Tired of Pretending

Knives

Merlin sighs and rolls his eyes, they all sucked...

They haven't even hit the target yet, it literally ten feet from them how hard could it be?

Merlin and Arthur had been out on the training grounds all day watching the trainees practice knife throwing.

...none even came close to the target.

Merlin's nerves were coming to a frayed end, and so were Arthurs.

Though his were more noticeable.

"Ok that's enough for today," Arthur calls.

The young men all slump with relief.

"Dismissed." Arthur then turns and heads back to his chambers and Merlin jogs to the kitchen to get Arthur's dinner.

Merlin drew Arthur's bath as he ate, then settled him to bed when he finished.

As Arthur's chamber door clicks shut behind Merlin a wide grin spreads, now, its his turn.

Merlin walks quickly to his room and fishes under his bed, grasping his dark cloak and puts it on, making sure it conceals his face. He pries up his loose floorboard and gets out what he will need.

Arthur rolls over and sighs, he can't sleep. He gets up and walks to his window, and does a double take. There's someone in a very dark cloak in the training grounds, they are near impossible to spot.

Curiosity gets the best of Arthur and he races down the halls to see what they are doing.

Arthur stops a ways from the person and watches.

They are standing in front of a target with a knife in hand. Arthur must give it to them, they have determination.

They toss it in their hands a few times before stepping back with their right foot and throwing.

It hits dead center, and sticks.

Arthur's jaw drops.

Beneath his cloak Merlin smiles, all these years and he's still got it.

Merlin and Will would hunt with knives when they were younger. They got good at it as years passed, really good at it.

Merlin grabs another knife from his belt that he made to hold his knives for him.

Merlin doesn't even need to think about it anymore, it comes naturally.

He flips it absently as he finds where he wants to throw it.

Breath in.

Step back.

Breath out.

Throw.

It hits slightly off from the other knife, don't want to damage them you know, they're expensive.

Merlin grins and decides he wants a bit of a challenge.

He quickly retrieves his two knives and jogs to the corner of the field in front of the first target and starts running.

Twisting his body sideways he throws and hits the center of the first target.

The targets are placed close together so Merlin must continuously throw but he never misses.

He finishes but has one knife left so he gets a running start and rolls, coming up on one knee. He uses his momentum to launch the last knife and it buries to the hilt in the center target.

Merlin starts laughing, he wishes he could have this much fun with Arthur, but Arthur thinks him useless and wont listen otherwise about it.

He stands and brushes off his clothes.

Merlin hears someone clapping behind him and whirls, his cloak concealing him.

Arthur's voice rings through the training grounds, "so who is it that has been faking huh? Which of my trainees are you? You're amazing, why have you been hiding how good you are?"

Merlin chuckles and throws back his hood, grinning at his King.

Arthur stands there for a whole minute, his jaw brushing the ground before turning without a word and going back inside.

He must have been dreaming