Practice Makes Perfect.

Arthur is surprisingly all right with Merlin having magic. In fact, Merlin thinks he's a little bit too okay with it.

The secret had come out during a ride in the woods - seriously, Merlin hates the woods, his life would be so much better if they didn't exist - when a rockfall tried to kill Arthur. Merlin supposes that's ironic, given how falling objects tend to save Arthur rather a lot, but at the time he really didn't appreciate the irony. He was too busy knocking the boulders away from the prince's fragile head, and then kneeling at Arthur's feet and pleading for forgiveness and clemency.

"I won't tell anyone," Arthur had said, awkwardly patting a terrified Merlin's shoulder. "It's all right, Merlin, it's fine – I'll keep you safe, I give you my word, all right?"

Merlin had maybe cried a bit and Arthur had hesitantly told him not to be a wimp and then shoved Merlin away when Merlin tried to hug him.

It's definitely nice, now, knowing that he has Arthur's trust and protection even though Arthur knows about his magic. Merlin feels so much less alone. Sometimes he looks at Arthur and just starts grinning hugely because Arthur has accepted him, completely, magic and all. It's so nice that you'd think Merlin would never, ever regret revealing his magic to the prince.

You'd be wrong, because now Arthur makes Merlin train with him all the time.

*****

Arthur starts dragging Merlin into the woods for ever-more-frequent "hunting trips". Once they're far enough from any form of civilization, Arthur stops putting up a pretence of hunting fuzzy animals and starts hunting Merlin instead.

"I don't think this is a good idea!" Merlin says the first time, dodging Arthur's sword.

"Look, Merlin, not all sorcerers will be as incompetent and harmless as you," Arthur says.

(Merlin decides to translate that to "protective and loyal" and take it as a compliment.)

"Therefore," Arthur continues, "I need to learn to protect myself against magic. Which I can only do if you attack me with magic. So go on."

"No!" Merlin has to skip away from Arthur's sword again. "I'm not very good at controlling it, okay? I might actually hurt you. Stop it, I'm being serious!" he yelps as Arthur swings the stupid sword yet again.

Arthur rolls his eyes and sheathes the sword.

"You're not going to hurt me, Merlin, I'm very capable of defending myself from your uselessness."

Merlin huffs in outrage, and points out, "Then why do you need to train with me?"

"Merlin," Arthur says, then. He steps forward, into Merlin's space, and puts heavy hands on Merlin's shoulders. "We'll stay away from lightning and fireballs for now, all right? But," Arthur continues – over Merlin's loud shriek of, "For now?" – "I trust you. You won't hurt me."

"I won't mean to," Merlin protests. "But – "

Arthur covers his mouth with one hand. "And," he continues, "I won't hurt you. Not by accident or for fun or because you accidentally hit me with a fireball. I'll be careful."

"I know that."

"Good," Arthur says, as if obviously all the issues with his horrible plans have been cleared up. "Come on, let's figure out how I counter that blasting move you do."

They figure out that Arthur can hide behind solid objects, try to distract the sorcerer (usually with his sword), or otherwise break his concentration ("I cannot believe you fell for the 'behind you' trick, Merlin, are you really that dense?").