed that Merlin was unwanted around here. It wasn't exactly the reputation one wanted to have. And if people could be so bold with their words when their consort was still fairly new around here, how much longer would it take before things had gotten worse? If they hadn't already. She had not noticed anything wrong with Merlin other than the sadness, but the boy could also be incredibly tight lipped when he wanted to be.

Morgana waved off the conversation, "He'll be fine, even if Arthur doesn't get any of his shit together and realize the awesome man he's married to." Arthur and Merlin may never be a 'true' couple, but she at least wanted to see them being friend or 'cordial' before the year was up…she would just have to keep her eye on Merlin. She might have denied it with Gwen, but she worried to. Of people trying to take advantage of Merlin since he was in this vulnerable place right now. "He has us. Merlin don't need no man to be happy."

Gwen smiled, a little more reassured that things wouldn't end horribly for Merlin, "You are right. He has us." She only hoped that he knew that. That he didn't have to continue to suffer in silence just because Arthur taken to being cruel to him. She only wondered if the consort saw them as friends as well, or just people to help him past the time by.

Morgana decided to lighten the mood by giving Gwen a nudge, a teasing smile already on her lips, "Well personally, I think you would be a much better match for Merlin than that pig-headed prince will ever be!" She eyed the flowers, more specifically, the empty spot in the vase where the final flower should have been had Gwen not passed it along to Merlin instead.

It seemed to work because Gwen flushed in an instant, "It really is nothing like that!" She insisted desperately. She had hoped that her lady would give it a rest but she should have known that it wouldn't have been so easy. It was just like Lady Morgana to get her teasing little quips in whenever she could.

"Oh, relax." Morgana laughed as she waved her maidservant down. "I'm really just teasing you. But alright," and then she decided she'd give Gwen a break and changed the subject to something that she hoped wouldn't stress the girl out to much, to something that was a bit more innocent. "So, you really don't know what Merlin needed a wheelbarrow for?" She couldn't imagine why he would.

Gwen shook her head, seeming to relax at the change in topic as she turned back to her flower arranging, "No idea. I just know that he was trying to help his uncle move something and that it was heavy. But they kept whatever it was covered up. I could only imagine what it was under the blanket."

Gwen didn't even look up from where she was playing with the flowers, which was why she didn't see Morgana's head pop up with her surprise, "His uncle?" Morgana repeated in a baffled tone. "I didn't know that he had any family in the city." She'd been under the impression that Merlin had arrived in the city alone, she didn't really know much about his life before he arrived in Camelot. Not about his family, she'd figured he didn't really have anybody that could help him out during these troubled times he was going through. But with that thought, Morgana felt an indignant fury as her lips thinned. If Merlin had family in the city then they must be awful and horrible people. Merlin's family should have formally been introduced at the wedding-and should have been publicly welcomed into the family as a whole, the union of Merlin and Arthur as the binding force bringing them altogether as one big family. This 'uncle' shouldn't have left Merlin to have an empty spot beside the altar where his family was supposed to stand, with Arthur having her and Uther on the other side to show their support of the union. This uncle should have been treated as a very honored guest, could even move into one of the many rooms in the Royal wing if he wanted. It was supposed to be an honor to be so included in the Royal family. Where has this Uncle been in the last month? Where was he while Gwen and her and even Gaius had been trying their hardest to drag Merlin out of the misery he was in during this last month or so…

Gwen's fingers stalled on the flowers she was moving into a new position, blinking confused at the lady. It took her a second to realize just what was going on and she gasped with huge surprise. "You don't know?" She asked, even though it was obvious that Morgana definitely did not know. After all, Gwen herself hadn't even known until that time at the tourney and she only knew because she'd overheard how Merlin was calling Gaius Uncle. So of course her lady wouldn't have known, "It's Gaius. He is Merlin's uncle."

Morgana's thoughts about how horrible and awful Merlin's uncle must have been to not once come up to the castle to visit him came to a sudden and abrupt halt… "You can't be serious…I didn't even know Gaius had any family to be had! Does Arthur know? Or even Uther?"

If Gaius was truly Merlin's uncle, then maybe he wasn't as bad as she'd been thinking. And he had been visiting Merlin quite a lot during his time in his room. Almost as often as any of them did in between his patients. She had thought Merlin might have gotten sick-since it could not be healthy to stay in one's room for so long-and called for him. Well then…it was no wonder Merlin would just stare at her with blank confusion whenever she asked for his health.

Gwen shook her head with an innocent little smile, "It wouldn't surprise me if they didn't know anything about it. Merlin doesn't go on about it but I'm pretty sure it's not exactly a secret either. I only know myself because I'd overheard Merlin calling him uncle. Gaius is the older brother to Merlin's mother, and I do know that they'd never met before Merlin had came to Camelot. Distance and all I suppose, Merlin did grow up in the other kingdom."

Morgana nodded her head, slowing sinking to sit on the edge of her windowsill next to that vase of flowers Gwen had been toying with, a contemplative expression on her face. After a minute she shook her head with an amused smile, "I can't believe Merlin never told me. I will have to get him back for it." If she didn't like Merlin before, just knowing that he'd had a relation to Gaius would have definitely given him some points in her books. She'd known Gaius all her life, he had treated her through her night terrors for as long as she was able to remember, he was gentle and kind if not a bit strict. It made her feel a stirring of guilt to know so little about him. She hadn't bothered to find out more, hadn't known that he had a little sister who had a son who had somehow ended up married to the son of the man who had taken her in as a child…that had to have been some kind of crazy coincidence. Out of all the peasants in the world, Arthur would be the one to end up married to the nephew of their own private physician, somebody that she knew Arthur respected…she was going to quite enjoy lording this over Arthur if he ever got his head out of his arse long enough to realize.

Gwen seemed to have decided she was done with the flowers and drew her hands back to her sides, "I am sure Merlin didn't mean any offense. He's always talking but somehow, he doesn't talk about himself often. That's quite strange…isn't it?" She remembered plenty of conversations she'd had with Merlin and he could find anything to babble on about. But only now was she noticing that it was rarely about anything personal…

"Well," Morgana said, shrugging her shoulder as she put this information away for later, she would definitely be having words with Merlin later for not divulging this to her. "As strange as it is, I suppose there are just some things you don't know about people."

Gwen nodded her head and went on about with her daily chores, straightening up her lady's rooms. Morgana, still off to the side and leaning against her windowsill, dropped her eye's down to the vase of flowers Gwen had been playing around with. The sunlight was hitting the crystal vase directly, causing a little light show to be going on inside. She could clearly still see the empty space Gwen had been trying to cover up, the little stem that once held the flower Merlin apparently had.

Yes, Morgana decided as she then turned her head to look out her windows at a bird flying past, there were just some things that went unknown no matter how much you'd thought you've come to know a person. But Morgana was bound and determined to know every one of Merlin's little secrets, if only because she wanted to give him the kind of attention that Arthur neglected him with.

X

Meanwhile, Merlin was working hard on one of his many secrets. Or if one wanted to be a bit more specific, he was watching Gaius who was hard at work. Merlin was standing next to the long table where they had shoved a good deal of books to the floor to make some extra space for the body, with his arms curled quite tightly over his chest. Gaius was on the other side of the table, carefully looking through his magnifying glass. He was practically kissing the corpse from how close he was leaning in to study the sheet white texture Jerome had turned, focused entirely on those lightly blue veins prodding dangerously up his neck. "I've never seen anything like this before." Gaius admitted. His mind was a great big field full of notes and facts and information he read in medical journals. Case study after case study that he'd ever read was fluttering throughout his mind but not one had the symptoms that he saw in Jerome.

This didn't bode well for Merlin, who stood with a serious expression on his face, "Do you think it could be some kind of plague?" It wasn't something anybody wanted to say but what else could it be? A mysterious sickness was usually how plague's started, right? But then they started to spread from one person to the next. Until they would have a lot more bodies than just Jerome's dropping like flies in the streets. Hell, the last great plague that Merlin knew of must have happened nearly fifty years ago. It had wiped out half the city before the disease had died away naturally once less and less people were around to get infected by it. Or at least that was what little he knew from some of the elders back in his village trying to pass on history lessons to a group of kids who didn't want to learn about death.

Gaius was solemn as he looked back up at Merlin, "No." he said decidedly. A disease like this didn't come from catching something nor did it cause death so quickly. Even a new kind of plague-and he feared for them all if it was-would have left some kind of warning sign it was coming. The plants or animals would have been showing signs of distress before it would catch up to the people. This had come on to sudden, to quickly, and no combination of sickness he could even consider would be cause for the blue pigment of his veins to go standing out like they did. "I fear that this is much to big, something like this could never come from nature. But," he gave his nephew a long and meaningful stare. "Who has this kind of power?"

Merlin knew what Gaius was saying in half an instant, "You think that somebody's caused this? That it was magic?" And didn't that give him an unpleasant shiver down his spine. His own magic stirred restlessly inside of him as if it wanted to come out and play, to have its own private showdown with whoever had put this sickness into Jerome. But he did have to wonder, what could Jerome had done that was so bad a witch would have cursed him?

Gaius opened his mouth to say something to confirm that yes, that was exactly what Gaius knew it was. But he stopped himself when his eye caught something quite unexpected. So maybe it wasn't the most appropriate time to have a discussion with a body spread out on his table, but he could already feel the weary ache of his bones as he sighed, the wrinkles in his brow deepening. "Please Merlin, tell me that Arthur got you that."

It took Merlin half a second to catch on as he had been studying Jerome's body, trying to pick out anything on the body that would just scream 'help! A sorcerer is what did me in!' It brought a displeased look from Merlin as he brought his hand up to cup around the little flower sticking out of his neckerchief rather protectively. "Of course not! Gwen gave me this when we saw her!"

Like hell Arthur would give him a flower, the prince probably wouldn't even give Merlin a goblet of water if he was on fire. And Merlin wouldn't accept it even if he did, he liked to think he had a bit more pride than accepting whatever crap Arthur did to him. It was why he had moved out after all, trying to give him some space away from the biggest prat on the planet. A space where he hopefully could not just barge into like he had earlier with his Royal suite.

Gaius set his magnifying glass down on the table beside the body because he figured the body could wait five minutes for him to finally have a talk with his nephew. He was just a bit more calm now that he knew it was from little Gwen and not a potential suitor, but he would very much doubt that Uther would see it the same way. The Pendragon's would make his nephew suffer even more than whatever was going on with him if they thought Merlin had decided his son wasn't good enough, "I have to ask if you really think that it's wise for you to go about wearing flowers given to you by another?"

He was worried about something happening to Merlin. Worried that things could only get worse for the boy if he played a game like this one. If he openly scorned Arthur, the flower may be innocent but it would also look-in the eyes of the wrong people-like a declaration. As if Merlin thought he could do much better than their prince-which he probably could if given the chance. But choice wasn't a luxury that Merlin could afford to have.

Merlin didn't seem to consider it nearly as big of a deal as it was-which it definitely was this big deal since Gaius had put his body search on hold to address the matter immediately, "I find nothing wrong with wearing it. Gwen is just a friend." Merlin said defensively, as the boy tightened his grip over the flower to hide it from his uncle's view.

Gaius put his hands on the table in front of him next to the body, "Maybe so." He agreed before he spilt out the real issue that was the problem to Merlin. "But it's not going to look that way to somebody else, they aren't going to care that it was from a friend. Especially to this friend being a young and pretty girl." And Merlin opened his mouth to argue because it didn't matter if Gwen was pretty. Gwen could be the most beautiful girl on the planet, and Merlin would still be gay. Although Merlin had found himself wondering if anything would be easier if he was straight instead. He wouldn't have been so gung ho on trying to make his marriage work with Arthur if he didn't already like guys to begin with, or have been trying to force Arthur-in his mind-to be his ideal kind of guy. Hell, he'd probably be doing whatever it was straight guys did when they would very loudly be encouraging their friends to try his luck with that girl from the dance, instead of feeling betrayed when he shouldn't. After all, Arthur had told him from day one that he'd never be the husband Merlin wanted. Merlin just hadn't been willing to listen. But before he could unload all of this on Gaius, his uncle had already started talking again. "First and foremost you have to remember that you're now a married man. Not just married, but you are married to a very high profile figure. What do you think will happen if the king had heard of this and his first assumption was that you are cheating on his heir. He would have you publicly hanged for the indiscretion, rather it was from 'just a friend' or not, Uther wouldn't take that kind of black lash." Gaius would be the one that knew better than anybody else, the Pendragon's were prideful man. And this kind of thing wouldn't go unpunished. Gaius could not watch his nephew go to his death just because he was stubborn instead of just doing the smart thing and keeping down his head like Gaius would advise him to. Some things weren't worth your life.

Merlin-despite the offended look on his face at the insinuation that anybody around here cared what he did-vaguely thought that may not be a bad idea over all. Maybe his humor had turned a bit morbid the longer he stayed in Camelot, but being hanged would almost be a better alternative than being married to Arthur for one second longer. Hell, Merlin was almost tempted to go pick a bunch of those flowers for himself and wave them in Arthur's face just to prove a point. But he shook those thoughts out of his head and focused more on his offense.

"Cheating? Me?" Merlin demanded as he felt a bubble of indignation rising up in him. If he was cheating on Arthur, he would damn well be rubbing it in his face. It would be another way to show Arthur that he didn't need him at all. Like the whole job situation was suppose to go but we all know how that had worked out for him. "He's the one-" Merlin stopped as he cut himself off abruptly from what he'd been about to say.

He wasn't trying to protect Arthur by not sharing how he had ditched Merlin at the dance just to go with the first pretty face to approach them-he still felt the bubble of hurt that he vehemently denied, still feeling so fresh despite the month that had passed and how he had tried to put it all behind him-but he was ashamed. To ashamed to speak of it even though most people knew from the ever processing rumor mill, whispered about from those that had attended and bore witness to his humiliation. But how could he bring Gaius into his marital problems? It wasn't like Gaius could do anything to help or stop Arthur from hurting him. It was like the favor all over again and he had a feeling things were only going to get worse. Arthur had already transitioned from only including him when he was forced to, to trying to force his own views and gold onto Merlin with his idiocy.

"He's what?" Gaius asked when he noticed the hesitation in Merlin. And he didn't like it one bit, the idea that his nephew felt as if he couldn't tell him something. Gaius knew the darkest secret Merlin had, Gaius knew that it was his nephew who had been born as if he had more magic in his body than actual blood so what could be so bad that Merlin refused to answer him?

But it wasn't bad at all, or at least not in the way Gaius was thinking. Merlin hadn't gone off the deep end and killed somebody with his magic or anything like that. Merlin turned away from his uncle, bowing his head so that the dark tufts of his bangs could fall into his eyes, "It's nothing." Merlin grumbled, he was convinced that he could handle things on his own. That he didn't need to worry Gaius over problems that he was fixing. Sure, he hadn't managed to do good on the job front and the idea was all but dead after the shopkeepers reception towards him working for them. But that didn't mean he had to give up. Waving his flower in front of Arthur was a promising albeit petty idea. But he felt as if he could do better, find himself a hobby or such like that prat had suggested. And become the best damn whatever it was that he could be. Hell, maybe he could open up his own shop in the marketplace one day! He just had to…figure out himself first. Figure out the part of him that wasn't forever tied into this consort job he was forced into. Merlin left those thoughts and turned back to Gaius, raising his voice a bit louder to be heard, "Besides, you act as if Arthur will even notice. He'd have to actually be around for more than two minutes worth of fighting to notice a little flower sticking out of my collar."

Gaius ignored the more important body that was laid out in front of them, and ignoring the fact that Arthur and Merlin were still fighting as bad as the day they met, he brought up another important fact. "Alright then, what do you think will happen to Gwen?"

That got Merlin's attention as he whipped his head up to look at Gaius startled. Gwen? He knew that things could go down on his head in a split second, because when had it hadn't since he'd moved here? But none of it would be Gwen's fault! She was probably the only one completely innocent in all of this. Gwen didn't deserve to be hung out to dry for the sole reason of a bunch of nobles being all butt hurt because Merlin was trying to make a life of his own…

Seeing that he had something with Merlin's reaction, Gaius continued on, "Do you think they will stop with you? You'd be hanged and it won't be to long before people start asking who it was that gave it to you to begin with. It won't stay a secret. Has Gwen mentioned it to anybody herself? Did anybody see it when she gave it to you? Does she admit it before she realizes it will cause her to be the next to hang. It will be looked at as if she was trying to get herself an in with the Royal family, as if she was trying to break up the Royal couple and get some of the perks to herself by being and involving herself with you. And how long would it be before people start treating it as if it's the god-honest truth? How long will it be before people start assuming that it was no surprise Gwen choose to act with you? It's well known that Arthur would never go for a serving girl, but the new commoner who had became consort?" Gaius didn't usually put to much stock in rumors and whatnot, usually he had better things to entertain himself with. But this was his nephew and these were just some things that Merlin needed to know, and needed to be aware of. One wrong step that would upset the king…Uther wouldn't care if he was a member of the Royal family now. It would just be seen to the people that nobody was safe, not even the person who married his son.

Merlin shook his head in denial, "No, Gwen has worked for Uther's family for years. They aren't going to do anything just because of me…" but on the inside, he could feel himself doubting his own words. Merlin didn't really know Arthur well enough to know rather or not he held the same cruelty of his father but surely he wouldn't go nearly as far. Besides, it wasn't like Arthur truly cared that somebody was giving him flowers. He'd only care if the people started talking about it.

Gaius was dead serious as he warned Merlin about the cold honest truth, "Don't you dare underestimate Uther or what the man can be capable of. He's our king but…he won't stand for anything he might consider treason." And stepping out on his son, even if Uther knew it wasn't a real marriage, the king wouldn't take any such risk of it getting out. It would have been considered shameful if something like this got out. And Uther would not have others thinking a serving girl had been the better option compared to his own son.

Merlin seem to recognize this as well before he nodded, his face turning just as serious as his uncle's. Maybe he should be more careful about certain things, but only because this wasn't just a threat to him. It was a threat to Gwen as well, and she didn't deserve to be treated to death in this mock situation just for being one of the only people to show him a shred of kindness.

"Okay." Merlin said, his hand over the flower turning less protectively and more cautious on it's little petals. But there was still nothing wrong with him wearing the flower for a little bit longer. It wasn't like the dead guy they've been ignoring on the table was going to start telling people. Merlin shook his head and did try to lighten the mood-which was hard to do since not only was he apparently carrying a 'contraband' item, but they still had Jerome and his body to attend to-so it fell flatter than he had been going for, "If my wearing a single flower bothers Arthur as much as it does his father, then maybe he should give me one to wear himself."

Merlin wouldn't accept it of course, not after the way Arthur treated him. As if he could go snapping his fingers and expecting Merlin to jump to his command like a dog…it would be funny to see Arthur's face though after Merlin threw them back at him.

Gaius shook his head. Maybe if he knew the true story of what's been going on with those two boys, he wouldn't be pushing Merlin so much. Or maybe he would because either way, Uther would still see only what he would want to see and heaven forbid that it be the prince who was the problem. But none of this mattered because Gaius didn't know all that's been going on. So he just sighed at his young nephew's antics and said, "You are playing with fire, nephew." He knew that whatever it was that was going to happen in the future, if the flower he was putting so much concern in even mattered in the long run, things would still end badly.

Merlin shrugged wearily, trying not to show on his face how much those words triggered him. Because burn…fire…flames scorching all of the flesh from his bones…that happened to sorcerer's like him all the time. But he smiled nonchalantly and cynically, "I've been burned before so what's once more?"

He might not have been physically burned but the way Arthur made him feel…he might as well be scorched to the bone. As if he'd been torn open for the sheer please of Arthur getting a peek at his insides to find the exact buttons to push to make everything hurt and even more raw then the time before had been at. And even though Merlin was putting walls up, was still trying to hard to mend the broke fences Arthur had kicked down with all of his carelessness, the pain was still managing to get through as if they weren't there to begin with. He might be starting to realize whatever he was feeling before had been nothing but an infatuation and a hope for a better future than what was being offered to him, but that didn't negate all of the pain that it caused him to realize this. How he had ever allowed it to develop like that…he would never know.

Gaius opened his mouth to say something but rather it was to comfort Merlin, to tell him more of why he needed to be so cautious, or to tell him they should just leave things be so that they can focus on the body, got lost as they heard the screams coming from down the hall somewhere.

"Gaius! Gaius!" Arthur's big mouth was heard from somewhere outside their chambers and further down the hall. The sound of his voice made Merlin feel as if another rip had gone straight down his heart. Had Arthur figured out he had gone? Did he know that Merlin had moved down here and was now coming to take it out on Gaius? Merlin had thought he had more time, had thought it would might be weeks before Arthur figured it out. Not the very next day! And after the talk Gaius had to him about Gwen…he was suddenly a lot more worried for Gaius. Would he be punished for housing him instead of sending him straight back where he came from?

"Gaius!" Arthur's voice came from outside still but it was also much closer now. Gaius and Merlin shared a panicked look before the two both got the same thought. And that was when they shot their eye's down to Jerome's body. Merlin bit back a curse that might alert Arthur to his presence as he remembered the body. Forget about what Arthur would say if he did know Merlin had moved here. What would he say if he knew they were trying to cover up a body?

Gaius gave Merlin an urgent look, with this 'do something' wave of his hand. Arthur was close now, they could hear his steps nearing the door and Merlin-before he could think of how he really didn't want yet another kind of confrontation with Arthur, nearly cut himself in half from how forceful he rammed his hip into the side of the table as he scrambled to round it. Gaius was snatching up the blanket and trying to hurriedly cover up the body so it wouldn't be seen and Merlin nearly threw the door open in his haste, just wide enough for him to stick his head through. And not any minute to soon because Arthur was in the doorway with his hand held out, looking as if he had been about to throw the door open. He would have definitely seen one hell of a sight if Merlin hadn't gotten there first.

"Arthur! Hi! Er…" Merlin stuttered, trying to keep his body positioned in the little crack he made in the door to hide as much as he could as well as keeping the prince's attention fully on him. "…We're you looking for me? I'm not late to anything or something, am I?"

If Arthur seemed surprised to see Merlin, he didn't show it, which made Merlin's anxious heart speed up. Surely Arthur wouldn't start a fight with Gaius near, right? If he had came here to lecture Merlin and try to drag him back to the Royal suite, Merlin would have plenty to say about it. But then again, it might be an option…pretend to go along with what he said just to get him out of here and then come back later. It wasn't ideal but it could be an option. Arthur looked unimpressed with him though, giving him a dry expression, "If you were late to something," the prince said in a drawled tone. "I would be there. Besides, I'm used to your lateness."

Merlin scowled at the light dig. He knew that he had been late a time or two but really, he knew it wasn't his fault! Merlin tried to make it to things on time but something had usually happened that would cause him to fall behind on things. So what if he'd been a little late to bringing Arthur his armor that first day, he'd been busy using it to practice how to put it on with Gwen. So what if he had been late to the meet-and-greet, he'd barely even known what was going on at the time. So what if he had been late to put Arthur's armor on for the second time, he had just stayed up all night because that was the night Valiant had tried to get in his room. So what if he was late to the finals, he'd been trying to turn a statue of a dog into a real one to help Arthur fight on more fair grounds. See, he had perfectly good reasons for being late to everything…

Arthur continued talking, "Besides, I'm here looking for Gaius." Merlin let out a breath of relief because that meant Arthur definitely wasn't here for him. Which meant Arthur had probably not realized yet that Merlin didn't live in the Royal wing anymore. Which meant they were definitely not about to have 'that' particular conversation that would most likely end with Merlin throwing the first thing that he could get his hands on right at Arthur's head. But the sigh seemed to have caught the prince's attention because he looked at his consort with narrowed eyes, "But I would like to know why you are down here? Aren't you supposed to be in your room trying to come up with a new hobby to keep yourself occupied with. One that I might just actually approve of?"

Merlin went tense all over again, he could also hear Gaius still shuffling around with the blanket somewhere behind him and that did not help his anxiousness in the least. But he figured, instead of coming up with his own lie, why not just use the one that Arthur had handed him, "That's right!" Merlin insisted with a nod so frantic his head could have past for a bobble head. "And that is exactly what I'm doing." Arthur looked like he didn't believe him. Back when they'd been talking about Merlin finding a job-more like Arthur trying to decide what Merlin could and could not do with his own time-he'd sarcastically suggested Merlin find himself a hobby. "I've decided instead of doing something like-" he wracked his mind to think of the suggestions Arthur had thrown at him. "…Needlepoint, I could make myself useful by offering my services to the physician."

Arthur was not pleased by this and could feel his lips thinning. Good god, this boy working with the physician…it wasn't nearly as awful as finding a job was. In fact, Arthur might be willing to approve of it-it was never a bad thing to learn a new skill and the training of a physician would at least keep Merlin out of trouble-but the idea of Merlin actually being apart of working on patients and the like. He was probably going to get all kinds of reports on mistakes the boy made if Gaius allowed him to be anywhere near him while he was diagnosing and fixing ailments, "…Maybe I should speak to Gaius about this." Arthur told him.

He tried to make a step forward and raised one hand to push the door open so that he could discuss with Gaius any concerns that he had, but Merlin closed the door some with sharpness, nearly cutting his own head off in the process and leaving Arthur baffled. But Merlin smiled innocently, clearing his throat as if he hadn't done just something extremely odd, "I hardly think that will be necessary. He is busy at the moment…working on a potion right about now."

Merlin really hoped that the lie didn't sound as awful as he thought it did. Or sound as if he had made it up on the spot, even though he did…he really was an awful liar. Which was not a good thing when one had the kind of secrets that he did.

"Are you sure you don't need me to help you with something instead?" Merlin asked Arthur quickly, before Arthur could start demanding to know why Merlin was acting as if he was hiding a body….ooh….wait…Merlin thought to quickly give Arthur an idea, "Maybe you need to get into your armor? I think I've gotten to be pretty good at it!" Merlin had been quite proud of the skill a month ago, when he had been desperate to become the best consort he could manage with what little knowledge he had available to him. But nowadays, Merlin had taken to looking at it in vain. Is that really all he was good for? Dressing Arthur before a fight? But he was ready to swallow his pride and do it if it distracted Arthur long enough for Gaius to figure more out about this weird disease.

Arthur stopped trying to get into the room just so he could spare Merlin an 'are you an idiot' look. "No, I don't need help getting into my armor as there's no tournament going on right now. So there's no need to put on this whole 'doting husband' act. So long as you do what you're supposed to do, there won't be any problems with keeping our distance now that we're out of the public's eye."

Not for the first time, Arthur thought as he tried to get a peek over Merlin's head to find Gaius through the crack in the door, he was considering having a personal guard to be assigned to Merlin's side. Not only would it give Arthur one less thing to worry about, as Merlin's protection had became an important matter to him, but he could also report any wrongdoings to Arthur. A guard would have been able to warn Arthur that Merlin was out making a fool of himself, trying to find himself a peasant's job. A guard would have told him that Merlin had hold himself up inside Gaius' chambers as his newfound 'hobby' and then Arthur could have cut him off at the past. He could have discussed it with Gaius before the old man agreed to anything, tell him what he would find acceptable and what things that Merlin was to have absolutely no part of. Like it was alright for Merlin to spend his time with reading-if the commoner even knew how to read because most didn't-to keep him from being underfoot. But absolutely no having him interacting with actual patients. But the reason Arthur was so keen on having Merlin watched, so he wouldn't have to do it himself was because of Valiant. And Valiant had been a knight, so he was kinda iffy about who he could trust with the task. Even those he knew personally was getting scrutinized inside his mind for any faults that would disqualify them because Arthur was expecting perfection and loyalty. He couldn't have anybody who would give into the whims of whatever the boy may want.

"That's right!" Merlin exclaimed upon hearing Arthur's words, voice full of cheer and mirth at this idea. They had never really 'pretended' when they were alone together, but it still felt good to hear said out loud. For what was probably the first time, Merlin actually felt as if he and Arthur were on the same page. Now if only Arthur had told him something like this before, then maybe he would have accepted things were the way they were far earlier. He wouldn't be feeling as if his heart had been shattered because Arthur wanted that girl from the dance before he would ever want Merlin. Merlin might still be coming to terms with that, but he knew he would be able to work through that. It helped that Merlin had this thought that lingered in the back of his mind-maybe Merlin had never really liked Arthur to begin with. Maybe he'd just put all of his childhood hopes-dreams of meeting somebody who loved him as much as his mother clearly still loved his father-and had just shoved all of that onto Arthur who'd been convenient as his husband. So maybe it was just the idea of who Arthur could be…? It made sense in Merlin's mind. Now all he'd need to do was get his emotions onboard with it.

Unfortunately for Merlin, Arthur had caught on to his excitement and it displeased him greatly, "You don't have to sound so happy about it!" It was offending. Arthur had been thinking he'd done quite well with their little game of pretend, had put on an acceptable show for the masses to be content. And here Merlin was, only happy that Arthur had told them they were alone and therefore had no reason to fake their pleasantries or affections towards the other.

Merlin blinked at him, "…Why not? Do you not want me to be happy?" It was a trick question as Merlin looked far to innocent for it to pass as anything else. And Arthur worked his jaw at this, Merlin should be just as miserable as he was. He shouldn't be off making things of himself by working with Gaius, and he should most definitely not be happy that Arthur was not showing him false affections.

"Besides the point," Arthur said, putting his hands on his hips and trying to purposely get a rise out of Merlin. "If I did have a tourney to get dressed for, I think I would prefer to have Morris do it. He has been doing it for much longer than you have and can get me ready much quicker. So I believe I'll just go to him for the next tourney."

Arthur, trying to get the upper hand, tried to get pass Merlin again and into the chambers but Merlin closed the door some more and was blocking his way. "How do you expect me to get that good at it if you don't let me practice?" Merlin said quickly, making Arthur preen because he felt as if he had found the one thing to make Merlin beg. And he should beg for the honor of helping Arthur-a prince-into his armor. It wasn't an honor that most commoners got bestowed upon them and if Merlin wanted to beg for the position back, then who was Arthur to stop him?

But Arthur carefully masked his face to make it look as if Merlin was just bothering him with this. He wanted to hear Merlin beg longer, to hear him finally admit that he wanted to work under Arthur. He wouldn't of course, Arthur would not allow Merlin to be near him longer than he had to be. But to hear the boy beg for it…that would be quite the treat, "As thrilling as it would be to do that," Arthur drawled out as if he wasn't pleased by this sudden turn of events. "I think I will have to pass on it."

Arthur tried-once again to get into the room to tell Gaius why he had came down here in the first place, as well as if he really thought it was wise to allow Merlin to play down within his chambers-but was cut off when the brat practically ran him over by throwing himself out of the door and slamming it shut behind him. Arthur had to catch himself before he could squish Merlin against the door, jolting to a stop.

"Paintings!" Merlin blurted out the second that Arthur opened his mouth to start yelling at him for his rash actions. Arthur paused to blink dumbly at Merlin, clearly having not an idea what that was supposed to mean. Merlin cleared his throat, flushing as he realized he had spit out the first thing that had came to mind to distract Arthur with: it was wild what our minds would come up with in the heat of the moment. Where our hearts felt as if they were in our throats and our panicked hearts were going faster than a jackrabbit running to safety. But in that moment, it suddenly felt extremely important for Merlin to ask about the paintings-the Royal family paintings he had found that day so long ago. After he'd just see Valiant feeding those snakes a field mouse. "I was exploring the castle a while back, you know. And I ended up in this old deserted hallway. It had all these old portraits of your family and there was an empty spot with our names on it…I was just wondering when we were going to get ours done?"

Arthur seemed to know exactly what he was talking about because his lips thinned as if he was annoyed by Merlin's questioning. Merlin didn't allow his smile to wave, even if it came more fixated. Merlin would probably kill that prince before he actually sat down with him for long enough for a portrait to be painted of them. But his own feelings on the subject had hardly mattered-when had they ever. His goal was to keep Arthur talking, just keep the prat talking for long enough that he would forget he had came down here to see Gaius in the first place. It would be hard to hide an actual body if Arthur came bursting in on him. Or maybe he could just make Arthur angry-and that seemed like a real possibility right now-that he would give up and storm off in some kind of huff. That shouldn't be to hard, as it was Merlin's very presence that seemed to set him off.

"That will hardly be necessary for us to get done." Arthur said stiffly, his jaw locked. He had already settled the matter for him back during the tourney, had decided all on his own that it wouldn't be done. That was why he had sent the Royal portrait maker away when the man had approached him, trying to insist that enough time had passed since the marriage that it would be appropriate to have their first wedding portrait he prepared. He'd thought that was that, but of course Merlin would find out and bring it up himself. "I don't think either one of us really wants a portrait of us to be floating about out there." Even if it would eventually be placed in the hall nobody ever really went to. Arthur already hated that there was a wedding contract hidden away in the archives of the library somewhere with the names of their parents on it. He hated that Geoffrey-the records keeper-had their wedding certificate drawn up to announce their marriage and had probably placed the record with the contract. He hated that he was still carrying a wedding ring he'd never wanted in his pocket just in case he needed it at any given moment to play his role as this 'doting' husband. Arthur could be comforted by knowing the records were all sealed off so only those in the family and certain people could access them. He could comfort himself by knowing the ring was only a necessary tool used to fool the masses with. But having a portrait…even if the hall was rarely used so many people could still stop by just to check it out. The portrait that he would have to sit still-for hours-next to Merlin while the painter did his job. It wasn't worth it.

"…Oh…" Merlin said slowly, blinking. He knew he shouldn't be disappointed, and he really wasn't disappointed because he didn't want to sit down for a portrait either. But it didn't stop the hurt to realize how easily Arthur was brushing aside things they were 'supposed' to do just because he didn't like Merlin. Well, the feeling was mutual. He was used to his 'husband' disappointing him anyway. Maybe he had just been naive, thinking Arthur would not ignore an important custom just because he couldn't stand to be near Merlin for longer than necessary. Even peasants tried to get a wedding picture, even if it was a poorly done drawing from some guy that lived next door.

Arthur didn't appreciate the tone. He really hoped that Merlin still wasn't holding out for him. He had thought they had nipped that little issue in the bud ages ago. But maybe Arthur needed to do something more to drill the message home. He put his hands on his hips and said-quite boldly-without thinking it through, "Yes, we won't be having anything like that done. I think I need to save the spot for….somebody else." And he left it at that.

Merlin didn't get it at first, still more worried about what was going in the room behind him then the actual conversation, but he kept it going the best he could with his mind still on other things, "…Somebody else? But wasn't that spot reserved for you and your consort? For us?"

Arthur wished he could bite down on his own tongue and take this conversation back but it was already out in the open. He couldn't just backtrack now, so he nodded, "Usually, that would be how it goes. But I'm a prince so I'm sure I can do whatever I want." He said with an air of false pompous. "I'll wait a few years to past and when the time comes-a decade or so from now-when Camelot's next heir will need to be born. And then I'll be more than willing to have a family portrait commissioned to take it's place with my heir and the mother of course."

Arthur was in no way ready for a child, which was why he said a decade or so. But just as it was his duty to marry this boy to save his kingdom from ruin, it would also be his duty to someday see a child of his come into this world. And Merlin clearly was not equipped for the task. The line of succession would need to be secured one day, and the only good thing about Merlin being a man was his father couldn't go off demanding to know when a child from their union could be born. It was hard to have a child when the two of them never consummated the marriage. And Arthur was also in no way ready for the anger it brought out in Merlin when he mentioned his long-term possible plan.

"And where am I in this master plan of yours?" Merlin demanded hotly as he was snapped fully into the conversation, almost forgetting he was only out in the hall to begin with because he was trying to stop Arthur from going in. But this reminded him to much of all his fears that first night, when Leon had first shown up to take him away. Merlin had questions about this very topic, trying to find an excuse to not go. "Am I suppose to just sit there and watch as you play with your happy little family?"

They had already talked last time about what Arthur 'expected' from Merlin as consort. But this was probably the first time they talked about themselves and their 'relationship'. Or at least since the time Merlin had told Arthur he didn't want any of his kisses unless he meant it.

"Of course you don't have to watch!" Arthur exclaimed, getting sucked into the conversation as more than him just trying to pick a fight with Merlin. Like he would subject Merlin to sitting off on the sidelines, not even Arthur could balance keeping track of-he had hoped a more demure and queenly mother for this imagined future heir-as well as what shenanigans Merlin would cause. "You might not be aware of this but as Pendragon's, we have many estates spread across the land for us to rest at if we have traveled far from our homeland. I'm sure that we can find at least one that you'll find comfortable to stay at."

And Arthur honestly thought he was doing the honorable thing. Sending Merlin away at some point in the future-he would always be his consort and therefore higher than what woman was chosen to carry his heir-but he was sure that Merlin could do his own duties as consort from a distance. What was more honorable for somebody who had no actual potential at becoming a knight than running a household? Merlin could have free rein over whichever estate he wanted to choose from and Arthur would allow him to have at it.

But the idea of being sent away burned Merlin up on the inside. As much as he would long to be as far away from Arthur as he could possibly be, the thought of being sent away sent sparks of hatred down throughout his body. This was Arthur saying that he was not good enough for him. And Merlin already knew that he would never be good enough for somebody like Arthur. But to be sent off to live his life forgotten about in some dusty corner of the world-let's forget for a moment that this jerk apparently had multiple homes around the kingdom when some people had trouble feeding their own children-had been enough to light a fire under him. Especially with the very clear image of Arthur and that woman Clarissa holding a newborn baby in a portrait that was suppose to be his came to mind…Merlin lifted his chin defiantly before spitting out something he knew that Arthur would have a problem with, "And if I would rather return to my home village? Instead of being sent off to some random location out in the world? And then what? Act as if none of this had ever happened?"

Merlin felt satisfaction at seeing Arthur's wince and clear disdain for the idea. Arthur hated him but even Merlin knew the prince wouldn't allow word to get out that Merlin was living in some poor no-name village. It was the job thing all over again. Arthur would fear that people would think he couldn't keep Merlin around because he couldn't afford his upkeep or whatever he had been babbling on about during their last conversation.

Merlin was surprised when Arthur slowly spoke, looking as if he was taking his time to come up with a proper response. "If that's what you desire, then I suppose it will have to do." Arthur worked his jaw, his eye twitching at the mere thought of any Pendragon-rather that Pendragon was Merlin or not-toiling with the mud and the dirt in said no-name village so far away from Camelot. He conveniently forgot that those three days to Ealdor were a lot faster than the six day journey to one of his estate's on the other side of the kingdom that Merlin could have chosen to go to. But it would also be horrific if anybody discovered where Arthur had sent his consort, he would never be able to live it down. So Arthur then rectified the situation by quickly adding, "And I will of course have two of my best guards to go with you. They will send me daily reports on how you are fairing. And I will of course be sending you a generous allowance monthly. I suppose if you insist on going to such a place then you should have some kind of reward for going without a fight."

Arthur was thinking of this possible future as alimony. Even Merlin, as irritating as a gnat as he was, would have his life taken care of by Arthur even if he wasn't living within Camelot and it's boarders. The boy would be able to live a comfortable life and Arthur's pride was something that would remain intact. If Merlin choose to live his 'comfortable' life in the little village, then the guards would be there just in case somebody found out where he was and tried something. Arthur could rest easy with knowing Merlin was alive and safe, and as long as the guards could blend in among the commoners-he would have to choose quite carefully when the time came-then Cenred need never know Camelot knights were in his boarders. It would be amiss to not afford to give Merlin some kind of protection if the boy insisted on being so far out of his reach.

Arthur thought this was quite generous of him to do. Not many nobles would bother if they wanted their marriage partner out of their life. Hell, some would even go so far as to 'arrange' an accident. Merlin should find himself thankful that Arthur hadn't actually considered going that far back when they'd first been married.

But Merlin didn't seem to share the same sentiments from how red-flushed with anger and growing-this his face had gone. "Guards, you say?" He demanded hotly. He could feel the hands on his back as if they were actually there, hot and heavy as they shoved him into stone walls with little to no care of how much his smaller body could withstand the impact of it all. "You expect me to return home with a trunk full of gold-" and hadn't they already established that Merlin didn't want any of his gold, yet along to take it home. He could be considered an outcast already, the last thing he wanted was to be thought of as 'flaunting' this whole experience in front of every other person in the village. Will alone would give him hell for it. "As well as two guards who're what? Going to spy on me?" He could see it being this way. Two guards reporting straight to Arthur every little thing he did. What he ate or how much, what he did around the village, what he did in his spare time. A spike of fear shot though his heart, how long would it take before one of the guards saw something that they weren't suppose to see? How long could Merlin resist doing magic before one of them wondered upon him playing with it deep into the woods. And sending Arthur reports? Just imagine the knights he would pick for the job, they could fudge those reports in an instant and lie to Arthur-if he would ever care if he ever found out-just before they killed him and decided to take a vacation with the gold he'd be sent off with. Hell, Arthur would probably throw those 'reports' into the fire without bothering to read them anyway. All of this was nothing more than an act, something designed to make Merlin stop complaining. It was just an excuse for Arthur to be able to bring Clarissa into the fold, to bring her to all of the fancy banquets that Merlin was slowly starting to hate with a passion. An excuse so nobody would call Arthur an adulterer even as him and Clarissa started raising babies with little blonde hair. But all of it would be for naught because no matter what kind of life Arthur crafted for himself, nobody would be able to be Arthur's queen. As long as Merlin was alive, the spot for the Royal seat was still taken. As long as Merlin lived, he was the one destined to sit on a golden throne beside the one Arthur bore.

Arthur protested this greatly, sputtering for a minute to get the words out-something he'd probably never done in his life but Merlin had brought it out in him, "It's not spying! It's me making sure that my consort isn't kidnapped on some misconceived attempt of a ransom!" It seemed like a good thing to do. Arthur was keeping Merlin safe without being having to be directly involved in said protection himself.

It wouldn't be the first time that the partner in a high-profile marriage had been targeted. It was something that happened quite often in noble families, which was why Morgana had usually had a guard beside her during events. It would be all the time if Uther had his way, but she had put her foot down on it and had compromised, agreeing to a guard only when there was a great abundance of strangers roaming the castle, like the tourney. But this was totally different and Arthur found himself struggling a bit to keep up. He knew very well how to protect himself, hell, he knew at least ten different ways to kill a grown man with nothing more than a spoon. And he was use to the responsibility of having an entirety of a kingdom on his back, their protection being his job. But he also had his father to back him up if things grew out of hand, making those final decisions even though Arthur had taken on more and more of those responsibilities as he grew older and neared his coming of age at twenty one in a few months. But Merlin…Merlin was under his 'direct' protection and he had already failed him once with the whole Valiant situation. If he lived or died would be because of Arthur and how could he keep a kingdom safe if he couldn't even protect one man?

But he was just so…Merlin. Merlin who was clueless of the dangers this world held to him just because he was tied to Arthur. And this boy was not going to make keeping him alive, a task and a test that Arthur had given to himself that he was determined to past, easy for him.

But Merlin was blinking, and he hated that he could feel the tears brimming underneath his eyelashes. Arthur could claim he was trying to stop-what, a kidnapping attempt?-but he didn't buy it for a second. Nor did it make him feel safe at all. All Arthur wanted was to send him away so that he wouldn't ruin whatever little family he could make with the girl that stole him away at the dance. With having added bonus of sending knights along with him who would have unrestricted access to whatever they wanted to do to him…to his mother if he brought them to Ealdor. If the guards could find it easy to hurt and abuse him right inside the heart of Camelot, how much worse could it get in the middle of nowhere? Already he could feel phantom aches forming on his spine where he'd been shoved into the wall yesterday morning.

No, Merlin thought with this flash of red-hot determination, blinking at his wet eyes to try and force his angry tears back. He would deal with all of this-all of the hits and the cruelty and the rumors. Arthur could drag him out by the hair on his head if he wanted, but Merlin wasn't going anywhere. He would not allow any guard to follow him back home, not to a place with only defenseless farmers against trained soldiers who had a cruel streak as deep as their golden pockets. He would not bring them to where his mother was, even if he had to suffer for it.

"You, Arthur Pendragon, are much crueler than I ever thought you were." Merlin hissed at him. He was under no delusions, he knew Arthur only wanted to send him away for the sole reason being that he was tired of dealing with him. But Merlin wasn't going anywhere and Arthur could just fucking deal with it like Merlin was.

"This-" Arthur spluttered in disbelief, and not entirely sure where he had gone wrong. Nor was he sure why there was a clawing feeling in the pit of his stomach when he saw Merlin looking at him with his eyelashes clumped up like he was holding back tears. And he most definitely did not appreciate being talked to like Merlin thought he was some kind of monster. He had to fix it. "This is all just one hypnotically suggestion! As in something that will not happen for many years to come and it is only one option we can go with. I'm not just throwing you out on the streets! You'll have years before we have to seriously come up with a solution that fits us both!" Surely the boy was smart enough to see that Arthur was being reasonable. And unless Merlin really did still harbor ill-founded feelings for him, he saw no reason for him to stay when the time for such arrangements needed to be made.

"We?" Merlin scoffed and absolutely refused to bring his hand up to scrub roughly at any of the fading wetness in his eyes lest it bring Arthur's attention to it. "Don't pretend as if I have any part to any of this, Arthur." Merlin spoke the name so casually, but it had been almost drowned out by the sheer venom that was starting to creep into his voice. "You only want to get rid of me, to send me away from your perfect little life that you've always been expecting to have before I came around. But you and I both know that you can try to send me away all you want, the only way for either of us to truly be out of this little arrangement is for one of us to die. Till death to us part, if you remember the vows we took that day. So tell me Arthur," Merlin allowed the bitter smile show on his face. "Is this your way of telling me you plan on having me killed?"

Maybe it was all in Merlin's head, but he was able to imagine his own death. And his death would not be something simple like an awful accident with the carriage, the wreckage and his body found in a ravine somewhere before it was written off as a simple tragedy. And his death wouldn't be something more detailed like drinking his wine in the middle of dinner only to realize far to late that it had obviously been poisoned. His body found the very next morning by George when he came to get him up for the day. No, there was only one true death for sorcerer's like him. He could swear he smelt something that could only have been described as burning flesh, the scent in the air when one's flesh was being melted off the bone. The sound of crackling flames was echoing in his ears, the sound of the wood as it popped and broke. Would Arthur go so far as to have it burned to get rid of him? Rather he knew Merlin was a sorcerer or not. People who were desperate…they did all kinds of dangerous things…and Merlin wasn't sure just how far Arthur was willing to go to make sure that Merlin wouldn't be his problem any longer. His name would probably be struck from whatever records they have, and his memory eventually fading from the minds of men until he was nothing more than a simple footnote on the pages of their history.

And Arthur was currently panicking, having no idea how Merlin had came to this kind of conclusion or how things had shifted so fast for him, "You are blowing this way over the top and out of proportion!" He'd thought the two of them had been good after the last of their talks, had thought Merlin was starting to see things from his side. But maybe it wasn't right at all, not if there was some underlying issue where Merlin apparently thought Arthur was going to have him murdered in his bed or something! While Arthur did want Merlin out of his sight, he didn't want him dead! All he wanted was for the boy to know that he was safe after Valiant-in a completely not creepy and definitely not a sex situation by tying him up with ropes and chaining him at Arthur's side-so killing him would completely defeat the purpose. He hadn't fought Valiant, hadn't split him directly down the middle on his blade just to send an assassin to murder his consort weeks later.

Besides, Arthur thought privately in the back of his mind, if Merlin were to die then Arthur would just have to go through this process all over again. His father would insist-after the standard amount of grieving time had passed by that nobody would question Arthur when he 'moved on-that it was time for him to get married to somebody else. Hopefully it'd be a woman that time, but Arthur didn't want to take a chance. At least with Merlin he knew who he was now and-despite all of the fights they got into-knew what to expect. The next one might be a complete lemon and a bore to boot. Even if he was scrambling to keep up with Merlin's outrageous accusations, it also kept him on his toes.

And speaking of Merlin's outrageousness, he buckled down and squared his shoulders. He wasn't going to sit there and take it. If Arthur wanted to kill him, he would see just how far Merlin would go to deny him the pleasure of it, "My husband just claimed that he wished to have me killed! And I'm blowing all of this out of proportion."

Arthur was 'completely' panicking at this point and waved his hands out in front of them frantically, "I never said that!" Arthur exclaimed, looking around just as frantically in case anybody overheard this and started up new rumors about it all. He wanted to slap a hand over Merlin's mouth to shut him up but the last time he did it, well…Merlin licked his hand and he was not going back there again. Arthur lowered his voice to hiss out at Merlin, "Stop putting words into my mouth!"

Merlin's response came back just as fierce and as quick, fists waving in the air between them, "I don't have to! Your foot is already there!"

Arthur made some kind of motion, his hand jerking forward as if he was about to grab him by his shirt and jerk him about. Merlin almost flinched but at the very last second-as of the prat whose name shall not be spoken had changed his mind at the last minute-and he slammed his hand into the wall by Merlin's head. Merlin blinked, staring at the long arm that was caging him in on one side, as well as the dark stare from Arthur's. Merlin gulped as he felt he probably stepped over a line and so Arthur really was going to kill him now. From the look on his face-all dark and scary with the shadows of the hall cast upon it-Merlin was pretty sure he was going to die today.

Arthur, very painstaking forcing himself to take a deep calming breath as to not do the one thing he promised himself to never do again, like taking Merlin by the shoulders or the hips and pinning him against this door. It would have been a nightmare all over again, like when Arthur had swore to Merlin that he would never pin him down again like he had on that stupid table when Merlin had first been preparing his armor. And he was not going to go there again. "I." Arthur spoke this very slowly and clearly as to make sure that Merlin got the point drilled into his very thick skull. "Am not. Planning. On. Killing you. But we cannot live the rest of our lives at each other's throats."

Merlin straightened his spine, getting some of his backbone back as he sneered at the spoiled prince, "Finally, there is something we can agree on." How sick Merlin was of all of the fighting. Was this really his life? Was this his destiny? Arguing with Arthur all day long just to protect him from the shadows when somebody was trying to kill him. And Merlin honestly couldn't blame anybody at this point as he was finding it very hard to not kill that arrogant prince himself.

Arthur pulled back away from Merlin before he brought a hand up to pinch at the bridge of his nose, "Good God, what on earth has happened since I left you yesterday? Here I am, thinking that you have finally seen some reason and gotten onto the same page as I am."

Merlin wanted to laugh at that, an almost hysterical type of laugh. People who were on the same page did not move out in seconds after the conversation had taken place. And people who were on the same page did not have fights within moments of them coming back together afterwards. And people on the same page definitely did not suffer through all of this to hide a body from the other. "The same page?" Merlin repeated mockingly. "We were on the same page? Was that before or after you decided my life for me?" So maybe nobody wanted to hire him, but Merlin was still pissed that Arthur thought he could just order Merlin around like a good little soldier who does what he's told. It lit a fire inside of Merlin's belly and he wanted to tell Arthur exactly where he could stick his bossy attitude at.

Arthur didn't dignify this with an answer even when he bore an insulted expression on his face, not entirely sure where they had gotten their wires crossed. Because apparently they hadn't ended on a good note like he thought they had. Arthur turned his head away, "We gotten off topic. You were asking me about the portrait. We aren't doing it." Arthur would be more than willing to eat his own sword long before he had to live in the same castle as a portrait of him and Merlin.

Merlin nodded with a cold and indifferent expression on his face, "There you go," Merlin said. "Deciding things on your own again." It wasn't that Merlin wanted a portrait. He was just pissed because Arthur-stupid, stupid, Arthur-was deciding everything for him! The next thing he would know, Arthur would have been deciding what foods he ate or what kind of clothes he wore. And Merlin would not go compromising who he was even if that meant more fights in their future. Who knows, they might actually kill each other one of these days and put both of them out of this misery stalemate they were in. "And since we aren't doing it, I suppose you're just waiting for the Princess that sweeps you off your feet?"

Or noble Lady, Merlin thought bitterly as the image of Arthur holding Clarissa close as the two of them moved across the dance floor came to mind.

"You are thinking about this way too much." Arthur said, blowing a huff of air out of his mouth. He refused to say anything more than that because it had sounded like Merlin was fishing for information. As if he was trying to prove to himself that Arthur was already very actively cheating on him. But no, that wasn't it because Merlin didn't know about the clause in the contract. The one that said he got the kingdom if Arthur ever cheated on him-was sleeping with a woman in the future for the sheer purpose of having an heir being conceived count?-maybe if it was done only once and a child was born from the union it wouldn't matter…no…Arthur wasn't going to bother worrying about that until the day had come for it. Either way, Arthur wasn't going to practically hang himself by Merlin picking at his words to find something in them that said he'd already cheated. Which he hadn't!

Merlin refused to let it go though, crossing his arms over his chest because he wanted to hear it from Arthur's lips. He wanted to know without a shadow of a doubt that whatever little 'feelings' he had for Arthur a month ago really had just been in his head. "Well, I guess that means the portrait taking will just have to happen without me, will it?"

Arthur nodded, turning back to Merlin now that he knew 'this' was the right page they were on, "That's right. You won't be included in it." But Arthur stopped, looking surprised because he could literally see the light as it left Merlin's eyes. Saw what fight he had for Arthur dying out right before his eyes. There was a twinge in Arthur's chest-something he could only describe as guilt-but Arthur forced himself to ignore it. To mask his features long before Merlin could see it. It was as if Merlin was finally 'truly' starting to accept that they had a facade of a marriage, that nothing was going to develop between them and it didn't matter how much Merlin prodded or poked or tried. It wasn't going to change things. Merlin needed to know this. Merlin needed to know fully what his role in life was, to only be used when Arthur had need for his consort's very presence during important gatherings. And he didn't even have to talk! He just had to be there and let Arthur take care of everything, like how it was supposed to be.

Merlin, solemnly, leaned himself against the door behind him, and looked up at Arthur through his eyelashes. He knew that even a simple friendship or learning how they could work together was out of the question. But he still had a question forming on his lips that he knew he shouldn't ask. But he couldn't of stopped himself if he tried.

"Will you be with with Clarissa? That girl from the dance?" It was the first time Merlin had addressed this, the first time he'd mentioned it since the night it happened. And he wished he could swallow his words back and pretend they never existed. But he can't because they were already out there in the open.

Arthur never answered him, because that was when Merlin reached up to scratch softly and absentmindedly at his chin, bringing his husband's attention to the little flower that was still sticking out of his neckerchief. The flower Gaius had warned him about because it might put Gwen in danger. The flower that Merlin had forgotten to remove because of how sudden Arthur had shown up.

And Arthur was not happy.