Chapter Text
Merlin had a creeping feeling that today was not going to be a good day. It was still early, the sun was just visible in the window, but he already knew what kind of day it was going to be. He was suspicious of this as he stretched in bed and felt an old scar on his back itch.
He shifted to sit up and felt his back protest the movement, the scar on the small of his back prickling as his muscles shifted. He sucked in a sharp breath between his teeth as he relaxed against the headboard. Gwaine blinked awake as Merlin resettled himself, and Merlin smiled warmly at his husband as his eyes focused.
“Good morning, gorgeous.” Merlin greeted, and kissed his forehead. Gwaine sat up and pulled Merlin into his side. “Morning, love.” Merlin curled into Gwaine as he peppered kisses along his face, earning laughter from Merlin.
“I’m half surprised to see you up so early, love.” Merlin raised an eyebrow, Gwaine had a teasing glint in his eye and Merlin knew more was coming. “After all that ruckus in the tavern last night I thought for sure you’d be sleeping off a hangover at the very least.” Merlin grinned wide, and let out a disbelieving scoff.
“You drank half of my glasses and finished all of yours!”
“Yeah but I’m not a lightweight!” Merlin stuck out his tongue and in retribution Gwaine poked him in the ribs. Merlin laughed, and retreated from the hand at his waist. It turned into a small wince when the movement aggravated his back.
Gwaine pulled his hand back quickly. “What’s wrong, Merls?” He asked, searching his face.
Merlin sighed. “The serket sting is acting up again.” He grumbled, pouting slightly.
Gwaine narrowed his eyes slightly. “Do you think you’ll need the day?” Merlin hesitated, considering. He shook his head.
“No, I’m sure I’ll be fine. It’s been worse-”
“Love” Merlin ignored the interruption and continued. “and we have to meet the druids for the solstice celebration. I’d really hate to miss it.”
Gwaine’s eyes left Merlin’s face, and scanned him, trying to find any clue that he was in pain. “As long as you’re sure.” Merlin nodded, and the pair began readying themselves for the day’s journey.
===
The whole of the Round Table was riding towards the druid camp. Merlin and Arthur’s usual banter had filled in the silence early on, and now laughter rang loudly through the group as stories were being passed around. Merlin smiled at Elyan as he was wrapping up a tale about his early days at the blacksmith forge, and shifted in the saddle, trying to ease the steadily growing pain in his back. He grimaced and let out a small huff when a sharp pain moved through his back and hip. Gwaine on his other side quickly looked over and leaned in closer.
"You doing okay, Merls?" He studied Merlin's face, "Should I ask for us to stop?" Merlin shook his head no, "I'm fine Gwaine, it’ll pass." Gwaine leaned back on his own horse but kept a close eye on his husband. Next time Merlin shifted and let out a small gasp, Gwaine was ready.
"Oi! Princess!" Arthur heaved out a groan and the round table chuckled.
"What is it, Gwaine?" Arthur looked back over his shoulder and Gwaine smiled crookedly at him.
"I vote we take a break, we've been riding for a while."
"I am your king Gwaine, you don't get a vote." Arthur joked, and Gwaine pretended to nod thoughtfully.
"No I'm pretty sure you're only a princess, and as such a noble knight, it is my solemn duty to call a break for you so her highness doesn't tire herself riding all day." Gwaine seemed very pleased with himself, and Arthur was going to retort back, but Merlin let out a tired chuckle and Arthur moved his gaze to the other man. He noticed the hunched way he sat on his horse and how close Gwaine was riding to his husband. Suddenly Arthur understood.
Arthur let out a loud sigh. "Fine, as you are so adamant, we can take a short break." Gwaine grinned brightly and turned towards Merlin. He quickly dismounted and helped Merlin do the same. Merlin sighed in a deep breath and leaned on Gwaine for a moment. Gwaine led him to a fallen log and he sat while Gwaine tied up their horses. Gwaine came to settle beside Merlin and Merlin leaned into Gwaine’s side, Gwaine brought an arm up to rest around his shoulders, his thumb rubbing comfortingly against Merlin’s arm.
“What do you need?” Gwaine whispered into Merlin’s temple, pressing a soft kiss there for good measure.
“Just you.” Merlin replied, laying a hand on Gwaine’s knee and closing his eyes, settling his head on Gwaine’s shoulder. Merlin felt a laugh tumble through Gwaine’s chest.
“That’s ridiculously sweet love, but I meant is there anything in your bag that can help?” Gwaine smiled and gestured with his free hand to the bag strapped to Merlin’s horse. Healing magic has never come naturally to Merlin, but he didn’t spend all those years as an apprentice for nothing. If he weren’t Camelot’s Court Sorcerer he would surely be her Court Physician, and he never failed to bring a kit with him on trips.
Merlin sighed softly, “Actually yeah there is.” Merlin loosely flapped a hand in the direction of his horse. “One of the round blue bottles, those are for pain. There’s also one to relieve muscle stress, but I won’t take that one since I intend to keep riding today.” He grumbled into Gwaine’s shoulder.
Gwaine slowly moved to stand, so Merlin picked his head back up while he retrieved the bottle. He sat back down and passed it to Merlin, who took two swallows of it before returning the stopper. He laced his hand in Gwaine’s.
“Is that all?” Gwaine asked quietly. Merlin hummed.
“Yeah, I don’t want to take the whole bottle. I’ll be okay, I promise.”
===
The sun was quickly disappearing behind the horizon. Merlin summoned a few balls of light to illuminate their path further. Leon spotted a good clearing to make camp soon afterwards, so Arthur called a stop to their travels for the day.
Merlin had a fire going, and let the floating lights fade. Soon they were all gathered around the fire, seated on logs or on bedrolls that had already been laid out.
Leon spoke up “Shouldn’t Arthur and Lancelot have returned by now?” The pair had gone to the nearby stream to refill the empty waterskins, and Leon had given voice to what Merlin had been thinking for a moment. Merlin stood, exhaling slowly to stifle a groan at the movement.
“I’ll go check for them, I need to cast the wards around our campsite anyway.” Gwaine stood too, fixing his scabbard back to his belt as he did so.
“I’ll join you.” Gwaine grinned at Merlin. Leon let out a long-suffering sigh, muttering to Elyan and Percival that they couldn’t wait just half a day until they could get an actual room. Merlin blushed, sending a wide-eyed look in their direction, but Gwaine just laughed and took Merlin’s hand.
“Sir Leon,” Gwaine started, placing his free hand on his heart and faking an affronted voice, “I don’t know whatever you could be implying. I am a Knight of Camelot and I am acting only out of concern for our dearest Princess.” As they left he winked at Leon and Leon groaned loudly, just placing his head in his hands, his shoulders slumped over his body. Elyan and Percival laughed at Gwaine’s antics, and Percival gently patted Leon on the shoulder twice “there-there”. In response Leon just looked up at Percival, and he looked so done with their antics that they couldn’t do anything but laugh harder.
Instead of conjuring a ball of light, Merlin let loose butterflies that glowed in front of them, gliding slowly and lighting their path in soft golden hues. Merlin leaned into Gwaine’s side as they walked to the stream, but quickly stiffened when they heard the ringing of metal ahead. Merlin’s butterflies frenzied as they ran up ahead to see Arthur and Lancelot surrounded by half a dozen dead bandits.
Arthur and Lancelot were unharmed at first glance, and Merlin let out a breath of relief.
“Are you both alright?” he asked, brightening the glow to inspect both of his friends for injuries.
“We’re fine.” Lancelot answered.
“Aww were you worried about us Mer-lin?” Arthur teased, smiling warmly at him. Merlin rolled his eyes and gave Arthur a lopsided smile.
“About you? No, I was just making sure I wouldn’t have to recast the enchantments on your armor.” Merlin gestured flippantly down at Arthur’s chainmail. Arthur froze, and his smile turned sheepish. Merlin groaned and put his hands on his hips. “I do, don’t I.”
“Maybe just a little”
“Didn’t you think to just dodge their swords, sire?” Arthur ruffled Merlin’s hair as he passed back to camp, calling behind his back.
“Just think of it as practice, wouldn’t want my Court Sorcerer getting rusty, now would I?” Merlin rolled his eyes again, and with a quick wave of his hand, the dead bandits were buried.
The group was walking back to their camp, but Merlin thought he saw something in the shadows behind them. He paused for a moment, turning to scan the trees around them. Gwaine released Merlin’s hand and put it on the hilt of his sword. Merlin took a few steps into the shadows, searching. He shrugged and turned back to Gwaine.
He took a step towards him but then felt the tip of a dagger press against his lower back, and an arm pulled tightly around his chest. Gwaine let out a shout, drawing Arthur and Lancelot’s attention. Then the world went dark.
-
It was too much. Merlin took in a gasping breath. He couldn’t hold onto his magic, and the lights vanished instantly. There was a vice around his chest. He couldn’t take in a deep enough breath. The pain in his back and the sharp point he could feel through his cloak and tunic threw him back into his memories and he fell onto his knees. There was a serket. He was sure of it. His magic crackled out of him, and the bandit was thrown.
While Arthur ran the bandit though with his sword, Gwaine slid onto the ground in front of Merlin, whose hands were clutching at the dirt while he struggled to take in a breath. Wind whipped through the branches above their heads and Merlin’s eyes flashed gold.
"Love, what is it? Talk to me" Gwaine put his hands on his husband's shoulders and pulled him up and towards him. Merlin fell into his chest and Gwaine ran a hand along his back to see if he had been injured at all.
"Serkets" he whimpered into Gwaine's ear, gripping tightly to the front of his cape. Understanding dawned on his face and he quickly moved his hands from Merlin’s back to his shoulders to avoid making it any worse.
Merlin felt like his back was on fire. He kept his eyes on the trees around them. There was a nest, wasn’t there? They never hunted alone.
“Merlin?” Lancelot called, and Merlin panicked seeing the reflection of moonlight on their armor. The wind picked back up and all Merlin could hear was the serkets scurrying over roots and branches to get to him.
“Love, you’re safe.” Gwaine cupped Merin’s cheek and guided one of Merlin’s hands to his chest. Gwaine took a deep breath, then another. “They’re not here. I promise.” Merlin took a breath, and the wind slowed. His eyes focused on Gwaine’s. “There you are.” Gwaine smiled, and Merlin attempted one back, but it was watery at best. He still wasn’t completely calm, and though there were no serkets now, he still had a sting on his back stubbornly making itself known.
“Are you hurt?” Arthur asked. Merlin was surprised to see Arthur kneeling beside Gwaine, Lancelot standing just behind them with a hand on his sword, scanning the trees in case there were any more threats.
Merlin cleared his throat, “I’m fine.” He said softly. He moved to stand, but hissed when fire slithered across his lower back. Gwaine took one of his arms, and stood slowly. Arthur quickly took the other, and they had Merlin up.
“You don’t look it.” Arthur said, and he could have sworn that even in the sparse moonlight Merlin looked pale.
“It’s nothing new.” Merlin remarked, not meeting Arthur’s eye. “An old serket sting” He answered, looking into the trees.
“What?” Arthur asked, eyes wide. “I didn’t know.” Lance said sadly to Merlin. Merin just shook his head.
“You weren’t here, I didn’t tell you.” He whispered. Merlin tried to get a good look at everyone’s faces, and realized he couldn’t. He conjured a weak ball of light. Arthur could see now that Merlin was in fact pale, and Lancelot noticed him swaying slightly in spite of both Arthur and Gwaine holding him up. Gwaine seemed to just now notice this too, and gathered Merlin into his arms. Merlin groaned a little, but offered no protest otherwise, just resting his head on Gwaine’s shoulder and closing his eyes. They started walking at a quick pace towards their camp.
“Thank you.” Merlin was looking up at Gwaine earnestly, but Gwaine could see the exhaustion on Merlin’s face. Gwaine leaned down and pressed a kiss to Merlin’s cheek.
“For you, anything.” Gwaine confessed quietly. “You don’t even have to ask, Merlin.”
Merlin smiled softly, and craned his neck up to press a kiss to Gwaine’s jaw. “I love you.” He whispered beside his ear.
“I love you too, Merls.” The light glowed a little brighter.