Call My Name: Autumn
Title: Call My Name
Part: 1: Autumn
Fandom: Merlin
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Merlin
Rating: PG for this part
Summary: It's autumn. An unusual time of year for new beginnings, but since when has life in Camelot been normal?
Spoilers: None
You just call out my name
And you know, wherever I am
I'll come running to see you again
Winter, spring, summer, or fall
All you have to do is call
And I'll be there
You've got a friend
For the most part, Merlin had grown to accept his role as Arthur's manservant. He had learnt what was expected of him, learnt how to deal with the exasperation he so often felt at the ludicrous list of chores given to him. Still, there were still times when his prince demonstrated himself to be a whole new level of 'prat', leaving Merlin with the overwhelming desire to slam his head into a wall. Hard. This afternoon was one of those times.
Merlin was rather absorbed in his cleaning of Arthur's boots, his smart pair for use at Court and banquets, mentally grumbling about royalty and their need for five of everything for every occasion. He made do with one pair of shoes, why must Arthur have a different pair for every little thing? He had boots for banquets, boots for lesser festivities, boots for training, boots for hunting... Merlin found it all rather ridiculous. The only purpose they seemed to serve was more work for him.
These thoughts were making his movements, the rub of polish against leather, more aggressive than was possibly necessary. They also made him fail to notice that Arthur had returned to his chambers until a pair of mud-caked shoes appeared in his eyeline.
Grimacing already, Merlin slowly raised his aching neck. What he saw resembled more, on first glance, the monster Nimue had created in the water supply than Prince Arthur. But, yes, there was the future King under all that mud.
"It's raining," the mud-monster stated, and Merlin would have laughed if he had not known just who would be responsible for making the prince look respectable again.
"I can see that, sire." Cheek? That was perfectly acceptable.
"Well, come on, Merlin. Get me out of my armour." Arthur was, quite obviously, not in the mood for Merlin's humour.
"Fine. Just... take a step this way?" Merlin requested as he got to his feet and stepped away from the row of freshly-polished leather shoes. Arthur was getting perilously close to dripping on his afternoon's handiwork, and that would be beyond frustrating. Arthur did as he was told, grudgingly, standing still in the middle of the room and spreading his arms out to aid Merlin in his task.
"What, precisely, were you doing?" Merlin questioned as he resigned himself to digging his fingers into layers of caked mud to locate buckles and ties. If he was going to get himself covered in the same filth, he felt he at least had the right to know what had gotten him into this position.
"Training, Merlin," Arthur replied, voice long-suffering, as if he was indulging his manservant with an answer to a question he should not have had to ask. "That oaf Percival felt it appropriate to battle me into the ground. He's enjoying tomorrow in the stocks, and the day after sweeping leaves... Merlin, come closer. If I'm in this state then there's no reason you shouldn't be, too."
Merlin had moved from the prince's back to his front, trying his best to remove layers of Arthur's clothing whilst remaining at arm's length to minimise the transference of mud. It seemed he had been a little too obvious about his intentions. With a huffed sigh he took a step closer, biting his tongue to stop himself from reminding Arthur that, unlike the royalty, he could not order a bath whenever he felt like it. If he got dirty now, he would be staying that way.
"Better," Arthur spoke, before they fell into a companionable silence, Arthur watching with some amusement as Merlin tried to do his job to the best of his abilities whilst avoiding as much of the mud as possible. Really, it was quite endearing.
Merlin, for his part, was well aware of the prince's eyes on him. It was unnerving, being stared at like that, and the twitch of a grin that was spreading across Arthur's face was not helping matters. He felt himself colouring under that gaze, and bowed his head to try and hide his embarrassment.
This was not the first time he had found Arthur's gaze on him. He seemed to be the prince's favourite form of entertainment these days, especially at banquets and other festivities where the future King was forced to listen to a visiting noble's life story. It was hard to keep your concentration, to work, when you could feel Arthur's eyes on you across the room. And now, when those eyes were barely a metre away? It was downright uncomfortable.
"There, done." Merlin stated, finishing off his work faster and with less concern for his own hygiene as he perhaps should have as he struggled under the weight of that gaze. Arthur was stripped down to his undershirt and breeches, both of which needed washing as well, but seeing the prince naked was not part of Merlin's duties. There were lesser servants who dealt with that.
"What about..." Arthur pulled his gaze away from Merlin, used a hand to gesture at his dirty face and hair.
"I'll call for a bath for you."
Arthur rolled his eyes. "That'll take an hour, at least."
"Well, there's not much I can do about that." Merlin gave an honest, if slightly biting, response.
"Come up with something."
Merlin sighed, exasperated, eyes looking around the chamber. He had a pail of water, for his cleaning duties, but it had gone cold and dirty hours since. He was almost certain a wash with that would be worse than the discomfort of an hour's wait for a bath. Besides that, all he had were a few scraps of material he used for his cleaning duties. He supposed that was better than nothing. Stalking over to where he had been sat earlier, he picked up the cleanest of the rags, before approaching the prince again.
"This is the best I've got," he informed him, before stepping close and raising the cloth to the prince's forehead, gently rubbing away layers of muck. His brow furrowed in concentration, trying to do the best he could without causing him pain.
When Arthur's dirty hand lunged forward, grabbed the front of his shirt, he worried momentarily that he had not been careful enough. That he was being too rough. And then he did not have any thoughts or worries at all, because he had lips against his and Arthur was kissing him, or he was kissing Arthur. There was definitely kissing involved, that much he could wrap his head around. Beyond that, it was all more than slightly confusing.
If this was what kissing was, Merlin was not completely sure it lived up to the hype. The angle he had his head at did not feel all that natural, his proximity to the prince meant he was getting covered in his filth, he was getting a mouth full of saliva and mud, and Arthur really needed to take a bath - the smell was not pleasant. Yet, despite all of that, he found he missed the contact when it ended.
"What was..." Merlin began, hand reaching up to rub mud away from his own face, words trailing off when he realised he had no idea what he was actually asking.
"I... don't know," Arthur responded, and there might have been the hint of blush across those dirtied cheeks. "I... I've been thinking about doing that, for a while. And then you were just... there." He gestured, rather pathetically, at the space in front of him that Merlin occupied.
"But... I'm..."
"A servant, I know." Arthur sounded rather frustrated at himself.
"I was going to go with 'male', but yes, that one works too." Merlin allowed himself a cheeky smile, trying to lighten the mood and ignore the kiss-stung feel of his lips. Still, he regretted his words when Arthur turned his back on him.
"They're both problematic," Arthur spoke to the wall. "Though, if you were a noble, you might be surprised to find how few people would so much as bat an eyelid if they found you in my bed. I'm the future king, I can choose my own pleasures with little consequence, so long as I stick to noble blood. But to do anything like that with a servant... it shouldn't happen."
Merlin would think back on this conversation later that evening and be surprised at how readily he had accepted the possibility of a romantic tryst with Arthur. Once he had gotten over the initial shock of finding himself being kissed by the prince, he really had not been bothered by the fact of their gender, or their societal roles. Merlin had always seen things in a very black and white way - good and bad, right and wrong - and so once he had decided that he would be happy to repeat that kiss, happy to play along with Arthur and see where it led, that was that. Gender, society... it did not matter. What mattered was that Arthur had kissed him, and now Merlin quite wanted to kiss him back. If there was a way, they would find it... the dragon below the castle had told Merlin that Arthur was his destiny, after all.
"Maybe not." Merlin replied to the prince's concerns, speaking slowly and being deliberately careful with his choice of words as he stepped closer to Arthur's back. "But where would we all be if people never did things they weren't meant to do?" His hand reached out to touch Arthur's shoulder. "Where's your sense of adventure, sire?"
Arthur turned back to Merlin, more out of surprise than anything else, mouth hanging open slightly... but there was a twinkle of hope in his eyes, too. "You're... you're sure, Merlin? This... it would be dangerous."
Merlin was careful to school his face into a mask of neutrality, although he was laughing inside. Arthur was not to know just how experienced his manservant was at keeping dangerous secrets, after all.
"I'm alright with dangerous," he promised.
Part: 1: Autumn
Fandom: Merlin
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Merlin
Rating: PG for this part
Summary: It's autumn. An unusual time of year for new beginnings, but since when has life in Camelot been normal?
Spoilers: None
You just call out my name
And you know, wherever I am
I'll come running to see you again
Winter, spring, summer, or fall
All you have to do is call
And I'll be there
You've got a friend
For the most part, Merlin had grown to accept his role as Arthur's manservant. He had learnt what was expected of him, learnt how to deal with the exasperation he so often felt at the ludicrous list of chores given to him. Still, there were still times when his prince demonstrated himself to be a whole new level of 'prat', leaving Merlin with the overwhelming desire to slam his head into a wall. Hard. This afternoon was one of those times.
Merlin was rather absorbed in his cleaning of Arthur's boots, his smart pair for use at Court and banquets, mentally grumbling about royalty and their need for five of everything for every occasion. He made do with one pair of shoes, why must Arthur have a different pair for every little thing? He had boots for banquets, boots for lesser festivities, boots for training, boots for hunting... Merlin found it all rather ridiculous. The only purpose they seemed to serve was more work for him.
These thoughts were making his movements, the rub of polish against leather, more aggressive than was possibly necessary. They also made him fail to notice that Arthur had returned to his chambers until a pair of mud-caked shoes appeared in his eyeline.
Grimacing already, Merlin slowly raised his aching neck. What he saw resembled more, on first glance, the monster Nimue had created in the water supply than Prince Arthur. But, yes, there was the future King under all that mud.
"It's raining," the mud-monster stated, and Merlin would have laughed if he had not known just who would be responsible for making the prince look respectable again.
"I can see that, sire." Cheek? That was perfectly acceptable.
"Well, come on, Merlin. Get me out of my armour." Arthur was, quite obviously, not in the mood for Merlin's humour.
"Fine. Just... take a step this way?" Merlin requested as he got to his feet and stepped away from the row of freshly-polished leather shoes. Arthur was getting perilously close to dripping on his afternoon's handiwork, and that would be beyond frustrating. Arthur did as he was told, grudgingly, standing still in the middle of the room and spreading his arms out to aid Merlin in his task.
"What, precisely, were you doing?" Merlin questioned as he resigned himself to digging his fingers into layers of caked mud to locate buckles and ties. If he was going to get himself covered in the same filth, he felt he at least had the right to know what had gotten him into this position.
"Training, Merlin," Arthur replied, voice long-suffering, as if he was indulging his manservant with an answer to a question he should not have had to ask. "That oaf Percival felt it appropriate to battle me into the ground. He's enjoying tomorrow in the stocks, and the day after sweeping leaves... Merlin, come closer. If I'm in this state then there's no reason you shouldn't be, too."
Merlin had moved from the prince's back to his front, trying his best to remove layers of Arthur's clothing whilst remaining at arm's length to minimise the transference of mud. It seemed he had been a little too obvious about his intentions. With a huffed sigh he took a step closer, biting his tongue to stop himself from reminding Arthur that, unlike the royalty, he could not order a bath whenever he felt like it. If he got dirty now, he would be staying that way.
"Better," Arthur spoke, before they fell into a companionable silence, Arthur watching with some amusement as Merlin tried to do his job to the best of his abilities whilst avoiding as much of the mud as possible. Really, it was quite endearing.
Merlin, for his part, was well aware of the prince's eyes on him. It was unnerving, being stared at like that, and the twitch of a grin that was spreading across Arthur's face was not helping matters. He felt himself colouring under that gaze, and bowed his head to try and hide his embarrassment.
This was not the first time he had found Arthur's gaze on him. He seemed to be the prince's favourite form of entertainment these days, especially at banquets and other festivities where the future King was forced to listen to a visiting noble's life story. It was hard to keep your concentration, to work, when you could feel Arthur's eyes on you across the room. And now, when those eyes were barely a metre away? It was downright uncomfortable.
"There, done." Merlin stated, finishing off his work faster and with less concern for his own hygiene as he perhaps should have as he struggled under the weight of that gaze. Arthur was stripped down to his undershirt and breeches, both of which needed washing as well, but seeing the prince naked was not part of Merlin's duties. There were lesser servants who dealt with that.
"What about..." Arthur pulled his gaze away from Merlin, used a hand to gesture at his dirty face and hair.
"I'll call for a bath for you."
Arthur rolled his eyes. "That'll take an hour, at least."
"Well, there's not much I can do about that." Merlin gave an honest, if slightly biting, response.
"Come up with something."
Merlin sighed, exasperated, eyes looking around the chamber. He had a pail of water, for his cleaning duties, but it had gone cold and dirty hours since. He was almost certain a wash with that would be worse than the discomfort of an hour's wait for a bath. Besides that, all he had were a few scraps of material he used for his cleaning duties. He supposed that was better than nothing. Stalking over to where he had been sat earlier, he picked up the cleanest of the rags, before approaching the prince again.
"This is the best I've got," he informed him, before stepping close and raising the cloth to the prince's forehead, gently rubbing away layers of muck. His brow furrowed in concentration, trying to do the best he could without causing him pain.
When Arthur's dirty hand lunged forward, grabbed the front of his shirt, he worried momentarily that he had not been careful enough. That he was being too rough. And then he did not have any thoughts or worries at all, because he had lips against his and Arthur was kissing him, or he was kissing Arthur. There was definitely kissing involved, that much he could wrap his head around. Beyond that, it was all more than slightly confusing.
If this was what kissing was, Merlin was not completely sure it lived up to the hype. The angle he had his head at did not feel all that natural, his proximity to the prince meant he was getting covered in his filth, he was getting a mouth full of saliva and mud, and Arthur really needed to take a bath - the smell was not pleasant. Yet, despite all of that, he found he missed the contact when it ended.
"What was..." Merlin began, hand reaching up to rub mud away from his own face, words trailing off when he realised he had no idea what he was actually asking.
"I... don't know," Arthur responded, and there might have been the hint of blush across those dirtied cheeks. "I... I've been thinking about doing that, for a while. And then you were just... there." He gestured, rather pathetically, at the space in front of him that Merlin occupied.
"But... I'm..."
"A servant, I know." Arthur sounded rather frustrated at himself.
"I was going to go with 'male', but yes, that one works too." Merlin allowed himself a cheeky smile, trying to lighten the mood and ignore the kiss-stung feel of his lips. Still, he regretted his words when Arthur turned his back on him.
"They're both problematic," Arthur spoke to the wall. "Though, if you were a noble, you might be surprised to find how few people would so much as bat an eyelid if they found you in my bed. I'm the future king, I can choose my own pleasures with little consequence, so long as I stick to noble blood. But to do anything like that with a servant... it shouldn't happen."
Merlin would think back on this conversation later that evening and be surprised at how readily he had accepted the possibility of a romantic tryst with Arthur. Once he had gotten over the initial shock of finding himself being kissed by the prince, he really had not been bothered by the fact of their gender, or their societal roles. Merlin had always seen things in a very black and white way - good and bad, right and wrong - and so once he had decided that he would be happy to repeat that kiss, happy to play along with Arthur and see where it led, that was that. Gender, society... it did not matter. What mattered was that Arthur had kissed him, and now Merlin quite wanted to kiss him back. If there was a way, they would find it... the dragon below the castle had told Merlin that Arthur was his destiny, after all.
"Maybe not." Merlin replied to the prince's concerns, speaking slowly and being deliberately careful with his choice of words as he stepped closer to Arthur's back. "But where would we all be if people never did things they weren't meant to do?" His hand reached out to touch Arthur's shoulder. "Where's your sense of adventure, sire?"
Arthur turned back to Merlin, more out of surprise than anything else, mouth hanging open slightly... but there was a twinkle of hope in his eyes, too. "You're... you're sure, Merlin? This... it would be dangerous."
Merlin was careful to school his face into a mask of neutrality, although he was laughing inside. Arthur was not to know just how experienced his manservant was at keeping dangerous secrets, after all.
"I'm alright with dangerous," he promised.