When albion needs it most

Chapter 13

Chapter Text

There is actually no song for this chapter

Merlin was lying in his bed, pretending to sleep. He knew Arthur wouldn't leave unless he thought he was asleep, but Merlin was nowhere near tired. The King had treated him as his priority and even if it made the warlock so happy to hold such importance, he couldn't take it anymore. Being so dependent, so needy of the King was not the way his destiny had planned for him. He was supposed to take care or Arthur, not the other way around. The warlock was anticipating the moment he would be feeling better, wanting things to return to normal.

He turned around in the sheets, big mistake. He started to cough, breathless. Bollocks, he thought. His body was working against him, breaking at any little move. He hoped that his noise wasn't causing Arthur any problems. He knew that Robert had arrived when he had heard the voices come from the kitchen. Taking a deep breath, he held back the desire of coughing out a lung.

Arthur had been coaxing him so much that the warlock barely had the time to look for a solution. He knew that this problem had arisen with magic. It would only be fixed with magic. But the King believed that, with a right amount of rest, he would heal and feel better eventually. Only then, when he had a little more stamina could they go on looking for an answer. And Merlin didn't have the strength to argue against. Tomorrow we'll look, they kept thinking, tomorrow.

Merlin started to cough once more. His body being so weak was starting to frustrate him. He could have screamed in built up anger if it wasn't for the fact that Arthur was right out of the door. The blonde had worked so hard to make him comfortable, and the warlock was so grateful for it. But he could see that even the blonde was getting discouraged and he did not want to put more stress on his shoulders.

"Get out," he heard Arthur's angry voice growl outside. Things had not turned out well then. Merlin sighed. He noticed that the door was still open. No matter how much he enjoyed eave dropping onto their conversation, getting glimpse and impressions of what they were discussing, the sorcerer thought that it would be best to have it shut. At least this way he wouldn't bother the King with his noisy repertory system that wasn't obeying his will.

But Merlin didn't have the energy to close it. He barely had any energy at all. Simply moving in the sheet to be facing the room's exit seemed to be too much to ask from him. And he didn't have enough motivation to put himself through such pain anyway. He took another glance towards the door. How pathetic was it really. He was stronger than any man he knew, and at this moment he was weaker than ever. Forcing himself to do something this simple, he refused to crumble under the weakness, using a spell to do what his body could not. He heard a voice walk close to the room as he whispered a spell. "I think he's asleep," Arthur said behind the door that was now closing.

"Oh he's awake," the other voice answered a few moments after the door slammed shut. Merlin pulled himself up, trying to sit as he confusingly observed the men walking through the door.

"Is everything alright," he asked addressed them both, but was truly only cared about the blonde's answer. He looked at the expression on the King face, trying to decrypt its complex figure of emotions to find some hints about what was happening. The blonde replied to the questioning look with a set of serious eyes. A small nod of his head seemed to tell 'it's alright'. Merlin sighed, allowing some of his attention to go towards Robert.

"Yes Merlin. I just swung by to say hi. How are you doing?" he introduced as he sat at the foot of the bed. The brunet briefly looked at Arthur before fixing Robert once more. He was sure that he presented himself to the modern knight with his alias Emrys. And a quick look at Arthur revealed to him that the King hadn't been the one to bring up the truth.