No, oh no.

Aithusa was visible to Gaius: it wouldn't be long until everyone saw him, there was no point trying to hide him now.

"Merlin, what is it?"

Merlin didn't hear Arthur's question. He berated himself: how could he have been so careless? Why had he thought it'd be a good idea for Gaius to be able to see Aithusa, and then forgotten all about it? And to top it off, he'd been stupid enough to call Gaius by his name, no wonder Aithusa had decided to appear to Gaius, it'd been an open invitation.

No, no, no.

Arthur asked urgently again, tense, "Merlin, what is it?"

Merlin couldn't answer: he couldn't speak.

But Arthur understood enough to be somewhere near the right track. "You'd better not tell me the Great Dragon is in the room with us." The king glanced around the room like he didn't quite believe the words coming out of his own mouth, and the knights and Gwen's earlier relaxed air was fast fading.

Gaius was now looking as horrified as Merlin felt. He put out a hand to his shaking ward. "Merlin, do you mean I can see him, and they can't?"

Merlin opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Arthur was still holding onto him, his grip tight.

"Gaius." Arthur's voice seemed to be coming from a long way away. "Tell me. Is there a dragon in the room with us?"

Gaius shifted uneasily, his eyes darting involuntarily in Aithusa's direction.

"That's not a request, Gaius."

Gaius looked at the panicking warlock, apologetic. "Merlin, I'm sorry. They can't see him?"

Merlin managed a weak shake of his head.

Arthur shook him, but he wasn't rough. "Merlin, you mean to tell me the Great Dragon is in the room with us? The very same dragon that attacked Camelot?"

Merlin finally found his voice. "No, of course not."

"Merlin!"

Arthur had no idea, Kilgharrah wouldn't even fit in the room.

Cornered, Merlin admitted shakily, "No. Not that one."

Silence.

Arthur said slowly, "Another dragon?"

Merlin nodded.

Arthur was very calm. "Where?"

Merlin blinked through his shock at Arthur, his mind seemed completely scrambled. Aithusa had retreated to his favourite corner of the room again, he was whimpering quietly to himself, knowing he'd done something wrong. His dragonlord's non-response to his distress had not been reassuring, and the small dragon had withdrawn well away from the swarm of people.

Aithusa nudged at the dead beetle lying on the ground; even from right across the room Merlin could see the glow of magic as it shimmered from black to green as Aithusa poured his worry into it.

Aithusa whimpered again, and this time Merlin heard his distress. He tried to make his way over to the window to Aithusa, but Arthur wasn't letting go of Merlin's arm: Merlin pulled, Arthur gave him a pointed stare, and in the end they stumbled across to the room together.

Aithusa was quick to clamber onto one of Merlin's boots, and Merlin sent out a reassuring burst of thought to the dragon. Aithusa responded in kind, the connection between them calming him almost instantly.

"Merlin?" Arthur was getting impatient.

Merlin answered quietly, "He's here."

Arthur noticed the beetle. He stopped and stared, his forehead creasing. "He's in disguise? He's ... he's a beetle?"

Merlin's mouth parted in blank astonishment, then his brain caught up. "No!"

"Merlin!"

Merlin tried to shake himself free, but Arthur gave him an exasperated glare and switched his grip, his fingers curling vice-like around Merlin's lower arm, just above his wrist.

Merlin stopped struggling. He said softly, "Please. He's only a baby."

"You're procrastinating. Show him to me."

Merlin was eerily calm, the game was up, so he'd let them see. "Please let me go, Arthur." He waited, and when Arthur released his hold, Merlin bent down. Aithusa jumped into his arms, Merlin straightened and ran his fingers over the dragon's spine, and Aithusa arched into his touch. "Aithusa, unhele."

The golden glow around the dragon shimmered and vanished, and Arthur drew in a sharp breath as Aithusa appeared.

Across the room, Gwaine's reaction was more colourful and Merlin winced: the thought crossed his mind that Aithusa had better not learn that combination of inappropriate words in the human tongue. But the thought was fleeting and Merlin's attention was quick to return to Arthur: his reaction was the one he really cared about.

Arthur's initial stunned astonishment had grown into something else, now he was eyeing the dragon with a curious but guarded expression, and Aithusa was returning his interest guilelessly.

The dragon was draped over the length of Merlin's lower arm and tucked against Merlin's body; Aithusa's paws were dangling, his wings were folded in close, and his tail was circled around Merlin's arm at his elbow. It was one of his favourite ways of being held, particularly since Merlin had made it clear months ago he wasn't too keen on Aithusa's claws digging into his skin or shredding his clothes, which had often happened when the dragon tried to hold on in other ways.

Arthur put his hand out as if to touch Aithusa, then he hesitated and drew it back. He shook his head slightly. "Merlin, when were you going to tell me about this?"

There was no accusation in Arthur's voice, but shame curled like a fist in Merlin's gut. "I don't know. I couldn't risk it."

"You couldn't risk it."

Merlin worried his lip and shifted Aithusa's weight on his arm; the dragon was pressed against the cut in his side, the magic emitting from him easing Merlin's pain again, even the exhaustion and the queasiness was easier to manage with the dragon so close. He paused, opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it then tried again, stopped, then finally admitted in a low voice, "I hatched him from the egg that Borden was after, from Ashkanar's tomb."

Arthur took in the confession; other than a brief tightening of his mouth, his expression gave nothing away. Then he put his hands on his hips and tipped his head down, his face hidden from view, seemingly studying the tips of his boots with great concentration. When he met Merlin's eyes again, he was weary. "I see. So this is one of those things you said you can't be honest about."

And all of a sudden Merlin understood, it was like light after darkness: and it shocked him, what he saw. He'd never understood he'd have this power, the power to hurt Arthur; and he saw what he hadn't seen before, that maybe, possibly, despite everything, Arthur still cared.

It was a revelation, and he wanted time to consider it and to think about what it could mean, but time was a luxury he didn't have right now.

Instead he tried to explain, and to justify himself. "I'm a dragonlord, Arthur. It's my duty to care for him, and to protect him from harm." He stroked the tip of one of Aithusa's wings with his free hand, and the dragon stuck out a claw and grabbed hold of his thumb.

"And that harm is me?"

His mind was still playing catch-up, this truth seemed impossible. "I'm sorry. But yes, the egg, you were going to ... you said ..." Merlin tugged his thumb out of Aithusa's grasp and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know."

Arthur was inscrutable again. "Can I have a closer look at him?"

Merlin hesitated but only for a split second; he knew Arthur wouldn't harm Aithusa, not now, he had too much honour to do it under false pretences. He nodded.

Aithusa regarded Arthur solemnly. He hadn't tried to speak: he was content to quietly observe. He was relaxed now too, his dragonlord was holding him and Merlin's tension had also eased, which in turn reassured him further. Merlin communicated with Aithusa in mind speech. He won't harm you, Aithusa. Will you go to him?

Aithusa wriggled at that and tightened his tail around Merlin's elbow, making it clear that no, he wasn't going to tolerate going anywhere now that he'd finally gotten his own way about getting held by his dragonlord.

However he was confident enough to be regal about it all, he raised his head and gave Arthur a look that Merlin saw was both a little condescending and slightly impatient, although Merlin was sure Arthur wouldn't notice such a subtlety. Merlin nodded at Arthur, and the king moved closer and stretched out a careful hand.

Arthur was fascinated: it was all there in his gentle touches to Aithusa's head, and his stroking of the dragon's smooth yet hardy scales, in his careful exploration of the deceptively delicate tips of his wings, and his thorough examination of the small, sharp claws on Aithusa's feet: even the tail that had wrapped itself around Merlin's elbow didn't escape Arthur's notice.

Then Arthur sighed, but his hand stayed on Aithusa's back, stroking slowly until he seemed to notice what he was doing, and he pulled away, shooting a quick, self-conscious glance in the direction of the others in the room.

Apparently no one was paying attention, or at least, when Merlin looked too, everyone seemed to be concentrating on the contents of the platters on the table.

The petting over, Aithusa's interest switched to the others in the room. He eyed them curiously, his head tipped to one side as he observed them. Then he became absolutely motionless when he realised exactly what was on the table: food.

He wriggled, unwrapping his tail from Merlin's elbow, suddenly deciding with the inconsistency of the very young that he was perfectly fine and had had enough of being held. He reached out in mind speech to his dragonlord. "Emrys, things in mouth, table?"

Merlin sighed, knowing if he answered this question wrongly, another battle, this time with Aithusa, would start, and he still hadn't finished things with Arthur. He was tired: he needed to be able to concentrate on Arthur without a clash with Aithusa distracting him. He make a quick decision and hoped it wouldn't go pear-shaped, and answered Aithusa in verbal speech in the human tongue, so the others could understand, "Gwen, Gaius, Gwaine, one of you?"

All three looked up along with everyone else at the table.

"Does one of you want to meet Aithusa? He wants to see what's happening over there."

But before they could respond, Percival put down his tankard so quickly that it clattered over and spilled ale over the table. "No way, Merlin, you can't let Gwaine get hold of a baby dragon. I'll take him for you, can I?"

"Hey!"

Gwaine's protest was the start of an avalanche, and it seemed an instant later that Merlin was swamped with interest as they all crowded around him. Percival was the first one to reach him; Leon raised himself on tip-toe to peer over Elyan's shoulder after politely making sure Gwen was in the front row, and Gwaine elbowed Arthur out of the way as he crowded around.

Only Tristan and Gaius didn't join the fray, staying in their seats around the table, Gaius with that inscrutable look on his face that meant he was amused and covering it.

After making sure Aithusa really was okay with the change of hold from his dragonlord to the arms of a large, muscley knight, Merlin gave Aithusa a hurried instruction in the dragon tongue about being gentle and no scratching because humans don't like it when their skin bleeds, no eating yet because there are some foods that you just can't have (honey for one he'd discovered had the same affect on the dragon as too much sugar did on a toddler), no using magic because you might scare them (colour-changing anything was his latest favourite trick and apparently Kilgharrah had been very annoyed when he'd woken up one day with a bright red claw), no flying up to the rafters because there are too many sticky cobwebs (and hence spiders: Aithusa was also experimenting with re-sizing things).

He'd almost finished issuing his orders in the tone that said obey-me-or-else when he realised he was speaking the dragon tongue out loud in front of his friends. He flushed and glanced at them and at Arthur, but no one seemed to mind, so he ignored Gwaine's objections and dumped Aithusa unceremoniously in Percival's arms. "He might want a drink, he can have water but nothing else. And if you really want to win him over, scratch him here," and he gestured to the bony protuberances on Aithusa's back.

Percival nodded very seriously before hurrying away speedily like he was afraid Merlin would change his mind. Gwen stopped and smiled at him and at Arthur, then she followed the pack of knights back to the table; by now they were bumping shoulders in their efforts to get a closer look at the small creature that Percival was jealously guarding.

Merlin was a bit nonplussed; he'd never imagined such a situation as this, everything seemed to be happening in the opposite way to what he'd been expecting. He watched them all with the dragon for a moment: Aithusa had wriggled out of Percival's arms and was perched on the far end of the table, fortunately away from the food.

He seemed to be holding his own well enough, and wasn't showing any signs of agitation or distress.

Arthur was watching them too. "I guess that's that's their first experience of a magical creature that's not wanting to kill them."

Merlin nodded. "Um. Yeah. I suppose."

Gwen was regarding the dragon with the look she reserved for babies and cuddly animals; so was Percival, which was unsurprising. Leon was wary but fascinated, Elyan was just plain fascinated, and Gwaine was ... Merlin decided Percival had a point, Gwaine and a baby dragon would be an unwise combination, Merlin could almost see Gwaine counting the possibilities for mischief unfolding in front of him. Even Tristan had lost his aloofness and had shifted his chair to better observe this situation.

They stood in silence for a while longer, then Arthur sighed. "Look, Merlin. I can't pretend to know what I think about all this, it's still too new. I won't lie to you about it, but I need to know you won't lie to me, either. The thing is, I want to try. I want to work through this. But what do you want?"

Merlin swallowed past the lump forming in his throat. It was the hardest and easiest question he'd ever had to answer. To leave Camelot as he'd thought he'd have to was to give up, but to stay and put his trust in Arthur when he'd never trusted him with the truth and never been honest with anyone at all about all his secrets, was to put his heart on the line.

And his heart was a fragile creature, it would be too easy for Arthur to break it irreparably if he found he could not accept Merlin for who he truly was.

It was a risk, and he had to either run away, or jump. Merlin pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, and dragged a mouthful of air into his lungs, concentrating on a breath in, then out.

"It's simple, Merlin, when it comes down to it. You either want to try and get past this, or you don't. Your honesty, that's all I'm asking. Yes, or no?"

He wanted to say yes. He'd never considered himself a coward, but brave acts and deeds, and risking his life for Arthur were not the same as laying bare his heart. "Arthur, I just ..."

Aithusa reached out to him in mind speech; he'd spied raspberries on the table.

Merlin answered in kind, A dragon does not look dignified covered in berry stains. No, wait. I'll get you something later.

Aithusa snorted his discontent and huffed out a small burst of fire; Gwen jumped in alarm, but Percival and Elyan exchanged impressed glances. Gwaine whistled his appreciation, he shot a sly look Merlin's way, then he stuck a piece of meat on the end of a fork, waving it under Aithusa's nose. "Again?"

Arthur waited for Merlin's distraction to settle. "Merlin?"

He knew he wanted this with everything he had, just one more chance to make things right. But the lies he'd spun propped up more lies. He didn't know what would happen when all his skewered truths tumbled down like a house of cards, he didn't know if Arthur would like what he saw in the end.

His voice was hoarse. "I want to, Arthur, but I can't be honest with you about everything. I've told you that. There are just some things I can't talk about, not now, and I don't know if I ever can. I'm sorry, I want to, but ... please, don't expect too much of me yet." For a moment he felt like he was being strangled and he wondered if the panic showed on his face.

Arthur shook his head, not a no, but because he didn't understand. To him it was simple. "Why?"

Now Gwaine was waving around a smoking chunk of meat on the end of his fork, even Gaius and Tristan were smiling at the dragon's antics.

Merlin was horrified to find he was on the verge of tears, his earlier tension was returning and he felt close to the end of his tether having to revisit shaky ground. "There are things that I've done. Things you deserve to know. Things I can't talk to you about, that I won't talk to you about, not yet and maybe not ever. Most of the things I have to do, I don't talk about it with anyone, not even Gaius. I do it all alone, I've always been alone with this."

Emrys. Berries. Aithusa tried again in mind speech. He flapped his wings.

"Then we'll do as Gwen suggested."

Merlin couldn't remember. "What was that?"

Now Leon of all people was taking a turn at getting Aithusa to set alight something on the end of his fork, they all laughed uproariously when Gwaine managed to edge quite literally into the dragon's line of fire and had to bat frantically at the thin puff of smoke spiralling off the end of his sleeve. Merlin scowled.

Arthur prodded. "Start with something simple, things you can tell me about. Show me something you like doing with your magic, something fun."

Merlin called aloud across the room in the dragon tongue to Aithusa. Stop that, you'll hurt them. No more fire.

He tried to concentrate on Arthur, he knew he should be thrilled that Arthur had asked him to show him some magic, let alone magic for fun, but he didn't have it in him to feel thrilled about anything right now. And something fun? He didn't use magic for fun, there was always a purpose. The last time he'd used it for fun, Gaius had been imprisoned by the witchfinder. That lesson had been learnt.

Arthur gave him a quizzical glance. "What did you say to the dragon? Can he understand you?"

"Not to fry them." He answered half-absently, too exhausted and too busy watching Aithusa to censor himself, and he almost missed Arthur's start of surprise. But he didn't try to backtrack. "He might be a baby, but he's still a dragon, and they're going to find that out soon enough if they keep doing that."

"Can he understand you? And do what you say? I mean, he's so young."

Merlin scuffed his boots on the floor and said quietly, "He's a magical creature, Arthur. He's not like a dog, or a horse. He understands everything I tell him in the dragon tongue. He's like a human child, sometimes like the mindset of a two year old, sometimes more a ten year old, he doesn't always do as he's told but he's not a vicious monster."

Aithusa ignored another offering on a fork, he'd lost interest in that game since he'd been told not to use fire, and he was back to eying up the platter that was full of raspberries. He edged closer to temptation; Percival noticed his interest and picked up a berry and offered it to him, but the dragon had been given a directive in the dragon tongue which was difficult for him to blatantly disregard so soon.

Aithusa's attention switched from the table to Merlin again, he flapped his wings in warning, but when no response was forthcoming from his dragonlord he switched to verbal speech.

His voice was piercingly loud, a demand. "Emrys. Berries. Now."

Oddly, the first thing that registered in Merlin's mind was exasperation: Aithusa was definitely more of a handful than Kilgharrah had let on. But then he saw Arthur's shocked stare, and for a split second his reaction was a comfortable yes, Aithusa can speak, but then he realised, oh no: Emrys.

He'd been outed. He froze.

Just in case anyone had missed it, Aithusa repeated impatiently, still loud. "Emrys!"

There was silence. They were all staring at him again, and only Gaius seemed taken aback at their surprise.

"What?" Arthur stepped in his line of sight. "You said you weren't Emrys, Merlin."

Nothing about a talking dragon? Merlin avoided his eyes and stumbled backwards. "I just ..." No, not this, not now, not the Emrys thing too on top of everything else. Arthur couldn't know, it was a mantra in his mind. Merlin had decided that, it was how it had to be, even though it was hard to remember why he felt so anxious about it, it felt jumbled up in his head.

Secrets were his natural forte, hiding was what he did, no one ever saw the entirety of him. He gave snippets of himself to Gaius, to the druids, to Kilgharrah, to Morgana, and to countless others but no one saw the full picture, giving this secret up to Arthur would his last stand.

Emrys didn't have to be about Dragoon and Uther any more, it may not even be about the bond that had to be forged between Emrys and Arthur. But all the lies and the manipulation, it would all come out. His mind raced frantically. And Morgana, he was sure Morgana had seen Dragoon as Emrys in her dreams, and not him. It would explain her irrational terror of him in that form, and also why she'd never discovered his magic. It was his destiny to face her in that form, he couldn't change his fate, the crystal cave had been a lesson in tampering with destiny.

No, no, no. He just didn't know what he was meant to do, should he deny and mislead, again and again? Did it matter? Or was this where he was supposed to end up? All he could hold onto was one constant thing: he was always alone, he was meant to do it all alone, it was how it had always been.

Arthur advanced. "Merlin ..."

Merlin shook his head, almost frantic. "No, please. I can't do this." He couldn't, it had been too much, he couldn't go through another battle and an explanation for more lies all over again, not right now, he didn't have it in him.

Arthur wasn't giving any quarter. "Merlin, stop. You said Dragoon was Emrys. Is he, or is Emrys you?"

Aithusa had gone silent and watchful on the table; he'd finally decided to ignore the berries. He didn't understand the sudden tension. "Emrys?"

The hard stone pillar against his back was the only thing holding him up. He shut his eyes, but the tears still leaked out, he was ashamed to feel them trickling down his face. He sank to the ground, and hid his face in his hands.

A hand closed over Merlin's shoulder, and someone said in his ear, "Come on, Merlin. Breathe. Just breathe."

He was almost beyond rational thought, and he shook the hand off. Outside, thunder boomed in the cloudless sky.

But the hand came back. "You're okay, Merlin. It doesn't matter right now. Just breathe, come on."

His laugh sounded more like a hiccupping sob. He made himself say it. "Dragoon, Emrys, it's all me. I lie and manipulate, it's me, it was an aging spell, they're both me."

There was another murmur in his ear, and then there were more footsteps, he heard Gaius's worried tone and he knew they were all there crowding around him, but it didn't help, it made him feel hemmed in, and trapped. He clutched himself tighter, his magic was bubbling ominously, and he tried to pull himself together, but before he could try and sort through the chaos in his mind an armful of worried, frightened dragon crashed into him.

His head jerked up. Aithusa circled him like he was guarding him, he growled warningly, a sound Merlin had never heard him make before. They all backed off, all except for Arthur. But the angry hissing from the dragon was enough for Merlin to register that he had to control this situation straight away, before Aithusa acted further and caused any of them harm.

He yanked Aithusa onto his lap, the dragon letting out a snort of surprise as he was scooped up. He shoved him under his jacket, tucking him out of sight and harm's way. He ignored everyone else and curled over Aithusa, ducking his head and murmuring quiet reassurances to him in the dragon tongue, words that grew into a rambling explanation about humans and their strange behaviours, all silly nonsense but it didn't matter because it calmed Aithusa, and anyway, no one else could understand.

His voice was hoarse when he finally ran out of words, the room was silent, and it was then he realised the pillar he was jammed up against wasn't a pillar or the wall at all, instead it was Arthur sitting behind him on the floor, his arms circling his shoulders and holding him tight.

Merlin breathed slowly, very slowly. He glanced up just once to see all the others were sitting around the table, all very obviously not looking their way at all.

Arthur's chest was warm against his back.

There was a damp spot on the base of Merlin's neck, near the collar of his jacket. He thought about it for a long time before he moved his fingers to fumble over that odd wetness, to see if it was his imagination or if it was really there.

Slowly, he rubbed back and forth at the damp patch of skin.

Had Arthur shed tears while he'd been holding him? Or maybe he'd been drooling, although either possibility seemed completely unlikely.

Merlin dropped his hand and tucked it back under his jacket, curving it over Aithusa's back.

He shut his eyes again. And he stayed very still, for a very long time.

Eventually, Arthur moved, but it was only a little bit, just enough for Merlin's head to fall to the side, and he left it there, his ear pressed against Arthur's chest. Arthur's heart was beating steadily, and Merlin lost himself in its rhythm.

Another endless amount of time had passed when Arthur finally spoke, and he was quiet, almost as if he was afraid to break the silence. "There'll be times … when we'll fight about it for days." Merlin felt a fleeting touch as Arthur's hand carded just once through his hair. "And there'll be times when I shout at you, and you'll shout right back."

A tiny quirk lifted the corner of Merlin's mouth.

Arthur's voice rumbled against his ear. "You'll question my decisions and call me a clotpole, but I won't care, because I know you're the real idiot."

Merlin cleared his throat once, then he had to do it again before he could speak. "I'm the idiot, huh? Thanks." His voice was husky.

He heard Arthur's smile and felt a puff of warm breath ghost across his ear. "Someone has to be, to balance us out, and it's not me."

The familiar banter came easily enough in his head. He took a deep breath and found their natural footing out loud. "You know, I think … you do realise you're hugging me, right?"

"No I'm not." Arthur scoffed. "You looked sick, like you were going to faint. I'm just holding you up."

"Huh. You sure? Because it feels like a hug. Didn't think you liked them."

"Fine, fine, alright, it might be a hug." A shrug, and Arthur's chest moved under his head. "It's thanks to Gwen I'm hugging you, she likes it, you know. So I don't mind hugging her, and I guess that means I can hug you too."

Merlin pulled back a little, deliberately dubious, and regarded him doubtfully. "Uh … Arthur? I hope you understand … I'm absolutely not Gwen."

"Oh very amusing, your wit knows no boundaries." Arthur flicked his ear. "Not like that, you idiot. Like a friend. And this hugging business is not going to happen very often, this is enough so there'll be no more for the next ten years, at least."

Like a friend.

"Friends." Merlin swallowed and rubbed his ear. "Is that what we are?"

"I don't know what else to call you. Except if you are, then you're a friend who smells. Honestly Merlin, why is it the only times I've ever hugged you, you smell completely and utterly rank? You really stink. It's vile. Is it something you plan?"

Except for the planning bit, Merlin supposed that was partly true, at least in this instance: stale sweat, blood and mud combined, probably didn't make the sweetest scent.

And he didn't remember the other hug, he'd been enchanted then, but Gwaine had told him the story often enough, although his recounts of the occasion had depended on how much he wanted to annoy Arthur, and usually varied from he picked you up and spun you around, or I could have sworn he cried like a princess all over you, to I'm pretty sure he landed a big one on your cheek, so Merlin was never exactly sure what had happened. "I did volunteer to go and get cleaned up when I first got back here, remember?"

"Yeah, I suppose you did."

They were silent for a moment, and Aithusa poked his head out of the top of Merlin's jacket, he eyed Arthur unblinkingly, then he wriggled back under and slithered out at the bottom, tail first.

"Berries, Emrys," he announced, and those at the table swiveled their heads in unison to watch as the small creature made his way over to them in single minded pursuit of his goal.

Merlin sighed, vaguely hoping Gwaine wouldn't encourage him again with the fire trick, and feeling a sudden and deep sense of sympathy for his mother and Gaius.

Arthur bumped his shoulder. "You know Merlin, I rest my case. You really are a complete idiot: you bought a dragon into Camelot."

Well ... there might be a small element of truth in that statement, however ... "He was invisible, no one would have seen him. And he's only a baby. It's not like he can do much harm anyway."

"But still ... what on earth were you thinking?"

What had he been thinking? In all honesty, and he supposed this was something he could be honest about, even if the truth was just a little bit ...

He sighed and admitted, "Kilgharrah said it was my turn." Then thought about it and frowned, realising he sounded more like petulant child instead of a dragonlord, but quite unable to do anything about it.

"Your turn? For what?"

"Well, you know," Merlin waved a vague hand in Aithusa's direction. "Dragonlordy things, I suppose."

Arthur gave him a disbelieving glance and then, for some reason, was suddenly very cheerful. Too cheerful.

Merlin's eyes narrowed as Arthur's look turned smug.

"Babysit. That's what you're doing, Merlin. You mean babysit."

Merlin glared, slightly put out. But then he was thoughtful. "Yes, well ... I guess so."

Arthur pushed him aside and climbed to his feet, stretching and rubbing the small of his back. He offered a hand to Merlin, and pulled him upright.

"Merlin, I don't know about this destiny thing, that rubbish about Emrys and Once and Future King."

Merlin raised a questioning eyebrow, and Arthur continued to grumble obligingly, "It can't be right, because I know you were put on this earth solely to drive me insane. Now come over and get some food, okay?" Then Arthur smiled, quick and fleeting.

"Okay," said Merlin. "Yeah, alright."

And he smiled right back.

THE END

A/N: There, done, finally. If you liked it, I'd love to know. Reviews help motivate me to start on writing something else!