This just popped into my head, and I felt the need to write it down. Any responses welcome :)

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"Guards! Arrest him!" The king's voice was full of urgency, but to those who knew him well, they could hear that there was very little heart behind the order. Immediately three armed men rushed forwards, grabbing the thin, dark haired warlock and dragging him roughly from the room.

"How long do you give it?" Gwaine, stood near the edges of the room muttered to Elyan beside him.

"Ten minutes?" The dark skinned man whispered back, his lips quirking into a grin. "I'll buy you a drink if I'm wrong."

"Two drinks, and I'll bet five minutes," Sir Gwaine smiled to himself. There was no way it was going to take his all-powerful best friend ten minutes to escape the dungeons.

"You're on."

"What are you two gossiping about?" Their King demanded, his blue eyes flashing dangerously. Arthur's day wasn't exactly going to plan, and he wasn't sure that he had the patience to deal with another of Gwaine and Elyan's plots.

"Nothing at all, Sire," Gwaine replied in a sing-song voice, dropping into a mock bow.

"Of course not," King Arthur muttered dryly, shaking his head. He was distracted by a sound from the corridor beyond the doors of the Great Hall, and he looked up in time to see his ex-servant and Court Sorcerer burst into the room. As soon as he entered, Gwaine crowed with delight and Elyan sighed in resignation.

"Arthur, this is just ridiculous!" The warlock cried, coming to a stop a few feet in front of the king's throne.

"I thought I told you to stop breaking out of the dungeons?" The blonde asked, his eyebrows rising.

"And yet you still expect me to do all my chores? If you keep sending me to be locked away, I'm going to find it hard to my jobs, don't you think?" The warlock groaned in exasperation. "I thought that you done overreacting to my secrets now anyway."

"Overreacting? Do you want to be dragged back to the dungeons? I will order the guards to, you know."

"I'm sure you would, and I'm sure you'd enjoy making my day harder than it needs to be, but if you want me to keep working on the protection spells for the city, incarceration probably isn't the best way to go!" Merlin rubbed his aching temples. One of these days, Arthur was going to have to stop ordering him to be locked up. It was happening so frequently now that he could make his way from the dungeons to the Great Hall with his eyes closed. As soon as the guards left him in peace, he unlocked the door with magic and went free.

The king scowled at the sorcerer. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the boy did have a point.

"Maybe if you hadn't been keeping so many secrets, it wouldn't be this hard." He muttered, mainly to himself.

"I'd say that I had very good reasons to not go bragging about having magic, unless you've forgotten," Merlin retorted, but there was no accusation in his tone.

"Nevermind," was Arthur's only response. "Get back to work."

"I don't know why you hadn't worked out that I'm a dragonlord-" this being the secret that the king had just discovered, "-I thought that it would be obvious, what with Balinor being my father, and then-" He was cut off.

"Balinor was your what?" The king screeched. Merlin's eyes went wide for a second, and then he paled as he realised his mistake.

"Oh dear. I think you'd better run Merlin," Gwaine called from the sidelines, as he watched his king's face contort.

"What's the point? I'll be out again in a few minutes," he replied, just as his blonde haired friend cried out:

"Guards!"

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Ta da! It's a bit crap, but oh well. In case you didn't understand, every time that King Arthur found out another of Merlin's secrets, he felt the need to arrest him. Anyways, comments are appreciated. Readers of 'Darkest Day, Blackest Knight' a new chapter should be out shortly, if things go to plan.