The Power of Time (Merlin)

Chapter 5

Gaius wakes him up in the early hours of the morning and convinces him to force a few sips of water and half a bowl of broth down his throat, then bumbles around clinking bottles together and restocking his poison table (Merlin has no idea why the very dangerous poisons are left out on a bench rather than in a locked cupboard, but to each their own) until Merlin drifts off into a fitful doze. When he regains consciousness again he's greeted not by a persistent physician, or at all really, actually, because the giant hulking statue that is Percival doesn't notice he's awake. In fact, he doesn't seem to notice anything, and Merlin seriously entertains the thought that perhaps this is a Percival statue for all of fifteen seconds until he finally turns a page in the book propped on his knees.

Merlin huffs a sigh of relief at the movement and the knight looks up, smiling and putting the book aside carefully. The cover reveals it to be one of Gaius's anatomy books, one that's no doubt filled with far too detailed pictures of naked men – although they're not quite as bad as some of the other books, and really why does Gaius have so many books depicting naked men in wrestling positions, it's distressing to say the least, especially because he hides them (or tries to) under his bed and refuses to acknowledge their existence to Merlin.

"Merlin!" Percival says, far too enthusiastically. Merlin frowns at him. Percival looks suitably chastised, and a little confused.

"You're the quiet one," Merlin informs him. He wonders why Percival doesn't know this already. "If you start being loud, I can't count on anything in this world."

Percival's mouth quirks into a small smile. He closes the book with a small thud and rests his hands atop of it. "I apologise," he says solemnly, "I won't forget myself again."

"See that you don't, Percival the Quiet." There. The balance of nature has been restored.

"What are you?"

Merlin shrugs, "Depends on the day. Some days, Merlin the Wise. Others, Dragoon the Great." Arthur and Gaius would probably claim that he was never Merlin the Wise and is, in fact, constantly Merlin the Idiot.

"And on all of them, Emrys," Percival says softly but meaningfully. He leans a little more towards Merlin, eyebrows creasing in anticipation.

Merlin waves a hand in the air dismissively. "I have a lot of aliases." Merlin has a vague sense that maybe he should be rather more anxious that they are speaking freely of what was, not too long along, a perilous secret. He just feels happy though, and pain-free for the first time in possibly the past century, or so it feels. Then he suddenly remembers something quite pressing, and quite terrible. "Oh, Percival, I have to go. It's Thursday, and Arthur has training with the knights. I must get him ready." He pushes off the bed, thanking Percival when his arm shoots out to steady him, and looks around for his trusty neckerchief. Nowhere to be found. That's what you get when you wake up late, Merlin supposes, a bare neck.

He walks determinedly towards the door, and then the room kind of spins a little, and somehow he's walking back towards the bed. Percival, hands firmly planted on Merlin's shoulder, marches him over and pushes Merlin to sit down. Belatedly, Merlin realises Percival must have spun him around, and feels a little insulted that Percival thinks he can just change people's direction without consulting them first. Typical knight. "You need to drink some more water," he insists, handing Merlin a cup. Perhaps if he drinks it, Percival will let him go, he thinks, so he drinks the entire thing in one go and swallows a cough.

"There. Now I must attend to the king." Percival looks like he's about to cut in and protest, but then the shaky wooden door (they need to fix it up, nobody will trust a physician to set their broken bones if he cannot fasten a hinge) swings open, narrowly missing hitting the wall, and Gaius limps in, managing somehow to look dignified still despite the stumbling gait. He regards the scene with an unimpressed eyebrow raise.