Chapter Text
"AND THAT", Uther roars, "IS MY FINAL DECISION." Arthur barely stops a flinch. His father storms out of the throne room, guards in tow.
Now that the throne room is empty, Arthur takes a moment to punch the wall, hard. It doesn't help, obviously, because the wall should have crumbled. Instead it's Arthur's knuckles that end up bruised.
He drags himself out, walking down the passages to the privacy of his own chambers.
"You're stressed," Merlin announces, breaking rather unceremoniously into Arthur's thoughts. Admittedly, they aren't very pleasant but Arthur hates his moping session being interrupted by his idiot manservant.
"What is it?" Merlin asks.
"It's nothing that should concern you. You've cleaned my armour and readied the horses?"
"Yes," Merlin sighs and grabs an apple off of Arthur's lunch plate. "Where are we going, again?"
"Away from here," Arthur mutters as he stands, moving toward the door.
As Arthur walks out of his chambers, he tries and fails to think of a way to break the alliance. He knows his father well enough to know that flimsy excuses will just slide off of him like water on rubber. He has to have something strong, something huge.
Something like marriage.
That thought makes Arthur stop in his tracks as an idea takes home in his princely brain. He spins on his heel, walking back to his chambers. Merlin is exiting them, his arms full of Arthur's armour.
Arthur smiles.
Quickly, he hides himself behind a pillar and lets Merlin pass. Letting Merlin's footsteps recede, Arthur strides back into his chambers for the second time that day to search for the rings he knows are stowed in the back of his wardrobe. They're rings he never uses because he hates wearing too many and though they won't be identical, they will do just fine for his purpose. He definitely does not think about why he's doing this, choosing his manservant of all people. There are hundreds of people in Camelot he can court to thwart his father's plans of marrying him off.
The only problem is that none of them are Merlin.
He doesn't dwell on why he wants them to be Merlin. Why he wants Merlin. No, he doesn't dwell on any of that because thinking is for losers anyway. Thinking about feelings, in Arthur's opinion, is even more pathetic.
He opens the wardrobe, rummaging through it.
"Ah, finally." Arthur holds the ring up and into the light, examining it for damage. It's mostly intact, sustaining a few scratches here and there but the gold still shines and so does the huge diamond at the center of it. Arthur smiles once again as he slips the ring onto his own finger and starts walking in the direction of the stables where he knows Merlin will undoubtedly be.
There's just one thing he needs to do before they set out for the woods: Meet Gauis.
The woods are silent, eerily so and that should have been Arthur's first clue that something is wrong. However he is too caught up in thinking about how he's going to do it. Perhaps he could just ask Merlin to his face; no rings or getting down on one knee. Would that be easy? Arthur doesn't know.
He doesn't realize when his mare strays off the path a little and Merlin has to yell to get his attention.
Arthur just tells him to shut his stupid mouth and guides the mare back onto the worn dust path. It's probably not appropriate behaviour towards his future fiancé but he doesn't care.
After they've reached the clearing by the brook, he guides the mare to a stop. The canopy of trees filters the sunlight enough for it to be pleasantly warm but not overtly so. Arthur dismounts, and watches as Merlin does the same. He ties their mares to the nearest trees one by one and pats them soothingly as Arthur continues watching.
Arthur walks to the brook, debating what to do next. It should be simple, right? He just has to tell Merlin about the circumstances, then ask him to marry him.
Easy.
Except, Arthur can feel his heart thumping against his ribcage, fluttering like a leaf caught in the breeze.
So much for having a plan.
He rubs his palms together, trying to calm his nerves. Strangely enough, the ring is what gives him comfort and he turns around, finally facing Merlin. Merlin is still standing by the mares, talking to them soothingly in a low rumble and Arthur feels something ignite in his chest but he ignores it.
"Merlin. I need something from you."
At first, Merlin looks up like he's about to tease Arthur but when he sees the look on his face, he grows serious too, striding toward Arthur with measured footsteps.
"What is it?"
"I-I need-" Arthur trails off, unable to make words happen and curses the god of speech for making him stumble over his words like that.
"You need ?" Merlin his eyebrows quizzically.
"My father, he wants me to marry Princess Eleanor. I've met her once. We didn't click. She couldn't stand me and neither could I. How am I going to spend my entire life with her by my side?" He watches Merlin carefully for any reactions. His expression has closed off and an impassive mask comes over his features. The change is so minute that if Arthur hadn't been watching for it, he would certainly have missed it.
"Yes, I heard. And?"
"Don't be daft, Merlin. You know I don't want to marry her."
"Are you in love with someone else, Arthur?" Merlin's fingers have begun to trace circles on his left forearm's sleeve. Arthur knows Merlin enough to recognise it as a nervous habit but he doesn't comment on it.
"That doesn't matter. What matters is that I don't want to marry her. And the only way to stop my father is to tell him I'm married to someone else."
"Who?" Merlin's brows furrow in confusion and Arthur has the urge to shake him until sense floods into his brain.
"Take a guess, Merlin. How many people can you see in these woods apart from you and me?"
Merlin reddens at the implications of that. "You-you can't possibly mean-"
Arthur rolls his eyes, "God, I wish I had a smarter manservant."
"You want to marry me. ME?!"
"Glad you caught up. Now, the fake ceremony will be right here in the woods I'm thinking maybe we'll get the robins to testify for us."
Merlin holds up a hand. His face is a thunderstorm of emotions. And really, is Arthur that bad at doing jokes?
"Why are you doing this? Why me?" Merlin asks, his tone carrying a forced calm.
"You're the one person I trust more than anyone. If there's someone I trust enough to pull this whole fake marriage thing off, it's you."
A vein twitches in Merlin's jaw and suddenly the skies darken, going from a normal summer morning to cloudy in a matter of seconds. Arthur pays the weather no mind because right now, he has more pressing concerns. Like Merlin, who looks positively murderous.
Arthur, instead of taking the smarter way out, kneels and holds up the ring he has brought from his wardrobe.
"Merlin, will you fake-marry me?" He forces as much mirth into his voice as he can, trying not to sound serious, trying his hardest not to let it feel real because of how badly that hurts. He doesn't know why but it does, it hurts like a battle wound.
If anything, Merlin's expression darkens furthermore at that.
"You're joking, right?"
"Considering that if I don't do this, I will be forced to marry a woman I don't want to live with, no. No, I'm not joking, Merlin. I need you." It's the most vulnerable Arthur has allowed himself to be in a very long time.
Merlin knows how hard it is for Arthur to admit that, he must, because the next instant his anger seems to melt away, now replaced with resigned acceptance.
"Yes. Yes, I'll marry you."
Arthur's face splits into a grin too wide but he doesn't care. He swiftly slips the ring onto Merlin's left ring finger and rises up, still holding Merlin's hand. He hands the ring that is meant to go on his own hand to Merlin, who does it silently. They still remain holding hands even after the exchange is over.
It gets awkward, after a few moments.
"Stop being such a sap, cabbagehead. This isn't real." Merlin interrupts, and Arthur lets go of his hand, stung for a reason he can't fathom.
There's a beat of silence. Arthur glances awkwardly at Merlin. "I was joking about the testifying bit, by the way. Gaius is on his way here. He's going to testify for us."
"Gaius is in on this?"
As if on cue, horse hooves sound on the relative quiet of the forest floor. "Took a lot of convincing but yes, he is!" Arthur exclaims. After Gaius arrives, he reprimands them both for doing this, lecturing them at length about the importance of marriage and how they shouldn't joke around with something like it.
When Arthur's brain has just about dribbled out of his ears and into the dust, another set of horse hooves sound in the distance. He realises, rather belatedly, that his sword is in the scabbard beside his saddle which is too far away to reach. Before he has the chance to run toward it, the bandits gallop into the clearing on their horses, surrounding them completely.
Arthur and Merlin stand back to back and Arthur curses under his breath as his hand blindly grabs for Merlin's behind him, his other hand gripping the dagger hidden inside his jacket. Gaius stands beside them both and when Arthur glances at him, his features are calm, collected, as if he knows something Arthur doesn't. He isn't afraid.
But Arthur is. He can't let Merlin get hurt. Not now, when something between them is shifting, changing like the tides at the sea, but slower, so much slower. All he knows is that Merlin has to survive this. He starts searching for an opening, something that will get both Gaius and Merlin safely out of here.
The head bandit breaks into his train of thought. "Emrys. Drop your weapons and come with us in peace. You're surrounded. If you try anything, we won't hesitate to kill your pet prince and your godfather."
Arthur's brain grinds to a halt. "I think there's a misunderstanding. None of us are who you think we are. We don't even know an Emrys."
The head bandit throws his head back and laughs, the sound echoing through the clearing. "I see you haven't told him yet, Emrys. Does he even know about your magic? Does your destiny know your deepest, darkest secret?"
It takes a moment for Arthur to realise who the bandit is addressing. "Shut up." Arthur says, agitated, "He's my manservant. Not-not, Emrys. He can't be."
When Merlin himself doesn't protest, doesn't utter a word in his own favour, cold dread settles in Arthur's chest. Something isn't right.
"Right, Merlin?" Arthur asks under his breath.
Merlin frees his hand from Arthur's grasp and giving Gaius a reassuring look, steps forward. Arthur's back feels bereft without the familiar presence of his manservant but he just clenches the dagger harder in his hand.
"They know nothing," Merlin says, tone serious. "Take me."
Arthur's jaw falls open as the meaning of it all finally sinks in. The betrayal stings the worst, worse than any mortal wound these bandits could have inflicted upon him. His body betrays him too as tears threaten to cloud his eyes without his permission.
"You. You have magic," he whispers.
Merlin doesn't even spare him a glance. "Arthur, please. There's no time for this now."
The head bandit dismounts and walks towards Merlin. His hands have chains with strange symbols engraved onto them. Before he can get the chains around Merlin's outstretched wrists, Merlin yells something in a tongue so familiar yet so foreign. Magic ripples off of him in waves and the bandits collapse onto the ground, knocked out. Arthur looks at Gaius, trying to make sure that what he's seeing is real and not an elaborate hallucination. Gaius' face is just as impassive as it had been before, but now there's a strong case of the eyebrow happening.
He knew.
Arthur's grip on the dagger is iron, his teeth clenched painfully. Slowly, Merlin turns around to face him and the look on his face tears through Arthur like lightning.
"Why?" He loathes how his voice breaks on the word, how his throat is clogging up.
"I wanted to tell you, Arthur. I swear I did."
"Yeah? Then why didn't you."
"Your highness." Gaius interrupts and Arthur forces himself to calm down, to breathe through what is choking him. "I don't think this is the right place. The bandits might have brought backup."
Even in the scrambled state Arthur's brain is in, he sees the sense Gaius is trying to show him.
He nods tightly and mounts his mare, steering her back onto the dust path that leads to Camelot.
He doesn't wait to see if either of them follow.