Arthur marched down the halls of the castle, it was much too early for marching, or even living. The sun had only just rose, and after the lateness he was up the night before, listening to his Father's ramblings, even if they had been about Arthur's Mother, it had taken quite a toll on Arthur's sleep. He entered the King's chambers, as he had been summoned, and saw Gaius there. Gaius, being a good, all round understanding man, had sent Merlin this morning with a Draught, that would help with Arthur's current headache, that happened to be right in the middle of his forehead. Merlin had called it a 'Hangover Draught' but as Arthur simply was not, he only scoffed at this idea, but took it anyway. Gaius bowed his head to Arthur, as he headed for the door. It appeared as if he was giving the King the same sort of Draught, and looked a bit too amused as he carried his supplies out of the chambers. Once he was gone, Arthur turned back toward his Father.

"You wanted to see me...?" he questioned, and Uther's eyes widened a little, putting his hand upon his head.

"Not so loud," said the King, slowly. "I have the worst headache..."

"I can only wonder as to why..." Arthur retorted, sarcastically, and Uther looked up and gave him a glare, not so much out of warning, but as in more of a friendly shut up.

"I didn't summon you to talk of my health," said Uther now, as he stood up from the side of his bed and his eyes rolled back into his head a bit, before he caught himself on a bedpost and grunted. Arthur watched, almost alarmed, but he also thought his Father was a bit of a drunkard and deserved it. "I have called you to talk about something much more important. About Merlin..."

Again? Arthur thought, but didn't say it, his face scrunched up instead, and he rolled his eyes, immediately wanting to leave. "Father...why?"

"You should do something kind for him, Arthur," said the King, and Arthur rolled his eyes. "Dining with me is an honor, yes...but this is young love, dinners and ramblings of your Father is not romantic, Arthur. You should do something grand, to show your true feelings."

"I..." he wanted to say he didn't have true feelings, but that never worked, he might as well be telling the door he wasn't in love with Merlin, it might listen better. "Merlin understands our arrangement, he doesn't expect romance from me, he...is fine with what we do share."

"And perhaps he is," said Uther, thoughtfully, eyes down cast, at the floor, like whatever he wanted to say next was troubling him, and Arthur feared whatever it might be. "I know it must be hard on you, to know one day you will have to marry for your Kingdom. And I wish it could be different..."

"It can't," said Arthur, and didn't look at his Father now either, as he spoke this. Because the next thing he was going to say was a lie. "And it doesn't matter, I've known my place for as long as I've been alive, I know what my duty must be." The lie was that it didn't matter, it did, but Arthur supposed it wasn't a lie in the sense that he normally didn't let it bother him. "There is no point in dwelling on it."

"I know this, Arthur," said Uther now, and finally looked back to his son, eyes locking with his. "In the future, when you do marry...you will regret the choices you make now, with the boy, you will always wonder...what if. Don't you see?" Uther was almost pleading with him. "I am giving you the chance, I wouldn't do it for just any one...if you had come to me, with anyone else, I would refuse, I would never allow it. And at first I was...I was going to tell you I forbid it, but then I looked into his eyes, I saw the love he had for you...I see the way he looks at you. With such adoration, and I thought...at first, he was just jealous, many are, you are noble, and strong, the best fighter in all of Camelot by far...but then I realized, after his confession to me; No...that's not what it is at all, Merlin has no want to be you...only to be near you, to help you. I can see that, quite clearly."

"Father..." Arthur took a breath, almost overwhelmed by these words, but also confused by them, because they were completely false. "I hardly think-"

"I know you try to harbor your feelings, keep them buried deep, you are much like me in that, I am afraid," Uther continued, he continued to stare into Arthur's eyes, as if trying to instill some great wisdom into him. "And Merlin, he reminds me much of your Mother. She always loved so openly, she was never cruel, always kind and fair. She was the only one who would go against me and win, she was the only one I would trust to sway me...she was the gentle touch to my rough edges." At his point Uther grabbed Arthur, taking his face into both of his hands. "You may have her looks and her heart, but Merlin has her spirit, and you...my roughness, together you balance each other. If I...an old, foolish King, love sick for my Queen long gone, can see that...than so can you."

Arthur shook his head, and took a step back, making the King's hands fall to his sides. "What is the point of telling me this?" questioned Arthur, his voice was cold, because he was angry now. How dare his Father bring his Mother up, yet again, after spending so many years lashing out at Arthur for only asking simple questions, and then liken her to Merlin...it was too much for him to take. "What is the point of any of it?!"

"You are still young, Arthur, young as I am not," said Uther, plainly, voice becoming more stern than it had been before. "I no longer have the person I love, but you do...do not waste the time you have, do not wait until it is too late, show him how you feel..."

"And what do you suppose I do?" retorted Arthur, trying to push down the anger he was feeling. He knew now, that his Father must be struggling with the loss of his Mother, he always did, but for some reason now it was much worse, and perhaps this was why he was so pushy about Merlin. "I can't very well shout it through Camelot..."

"No," Uther shook his head. "Of course you cannot...but you can still find ways to be kind to him. You know him, find small ways to show you care. You could..." his Father stopped for a second, thought and then said, with great enthusiasm. "You can take him to his village, to see his Mother!"

"His village?" questioned Arthur. "In Essetir? Cenred's Kingdom, are you trying to get me killed...?"

"I am not suggesting you take an army with you, just the two of you, you can slip in...without anyone noticing."

"You realize that's treason?" chided Arthur and Uther grinned.

"What is treason when it involves love?"

"Treason..."

Arthur walked back to his chambers now, after listening to his Father go on, for a bit more. He was very serious about Arthur taking Merlin to visit his mother, even told him he was released of his duties for the next four days, Merlin, too, and even told him that he would say the pair had gone on a hunting trip, as cover. Arthur wanted to throw up, if he were being honest, he didn't want to go anywhere, he wanted to go into his bed and perhaps stay there for the four days. He supposed the thing that bothered him most was how his Father had compared Merlin to his Mother, how were the two even the tiniest bit alike? Merlin was a complete idiot...his Mother, though, he didn't know her, he was sure she was poised, and fair and just and elegant . Merlin could never be elegant ... and this nonsense about balancing each other out...Merlin was insufferable, he was loud and annoying and hated hunting...who hates hunting?! And Arthur was strong, brave, and a bunch of other nonsense people always told him he was, before he was about to go out and die for them. In the end, it simply wasn't true, they didn't balance anything out, they were just unfortunately stuck together.

Arthur entered his chambers and found Merlin there, he was a little displeased by this, he didn't want to see him. Why, when he had all the time in the world, did he choose now to actually do his job properly? Arthur walked in and threw himself into one of the chairs, while Merlin was on the ground for some reason, looking under Arthur's bed.

"Merlin..." said Arthur slowly, feeling his stomach turn, at the very mention of his name. Too many thoughts filled his mind at the mention of it and he couldn't take it. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm looking for a rat..." said Merlin, voice kind of muffled, by the mattress. "It's eating your boots and I'd like it to stop."

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Maybe if you cleaned by room, rats wouldn't become a problem."

"Maybe if you weren't such a pig..."

"Excuse me?" retorted Arthur, but just as he did, Merlin started screaming.

"I FOUND IT!" he was shouting. Arthur heard several loud bangs and things moving under his bed, along with a lot of loud squeaking.. "OW...COME HERE YOU LITTLE-"

All of a sudden a very large rat was running across Arthur's floor and Arthur rolled his eyes, watching as Merlin, on his knees, crawled after it. Arthur stood up, took his sword from his belt and stepped nearer, stopping the rat, with his uneaten boot, from crawling under the door and escaping. Merlin was hot on it's tail. Arthur brandished his sword, about to take the pest out, when Merlin quickly scooped it up, into his hands, and stood up, glaring at Arthur.

"Don't kill it!" he shot at him, giving Arthur a dirty look.

"It's a rat, Merlin!" he retorted back. "You said so yourself, it's eating my boots!"

"It's still a living thing..." said Merlin, still looking rather offended at Arthur. "He's probably hungry, how would you like it if I killed you just for bothering me about lunch?"

Arthur went to say something, and it was going to be very rude, but then he looked at Merlin, who looked very serious about this, and he rolled his eyes. "Fine...release it outside, but I warn you...if it comes back, you'll be the one dying."

Merlin left quickly, to release the rat, and Arthur put his face in his hands. Walking back over to his bed and falling into it, but when he did, he fell onto his breakfast plate and shouted. And Merlin actually wondered why there were rats...

Not long after, Merlin returned and for a long moment, Arthur had missed the quiet, as Merlin ran around his room, moving things from one place or another and making a great deal of noise. Arthur supposed his idea of resting and having peace were just a joke at this point. He rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling.

"Do you miss your Mother?" he asked, as the words from his Father, earlier, slipped back into his mind once again. When Merlin didn't answer though, Arthur leaned up on his forearms to look at him. Merlin was by the window, dusting off dust with a rag, he was looking back at Arthur, in some sort of misplaced worry. "Do you...?"

"Every day," said Merlin, softly, and Arthur sighed, looking at him for longer. He wondered, he wondered many things all at once, actually. He wondered why so many were so sure they were in love, and why Merlin ever came to Camelot in the first place, why would a man ever leave his family willingly? Arthur thought perhaps he did not know the reason, because he never had the choice to leave.

"Why do you never go visit her?"

Merlin shrugged, "I don't have time," he said, giving Arthur a sad smile. "I can't just leave..."

"I could give you a few days off," said Arthur now, and Merlin frowned. "I think could survive without a servant for a few days..."

"I don't think you could," retorted Merlin, but it wasn't the normal sort of comeback he gave, this was much gentler, as if it were Merlin who couldn't do it, rather than Arthur himself. He sat up now, looking at Merlin, considering him, and he thought about it for a long moment. He stood up suddenly.

"I could go with you," he said, as if it were a brand new idea he had never thought of before. Merlin's eyes widened a little bit, at the idea. "I can tell my Father we are going on a hunting trip..."

"I couldn't..." Merlin stumbled over words, looking a bit nervous now. "I couldn't ask you to do that."

"Then don't ask me," said Arthur, forcing himself into a would-be-calm voice. Of course he was playing into exactly what his Father had wanted, but he did think Merlin deserved to see his Mother, any man did.

"Are you really going to...go see my Mother with me?" asked Merlin now and Arthur shrugged, with a smile.

"Yes," he replied, and Merlin's brow forward, he looked trapped somewhere between glad and confused and Arthur was fine keeping him there. "Besides, now I can finally ask her if she's dropped you on the head...because I really think she had."

(A/N: I decided to post again, because why not?! Thanks everyone for the feedback , it means a lot! I know the length of the story is ultimately decided by me in the end, but I do like some second (and third and fourth) opinions. Because I care what you all think, and I want you all to be happy with how the story turns out. And because I do have a lot of story to tell, I'm just going to keep writing and see what happens! Also, I have just decided upon rereading this chapter now to post it, that Uther's reasons with not dealing with Arthur's Mother's death very well right now are because of the talk he had with Nimueh, which happened in the episode that this was inspired from, there was some great Uther/Arthur's birth character development there. But yeah, I never really thought about it, and it won't be mentioned because Uther isn't going to admit it, because he IS himself. BUT ANYWAY.S...I hope you liked this chapter!)