IDOM - this is dedicated to cindy4651 as s/he had prompted me for three fics, and I was really happy with his/her kind words in the reviews s/he left and the fact that I've actually been prompted as well made me want to get this out as soon as possible, and thankfully my hands and mind cooperated with me to get it out in one day. I hope you like it, Cindy! :)

Merlin was nervous. Seriously speaking, nervous to the point that he didn't even notice that he was starting to sweat, the back of his shirt sticking to his skin despite the cool spring air wafting through the open windows. He stared at Arthur, who was sitting slightly irritatedly at his the papers on his desk, his fingers raking through his hair, making it stand up on its ends. As a King, Arthur found himself with much more paperwork, and even though what he was going through was usually the nobles' works, Arthur as a prince had always vowed to change things for his people and Camelot, and now that he was King, he was going to make sure that he went through it, even if it had meant that he was to be buried in stacks of paper.

Seeing Arthur in front of him, readily ensuring changes were implemented by doing the tedious work himself, Merlin would always feel pride to know that this would be the man to unite all of Albion, and surely enough he was doing that by starting with making Camelot a better place. But there was still one main hurdle for the two men to overcome for Arthur to fulfill his prophecy, and that was of Merlin's magic.

Which was why he was sweating now, feeling all clammy.

But for Merlin, telling Arthur because of their destiny wasn't what was important to the warlock. Uther was dead, Arthur was crowned king, and Morgana hadn't been sighted in a while. Now was the best time as any for Merlin to let Arthur in on his biggest secret, the most essential part of Merlin's life… and bear through whatever Arthur threw at him next. Be it literal, like that goblet that was sitting on Arthur's desk for him to drink from as he went through his papers, or… anything else that Merlin couldn't bring himself to think about right now. Or else he was sure he was going to back out of it, and he was not going to back out this time, no.

So, mustering up his courage and energy, Merlin took a step forward, his breathing a bit shaky.

"Your Majesty," Arthur looked up immediately, as if glad for a distraction but he wore a skeptical frown as he regarded Merlin.

"Yes?" he stared suspiciously at Merlin's perfectly submissive position, from the hands folded behind his back to his head bowed down.

"I, uh," Merlin hesitated, before slowly bringing his head up to reluctantly meet Arthur's eyes.

"I, er, want you to swear fealty to me," Merlin said out in a rush, and Arthur blinked. The king stared for a moment longer before leaning back in his chair, his posture relaxed as he gave an amused smile at Merlin.

"Really, Merlin. I'm surprised that you've been with me for this many years and still haven't seemed to understand the prospect of swearing fealty. You do realize that it is usually the people who swear fealty to those above them, in which case you swear to me?" Arthur asked with a grin. But Merlin didn't smile back, still to nervous to do anything other than keeping himself from running off with a hasty remark of forgetting to do one chore or the other. When Arthur noticed Merlin's grim expression, Arthur became serious. He may be oblivious at the best of times, but even he couldn't fail to notice Merlin looking very much like he wanted to say something but also was struggling to say so - the end result making him look as if he was about to faint at any moment.

"Merlin," Arthur said, his tone low and grounding, forcing Merlin to meet his eyes from where it had been previously been intently staring at the papers on Arthur's desk.

"What is it?" Arthur asked, and Merlin was caught off guard when he realized Arthur was asking him about what Merlin wanted Arthur to swear fealty for.

"I…" Merlin paused, shuffling in place for a moment before continuing, his voice more stronger now that he was sure that at the very least, Arthur was listening. For now. It helped that he had already been going through this speech in his head for the past month, ever since Arthur was crowned king.

"I want you to promise me that you won't kill me when I tell you what I need to tell you - banish me if you want but I still have to protect you, and I can't do that if I'm dead," right. He was rambling, and he forgot his memorized speech with the first several words in. And now, Arthur was staring at him with severe bewilderment, as if Merlin had gone mad. And in a way, Merlin wondered if he had. After all, what prompted him to even tell Arthur about his magic now?

"What on earth are you talking about? Why would I want to banish or kill you? God knows you're incompetent but rest assured, nothing you do would garner death, Merlin," Arthur said, rolling his eyes a bit, but he was still staring at Merlin with confusion over his words, and slight concern as well.

Merlin stayed silent, unable to say anything, his eyes suddenly and firmly glued to the floor.

He heard a sigh, and then he heard Arthur speak.

"Well then, Merlin, son of Hunith. I, Arthur Pendragon, King of Camelot, son of late King Uther Pendragon, swear fealty to you that I will never kill you or banish you either from Camelot's grounds, as it is your home and where you live, and nothing you say is worth ensuring you any sort of death sentence. I give you my word, that no matter what you tell me or what may happen, your life will in no way be of any kind of danger from my hand."

Arthur finished his oath, his voice strong and firm as a King's voice would be, but when he spoke again it was soft, not the voice of a king but of a caring friend. Merlin wondered if he could still be called that after he told Arthur what he had to.

"Now that I've promised you that I'm not going to have the guards drag you away for execution… what is it?"

Merlin gritted his teeth, before eventually, and reluctantly forcing the words out, still wondering what possessed him to suddenly reveal his secret to Arthur again.

"I have magic."

It was as if time stopped, and dimly Merlin wondered for a moment if he really had stopped time, but then Arthur was blinking, and then laughing.

"Stop joking around, Merlin, I'd know if you have magic!" he exclaimed, but for all he looked amused, it didn't reach his eyes, which was now looking more and more serious and grim with each passing moment.

Steeling himself, Merlin held out his hand. "Forbearne," he whispered, and immediately, there was a ball of fire dancing in his palm. Arthur was suddenly silent, but Merlin couldn't bring himself to look up from the fire that was still on his hand, not even hot to his touch.

It may have been minutes , it may have been days, but when Arthur finally spoke, it was as if everything had turned to ice in the chambers.

"Get out."

That made Merlin look up, and he stared at Arthur, his face going paler than it had been a while ago. If that was even possible.

"Arthur?"

"I said, get out!" Arthur exclaimed, suddenly standing up. His face had gone pale as well, and while he looked angry, his eyes were shut off as he glared at Merlin. With a sinking heart, Merlin turned and quickly strode towards the door. Just before he left the chambers completely though, he quietly whispered without turning around, sure that Arthur would have heard him anyway.

"I'm so sorry."

Merlin had went to his chambers almost immediately, feeling slightly guilty as Gwen had called out to him as he passed by her in the hallways but he ignored her and kept walking away. But the the cloud of despair that had settled him overwhelmed any other emotion he could feel, leaving him feeling numb, blank, and still cold, as if the ice had followed him from Arthur's chambers.

Arthur.

The man hadn't called for him for the rest of the day, but despite being locked in his own chambers at the back of the physician's, Merlin had heard when a guard had come and called for Gaius. At first, Merlin had continued to sprawl lifelessly on his bed, but after some time had passed, a sudden irrational fear of Arthur punishing Gaius for housing a sorcerer for all these years struck him, and quick as a bolt Merlin had ran all the way to the main chamber's doors, ready to burst out when he paused, unable to open the door. Feeling immensely guilty then, and overly grim and annoyed at himself and his magic for being the one to have landed him in all this mess, Merlin resorted to pacing tensely around the chambers, only avoiding from tripping by muscle memory of the room's furniture and such.

When Gaius had finally came back well after the sun had set, by which Merlin still hadn't stopped pacing - if anything, his energy had only increased as time passed, Merlin immediately turned to his mentor, who was regarded him with a weary, yet dry expression.

"You couldn't have told me you told him?" Gaius stated, and Merlin's face crumbled as he stepped forward to his father figure.

"Oh Gaius, I'm so sorry! I should have told you I was going to tell him in the first place but for some reason I didn't, and now I've landed us both in this mess and he hasn't called for me all day but he had sent for you and then I was worried what he was doing to you, and it's all my magic's fault, if only I never had it-"

"Merlin!"

Gaius' shocked exclamation was what eventually stopped Merlin through his rant, and he stared brokenly as Gaius looked at him in horror.

"Don't you ever wish you didn't have magic. If you didn't have magic who would have kept Arthur alive all this time?" his matter of fact tone helped ground Merlin, especially as Gaius sat down, gesturing for the warlock to sit by him and the moment he was seated, the elder man pulled him into a hug.

"And don't you worry about me, Merlin. Arthur… the man is confused himself. He didn't know what to make of it, and yes, he's angry with you, which is why he didn't call you back to explain, but me. I was with him all this time explaining as best as I could - mind you, I did leave some things out because it would be better coming from you than someone else - of everything about you, and when there weren't any more questions I could answer, he let me go. That's all that happened, my boy," Gaius ended in a whisper, holding Merlin closer.

Merlin, for his part, felt marginally relieved. While Arthur still didn't seem to be talking to Merlin, at least Gaius was safe. Merlin didn't care too much about what happened to himself, but he definitely wasn't going to let anything happen to his friends, even if it meant protecting Gaius from Arthur.

But for now, the two stayed close together, Merlin being wrapped up in a hug from the man he had grown to see as a father until the candles had went out, before they finally went to bed.

He wasn't sure what woke him up the next morning, but as Merlin stared at the ceiling of his barely lit room, the sun only starting to rise, the question quickly disappeared as the previous day's events came flooding through his mind.

Inhaling sharply, his teeth gritting, Merlin pushed himself up - and froze. There was a man seated at the chair by his desk, and without thinking Merlin raised his hand, preparing to throw a spell until the man spoke, revealing his identity.

"Finally awake then, are you?"

Merlin paused, swallowing as he lowered his hand slowly before answering.

"Arthur?" he asked, his voice raspy from sleep.

He couldn't see him, but he felt that Arthur had just refrained from rolling his eyes.

"Who else would it be, you idiot?" Merlin didn't reply. While Arthur may have spoken those words in jest, it was now carefully blank, his voice almost monotonic.

When Merlin remained silent, Arthur shifted in his seat. His eyes were slowly adjusting to the soft morning's glow, and so Merlin was able to see Arthur looking resolutely outside the window, his jaw tensed.

"You know, the first thing that goes through my mind is that I wish you could have told me sooner. Of course, I can understand why you'd tell me now, and while I feel that I should appreciate that you've at least finally told me… I still am severely upset," Arthur paused, and Merlin remained silent. "I thought it was because that you, of all people, should have magic, and that in a way you've betrayed me… You have, you know," Merlin's heart clenched, and it was then that Arthur finally chose to turn around, and meet his gaze squarely, as he resumed speaking.

"In a way, you have betrayed me. Of all the people to be chosen as my manservant, to become close enough that I could count as a trusty friend, to become someone I would turn to as an advisor at the hardest of times, it had to be a man whom my father has warned me against trusting. A sorcerer," Arthur's voice faded off, and yet Merlin didn't say anything, looking down at his bed as Arthur turned back to look outside the window.

"Gaius was very enlightening, I'll give you that. And because of what he said, and because I've had time to think…" Arthur paused, sighing as he looked down before looking back at Merlin.

"Don't get me wrong, Merlin. I'm still very angry with you. But I expect you to have some really good explanations for this, as soon as you clean my chambers. There seems to be a dent in my walls, and I don't know how you'll fix it, but you better fix it… one way or another," he cast a meaningful look at Merlin, and before the warlock could finally bring up something to say, Arthur had turned around, opened the door and strode out, leaving the door open for Merlin to see him leave the chambers and Gaius standing in his night robe by his bed regarding the door in bewilderment, before the physician turned back to look at Merlin, who was still seated frozenly on his bed.

"Was that Arthur I just saw? How long was he here - and what did he say?" Gaius suddenly asked. Merlin turned his gaze to his mentor, frowning as he tried to process the last few minutes.

"He told me to clean his chambers… And I think he told me to do it with magic."

Gaius stared.

Well there you have it! This is going to be one of the three magic reveal fics I will be doing all from the prompts by cindy4651, so dedicating all of these to her in advance :D

And also, i've never read any of the swearing fealty kind of fics - and even if I did I don't remember - and the idea is completely new to me (which is why you're asking I suppose..) so if I got the whole procedure wrong, please don't flame me! Polite criticism, on the other hand, is welcomed :)

also posted on ao3!