Becoming Magic

Merlin being...Merlin

The next few weeks, Arthur had thrown himself in to his duties as King, fully. He never really seemed to smile anymore. Losing his father took its toll on him. When he trained, he was hyper-focused. He only tested Merlin on his training that first week. After that, he put Leon in charge of testing him. The Knights continued patrols through the kingdom to ensure peace and take care of any bandits. After his second week of training and testing, Leon told him it was time to start with daggers. Eoin was put in charge of that portion. Though Merlin didn't know the Knight well, he figured this was a chance to remedy that since the Knight now knew a great deal about him. Gwaine accompanied him to each testing session, but was out on patrol a lot, so he missed most of the training. Percival was definitely determined to make sure Merlin could take on most men with just his hands.

Merlin was, quite frankly, exhausted. When he wasn't training he was maintaining his duties taking care of Arthur. And he was still apprenticed to Gaius. He was often sent to the lower town to check up on those who had various ailments and see how they were recovering or to treat them with a small medicine satchel Gaius had given him. The people were so used to seeing him, they often stopped him and chatted trying to get him to come for dinner some night, or join them for a drink. They sought him out for advice. It didn't matter how big or small the issue, he would listen to their stories and give out what advice he could. Sometimes he would be so caught up assisting the people, he would miss fetching Arthur his dinner, and in turn, be late for his secret training.

It had been a month now since Uther had died. Merlin knew Arthur was very busy, but he wanted to help ease the burden on his friend any way he could. Every so often he would meet up with one of the kitchen girls, Diana, and head down to the lower town to offer any assistance he could. He would help fix things if he could, though he wasn't great at it, and he held what resembled small audiences. Sometimes the person just needed an extra set of hands, which he would provide. Thanks to all his training he had more muscle, and he was making sure to put it to good use. Diana would often sit with him and watch him work. Sometimes she would return to the castle and try to make sure another servant took the King his dinner when she knew Merlin had been kept late. She didn't have feelings for him, but he understood her. Her heart lay with her dear friend Adaline. They shared a small house together and would try to get Merlin to just stay for a few hours and have dinner with them. He would cave in sometimes as it was nice to talk to others openly about affections that weren't always accepted. On the nights they convinced him to stay the children would crowd him before he could return to the castle insisting that he tell them a story and play with them. He would usher them over to a spot by the citadel walls and, very animatedly, tell them stories. The stories happened to be the adventures that he, the King, and the Knights of the Round Table went on. The children loved his stories and could be seen chasing each other through the streets with sticks pretending to be knights. He had been so caught up in the stories he was telling the children one evening, that he hadn't noticed he was being watched. Gwen stayed back as far as she could hoping that Merlin didn't see her. She had followed Merlin and Diana that day to the lower town to see what they were doing. She wondered if, perhaps, Merlin had a new love. To say she was shocked to see Merlin helping the merchants reinforce their stands, or the tavern owner put up a new sign, or even a few townspeople begging him to stay for dinner, was an understatement. She was determined to share this with Arthur. She wanted him to see how wonderful Merlin was.

Arthur couldn't understand why Merlin showed up late some evenings, or why a different servant brought his dinner some nights. He watched his friend hoping he would share, but he never did. He had started to notice that his weekly audiences with the townspeople were getting smaller and smaller. Arthur was wondering why, but didn't think too much on it as it gave him more time to spend with Gwen. Or at least more time to daydream about her. When a knock came to his door, he was pleasantly surprised to see her standing there.