Blue and Gold

Chapter 3

Mordred's eyes flutter open, the sun shining in his eyes takes a while to adjust to. He feels awfully cold for some reason, the wind shifts his hair. He looks to where Merlin had been sitting to not see him sitting where he was or around the area. He gets up suddenly, did he leave?

Merlin?

Yes?

Where did you go?  Mordred asks, nervous about the answer.

Just to get some water, I'm coming back now. Merlin replies oddly calm.

What about your back?

Oh, it still hurts, but not as much as last night. Merlin responded sounding a bit bored. Oh! Thank you by the way. he suddenly exclaimed.

For what?

Helping me last night silly. Merlin responded.

Merlin's in a weird mood, he never acts this cheerful, at least not around Mordred. Was the pain getting to him? Maybe he's just a good person and needs to thank me. If he even tries to figure Merlin out he'll lose his mind. He hears a twig snap and goes to turn around when someone's breathing fans across his neck, he stills.

Boo Merlin whispered into his mind.

He still jumps, it sounded louder in his head, even for a whisper. He turns to Merlin and chuckles softly, Merlin has a huge grin on his face.

"Got some water." He says aloud.

"Do you have some healing powers that I don't know about?" Mordred ask suddenly.

"What?" Merlin laughs.

"You should be in a lot of pain, there was a huge bruise across your back." He explains, confused.

"Oh, I'm not sure, I woke up and it had dulled." Merlin elaborates, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Do you mind if I check?" He declares boldly.

"Uh sure." Merlin decides.

Mordred walks towards him and carefully lifts his shirt, his backs a bit sweaty so it peels off of him like a second skin, Mordred grimaces at the thought. The bruise has definitely become smaller, from going to about his ribs, it's shrunk. It's just a smaller circle now, still large but not as much as it was. Mordred's mouth gaps, Merlin must notice his silence for meaning something as he turns a little to catch the expression on Mordred's face.

"Is it that bad?" Merlin questions.

"No, it's healed a little." Mordred says in bewilderment, staring at Merlin.

Merlin stares at Mordred for a while, looking as though he doesn't quite believe him. He studies Mordred's face and then smiles.

"Must have some weird genes." He laughs to himself as if he's told the funniest joke.

Mordred looks at him strangely, releasing the shirt, it falls down, covering his back. Mordred doesn't miss the look of uncertainty that crosses Merlin's face as he turns away from him.

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Merlin and Mordred start riding towards Camelot, they were on the same horse and it was quite uncomfortable, Mordred made Merlin sit in front of him. He used the excuse that Merlin was smaller than him. His long, muscular arms were around Merlin holding the reins, guiding the horse, Merlin felt a little closed in, but distracted by Mordred's arms, all the same, they were nice arms.

"You couldn't have grabbed another bloody horse?" Merlin grumbles.

Mordred laughs loudly, Merlin turns a little trying to see his face better, he's smirking.

"I was wondering when you would start complaining." Mordred grins, Merlin blows air through his nose in annoyance.

"Let's stop for a while, my legs are starting to hurt." Merlin mumbles.

Mordred pulled on the reins gently, the horse comes to a stop and Mordred gets off. He turns to Merlin, giving him a face, telling him to hurry up. Merlin smiles gently at Mordred. Why was he so mean to Mordred? The thing with him killing Arthur may not even come to pass, but it might if Merlin cast Mordred out, that's another story. Merlin jumps off the horse and walks over to a nearby tree and sits.

Mordred leads the horse to a small stream that Merlin hadn't noticed and lets him drink, then ties his reins to a thin tree. Merlin smiles, Mordred was so gentle with the horses, Arthur wasn't even that gentle, he was never rough either, but not so gentle. Merlin starts thinking about that vision thing, it might not even happen. Merlin can be cautious of Mordred, but he should treat him normally. After all, they share the same secret and it might be nice to talk to someone about everything with, someone that isn't Gauis.

Mordred sat down next to Merlin and sighs, Merlin studies his face trying to see what he was thinking. There was a snap of a twig not too close to them, but noticeable and Merlin's head snaps in that direction, he uses his magic to look ahead, where normal eyes couldn't see. There were bandits. Merlin turns to Mordred quickly.

Bandits! Merlin panics through their shared mind link.

What? Where? He questions.

"And what do we have here?" A rough, raspy voice asks.

Mordred and Merlin both turn to see a group of bandits, standing there with swords drawn. The one who had spoken had a large nasty grin spread across his face, Merlin already dislikes the man.

Merlin turns a little realizing, that they have surrounded them completely. How are they going to get out of this? Mordred is wearing the Camelot crest if they use magic, then they can expose themselves and risk Arthur finding out.

Don't use your magic Mordred. Merlin says urgently.

Wait why not? Mordred asked.

You're wearing the Camelot crest, Arthur could find out. Merlin answers quickly.

Right. Mordred replies with a sigh out loud.

"Are we boring you?" The man crackled.

Merlin winces, oh how he hates these kinds of men, thinking they're better than everyone else just because they have a sword. Mordred drew his sword and thankfully he had another one, he tosses it towards Merlin quickly. They both turn back towards the man, his grin spread, showing his disgusting, yellow-tinged teeth, Merlin grimaces. He really hopes this doesn't take a turn for the worst.

"Oh, what's this? Goin' to fight us are we?" The man laughed, his companions following his lead.