Honestly, George's outfit has been haunting me for years, so here's a fic.

It was a known fact in the royal household of Camelot, hell, it might even be known throughout the kingdom, that prince Arthur never kept a manservant for more than a few weeks. His latest servant had almost lasted a month, before Arthur had "promoted" him to work elsewhere in the castle. At first, it seemed that Arthur was merely spoiled and would never be satisfied by anything or anyone, but for reasons no one could explain, the servants who had been previously employed by him felt entirely differently. They always spoke of Arthur's kindness, and how his sometimes brash and arrogant behavior was nothing more than a small side of their crown prince. Arthur treated his servants kindly, always made conversation as the servant went about their duties and was nothing but respectful towards them. Yet he never kept any of them, and no one knew why. The people who had been let go had all been given different reasons. Most often Arthur would tell them that their talents were needed elsewhere. One boy who had made delicious breakfast had been asked to work in the kitchen full time, and the boy who cared for Arthur's weapons, even more than the prince themselves cared for them, became the blacksmith's apprentice.

And sometimes, Arthur was less than kind. The boy who always seemed distracted by the lady Morgana had been sent to work far away from the castle, but only after Arthur had made him play a moving target for him and his knights. The boy who had stolen from the prince was sent to work in one of the outlying villages after a week in the stocks. But hardly anyone had been disrespectful to Arthur, yet no one had been known to last a full month. Some thought the prince did it to avoid paying his servants, but even those who had lasted only a week got paid the fair share.

The castle housing the royal family and those who served them had many servants, many servants who could one day become one of Arthur's temporary servants, and it became somewhat of a challenge to stay in Arthur's service for a long time. Many wanted to be the one who would serve Arthur until the prince would no longer need a servant. George was one of those people. Arthur was the crown prince, the future king of Camelot and there was no greater honor than the chance to serve that king.

After an incident with a vengeful sorceress, a boy was assigned as Arthur's new manservant after allegedly having saved the prince's life. They all knew he wouldn't last long. The prince had encountered the boy twice before and during both occasions had the boy, who had only just arrived to Camelot from Cenred's kingdom, been disrespectful and downright rude to the prince. The servants started betting on how long he would stay in the prince's service. No one thought he would last for more than two weeks - except for Gwen who bet three full weeks.

It turned out that they were all wrong, and Gwen ended up winning the bet when Merlin - the name of Arthur's new servant - began his twenty-second day of service. And when Merlin became the first to receive his payment after a month and then continue his service, no one knew what to think.

First of all, the boy had no skill, no knowledge of what it took to be a servant of a prince, let along a future king. Before Arthur's first public tournament, Merlin had come to Gwen so that she may teach him how to put on armor. The boy was constantly behind on chores, and often sought assistance with doing chores he had no experience with. Of course, he wasn't completely unteachable, but one would have imagined that prince Arthur would have wanted a servant who knew how to make a bed properly, and not one who was very much still learning how to be a servant.

George was baffled at how Merlin stayed in the prince's service and, for a time, despised the man for stealing his dream job. But only for a time, because prince Arthur seemed to be in a better mood than he had before Merlin, and the kindness his previous servants spoke up, started showing more publically. Some thought that the prince was merely growing up, but George believed that this new servant had a hand in it.

Merlin also followed the prince everywhere, which was strange considering many people had heard Merlin insult the prince and complain about how much of an ass he was. Perhaps he was unaware of how far his duties extended, because when he began going with Arthur on dangerous quests, it all seemed incredibly strange. What was even stranger was the fact that Arthur, who had always seemed so ready to discard his servants, took so many risks for his servants. Arthur had accused a knight of cheating during a tournament based on the words of his - at the time - very new servant, he had disobeyed his father - the king's - orders and gone on a dangerous quest to retrieve the antidote for whatever poison Merlin had drunk in Arthur's place, he had even left Camelot to assist Merlin's village (which was still in Cenred's kingdom!) in getting rid of raiders. No one got it, but slowly, everyone accepted it.

Once, Arthur had sacked Merlin, but even then, not even two days went by before Merlin was back in his service. It seemed that Arthur couldn't even get rid of him, even if he wanted to.

George thought that Merlin was a figure to look up to. Although they never spoke, he tried to emulate Merlin the best he could. He dressed like him, tried to joke around with whoever he was serving at the time (he was currently employed with Sir Leon) and he did his chores in the same order as Merlin. He didn't know what would come of it, but he was sure that this was the right path to take if he wanted to become the best servant he could become. George noticed that he wasn't the only one looking up to the odd servant. Several of the young men and boys who served in the castle wore neckerchiefs like Merlin, had clothes with red and blue like Merlin, some even got their hair cut like Merlin. It was clear that Merlin was the picture of what kinds of servants Camelot needed.

And years later, after Uther's death and Arthur had assumed the throne, the king returned from a mission without his manservant by his side. Arthur, of course, didn't give up on Merlin and sent search party after search party to the woods where, he had last seen his servant - his friend - but it seemed to no avail. And in the meantime, George was assigned as the king's servant.

Diligent as he was, George wanted to make a good first impression and made sure Arthur woke up and would want for nothing. The breakfast was plentiful, all of Arthur's clothes, armor and weapons were clean and ready for use, his chambers were spotless and George even gave an update on the whether. Somehow, he wasn't surprised when Arthur dismissed him immediately. Of course, it didn't change the fact that the king had no servant, so George continued to do his work for the king, and in the few moments they spent together, the king would thank him for his service, and George would attempt to make a witty joke. When Arthur's response was lukewarm at best, George believed that it must have been his worry for Merlin that made him unable to appreciate his joke about brass.

But Merlin returned, and George went back to his normal duties, despite the fact that Merlin within two days of being back, then disappeared for a couple of days, and the king's form of punishment was only to put Merlin in George's care for a week's time.

Merlin was a mystery that George really couldn't unravel, but it seemed that the king didn't really care about the efficiency of his servant, only who that servant was.

I wanted to get back into the Merlin fandom, so this is where I started.