Merlin: Unbeknownst .part 1

"You have a cousin?"

"Yes, Merlin, as I was saying-"

"Really?"

"Yes! Are you deaf? I've mentioned it about five times already in our conversation!"

Merlin heaved a small sigh, "No, you just never mentioned anything about a cousin before, so I was confused as to why he was suddenly so important."

Arthur shrugged, leaning to tip his chair back on two legs as he surveyed Merlin with a raised eyebrow. "So you don't know everything about my life, I'm amazed."

Pointedly ignoring this, Merlin turned back to the pile of armor in front of him. He'd spent the past ten minutes gathering the Prince's armor from various places throughout his rooms, wondering why on earth Arthur couldn't just take it off and leave it all in one place, as he assumed normal people did, rather than a gauntlet here, a breast plate there, all in all equaling more work for him. Although he wouldn't put it past Arthur for that to have been his motivation to do so in the first place.

"You did know about it, didn't you?" He asked finally, bending down to shift through the armor, running the pieces through his, sadly lacking, mental checklist to find that he was still missing one gauntlet.  He glanced briefly over at Arthur before surveying the room once more, his gaze landing on a bookshelf in the far corner.

"Of course I knew!" Arthur snapped, his chair banging back down to the ground with a thump, "I'm sure my father must have mentioned it at some point, I just…I don't know, forgot."  

"You forgot?" The warlock's voice came out muffled as he stuck his head out from behind the shelf.

"Yes, Merlin," Arthur muttered, clapping a hand rather unceremoniously on the table as he stood up, "I'd assume that at least would be one thing you would know about, given that you seem to forget every small, minute, significant detail in absolutely everything."

Merlin threw him a pointed look as he got up off his knees and dusted his hands off, "Well that's great, hopefully I won't have to meet him. By the way you didn't happen to throw your gauntlet out the window earlier, di- ow!" He broke off, rubbing the back of his head with one hand as said gauntlet clinked to the floor beside him.

With a small smirk, Arthur let his arm drop back down to his side, "You know, you are terrible at your job."

"So you've told me, sire." It was something of a game between them now, Merlin supposed. He knew Arthur would never sac him, no matter how badly he messed up, and Arthur knew that he would never leave him no matter how annoying he was. It was what came out of needing someone, and maybe there was some friendship thrown somewhere into the mix.

"Anyway, " Arthur was saying when he tuned back in, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest, "Hopefully you won't scare him off with your significant lack of skill at your job."

Merlin glanced up at him, a small frown creasing his forehead. "Why is that?"

The prince rolled his eyes as he pushed the door open with one arm, looking for all the word as if this were already painfully obvious, "You'll be acting as his manservant as well while he's here, so-"

"I'll be what?!"

"You heard me, I-"

"Don't they have to, you know, ask me or something?"

"Oh, shut up Merlin, it won't be that bad."

But even as the door swung shut behind him, leaving Merlin along in the Prince's chambers with the pile of armor in front of him, he couldn't help but feel that perhaps Arthur was being a bit to optimistic about his situation.