A Manservant's Loyalty (Merlin BBC OneShots)

Deal **

Merlin knew both of them had to get out of this place quickly, though he has been saying that for the past few days, weeks, however long they have been here. Gwaine now had the same magic restricting cuffs as Merlin though they didn't really do anything for him so Merlin's wasn't that fussed about Gwaine wearing them.

Merlin how ever was feeling the effects of wearing them for a long period of time, his magic was much stronger then the cuffs were designed for but it did drain Merlin's energy and made things harder as time passed. It was slowly killing him and there was little he could do.

It was a tricky situation as Merlin didn't want to show his true power as it would attract to much attention and he didn't know what he was up against. Being the most powerful warlock is all good in theory but it becomes quite useless and dangerous as Merlin isn't trained properly. Their captors are trained and are quite powerful in their own right, Merlin would have no chance in keeping Gwaine safe in any sort of fight against them.

There was also only so much magic can do for the body, and their body's were at breaking point with the constant beatings and torture. Yes they were numb to it but it still had an impact to the body, much more to Merlin's then anyone else's. Since healing wounds on other people is quite the power trip and energy draining, Merlin has taken to the more painful way of healing Gwaine, which was transferring the wounds to himself. Every cut and bruise was taken from Gwaine's body and put on Merlin's, as healing himself required less energy.

It outed him to a point as his captors knew exactly what he was doing which meant Gwaine gets most of the beatings and Merlin had to suffer the consequences for it. Gwaine didn't approve, but couldn't do much as he was chained to the wall so there was no way of stopping servant."Merls, why are you doing this to yourself?" Gwaine stated guiltily, being pain free though out this while Merlin suffers, didn't sit right with the knight. " Please Merls, leave it. I can survive a few cuts and bruises. You'll kill your self at this rate" Gwaine pleaded, as much as Merlin tries to hide his pain, Gwaine knows.

"I've died many times Gwaine, it doesn't really stick. I'll be fine" Merlin muttered truthfully. He has died quite a few times, mostly to save Arthur and on some occasions it was self inflicted. sometimes the inner demons got the best of him, at least in the fifteen minutes it usually takes for him to come back to life, he feels nothing. Plus its not like anyone would know about it, he dose it secretly and makes sure if there is any mess, it is cleaned up.

Gwaine knew what Merlin was insinuating but his mind couldn't quite grasp the idea that Merlin has died and come back to life, maybe he was close to death but then again there has only really been one or two time that he can remember where Merlin dying was a possibility, but in saying that Merlin has hid his magic and all that he dose for Camelot for as long as he has known the boy. "strength, courage and magic" Gwaine mused a random memory popping into his brain. merlin looked at him confused.

"After I was banished from Camelot, we went to save Arthur from somewhere, and there was a troll. he said something about needing three things. Strength, courage and magic" Gwaine explained, the situation surrounding it was fuzzy being it years ago, but he does remember the troll and running out a fight in a pub. "id assume he gave the same spiel to Arthur. I guess we are both oblivious since neither of us clocked on the magic part. " Gwaine said with a chuckle.

"I confessed to having magic to Uther once" Merlin said yawning, cringing at the pain that came with the action. "I was trying to save Gwen from being falsely accused for being a witch. Arthur stepped in blaming it that i was hopelessly in love with Gwen. A tyrant king who believes that you are mentally retarded, really does have it perks" Merlin said smiling softly as Gwaine laughed.