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!

64. Chapter 64

The job search had gone horrendously wrong right from the start. Despite how determined he was to prove himself in some way, he had ended up realizing pretty early on that… job searching was hard. But that was because he had never had a job before. Back in his home village, Merlin had been given his daily duties as everybody was. There wasn't any need for him to go out looking for his own work.

But it seemed as if nobody was hiring. Or at least, nobody was willing to hire Camelot's public enemy number one-or at least he had started calling himself that in his mind. After nearly every door in the lower town had been slammed shut in your face as if you were just vermin, it was hard to think of yourself in any other way.

Merlin stomped his way though the housing district of the lower town, cursing under his breath. He had literally been to every stall the lower town had to offer and…nothing. "Stupid arrogant…complete jerks the lot of them!" He kicked a particularly large stone hard and he watched as it bounced several feet ahead of him before rolling to a stop. It did nothing to lessen his agitation.

The first place he had gone after the bakery mishap had been the leather shop, with their work boots and leather belts out on display. It was the owner who wouldn't allow him to get pass the-are you looking to hire for work-and she had started barking at him to either buy something or stop wasting her time.

Then the trinket shop a few stalls down, he'd even tried demonstrating for the man that he could sale the bracelet's and little decorative napkins with Camelot's symbol printed on the top. That has been an epic failure and Merlin seriously recommended himself to never try that again.

He'd even tried the man on the corner who was selling fish out of the back of his cart. It wasn't even a proper stall, just his cart open in the back with a bucket of fish hanging out of it. And he had seemed quite receptive with the idea of hiring an extra hand. Until he had realized the extra hand was Merlin. He hadn't seen a man pack up his stuff so fast and roll it away…Merlin was pretty sure the man was doing something illegal and thought Camelot's Consort was going to turn him in.

A few more stalls later and Merlin hadn't even been able to ask. Apparently word started to spread, and shopkeepers would literally close their windows in his face the second he had shown up. No amount of knocking or begging to talk to somebody had gotten those doors to open up again. Not until they thought he'd left anyway.

"I know I'm a risk, but I can damn well help out around here." Merlin grumbled under his breath as he kicked that particular rock again with his frustrations. He had literally been job searching for most of the day, because it was looking as if the sky was going to darken with just an hour or two left of the light. And he had not one thing to show for it.

Merlin glowered at the ground as he thought to the last place he had tried before people started turning him away. It had been at one of the little clothing stores that sold fabric, it was also the one that had humiliated him the most. "I can't believe I did that." He kicked at the stone again much harder than he had the last time and it rolled even further away from him. He had decided-after what would be his tenth failed stall-to suggest that the eleventh failed stall use him. If everybody already saw him as a disdain to society, then he might as well get some kind of use out of it. And who wouldn't want to see a Royal working in the stalls like a peasant. Sure, he would feel as if he was some kind of sideshow freak in one of those traveling circuses, but at least he'd get himself a starting chance.

…At this rate, he may as well just lock himself in the stocks and pin a sign up with a bucket at his feet. One silver coin piece to throw one tomato at the Royal consort. He would make a killing with that one.

He had even tried a bloody flower shop! And it had gone completely to shit. He didn't even try to get hired at that one, having practically been beaten down at that point in his search and figured he would be turned away again. It was the stupid plant on the edge of the shelf, wilting away in the sunlight that had caught his eye. And he couldn't keep his big yap to stay quiet when he told the shop owner that the reason it was wilting was because he had it in the sunlight. This was a particular type of flower that was rare in Ealdor, but would grow around the winter months. Meaning it liked to be kept in the shade, somewhere dark. That shopkeeper had actually welcomed him when he suggested he keep it in the back so that it could thrive properly.

And then the shopkeeper's assistant showed up and yelled loudly, "What would a Consort know anything about how to keep something alive!" The rather unruly boy had snapped at him. Apparently the shopkeeper hadn't been wearing his glasses and didn't realize who he was. Merlin didn't know the shopkeeper had to wear glasses! But that hadn't stopped the boy from accusing Merlin of trying to coerce a kindly old man into hiring him by taking advantage of his weak spot. And then he had been promptly kicked out of the shop.

"But of course," Merlin growls underneath his breath as he stuffed his hands deep inside of his jacket pockets. He kicked roughly at that same stone, watching as it rolled almost out of sight before following after it. "Arthur isn't even here and he still managed to ruin this for me!"

Merlin had came to notice a pattern at some point or the other. Most people had said no to him because he was Camelot's consort-so he had 'risk' written all over him. There wasn't all that many people who had been willing to put their business on the line to employ anybody that was so…unwanted. Some of the more 'aggressive' people might even try to put a business out of work by boycotting it. And if Arthur had shown up…a few of the stores had been kinder and at least explained they didn't want to risk the prince's ire by treating Merlin as nothing more than an ordinary shop boy.

"What on earth have you been doing to your own people?" Merlin griped to himself. There had been people literally terrified that Arthur would be bearing down over their shoulders if they had dared to say yes. "Do you not have any shame?"

Fucking Arthur, nothing more than a school yard bully. If he wasn't parading around and showing off for them, then he was bullying or all but running people into the ground. Merlin had only ever been his latest target. He could not believe he ever had a crush on him, and it was because of him that he couldn't even get himself a bloody job!

Merlin snarled, kicking that bloody stone so hard that it bounced straight out of his sight and disappeared into part's unknown. There was no point in trying to find it now but…

"At least my trip wasn't a total lost." The boy grinned to himself for the first time that day as he brought his hand up. Merlin pressed a hand to his side, feeling where he knew was his inside jacket pocket. And the slight bump in the fabric that said he had something large inside of it. Or more specifically, there was a bunch of littler objects all squashed inside of it. At some point, he had decided to say fuck it all.

He had allowed himself to be greedy, and to be selfish. He had spent the last few coins he had to buy himself something he had actually wanted. And he didn't regret a damn thing. It was deserved! If he had to spend one minute more of his life being told that he should have been ashamed of himself because the prince wouldn't approve of him working at what was a 'commoner's' job, then he was two seconds away from bloody well strangling himself!

"Stupid things, just come on already!"

Merlin's hand fell away from his jacket pocket as he forgot about the things he had bought for himself. He was standing outside of a very small house with a poorly done rickety fence surrounding the property. Inside of the fence was an elderly man on his hands and knees in the dirt by the side of his house, trying to dig it up with a small trowel.

"It can't be that hard to dig a stupid hole in the ground!" The man bellowed to himself, he had his back to Merlin and it was clear he did not realize he was no longer alone. Nor did he know that Merlin was watching the old man's hand shaking something violent. It wasn't any wonder that this man couldn't get himself a proper hole dug. Not with how much old age had his hand shaking.

"Er…" Merlin stuttered to himself as he then craned his neck all the way around, to try and find somebody that might help. A family member or friend that actually knew the guy. But the home district was completely empty-barren almost it looked like-because most people would be at work usually at this hour. So it was just him and the old man…

"Mother of God!" The old man bellowed, and his hand tremors had gotten so bad that his fingers couldn't hold onto the trowel, letting it fall into the small pit he was trying to form.

"…Fuck it." Merlin grumbled under his breath to himself. He knew this old man would most likely be like all the rest, and try to throw any kind of hidden insult at him, but he couldn't just leave him there! It was just so sad, and it was clear that the old man needed help, even if it wasn't clear quite yet if he would accept that help from Merlin.

Merlin grabbed onto the edge of the fence to hoist himself over, nearly cracking the wood in the process because of his weight and how old it was. Kinda like the old man. But Merlin ignored the ominous creaking and hurried to the old man across the yard.

"Let me help you, sir." Merlin dropped to his knees beside the old man, and he was polite enough to not mention the tremors that his hand was overtaken with as he struggled to pick back up the trowel. "You're trying to dig a hole, right?"

Merlin ignored the old man's startled look of surprise, and picked up the trowel himself to get straight to work. It almost felt like coming home to him, feeling the way the dirt moved under his hands-malleable and easily placed out of the way. He could feel the dirt starting to get stuck under his fingernails as he had to work some to get a particularly thick clog of dirt to come loose. This…for just a second he could imagine that he was in Ealdor, trying to prepare for the next harvest. It was tough work but it had been an honest living.

"Yes, I was trying to plant some little zucchini seeds." The old man said as he settled back to watch Merlin work. Either the old man also needed glasses and didn't recognize who the hell Merlin was, or he was just grateful to get some free labor out of the boy. Either way, he was just grateful the old man wasn't trying to shoo him away like some kind of pest. Merlin was enjoying his time in the dirt a bit to much to give it up so soon. "I like to make zucchini bread but unfortunately, nobody quite makes it like my mother used to. So the only way I'm able to have it is when I grow it myself."

Merlin's head popped up, "Yeah? That's kinda like my mom's potato soup. Well, it has more soup in it then potato, but it's the best damn thing in my home village. She doesn't get to make it to often because we didn't always get our hands on the potato's we needed. But I have no idea how she does it, since we don't have many spices to use…"

His stomach rumbled at just the thought of his mother's homemade soup. He may never be able to eat it again, but at least he could see it in his dreams…now, wasn't that just a bit more depressing than it'd been a second ago…and he was still kinda hungry. He hadn't had a chance to eat much during the day, lost nearly in his mad search for a job that he had damn near forget about the needs of his own body.

The old man nodded, looking serene and as if he was completely at peace with himself and the life he had, even with the tremors going on in his hand, "Now, that does sound like the problems all peasants have. There just doesn't seem to be enough supplies to go around."

Merlin wanted to laugh at that, the kind that sounded more like scoffing than any genuine amusement. He thought of the things inside of the palace-vases or paintings that not a single person actually cared about-but would be able to feed a small family for a month or more if they rationed right. His stomach was churning uncomfortably, so he just settled it with a meek, "Don't I know it." Before he dug in his hole a little deeper for the seeds to get the proper room to grow.

The old man watched him work for a moment before he said, "You seem as if you have this great burden on your mind. Would you like to share?"

Merlin wanted to laugh, because his life had been nothing but a burden since the day he was born. And it wasn't as if the old man was going to be able to understand where he was coming from. "Not really." He said, because it was something that nobody would want him to get started on. And he didn't want to start in the first place. He couldn't tell the man he had magic, and was in a constant fear for his life. He didn't want to explain how he had literally been turned away from every business in the city just because he had been married to a man with money. It was…his life was to complicated for anybody to get what he meant. Or they would probably tell him to suck it up and quit complaining because now he had so many things opened to him since he had married up.

Yeah, Merlin wanted to scoff. He got invited to parties he didn't want to attend because it was just another excuse to badmouth him to his face.

The old man seemed to accept that he didn't want to talk about it, and nodded his head in agreement, "Alright," he said as he leaned so that he was better settled against his house to rest. "But just so you know, I heard that us old guys make some pretty good listeners."

Merlin wanted to laugh at that, a real one this time, just because the old man seemed to be the type to not give in so easily. And that one statement proved it. "I'll keep that in mind." It was going to be some tough work, Merlin had thought, as he went back to working with the ground, trying to get the thick dirt to open up so that he could plant the zucchini seeds.

"…What on earth is going on here!" Said the loud exclamation of a young boy barely older than Merlin, gaping as he broke the peaceful silence that had settled over the old man and Merlin. He stood just outside the gate, and he looked quite horrified to see Merlin there, the basket of groceries in his hand hung so limp that he was liable to drop it at any moment.

Merlin winced as he recognized him, and he dropped his trowel as if he had been caught doing something bad. It was the guy from the flower shop, the assistant who had yelled at him for telling the guy the plant he had would grow better in the shade than underneath the sun.

The old man didn't seem to sense any of the animosity in the air. "Look who I've found out and about Billy," the old man said with an air of cheerfulness around him. "Somebody who was willing to help an old man out!"

Apparently the old man had tried to get his son to help him plant his seeds. But the son had turned him away.

"I told you I had to go to work, you old codger!" The boy exclaimed as he kicked open the gate and practically rushed to them so that he could glower at Merlin. "First, you come after my work and then you go after my father! I know who you are 'Consoet'" he spit this out harshly, a full believer of the talks he would hear daily in the marketplace. Things like how their kingdom would end up being overtaken if it was ever left up to Merlin to be able to defend them. Uther may be a tyrant, and his son was no better, but at least the city could rest easy knowing they would be strong enough to take out any invaders that dared try to threaten them. "Don't you have anything better to do then bother a kindly old man! Or are you just here to laugh at the poor people!"

Merlin bristled at this, feeling his fingers as they went tight around the trowel. He all but leaped to his feet, "Now wait just a minute here!" He exclaimed, waving his arms angrily at the boy, the sunlight glinting off the metal edges of the trowel with a dangerous gleam to it. "I was just trying to help somebody! This is me doing something right! Not 'putting on a show' or however you wanna claim it as!"

How was it that no matter what Merlin did, he seemed to be stuck surrounded by people that were just like this boy. People who could see Merlin helping out an old man and decide that he must have some kind of nefarious plot in mind. After all, Merlin could be living it up in the castle swimming around in all of the mountains of gold coins that he wanted. He couldn't possibly be helping the old man for the goodness of his heart. It was because he wanted something from the man apparently.

"Tell it to someone who doesn't hear all day everyday how you do nothing but sit around waiting for things to happen." The boy said as a sneer filled his face. Then he was turning to his father and practically dragging him up out of the dirt. "Father, just because he has some kind of claim to the throne doesn't mean that you have to entertain him. This is still our own property, you could have sent him away when he stepped on our land."

"The consort, you say?" The old man said as he blinked at his son disappointedly. "My boy, you should not speak so ill of the Royal family when they deem us important enough to visit with. It's quite rude, all the boy wanted was to help with my zucchini."

The boy blushed an angry red because he'd been reprimanded in front of the consort. He may be a stain on their society, but that didn't alleviate his agitation. Eyes flashing, the boy sneered in Merlin's direction, "Helping you plant? What would a consort know anything about planting!"

The boy was entirely convinced that anybody married to the prince would have their heads so far up their arses, that they couldn't even tell the different between up and down. And a Royal that wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty with the rest of them, as if they were equals in some way…it wasn't even fathomable.

Merlin's jaw clenched, his hand around that bloody trowel in his hand going to tight that his knuckles looked white, "I can assure you, I know plenty about farming." He wanted to be able to say more. To snap back and stand his ground, defend his territory so to speak. Now he may not know what he was doing as their bloody consort, but nobody could say that he didn't know what he was doing when it would involve the soil. But he bit his tongue to hold it back. He had a feeling the boy wasn't going to believe him, and he wasn't going to waste his breath trying to defend himself to what he knew would be an ignorant audience.

The boy scoffed and turned to his father, and put his hands on his shoulders, abandoning his basket of groceries at his feet, "Father, he has to go! The prince will not be pleased with finding his consort in the muck! His presence alone will bring the prince's hand down onto us!"

Merlin bristled again, because like hell Arthur cared about what he was doing with any of his spare time. The arse hadn't bothered with visiting him even 'once' during his isolation so why would things change now? And he didn't need Arthur's permission! If he wanted to be able to come down to the lower town and get helping with the elderly and their own little gardens in their front yards, then he would do what he damn well pleased…with the owner's permission of course. "I can assure you, that Arthur isn't going to come down here looking for me anytime soon-" not unless there would be something that 'required' the both of them to be in attendance. But until then, the prince seemed pretty content with leaving him be. It was the one thing he was thankful for, having to not see him every damn day.

"The prince has been coming into the lower town a lot in the last few weeks!" Continued on the boy, fussing at his father and acting as if Merlin hadn't said anything to begin with to calm him down. "And clearly something went on with him, because he's been acting worse than usual, pushing people around and it has made half the city anxious. Most of them have started to bend over backwards just to make him happy. Do you want to bring that kind of ire down to our very door? Just because you wanted to play keeper to the consort?"

Merlin blinked, "What are you talking about? What is wrong with Arthur?" He hadn't heard of anything happening, and George had been pretty good on keeping him up to date on the going arounds in the castle. Arthur was a rare topic but surely George would have told him if it was something big enough to affect the prince's mood. But then again, knowing who his husband was, he was probably just having an epic hissy fit because he had been served the wrong thing for breakfast.

The boy sniffed, "I don't think I need to tell you of what's been going around inside your own castle. Aren't you supposed to know the things happening?"

Merlin scowled, because there it was. A snide comment of how he was failing everybody by not doing anything, even though nobody had bothered to tell him 'what' to do. He couldn't just jump right on in as if he's been doing it all his life. "Maybe I would know more about what is going on with Arthur if you bothered to tell me what's he doing."

And then he bit down on his tongue, because no, he most definitely didn't have any desire to know what Arthur had been up to. If there had been any thought to Merlin after he'd all but humiliated him at the dance. Or maybe he had been a tad to busy terrorizing the towns people to notice his wayward consort had all but disappeared on him.

"Boys, boys." The old man interrupted, as he held his hands up in a placating gesture, as if to tell them both to knock it off. "There is no need to fight. What's a bit of gardening going on between new friends? We just need to be showing each other a bit of respect."

"But father!" The boy protested greatly, as if he couldn't believe that his father was siding with the consort and not insisting that Merlin leave their home. "Do you have any idea what they are calling him? I know that you don't go into town to often anymore, but surely you've heard the talks? He isn't our 'beloved consort that we should treat with pride. He is called Camelot's 'unwanted consort.' I hear that the prince doesn't even want nothing to do with him, and has been regretting his decision to marry him since the day he arrived. Why are we entertaining him when he's probably the sole reason our prince is starting to go off the deep end!"

Merlin almost couldn't hold back the flinch at the harshness in the way the boy had spoken about him. It was false that Arthur's mood or whatever was happening had anything to do with him. Arthur's favorite pastime seemed to be terrorizing servants before Merlin had even arrived in the city, so he wasn't going to take any blame there. But he couldn't help but feel the sting from the boy's words. He was Camelot's 'unwanted consort' and the entire city knew it. Hell, they were apparently getting close to the truth since word started to spread how Arthur didn't want to marry him.

"…Maybe it's time I go anyway." Merlin said, letting the trowel drop from his fingers so it could land on the dirt pile he'd been building. Flakes of dirt coating his palms drifted off to the ground as well. The old man may seem to like him enough, but he wasn't going to stick around for the boy to try needling at him.

Merlin had barely made it to the gate, as he decided to walk out the actual door part as opposed to jumping it like he had the first time, "Wait!" The boy suddenly exclaimed, as Merlin was barely crossing the threshold. He froze, looking back and blinking confused by this sudden exclaiming. "…Just wait right there for one second!"

Merlin didn't know what exactly was going on, but he saw the other boy grab his elderly father by the arm and start dragging him up near the house to where Merlin wasn't able to hear them. He saw the boy whispering with urgency to his father, and he saw the way the old man looked surprised by whatever it was he was saying. That couldn't be a good sign, whatever it was. Then the boy continued with his whispering, and the old man whispered to him back. The old man looked reluctant but he must have agreed with the boy, because he nodded his head at him.

Then the two turned back to him.

Merlin jumped, clearing his throat as he threw himself back to lean against the fence. Merlin also had his neck craned upwards to the sky, as if he was trying to look for birds. Trying to make it appear as if he hadn't been straining his ears a second ago to try making out what they were saying.

The boy stomped over to him, looking out of place and grudging. Merlin tensed, he almost thought the boy was about to take a swing at him for still being on their property. Even if he was the one that had told Merlin to stay in the first place.

"I'm sorry!" The boy practically spit, his fists clenched up at his side. Merlin nearly fail over as he was taken completely by surprise. This was a turn of events he hadn't seen coming at all. When was the last time somebody had told them they were sorry for…well, anything!

"W-what?" Merlin stuttered, eyes boggling at the older boy. He almost thought that it was time to get his hearing checked. Because he had to have some kind of catch, some reason that he was apologizing so suddenly and out of the blue. Especially since he had been the one insisting Merlin get kicked out.

"Don't make me say it again!" The boy said in an angry snapping tone. As if he thought his rudeness was all Merlin's fault. He seemed to realize how harshly he spoke because Merlin watched as he swallowed hard to force all of the agitation out of his voice. But Merlin was still able to hear the straining to do so as the boy said rather forcefully, "My father seems to need some company and I am rather busy at the moment. I'm going on a walk, but I'll be back in an hour. You can have your time with your little gardening, but I expect you to have been gone by then." The boy stopped for just a second and he seemed quite reluctant to add the last part, "…My Consort."

Merlin couldn't get his mind wrapped around it fast enough. One second he was practically being thrown out on his arse, and now he was all but being invited back in. Was he missing something here or something? And don't get him started on the boy referring to him as the consort, when he seemed to hate Merlin and his very existence. Just like everybody inside this godforsaken city did.

"…What…?" Merlin asked him, narrowing his eyes and trying to figure out what the boy's play was here. Did he really want Merlin to hang around just to entertain his elderly father?

But the time for false pleasantries was over and done with because the boy snapped, "Go and get on with it! Just play in the dirt and do try not to make to much of a mess out of the garden my father is trying to grow!" Ah, there the boy was. Somebody who yelled at Merlin for being around, not somebody who would give him false pleasantries just to humor him with.

The man's son took off, storming somewhere down the street until he was out of sight for his walk. Merlin nearly jumped when the old man placed a hand on his shoulder behind him, but he relaxed easily enough. "Come on, my Consort. I would like to get some of this gardening done before my son's deadline is up."

Merlin ignored the title, trying to ignore all of the disgruntled churning the name brought to his stomach, but he followed the elderly man back across the yard and to the little garden against the side of his house. Within seconds the two of them had gotten back to work, and Merlin had put the boy's strangeness out of mind.

He had an hour to pretend that he was back in Ealdor, preparing the ground for the crops to start growing. And he had no intentions of wasting it on a boy who had no idea what he was talking about.

X

Morgana sat at her desk, a delicate and black feathered quill eased between her fingertips as she wrote in her journal. This was just one of the many things she did in her free time, as well as one of the few things she genuinely got enjoyment out of. Seeing her words come to life out on the page as she wrote anything that had happened in her life. It was a really good way to get her thoughts in order, it even helped her when she had a problem in her life that she didn't know how to overcome.

And speaking of problems…her door was suddenly slamming open and breaking her concentration. Morgana flinched at this, her quill scratching harshly across the page and ruining the word she was writing.

"Morgana!" Arthur exclaimed, slamming her door back shut with just as much force as he had used to open it. "There you are! I have been looking for you everywhere!"

Morgana looked at him disgruntled, her quill hanging limply from her fingers. "And you've found me." She said dryly. "In my room, could you imagine that?" She had been inside her room for hours at this point, surely he hadn't been looking for her very hard.

Arthur wasn't in a good mood though, nor did he want to play these word games with his father's ward, "I don't have time for this, Morgana." He said as he strode across her room to stand in front of her desk, planting his hands down on the wooden surface. "I just need to know one thing. You and Merlin, you still have those daily lunches of yours, right?"

Arthur remembered his father mentioning the two had gotten quite close some time ago. It was just before the tourney had started, and before everything had blown up with Valiant's assault and the snakes. It had taken him a bit of wasteful time before he had remembered that particular conversation. But now that he had, he'd gone straight to Morgana. How else was he to make sure that brat of his wouldn't be off causing trouble for him if he hadn't any clue where he was. Like now…Merlin wasn't anywhere to be found and Arthur had a sense that he wasn't going to like what he saw when he did find him.

Morgana didn't seem nearly as enthused as she usually did, looking at him blankly and not understanding what he was apparently going on about, "…Yes." She answered with great reluctance. "Merlin and I do usually eat our lunches together. Although I am sure that you aren't interested in what we spend those times talking about." She made quite a show by setting her quill down on her desk with her gentle and delicate fingers. "So what exactly is all of this about, Arthur?"

Arthur had never approached her this way before, and he seemed to be quite agitated at the moment. Especially considering the way he pushed off her desk when she had answered him.

"I'm not interested in whatever girly talks you two get into." Arthur said, rolling his eyes at her. As if he would ever be interested in what gossip the two got into while they talked over their lunches. He was just making sure Merlin was where he was suppose to be. "I haven't seen him in weeks. I swear, he is avoiding me like I've got the plague."

He didn't like this whole-shoe on the other foot nonsense-that was going on. When the two of them had first married, Arthur was the one avoiding Merlin. And would still be doing so if his father hadn't ordered him to spend some time with him, by dragging Merlin off to his first training session. But in the last month or so-Arthur hadn't realized it at first-but now he could see it was Merlin avoiding him.

Morgana seemed to find this quite amusing, if her smirk and the way she leaned back in her chair was any indicator, "Well, well, isn't this interesting. I can't say that I blame him for doing so. But if you must know, I haven't seen Merlin at all today, so I'm not entirely sure where he has gone off to."

Arthur stiffened, "You just said that you eat with him everyday!" He exclaimed, refusing to believe that he had just wasted an entire day on Merlin. Before he had remembered the two spent their lunches together, Arthur had been in the lower town searching for his brat endlessly. He had just known Merlin was doing something Arthur would disapprove of, especially when he had first realized just how long it had been since he's seen Merlin. Hell, at this point, he didn't even know if the boy was still in the castle or not. And the lower town, it had been the logical place to look. The entire thing may annoy him, but he knew that Merlin had made friends with some of the servants in the castle. But as the hours had passed and Arthur still hadn't came across Merlin and the sense of dread started to grow, he had grown more and more agitated. Servants have been literally running from his sight as if they knew he was in a bad mood. Peasants have literally been going out of their way trying to get him to be happy.

But he wasn't happy. He was agitated. Badly. How was he suppose to make sure another 'Valiant' incident didn't happen again if that stupid boy was off doing god knows what. He even had Morris in a frenzy, running his dumb manservant ragged with his increasing and/or outrageous demands whenever he'd pop up and try to interrupt Arthur's searching in the streets of the lower town.

"We do eat together everyday." Morgana said to him, apparently sensing that Arthur was in no mood for her games. "But when I went to his room at lunchtime, he wasn't there. That was when George saw it fit to inform me that Merlin wanted to go for a walk around the city today. As well as something about one of the sun umbrella's, but I saw George becoming a bit wound up about it and decided it was best to leave him to his cleaning."

"So wait," Arthur demanded, turning his gaze on her with narrowed eyes. "So you're telling me that Merlin is down there in the city? Now, at this very moment?" With a huff of disdain, he stormed around her desk so that he could reach her windows. He placed his hands onto the edge of her window sill and stared down at the courtyard. Just beyond it was the draw bridge that connected the inner city and the lower town. "I was just down there and I did not see him anywhere. I swear-" he leaned his head forward so that his forehead almost touched the glass, acting as if he expected to see Merlin start walking across the courtyard and to the castle at any moment. "If the brat was literally hiding from me…."

Arthur could imagine it well. His brat ducking around stalls, grinning to himself as he would peek around them to see Arthur storming the shops looking for him. He probably thought it was funny, making Arthur take time out of his very busy day trying to find him. Hell, he had better be lucky Arthur hadn't sent any of the guards out to find him themselves. But then again, if he had…his father would have gotten wind of it. And then he would know just how detached Arthur had been for the last few weeks of time. They both knew Merlin had a talent for getting himself into situations, so Arthur should know-felt like it was his job almost-to know where he was and what he was doing and who he was doing it with.

God forbid another Valiant-like monster came across their doorstep while Merlin was out or running the streets without an armed guard.

"Darling," Morgana said as she took note of the nickname Arthur had quite generously bestowed onto his consort. "Is that really the best way to talk about your consort? But, I do suppose that you've never really been all that polite to those you see as beneath you."

Arthur's spine stiffened, and he refused to look back at her. He just remembered why he had decided to look for Merlin himself instead of asking around. He hadn't forgotten about the dance, the way Morgana had approached him and all but yelled at him about having his dance with Lady Clarissa. He did almost have forgotten that Morgana had seemingly taken the boy under his wing, growing quite fond of him although Arthur couldn't see anything his consort had that Morgana could like. Look at what Merlin was doing to Arthur! He could be out there training the new recruits, not trying to track down somebody who should-for just once-stay put.

Clenching his jaw, Arthur pushed himself away from the window as he prepared to leave his father's ward to her writings, "If this is going to be another conversation about how you've decided you don't like my treatment of him at all, then I will just take my leave and look for him elsewhere."

At least now he 'knew' Merlin had gone down to the town. And as consort, surely there had to be somebody who had seen him. All Arthur had to do was go down there and start with his search all over again. God, how he wished he could go back to those first few days after the dance. He hadn't yet noticed Merlin had gone missing, and he'd been enjoying all the peace and quiet he hadn't gotten ever since the day the boy rolled into town. But as those days had past and started to fade into weeks, Arthur's mood had started to fray because of the quiet. It was far to quiet. Which meant his brat was doing something he shouldn't be…if only he could bloody well find him!

Morgana rolled her eyes, waving a dismissive hand at him, "Oh, don't get your knickers into a twist." And she ignored the way Arthur had glared at her for daring to insinuate he wore a lady's garment. "I just suppose I'm surprised that you noticed he hasn't been around."

She was even more surprised that Arthur had bothered looking for him at all. From the way he had been curled around that Lady back at the dance, she would have thought he'd take Merlin's 'disappearance' as a good sign. Hell, maybe even attempt to bring that 'woman' to his father for a 'proper' match to be made. As Merlin was still hanging around though, such a thing wouldn't have worked out.

"Of course I've noticed!" Arthur practically blustered at her, blowing up to the extreme as he threw his arms around. Morgana then whipped her head up, eyes wide in surprise by the huge reaction. She grew even more surprised because for a second…it actually sounded as if Arthur cared. Maybe Arthur was worried? Maybe he thought Merlin was hurt and wanted to lay eyes on him to make sure that wasn't the case. But then the prince had to keep talking and make her deflate, "It has been to quiet around here! That means he is out there causing trouble!" He threw out one of his hands, pointing towards one of her windows. "And mark my words, when I find him…"

He trailed off, allowing Morgana to imagine the possible sceneries on her own, of what exactly he would do once he got his hands on Merlin.

Morgana deflated before his eyes, and those painted red lips of hers thinned. She turned her back to him, picking up her quill and she started to write in her journal again, picking up where she left off. After a moment of the only sound being the scratching of her quill against paper, Morgana apparently couldn't keep her emotions in and she demanded to know, eyes still focused on her writing, "Well, I would've thought Merlin being quiet would be a good thing for you. It doesn't always has to mean he's out causing trouble."

She found his talkative nature to be quite the soothing remedy she needed sometime, like on the days she needed to talk to anybody on something other than what the latest beauty remedy to attract a man was. God, couldn't she find one Lady of the court that had more on her mind than finding a man whose wealth she could take over?

Arthur brought his hands up to his hips, there was no way Merlin being off on his own was a good thing. The last time Merlin had been off on his own, well…Valiant had happened. "Not when Merlin is concerned. Now, did George just so happen to mention 'where' Merlin was planning on going? Any shops that may have caught his eye that he wanted to see."

Arthur was stubborn, and he didn't want to admit to how little he knew of his consort. If he knew more than just the basics-like how annoying, or brass, or a loudmouth-then he might have been able to make an educated guess and pinpoint his position on his own. But, Morgana had probably spent more time with Merlin than Arthur himself had by this point. In fact, Arthur probably wouldn't even realize that he hadn't seen Merlin in so long if Morris hadn't made a belated comment that he was out making a fool of himself.

Morgana was in no mood to deal with Arthur, nor was she in any mood to help him track his consort down. She was sure wherever Merlin was, he was finally getting some very much needed air away from the stuffiness and stiff-like air that coated the walls of the castle. "If you want to know where he is so badly, then maybe you should go find George and ask him."

Arthur gritted his teeth with frustration when his father's ward refused to budge, "Why on earth would I track down another completely useless manservant, when I have you right in front of me!"

He was almost sure Morgana was acting as an accomplish to Merlin's disappearance. For all he knew, Merlin had asked Morgana to lie on his behalf just to see Arthur struggling. He was not going to like it-at all-once Arthur had finally managed to track him down.

Morgana rolled her eyes, lips still pressed in a thin line and growing thinner by the seconds this conversation took, and she reached out to dip her quill into her little glass jar of ink on the corner of her desk, "Well, I hate to be the one to disappoint you-" she said this with her sarcasm loud and clear. "But I didn't ask, nor did George volunteer the information. So I've returned back to my chambers."

Arthur threw his arms up in the air, "And you didn't think that it was important for you to find out? What if there's some kind of an assignation attempt on his life? Or what if he gets himself lost? Or heaven forbid, decides to spend the entire Royal treasury on a bunch of little pointless items!"

Merlin was very much well know nowadays, he didn't even need to get into the treasury to get what he wanted. All he would have to do was tell the shopkeeper to put it onto the Royal tab, and Arthur would receive a bill for it in the next few days.

Morgana scoffed, keeping her eyes trained on her journal. God, Arthur was freaking out more than a mother whose child was out of her sight for the first time since it's birth. "If I did know, I don't think I would tell you. I think it's quite fun seeing you stewing around like you are for a change."

She didn't think she had ever seen Arthur so deadset on tracking somebody down. But it was also quite annoying because she didn't think Merlin wanted to be found. He wasn't a child. He could've invited her onto his little bit of an excursion out on the town. And she was also sure he could find his way back home. It was a castle for goodness sake, the biggest peak in the entire kingdom. All Merlin had to do was look up, and find the tallest building.

Arthur brought a hand up and rubbed hard at the center of his forest, "This was clearly just a waste of my time." He should've known that Morgana would have nothing better to do in her life other than cover for that monstrosity of a consort he had.

"Well, here's an idea for you." Morgana said, as she had a feeling that Arthur wanted to be able to find the boy just to keep him in some kind of glided cage. But she had a very good feeling that Merlin wasn't the type that would allow himself to be caged so easily: marriage notwithstanding. "If you are so interested in knowing what he's out there doing, then you might consider actually talking to him. Get to know him, and you won't have to ask others if they've seen him, you'd already know exactly where he would go. Why don't you start with something easy, like what he's been doing all day."

Arthur couldn't handle hearing another single scratch of her quill against her journal. With a sharp movement, he snatched her book and jerked it out of her reach, her quill making ink scratch another sharp line across her page. It finally made Morgana look up, her angry look intensifying. But Arthur paid it no mind as he gritted his teeth and said forcefully, "I would ask him anything I want to, if I just bloody well knew where he was!"

Morgana scoffed at this, and rolled her eyes at him. This was getting borderline ridiculous to her, and Arthur clearly had the emotional range of a teaspoon if Merlin could get him this riled up without even being around. "I did not mean for you to ask him where he is right now. It's kinda hard to do that when he is not anywhere in sight." She placed her hands on her desk and stood up from her chair so that her and Arthur were more or less on equal footing. Or at least eye to eye. "I meant, you could take the time to ask him questions and you don't have to be a jerk about it. How do you make it so difficult just to ask 'how has your day been?"

"I don't want to know how his bloody day has been!" Arthur exclaimed in a rage. He didn't care if the boy had the worst day ever, just as long as Arthur knew where he was and what had happened during this 'worse day ever' so that he himself could determine if it would be anything to make a proper fuss about. "I just want him where he is supposed to be!" And that was anywhere in the castle. This whole castle to explore at his disposal, and Merlin had taken off for the lower town at his first chance. His consort was so…strange…and it irritated Arthur that he could never make any guess on what the boy was going to do next.

Morgana was also a tad more forceful than before when she insisted, "Merlin doesn't owe you his time, nor does he owe you any kind of explanation for his absence." As far as she was concerned, she was glad that Merlin was gone. It meant that he was out living for himself instead of moping around in his room, it had really started to get unhealthy.

Arthur didn't take to kindly to her words if his face was anything to go by. "I'll just go then," said the prince in an irritated grumble. "And I am sure that you will hear him screaming as I drag him back up here so I can make sure he isn't doing something he shouldn't."

Arthur didn't care for Morgana's words, what was she talking about? Merlin shouldn't leave the castle without his permission! He should not go off wondering on his own without any kind of armed escort. When would Merlin get it into his skull, he wasn't some peasant boy anymore. He was a consort, and there was a whole lot more security measures that would need to be taken. Security measures Arthur hadn't bothered to insist on before the knight Valiant had shown up. But now things started to calm down, and it was time for Arthur to be able to buckle down and enforce them. But it wasn't something he could if he wasn't even able to track him down!!!!!!

Arthur stormed off to Morgana's door and he had every intentions of throwing them open in his wake. He was going back down to the lower town and scour it till there wasn't any stone left unturned. If there was one single place to hide a slim boy, you could be sure that the prince would search it throughly before going to the next hide-a-spot.

"Arthur," Morgana called out to him just as he was reaching for her door handle. Arthur then stopped, his ears straining to listen to what it was she was going to say, but he didn't turn back to look at her either. Whatever she was going to say better include an apology for not being on his side. For telling him that his boy didn't owe him any kind of explanation for his absence. Which he did!

Morgana started speaking when she saw she had gotten his attention, "I can't say that I'd blame him for this little disappearing act that he's pulled on you," Arthur rolled his eyes at this, and tightened his hand around her door handle, wondering if he should just cut his losses and leave. At least he wouldn't be hearing her complain about him again. "But, I also thought that you didn't like him, so why are you so concerned about what he is doing right now?"

Arthur finally turned to look back at her, and his lip curled up a little in disgust, "I don't care." He said firmly, refusing to elaborate on the more important bits. How was he going to keep Merlin safe from threats like Valiant if he couldn't keep an eye on him. Merlin was like a pet, a stupid pet that needed to have Arthur's full attention on him at all times to prevent any kind of travesty from happening. Arthur went for a more subtle answer instead, "But I am going to be demanding some answers for what he's doing. As he's decided to avoid me, which is another reason he's being stupid."

There was absolutely no reason for Arthur to have not seen Merlin all this time. Not unless he was actively going out of his way to make things harder for him.

Morgana slowly walked around her desk to approach him, "Yes," she said in this very low and drawled out manner, her fingers trailing along her desk as she leaned her butt against it. "Because everybody loves it when they get to bear witness to their husband parading his mistress around in front of them."

To Morgana, it had been a disgustingly awful display of false affection. And she definitely didn't blame Merlin for not hanging around to watch it some more if that woman ever had the nerve to show her face back in the castle again. She would do so much worse to Arthur than-avoiding him-if she had been the one in Merlin's position.

Arthur rolled his eyes, planting his hands on his hips and the agitation was practically now rolling off of him in waves, "Will you stop with that!" He exclaimed, refusing to have his own decisions be questioned. Especially over this one moment that had happened weeks ago, it was like nobody could just let it go. "Lady Clarissa is not-nor will she ever be-any kind of mistress to me." Arthur couldn't even risk having something like a mistress off onto the side on the off chance that Merlin would ever discover the clause in the contract that would hand over the keys to the city straight to him if Arthur cheated. "Just as I haven't seen the brat, I haven't seen her since the dance."

He hadn't really given her much thought after the night of the dance either. She had served her purpose distracting him, but it also really hadn't been worth it considering how much of this grief he was getting in the aftermath. It could only be assumed by him that she had retired to her family estates off closer to the boarders of the kingdom afterwards.

Morgana seemed to take this in stride, even looked pleased to hear this, "Well, I guess all I can say is good riddance to her." She said as she sniffed disdainfully in the air. It would be bad enough for Merlin to see Arthur-stupid Arthur who refused to see those that were hurting right in front of him-but it would have been even worse if there was some slut that was running around the castle and rubbing it in.

"Morgana!" Arthur exclaimed, and he almost seemed absolutely scandalized to hear a lady of the court speak of another lady in that kind of manner. Well…not really. It was no surprise to him at all that Morgana was speaking like it but if his father heard her speak with all that contempt and disrespect…Uther would have a field day with her. Even if Morgana had no interest in Lady Clarissa on a personal level, it was still expected to keep a certain level of decorum about the situation. Who knows, one of these days they may need whatever Lady Clarissa and her family could provide for their kingdom. They already owed the family some kind of debt considering the years of service her uncle had given to the Royal army, what was one dance afforded to his niece?

But Morgana had never been one to care for what others thought of her, as she rolled her eyes in exasperation, "What? Can you really blame me for disliking her so? For a woman that you will probably never see again, you'd sure did risk your marriage for her."

As much as Morgana had tried, she couldn't get it out of her mind. She could almost think that she felt worse about it than Arthur did. Arthur was a member of her family-the only one she really knew in the last decade-and she'd had this constant need to apologize to Merlin on Arthur's behalf. She couldn't spend the next years of their life sweeping after Arthur and trying to fix things when all he could do was stop being completely incompetent to him! She had gone to Merlin's room nearly everyday, and most of the time she had been trying to get him to come out, to coax him to embrace the land of the living again. But then he'd always refused. So while she had been surprised he had finally left his room that day, she hadn't gone after him either. The boy deserved any kind of respite he could get away from this dreary place.

"There is nothing to risk!" Arthur blew up at her, throwing his arms out so frantically that it almost made Morgana step back, despite the room length of space that stood between the two of them. And to stop Morgana from being able to continue whatever kind of crusade she had against him, he snapped at her, "There will be nothing to risk because my and Merlin's relationship is. Not. Real. At all. Especially as. I. Don't. Like. Him."

There was only so much more of this that he would be able to take. He had his father that stood on one side, pressuring him to make a good show with Merlin in front of the people just so nobody would know that the king was human and perfectly capable of making any kind of mistakes. He had Merlin off wherever he was, causing him headaches and forcing himself into Arthur's mind at every waking hour of the day simply because Arthur was absolutely terrified that Merlin was going to do something that would end up reflecting badly on him. And Morgana who constantly got in his face about it when Arthur tried to do just one thing for himself for once, wasn't helping anything at all!

Morgana bit down on her bottom lip, and she stiffened her shoulders as she clung onto her stubborn nature desperately. She wasn't quite so ready to let this go, but she could still feel her resolve starting to waver. Not with how Arthur was treating Merlin, that was something she would never get behind despite Arthur's clear distaste for the situation he was in-he had no right to be so mean to Merlin. But…she could feel herself starting to admit that it was okay that Arthur didn't like men, that he had not a single desire to get with Merlin seriously. But still, there were other ways Arthur could have gone about it if his heterosexuality had been as important to him as he made it out to be.

Morgana allowed another snide remark to go pass her lips, still not forgiving Arthur for just barging in here and demanding answers from her over somebody he apparently didn't like in anyway, "You just want to keep him off and chained up somewhere, so that you'd be able to stare at him all day."

That was essentially what it boiled down to after all. Arthur was deadset on tracking the boy down, and what was the point in doing it if all Arthur was going to do was allow him to run off again. Well, Arthur was gonna have to find him on his own, because Morgana wouldn't be apart of this carriage wreck in the making.

Arthur though-at Morgana's remark-felt this sudden surge of panic shoot through him as his heart suddenly skyrocketed to what felt like unimaginable levels. His face went almost as red as his shirt, and he almost felt dizzy as he got hit with the sudden rush of blood. "Who told you that!" Arthur barked, and his voice had grown shaky.

Back at the dance, Arthur had been toying on the idea of Merlin being a pet. Like some kind of untrained mutt that nobody else wanted so Arthur had been landed with him. But Arthur also hadn't told anybody what he wanted to do to the boy so he didn't know how Morgana had found out. And as the night had came to an end, he had forgotten about it completely. Until today. He had started his futile search for the boy today and that train of thought had came surging back harshly to the surface of his mind. As the hours passed by and Arthur had no Merlin in his grasp even as he searched endlessly, the thought stayed with him. People kept their dogs on chains all the time to keep them where they were supposed to be, so was it really so wrong for him to do the same to a wayward pet?…it was most unfortunately frowned upon for it to be done to people. So Arthur would just have to content himself with the image it made in his mind's eye, something that wouldn't go away and give him peace: he saw himself working away at his desk, jotting his signature down on important papers. And then he'd put down his quill and shake out the cramping going in his fingers. Then he would reach down to run his hand through the saggy hair of the dog at his feet. Through Merlin's hair, the boy who'd look up at him in the same (slightly flushed as well as embarrassed schoolgirl expression he had been wearing when he had dared to give Arthur something as silly as a worn out piece of cloth for a favor (which was still lost after all these weeks)). The boy had been wearing a leather leash attaching him right to the foot of Arthur's desk…Arthur would forever take it to his grave that, by the time he had reached Morgana's room, he had already picked out two different options that his collar could be: it was a tie between a black leather collar that had diamonds studded-encrusted-across the material. Or a metal one that would be thin as well as durable, made of the purest gold that Arthur-as prince-could quite easily be able to have commissioned. Something that would fit for a Royal mutt of Camelot.

At least he could be somewhat confident that Merlin wouldn't pee on his leg.

There was a 'very' awkward moment of this silence that stretched out in the room where Morgana just stared blankly at Arthur. And it took a frighteningly long minute before he'd realized that she hadn't been serious and he had taken things a step to far with his pseudo -admitting to it.

Morgana started in this very hesitate as well as unsure way, "Are you really sure that you're not the least bit interested in hi-"

"I'm sure!" Arthur blurted out before she got to finish the sentence, nearly shouting at her as his face went from an embarrassed red to a panicked paleness in less time than it took for a heart to beat. "Not a chance, not even any kind of possibility!" He threw his arms in and out in front of him as he shook his head while he emphasized his words. "Never in any kind of world or universe would I ever want more than a mile long distance between us!"

A mile, that was a good enough length. That way, Arthur could have guards watching the boy for him-hand chosen by himself, which was obvious-without directly being involved in his safety himself. But still close enough to have Arthur get there if the worse happened and Merlin was being attacked.

Morgana slowly nodded, her lips thinning once again as her eyebrows came together in wonderment. That whole chain thing had just been a joke. But Arthur's reaction to it made it sound as if it was something so much more than what she had intended. Hell, it actually sounded like one of those kinky things that one could find in the back of an extremely seedy bar. And not to kink-shame, but she hadn't picture Arthur as the type. And while she hadn't thought of what he might like to do to his partners in the middle of the night, it did make a strange kind of sense. Arthur had always had this need to be in control, and to make others submit to him. As prince, he was able to do that quite frequently. But she also really didn't need to know that something like that also transferred into his bedroom life, so maybe it was a good thing he and Merlin had not been on speaking terms. She didn't think Merlin would take to kindly knowing that his husband wanted to chain him up…

Morgana couldn't stop herself from making one more quip if she tried, "…as long as that mile is only as long as the chain attached to your desk goes."

Arthur-who finally thought things started to take a turn in the right direction-felt his panic resurface so fast he almost felt ill from all the sudden surges in emotion, "Morgana!"

Morgana held up her hands in this placating gesture, blinking at him with an innocent look on her face that Arthur just didn't trust, "Okay okay, I've got it. But just to be clear…not even a chance?"

Arthur's lips thinned so much that they could pass for pure white, already knowing that the Lady was once again asking him if there was no chance for Merlin and him. Well, he found himself to be completely over it, "Merlin is a boy." Arthur drilled out forcefully, he almost felt as if rashes were forming underneath his clothes, or hives from the anxiety this kind of conversation had given him. "So no, there will not ever be a chance. And this conversation is now over."

He used his princely voice, the one that he'd been trained to use to command armies and their respect, trusting him to lead them into their future battles. But this was Morgana he was talking to, and not one of his very many drones of soldiers he had hanging about. So he was lucky that Morgana had also decided that this discussion had-not only gotten them nowhere-but had gone on for long enough.

"I get it," she finally admitted. "You're not gay." She could admit freely that it was time for her to stop pressuring Arthur, and just let certain things be, but she couldn't help but go rolling her eyes when she saw the noticeable flinch given at the word. But there was also some things that she couldn't let go. "But that still isn't a reason to treat him like you do."

Morgana fully believed-just as she said that night of the day-there would come a day that Arthur regretted how he treated Merlin. Even if they never became lovers, they would still married and needed to learn how to co-exist at some point. They couldn't spend the rest of their lives doing this whole back and forth thing that was going on, hell, Arthur was all but practically jumping through hoops just to keep Merlin at an arm's lengths distance.

"Of course I do!" Arthur said firmly, buckling down on his resolves. He had learned all of his lessons already. Arthur was gonna have to be plain and clear about his non-existent intentions. Even if it was just to mess around with him or force answers out of him, those false hopes were clearly a dangerous thing to him. It was what had led to Merlin giving him a favor after all, had made Merlin bold when Arthur should have been tearing that notion down right from the start.

Morgana shook her head at Arthur's absolute ridiculousness. Showing a bit of kindness for somebody you were stuck with didn't exactly make him anymore gay than he had been just a moment ago. "So I suppose…" she slowly breached the topic once more before she'd let it go completely. "If Merlin did want there to be something….even after everything you did…"

Although really, Morgana would seriously be wondering if Merlin had some kind of deeply seated co-dependence, or maybe some kind of abandonment issues if Merlin would still like the prince in any capacity after the stunt Arthur had pulled at the dance.

Arthur tilted his chin up, sounding bold and not the least bit regretful over his actions of the past, "Well then, he's just gonna have to be disappointed, isn't he?"

Because Arthur wasn't going to entertain any kind of…hanky panky! It was what had gotten him into trouble with Merlin in the first place. Everything that had happened would have been avoided if he'd pushed Merlin away all those times he had gotten far too close for comfort. But things were different now and Arthur had no choice but to be close towards the other boy. Not when he clearly needed to have the prince's protection…maybe he really should try to find an acceptable leash for that unwanted pet of his…something discreet that wouldn't actually be noticed as a leash.

"Oh, Arthur." Morgana's voice said softy, and she shook her head. The disappointment was ranging in her words, making Arthur's jaw go tight. "He already is."

Arthur's jaw went even tighter, and it almost looked as if a vein in his chin was about to go popping. He wasn't going to entertain any of those 'fantasies' that Merlin and Morgana must have conked up behind his back.

"Don't say it." Morgana said when she saw Arthur opening his mouth to start yelling at her again. "I get it already, I'm done trying to convince you of anything different." She was able to see a lost cause when she saw one as she could also see she may as well be talking to a brick wall at this point. Arthur was clearly stubborn to a fault, and her time would most likely be better spent trying to help Merlin get a move on with his life.

One that didn't include Arthur.

The tension in the room seemed to abate as they both recognized that they had reached the end of their conversation. And they both turned to look at the door as the sound of a knock was heard. Arthur looked at Morgana with a question in his eyes but the lady just shrugged at him.

"I'm not expecting anybody." She said plainly, but then again, she hadn't been expecting for Arthur to come bursting in minutes before.

Arthur turned back to the door and jerked it open, raising his eyebrow when he saw that it was Knight Gregory on the other side, "What is it?" The prince snapped to the other knight as his mood hadn't gotten much better since he had entered the room. He was still as greatly agitated as he had been before he'd walked in.

Sir Gregory put his fist over his heart, giving a short bow to the prince. "I will apologize over my interruption, sire. But I have a commoner downstairs who is refusing to leave from the premises."

Arthur looked at him in disbelief, wondering if there was something wrong with his knight, and he could feel another headache forming behind his temples, "Are you a knight or not? Just get rid of him! Threaten him with an hour in the stocks or drag him out by the scruff of his collar and throw him out if you must!" This seemed like a small matter to disturb him with. No matter what he did, he always seemed to have those peasants that wanted him to solve every little problem they had. Don't even get him started on the dispute the two neighboring peasants had over a goat as they brought it straight to his attention just last week instead of working it out themselves. Peasants man, they couldn't do anything for themselves.

Knight Gregory didn't lift his head from his bowed position, "I would of course sire, but he is insisting that what he has can't wait for long. He feels you need to be aware of it and is seeking an immediate audience with you to rectify the problem."

Arthur scoffed, because it sounded as if this was probably going to be another dispute on a goat. And he had plenty of better things to do then get caught up in something like that all over again, "If it is that important, then he will just have to go through all of the proper channels like any other peasant who needs to have somebody to complain to fix all of their problems with."

There was a reason those channels were in place in the first place. And a steward whose job it was to keep those channels in place. It was the peasant's duty to approach them in the first place, and the steward had to write all of their information down-as most of the peasants couldn't write for themselves-and determine just how important their need was. It would then be organized from the matter of most importance and down to the least. With any luck, the peasant could be seen to within a few days-depending on the matter itself. As the importance goes down though, there was every possibility of the paperwork sitting off to the side for months before it was seen to.

Some things just had to take presidency over others.

Gregory peeked his head up so that his eyes could meet Arthur's, before ducking his head back down in respect, "I did suggest that he do that but than he says it's in regard to your consort. I thought it was best to bring to your attention for you to decide rather to see him or not. He has information but wouldn't say the specifics. I figured since this was more of a family matter, you'd probably want to have it handled directly."

Arthur's brain seemed to come to a halt, but more like a screeching halt, and he blinked in dumb shock for a moment. Gregory said that this peasant boy had information…about his consort? The very person he had been trying to find all this time…maybe it actually was a good thing he had gone to Morgana's after all, if only because it had allowed him to be tracked down and notified faster, "…I will see this commoner."

With a swirl of his favorite ankle length deep red leather jacket flaring out behind him, the prince strode forward past Gregory and out into the hall without another word. Morgana shared a confused look with Gregory, and the two followed Arthur out into the hall.

Arthur was already walking down the steps out of the Royal wing, looking every bit of the prince he was, when he caught sight of the worn looking farmer at the foot of the stairs. Arthur scowled when he saw that the boy was most obviously panicking, wringing his hands among his nerves. The farmer stopped only when he saw Arthur walking to him.

"Sire!" The farmer practically threw himself down into a low bow so roughly that he had almost brained himself against the railing of the stairs. He quickly got ahold of himself as he said, "It is quite an honor to meet with you and make your acquaintance. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, I know that you are a very busy man. I am only sorry that I am not able to make myself a better first impression than I am doing today!"

Arthur interrupted him harshly, as he had no patience to deal with any of this blabbering or hero worship, "I hear that you have some kind of information on my consort. So come on out with it, what has the boy done to you and how much will it cost me?"

The farmer's every mannerism seemed to be shouting out loud, so it was clear that Merlin had done something to upset the lad. Maybe he had broken something and now it was up to Arthur to pay to have it fixed. Or maybe this farmer could give Arthur some kind of insight into what Merlin had been off galavanting on while Arthur had wasted his day searching for him. Either way, if Arthur did have to pay for something the boy did, then he would make sure the boy worked it off from him. Arthur wasn't going to pay for it and then allow the boy to run off scot free.

"Oh, no sire!" The farmer insisted. "Consort Merlin hasn't done anything that requires a payment! But…if you would like to reward me for bringing his actions to your attentions, it would be most amiss for me to decline your humble offer." He bowed again, making this real show out of it.

Arthur's lips thinned, because he should have known better than to get his hopes up. It was clear this boy had nothing more than his hand out waiting for some kind of payoff. "If you have nothing of interest to me, then I will just have my guard escort you back to the courtyard. And I'll deal with my consort on my own once he's returned home." Arthur lifted his hand, snapping his fingers because he refused to give the boy any kind of actual compensation before he knew rather or not it was actually worth it. At his snapping fingers, it made Gregory come forward and grab for the farmer's arm in a rough manner, prepared to escort him-quite painfully-away from the Royal wing.

Arthur, scowling because he felt as if he had just had his time wasted, started to turn and go back up the stairs, ignoring the squawking of the farmer behind him and Morgana's very disappointed gaze on him. Whatever, Arthur didn't like his time wasted. He already had enough on his plate trying to find Merlin and didn't have the time for somebody just trying to get a hand out.

"Wait, Prince Arthur please!" The farmer was shouting as he was being dragged away. "Will you please get Consort Merlin off my land! I am most certain that you do not want to have your consort doing common work!" The boy was cut off as Gregory gave him this sharp scruff across the back of his head to shut the yelling off.

But Arthur's head had shot up, and he was completely baffled by what he'd heard. His brat was…on this guy's land? Whatever was that moron doing! "Wait!" Arthur called out as he turned back to face them from his position of a few steps up.

Gregory halted on his steps across the room, a firm hand wrapped around the boy's upper bicep. Arthur was back down the stairs within the speed of a single heartbeat, getting into the boy's face.

"So," Arthur barked, clearly intimidating the farmer whose knees had started to shake, he was clearly regretting coming here in the first place. "You know where my consort has been today? Should I take this admission as some kind of confession to kidnapping? Do I have to tell you what the penalty for kidnapping a member of the Royal family is? Trust me, that won't be a pleasant conversation."

Arthur didn't really believe the farmer had kidnapped Merlin. But the idle threat had also sent a clear surge of panic through the man if the expression on his face was anything to go by.

"No, sire! Please!" The farmer begged, and the only reason he hadn't fallen onto those shaky knees of his yet was because Gregory was practically holding him up. "There wasn't any kind of kidnapping! It's him! The consort! He's the one who's on my property! And I've come to beg you for his removal!"

Arthur slowly nodded, his thinking face on as he silently contemplated this. So maybe that brat of his was on the boy's land, but he saw through the farmer as clear as day. He had only came here for his gold, had probably even invited Merlin over and the boy was dumb enough to go. He would have to teach the boy not to go off with the first person he saw, or he'd end up having to pay a real ransom just to get him back to the castle. They couldn't allow any of the peasants thinking Arthur cared so little he wouldn't pay to get him back.

Arthur waited just long enough for the farmer to start squirming, really forcing the common man's nerves up to a breaking point. It was only then that Arthur shot Gregory a look and nodded his head. In response, Gregory let go of the farmer's bicep and allowed the man to return to his feet, his knees nearly buckling at the sudden release.

Arthur didn't give him much-or any-time to recuperate. "You have said my consort is on your property? Is there a reason for that, why would he possibly be there?" His eyes were quite cold at this point, narrowed eyed and looking for any minute sign from the man that would make Arthur have him arrested as well as sending his guards out on a search party to find this man's property. Good god, if this man-Arthur stiffened as the new thought had suddenly occurred to him-had did to Merlin what Valiant had attempted, then what Arthur had done to him on the field would look to be child's play to what he would do to this man. Arthur would be sure to make an example out of him, and nobody would dare to get close to Merlin again without his express permission. Not if they wanted to keep their eyes in their skulls-for looking at the boy-and their hands attached to their bodies-if they'd dared to try touching.

"…Wouldn't you prefer to do this in private, sire?" The farmer pleaded with him, looking nervously towards the knights as well as the Lady Morgana still standing near the steps to watch the scene unfold in front of them. "The matter I have it quite delicat-" he cut himself off, his voice freezing in his throat when he saw just how frighteningly cold Arthur's eyes were.

Arthur was not amused by the farmer in the least. His want for privacy just seemed to be cementing what he feared. The farmer was probably hoping for privacy to either get his handout if it was nothing, or if it was actually serious-blackmail the crown for Merlin and his safe return. He'd be stupid to think that he could get away with this. Arthur had killed one man for trying to touch what wasn't his own, and he wouldn't hesitate to do it to a second if he thought he could keep Merlin away from him.

"My consort," Arthur said slowly, his words seeming to darken the air around them. "Talk now before I have Gregory drag you off to the dungeons."

Maybe an hour chained to the dungeon wall by his thumbs, hung high enough that he'd have trouble touching the ground with his feet, would be enough to loosen his tongue.

The farmer swallowed hard, his voice was sounding incredibly weak when he still tried to ask, "…the gold, sire?…a simple reward to a loyal subject?"

Arthur rolled his eyes as the anger and his righteous fury seemed to drain right out of him at this. A handout, that was all this thing was. Just some kind of shakedown for gold, somebody trying to blackmail the crown would have been a lot smarter than to approach him like this. "If your information is worth it, I will see what I'm willing to do."

The farmer still looked unsure about doing this in front of others, but he also looked a bit more confident now that Arthur didn't look at him as if he was imagining how he was going to scalp him, and enjoy doing it as his brain matter oozed out of his skull. But after a brief moment of hesitation, the farmer gave him a look of false bravado and stepped up to the prince. Arthur stiffened, his face screwing up in obvious disgust as the farmer whispered in his ear to him urgently. Morgana nor Gregory were able to hear what was being said. But the both of them saw the way Arthur's disgust seemed to disparate, his expression going slack with pure shock as his eye's bulged.

"…He's doing what!" Arthur voice exclaimed in loud shock, so loud that it went echoing off down the hallway. It sounded more like a roar actually, and it made everybody flinch at the sudden sound.

Arthur was no long worried that Merlin was off being degraded and violated by this some unknown fiend. But he was panicking now for another entirely different reason. The farmer had been right to come to him, because this was Arthur's reputation at stake. Just how far had word of this spread, and would Arthur be able to contain this…good god, Merlin would be the death of him with how much panic he could cause him in a single hour.

Arthur ignored the farmer boy momentarily and whipped his head around to stare at the Lady Morgana with wild eyes, "See!" He had started shouting at her, looking almost mad with a frantic energy all around him. He had to do something 'before' things started to get worse for him. "I told you! I told you that the… the boy! Was off doing stupid things!"

Morgana blinked dumbly, having absolutely no clue what Arthur was talking about. And the prince was in such a state of panic that it didn't occur to him how he hadn't actually told Morgana any of that. He had just been thinking it…Arthur turned on his heel and was storming off, an expression on his face that looked as if it could have melted the ice caps, so furious and red with anger.

"Wait for me, sire!" The farmer exclaimed as he took off running as fast as he could after the prince. After all, he still needed to show the prince the way to his house so that he'd be able to get 'his property' off of the farmer's property. Morgana and Gregory had been left behind, left to wonder what the hell had just happened and what was going on.

The two looked at each other, "…I think that I'll just retire to my room." Morgana let out a heavy sigh. She turned her back to Gregory and went back to her room to continue with her journaling. She would need to write about what had just happened to get her thoughts in order. And hope that whatever Merlin had done wasn't nearly as bad as Arthur and the farmer had made it seem to be.

X

Back at the farmer's house, Merlin was there having himself a swell old time doing what he did best: working. "See," Merlin was patiently explaining to the elderly father as he worked carefully to shovel another spoonful of dirt on the pile. "This is the perfect depth to it. If you dig to far down, the plant will probably die as it needs sunlight to grow. And if it did survive enough to start growing, you'll probably end up waiting over a year to get anything as the plant will take it's take before reaching itself out of the dirt. But if it's not deep enough, it will have trouble growing roots that would be strong enough to keep it rooted and it'll end up dying still…"

Merlin and the elderly father still had their knees in the dirt, staining their pants with the dirt. But neither man seemed to care as dirty clothes was a small thing to pay for the food that would grow. And Merlin thought his time was well-spent, giving the man some tips on how to keep his zucchini growing. The old man had been poor all his life and he had grown a great number of things, but he'd also lived right down the street from the markets. And while yes, the elderly man did have these brief times where he would worry if there was enough food on the table or not, he had also always had a job and was able to afford small bits of food from the market to keep him and his family going. At least until he had gotten too old and the responsibility had fallen onto his son. But Merlin had come from a village, it was so small that it didn't even have any kind of marketplace. There was no backup plan or family and neighbors one could go to if there had been times of stress.

In Ealdor, everybody got what little they had managed to keep out of their daily rations. It wasn't a place one usually spent coins to get other stuff, although they did still need those coins if anybody traveled to the next village to try and barter some goods in exchange. So Merlin did have a good deal bit of experience, the practical kind, when it came to planting for survival. The best ways to make things grow the fastest, or little tips that one could implement to make it healthier than it otherwise would have been.

And the elderly man listened to all of the tips Merlin had with fascination, growing more and more interested as time went by. Merlin was absolutely thrilled, allowing himself this short pleasure of talking and knowing that he had at least one person outside of his small immediate 'friend group' that was interested in hearing what he had to say. Instead of just dismissing him or acting as if Merlin must not know what he was talking about because of his young age. Or because of his status and as the young farm boy had said-what would a Royal know anything about farming?

It still burned him up thinking about it.

If only Merlin realized there was a shitstorm coming his way…