A/N: I'm late updating again simply because I am forgetful. In other news, I started my last semester of college last week! And I'm thirty pages into editing my 171-page original work and my character is already derailing everything and forcing me to rewrite scenes I was hoping to just rework and now I'm struggling not to get writer's block because now I don't know what direction to take this scene.

anyway, I started writing a sequel to this work, so once this is finished, you can look forward to that to start being posted in hopefully the next year or so (fingers crossed...)

"What do you need, sire?" Merlin asked. He clasped his hands behind his back and squeezed hard to dispel the shaking that wanted to take over his hands. Arthur had been too mild during the reveal and too relieved over the return to tell Uther about the magic, and if he had, Uther would have had him arrested, not dragged him out for a quiet chat, but irrational fears of being found out scrambled through his mind every time he had to be in a one-on-one conversation with the king. Thankfully, those were few and far between and usually only about Arthur.

"I know Arthur won't tell me anything about what happened, so you must," Uther said. "Tell me all the details about what his captors did to him."

Merlin shook his head. "I'm not entirely sure how much help I'll be. He was fairly vague with me too. I know he tried to escape a few days after we first got there and they whipped him and broke his leg. They beat him frequently and one time he just disappeared for over a week. They made him do lots of jobs like servants do around Camelot, but they purposefully made it far more miserable." He shrugged. "As I said, he didn't really talk about what happened. All I could see was the toll it took on him. The hope of your ransom was the only thing keeping him going at times, and when he found out that wasn't coming…" He sighed. "By the time Gwaine had come, Arthur had resigned himself to his fate and his new position." He had barely responded to Merlin's words anymore, and sometimes, when Merlin would startle him out of a stupor, he would automatically respond, "Yes, master?"

Hearing those words from Arthur's lips shattered Merlin's heart every time.

"I wish I could be more help," Merlin said.

"No." Uther sighed. "I'm not surprised. Arthur has always felt that showing weakness is not befitting of him, even to me and Gaius. It causes him trouble at times. I suppose I'll have to see if I can wrestle the truth out of Arthur himself. You may go."

Merlin nodded and wrapped his arms around himself as Uther strode away. The cold breeze cut right through his shirt, bringing the smell of more snow on the air.

He stood musing on his memories for he wasn't sure how long before he broke himself out and stepped up to the tent flaps. The quiet voices of Arthur and Gaius talking with each other froze Merlin's steps. He peeked in through the crack of the flaps.

"Working, something…I don't know," Arthur said. "I keep waiting for someone to bark orders at me. I shouldn't be just sitting here resting."

Gaius sat down next to Arthur on the bed and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're not a slave anymore. It's perfectly alright for you to be resting."

"I know that, but…I don't know it, all the same," Arthur said. "The things they called me…I can't just forget them." His face crumpled. "They hated me so much, Gaius. Why did they hate me? Is it so wrong to be a nobleman? Did I do something wrong? Am I really a worthless slave like they said?"

"Oh, my boy, my poor, poor boy, of course not." Gaius gathered Arthur into his arms and pressed his head down on his shoulder. "Don't you ever say that."

"But how can you know?" Arthur clung to Gaius as if he was his lifeline.

Gaius ran a hand up and down Arthur's back. "I helped deliver you into this world, Arthur. I bandaged every scrape and taught you many of the things you know today. You've cried on my shoulder more times than you'd care to remember. I think I, of anyone, would know if you were a worthless slave. And believe me, you are far from that."

Merlin's stomach curled. He shouldn't be listening to this. He forgot sometimes that Arthur had known Gaius for far longer than Merlin ever had, that Gaius had known Arthur as a small child. They had a bond too, even though Merlin didn't see it much. But for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to move away.

Arthur broke down into sobs. "I thought I'd never see you again. I thought I'd never see anyone again. I thought I'd be there forever, doing their stupid work and being beaten around."

"Well, you're here now. You're safe. I've got you," Gaius said. "I won't let them take you back, if an old man can have anything to say about it." He drew out a sleeping draught from his robe. "How about you take this and try to get some rest?"

Arthur obediently drank the draught and sank down under the furs. "You know, I miss before, when I could just stay with you all day and you would tell me those stories and about everything in your books."

Gaius smiled. "I miss that too. You were so much smaller then."

"And you weren't quite as ancient." Arthur buried his face in his pillow, but Merlin could still hear him snicker.

"Hey, now," Gaius protested. "Just because I'm old to young eyes doesn't mean I was around during the days of the Roman Republic."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Arthur said. "How did you feel when Julius and Augustus Caesar turned the republic into an empire?" He yawned audibly.

"Haha, very funny." Gaius smiled softly as Arthur's tension disappeared and his eyes dropped closed. He patted his head. "Sleep well, little one."

Merlin slipped away before Gaius could notice him spying.

A/N: Not sure if you caught it, but I wanted Arthur asking if he was a worthless slave and Gaius's response to kind of mirror Merlin asking in the first episode if he was a monster