Young Merlin was still very confused about the whole situation to be honest, that didn't stop him from being with Arthur a lot though. It was like he was drawn to the king. He spent the next two weeks following him around like a lost puppy. Gaius also suggested that Merlin stayed with Arthur and the knights whilst he worked on an aging antidote.
One morning, Arthur was bored seeing as he had nothing that needed doing. So, he decided to call Merlin to his chambers, turns out the small boy was right outside his door about to knock. "Good morning, Arthur." Merlin's meek voice greeted the king.
"Merlin you - nevermind. Come in." Arthur had given up telling the poor boy to call him sire.
Merlin walked in looking as cheerful as ever, "Arthur?" He asked, while looking around his room with a frown.
"Yes, Merlin?" He replied.
"Why are your chambers so messy?" Arthur was surprised by the boys question, his eyebrows raised. It seemed he still wasn't afraid to speak his mind then.
"Well, my servent isn't here to clean it all up." He replied, smiling fondly.
Merlin sat at the end of Arthur's bed while Arthur stood leaning on his chamber door, "Well when I lived with my mother, I had to clean up my own mess. That wasn't too hard though, we didn't have much. I mean, I could've cleaned a lot faster but mother said not to because I'd be in danger." The little raven boy sat on the King's bed.
"But I'm a king Merlin, I don't clean up my mess, my servants do." He said, "And what do you mean you would be in danger for cleaning?"
Merlin's legs kicked back and forth from Arthur big, soft bed. He hoped one day he'd have a bed like this, not for himself but for his mother. He missed her a lot and even though Gaius said he had seen her less that a week ago it felt like years. "Mother says I'm different. That I was born different and that some people want to kill me because I was born. Sometimes I wish I wasn't born though, then mother wouldn't be scared whenever the knights came to visit us."
Arthur gasped at what he was hearing and it broke his whole heart to hear Merlin at such a young age wishing he wasn't born. "Merlin! Don't you ever say that about yourself. You were put on this earth for a reason. You're so young, you haven't even lived yet. And no one can help being born different, what do you mean by different though? Do u have an extra toe or something?" Arthur laughed.
Merlin bowed his head, "No. I was born with yellow eyes."
"Your eyes aren't yellow, what's this nonsense you're talking about?"
"I'm too scared to show you." And that's when his heart stopped. Arthur didn't know why he, a king, was so hurt that Merlin was scared of him.
"Y-you're scared of me, Merlin?" Arthur frowned.
Merlin felt ashamed for being the way he was, for having magic, for being evil. "You won't like me if I tell you how I'm different. You will hate me and kill me because I was born different."
"Merlin," He walked over to him now, "I give you my word that I will not kill you or hate you, ever."
"Really?"
"Yes, I swear."
"Okay then. I will show you." Merlin bit his lip and said, "I was born able to move things and make things and I never hurt anyone because hurting people is bad unless they are bad like those mean bandits, but I never hurt them either..." He looked up at Arthur with bright gold eyes and clasped his hand together. When they opened a butterfly came out made of golden embers and fluttered about the room and onto Arthur's nose.
Arthur was speechless to say the least, he was shocked and confused and hurt. "Its beautiful, Merlin."
"Glad you think so, sire." Merlin replied, sounding older and less naïve.
Arthur gapped, "What?" Young Merlin didn't call him sire... Suddenly Merlin whispered something and he was back to being older Merlin again. Smiling, cheeky, boyish Merlin. Arthur just blinked and blinked, mouth agape.
"Are you telling me that was you're plan all along?! To make yourself younger so you'd show me you're magic and so I would be soft because you're a kid?!" Arthur yelled, not that loud though.
Merlin tried not to smile. Tried. "Yep. Pretty much. Well, guess we should go tell Gaius I'm alive or I think he might faint!"
Arthur just laughed, "I'll get you later for not telling me sooner, but first, let's play a prank."
ִֶָ 𓂃⊹ ִֶָ .⋆｡⋆˚｡⋆｡˚｡⋆. ♡ .⋆｡⋆˚｡⋆｡˚｡⋆. ִֶָ 𓂃⊹ ִֶָ
"Gaius!" Arthur slammed the door open, "How could you keep this from me?!" Gaius looked terrible, he was sweating. He gulped.
"Sire, I-I is Merlin alright? Where is he?" Gaius stammered.
Arthur laughed, "Oh, he's been killed for treason! We skipped the trial, the outcome was already known!"
Gaius started crying and sobbed out, "M-m-merlin......COME OUT FROM BEHIND THAT DOOR RIGHT NOW, YOUNG MAN, HOW DARE YOU TRY AND FOOL ME INTO THINKING YOU'RE DEAD?!"
Merlin slowly appeared from behind the door laughing at Arthur's face.
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