Archive of Our Own ^beta

“So let me get this straight.” Gwaine said as he tried to make sense of what Arthur had said.

He wasn’t the only one confused. All of the knights were staring at their king as if he’d suddenly grown a second head. That would have been at least more plausible than what had come out of his mouth.

“You are leaving the castle…” Gwaine said slowly. Each word emphasized more than they needed to be.

“Yes.” Arthur replied.

“Without Merlin?” Yeah no. Saying it out loud was just as strange as hearing it.

“Yes, Gwaine. I’m going without Merlin.” Arthur repeated.

There was a blank silence across the round table.

Finally Percival spoke up. “So, Merlin is going to be following after you?”

“No.” Arthur half snapped but drew in his own irritation with a calming breath. “Merlin isn’t coming at all.”

“So you’re not going?” Lancelot question.

Arthur threw up his hands. “No, I’m going. Merlin is staying. I don’t see what’s so complicated about this.”

Now even Leon was getting involved. “But you never go anywhere without Merlin, sire.”

The pout on his face would have gotten him teased in any other situation, but the knights were all still trying to make sense of this conversation.

“He is right.” Elyan added. “I mean, you haven’t been king for more than a year and I’ve still never seen you apart.”

“We are apart all the time. We’re apart right now.” Arthur protested.

“Yeah, because he left here two minutes ago to get refreshments and is probably already on his way back. Hence how this conversation started when you said, hey now that Merlin is gone, I need to talk to you guys.” Gwaine’s Arthur voice was definitely improving.

“Enough!” Arthur looked like he was ready to pull his hair out. “Look, all I’m asking is that while I’m gone, I need you guys to keep an eye on Merlin for me. The minute I leave him alone, he always seems to get into trouble.”

Lancelot tentatively held up his hand like a child in a school room. “Isn’t it usually the other way around?”

And with that Arthur was definitely done with them. He stood up from his chair and slammed his hand down on the table. “This is a direct order from your king, while I am gone, protect Merlin like he is me, got it?”

They all nodded.

The doors opened to Merlin wheeling in a tray of fresh drinks and snacks. “Who wants a drink?”

Merlin was an absolute angel. They had no idea why Arthur was so worried about Merlin when he was the one who always got them out of trouble. What was the worst that could happen in the five days Arthur was away?

Day 1: Leon

Leon took watch over Merlin the first day, which was easy enough. They often spent a lot of time together, First Knight and Court Sorcerer. Their jobs kept them close to Arthur’s side on most days. So, Leon simply chose some policies they needed to get some work done on and asked Merlin for help with it.

Merlin, ever the great man that he was, happily agreed to help Leon sort out the documents. Honestly, he was more helpful than Arthur ever was when it came to policy. The morning went smoothly, and Leon finished more paperwork in a few hours what usually took him days.

“How are you so good at this?” Leon asked as they made their way down to the kitchens to get some food.

“What? You think Arthur knows how to do his own paperwork? Arthur may where a crowd, but he does not run this kingdom.” Merlin scoffed.

The real trouble came after lunch, when they headed out to the training field.

Since magic had been legalized and Merlin appointed the Court Sorcerer, he had not only been watching training from the sidelines but began teaching the knights how to defend against magical attacks.

It was amazing watching Merlin use his magic. Having fought on the battlefield with Merlin before, he knew Merlin was stronger than he appeared. But when he wielded magic, he was on toe with Arthur in battle prowess which pissed off many of the young knights.

For some of the younger knights who had come on more recently, they had been raised in the wake of Uther’s hate and prejudice against magic. Add that to the fact that they couldn’t land even a single blow on some scrawny kid who had never wielded a sword in his life, it was all a violent storm of animosity.

Of course, Merlin was completely oblivious to it. He didn’t seem to realize how much some of the knights disliked him. Or that they were actually trying to hurt him in practice by switching the dull swords with sharpened ones. Even for Leon, it took a closer look to realize the difference. If he got close enough to Merlin, he could cut an arm or an eye.

The culprit was a young Lord Darvin. He had been jealous of Merlin for a while, but never dared to do anything while the king was around. Well, he might have thought he was going to get away with it, but he didn’t realize exactly how protective Leon could be.

Leon charged into the middle of the field, shield in hand. He headed straight for Lord Darvin who was swinging his sword as Merlin parried him with his magic. Leon grabbed him by the back of his shirt. The boy swung wildly in defense and Leon brought up his shield. He felt the blade sink into the wood and stick there. Which gave Leon the chance to pull the weapon out of Darvin’s hands and take it for his own. He tossed the shield away and pointed the blade straight at the boy’s chest.

Now that he was close enough, Leon leaned forward to whisper in his ear. “Bring a sharpened blade onto my training field again and I’ll cut out your own heart with it. You have two minutes to get off this field or I’ll report this incident to King Arthur.”

The boy ran off with his tail between his legs and Leon turned back around to find Merlin was frowning at him. “What was that about?”

“Nothing to worry about. Would you go a few rounds with me?”

“Sure.” Merlin got into position.

“Let me get a different sword first. This one belongs to a coward.”

Day 2: Percival

Percival was assigned to Merlin next. Wanting to avoid the trouble he had heard from Leon that Merlin got into yesterday, he convinced the court sorcerer that today was a good day to reorganize his office.

When he had been appointed Court Sorcerer, Arthur had had a whole room commissioned for Merlin’s use. It became the catch all place that Merlin kept his magical tomes, potion ingredients, and any other magic artifacts he got his hands on.

One would think that with Merlin’s years as a manservant, he would keep it in pristine condition since he was so good at cleaning. Nothing could be farther from the reality. The whole room was a complete mess. Honestly, words could not describe.

He grinned up sheepishly at Percival as he stared at the utter chaos. “I’ve um…been busy.”

Percival silently gapped at the piles of books stacked on the floor in front of the bookshelves rather than on them.

“I mean…it could be worse.” Merlin tried.

Then there were the hundreds of pieces of parchment scattered across every surface that made it look like a hurricane had blown through.

“Shouldn’t be too hard to organize.”

Still Percival couldn’t even make a sound as his eyes wandered over the dozens of stained potion bottles pilled up in the small sink.

“Okay!” Merlin finally snapped. “You don’t have to make me feel worse about it. You don’t have to help. I have magic. I can do this myself.”

Percival forced his jaw off the floor. “No, no. I offered to help. I’m just surprised.”

“Yeah, I get a little distracted when I’m working in here.” Merlin shrugged.

Together, they pushed up their sleeves and got to work. Percival didn’t really do much. Merlin had set him on sorting the reams of papers since it was the only thing he couldn’t do with his magic. All the rest, the washing, the scrubbing, the sweeping, the stacking, was done by Merlin’s magic.

It was really cool how he could do so many things at once. It went to show how powerful Merlin really was. Truthfully, if it wasn’t for how fascinating watching Merlin’s magic work was, Percival would have failed in his duty. Because if he hadn’t been watching, he would have missed the bookshelf suddenly wobbling. Somehow, the books Merlin had stack on it upset the balance and the whole thing was tumbling straight towards said man.

Merlin, the adorably oblivious man, didn’t notice it at all as his back was turned.

Percival leapt across the room, grabbing the bookshelf and pushing it back into place before it could crush him. However, he had only saved the structure of the shelf itself. Every book was already caught int gravity’s grip and continued their descent towards the floor.

Merlin turned around to see only Percival now in the midst of a pile of books. He frowned at him. “Percival. Can you watch where you’re going? Now I have to pick those up again.”

“No, no!” He waved Merlin away. Afraid the same thing would happen over again if he left the mage in charge. “Let me.”

Merlin shrugged. “Whatever.”

Day 3: Elyan

Having heard from both Leon and Percival how easily Merlin seemed to find trouble in the castle, Elyan thought it best to get away for the day and enjoy a nice relaxing trip through nature. With a basket of food graciously packed by his loving sister, the two of them saddled up their horses to go herb picking for Gaius.

There was no hurry, so they took their time in the forest. Talking pleasantly about their lives growing up and genuinely enjoying time together as friends. Elyan and Merlin didn’t get to hang out very often as their duties often found each on opposite shifts or different parts of the castle. The only time they really saw each other were during big battles and dangerous adventures. Yet they had discovered they had a lot in common with how they grew up.

The day could not have been better spent and there had been no trouble in sight.

“I think this was really what I needed. The castle can just feel so stuffy sometimes, you know.” Merlin bemoaned.

Elyan nodded. “True. I’d take a day under the open skies over a grand castle any time.”

“Wait, in this scenario is the grand castle mine, or just one I’m staying in for the day?” Merlin asked.

“What difference does that make?” Elyan said with a chuckle.

“Well, if the castle is mine, then I can just put in a sky light or something. But if I’m just choosing to stay under the open sky or in a castle, yeah I’d probably chose to stay…” he suddenly trailed off at the same time as he was slowing his horse.

“What is it?” Elyan’s hand drifted towards his sword.

Before they had come out there, he had ordered extra guards in the woods to ensure there weren’t any bandits passing through, but one could never be too careful.

But it wasn’t concern on Merlin’s face, but glee. “What are the chances!”

Elyan tried to follow his gaze, but saw nothing more than underbrush and trees. “What?”

“Those herbs. They’re super rare and really good for pain reduction.” Merlin was already getting off his horse and marching into the brush.

Elyan couldn’t really say anything against his actions as they were in the woods to gather just such herbs, but something was making him feel nervous. So, he did what any good knight would do and followed after him. “Careful Merlin.”

The foliage was thicker there than it had been in other parts of the woods. It was hard to see where he was walking through the overgrown grass. By the time he caught up, Merlin was already plucking the herbs and placing them in his satchel. “You know, I’m really surprised we found these. They’re very rare in this area.”

“Why’s that?” Elyan asked.

Merlin stood up to move to the next patch of them a little farther off. “Well usually they only grow on rocky cliff—”

Then like the world was crumbling beneath him, Merlin was falling.

Elyan dove to catch him. He barely caught his wrist in time. Luckily, Merlin was very light, and Elyan’s chainmail was very heavy or they both would have gone over the well hidden ledge. The drop looked to me at least twenty to thirty feet and would have ended with at least a few broken bones.

“Huh, did not know that was there.” Merlin said.

Elyan groaned. Gods when was Arthur coming back.

Day 4: Gwaine

Gwaine had no idea what the others were talking about. Leon and Percival both had sworn up and down that Arthur was right, and Merlin was a trouble magnet. Elyan had nodded in agreement although he refused to talk about whatever had happened yesterday while they were herb picking. Whatever, those three obviously just didn’t know anything about bodyguarding like he did.

Gwaine had gotten through a whole day of court affairs, training, and some other fun shenanigans planed by yours truly without Merlin getting into a lick of trouble. In fact, he planned on taking the man to celebrate.

Since Merlin and Arthur had started, well…honestly, Gwaine didn’t know what was going on between them. One minute they seemed angry at each other, then they were suddenly hot and heavy, and then they acted like nothing had happened because it was no one’s business but ours Gwaine!...well, whatever it was they were doing together, Merlin had stopped coming to the pub with him.

He always claimed he was ‘busy’ or had ‘duties’ or some such thing. Now, there was no excuse. Just him and Merlin and endless rounds of drinks.

Still, even as the beer was put down in front of them, Merlin seemed reluctant to drink. “Come on, what’s the worst that can happen? It’s your night off. I’ll watch your back for you, buddy.”

Merlin gave that tiny little smile that made everyone in Camelot love him and chugged down his first glass. He slammed it down with more gusto than a man his size had any right too. “Alright, but remember, you asked for it.”

The next few hours of the night were a blur of more drinks and laughter and sharing stories. At some point, Gwaine was pretty sure the two of them had started some sort of pub song, but no one else seemed interested in joining in, so the two of them rocked out a duo solo. Or was it a solo duo? Didn’t really matter.

Now, Gwaine had been in and out of every pub in the realm more times than he could count. He knew his limits and knew how to keep his wits about him no matter how much he’d had to drink. What he should have realized was that Merlin had none of those skills and pretty soon Merlin was gone.

“And that’s why I call him a dollophead.” Merlin stated with a sense of finality as if it was the punchline to a great story. Only he hadn’t actually said anything before that.

“Call who a what now?” Gwaine asked.

“Arthur!” Merlin pouted. “He’s so stupid. I said that to him and he can’t even say it back. Like what does he take me for? And then… and then… and THEN he has the audacity to run away claiming ‘oh I have important business Merlin’ and ‘you don’t need to come Merlin’. Get it, total doll-op-head.”

Gwaine didn’t even understand half of what he had said, but he got enough to read between the lines. It was time to go home.

“Sure, sure.” Gwaine said. “The Princess is a complete idiot. Now, why don’t we head back to the castle and get some sleep.”

At the word sleep, Merlin laid his head into his hands. “Yeah, sleep sounds nice. I miss Arthur’s bed. It’s so warm and soft and those abs.”

Yep, that was TMI even for Gwaine. If Merlin started going on about the king’s abs, he would never be able to think of anything else again every time he looked at him.

“Alright, you stay here, my good man. I’ll go pay the tab.” Gwaine patted his shoulder and headed up towards the front of the bar.

He couldn’t have been gone for more than three minutes, but when he turned around, he couldn’t find Merlin anywhere. He was no longer at the table. That sobered Gwaine up mighty quick.

There were still a number of people around, so Gwaine started asking every patron who had been near their table. It took far too long to find someone who had actually seen anything. “Oh, the scrawny guy? Yeah, I saw his friend escorting him back up to his room upstairs.”

FUCK!

Gwaine was running up the stairs. He heard the pair before he found the man who had taken advantage of Merlin’s state. “Yeah, got a nice bed you can sleep in. Not much farther.” He was dragging a half conscious Merlin down the hallway.

Before he had even made it to his door, Gwaine had pulled Merlin out of his grip and had the man at knife point. “You picked the wrong person to touch. Honestly, you’re lucky its me here rather than the King himself. See, King Arthur would have run you through without a single thought for so much as touching a citizen of his kingdom, let alone his own personal Court Sorcerer. Me, on the other hand, I think men like you should live, nice long lives trapped in a cage paying for every vile thing you’ve done to your fellow man.”

An hour later, the man was locked in a cell under the castle to await trial, and Gwaine was tucking a sleeping Merlin back into his own bed. Alright, so maybe the others weren’t crazy about Merlin attracting trouble. How was he to know?

Day 5: Lancelot

It was the last day before Arthur’s return. Only one more day of being on Merlin duty and they would all have some peace. Lancelot was on vigilant look out after hearing what had happened with the others.

Nothing was going to happen to his friend on his watch.

Of course, just by thinking such, he had jinxed himself. For it didn’t take long to realize some assassin had snuck his way into the castle.

The first sign of trouble came when a chandelier mysteriously fell during a meeting. Lancelot had pulled him out of the way in time, but it was close. For a man who had used the exact same trick a dozen times in battle to take out his enemies, one would have though Merlin would have suspected foul play immediately. Instead, he just complained that Arthur needed to have the old rusty hinges checked.

The second one was a little more obvious as a stray bolt had shot across the training ground straight towards the Sorcerer. Lancelot had grabbed a shield and pulled it up in time to stop anyone from getting hurt. Merlin had then chewed into all the knights about watching their aim. Had he really not noticed it came from the trees in the distance and not the training grounds?

The last one only a moron could miss as the servant finally having enough of his near misses decided to approach Merlin as he was turning a corner with a knife. Lancelot wrestled it away from him and had the man arrested. It turned out it had nothing to do with Merlin being the court sorcerer. The man had been fired for incompetence based on a report Merlin gave to the head steward last year. He’d blamed Merlin for his life falling to ruin instead of accepting he’d sucked at his job.

Yet when Lancelot tried to address it with Merlin, he blinked at him like he was confused. “What man?”

Lancelot was starting to understand how Merlin felt all those years of watching Arthur’s back. “You didn’t see a man with a knife coming right for you!”

Merlin didn’t even seem fazed by the news. “Sorry, my mind has been preoccupied.”

“Really, I didn’t notice.” Lancelot blew out a long sigh and sat down next to his friend. “Do you want to talk about what’s on your mind?”

Merlin was quiet for so long Lancelot thought he wasn’t going to say anything. “Arthur will be back tomorrow.” He said forlornly.

Not at all the tone Lancelot expected. “I figure you’d be happy he was coming back; I mean with you two being—”

“We’re not.” Merlin sniffled suddenly. “Or we’re not going to be once he gets back.”

“What are you talking about?”

Merlin rubbed at his eyes with his sleeve. “I knew when we started, well…I knew it couldn’t last because Arthur is a King and if he’s going to complete his destiny then one day, he will have to choose a Queen to rule at his side. So, I promised myself I would never ask for more than he was willing to give, and I wouldn’t get all attached and emotional about it. You know Arthur, he doesn’t like anything with emotions involved, and I know with me he was only looking for something physical and convenient.”

Despite his attempts to cover them, tears were dripping down his eyes. “I never should have said it and I apologized a dozen times and said I hadn’t meant it and it was just in the heat of the moment and that we could forget all about it and go back to our arrangement, but he…he left me behind and if that doesn’t spell it out crystal clear that we’re done and I fucked everything up, I don’t know what will.”

“Merlin.” Lancelot wrapped him in a side hug.

He’d had no idea that that was what had prompted Arthur’s sudden trip. He hadn’t even realized that the relationship between the two of them had been more along the lines of friends-with-benefits rather than true-love. It had always seemed much more the latter when he saw them together.

Arthur was lucky he was out of town or Lancelot would have challenged him to a duel on the spot for hurting his friend so badly. No wonder the king had been acting strange when he left. Just wait until he got back tomorrow, there would be five angry knights ready to greet their idiot king.

“I’m so sorry. He’s an idiot if he doesn’t see how lucky he is to be loved by someone as wonderful as you.” Lancelot assured him. “I wish you would have told us sooner rather than letting it all fester in your head. Any one of us knights would have been happy to listen or be there for you.”

“But you all were.” Merlin protested. “You’ve all been so nice spending time with me and keeping me distracted. I was honestly doing fine until I went drinking last night and it all came rushing back and then with Arthur coming back tomorrow…”

“Well, is there anything we can do for you? You know we’d do anything.”

Merlin thought on it for a second. “Maybe…I know Arthur is probably going to want to talk about it in private since we’ve been trying to keep it all on the down-low but could you guys maybe be there with me when Arthur arrives. And maybe after he breaks it off, could you all take me out for drinks again?”

Lancelot nodded. “Of course. You’re never in this alone.

Arthur returned to Camelot to find one red-nosed, bleary-eyed Court Sorcerer and five very angry knights.

“Everything alright?” Arthur asked as he dismounted.

“Fine.” Merlin said in a cheerful tone that sounded forced.

The knights all glared at him like he was suddenly on trial. Oh great, well obviously they all knew what had happened. They all knew how he had fucked up probably the best thing that had ever happened to him.

But at least they were here to see him try to make it right. That had been what the whole trip had really been about. When he had realized the depth of his mistake, he’d needed some space to figure out what had gone wrong and how to fix it. He was pretty sure he had the solution now, but he hadn’t planned on an audience for the whole deal.

The truth of it was though that he didn’t want to put it off for another second. His heart couldn’t take the strain any longer.

“Merlin.” Arthur said in as confident a voice as he could manage. His hands could shake all they wanted, but he needed to make sure his words were clear so Merlin didn’t get the wrong idea again. “I think it’s time we talk about what’s between us, and I have to take the majority of the blame for why we haven’t up until this time. You know my father wasn’t the kindest man. He raised me to believe that emotions were a weakness, especially tender emotions, so from a young age I had learned to avoid the topic all together. However, I should have realized what affect that was having on you. See, what I felt for you was so strong, I didn’t think I needed to put it into words, but it seems my failure to do so led to you drawing some incorrect conclusions and that’s on me.”

He found his throat going dry with the next part. Come on. He knew this speech. He had been practicing it over and over again over the last five days because it was the most important speech he may ever give. “You see, when you told me you loved me, I was so taken aback that I couldn’t say anything in response because to me you are the most wonderful, brave, tenderhearted, resilient man I have ever met. And the gift of your love was more than I knew how to accept. But when I didn’t say anything, you suddenly started apologizing and trying to take it all back and started talking about this ‘arrangement’ between us and I was left in silence again. Merlin, I hadn’t realized you thought that what we were sharing was something meant only to satisfy the physical. That you thought I was only with you because I wanted that from you. Merlin, I love you. I love you so much and for so long I don’t even know when it began. But the fact that I had failed to show you that rocked me to my core.”

“Arthur—” Merlin tried to interject, and as much as Arthur wanted to hear every word he had to say, Arthur knew if he didn’t finish he would lose his courage.

“I needed time to think, to myself, to figure out how I could show you all you mean to me and that you’re so much more than some fun or temporary fling. I love you, Merlin, and I will never stop loving you and starting from right now I am going to tell you that every day so you never forget again. That is at least, if you can forgive me for ever making you think otherwise and say yes.”

“Yes to what?”

Arthur fumbled in his pocket for the ring he’d picked up on his way back to the castle. The ring he’d had designed specifically for Merlin, with gold and red intertwined in the shape of a coiled dragon.

“Merlin of Ealdor, will you marry me and rule this kingdom that you helped me build at my side forever?”

“Yes!” Merlin threw himself at Arthur and Arthur hugged the man he loved with all the strength he had. Only Merlin wasn’t satisfied with just a hug. Soon he was pulling back and kissing Arthur senseless.

The knight’s angry expressions had been replaced by happy congratulations.

That night a celebration was held for the whole kingdom to rejoice in the news of their soon to be King Consort. It was only then, while Merlin had slipped away to show Gwen his ring that the knights got a chance to talk with Arthur alone.

“You know, Princess, you’re lucky you opened with the proposal. Or else you wouldn’t have even made it back into the castle without five duels on your hands.” Gwaine said.

Arthur rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, figured that out when I saw you all standing there. I hadn’t meant to hurt him so much. Damn I can be such a dollophead sometimes.”

Leon patted his shoulder. “You sorted it right eventually though.”

“And don’t worry so much about it, you can’t be in love without being a fool at the same time.” Elyan added.

“Still, I say he’s lucky Merlin is the forgiving type. I would have made him work harder on his apology before I accepted.” Percival said.

“Really? Like to play hard to get? Guess I’ll put that little nugget away for future use.” Gwaine teased.

“Oh, before I forget,” Arthur suddenly said. “Thanks for keeping an eye on Merlin while I was away. I knew he probably wasn’t in a good place and figured he could use some friends, but I hope he wasn’t too much trouble for you. Especially since now that he’s going to be your second king, it’s going to be your guy’s responsibility to keep him safe for the rest of his life.”

A collective groan echoed around the whole group.