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Merlin knew that Arthur was his soulmate. I mean, with the amount of times that prat got himself hurt how could he not know. There were four problems with that.
One-Arthur liked women. He always talked about his soulmate being a women. He was positive, because he hardly had any scars. (Of course he has no idea that Merlin found a spell to prevent his scars from showing up on Arthur. If he saw them, he would know it was Merlin and he would have too many questions that Merlin could not answer.) He never seemed disappointed with his conclusion.
Two-Arthur needed to produce a heir. Merlin could not give him one, even if the prince did like men.
Three-Merlin is a sorcerer. That secret alone could get Merlin killed, and even if Arthur didn’t kill him, he would hate him for lying both about the magic and about being soulmates.
Four-Oblivious Arthur somehow thought that Merlin and Morgana were soulmates. Merlin isn’t quite sure how he came to that conclusion, and despite the sorcerer explaining multiple times that of course they weren’t, the clotpole was adamant that they were and that Merlin was just lying to him.
Arthur couldn’t know that the reason that Merlin and Morgana were spending so much time together was because they were working on her magic. He still remembered her frantically bursting into his chamber and admitting to him that she thought she had magic.
He remembered the dragon’s warnings of the young witch, but he also knew how terrifying it was to live in Camelot with magic and no way to control it. So he told her the truth about him too, and promised to teach her everything he could. The relief on her face made him sure that he had made the right decision.
Still, Arthur was a dollophead who made assumptions with no proof. That wasn’t Merlin’s fault. Let him think what he wants. (Except Merlin was a little in love with the prat and it hurt that Arthur didn’t love him back.)
So, Merlin continued to hide his magic and his connection to the Prince to save everyone from the inevitable heartbreak that would happen should anyone find out.
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Arthur was in love with his manservant. He knew Merlin was not his soulmate. Of course he knew. That boy was always covered in scrapes and bruises that never showed up on Arthur’s skin. But that didn’t stop Arthur from falling completely and irrevocably in love.
He didn’t quite understand how he could love someone so much when they weren’t fated to be together.
However he knew Merlin was a hopeless romantic, and he would never agree to be with someone that wasn’t his soulmate, so Arthur hid his love for the servant. He droned on about his own soulmate, and teased Merlin, and never let his feeling show through.
Then Merlin and Morgana got close. While he wanted to be happy for them, (because it made sense for someone as wonderful as Merlin to end up with someone as beautiful as Morgana), he could not stop his jealousy. He may have been a bit more snappish towards Merlin than usual when he first noticed, but he was able to reign it in and start teasing Merlin about it. He was a little confused as to why Merlin felt the need to deny in, but decided that it was likely because his father would never agree to allow a servant to marry his ward, soulmate or not.
So, Arthur suffered in silence, and secretly hoped that he loved his own soulmate as much as he loved Merlin. He wasn’t sure what he would do if he didn’t.
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“Merlin, pack up quickly. I just got word of a bandit attack west of here. We ride as soon as possible,” Arthur explained.
Soon, Merlin was attaching his pack onto his horse, surrounded by the other knights. Gwaine glanced over at him and winked. Somehow, the knight had figured out his feelings towards the “princess,” and was adamant that, with time, Arthur would come to feel the same. Merlin rolled his eyes in response, and mounted his horse.
About an hour into the forest, a sense of dread came over the sorcerer. He glanced around but didn’t notice anything wrong, so he shrugged it off.
“We’ll stop here to eat and to water the horses,” the prince explained, dismounting and leading his horse to the stream. They all sat and enjoyed the short break, before all hell broke loose.
With a shout, bandits came pouring out from the trees. All the knights jumped up, but they were clearly outnumbered. Merlin helped as best he could without revealing himself, before he felt a hard crack to the back of his head, and everything went dark.
When he woke up, the first thing he noticed were the iron shackles holding his hands above his head. Next thing was the cold. He groaned and opened his eyes. Arthur was shackled in front of him, and they were both in a dungeon, but he wasn’t sure where. With his magic bound, he would be unable to get them out. Though, he was sure they were unaware of his gifts as Arthur was also bound in iron. They were likely used for all prisoners.
He watched as Arthur blinked his eyes open and take in his surroundings. “Where are we,” the prince managed to choke out, his voice gravely from lack of water.
“I’m not entirely sure. Some sort of dungeon. Where are the other knights?” Merlin responded.
“Last I remember they were able to run back to Camelot to get reinforcements. It wasn’t the knights they were after, it was me. I wonder why they captured you as well actually, instead of leaving you there.”
Merlin was about to respond, before jangling was heard outside and the door opened. “Ah, you’re both awake!” the unknown man exclaimed.
“What do you want with us? My father will not be happy when he finds out you’ve taken me,” Arthur huffed.
“Oh I don’t think your father will be around much longer to worry about you. I plan on making sure of that. That’s why you’re here, after all! You’re going to tell me how to sneak into Camelot.”
“I’m not going to tell you anything. If you think you can just demand that I betray my kingdom than you’re mistaken,” laughted Arthur.
“Oh I am going to have fun breaking you,” his capture giggled, “but unfortunately, I’m on a time limit. You’ll take much too long to break. Now, your servant on the other hand, well, he looks like he’ll be much easier. Personal servant to the Crowned prince? Yes, I think you’ll be able to tell me what I need to know.”
Arthur, horrified, watched as Merlin got dragged out of the cell. Through the bars, he watched as the man strung Merlin up, barely even able to touch his toes to the floor. Arthur tried shouting, but found that no sound would come out. The man must have magic and cast a silencing spell on him when he wasn’t watching. The man turned to him and, grinning, said “you’ll have the perfect view to watch me torture your manservant.”
There were two reasons that this was extremely bad. One- Merlin did indeed know all the secrets of the castle. He would be able to tell this man exactly how to get into the castle, up to Uther’s chambers, and back out of Camelot without ever being seen. And two- Arthur was about to watch the man he was in love with be tortured. He wasn’t stupid to think that Merlin could handle much. The man was stick thin and cried when a bunny was killed. He would not be able to hold up to torture.
He could do nothing as the man circled Merlin. When then man was behind him, his friend had the gall to look up and shoot a cheeky grin and a wink at Arthur. As the man circled back around into Merlin’s eyesight, The servant’s gaze grew deadly. Their captor waved his hand, and with a quick incantation, Merlin’s shirt was gone. He grabbed Merlin’s chin and jerked it up, then side to side to examine him. When his chin was released, Merlin spat in his face.
Arthur tried to shout at Merlin to stop it, that it would only make it worse for him, but was unable to even make a squeak through the spell. The torturer, with a sharp glare on his face, reared back his fist and punched Merlin hard in the face. Merlin didn’t even grunt, and, after spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground, looked up at the man and grinned.
“I’ll never tell you anything.”
Arthur watched on in amazed horror as the man beat his servant, who never made one sound. How was Merlin able to withstand such a beating that would leave even Arthur begging for it to end? When the man realized that he was getting nowhere, he took out the knife. The next three hours were the longest of Arthur’s life. And it left their captor extremely frustrated. Unable to produce a sound from Merlin except for a single grunt after a deep stab to the stomach, the man unshackled Merlin and threw him into the cell, before storming off.
Arthur didn’t realize he was sobbing until the silencing spell was released.
He was sure there was no way that Merlin could survive this. Merlin was going to die here all because Arthur wouldn’t reveal the path into Camelot. Logically, Arthur knew that the life of a servant should mean less than the life of the king, but Arthur could not stop the regret he felt about not just telling the man what he wanted to know. He knew that he would choose Merlin over his entire kingdom any day.
Unbelievably, Merlin moaned and forced himself onto his back. How he was even conscious still, Arthur was unsure.
“Wow, he’s an idiot,” the manservant laughed, “can’t believe he actually unshackled me.”
Seeing Arthur’s concerned and confused look, Merlin forced himself to sit up. “Ooooh,” he grunted, “just give me a minute and I’ll be fine.”
“Merlin, you were just beaten and tortured within an inch of your life! Lay down and don’t move, we need to stop the bleeding! How are you even alive right now, let alone conscious and sitting up!?”
Merlin, refusing to lay back down, looked up at him but wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Arthur, I need to tell you something. Well, I guess I’ll show you because I think I’m bleeding out and I need to fix that.”
Before Arthur could ask what the hell he was talking about, Merlin’s eyes flashed gold and his all his cuts closed up leaving only scars and his bruises faded to a sickly yellow. “You’re a sorcerer,” Arthur breathed.
“Yes, Arthur, I’m sorry, but we can talk about this later. Right now we need to get out of here. Please, can you trust me?” He implored.
Arthur didn’t even have to think about it. He just watched Merlin allow this man to nearly kill him. If Merlin wanted to do any harm to Camelot, all he had to do was tell. Merlin has had so many chances to kill Arthur even before. He could have let the knife hit him the night Merlin became his servant, could have let him drank from that poisoned goblet, could have even poisoned his food. No, Merlin was the same man he always was, just with magic.
Arthur nodded, and, with a flash of gold, his shackles were released and the door was unlocked. They crept through the abandoned castle, coming across no one in their search for an exit. When they found it, they took one step out before they heard footsteps behind them. Merlin turned around and shoved Arthur behind him.
“How did you escape!?” Their captor yelled before his eyes flashed gold. Merlin quickly deflected the blow and growled, “You really chose the wrong person to mess with. I am Emrys, and you will not hurt Camelot.”
The prince saw the fear in his eyes at the name before Merlin flung him back into the wall, neck cracking as he made contact. With this display of power, Arthur was even more in love with his servant, no, his sorcerer, than before.
Merlin glanced back at his warily, and Arthur could not help himself. He stalked forward, grabbed Merlin behind the neck, and pulled him in for a deep kiss, before remembering himself.
Panicking, he pulled back with a stammer of “I’m so sorry. I should not have done that!” He quickly backed away from Merlin, seeing the confusion on his face. Trying to change the subject to avoid explaining his actions he declared, “We need to get back to Camelot. I’m sure Morgana is worried sick about you, and my Father about me.”
He began to walk off, before Merlin caught his arm. “Arthur, what was that?”
“I’m sorry Merlin, I just forgot myself. I was caught up in the moment and was relieved that you’re still alive.” He hoped that was enough to appease Merlin. He should have known better.
“Why would that make you kiss me. Arthur, do you-do you like me?” He stuttered.
“Merlin, I’m sorry,” he sighed, knowing Merlin would demand the full explanation, “I know you aren’t my soulmate, but I couldn’t help but fall for you anyways. I had hoped that, maybe you could like me too despite your soulmate being somewhere out there, but then you found Morgana and I just knew that we could never be more than friends. I tried to stop myself from feeling this way, but I can’t.”
He reached up to wipe his tears away, then suddenly Merlin’s hands were in his hair and his lips were pressed to Arthur’s. Automatically, the prince’s hands went to Merlin’s hips, pulling him closer. The slightly taller servant traced his tongue along Arthur’s lips before the prince gladly opened up, reveling in the fact that Merlin was taking control. When they ran out of air, Merlin pulled away and, eyes still closed, rested his forehead on Arthur’s. The royal was extremely confused, but was unable to break the silence.
“You clotpole. I tried telling you that Morgana was not my soulmate. I’m helping her with her magic, that’s why we’ve been spending so much time together. There’s only one prat that I’m suppose to spend the rest of my life with,” Merlin smiled.
Arthur sucked in a breath. “You mean...? But we don’t share any scars.”
Merlin smiled sadly and pulled away, eyes flashing gold. Arthur felt a slight tingle across his body and looked down, seeing unfamiliar scars littering his body. Merlin’s scars.
“When I realized that we were soulmates, I cast a spell preventing my scars from showing up on you. I didn’t think you liked men and you always said how you needed to marry a princess and produce heirs. I thought, if you knew it was me, that you’d be disappointed. Plus, my scars are hard to explain without also explaining my magic. It was just easier if you didn’t know.”
I’m so sorry Arthur, if I had know how you felt I wouldn’t have hid this from you. I love you, but I didn’t think you felt the same. Your happiness was more important than mine.”
Arthur swept the crying warlock into his arms and hugged his tight. He could not believe this selfless man was his. Merlin was willing to give up everything just so Arthur was happy.
“It’s ok, I’m not mad. I understand why you did it. I know I was a complete prat, always talking about princesses and duty. It was always just to hide how I felt about you. I would gladly tell my father to stuff it for you. I can always appoint Morgana’s child or another child as my heir anyways. You’ve always been the most important thing to me.”
Merlin laughed and said, “well you won’t be appointing Morgana’s child as heir. Her and Gwen are soulmates.”
He and Arthur smiled at each other for a moment before again leaning into a deep kiss.
Neither one could believe that all it took was them being kidnapped to bring them together.