AN: Ugh. I got this idea while I was listening to music. The title is from 'A Trophy Father's Trophy Son' by Sleeping With Sirens. It has recently become one of my all time favorite songs. It's amazing. If you haven't heard it, I recommend it..as well as just the band in general. Yeah..just go listen to Sleeping With Sirens, people, if you haven't already!

Anyways, yeah..moving on.

I got to searching through prompts for this fandom and can't help but notice that while people like the hurt fics and stuff for this fandom, nobody's said anything about an abuse type fic. And I want to try my hand at something like that. So..yeah, warnings may be needed? I dunno. Just..if something bothers you while you're reading..then, I fully apologize. Just know it's hard for me to write, as well as for you to read. I trigger very easily and having come from an abusive background like I have, I'm very likely to trigger myself back into self-harming..and yeah, I don't want to be killed so we're going to try avoiding that, yeah? Besides, I don't wanna relapse in my recovery just yet! By the way, on that note..I would highly appreciate some alternatives to self-harm besides music and writing..because even those are triggering me as of late and I'm kind of hesitant to try that again right now with all that's going on..

Anyways, I've rambled long enough.

Enjoy.

Black, blue, purple, yellow and red. It was just a mixture of colours that covered every inch of exposed skin. And the pain that came with every step of this walk was absolute torture, worse than any other kind of torture he could possibly think of, and a few he couldn't.

As the boy wandered in blindly, Arthur found himself feeling worried for the small youth. He was young, that was apparent, couldn't be much older than he himself was.

Arthur studied the boy, trying to pick up on anything else concerning besides the bruising and cuts. There was tattered, dirty gauze hanging from below the boy's shirt with blood splatters that had long since dried on it. He was limping and had a wrist wrapped tightly in old, dirty gauze as well. Worst of all, however, was the fact that even from this distance, even through the clothing, Arthur could count ribs. While that wasn't odd from travellers as of late, the fact that he was so malnurished and injured on top of it really made Arthur snap. He moved from the training grounds to guide the boy over to the other knights, who had stopped and were staring at him in confusion.

He couldn't get the other male to look up or speak for the longest after he got him to the other knights.

Then Leon spoke up. "So, since you aren't answering our dearest prince's questions, will you tell me who you're here in search of?"he asked softly. "Maybe we could help you find them,"

That got him to look up.

Deep blue eyes that were so bright and innocent cut through all the knights. The broken look in them broke their hearts. Who would hurt someone like this?

But still no speech, so Leon spoke again. "Will you tell us your name?"

Hesitance showed up in the blue eyes for a moment before a soft voice came through. "I'm Merlin."he replied calmly, though his voice shook and broke quite a bit, sounding quite scared.

Leon nodded in understanding. "Shall we take you to Gauis? Get you looked over?"

Merlin's eyes lit up. "Gauis? Where is he?"

Arthur smiled softly. "Oh, so you know Gauis, then?
Merlin's eyes dimmed again and flashed in almost anger before he replied. "No. My mother..she sent me to him...but..."he trailed, not looking like he wanted to speak on the subject.

"Right, well, let's get you to him, then."Arthur said.

The knights stayed behind, saying they'd be cleaning the training grounds up a little bit so that Arthur and Merlin could get to Gauis's chambers without them holding them back while they gathered swords and put them in their places.

The door to Gauis's chambers made the old man look up curiously. He almost went back to his work until he got a good look at Merlin, who was toying with a letter.

"Who's this and what happened?"Gauis asked, voice almost impatient as he looked at the damage he could see.

Arthur responded calmly. "His name's Merlin. His mother sent him. As to what happened, I've not the slightest idea. He didn't say more than his name and that his mother sent him here to see you."

Gauis looked at Merlin before he nodded. "Hunith's son, I suppose?"

Merlin nodded.

"Come have a seat. Just leave that laying on the table. I want to have a good check over you, see what all's wrong."

Arthur shifted from foot to foot and Merlin was silent as he took a seat where directed.

Then the prince spoke. "So, Merlin. Where are you from?"he asked.

"Ealdor,"

The short response was full of half-longing, half-fear. It startled Arthur greatly to hear such a tone in the boy's soft voice.

Throughout the entire check-over, Arthur stayed put, worrying over the smaller boy in a way that surprised the Knights, who were all hanging around either in the chambers out of the way or in the hall so as to not crowd Merlin.

Merlin remained eerily silent, even though Arthur knew that some of the minstrations had to have hurt, especially the resetting of the boy's left wrist.

But silence was all that ever came from Merlin. His mouth twisted into a pained scowl at times, but he never made a sound.

Once Merlin was patched up, Arthur motioned for him to come along with him and the others.

Arthur gave a kind smile to the physician. "We'll have him back here before dinner,"he promised. "But I'd like to get to know him a bit more."

Silence filled the group as they walked through the halls.

It was only out in the courtyard that Merlin spoke. "Why would you want to get to know me?"he asked, a slight hesitance showing in his voice.

"Because you came into my father's kingdom beat to a pulp, but you seem so together about it. It's concerning,"Arthur admitted. "Is this a normal occurance for you?"

Merlin swallowed and looked down, not answering.

Arthur nodded that he understood anyways. "What about your mother? She send you here to keep you safe?"

Merlin didn't glance up, but he spoke. "She sent me here because I have family here,"he said, tone clipped and guarded.

Arthur examined Merlin before he sighed. "We'll have to get some weight onto you,"he remarked. "You're so thin that I can count bones right now, and that state won't help you with the healing."

Merlin shrugged.

Leon frowned at Merlin before he spoke. "Should we go get Gwen and Elyan, introduce him to them?"

Arthur thought it over before he nodded. "Gwen's with Morgana, though, so it can wait."

However, around a half hour later, while the group was sitting out in the sunshine and still throwing questions at Merlin which weren't being answered, Morgana and Gwen hurried over.

Morgana kneeled down and tilted Merlin's face up to frown at the bruising and cuts covering the surface of the pale skin. Then she turned to glare at Arthur. "Why did you not send for me?!"she demanded. "When one of the servants told me that you had an injured boy with you..!"

Arthur held his hands up. "Sorry. I didn't think it important to tell you straight away,"

"Have you - ?"Morgana started, Arthur cutting her off.

"We've taken him to see Gauis. Gauis is actually who he was sent looking for."

Merlin looked highly uncomfortable, as he still couldn't move without attracting attention from everyone and the weight of one of Morgana's hand against a cut running along the side of his neck was really beginning to hurt. After a while, he cleared his throat, interupting the banter. "Pardon, but can you please back up a bit...?"he asked, jaw half-locked.

Morgana immediately let her hand drop and scrambled back again. She gave him a sorrowful look. "Are you certain you're alright?"

Merlin nodded, though the movement was jerky and forced. "Yeah. A bit of rest and ointment and I'll be good as new,"he responded cheerfully, giving a weak smile.

Leon grinned. "That's the spirit,"he cheered.

As soon as the attention was off him, Merlin's smile fell away and he focused on trying to get the pain to go away from the edges of his mind so he could focus on the conversations around him.

That evening after dinner, Arthur couldn't help but think about Merlin, how different he was from others who were in his same position before. Whereas they were all so bitter and vengeful, Merlin was still trying to be happy and look on the bright side and help others, as became apparent when he helped one of the stable hands when they nearly dropped one of the heavy saddles while putting it away. Although he was injuried so much, he had managed to get it put where it belonged and had then gave the other a kind, reassuring smile.

He certainly was a mystery, much more so than the prince was used to facing in Camelot's confines.

Okay, covering the bases I know here..No, not proper talk for the time period - I'm not going to give myself the worst migrane in history trying to write something like old-time talk when I can't do it and am certain of it. Also..OOC? Yeah, more than likely.