Timeless

"Show me a trick."

"Much better now that you're here to save me. Mum! I'm going with Merlin now! Bye!" She yells behind her as he sees Joy come up to them shaking her head at Clary who now has her arms around his legs again.

"Clary. Maybe Merlin doesn't want you to hang onto him like that?" She says and Clary gives her a look of disbelief.

"Doesn't want me to hang on him? Well that's kind of silly mum. Merlin loves me." She says and hugs him even tighter and Arthur is just kind of standing off to the side confused as to why a child likes Merlin to begin with let alone wants to hug him.

Clary then looks over at Arthur and looks back at Merlin confused. "Who's that?" She asks.

He looks up and meets Arthur's amused yet still confused expression.

"That's my, uh." He furrows his eyes brows. What is Arthur to him?

His king?

His housemate?

His dead friend who isn't dead anymore?

His-?

He honestly has no idea what to call him.

Then he looks back down at the waiting child and smiles softly. "He's an old friend of mine."

Old is an understatement.

"Oh." She says. "What's his name?" She whispers loud enough for both of them to hear but only meant for Merlin.

He leans down to her level. "Why don't you go ask him?"

She then shrugs her small shoulders and wonders off to Arthur who tries to bite back a smile.

She looks up, crosses her arms and huffs. "Who are you?" She asks and he raises his eyebrows at the demanding tone from such a small human.

"Clary." Her mum says and Clary just smiles at her mum before turning back to Arthur.

Reminds him of how Morgana used to be. He shakes the thought out of his head. Clary ain't even close to what Morgana used to be like. Nothing alike at all. Maybe demanding but what from Merlin has found out- that's most children these days.

"I'm Merlin's.... friend. Like he said." Arthur says and she slowly nods her head, like she's agreeing with him in her own little world.

"And what is your name tall blonde man who is my Merlin's friend?"

And Merlin starts to snicker at this as Arthur is now mildly amused. Hers?

"Well small child, my name is Arthur." He says and she frowns at the name 'small child' but then grins at his name.

"Wait!" She says ask she looks back and forth between the two boys. "Like Merlin and Arthur? Like the king and his servant from back in the days where they didn't have wifi?" She asks grinning and Merlin notices she has finally lost that tooth she's been complaining about the past few times she's been over and Arthur looks confused as she mentions wifi.

"You two are a very strange pair, you know with the names and all." Joy says trying hard not to break out into a big smile.