♢Merlin Imagines & OneShots♢

[6] Merthur ♢ Lost Son of a Lost Father

♢SUMMARY♢

Toddler!Merlin AU, Non-romantic Merthur

The knights of the round table don't know what to do with a lost child.

"Are you sure he'll be fine?" Arthur asks for the nth time, making Giaus roll his eyes out of the king's view.

"Yes, sire. He'll wake up tomorrow, surely." He sighed, getting ready to head to bed. However, Arthur doesn't follow. Instead he remains beside the child's side, watching him sleep in a pair of Giaus' borrowed sheets that lay on the grass. The king was supposed to be on a hunt with some of his knights, but during it, they strayed a bit too far and found a small boy, probably 5-7 summers old, sick, cold, hungry, and barely awake on a corner of the outside of a cave. The child couldn't protest with the little energy in his small body, so they hurried to Giaus, who had come along since Arthur's ankle almost broke during the last hunt and was there to look over him. Luckily, the raven wasn't too bad, having only eaten very little and whatever he did eat, it wasn't exactly edible for humans.

At one point during the night, the boy stirred in his sleep. At first, it was only a few incomprehensable mumbles and furrowed eyebrows, but soon it began to excelerate to whimpers and clawing and thrashing, which was when Arthur decided he should at least try to lull him back to a peaceful sleep. He took the smaller in his arms, sheets and everything, and held him close. "Shh, shh, it's fine... it's okay, you're safe," he whispered gently, careful not to startle the boy. The raven took a handful of Arthur's clothes, gripping it like his life depended on it as he sniffled, face scrunched up as if he were trying to not cry. "That's right, everything's alright, you can relax now." The royal let out a breath of relief when he saw the child's features relax and his grip on Arthur's robes loosen. With a smile, he pulled the toddler even closer and closed his eyes with their faces basically cuddling each other.

The next morning the raven woke up to whispering and hushed snickering, wincing his eyes closed the moment he opened them to face bright sunrays slightly darkened by a strange figure over him. He turned his head away from the figure in an attempt to cover himself better only to hear the hushed whispers completely quiet down. Eventually, the child could open his eyes properly and tried evaluating his surroundings. He furrowed his eyebrows at the chainmail he was gripping to, confused over what it was, but following it upwards he saw it was part of a man's armour, face going pale once realizing he was in the arms of a knight. A man that had the right to stab him right through with no consequences whatsoever. "Good mornin'" So much for making a stealthy escape.

The raven jumped with the smallest of yelps, still subcounsciously scared of waking up the blonde, but it was too late. The jump alone was enough to make blue eyes flutter open, so instead of questioning the other -apparent- knight, he jumped right out of Arthur's arms and onto the ground to try to escape only to be blocked almost immediatelly by possibly the most gigantic man he's ever seen that wasn't an actual giant. The giant man steps in front of the boy, making the raven almost tumble to the floor, but he was quick enough to catch himself and able to turn around without falling. Unfortunately for him, two other men in chainmail surrounded him too quickly for him to make it very far.

Helplessly, the child seemed to curl in on himself as he kept a fair distance bewteen him and the other ones, hands holding each shoulder as if to shield his chest if worst came to worst. "Wait!" Arthur ordered almost immediately, his half asleep self struggling to get up that fast, but the knights very willingly cease their aggressive precautions. "Wait, wait, he's only a child." The child and royal share a hesitant gaze for a moment, but Arthur quickly snaps out of it and returns to the others. Gwaine and Leon are the ones with the most questions in their eyes, but as their king nods confidently, they understand what their orders are.

The brunette of the two was the first to try to approach the raven, who immediately flinched away, so he had to crouch down to the child's level first, arms up in the air to show his palms were empty. "Hey," Gwaine whispered gently to not frighten the younger. "We won't hurt you, not when you've done nothing wrong." The older tried reassure, but only the welcoming smile from the blonde could've convinced the boy to comply, swallowing thinckly before he slowly stepped forwards. "See? You're fine," Gwaine grinned, "what's your name?"

The child pursed his lips uncertainly, but it looked like he had no other choice in this situation. "...M-Merlin..." he replied quietly, but it was heard in all others' ears perfectly clear.

"Your name is Merlin...?" Merlin blinked as a rather dark toned knight questioned in disbelief, heart skipping a beat in fear for his life. Had he said something wrong?

"But, Merlin isn't-- didn't he...?"

"He's not Merlin- or at least not the one we knew of." Giaus was quick to interrupt the Irish knight, eyebrow raised in suspicion. "I saw Merlin as a toddler, and that's not him." He was right. The child had hazel orbs, unlike their friend who owned a bright blue in his, and the small dust of freckles over the boy's cheeks proved his identity to remain unknown after all.

"Then who is he?" Leon questioned, switching his gaze from the unknown younger to the elder physician.

"Well," Giaus exasperated, staring right at the pale boy. "Maybe he could tell us."

Once again, all curious eyes were on his shaking limbs, studying his every move and twitch of terror. He gulped down a gallon of the lump in his throat, but he still struggled to get anything past his lips or even his throat, stuttering out every word he couldn't force himself not to. "I-I don't... w-what should I..." it was only a whisper, but the knights' stomachs dropped in guilt as the forced out words reached their ears.

"Your last name- to know who your parents are?" The giant knight suggested, voice surprisingly gentle compared to his exterior, working like a spell to calm the raven's nerves- if only a small amount.

Merlin nods, swallowing thickly once more before speaking. "I-I live with my mother... b-but my father--he lives in Camelot... My-my last name is Crawford-- I-I share it with my mother, Caroline."

Arthur seemed to be the only one from the knights besides Gwaine to not furrow his eyebrows in confusion, as if recalling a vague memory of Merlin speaking to them about a certain Caroline. "Caroline..? As in Merlin's...?" The Irish gasped out quietly before turning his head towards Arthur, who returned the expression.

Giaus took a step back, taking in a deep breath as he pieced everything together. "I wasn't informed of some important details, I presume?" He raised an eyebrow at the only knights who weren't confused, the others following suit.

"It was rather vague, but he talked about a Caroline sometimes." Arthur tried answering, "I never met her, though, and he never got too much into detail." At the point the small raven seemed to understand what they were saying, making his heart let out a sigh of relief, tears even brimming at his eyes.

"Y-you know my father?" His lips trembled hopefully, but the knights around him only cringed at the boy. What with Merlin never being married, this child was a bastard, something people weren't very fond of. Gwaine, of course, never cared. He'd broken so many laws already, a bastard child was nothing to go to hell for, so his expression only morphed into pity, knowing that it would be hard to explain this to a child no older than 9 summers.

Arthur, however, smiled. He realized Merlin perhaps never felt alone, even when the knights teased him or excluded him during some activities. Maybe Merlin left this world knowing he had a lived his life to the fullest, with -well, not a legal wife, but- a lover and a child, with friends and family. "We did," Arthur spoke first to the child, ignoring the indecisive knights behind Merlin and crouching in front of him. "But we haven't seen him in a long time," the words were hard to push out gently, but the king swallowed and spoke to the already frightened child, "He won't be coming back to us any time soon, though."

The confusion on the boys face only lasted a moment, soon going as pale as a corpse, lips trembling in fear as he whispered, "he's.. he's dead..?"