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"What can I get you, gentlemen?" Mary, the barmaid, asked, cleaning their table after the previous guests.
Before Merlin or Arthur could answer her question, she chuckled shortly and smirked.
"You're a handsome fella," she said.
Merlin rolled his eyes, knowing very well Arthur's ego was getting boosted much too much this very second. Arthur, indeed, smiled cockily and looked away nonchalantly a bit.
"Well, you wouldn't be the first to say it," he chuckled as well.
"Oh," she scoffed, amused. "No, sorry. I was talking about your friend here,” she said teasingly, eyeing Merlin up and down.
They just both looked at her, eyes wide open, Merlin’s face exposing a bit of a bright, amused and confident smile.
“Him?” Arthur asked, grimacing.
“Thank you,” he said, ignoring Arthur’s remark and half as teasingly as Mary, although he didn’t mean for it to come out like that.
“Two tanks of mead please,” Arthur bit through clenched teeth. He felt completely and utterly embarrassed because of his false assumptions, but he’d never admit it.
She just smiled once more and turned around to get back to work. Merlin looked after her for a moment and then back to Arthur, leaning over the table a little.
“I was wrong,” he said, his eyebrow raised, this time much more teasingly. “Coming here was a great idea.”
Arthur rolled his eyes and didn’t say anything for a longer while.
In fact, a bunch of suspicious men stormed into the tavern at that very moment.
“I can’t believe it,” Arthur huffed, looking ahead of him as Merlin followed him on his horse, an unconscious man hanging from it. “We were in the middle of a fight and you somehow found the time to get his name ?” he turned to him, but the servant just shrugged.
“He introduced himself, you were doing just fine!” he groaned.
“I was being strangled!” he looked ahead again. “And instead of checking up on the situation you preferred to talk to some random guy.”
“It’s Gwaine ,” Merlin corrected. “And he fought just as much as you did, I helped him knock one of the bandits out!” Arthur didn’t respond. Merlin smirked after a moment and added: “Besides, since when do you consider me capable of helping you fight?”
Arthur scoffed.
“No need to get cocky,” he muttered, hoping more than he thought for the man to get well soon and go back to wherever he came from.
“How is he?” Arthur asked as Merlin led him towards Gaius’ chambers so they could check up on Gwaine and reward him for helping them out at the tavern. The quicker he does that, Arthur figures, the quicker the man would be out of the picture.
“He’s going to be fine. The wound is healing well and he only needs some rest before beating some big bad guys up again,” Merlin joked, but Arthur didn’t find it funny. Oddly irritating, rather.
“How long?” he asked, not sure himself why.
“Oh, um…” apparently Merlin did not expect to hear that question either. “A week, maybe two.” he shrugged. Arthur nodded.
They entered the chambers to find no one there.
“Where is he?” Arthur panicked slightly.
“Relax, he’s in there,” he said, pointing at the door to his bedroom and walking towards the few steps already.
Arthur’s jaw dropped. Merlin kept Gwaine in his own bedroom ? Ridiculous. He scoffed as he imagined someone telling him the man had also slept in Merlin’s…
“...bed is very comfortable, really.” he heard Gwaine say, although he knew it was a polite lie. Which made the situation even worse.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Arthur said to himself.
“What?” Merlin asked, looking at him.
Arthur looked at them both, realising he said it out loud. “Um, I-” he saw Gwaine being shirtless and objectively quite...okay - extremely attractive. Surprisingly though it wasn’t attraction that Arthur felt at that moment, no. He was furious. He felt his insides boiling in a very unpleasant way. He took a deep breath to calm down.
“I said thank you for helping me ,” he said slowly, to which Gwaine replied with a charming smile.
“Don’t mention it. I may not be the biggest fan of royalty, but I do like a challenge,” he said and then looked at Merlin. “Besides, I couldn’t let them do you any harm either.” Arthur could swear Gwaine was going to wink. Just as he could swear that he was going to get punched if another deep breath hadn’t restored Arthur’s self control. Merlin, however, blushed - yes, blushed - and chuckled.
“I can take care of myself,” he said, but smiled back at Gwaine either way. And he eyed him. He definitely did.
“Besides,” Arthur added, imitating Gwaine, “he has me to keep him safe from harm.”
Too bad the prince was too busy looking at Gwaine venomously to notice the blush on Merlin’s face turning from barely visible to a shade close to bloody red.
“Gentlemen, please…” the warlock said, although it sounded rather awkward and pathetic.
“Right. I apologise,” Gwaine sighed, amused. Then he turned to Merlin again. “Do you think I could go on a walk? I’d love to see more of Camelot before I leave.”
Merlin seemed to be impressed and Arthur didn’t like that.
“I think it would actually do you good!” he grinned.
“Thank you,” Gwaine said, bowing his head to Merlin, keeping a soft smile on. Merlin looked away but nodded back. Gwaine smirked and left, nodding to Arthur beforehand.
“What even was that?” he asked once the man left. Merlin looked at him.
“What?” he tried to play dumb.
“He was totally-” he gestured, lost for words. Merlin tilted his head, smirking.
“What - flirting with me?” Arthur felt his cheeks get hot in seconds. “Actually, I hate that I’ll have to tell him I’m not looking for anyone, I don’t like doing that,” he added, picking up some laundry before walking out, saying: “I’ll be around if you need me”.
“Of course I do,” Arthur said quietly, leaving the room a few moments later, just to find Merlin all giggling with Gwen. He blinked a few times when Merlin continued his way and the girl didn’t even notice Arthur, smiling widely and walking towards Morgana's chambers almost jumping cheerfully as she did so. Arthur raised an eyebrow. As much as he liked and respected Guinevere, this was weird . He shook his head and started walking towards the stairs, intending to join the training that was just taking place outside, when he heard someone calling him.
“Arthur! Hey!” Morgana smiled at him, stopping them both to get his full attention. He smiled politely and nodded.
“Morgana. I see you are having a pleasant day,” he noticed, honestly happy because of that.
“Oh, so far it’s going great for me, thank you,” she replied, her smile widening. “I just wanted to ask you if you’ve seen Merlin-” she chuckled. “I mean - of course you have, but if you perhaps know where he is…”
“Yes, he went…” he stopped, his hand up in the air pointing in the direction of the stairs. He frowned. “Wait… What do you need Merlin for?”
She rolled her eyes. “Relax, brother, I’m not stealing your servant.” Before he could protest and assure her that he is not worried about losing such a useless and clumsy manservant, she carried on. “I just wanted to ask him for an opinion. As a friend.”
“Opinion on…what?” He just couldn’t let it go. He was too damn curious . What was it? What could possibly be a case of Morgana’s interest that Merlin would give reliable advice on? Morgana groaned.
“I don’t know what to wear to tomorrow’s feast, okay?”
Arthur blinked. “And Merlin is supposed to help you?”
“Oh, but of course!” she exclaimed, cheering up immediately. “He has such great taste, it’s really amazing. I mean, look at yourself, if it wasn’t him choosing your clothes each morning you wouldn’t get half as much interest in those taverns you sometimes go to,” she joked. “Besides,” she said, before he managed to protest once again, “he is so supportive. Leave the choices of clothing and everything else, I’m pretty sure he’d tell me I look stunning if I wore a dress made of dirty fabric and didn’t brush my hair at all.”
Arthur knew very well that she wouldn’t give such descriptions to anyone except for him, perhaps Gwen. But she was talking about Merlin . And although Arthur agreed with most things she said, even without ever talking to his friend about clothes , he knew he was one of the most supportive people out there. Then it finally clicked.
Merlin… Morgana… Gwen… Gwaine? Morgana’s kind words, Gwen’s smile and blush, Gwaine’s bloody flirting…
And for the first time in his life, Arthur consciously and fully intendly thought of Merlin as an attractive person .
Weird.
So, finally, he told Morgana where she might find Merlin and cleared his throat, going to training. Perhaps he can get his mind off this weird chain of realisation.
“Great, Percival!” Arthur yelled, when Percy defeated Elyan in a duel, using a technique he’s just learned two days earlier. The knight in question smiled and Arthur led them towards the armoury, deciding they’ve had enough for the day.
“Ugh, do we really all need to go to the celebration tomorrow?” Elyan asked on their way there. Arthur rolled his eyes. Did they really want to leave him alone with this? Such events were almost always as dull as his most hated council meetings.
“Yes, Elyan. Each and every one of you.”
“Great,” he muttered sarcastically.
“Cheer up, will you?” Lancelot patted him on the back. “If you get bored at some point you’ll just ask for a solid refill of wine.”
“Hold your horses,” Arthur warned, quite surprised if he was being honest. Lancelot? Lancelot encouraging drinking as a solution to boredom? Did everyone get hit on the heads today? “I don’t want my knights drunk during a feast like this. You need to keep your eyes open, we don’t know what our guests are capable of just yet.” He didn’t like giving those official leaderly speeches, but sometimes he had no choice.
Lancelot laughed . How dare he laugh, this was a serious situation!
“No, no, Sire, I apologise, this is not what I meant. We hardly ever actually get refills.”
Arthur frowned.
“What did you mean then? And of course you do get refills, Merlin wanders around your table all the time during such celebrations!” He was starting to get irritated. Everything seemed weird and all those weird things somehow managed to make Arthur extraordinarily aware of Merlin's presence in countless fields of his life.
“That… is the point, Sire,” Elyan said, amused. “Without him, those feasts would actually be boring to the point where none of us could have our eyes wide open.”
The other knights laughed and agreed.
“Remember how he once joked about this king from the South? What did he say about his voice?” Percival asked the other three.
“That he sounds like a duck,” Lancelot chuckled. “Wasn’t his best joke, but everything seems ten times more fun with this guy around.”
“And he’s quite fond of you, eh?” Elyan teased, elbowing Lancelot and wiggling his eyebrows. Lancelot blushed slightly. “Not all of us could count on as many of his jokes and smiles as you get.”
Leon and Percival joined in teasing Lancelot, whistling and pushing him around harmlessly. Arthur clenched his jaw. He remembered the way Merlin was mesmerised with Lancelot the first time he introduced them, as well as he remembered how glad Lancelot always was to help the warlock if needed. But it took him time to this exact conversation to connect the dots. What exactly was between them? And the other knights? Were all those smiles on their faces during feasts really always about Merlin ?
“Enough,” he interrupted, perhaps a bit - okay - a lot more harshly than needed. All four knights looked at him, pretty much resembling a bunch of startled stoats seeing a hunter from the distance. “Sorry… Do whatever you want, I’ll… go take a walk somewhere.” He started taking off towards the meadows, but they called after him.
“In your armour?”
“With a sword?”
“Arthur, where are you going, for goodness’ sake?!”
Later on, he went back to the armoury. Once it was empty. He sighed, ready to start taking his armour off by himself, when…
“Need a hand?” came a soft voice from the corner of the room.
Merlin.
Arthur turned around to find the warlock sitting on a bench where the voice came from, smiling. Arthur smiled back, not even thinking about it.
“Yes,” he said, holding his hand out towards Merlin.
He nodded and got up, walking up to Arthur and starting to take the armour off, piece by piece, like he always did.
“How did today’s training go?”
“Quite well.”
“You seem tense,” he noticed, as if suspicious.
“Mmm,” was the only appropriate answer Arthur managed to think of. “How is this guy - Gwaine, was it?” he asked instead. Merlin huffed in amusement.
“Found him at the market later, trying his luck with a few people.” Arthur could basically feel Merlin shake his head and he smiled to himself. He couldn’t really tell why, but he felt relieved that his friend seemed to not have any interest in their saviour from the day before. Suddenly, Merlin laughed. “Guess which girl I saw him giving flowers to.”
Arthur turned his head a little to look at him with a humorous glint in his eye.
“Who was it?” he asked, but Merlin just pressed his lips into a thin line, visibly blocking laughter. “Well, out with it, Merlin!” he insisted playfully.
“Gwen,” he said finally, and they both laughed.
“He really thought he could get her with flowers?” Arthur shook his head, taking his gloves off.
“Well, there were also quite impressive compliments, you have to give him that!” Merlin remarked, as he walked away a bit to put Arthur’s chainmail away.
He looked at him. Merlin was nothing more than he was every day ever since they met. The same black hair, blue eyes, the same style of dressing himself, the same ears, which now, instead of funny - as usual - Arthur found unique, and - finally - the same smile.
Of course, especially after that day’s experiences, Arthur knew very well that Merlin smiled at many people. That this gesture of his brightened up many more lives than just his own.
Yet, nevertheless, Arthur let himself - just for a moment, selfishly - think that this smile, the one Merlin had on in this moment in the armoury, was just for him. That it was meant for Arthur and Arthur alone.
Merlin laughed about something again, perhaps it had to do with Gwaine. He walked back up to the prince, intending to take away his sword, wanting them to return to Arthur’s chambers after that, joking around, insulting each other playfully, talking, exchanging smiles and stories meant just for them .
Them.
Merlin stood next to him. He was reaching for Arthur’s sword. Arthur reached for Merlin’s wrist.
Kissing.
They were kissing, he just kissed Merlin.
Arthur was about to pull away as quickly as he pulled him in, scared - no - terrified of the other man’s reaction, but… there he was. Merlin. Kissing him back.
And it suddenly became clear to Arthur that he had nothing to regret about this. Finally, they pulled away, both trying to read the other’s feelings in his eyes.
“Did you-” Merlin started. He looked anxious. Insecure.
“I meant it,” Arthur said, once again not managing to think it through.
“You don’t seem sure…” he tilted his head, keeping his guard up.
Arthur looked down and took a moment to think, after all. He frowned, pressed his lips into a thin line like Merlin usually does, then looked up at his best friend once again.
Into his eyes, at his face, where this favourite smile of his usually was… stretched right across the lips he just kissed . Arthur’s expression softened.
“I am sure, Merlin,” he said, all the genuineness of the world settled deep within his eyes.
Merlin smiled.
There it is , Arthur thought.
And it all became clear. Everyone loved Merlin. But there was no one in the world who loved him more than Arthur Pendragon.