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Arthur never really realized how good Merlin was hiding his emotions. Yes he was acting a little strange and he seemed down but otherwise he was acting normal. It took a few hours for him to realize how forced Merlin's smile was. What scared him even more was that half the time that was his normal smile. It made him wonder what else was up with Merlin's life. What else was Merlin hiding. He made a mental note to talk to Merlin after he had freeded his mind. Merlin was his friend and he wanted to know more about his problems. Merlin has always been there to help Arthur but he never really talked about his personal life.

Arthur knew that Merlin grew up in his village with his mother. He knew that Merlin helped Gaius in his free time and sometimes goofed around with the knights. Otherwise he really did not know anything he did outside of working for him. Well, except go to the tavern a lot. He wondered if he actually went to the tavern a lot of the time. Then again if Merlin went to often he would be able to deal with alcohol very well. He got drunk after barley drinking anything.

He had took Gaius's advice and kept what happened to Merlin a secret. He had singed Gwain and Percival to watch over Merlin. He explained to them what had happened and they were not happy about it.

Gwain was infuriated at Morgana and seemed to hate her even more. He even partly blamed Arthur and he did not even try to hide it at all. e defended Camelot bravely and was a great knight, but it was obvious that that the main reason he was a knight was to help Merlin. He was a very close friend to Merlin and cared for him dearly. Yet, he eventually was able to cool his temper and understood that they had to work together to get Merlin back.

Percival reacted a bit differently. He was very worried about Merlin and wanted to do anything to help. He was clearly frustrated but he kept his cool. He was also very close to Merlin and wanted no harm to come to him.

The plan was to have Gwain and Perivil to stay close to Merlin. Make sure he never wondered off alone and try to talk him into doing things with them in his free time. Arthur told Gaius to keep him busy doing chores for him. Arthur on the other hand was to keep Merlin busy with lots of chores from himself. He had hoped keeping Merlin busy would give him less opportunities to see Morgana.

It seems like it has been working. Apparently Merlin had not been doing anything strange. He went to work, helped Gaius, and went to the tavern a few times with Gwain. Gaius searched his room and found nothing out of the ordinary. He was watched all the time and nothing happened. Arthur guessed he had not been in contact with Morgana in awhile.

MERLIN

Ugg.. Everyone had been working Merlin to the bone. When he was not working Gwain and Pericil wanted to hang out. He was tired and wanted nothing more then to make contact with Morgana but she had not written him a note or anything. He missed her so much and she was always on his mind.

Her hair was so pretty even when it was ratted, he missed running his fingers through her hair. He missed her amazing eyes and how he could get long get lost when he looked into them. He missed her lips and how his head fogged up a bit while they kissed. It was the most amazing feeling in the world.

Part of him wished that this would all be over so they could be happy together. He did not want to be king but Morgana assured him that it would make her very happy. He just wanted to get over with it. The anticipation or waiting was killing him. On the other side he never wanted to do any of it. He never wanted to hurt his friends but he had no choice.

He knew he could talk Morgana into letting Gaius live. He could work as physician in Morgana's Camelot. He knew Gaius would fight, but hopefully Merlin could get him to get used to Morgana. Even if he failed, he knew Morgana would help him find a way to agree to protect Gaius since he was like a father to Merlin. Even if they had to lock Gaius up, he could still have happy life. He could convince Morgana to give him a nice large room in the castle.

He walked home having a hard time picking up his feet for every step. For a moment his bed seemed almost as good as kissing Morgana, almost. He walked home and tried not to fall on his face. He walked in to see Gaius brewing something like usual.

"Hard day?" Gaius asked

Merlin nodded in agreement as he started to walk to his room. Through his bleary eyes he happened to see a paper hidden mostly by a book but he saw enough to see his name written in Morgana's handwriting. He pulled the paper out and Merlin's heart stopped, it was a note from Morgana. Yet, Morgana agreed never to leave a note anywhere but under his pillow. It could not be a old one because Merlin always burned them after he read them. It had to be a new one that Merlin had not found yet. Maybe Gaius found it and wondered what it was, only Merlin could read what it said. Then again he would not have tried to hide it if he thought it was nothing. Gaius knew. He panicked, he was not ready for this.

"Merlin." Gaius said and Merlin looked up to see him starring at him.

"H-how?" he stuttered as he took a few steps back and hit a table.

"Merlin, you need to calm down." Gaius said as he took a step towards him "We can talk about this.

His mind went a million miles per hour. If Gaius knew that he was working with Morgana then he would surly tell Arthur. He would let Morgana down, he would make her sad. He had to run, he had to get away, but he desperately did not want to hurt Gaius. He had to see Morgana

"How did you know?" Merlin said as he backed away more.

"Merlin please-" was all Merlin heard as he ran.

He ran for a few seconds before strong arms caught him from the behind. He struggled to get out but it was pointless. Soon something hard hit his head and everything went black...

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