I swear this is the most obvious chapter ever. Not the best ending, but I couldn't thimk of anything else. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy.

It had been a weird week for Arthur. Who am I kidding, it's always a weird week with Merlin around. Just this time, it was slightly more noticeable for Arthur.

The assassins had started to grow brains, and Merlin had to work harder. One had almost gotten to Arthur when he was in a meeting. The man had a crossbow, and supposedly had the best aim in all of the five kingdoms. Strangely the arrow hadn't hit Arthur, and just missed. Shortly after he had a heart attack in the middle of trying to shoot Arthur.

That was a rather dramatic turn of events for the royal court, and they upped the guards as they should've done ages ago. That was problematic for Merlin. Sneaking around was much harder. He was caught twice and each time he was reported to Arthur by the guard that caught him. Awkward was the only way to describe each conversation.

There had been a few other attempts on Arthur's life, and each of them left Merlin doing strange things when others walked in. Like when Gwaine found Merlin stealing wine from the castle. Gwaine had just cracked a smile and walked on. Someone had poisoned Camelot's wine supply. Then another time, Gwenivere found Merlin pinned to wall by a man (who was trying to get information) and she became rather meek before saying something along the lines of "I didn't know you swung that way."

Arthur had encountered a few of these things too. Mostly just Merlin acting weird and trying to hide things. This time, Arthur found Merlin trying to leave his room holding a kitten as If it was going to burst into flame at any moment.

"Merlin, what in Gandalf's name are you doing?" (I felt like adding Gandalf, don't judge me)

Merlin looked down at the kitten wide eyed, and looked up. "Getting out the kitten?"

"And why was there a kitten?"

Unsure of himself, Merlin muttered, "you left the door open?"

"Fine, get rid of it and come back."

Merlin didn't need to be told twice. Racing out the door, he nearly tripped. He really didn't want to explain why the kitten could shoot out a blue elsectric shark that could bite and burn things. (If you haven't watched Dirk Gentlys Detective agency you won't understand the last sentence as well.)

..........

Arthur was sitting at his desk, hands clasped together, and leaning toward the door when Merlin came in. The warlock had rid himself of the kitten, and now he was back.

There was a quick gesture to sit down from Arthur

To rid them of the tense atmosphere, Merlin decided to make a joke. "What is this, an interrogation?"

"Yes."

"Did I do something?"

A nodd from Arthur, but his face bore an intimidating expression. "A lot of somethings."

All that was going through Merlin's head was, is he going to fire me?

"Merlin, you intrigue me."

"I'm not that interesting." Merlin swallowed nervously.

"Funny. Uninteresting people generally don't have to say that." Arthur leans closer. "What are you trying so hard to hide?"

"Um, n-nothing."

Suddenly Arthur jumped up from the chair. "Ha! I knew it!" He shouted.

Merlin was nearly shaking. "Knew what?"

"There's something odd about you. There always has been. But there's always been a sneaking suspicion in my mind that you were hiding something. You just confirmed that with a stutter."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about sire. May I get back to my chores?"

Arthur's grin spread. "You never call me sire without a sassy tone. Since when do you ever do your chores Merlin?"

"Excuse me Clotpole, but I do the chores I'm given!"

"Yeah sure. If you want to do those chores so badly, go do them."

Merlin huffed before stomping out of the room.

............

Weirdly enough, the next day Arthur was gone. All he'd left was a note for his father on his whereabouts, and a list of chores. Wonderful.

Merlin had asked anybody he could think of, if they knew where Arthur was. All he'd gotten were blank looks and apologies for not knowing.

It seemed nobody else knew where he'd gone. The Prince had just up and left. No explanations, no reasoning that Merlin knew, and had left his responsibilities on hold.

The assassins had also heard that he was gone, so they began attempting to make death traps for when the Prince came back. Merlin was busy trying to get rid of them. One had left a spike in Arthur's bed. Luckily Merlin had decided to change the bed. A sorcerer had left a spell on Arthur's room. Merlin had immediately felt it and got rid of it.

Being as busy as he was, Merlin barely felt Arthur's absence. Nor did he notice someone watching him.

..........

There was news on Morgana. There was a rumour that she was gaining allies. So Merlin of course had to leave. This was most likely going to be the only chance he could get to leave Arthur's side and try to get to Morgana.

The trip was long, but we won't bore you with the unimportant details. Just know he was being followed.

..........

"Morgana, please stop this."

She smirked. "Merlin. Such a nice surprise! Are you here to join me?"

Firm was the only way to describe Merlin' voice when he replied with, "No." From what the person watching could see, he seemed rather confident. "I am here to propose a different way to let magic back into Camelot." The person gasped. Wasn't Merlin loyal to Arthur?

"Oh I'm all ears! Is there a different secret passage I don't know of? What about a new weakness? Oh, maybe there's a new feud going on between kingdoms that could become a war? Do tell Merlin!" Morgana screeched excitedly.

Merlin had shook his head at each thing Morgana suggested. Now with the chance to speak, he began, "well trust is the best way to get to a kingdom is it not?" Morgana nodded eagerly. "What if we showed Arthur magic isn't bad? Instead of constantly reinforcing. "Pausing to use air quotations. "'Magic is bad, kill everyone with it or else they'll kill you!' That Uther has drilled into his head, try a new approach. Save him, not kill him. Show him magic is Good as we know it is."

The person watching didn't know what to think of this. First it seemed Merlin was going to betray Arthur, and now bit seemed he was try in to get his worst enemy to save him.

"What would you know about magic Merlin?"

"A lot more than you'd think."

Stalking forward, Morgana was smirking at Merlin. This was her game, and Merlin looked helpless to it. Morgana had magic. Merlin was helpless to her. That's what the person watching thought anyway.

"Merlin, that won't work. Why-"

"Have you tried it?" Merlin interrupted.

"Well no, bu-"

Interrupting again, "well then how would you know?"

"Because I know what Arthur is like."

"Do you really Morgana? You only really saw him when he was a prat, or around people that expected him to hate magic. Around me he's never said a bad thing about magic. Neither has he said a good thing. I believe he could still be swayed."

"But... Uther?"

Merlin sighed. "This is obviously going no where. I guess I'll go home. Just remember what I said."

When Merlin calmly turned around to leave, Morgana wasn't happy. He couldn't just walk out and leave without her permission.

Morgana muttered a spell, and suddenly it backfired. Then another weird thing happened. A man in a cloak jumped out in front of Merlin.

There was a barrier spell already in place, so it simply bounced off and the man gasped.

Not being quick on the uptake, the man stood there looking quite baffled. At least, that's what his posture said. His face was hidden by a cloak. Merlin on the other hand grabbed the man's arm and sprinted. Not expecting that, he tripped before running with him.

The cloak looked rather familiar to Merlin. He still hadn't seen the person's face underneath it, but he knew that cloak. He was sure of it. Thinking it over as he ran, he came to the conclusion that he'd seen this man the past few days Arthur was gone. Simply showing up in random places he usually went, and now it made sense that th I man may have been following him. Did he know of Merlin's magic? Did he need something from Merlin?

Merlin had passed by a small entrance to a cave on the way to Morgana, and it was not far away. The man no longer felt Merlin's arm around his own. They each ran as swiftly as they could go, and they each seemed to know where they were going. It was now obvious that the man had most likely been following him, otherwise he would not know of the cave.

They soon reached their destination. Immediately Merlin demanded, "who are you, and why have you been following me?"
There was no response.
"What do you want? Information on the Prince? If that's what you want, you're not getting it. I've been put in extreme situations, I've almost died and I've been tortured." The man's head shot up, but Merlin wasn't looking. He wasn't finished talking, "believe me, I will not tell you anything!"

"You... you've been tortured?" Arthur's voice came out shocked. He hadn't known of this.

Whipping his head around at the sound of Arthur's voice, Merlin realized Arthur had been in Camelot the whole time. Watching him.

"Wait... Arthur? You've been... following me?"

Arthur looked down before mumbling, "you'd been acting weird, and I can't lose my best friend. I needed to know I could trust you."

This caused silence. Perhaps that was for the better, because they heard someone pass shortly after.

They waited a while, with both of them just sitting and thinking in the cave. One thought prevailed for Arthur though. He was going to ask about it one way or another.

"Merlin, why didn't that spell hit me? It should have. Morgana didn't say a spell to stop it... and it glimmered in a circle around... you..."

"I'm going to tell you a secret," Merlin started nervously. Arthur had the pieces to put it together. It would be better if he just heard it from Merlin. "You wanted to know if you can trust me. Know you can, even though you'll probably hate me for it." Merlin sighed, and began gathering courage by looking at the floor. The ground was a very pretty red.

At this, Arthur was confused. Merlin never looks this serious. Usually he has a goofy grin stuck to his face, or a frustrated look.

"I've had to hide this secret from every one since I first remember. I was born with it, but no one could ever know." Merlin looked up with pained eyes. "I have magic Arthur."

For a moment, they each stared at each other. Merlin to gauge Arthur's reaction. Arthur hoping to see a hint that Merlin had made a joke. After that moment was over, Arthur dashed out. Merlin soon followed.

It wasn't safe yet. Morgana was still out there, and Arthur seemed to have forgotten that. Soon he got a reminder when he found Morgana. He attempted to run, but with a few words from Morgana, he couldn't move.

"Who are you sorcerer? Why would you protect Merlin with that spell? He works for the Prince of Camelot," Morgana had obviously misunderstood. His cloak was still up, so she couldn't see hi face. "You're obviously powerful to be able to hold that spell." Morgana was circling him now. After a few taunting circles, she stopped behind him and yanked the hood down. Now his hair was visible. She began to move towards his face, but before she could see, there was a blast of magic. She was forced back and the man was released from the spell.

"Thats not possible!" She muttered. When you were under that spell, there was no way to get rid of it yourself. You were at others mercy. Unless... unless someone else with magic took off the spell. There waiting for the man in the trees was Merlin. Morgana felt like an idiot. All those years she'd been completely blind. Now she remembered Merlin's earlier words when she'd asked what Merlin knew of magic. A lot more than you'd think.

How many times had Merlin evaded her? She truly was an idiot. Now with the spell she put on the cloaked figure on herself, she had plenty of time to think if over. The spell was a lot weaker than hers. It would wear off in a few hours. So for those few hours, she thought over a lot of stuff.

.........

"Arthur you Clot pole! You could've been hurt! What would have happened if she'd simply used another spell huh? You could've died! (or worse, you could've gotten us expelled! Random thought I had.) What would I do without you? What would Camelot Do with out you, you prat? An what about-"

"Merlin stop," Arthur interrupted. Merlin looked worried for a moment before a look of sadness took over. He'd remembered their earlier conversation.

"Arthur, at least let me get you to a safe location, and then I'll leave you alone. You'll never have to see me again. Just please Arthur-"

Merlin was once again interrupted, "Merlin stop." There was a pause where Merlin felt his attitude about this situation and the fluted get darker. "Youre coming back to Camelot with me. I won't tell anyone. I know you would never hurt me. The only reason I ran was because not long before a spell nearly hit me in the face. I'm disappointed you didn't tell me sooner, but I understand why you didn't."

"But I-"

"Merlin, shut up."

Arthur spoke up a while later, "I was right. There was something odd about you."

.