Merthur One-shots

"I'm Not Gonna Like What You're Planning, Am I?"

Summary: Sir Leon doesn't know everything, but he knows 5 things:

1. Merlin has magic.
2. The Knights of the Round Table know Merlin has magic and have sworn an oath to protect him.
3. Arthur doesn't know about Merlin.
4. Merlin doesn't know that they know about his magic.
5. Merlin is utterly besotted with Arthur and Arthur is completely in love with Merlin.

So when the Knights along with Arthur and Merlin are captured by bandits, Merlin will do anything for Arthur. That includes avenging his (faked) death.

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Sir Leon pulled against the ropes that bound his hands. He was testing the strength since there was no knot visible. After struggling to remove his hands from the bindings, he gave up and cast a look around the dungeon. Percival and Elyan were staring solemnly at the iron doors and Gwaine seemed to have come to the same conclusion that he had regarding the ropes and was now slumped against the wall in defeat, glaring at his palm in disdain. King Arthur and Merlin were nowhere to be seen, although it made sense that they would go after the King first. And it was common knowledge that wherever the King went, Merlin would follow. The boy was smitten with Arthur and everybody except those two knew it.

No, what bothered Leon was the fact that Merlin would do anything to free his King, even if it meant revealing his magic. The Knights had known about his magic, obviously. The boy wasn’t really that subtle, there were only so many weak branches in the forest and lucky mishaps. Merlin either knew they knew about his magic and so used it openly, or he was oblivious to their knowledge and was simply a clumsy idiot with less than average self-preservation skills. Leon was confident it was the latter.

He was also confident that Arthur didn’t know about Merlin’s magic. Which was troublesome in situations like these because he was in extreme trouble and Merlin would now probably have to reveal himself to save Arthur, and there was no saying what the King would do. There was no question about the loyalty of the Knights, for they had discussed such possibilities and sworn an oath amongst themselves that they would protect the boy, even from the King himself. But trapped here with no information regarding the location of the King and his servant did cause the worry pooled in his stomach to churn.

It was supposed to be a normal hunt. But then Merlin voiced one of his funny feelings which Arthur dismissed. The Knights shared a look, knowing that Merlin’s intuition was more than often right. As if on cue, they had been ambushed by a horde of bandits. Normally, they could’ve fought them off, but one of the Bandits was clutching a red stone in his palms. Merlin seemed to have recognized it and tried to make his way towards him, but he was too late. The bandit murmured a few words, possibly an enchantment, and the stone had let out a ring of magic which immediately immobilized them. And now, here they were, stuck under the soil in a dingy dungeon, all because of a sparkly stone which was in the wrong hands.

Leon’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of keys and rusted iron being scraped along the floor. He looked up to find Arthur being pushed inside the dungeon, his face bloody but recognizable. The guard who pushed him in had his face covered with dark charcoal, and his eyes gleamed with malice.

Arthur stumbled along and would’ve fallen to the ground had Elyan not been there to catch him and hold him up. As the guard walked away, Elyan settled Arthur to the ground, who let out a pained grunt. His eyes were closed, but Leon didn’t know if he was awake or unconscious.