A/N: Yup. Another fandom. :)

Anyway, I have a few notes before I'll leave you to your own devices.

One, I have only seen through S3. I'm hoping that Netflix Instant gets S4 up soon, and I guess I'll have to find S5 some other way. The quirky issues of being a college student.

Two: First Merlin fic. Hopefull it's not too OOC. I apologize if OOC-ness rears its ugly head.

Three: Classes start in a few days, so updates will come as I can find fit. I'm starting the courses for my major, so I foresee needing to be extra attentive to these courses.

And, Four: Enjoy!

Two days after Arthur and the rest of the court discovered that Merlin was more a lady than a lad, he started seeing very weird things.

And mind you, he'd seen quite a bit of weird ever since Merlin had shown up in Camelot, for one, Merlin revealing that he—she—wasn't quite the manservant that Arthur had expected, but these things were far more bizarre. It wasn't particularly frightening; when Merlin had revealed her magic the year before, Arthur had taken it far better than anyone could have anticipated. Though, in all fairness, he could have been putting on airs, trying to be the king his father never was and accepting of magic, but for simplicity's sake, Merlin wasn't tossed into the dungeons for some untold amount of time.

When it was revealed that Merlin possessed and practiced magic, Arthur had just blinked a few times before he tried to speak but couldn't. Merlin had known that it was best not to be smug about the matter, especially since magic wasn't legal at that point and she was very much at the mercy of Arthur's good graces. Instead, she had held her tongue, secretly relishing in Arthur's speechlessness (the prat was silent for once) and had braced herself for the moment that Arthur had the guards haul her off to the dungeons. It never came, and she felt a little foolish for standing there, her eyes squeezed tightly, flinching at even the slightest movement around her.

"Merlin… what are you doing?" Arthur had asked sternly.

"Aren't the guards taking me to the dungeons?"

"You have to muck the stables."

"And then I'm going to the dungeons?"

"No… why would you go to the dungeons?" Arthur asked her/him, amused by her/his reaction.

Merlin opened her eyes and was suddenly very grateful for having held her tongue only moments earlier, because it was now her turn to be speechless. Maybe Arthur was the king his father never was, more tolerating of magic. Or, maybe Arthur was trying to come up with some cruel execution. Regardless, she was going to muck the stables like she had never mucked the stables before (maybe even refrain from using magic for once) and just hope that Arthur kept on this path, because there were many problems in their world that could be solved with sheer tolerance.

But that had been a year ago. Since that time, Arthur had revoked his father's decree that banned all forms of magical practice within the kingdom, and for the first time in ages, Camelot appeared to be entering a new age of excellence and peace, something that Uther had strived to achieve but never had the strength to look past his own preconceptions and prejudices to make the choices that would lead his kingdom to greatness. And just when it seemed like the kingdom was through the most of the big changes, Arthur received another huge blow to what he knew of his world. Merlin was a girl.

Now, there wasn't a problem with that… per se…. It wasn't a secret that Arthur maintained an odd level of affection towards his manservant, and when it came out that Merlin was a female, the court began to speculate whether or not Arthur would act on these affections. It was certain that Merlin and Arthur's relationship to that point had been solely platonic, but given the developments, maybe that would change.

Upon hearing from Gwen that there were these rumors going around the castle, Arthur groaned and buried his face in his hands. That was the very last thing he wanted to hear this early in the morning. With Merlin no longer serving as his manservant (the man part of manservant was severely lacking), and away from the castle for a few weeks for an errand for Gaius, Gwen was doing all the things that Merlin had done for Arthur when he—she, definitely a she now—had been on his service.

Once Gwen left, Arthur tried to turn his attention to his meal, but was interrupted by a sudden movement in the corner of the room. To his dismay, it was a broom, self-sweeping. Alarmed, he almost shouted out to Gwen to see if she had done something to enchant the thing, but then passed it off as a remnant of Merlin's time as his manservant.

As time went on, the broom seemed to take on a personality of its own. Arthur realized that the broom seemed to enjoy being put to work (which he didn't mind in the slightest; his new manservant seemed to have issues with sweeping), cocky (Arthur didn't really know how a broom could be cocky, but that was the impression he got from the broom), and sometimes rather stupid (the broom tried sweeping the walls).

When Merlin returned, Arthur was tempted to ask if she had done something to the broom. He actually was about to ask her if she knew what was going on with the broom when the broom fell, lifeless, into the corner. Though as soon as Merlin left the room, the broom jumped back to life and resumed its cleaning regimen.

But the broom wasn't the only thing that Arthur noticed was acting strangely (as if inanimate objects could act strangely). No… Arthur's boots and shield joined in on the action. And normally, the boots wouldn't have been an issue; he could just wear another pair, of course. Nope. These were the boots that he wore for his tournaments. And his shield was the one he used for tournaments.

He was certain that Merlin was behind this, but was very reluctant to say anything. He was worried that she might take offense and high tail it back to Ealdor. Plus, if she was the one behind the mysteriously animated inanimate objects, she would probably reverse the spell and everything would be back to normal soon.

Hopefully.