IDOM - Wow… it's been awhile hasn't it? Well, the default to blame; school, hw, stress of needing to pass classes *coughs* fanfiction to read in return *coughs* yep.. The usual

Arthur regarded Merlin, his eyes tracking his manservants every movement and yet his mind was far away. Merlin, unnoticing of Arthur's staring as of the past few minutes, continued with his busy fumblings of preparing the two dinner, skinning the rabbit Arthur had freshly caught on their hunt for their last meal of the day, the manservant silent with his own thoughts.

It was then that Arthur decided to make his move, his mind made up after a day of rigorous thinking, the hunt at first having been a means to help process the flow of his thoughts but now only aiding his plan. Getting up, Arthur made to collect all the weapons he brought with him for his journey, from the more visible weapons like his sword, and on to the more discreet arms that only Merlin knew of - that too only because it was he had to actually sharpen them again - the daggers hidden in his boots. Collecting them all in a heap in his arms, he walked up to Merlin, who, busy in his preparations for dinner, had been ignoring Arthur all along and because of that, jumped up in surprise when Arthur let all his weapons fall to the floor behind the manservant.

"What-?" Merlin squawked, his arms flailing as he fought to regain his balance before he fell over from his half crouched position.

"Those need to be resharpened," Arthur said shortly before walking back to his spot from across the campfire and Merlin, settling down and fighting a smirk when he saw Merlin's bewildered expression.

"Right now?" Merlin said, his voice loud in shock. "Are you crazy? That must be all your weapons from the armory you brought - and you can't honestly believe me to do it right now - and here of all places!" He gestured wildly to the forest, staring skeptically at Arthur as if daring him to go on with his order.

Arthur raised his eyebrows, a lazy expression on his face.

"Careful Merlin, that's your king you're talking to."

He let himself smirk when he heard Merlin mutter whatever his response was as he turned to push away the weaponry into a neater pile to deal with later, though Arthur was sure he still heard the words 'supercilious prat' and 'off his bonkers for sure'.

But the moment Merlin turned away, the smirk died off of Arthur's face, and he continued to regard his servant silently again.

"You know," Arthur started, but suddenly paused, unsure as to how to continue. He cleared his throat, shifting his position where he lay seated to give off a more relaxed and casual posture, before speaking again.

"If you have anything to tell me, you know you can tell me, right Merlin?" Arthur asked.

Without turning around, Merlin chuckled. "Sure, Arthur."

When he didn't say anything else, Arthur frowned.

"No, seriously. I have never actually told you…" Arthur paused, making a pained grimace before pushing himself onwards. This wasn't how he was planning to go, but oh well. The words were out, might as well go along with the flow. "How much I trust you. I mean, I tell you things I wouldn't tell anyone else, but," Arthur sighed, rubbing a hand over his face as he barely restrained a groan. Master of eloquence, he was definitely not. "What I mean to say is, I am here for you, and you can always trust me."

There, he said it. Except now, Merlin was looking at him with concern, the rabbit temporarily forgotten in his hands.

The rabbit. There was a little jumpstart, depending on what Merlin said next.

"Of course, sire," Merlin said, his tone genuine, but he was still looking at Arthur with worry, before he hesitantly turned back to the rabbit and started to cut it into smaller pieces.

The rabbit it was then.

"Why don't you speed things up a bit?" Arthur prodded.

Merlin looked back at him for a brief second, his eyebrow raised.

"I'm sorry?"

"You know," Arthur made a wiggling motion with his fingers. "Use magic."

Merlin stared at him disbelievingly for a few seconds. And then he shot up to his feet, stumbling back a few steps, his face going deathly pale. He would have fallen into the fire as well, had Arthur not shot up, and with lightning fast reflexes gained from years of fighting in the field, caught a hold of his servant's arms and yanked him well away from the fire's range.

"God, Merlin! Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Arthur exclaimed, breathing heavily from the sudden surge of adrenaline, letting go of Merlin's arm when he was sure that Merlin wasn't going to fall over again anytime soon. Taking a deep breath, he suddenly realized Merlin had gone deathly silent. This time, it was Arthur who turned to look at Merlin with concern. Merlin, who had gone deathly pale as a sheet.

"Merlin?"

"You… know?" Merlin said. His voice was so quiet, Arthur could barely hear him.

"Yes, Merlin. I know," Arthur replied, his voice not as quiet, considerably lower in volume.

"For how long?" Merlin asked.

Arthur paused. It wasn't that he didn't remember when he first found out - no, it was the exact opposite. The day he saw Merlin creating butterflies out of all things, was still fresh in his memory as if it had only happened yesterday instead of months ago.

"It was one of those days, when you didn't show up to work, long ago. I went to Gaius to ask where you were, and he said you went to the tavern. But I knew for a fact that Gwaine had said earlier that day he was at the tavern and when I found him at the field training, he said never once has he seen you there there," Arthur paused, taking a moment to see how Merlin was so far faring with his narration. For the other man's part though, he stood there stock still, hardly even breathing that Arthur was tempted to reach forward to check for a pulse.

"I passed by Guinevere, though, and she said she saw you walking to the forest, looking deep in thought. So I went after you to the forest, took a while to find you, and all the while I was thinking that you were probably going after a girl," Arthur huffed, a small smile appearing on his lips but quickly disappearing when he noticed that Merlin's expression still hadn't changed.

"Anyway. It took me a while to find you, but when I finally did… you were just sitting there… playing with a butterfly. A blue, sparkling, one," Arthur stopped, and sort of shrugged.

"I guess I knew from then."

For a while, Merlin didn't say anything. Then, he slowly opened his mouth, comprehension slowly dawning on his eyes, and pointed a finger at Arthur, almost accusatory. "That's why you didn't speak to me properly for weeks afterwards. Or even look at me!" He exclaimed, but his voice was weak.

"Yes, well. I needed time to figure things out," Arthur said.

Merlin dropped his hand, looking worried again.

"And?" Merlin asked hesitantly.

For a moment, Arthur was confused, before he realized what Merlin was asking.

"Well, I'm talking to you right now, aren't I?"

It took far too long for Arthur to be comfortable, but Merlin finally responded.

"So… you're not going to kill me?"

Arthur sighed. He would have rolled his eyes, but truth be told, he had been expecting something like this, and it did nothing to put him at ease.

"How can I, when I gave you all my weapons?" That didn't seem to reassure Merlin very much though, as he looked towards the pile of weapons sitting near the campfire. Which Arthur was standing much closer to, in between his weapons and Merlin.

"Look, I swear, I'm not going to hurt you," Arthur said, his tone utterly serious. "I may have considered it, at first," he conceded, and Merlin's face looked even paler, if that was even possible. "But I took some time to think. And I may have spoken to Gaius."

"Gaius knows you know?" Merlin exclaimed, his voice much louder this time, and Arthur, shaking his head.

"No, I highly doubt it. I didn't ask anything pertaining to you, but merely advise," Arthur paused.

"Wait," he narrowed his eyes. "Gaius knows of your magic?"

Merlin still stayed silent. And pale.

Arthur sighed, shaking his head again. "Nevermind, that's not important. What is important, is that you understand, that I have no wish to harm you. How else will I entertain myself with the sight of firmly attached branches falling on unsuspecting bandits?" He asked with a slight chuckle.

Slowly, Merlin started to regain color.

"So… you're not going to ban me either?"

This time, Arthur did roll his eyes.

"Look. It's been months, months, since I've found out. Don't you think that if I wanted to do either of those, I'd have done it sooner?"

Although it was a bit shaky, Merlin still managed to look a bit skeptical.

"So why haven't you told me you've known sooner as well then?"

At that, Arthur looked sheepish, clearing his throat to regain some composure.

"Like I said, I needed some time to think. As to how I feel about this," he waved a vague hand towards Merlin, to which that finally elicited a properly raised eyebrow.

"And… I also really didn't know how to tell you. So I thought a hunt would be a good way to go."

And now, Merlin finally did scoff, his face looking a little more lighter.

"A hunt, of course."

"Of course! Hunting solves everything!" Arthur exclaimed jovially, happy to see that Merlin was finally starting to act normally again.

"So, you're… really okay?" Merlin asked, serious again.

Arthur barely refrained himself from groaning. Barely.

"Yes! Believe me, I am. And I will continue reassuring you, if that's what you want as penance for not telling you sooner, for as long as you want. But can you at least finish preparing dinner first?" He asked, raising an eyebrow, but there was a deeper meaning to his question, one that Merlin saw. And he wordlessly answered, by shifting his gaze to the rabbit sitting abandoned by the campfire, behind Arthur, and whispered something, his eyes shifting gold. The rabbit started to cut itself into neat pieces, and Merlin turned to look back to Arthur, a challenge in his eyes, but Arthur could still see the fear hidden behind it as well.

"Finally," was all he said in return, and sat down on the ground, his back against the log. Merlin remained standing a while longer, but when he finally sat, it was beside Arthur, and out of the corner of the King's eye, he could see Merlin grinning.

So I'm sorry this took much longer than planned, but I sort of took a break off from writing, and I returned for the time period to wrap up loose ends. Just to let y'all know, I will be uploading two more chapters that I have in mind for my vampire drabble, but that will be all unless someone otherwise prompts me.

Hope you find this to your liking, Cindy