Born of Magic

this is going to be a long week

Instead of the usual 'Rise and shine' and opening of the curtains, that usually came from his manservant in the morning, Arthur wok up to the smell of food and the ever so proper:

"Sire, it is time to get ready for the busy day ahead. Your breakfast is on the table, all ready for you." Arthur frowned as he opened his eyes. Why was Merlin acting like an actual manservant? Had he gotten hit over the head during the night?

Only when Arthur laid eyes on the man standing dutifully by his bed did he remember.

His manservant was not going to be up to fulfilling his duties for a while. Because Merlin had gotten injured during the hunt.

And apparently it was only one of many times he'd gotten seriously injured. Arthur had barely been able to keep his food in his stomach when Merlin told the story of the scar on his collarbone. The prince felt sick at the knowledge that he had failed to protect his own manservant. How was Arthur ever supposed to protect his people, if he couldn't even keep the one person who was always by his side, safe?

Desperate to escape his own thoughts, the young prince forced himself to focus on the stranger in his room.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Arthur knew his father had mentioned that he'd be getting a temporary servant in Merlin's absence, but... he was absolutely certain that his father had nothing to do with who this temporary servant would be.

No, this... this must have been Gwaine. Hell, all of his knights probably had a hand in the spectacle before him, Leon most especially, but Gwaine was surely behind a large part of this.

"My name is George, sire. I am to take the place of your manservant until the physician's ward has recovered from his unfortunate injury, my lord." Taking Merlin's place must certainly have been the idea. The man was practically dressed up as Merlin. Looking back, Arthur had never realized just how much he liked the fact that Merlin never used his title in a serious way (unless they were around the king). He actually quite enjoyed being treated more as a human being rather than a prince by his servant.

As he glanced over at the table where his breakfast was properly laid out, he sighed and heaved himself out of bed.

This was going to be a long week.

Merlin had already been awake for hours at this point.

And he was slowly losing his mind.

Gaius refused to even let his ward walk around in their chambers. The boy was forbidden from even getting out of his own bed by himself.

It also didn't help that he could feel the magic vibrating under his skin, begging to be released. Merlin didn't dare use it though. His friends kept showing up in between their guard shifts, or like Gwaine, whenever they pleased. Gwen had shown up last night before going home, and again this morning before waking Morgana. His friend had noticed his restlessness and promised that he'd be up and about in no time, he just needed to have some patience first.

Gwen had also given him that look, that she so often did these days, the look that made him think she knew about his secret. Or at least one of them.

Lancelot had promised to come by without anyone else, so that Merlin would be permitted to at least let a little of the magic out, while his friend kept watch. Unfortunately, there was still a fair few hours until then and the warlock didn't know if he could hold out quite that long.

For every second that passed he grew more and more restless.

Just as Merlin was about to risk detection a handful of hours later, the door to his chambers burst open.

"Hide me!" To say that Merlin was surprised to see Arthur scrambling to find somewhere to hide in his manservant's chambers, would be the understatement of the century.

"I... what?" The prince was frantically spinning around in the same place before stopping as he looked back and forth between the bed and the cupboard, ultimately deciding that under Merlin's bed was the best he was going to get. The chest at the foot of the bed would normally be enough to hide the fact that someone was hiding there, but not Arthur. The man's elbow was sticking out on the left side. "Good day to you too, Sire."

Merlin just sighed as he heard a new pair of footsteps approaching and lazily slung his blanket to the side, enough to cover the less bright side of his coin. And just maybe he used a slight bit of magic in order to take the edge off for a moment.

"Merlin?" A familiar head appeared in the doorway.

"Hello, George. What can I do for you?" Desperately trying to keep himself from smiling, Merlin now understood why Arthur was hiding.

"I am sorry to bother you during your recovery, Merlin, but I was wondering if you had seen the crown prince today? It appears I have lost him." There was nothing wrong with George once you got to know him, he was actually a very nice person and a great conversationalist. But it wasn't hard to figure out that Arthur thought him to be a rather boring boot-licker.

"No, I'm afraid Gaius won't even let me out of the bed and Arthur hasn't been by." George grimaced at the answer.

"How much trouble will I be in for losing the crown prince?"

"Don't worry about it. I lost him a couple times the first few weeks as well. Uther will be annoyed but the worst that'll happen is a couple hours in the stocks, Arthur's known for trying to chase manservants away."

"Oh, I suppose I shall leave you to your rest and resume searching for the prince. Thank you for easing my mind Merlin." The bedridden manservant waved the other off.

"It was no problem at all. I am just thankful for the brief company. Good luck on finding Arthur, George." Merlin was granted a small smile from his friend before he left.

As soon as he could no longer hear any footsteps and the heavy chamber door had shut with an audible slam, the sorcerer's attention was brought back to the idiot prince hiding under the bed.

"Are you honestly hiding under my bed in order to get away from a manservant who actually does his job properly? Because if the answer is yes, then you are even more of a dollophead than I thought you were. And what was he wearing?" He was staring up at his roof, refusing to look at the man under him.

A big part of the reason for that was that he most certainly would not be able to contain the laughter he could barely contain as it was.

"My leading theory is that Sir Gwaine is responsible for that." A grunt came from under the bed. "Merlin, that man is the most boring person I have ever met. How can a person possibly be that dull?" Arthur was clearly struggling to get out from under the bed, and Merlin let out a snicker. "The man makes jokes about brass."

That earned a full belly laugh.