Title: Aftermath

Summary: Uther has descended into madness, and Arthur finds it no easy task to run Camelot. Merlin finds it no easy task to keep Arthur healthy and happy as he runs it. Eventual Merlin/Arthur, Lancelot/Gwen.

A/N: I couldn't wait for season 4, and so I wrote my own stinkin story about what happens next. Which is of course, Merthur. Yaaay! Just a heads up, I'm not a Gwen fan. There will probably not be outright bashing, but she ain't gonna be doing anything spectacular. Not that she ever does.

Thanks go out to Sofiajedi, as always, because she reads everything I write and points out the idiotic errors I make when I pull all nighters.

"Has he improved at all?" Arthur asked. His voice was one pitch from breaking. "Any signs of returning mind?"

"No, my lord." Gaius began to reassemble his bag of medicines. "I'm sorry, but he hasn't changed."

"Igraine! Igraine, I didn't mean to!" Arthur flinched. "You were always my love! It wasn't my fault she twisted it!" Uther began to sob. He tossed and turned on the sheets. "Oh, Igraine!"

"There's nothing you can do?" Gaius looked sorry. Arthur felt weary. "At least to quiet him?"

"I don't know what's wrong with him. The strain of kingship combined with Morgana's betrayal and…past guilt, just seems to have overwhelmed him. I'm afraid I can only make him sleep."

"The people cannot see their King like this." Arthur glared at Gaius, but it was only half hearted. He found he was unable to summon real anger, not when Gaius looked to sad. He'd known Uther a long time. "Merlin!"

"Yes?" Merlin at least could be counted on to be silent.

"You're in charge of these chambers now, in addition to mine. Let no one know that the King is like this." Merlin nodded.

"Yes Arthur." Arthur felt something ease in his shoulders as Merlin said his name. "You know this might make your laundry late."

"It better not. You have too much free time anyway." Merlin looked indignant.

"Too much free time! Too much time spent cleaning your pig sty of a room you mean!" Arthur snorted. But it was nice to hear Merlin complaining. It was normal.

Little enough was normal right now, God knew. With his father like this, Arthur was ruling Camelot in all but name. That let him knight Lancelot, Gwaine, Elyan and Percival, but he could see no other benefits. His new knights themselves were a rather debatable benefit.

"Shut up, Merlin. And come on, you need to help me into my armor. It's time to beat the knights senseless." Merlin rolled his eyes as he walked with Arthur out of the royal chambers.

"Didn't Gwaine beat you?" Arthur scowled at Merlin.

"No he has not!" As an afterthought, he added "And while I'm training, you can clean my second suit of armor. The chain mail's getting rusty." He grinned as Merlin spluttered.

Line break

Arthur twisted, the familiar ring of steel in his ears. He jammed his elbow into Percival's gut and slammed the hilt of his sword onto the man's wrist. Percival cursed and dropped his blade.

"Yield!" Percival said quickly. Arthur took off his helmet and nodded. Percival looked relieved.

"Arthur! Lighten up man, you look like a bloody statue." Arthur rolled his eyes as Gwaine's voice came from across the field. Gwaine looked absurdly cheerful. It was raining, the field was muddy, and Arthur was sure this set of chain mail was rusting.

"What are you so happy about?" Gwaine shrugged.

"I just thrashed Lancelot." Lancelot, standing next to him, looked indignant.

"I tripped!" Gwaine grinned.

"Aha, but then your sword flew out of your hand."

"You stepped on my wrist!"

"Well, you shouldn't have put your hand under my foot. That was bad method there Lance." Arthur glared at the both of them and decided to ignore them. If his knights chose to be immature, who was he to stop them.

"Oy, Arthur!" Merlin waved from the edge of the field. Arthur jogged over. "The council wants to meet with you." He looked quite disgruntled.

"What are you so mopey about?" Merlin looked a little bit sheepish.

"I may have told a few members of the council that you were busy, and I was busier, and they should just walk outside and get you themselves. They may have been less than pleased." Arthur snorted out a laugh.

"You're an idiot you know that?" Merlin shrugged, grinning. "I'll see what they want. You go tell your even more idiotic friends that training is over. Oh, and tell Leon to check over the lower town to make sure everyone is ready for winter." Merlin frowned. "What?"

"You didn't say the nonmagical-because-magic-is-banned-but-still-important word." Arthur paused to decipher that. Then he glared at Merlin.

"Please tell your actually rather less idiotic friends than you that training is over and tell Leon to check on the lower town." Merlin bobbed up and down, grinning. Arthur scowled. "Why on earth do I put up with you?"

"Because I tolerate you when you're being a grumpykins." Merlin trotted away before Arthur could find adequate response to being called a grumpykins.

"Merlin!" By that time Merlin was out of earshot. Arthur stalked back to the castle, grumbling about terrible servants. Terrible servants who would be fired if their stupidity wasn't so endearing.

As he hopped up the steps, Arthur wondered if anyone else had servants like Merlin. He'd never had one, but he'd always had the staff in perpetual terror of him. Most likely, he'd just deprived Ealdor of it's idiot.

"Sir!" Arthur remembered why he'd come back. Fenron, one of his father's councilors, was wringing his hands and looking nervous. Arthur tried to smile reassuringly. "We need to have an emergency meeting! Something must be done about the king?"

"What do you mean by that?" The good humor Merlin had inspired was fading fast.

"Well, he can't be well!" Fenron yelped. Fenron reminded Arthur of one of his dogs, but without their bravery. "He's not been seen since Morgana! Things are going to fall apart! The peasantry will riot!"

"The people aren't going to riot Fenron." Arthur was fairly sure that Fenron hadn't been out of the citadel in the last fifty years. "They are loyal."

"But diplomatic relations! The paperwork that isn't being done! The allotment of supplies is going undone!" Fenron looked terrified at the thought of such disorder. "Lords will be asking for supplications soon, and someone must order the taxes, and no one has seen your father!" Fenron looked at him from the corner of his eye. "If, perhaps, I might see him so that I might reassure the castle…"

"I'll convene a council tomorrow morning." Arthur was sure that letting anyone see his father right now actually would provoke chaos. "And I'm having the lower town assessed as we speak."

"Good." Fenrod looked at least a bit satisfied. "And your father?"

"Gaius is working on treatment. He's merely ill." Arthur pushed past the old man. "I must change from my armor." He fled to his chambers before Fenrod could demand any further information about Uther. He'd have to send Merlin to Gaius, to make sure the healer understood just how necessary discretion was.

As expected, Merlin was back in Arthur's chambers. Arthur was mildly impressed to see his chain mail lying on the table, freshly cleaned. Merlin himself was half under the bed.

"What in the world are you doing?" Merlin hit his head on the underside of the bed trying to slither out.

"Getting dust bunnies!" Merlin grinned and held out a dirty rag. "My mum always used to say that if you didn't get under the bed, the bunnies could eat you in your sleep." Arthur snorted.

"Well, you're going to have to clean this chain mail." Merlin looked horrified.

"I just finished the other!" He moved to help Arthur get out of the mail.

"You need to get it done before the mail rusts." Merlin sighed. "The lords want to meet with me."

"And?" Arthur scowled.

"They want to talk about what we do with my father indisposed. And they want to know what his condition actually is." Merlin's hands slowed as he fiddled with Arthur's shirt. "I don't know what to tell them."

"You'll need to do your father's duties, or no one will. Just delegate some of the knights training to Gwaine and Lancelot, they're both great warriors." Merlin's voice turned gentle. "You don't need to do everything yourself, you know."

"The knights have to bond with me." Arthur said. Merlin chuckled and resumed his fiddling with the shirt.

"Arthur, every one of them would leap through fire for you. You have nothing to worry about." Arthur smiled slightly. It was really funny, how downright wonderful Merlin could be sometimes.

"Where did you learn a word like delegate Merlin? I thought it was too big to be part of your little vocabulary." Merlin patted down his back to smooth out the final creases in Arthur's shirt.

"Delegate has eight letters, it's not a big word!"

"You can count that high?" Merlin shoved him. "Hey!"

"Those of who didn't spend our lives being hit in the head have great skill in mathematics." Arthur turned around and grabbed for Merlin's shoulder. Merlin jumped back with a grin. "We also have the ability to avoid those sloths that try to kill us for our intellect!"

"Sloth?" Arthur mock glared. "I'll show you speed!" Merlin scrambled backwards as Arthur bounded for him, intending to wreak vengeance. He was not in any way a sloth! Merlin tripped and sat down heavily on the bed. He stared up at Arthur.

"Arthur?" Arthur coughed and turned around. Gwen was in the doorway, picking at her skirt. Merlin remaining sitting, a bit wide-eyed.

"Yes Gwen, what did you want?" Gwen shifted uncomfortably. Arthur took a step away from Merlin and the bed.

"Arthur, he is, I mean, he, Gaius. Gaius wants to talk to you." Arthur prayed that the news was good. Maybe his father was lucid again. Gwen glanced past him to Merlin. "Merlin?"

"I was just going. I need to ask a laundress about some sheets." Merlin blushed. "Uther's sheets."

"No one cares, Merlin." Arthur regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. But he couldn't just take them back. Merlin got up and grabbed the wet chain mail off the table.

As he left, he shot Arthur a grin over his shoulder and jerked his head at Gwen. Arthur was fairly sure that the demented expression was meant to be encouraging. Ah. Merlin thought it was great that Gwen had come to see him.

Which was great of course. He loved spending time with Gwen, of course.

"Thank you for delivering the message, Gwen. How are you coping?" Gwen smiled.

"Oh, fine. It's so wonderful having Elyan around. Thank you for knighting him." Arthur fell into step next to her as they walked down to Gaius's chambers.

"He earned it. I've seldom seen a better swordsman." Arthur sought for something to say to her. "Is the mood of the people positive?"

"They're relieved to have a proper monarch in charge, not someone like Morgana." Arthur's stomach plunged. "Oh, I almost forgot. I promised Elyan I would help him clean his armor."

"Well, goodbye then." Gwen stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. "I'll see you around." She hurried off to the armory. Arthur sighed. Gwen was such a sweet girl. He reached Gaius's chambers and pushed the door open.

The physician was pouring over a few beakers. He shut a book as Arthur came into the room.

"Gwen said you wanted to see me."

"Yes. I wanted to tell you that I need a new shipment of herbs from Drailia." Arthur blinked. Gaius coughed. "The request was put in awhile ago, but then Morgana happened, and nothing seems to be being done with your father indisposed. It's not a plant I can gather from these parts, and it's necessary to treat the fevers which often rise in winter."

"Nothing about my father?" Gaius shook his head. "Oh. You need it from the crown?"

"The plant is imported by way of the merchants of the east. I cannot hope to afford it, so your father bought it with money from the treasury. Since it is a vitally important herb in winter, and is used to help the people, he felt it a justifiable expense."

Arthur grimaced. Winter was coming, that was true. He would need to send someone to asses their stores, and collect the taxes from the provinces, and probably order extra patrols. Many peasants turned to bandits during the hard months.

"I'll see to it immediately." He'd been meaning to go through his father's paperwork anyway. "Are you sure you can't examine my father again?"

"Merlin is cleaning his rooms as we speak. If anything changes, he'll inform me." Arthur concealed a wince. Merlin was cleaning his chain mail.

But it wasn't as though he could entrust anyone else to clean the chambers, what if Uther woke up raving? Another servant might report it and panic Camelot. Merlin was trustworthy.

"Right."

Line break

Arthur had realized something about kingship. It meant paperwork. Loads and loads of paperwork. His father's desk was piled high with scrolls and bits of parchment. Some were as absurd as a noble lady begging for troops to search Camelot because a man had broken her mirror while others were pleas for aid from lower town peasants whose homes had been damaged when Morgana took over. Arthur felt awful that they'd had to wait this long because he'd been lazy and not looked it all over.

"Hey." Arthur didn't look up. It was easy to deduce that Merlin was the only one who'd interrupt him, or address him so casually. "Arthur."

"What do you want, Merlin?" He snapped. Arthur was trying to sort through the list of allegations against some man in the lower town who was suspected of being a thief. There was a clink. That made Arthur looked up.

Merlin had set down a tray from the kitchens and a goblet of ale.

"You didn't show up at your chambers for dinner, so I went looking for you. You've been in here for hours." Arthur felt a stab of guilt. He recognized the smells wafting towards him-venison, a piece of bread and butter, a blueberry tart. All his favorite foods, and somehow still warm.

"I can't have been…" Arthur turned his gaze to the window. The sky was spangled with stars. Some servants had lit the candles, coming into the study in that unobtrusive way proper servants acted. "Oh."

"Eat something." Merlin pushed the tray closer. Arthur obediently picked up fork and knife. The food was delicious, and he hadn't even noticed how starved he was. Once he'd made decent headway to the meal, it occurred to him that Merlin was still standing there.

"You know, you can sit down." Merlin grinned.

"Oh, I know. But there aren't any chairs. And I can't leave, or you'll finish then just go right back into that stack of paper."

"Are you saying you're going to stop me? This has to be finished." Merlin rolled his eyes.

"You'll just wear yourself out. You've done plenty for one day, you've got a council meeting tomorrow, and you've got to have a crick in your neck from bending over like that. Go to bed."

"This is more important than a bit of discomfort, Merlin." The ale was making Arthur a bit sleepy. He pushed the tray towards Merlin. "Here, finish the tart." Merlin and he both loved blueberry tarts. Merlin told Arthur once that his mother made them, in the summer when everyone was prosperous and there was enough flour left over to make the crust.

"Discomfort? Cricks in the neck from bending over books are hell." Merlin said it through a mouthful of tart. "Sides, it isn't like your father was always on top of this stuff. Let the scribes handle a bit."

"What do you mean, my father wasn't on top of these matters?" Arthur tried to make it sound demanding. It was a mostly failed effort.

"Well, you'll notice that your father did paperwork with a bunch of other people, so they could handle the unimportant stuff." Merlin was licking his fingers now. The sight was making it hard for Arthur to concentrate. "That's why he had time to actually rule the kingdom. And nobody puts in paper requests if you just sit on the throne and let people come in and ask for help."

"That's…an interesting idea." Arthur yawned. "Maybe you're right about sleeping."

"Did, did you just admit to me being right? Did I hear correctly?"

"No. Your hearing is going. Probably your brain can't handle the strain of thinking up big words and still listening to me." Arthur got up and strode from the chamber. Well. Perhaps he didn't stride so much as wearily walk.

Merlin grabbed the tray and blew out the candles before catching up to him.

"I have a great vocabulary." Arthur laughed. Merlin looked wounded. "I just can't use it around you. You wouldn't understand it."

"Whatever Merlin." Arthur staggered into his chambers. Thankfully, everything royal in the castle was kept close to each other. He flopped down on his bed.

"Prat." As he fell asleep, Arthur could feel Merlin's hands on his legs pulling his boots off.

Line break

Miracle of miracles, Arthur did not wake up with a terrible crick in his neck. He woke up warm, comfortable, and barefoot. To Merlin's voice.

"Rise and shine!"

"Shut up."

"You know why you have bad days? You start it off with a bad attitude." Arthur growled into his pillow.

"My attitude has nothing to do with the events in Camelot!" Merlin tutted from somewhere on his left. Going by hearing, Arthur lunged from bed. Merlin yelped as Arthur tackled him.

"You clotpole!" Arthur got to his feet, grinning down at Merlin. Merlin glared.

"Suddenly, the world does look brighter." Merlin muttered something under his breath. "I'm sorry, what was that Merlin?"

"You're an arrogant princeling, and if you keep banging me about your breakfast will get cold." Arthur laughed and helped Merlin up. Merlin smiled a little bit as he took Arthur's hand.

"You're impossible." Arthur sobered as he thought of the day. "Can I ask you something?"

"You already did." Arthur glared and took a bite of meat. Merlin sat in the chair opposite him. "Go on, what is it?"

"Fenron wants to see my father." Merlin wrinkled his nose.

"He's a git."

"He's an important git. What should I tell the lords about him? They'll tell people things, and it can't get out that my father is mad!"

"Just say he's sick. That he'll get better, but in the meantime you're running the kingdom, and no one should see him because he may be contagious." Arthur snickered.

"That'll keep them out of his chambers for sure. Sometimes you offer such helpful suggestions, I forget that you're an utter fool." Merlin rolled his eyes. Arthur got to his feet and clapped his shoulder. "Don't forget that you have to scrub the floor today."

"You track mud everywhere! You know, if you wiped your feet before you came into the palace all of the servants would have a lot less to do!" Arthur went about getting dressed with Merlin's complaints ringing in his ears. It was always good to have something familiar to fall back on.

A/N: Yeah, I didn't want to write a whole council meeting. I thought that would be boring. And I promise, this will be updated regularly. On my honor as a diehard Merthur fan. Of course, you should still review.