Magic Revealed

Merlin You Idiot

When Arthur set up his first official meeting with Morgana the knights decided to join him. Merlin rolled his eyes as the knights laughed and joked around them. It was a two day journey to the meeting place, the central point between Camelot and Morgana's headquarters. When they settled down for the night Merlin was put on cooking duty.

At some point the knights started talking about fights. Gwaine boasting that he had probably been in more bar fights than all of them combined.

Elyan rolled his eyes, "That's not something to be proud of. It's the big fights that leave scars that matter."

Gwaine huffed, "I've got my fair share for scars from bar fights. He ducked out of his tunic and revealed many small scars along with a few large ones spanning his chest.

Elyan huffed and removed his own shirt to reveal many scars from his waist up, some decorating his upper arms that looked like he'd fought someone with a long thin knife. They were small but deep.

Percival snorted, "That's nothing." He pulled off his chain mail and then his tunic to reveal many large and deep scars. The deepest looked like something had racked claws across him.

It turned into a competition and soon all the knights but Arthur had their shirt off and Merlin was handing out food while rolling his eyes.

Arthur smirked before ducking out of his own tunic. All the knights blinked in surprise as they say the large scar from the questing beast and then more from the number of monsters he'd fought over the year.

Percival shook his head, "Those look painful."

Merlin rolled his eyes but said nothing. Unfortunately Gwaine caught the look and decided to bring Merlin into the fun. "Come on Merlin. You too. You've got to have some yourself."

Arthur snapped his fingers, "Yeah. You should have at least one sizable one from that attack."

Merlin blinked and shook his head, "Nah. Nothing to see."

Gwaine wasn't having it, "Come on Merlin. I know you've been in and out of trouble your whole life. You've got to have some."

Merlin looked at his feet, "Only a few."

All the knights looked at each other before Leon grabbed Merlin around the waist while Gwaine tugged on Merlin's shirt. Percival took both of Merlin's arms to prevent him from keeping the shirt on.

When they finally got it off they all stared. Scars, more scars than any of them had littered his torso. Some looked old others looked far newer. The varied in size, shape, depth. The knights swallowed in empathetic pain. These scars we're no joke. Arthur who had been sitting next to Merlin looked at Merlin's back before snatching his tunic and standing, "Merlin, a word." His voice held barely contained fury. And when the two walked away from the camp the knights saw why.

Merlin's back housed more scars, some looked like they were from beatings while others were clearly from whippings. They could also see what looked like cuff marks on his wrists, normally hidden by his customary long sleeves and jacket.

Gwaine looked horrified and furious at the same time, but he didn't stop the two as they went out of earshot. He knew if anyone could help Merlin, it was Arthur. Even if the king was a prat he was serious when it came to his friends and it was clear to the knights that Merlin was his best.

Merlin followed the king reluctantly knowing that he was in for a hella ofa interrogation. When they stopped where the knights couldn't niether see, nor hear them. Arthur stopped and Merlin cast a silent spell around them so the knights wouldn't hear Arthur if he started to yell.