Exhausted

Summary: Merlin is exhausted. Arthur and the knights take good care of him.

A/N This is my first fanfiction. In fact it's the first story I've written in many, many, MANY years. Usually I just submit prompts, and let somebody else do the actual writing, but this story idea seemed too fully formed to leave as a prompt, so I decided to take a stab at writing it out. I hope you enjoy it!

Wow, wow! I have a BOOK COVER! Thanks a million to Caldera32 for the perfect art for my story.

Disclaimer: Don't own Merlin or any of the knights.

"Merlin, since you seem to have time to sit doing nothing, you'll have the first watch tonight."

Merlin thought he heard someone talking to him, but he didn't make any move to answer. He just continued poking a stick into the campfire. Merlin was soooo tired. His legs ached, his head ached, his back ached, his arms ached. He fancied that even his brain was numb. Everything seemed sort of dull and far away to both his sight and his hearing. He thought he heard somebody talking to him, but he just could not work up the effort to listen to what they were saying.

"Merlin, did you hear what I said?"

"Merlin, the horses haven't even been fed yet."

"Merlin, you idiot, get up and clean the dishes, there's still plenty to do before we pack it in for the night."

Merlin continued to poke at the fire, and the voice just swirled around without landing in his consciousness.

"MERLIN!"

"Merlin?" This time it sounded concerned, for some reason that Merlin couldn't fathom.

The voice seemed to get a little bit louder. Closer? But Merlin still couldn't be bothered to turn and see who it was, or what it wanted, or to get his mouth working to answer. Couldn't it just leave him alone for five minutes? He continued to poke at the fire with the stick in one hand, and put the elbow of his other arm on his knee, so he could support his chin on his other hand. His head was getting so heavy, and it was so nice and warm just sitting here.

"Merlin?" again. "Can you hear me?"

"He's really out of it. What's wrong with him?" said a different voice.

Yet another added, "Is he ill?"

Merlin felt a hand on his forehead. The arm belonging to the hand was blocking his view of the fire though, so he shook his head slowly to see if he could get it to go away.

"Well, he doesn't seem to have any fever."

"I'd wager he's just exhausted, Sire" came another voice, adding "I heard Gaius tell Geoffrey that Merlin was up well before dawn to collect some herbs for him before we left Camelot."

"And I saw him in the armoury finishing up with some repairs on your mail in the wee hours after I finished my watch last night. He told me it was taking longer than he expected because he found a large hole in the hauberk. I have no idea how long he stayed after that, but he wasn't close to finishing by the time I left," said a soft voice.

And yet another voice, "And we haven't exactly been easy on him today what with all the fetching and carrying. As exciting as I found it, I doubt Merlin would have appreciated our bagging two deer in a half- hour, since he had to lug them around like he did, even though it was just a short distance."

"Yeah, and then since we were all busy dressing the meat, and taking care of the lame packhorse, he was stuck filling all the water skins by himself, and it's quite a hike and a climb to get down to the river and back from here, not to mention he had to carry all that water"

Merlin heard the words spinning and twisting, but didn't bother to listen. The fire was so pretty and crackly when he poked at the embers. And it smelled nice. Smoky…

"Well... Then, let's get him to bed. There won't be any 'first watch' for him tonight", said someone quite imperiously.

Merlin tried to protest as somebody took his stick out of his hand, but no words would come out. Then all of a sudden he found himself upright with one of his arms being held around somebody's neck, and somebody's warm arm around his waist. Somebody really big. He thought it might be Percival, but couldn't seem to focus enough to check.

"Come on, Merlin. One foot in front of the other, now. That's the way."

"Where's his bedroll?...What's it doing way over there?!"

"Well, Sire, haven't you noticed that he usually sleeps outside of our circle? Propriety and all that. I think somebody complained about him taking a place by the fire once, so he's kept outside ever since. Habit I suppose, though I'm ashamed to say we've never thought to tell him to do differently."

"Oh for the God's sakes, that will be the end of that.…. Bring that and put it over here please, Gwaine."

"For Merlin and a 'please', I'll do anything, princess," answered somebody.

Then Merlin found himself being lowered slowly, a strong hand under his shoulder helping him to lie down, and with something surprisingly soft cushioning his head. He rubbed his cheek on it a little bit, enjoying the sensation, but closed his eyes without bothering to check what could feel so nice.

"Now, where's his…..thanks, Percival...Honestly…..you call this a blanket? This thing is so threadbare, it's likely to leach the heat away from him, not keep it in. Useless idiot to come on a hunting trip with this. I suppose I will need to get him a new one, once we get back to Camelot."

"Leon…..do you..."

"Here, take this, Sire. I've got a blanket, so we might as well wrap Merlin up in my cloak. That should keep him plenty warm."

Merlin didn't hear any more though. He was warm and he was comfortable, and then he was well and truly asleep.

Waking in the morning, Merlin was surprised to find himself lying comfortably by the dying fire, with Arthur's cloak under his head, and Leon's covering him.

He got up with a smile, feeling more refreshed than he had for weeks, he thought.

As he got the fire going and started to prepare the breakfast, he smiled again, looking around at the still-sleeping knights fondly, and then at Gwaine who was on the other side of the camp, taking the last watch. Yes, his destiny was worth it, if it meant bringing about a kingdom where a king and his most trusted knights would be inclined to take such care of a lowly servant.