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Merlin was coughing while he made his way to his rooms. The discussion he had with some wizards went exactly how he thought it would have gone. Bad. Very bad.
Those people weren’t ready to listen to the truth, and somehow managed to find out that first, he was Emrys, and second, he didn’t have any intentions on killing Arthur Pendragon and joining Morgana in her empire. Thirdly, they were very angry about that, and took personally his choice. Like it was their business what Merlin did or didn’t.
Anyway, they had a combative argument, and it ended with fire and flames, and also with a broken rib and several injuries on Merlin. That was the reason why he was limping to Gaius’ chambers. His legs hurted and his head was pounding, making him groan while he was walking.
“Merlin?”
Gwaine’s voice made Merlin spinned around, in time to see Gwaine’s astonished face, that became very quickly a worried expression. “Are you okay? Who did this to you?”
“Hey, handsome!” Merlin smiled, leaning over to leave a kiss on Gwaine’s cheek. “Aren’t you gorgeous, today?”
Gwaine blushed. “You… this isn’t going to work!” The knight’s hand passed over Merlin’s body, making the point of the several and very severe injuries the boy had. “You are wounded, and you aren’t okay. We need to settle you up, and then we are going to have a long and detailed conversation about what happened to you.”
“Of course, beautiful.” Merlin answered, smiling to the knight, who blushed again. “Damned adrenaline.” He muttered, taking a deep breath before starting to walk towards Gaius’ chambers. “So, what happened?”
“We have a fight!” Merlin smiled, and then he shrugged, saying. “It wasn’t my fault, but nobody listened to me. No one ever does it, so it is okay, really, but it would be nice if someone, sometimes, just.. believes me.”
Gwaine nodded, sighed in relief as soon as he saw Gaius’ door. He knocked, before opening the door and looking scared at Gaius. “Merlin is wounded. And I don’t know how to help him.”
Gaius nodded, made him enter the chambers and started preparing some items, useful for taking care of the young boy.
“What happened?” He asked, and Gwaine shook his head. “I don’t know, he isn’t talking. Apparently, someone got into a fight with him. They didn’t go easy on him.” Gwaine was gritting his teeth. “I’m going to find them, and make them pay for this.”
Gaius raised an eyebrow, and Gwaine nodded, making space for the physician to do his job, which was keeping Merlin alive.
“He is going to make it?” Gwaine asked and Gaius sighed. “This boy is though, sir Gwaine. I saw him going through real hell, and he managed to survive every time. He is going to be okay.”
“I’ll talk to Arthur, make him have some time to rest and improve.” Gwaine said and Gaius smiled. “That is really appreciated, thank you, sir Gwaine. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to make my patient comfortable for the hard night that is in front of him.”
“Can I stay?” Gwaine asked, out of nowhere. Seeing his Merlin, the bravest person he knew, standing like that, pale and immoble, was shaking something inside Gwaine. “I just want to make sure he is going to be okay. And you need to rest as well.”
“Taking care of my nephew isn’t something that makes me sad, sir Gwaine. But if you really want… then you can stay with him, while I rest a while.” After that, Gaius gave him the instructions on how to keep his temperature low, and how to hydrate his lips. Gwaine nodded to all of that, and then used the rest of the night to stay close to his best friend.
In the morning, while the sun was rising and the servants were starting their day of work, Gwaine saw Merlin begin to move. Then, after some seconds, the boy opened his eyes, blinking for a second for the light, and then focusing his attention on Gwaine. “You are here. I thought you were gone.”
“No, I wasn’t. How are you? Any pain? Any stress or something like that?”
“No, I’m okay.” Merlin sat up in the bed, before blinking at the basin of water on the floor. “You stay here all night?”
Gwaine nodded. “I wanted to be sure… You were wounded. It was… hard to see you like that.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t expect that reaction, honestly. But now it is all good. They went away the other evening. So, no problem anymore.” Merlin smiled, and Gwaine sighed. “I suppose it is good enough. No chance you are going to tell me their names, so I can hunt them?”
“No, I think I’m good, thank you.”
Gwaine smiled, before leaning over and kissed Merlin’s lips. “You know, yesterday you were so cute, you know?”
Merlin blushed. “Shut up.”
“Why I should, gorgeous ?”
Merlin’s groaning was totally worth it.