Is Merlin clumsy? That's a question you'll get different answers to if you ask different people. Gwaine would say no. Leon would say at times. Arthur would tell you he's the clumsiest person in the whole five kingdoms. If you asked Percival the right questions, then he'd say, he's only clumsy around Arthur.

Gwaine had learned within two weeks that him being clumsy, goofy, and overall strange, was just a mask. An illusion he'd created for everyone around him.

Gwaine believed Merlin had a stellar way of hiding things. Rather obviously hiding something, and when asked about it, show them something that you normally would hide, but not what you were originally hiding.

Gwaine had found out about Merlin's magic and promised to keep it a secret. On one condition. Merlin and Gwaine would try their bests not to hide anything from each other. Because of this, Merlin told Gwaine something he'd only told Will.

Gwaine still remembers the exact words that baffled him so.

"I'm not actually this clumsy idiotic boy. I'm rather intelligent actually. I'm also extremely agile, and fast. The whole 'I'm an idiot' charade is to make people underestimate me."

Another secret Merlin had told him was that he was actually rather good at sword fighting. He just never let Arthur or people he'd just met see. Since for the most part they were always together, no one else had seen Merlin sword fight either.

When Gwaine learned of this, he thought he'd make Merlin better at all sorts of combat. Turns out Merlin was already just as good as Gwaine in half the things that they tried. Although Merlin was still slightly worse then Gwaine at sword fighting.  So they practiced every morning and Merlin learned new strategies to win. Soon he'd become better then Gwaine.

After a bit of convincing, Merlin agreed to Gwaine's deal. Gwaine would stay sober for two months, and Merlin would have to fight two other trustworthy knights. Together they picked Leon, and Percival.

They were in for a suprise when Gwaine told them to each fight Merlin. Two on one. At first they had laughed thinking it to be a joke. Then they'd refused. Seemingly enough Gwaine had embarrassing stories he could tell about them, which changed their minds rather quickly.

When they'd lost to Merlin, they were first shocked. Then grinned seeing the potential of embarrassing Arthur. So they continued fighting Merlin. Even though they usually lost, they could see he was still getting better.

Today they watched Arthur's combat practice and compared it to Merlin's. They had never thought they'd see the day they knew someone was better at fighting then Arthur. Gwaine Leon and Percival decided to see just who was better.

They started their usual dare game. (Basically truth or dare without the truth. You had to do the dare or you'd be in the stocks for a week.) So far, Elyan had ran around the training grounds pretending to be a chicken, Percival had talked for three minutes straight as his dare, and Gwaine had just dramatically told a lady she looked absolutely horrid. Now it was Gwaine's turn to choose someone.

"Arthur... I dare you to..." Gwaine paused pretending to think about what he was going to say, "fight Merlin in an equal fight where he tries his hardest."

All the knights laughed. Little did they know of the strange turn of events.

Merlin and Arthur were now facing each other with weapons of their choice. They'd found Merlin some chain male for the fight, and a sword that was a good weight for him.

"Don't go easy on him Merlin! I dare you to go as hard as you can!"Leon shouted. This confused some, but they soon started laughing thinking it a joke.

Merlin glared at Gwaine, Percival and Leon. "I hate you guys right now, but I will."

This caused Gwaine, Percival and Leon to smile widely. Somehow no one noticed.

They'd began to circle each other when Arthur told Merlin he'd go easy on him.

Merlin decided to fake the first hit. He pretended to do a sloppy blow to Arthur's left side, but as Arthur was about to sloppily block it Merlin jabbed the dull sword into Arthur's right shoulder. With enough force to seriously bruise it and make Arthur drop his sword in shock.

Everyone was looking at Merlin with their eyes and mouths wide open. The clumsy servant boy that had never properly held a sword in front of the knights... Just beat Arthur. With a single blow.

"H-how? What on earth?" Arthur asked.

Merlin shrugged, "lucky hit?"

Everyone nodded thinking that made more sense. Merlin began to walk away before Arthur stopped him.

"Merlin wait... Rematch?" Arthur asked when Merlin turned back to him.

"Do it Merlin! I'll find someone else to take me home when I'm drunk for another month." Gwaine shouted.

This definitely persuaded Merlin. Another month of not having to go into the tavern early in the morning to bring a drunk Gwaine back to his room.

So they got in their fighting stances again. This time Arthur decided to swing first. Merlin easily dodged. Arthur swung low and fast, which was a surefire way to get almost anyone off balance. Somehow Merlin blocked it and dodged his next hit with ease. That went on for a while. Merlin dodging Arthur's ruthless hits. Only when Arthur began to tire out did Merlin fight back. With two of Merlin's swift hits, he'd won again.

As everyone was watching Merlin with awe, he began to clean up some of the mess they'd made and soon left.

"What just happened?" Elyan asked.

Arthur seemed rather faint. "Merlin... Just beat... Me? In a fight?" He looked to Gwaine who had initiated the fight. "Did you know about... That?"

Gwaine nodded. "Not so useless now is he? Merlins a fast learner, and he was already rather good at fighting before I started helping him improve."

"Why didn't he tell us?" Another knight questioned.

"He likes having the element of surprise. You okay there Arthur?" Gwaine noticed Arthur losing his balance. As all the other knights looked at him, he was suddenly on the floor.

Arthur had fainted. Nobody in the kingdom could beat Arthur in battle. Then Merlin came along. Flimsy, clumsy, and idiotic Merlin. Turned out he wasn't such an idiot after all. This information had been far too shocking for Arthur.

When he woke up in Gaius' chambers he asked what happened. Because what he remembered had to be a dream. When Gwaine had explained that it in fact had not been a dream, Arthur fainted again.