Bit of a filler but I liked writing it.

Merlin was woken up bright and early by a smiling Calian holding a breakfast tray.

"Has Arthur tired of my wake-up calls already?" He joked as the boy set the table, and as custom Merlin convinced him to sit and eat some as well.

"He told George to tell me that you would have five extra hours of training if you dared wake him up early when he finally has a free morning" Calian explained between bites of an apple "You have the whole day free until dinner, actually"

"Really?" Merlin raised his brows in surprise, this was unusual since he was sure Uther would call him to discuss acting as a squire under one of the knights, since he was too old to be a page and yet needed some real experience time before he could be knighted.

He, Merlin, knighted!

Somewhere, he was sure fate was having a good laugh over the turns his life was taking.

"The King actually ordered me to have you spend some time out and about, it isn't proper to isolate yourself and only come out for training" Calian answered, less reluctant by the word.

Merlin sighed.

"I-I'm sorry if it's not my place, but…" the boy hesitated for a moment, before straightening his resolve "Why haven't you left your rooms except for the library or training? You used to like spending time with the kitchen maids, with the pages and squires, even the vendors at the citadel miss you traipsing about"

"Exactly because of that" Merlin stood and slowly started to pace "What if they hate me? What if they look at me like – like Gwen is doing now, or like I'm not supposed to be there?"

"Come on, you haven't changed at all and soon enough they'll see it, and everything will go back to normal" Calian insisted "I did"

"…Maybe you're right" the warlock walked up to his wardrobe and started rummaging for his simplest clothes.

Time to pay a visit to the citadel.

•••

It was hard to ignore the whispers as he walked down the market, feeling like all eyes were on him. He hadn't stopped to talk to anyone yet, just looking around for nothing in particular and trying to decide if he should stop by Eline's stand for a piece of cheese – she always had the best – or stop by the usual spot he met with the young children of the city every four days for a bit of storytelling and games that would relieve their mothers of their presence for a little while.

Honestly, he was just afraid he wouldn't find anyone there after the many times he has missed their little encounters without explaining as he usually did whenever he left on a hunt with Arthur or had too much work.

Then again, he guessed his new status was pretty self-explanatory.

"Merlin!" He startled as someone pulled on his arm and turned to see a blonde girl of around five or six winters smiling up at him.

"Liza" He grinned, lowering himself to talk to her.

"Why did you not tell more stories?" She pouted "Mommy says you're busy but you said you'd never be busy for us!"

"Oh, dear" Said mother approached looking conflicted "Sorry M – uh, Sire. I told you not to go running off, Elizabeth"

"But Merlin's here, mommy!" She grinned "Can we have a story? Fran and Theo miss your stories too!"

"Eliza –" Her mother started, but Merlin promptly interrupted.

"Of course" He smiled up at her mother "If your mother doesn't mind, you could call Fran, Theo and the others so we can gather around the fire at dawn for a story, how about that?"

Elizabeth looks up at her mother and receives a nod, then runs off to find her friends.

"There's no need for that, Sire, I'm sure the children would understand if –"

"Angelica" Merlin interrupts "I like spending time with them; I thought you knew me better than that" he says, and is only slightly joking.

"Well" she has the decency to blush at her mistaken assumptions "I didn't wish to assume, it's not like you need to be around now, what with living in the castle being waited hand and foot on" her hand flies up to her mouth at the unintentional snapping "S-sorry, sire"

Merlin chuckles.

"That's fine, Angelica, you're only speaking your mind after all" he shrugs, wondering if everyone has suddenly forgotten his name "I'm glad you can still do that around me, it's not like I asked for this, you know?"

"You – didn't?" She frowned

"I was perfectly fine with being a servant" by now people had started to gather around, first curious about Merlin, then drawn in by Angelica's outburst "I told the them so; multiple times, in fact. Still, Arthur wouldn't settle for me to keep working for him after he knew. Say what you will about him but he's too honorable to keep his own brother as a servant, Uther seemed to agree, goddess knows why" he pulled a few chuckles with the last comment, along with some startled gasps at the casual reference to their king "I had only hoped everyone would not treat me differently, but I guess that was foolish"

"Nonsense" A plump lady in their now quite extensive audience exclaimed, walking up to him "You're still the same scrawny little thing, just with a new fancy title. Come, I have some of that cheese you love"

Merlin grinned widely as she dragged him up to her stand.

"You're the best, Eline" He grinned

"And don't you forget it" She winked at him.

He watched as the dispersing crowd went back to manning their business, but clearly something had changed. Or maybe he should say things had finally gone back to normal, he mused as the usual vendors greeted him, and Rachel from the flower stand went back to being a terrible flirt when he passed, leaving with a violet tucked into his neckerchief that brought back a passing memory of Gwen.

Soon enough the sky was darkening and he went to their usual story spot, setting up the fire and stoking it as the children slowly joined him, all excited to see him again. Those old enough to understand his sudden change in status were a little stiff at first, but he managed to wear them down with silliness until they sat close and laughed with him, eyes glued to the shadow figures he made with his hand against the light of the fire as he told them a made up story about a rabbit and a fox with the usual lesson in it, about which he questioned the attentive children in the end.

It took a while to notice that he had been joined by a few adults as well, and toward the end there was quite a crowd around their little bonfire.

"So this is where you disappeared to" Arthur looked at the dispersing children as he spoke to Merlin, who had finished his storytelling a few minutes ago "The children seem to like you… probably because you have the same mental age"

"You shouldn't try to be funny, Arthur" Merlin teased back "At least I'm not a clotpole"

"Still isn't a word" Arthur quipped as they walked back to the castle "Father wants to up your training, apparently King Melchior, from Tir Mor, is interested in establishing trading routes trough Nemeth and up to Camelot. Father wants you to be knighted either before their visit or during negotiations"

"Why am I nobody's squire yet then?" Merlin frowned, puzzled. Arthur looked surprise "Quit looking at me like with such surprise, of course I know the steps to becoming a knight"

"Just getting used to you knowing things, it's not a common occurrence" Arthur teased "And I believe that shall be settled soon"

Merlin sighed.

"Uh… If routes are to pass through Nemeth, does that mean King Rodor shall be joining us?" He questioned; a time from his past suddenly coming to mind.

"No, Merlin, we shall negotiate over letters, because surely it is more efficient" Arthur answers sarcastically "Why do you ask?"

"Nothing" Merlin answers, a bit too quickly, but luckily Arthur doesn't catch it "Come on, hurry or we'll be late for dinner"

Now, answering a few reviews:

CrazyFM: We are currently in the year between the end of season 2 and atart of season 3, during which Morgana is missing. Until she is found, just assume we are in that period of time. I have some plans for it before she can be reintroduced.

iHateStrongWeather123 : Well... those are very strong opinions, huh? I'll respect your point of view, of course, but my relationship with the character of Morgana is less simple than that. I have this love/hate view of her where on one side I think she deserves saving because she was driven towards evil by fear and despair, but I hate her because she became so unreasonable and repetitive by the end, turning into the kind of person she wanted to dethrone in the first place and straying from a very genuine reason for rebellion – freedom for magic – to a childish tantrum-thrower that killed anyone in her way and was unreasonably attached to her randomly evil lost sister.

Anyway, jury's still out on whether she will be redeemed or not in this fic.

On the issue of Gwen, whom you have already mentioned not liking, I can say that I'm not the biggest fan of their romance either, since I ship her a lot more with Lancelot, and I'm not sure if I'll explore it here. On the issue of Merthur, though: I ship it, but I'm not comfortable writing it, so nope, that's not happening here, sorry if anyone else had incestuous hopes.

Now, if you do end up finding my story boring anyway, there's nothing I can do about it and I won't be bothered because as I said, I write for myself and I'll feel perfectly fine as long as what I write satisfies me.

Also, to your recurrent mentions of my slow updates, I have mentioned many times that they would be irregular and I would only add to the story whenever I had inspiration, since the original plot bunny actually ended 7 or so chapters into this.

Cheers!