Chapter 4

"I'm to attend a meeting with my father," Arthur announced, walking past Merlin the instant his servant had entered his personal chambers.

"Oh, alright. Will we be very long, only ..?"

"No, just me today, he said," the prince explained.

"Really? Why? Is he going to have his own servant to serve the drinks?"

Arthur smirked at him. "Jealous, Merlin?"

"No, just curious. You usually want me there with you," his servant replied.

"Not today. Father's received some new evidence of magic users in the lower town and wants to make sure our meeting in truly private for once."

"Oh, I see." That didn't sound good at all. Merlin really needed to find out what was going on. "But, you can trust me, Arthur. You know that."

"I do yes, but ..." The prince didn't need to finish the sentence for Merlin to understand what he was saying.

" … your father doesn't," he finished with a sigh.

"I wouldn't take it personally. He doesn't really trust anyone at the moment."

"I understand. I'll just get on with the rest of my chores then, shall I?"

"Yes, and perhaps this might actually give you the opportunity to do them properly, for once," Arthur said with a smirk.

"Prat."

"Merlin! When will you learn that you just can't speak to me like that?"

That was it. There was no way he was going to miss something that important and so, as soon as Arthur had disappeared out of the door, Merlin whispered the words of his new spell and quickly turned invisible.

~o~0~o~

As it turned out, the meeting really didn't spend that much time on the subject of magic. A few people suspected of casting enchantments were mentioned at the beginning, and Merlin made a mental note to leave some sort of warning for them so they would have enough time to either hide any incriminating evidence or get out of town, but, after that, Uther and Arthur simply discussed all the other meetings that had happened between the king and his council and the prince and his knights. It appeared that the king was subtly preparing Arthur for his future role as king by quizzing his son about various issues, and Merlin grinned as he noted how evasive many of Arthur's answers actually were. It seemed that the young man didn't fully approve of everything Uther was doing, but still had far too much respect for his father to either openly oppose him or tell any outright lies.

It said something about just how bored Merlin was that he risked casting such a trivial spell right in front of the king himself but, honestly, he was sure he would go quite mad if he didn't liven things up a little. He focused on Arthur's shirt and his eyes glowed gold.

What was especially annoying was just how long Uther continued droning on before he finally noticed.

"Arthur? Wasn't your shirt a darker shade when you first came in?"

"Ah, sorry …?" The prince plucked at the front of the material and frowned. "I hadn't noticed. I expect Merlin left it to soak too long. It does look a bit … pink, I have to admit." Only Merlin's strong attachment to his head prevented him from laughing out loud at that point.

"Yes, but it was dark red before," Uther insisted.

"Ah, are you sure?"

"Arthur, surely you remember what colour shirt you put on this morning?"

Merlin muffled another giggle at the look of confusion on the prince's face. Of course Arthur didn't remember what he'd been wearing. Honestly he had never met anyone who was quite so unobservant as his young employer.

Not that he was complaining about that, obviously. He could have dressed the prince in anything this morning and it wouldn't have made any difference.

Merlin grinned broadly. Now, there was an idea.

~o~0~o~

The meeting eventually came to an end and the invisible warlock followed the prince out of the chambers, deep in thought about how he could now find the time to warn the couple of villagers that had been mentioned in the meeting, whilst also ensuring that all his tasks had been completed to his master's satisfaction.

"Right," Arthur muttered under his breath. "Now, where is that idiot manservant of mine?"

Merlin glared at the prince for the insult before focusing, his eyes again turning gold. However, one look at the result of his little spell improved his mood so quickly that he had to dive into an alcove to stop the laughing fit that was threatening, and therefore completely forgot that the prince was still actively looking for someone to run an errand for him.

"You there. I want you to go and find Merlin," Arthur asked of a young male servant. The boy looked the Prince up and down – wide eyed. "Ah … Sire … I think perhaps you might have ..."

"Merlin," Arthur repeated. "You know who I'm talking about?"

"Y-yes, Sire but … ah … you're ..."

"You may well think that your work is the most important thing right now but I am the prince of Camelot and can't be seen to be chasing after my own servant."

"No, Sire. I agree. Not looking like that, certainly." The boy scurried off with a smirk whilst Merlin sunk to the floor, both hands over his mouth and his face bright pink in an effort not to laugh out loud.

Arthur frowned at the retreating figure of the young boy before suddenly becoming suspicious and looking down to find that he was wearing a very fetching, bright pink evening gown, complete with low cut neckline and delicately embroidered flowers.

With his face now exactly the same shade as the dress, Arthur lifted up his skirts and ran towards his chambers as fast as his high heels would allow him. By the time he'd closed the door the prince found himself back in his usual brown trousers and dark red shirt.

"Sire?" his servant asked innocently, suddenly appearing from the other half of the room

"I … I'm going to have a lie down, Merlin."

"Arthur? Are you alright?"

"Yes … of course, fine," the prince stuttered. "Just … I think perhaps I may have been working a bit too hard."

"Of course, Sire. I'll leave you to your rest then," Merlin replied with an uncharacteristically gracious bow, before leaving the room and finally letting go of his emotions; his infectious laugh echoing loudly around Camelot's high ceilinged corridors.

~o~0~o~

A/N: Sorry it's been a while but I've not had that many prompts for this fic recently and haven't been able to find much inspiration myself. This one is the last that I have from your original reviews/requests and I'd like to thank White Camel and Chayiana for requesting Uther, ReadingWritingLaughing for 'Changing Arthur's clothes into a dress during a council meeting' and nini03 for 'arthur's clothes are changing in front of his father'.

I know there are a couple of ideas I've not included yet but I have to admit that none are really clicking for me at the moment. Any more prompts - or more details of what you have given already would be gratefully received.

30/10/12