Merthur Oneshots

Do I really mean that less to you?

"Yes, I overheard Amber saying the other day that the new boy was his nephew."

Oh, that explained it.

"He rarely goes out of Gaius's rooms, but yesterday I was in there, and I caught a glimpse of him. He was quite handsome." The girl giggled quietly, and Arthur mentally raised an eyebrow at her.

"And quite a good physician too. A few days ago Gertude, you know, my neighbor, went to him complaining of a stomach ache, and he gave her a tonic, and five minutes later, it was gone, like it had never even been there."

The way was finally clear, and the girls walked away, chattering and giggling. Arthur shook his head, pushing the conversation out of his head. He had much more to think about.

The 'monster' that had been plaguing the outlying villages had been just a cluster of hungry pigeons that had decided to pillage the crops at night. The knights just moved their nests a few miles away, and the problem was solved.

When he returned to the Camelot, the whole city was in an uproar. A disease had spread through the Lower Town, and people were falling sick left and right. Thankfully, it wasn't lethal, and no one had died, but they were still very weak, even after recovering.

Uther forbade Arthur from going out of the citadel, but after a week he was getting skittish, his whole body itching to go out into the forest on the outskirts of the city and breathe in the fresh air. The king had also paused the knight practices, depriving Arthur of the chance of at least practicing and projecting his frustration onto one of the dummies.

The stories of Gaius's new apprentice were swirling around the castle now, with people in awe of how quickly and efficiently he was working. Of course, they were not completely about his prowess with herbs and medicines, and at least a quarter of the gossip was about how good-looking he was. Arthur had even heard a few servants commenting that they wouldn't mind sleeping with him. Not wanting to know any more about that, he had quietly slipped away.

Even though he was the Crown Prince, and had no business listening or thinking about servants, he couldn't get the whispers out of his head. Maybe it was the fact that he was cooped up in his chambers with little else to do, and he was quite curious about this character who had managed to throw the people of the castle in such a frenzy.

Three days later, he had had enough. He hadn't been sleeping well for the past week, as a result of not being tired enough, and last night sleep had eluded him completely. As a result, he was lethargic and his frustration had reached a tipping point. He was going out of the forest today, damn his father and the consequences.

After quickly dressing and eating his breakfast, he walked out of the room. It was quite early in the day, just after dawn, and no one would be awake. At least, that was what he had thought.

He was just rushing down the corridor to the stables when he ran into Gwen, who was carrying a basket of fresh eggs on one arm and a load of laundry on the other. He barely managed to avoid crashing into her.

"Arthur!" She exclaimed, her eyes wide in shock. "What are you doing here?"

Arthur faltered. He hadn't really expected someone to be out at this time, but this was Gwen. Utterly unpredictable.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Well?" She demanded.

Arthur deflated in front of her glare, and with a sigh, told her. "I am going for a ride. In the forest."

"Are you allowed to? I mean, hasn't Uther forbade you from going out of the castle?"

He gave her a sheepish grin. "Yes. But I am still going anyway."