The King

Chapter 8

Warning-Suicidal Thoughts
Disclaimer! I do not own any characters only the storyline it all goes to BBC!
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Arthur's POV

The next morning after the speech, Merlin woke up. I sat by his beside all day, watching him eat, he talked to me too, and I told him what I had done.

He nodded and smiled, laying back down. "I need to get some rest." He mumbled.

It may have just been my imagination, but I think I saw his eyes linger on a bottle filled with blue liquid on Gaius' shelf. I shook my head, trying to clear the thought.

Once Merlin was asleep, I got up to see what he had glanced at. I moved a couple of bottles on the shelf, trying to be as quiet as possible. I wrapped my fingers around the bottle and took it from the shelf. I turned the bottle around so I could see the label.

It was Aconite.

Aconite was one of the most powerful poisons in the five kingdoms, why Gaius had it, I'll never know. But I'd did know one thing for sure, I had to keep this away from Merlin. At all costs.

I took the bottle and started moving some of the other potions around. Anything that looked dangerous or could kill, I moved towards the back of the shelf, bringing the potions for sleeping drafts and such forward. I'll tell Gaius why I did it later.

I turned back and sat down in the chair next to Merlin's bed. I reached out and laid my hand on his shoulder, surprised at how bony it was. When I touched him though, he gasped and jerked awake. I removed my hand.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Y-yeah, you.. Just s-startled me." He rasped.

I nodded grimly and he smiled up at me. "Why are yo-u d-doing this?" He asked.

I just shrugged and gave him a simple answer. "Because you're my friend and I care about you."

He smiled slightly, but then turned his head, gazing again towards the potions. My forehead scrunched when he saw what He did. But he just turned back to me.

"Don't you have Kingly duties or something?" Merlin asked, lingering on the word King. I shook my head.

"You're more important." He looked taken aback and I quickly covered up with a smile. "Not many servants aren't bootlickers, you happen to actually be a very good servant."

He smiled, but suddenly Gwaine came in. "Sire, there's a round table meeting that you must attend." I nodded and followed Gwaine out.

Arthur's POV

I left the meeting after I excused the Knights, making sure that everybody was clear on the problems in the kingdom and what to do about it. Once I finished talking to Lance and Galahad about a village on the southern border, I headed back to Gaius' chambers to check on Merlin.

Tacked on the door was a note from Gaius.

Sire,

Had to go pick up some supplies, be back soon.

-G

I took the note down from the door and put it in my trouser pocket. I creaked open the door.

I didn't like the sight I saw, not one bit.

Merlin was wrapped up in his blanket, on the floor, bringing a familiar blue bottle to his lips.

"Merlin!" I yelled, startled, he dropped the bottle and helped, staring at me.

I looked into his eyes, and they were dull and glazed over with sadness, fatigue, and pain. I sighed. I hated seeing him this way.

"I-I'm sorry." muttered, tears forming in his blue eyes. "Y-you can go.. It w-was a mistake." Tears were freely falling now, and he sniffled.

"No." I said stubbornly, "You'll try again."

At this point he completely broke down, and I felt bad for saying it so harsh. I walked over to Merlin, picking him up and setting him on the bed. He cried onto my shoulder for awhile, and I rubbed his back.

He fell asleep crying on my shoulder, so I laid him down on the bed and tucked the blanket securely around him before falling asleep in the chair myself.

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Heyo!

So I know that this story was finished, but I decided to continue it, because I am somewhat a neat freak so I am going to finish it at 10 chapters. This story was based off of an RP between scrambled_omlet and I. So I decided to bring it to a different turn because after this we practically ended it. Well we did turn it into a 'Lost Prince' sort of thing but I don't want the story to turn to that so... Let's finish this story!