A Secret Greater Than Magic (Merther)

Chapter 2- That Night

As Merlin went to get extremely important paperwork that absolutely had to get done, Arthur lay on his bed from the side, his body sprawled across the mattress. He stared up at the ceiling, waiting for his faithful manservant. Letting his mind go to random places, he started thinking about why Merlin was called a manservant. They called their female servants just servants and it wasn't weird to have a male servant, so why was it addressed this way? It was one of those questions no one cared about until they randomly came up with the idea.

             Before deciding whether he would start calling the female servants womanservants or just servants, Merlin entered the room, attempting to carry a tower of paper.

              "I hate this," Arthur muttered, taking a chunk off the top as Merlin placed it on the table. "Too bad you didn't break your hand," Merlin snickered, grabbing Arthur's tub and taking it out the room to empty it out.

                Arthur rolled his eyes and began to sign and read through paperwork, a task he was hoping he would never have to do until he was much older. After signing the last needed sheet, he flopped down on his bed. Merlin had left a few hours ago to help Gaius with Gaius-y stuff, but now Arthur needed someone to talk with. So he did the only thing he found reasonable. He got up. Now, this may seem like nothing to bad, but to get up he needed the strength of one of his arms, but the arm he automatically used was the one he had broken. On that note...

                   "F#$€!!!" Arthur cursed, the echoing noise finding its way to his fathers room, where Merlin and Gaius were tending to the king.

                   "I should..." Merlin said, Gaius nodding as Merlin walked out the room, the walk turning into a swift jog as he headed to Arthur's room.

                    He knew Arthur would do something stupid with his arm, but he didn't expect it to be on the same day he broke it. Knocking on the door, he entered to see Arthur on the bed, clutching his arm. The bone had managed to get through the skin and was now showing through the bandage. Arthur was in panic and was trying not to look at the bone, Merlin didn't have that option though. Breathing in he snapped the bone back into place, leading to a sharp gasp from the young royal, who was trying not to tear up due to the immense amount of pain. Merlin knew not to make fun of him for this, after all even the bravest knight would be gritting his teeth in pain.

                         Wrapping the bandage on tighter this time, Merlin helped Arthur lie down normally on his king sized bed. He sat on a chair nearby and fidgeted with his fingers as Arthur began to deal with the pain a bit better.

                        "You okay?" Merlin asked, staring at a wall after a bit of silence.

                          "Better then I was," Arthur replied, staring at the ceiling. They sat in a silence which neither were sure was comfortable or awkward, not saying another word. A few hours flew by as they went off into their own little fantasies, an suddenly it was 11pm. Merlin was the first to notice after he suddenly realised how exhausted he had become.

                         "I should go, Gaius will be worried," Merlin yawned standing up. Before he could take a step, however he felt an arm pulling him back. He fell and balanced himself on the edge of the prince's bed. Arthur had grabbed him with his good arm, the reason he had fallen backwards.

                          "Merlin, please stay. Admittedly I am still a little.... shaken from what happened earlier," he mumbled, Merlin smirking and taking his place back in his seat. "Don't stay up to late, you need sleep to heal," Merlin told the prince, both of them slowly closing their eyelids and drifting into a deep slumber.

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Awwww cute! Also, I've decided to take Arthur down a notch on the prat meter the more he bonds with Merlin, just for storytelling sake. Don't worry, he's still the arrogant prat we all know and love. (Also, this is sort of an AU due to me throwing the timeline into the darkest pits of hell, so just warning you about made up stuff)

~Sponge