Title: Truths

Pairing: Merlin/Arthur (pre-slash but only because it's always M/A for me)

Rating: PG

Word Count: 419

Summary: Sometimes it's better not to know

Spoilers: Nothing really past S1

Disclaimer: Merlin and its characters belong to BBC/Shine, however I wish they were mine :)

Authors Note: Just trying to do some housekeeping as have a couple of plot bunnies I'm actually working on. I came across this and I think it was going to be a part of something larger but I think it works on its own.

~oOo~

"You want to know the truth do you?" Merlin snarled.

Arthur felt the sword ripped from his hold as Merlin grasped his forearm with such force pinning him in place that it could only be magic. The gold flash of Merlin's eyes confirming it, Merlin's other hand palming the side of his face and head.

"Here's the all of it. I'm sure it will confirm for you the traitor that I am"

Merlin pressed his forehead against his own and locked stormy blue eyes with his, he spoke a language that Arthur had only ever heard come from Sorceress's. Merlin's eyes flashed gold again.

Images, sound and emotion began to trickle in to his mind… Merlin arriving in Camelot, an axe falling, snakes launching from a shield. A blaze of fire washing over the Anfanc, with each new image Merlin's life from the moment he arrived in Camelot began to unravel before him. A life he had never known about. They started to come more rapidly washing over him and flooding his mind. Not only with Merlin's memories but with everything Merlin had felt and feared. All the insecurities the boy had, all his fears about what he felt was right and wrong. What he could not fix and change. All his loss.

The faster they came the more they revealed, the harder Arthur found it to bare them. It was as if someone was placing a great weight upon his chest adding more and more with each revelation, making it almost impossible to breathe. Then with the final memory of just moments ago, the image of his own face burned into his retinas, a snarling angry red face full of hatred and sword drawn demanding the truth. Merlin let him go.

He fell to his knees his hands going out to support him, his lungs drawing in harsh jagged breaths that tore as they went in. His heart felt like it would implode from the pain it was under, how did Merlin deal with this? He could barely hold himself together with the weight of it all.

"I hope it's all you expected of me, don't worry I won't return"

Arthur tried to lift his head to open his mouth to speak but he just caught the sound of that sibilant language and the glow of gold. The air moved around him and Merlin was gone.

Arthur was left panting on the floor of his chambers face wet from tears he had yet to realise he was shedding.

Fin

~oOo~