Becoming Magic

Who is Emrys?

{Note: Based on the episode The Secret Sharer}

When Merlin woke up the next morning, his head was pounding. He should not have drank so much. He knew he would regret it, but it was helping to keep him somewhat calm while spending time with Gwaine. He kept half expecting to see anger and resentment in the other man's eyes when he looked at them. Instead all he saw was adoration and happiness. Maybe that's what caused him to get carried away. He reached a hand up to his head and realized a few things at once. The first, was obviously the headache. The second, he was not in his bed, because his bed was not this soft. The third, there was someone half on top of him. What happened?! He tried opening his eyes to see what was going on. It took longer than he expected, but when he did, he blushed bright red. He still had his pants on, so that was good, but his shirt was missing and so was the other person's. The mop of soft brown hair covered his face, but he knew who it was. What had made him turn red, was that standing in the room at the end of the bed, were no less than four Knights, who were all smiling at him. He covered his face with his free hand.

"What happened?" He asked them, groaning. This led to some snickering.

"What do you mean?" Elyan asked, innocently.

"Haha, very funny. You know what I mean. What happened? Because I do not remember getting back to the castle last night." He said trying to extricate himself from under the other man. He didn't want to disturb him, he looked peaceful.

"Oh, come on, now Merlin. You two were stumbling through the streets and made it here. Though we aren't sure how. There was a lot of laughing and shushing each other. We were hoping you could tell us." Corbett said, grinning. Merlin grabbed a shirt, not sure whose it was, his trousers, and shoved his boots on, determined to leave and get on with his day after getting a hangover cure from Gaius.

"So what exactly are you lot doing in here then? Hmm? Spying?" He said, blushing even more, trying to hide it by patting his hair down.

"No, not at all. The King was just yelling for you. Said you weren't in your room and was worried." Eoin added.

"That's just fantastic. And I suppose you, out of the goodness of your hearts, didn't tell him?" Merlin said sarcastically, but holding his head as it still felt like it was splitting in two.

"Of course we didn't! What kind of friends would that make us?" Percival responded innocently.

"I suppose if he's looking for me, that I've missed getting his breakfast?"

"Merlin, it's almost midday. You better get him an amazing lunch and hope he doesn't ask too many questions. We'll cover for you if we can, but you should hurry." Elyan added. Merlin groaned again.

"I'm going to get a hangover cure from Gaius, and then I'll do it. I can't face him if my head feels like it's splitting." He said, rubbing his temples and making to leave, stumbling.

"Here. We knew you'd need it." Corbett said handing over a vial that looked exactly like the remedy he needed.

"What is it you all want?" Merlin asked, suspicious of their motives, yet accepting the vial and drinking it, feeling it's effects instantly.

"Nothing much. Well. Two things actually. One, you help us to better our knife throwing. Two, you tell us what you know about how magic works. We don't want to use it, we just want to know more about it." Corbett answered him.

"Er. Alright. I can probably do that. The knife throwing, I'll try my best. The magic bit, it'll be confusing but I'll try to keep it simple. When are you wanting to hold me to these requests?"

"Not right now, obviously. The King needs you, but how about the evening after you do your weekly testing? Arthur won't be testing you for at least another week because he considers practice the other day to count as your test for the week. So that gives you another four days at least." Eoin said.