Saving Destiny (A Merlin Fanfiction)

xii | seeing double

"I can't do this anymore!" Arthur groaned as he plopped down beside Merlin.

The princess amusedly stared at her head bodyguard. "Well," she started, "in your past reincarnations, you had always been a leader." He gave her a tired glare, but that did not make her falter. "I mean, this should come naturally to you, Once and Future King! No matter what your status is currently, you know."

Arthur scowled. "If I were given any choice, I'd switch roles with you in this time period," he grumbled. '

"Now, now, I'm sure my dress will look unsightly on you," she teased, prompting him to roll his eyes.

The two were currently found in a seemingly abandoned and unkempt garden somewhere at the far back of the castle. Merlin stumbled upon this place in accident, after searching for some potato for tonight's dinner. She had this feeling that this was once a beautiful garden and wondered why Original Merlin was unable to find such a place before. This could greatly help him if he were to hide from insufferable Original Arthur. This place was perfect for the princess disguising herself as a maidservant and the bodyguard disguising himself as the king to meet and talk, away from prying, curious eyes.

"The council still a pain in the arse?" she said, surprising Arthur for spouting words unlikely for a princess to say. Merlin slightly smiled, reckoning that the servants in the castle were already rubbing off of her.

The disguised bodyguard tiredly nodded his head, sighing. Apparently, the disappearance of King Arthur and his manservant left Arthur with a lot of work to do. From what he recounted, the kingdom was suffering from insufficient food. Also, just a month ago, a big band of bandits attacked the village just outside the castle, causing destruction of infrastructure and injury to some of their best knights. It was also the season for the infestation of locusts, and the farmers were dismayed with the lack of harvest for the following month.

Just thinking about them exhausted Merlin, and she understood why her bodyguard was disgruntled. A week after assuming the role of the king of Camelot, he was already bombarded with problems left by the missing original king, and Merlin was a little powerless to help him. She'd studied about these kinds of things, about food scarcities and terrorism, but her knowledge were more apt for the modern world. Her country already had ministers, who were experts in handling these kinds of things. Locusts and other pests were controlled with developed pesticides, and crime was put under control by the policemen. If she were in Arthur's place right now, she would crumble.

But Merlin had watched her bodyguard from afar, running around hither thither in the castle doing her chores. Nobody seemed suspicious of him... yet, and she reckoned that for a pretense, Arthur was doing a wonderful job. She was surprised that he could hold himself in the presence of strangers, and she briefly wondered if such trait were passed on to his reincarnations. Despite his doubts, his blabbering of fears he would ruin King Arthur's reputation, Merlin believed that her bodyguard actually has the makings of a fine king.

"How about you, Princess?" Arthur asked, turning to look at her with slight trepidation. "How have you been?"

A wide smile stretched on her face. "Honestly?" she said, her smile never leaving her face. "I've been having a blast."

As opposed to Arthur's disgruntlement, Merlin actually loved her new job. Chores she had never done before were constantly given to her, but surprisingly, she managed to execute them at least. Being a maidservant was tedious for her, but she liked it because it was normal and familiar.

"I've made some new friends," she said, quite pleased with herself. "Some speculated that I look familiar though..." She made a face, nervous that her disguise would be discovered, but then she thought it was ridiculous because Merlin was supposedly a guy.