Merlin Fan-fiction. Bread and Broken Vases
The door to Arthur's chambers opened with a light thud as the tall, dark haired servant bustled in carrying a small pile of freshly aired clothes with a tray of food wobbling on top. He balanced it over to the middle of the room and placed the stack on the large wooden table. For a second, he looked at it slightly proud that he'd managed not to drop anything but then his face fell. The clothes! He tried to carefully extract them from under the tray but it slid and, before he could utter an incantation to reverse the damage, the vase that had previously stood in the middle of the table lay in pieces on the stone floor, a loud crash accompanying its magnificent decent.
The man in the bed to the right stirred and sighed.
"I can think of better ways to be awoken than by the sounds of my possessions breaking, Merlin," he groaned, his voice slightly thick from sleep.
"Sorry about…that, sire," Merlin apologised awkwardly, hurrying to pick up the bits of broken pottery that had scattered across the floor and put them on the table ready to take out when he left. Then he went over to the windows and drew the curtains, letting light stream into the room.
Arthur rolled out of bed and picked the clothes up from the back of the chair, where Merlin had left them, and blundered over to the screen in the corner of the room to change with the air of a man who was finding it hard to be constantly alert, as a future king should, because he'd just woken up. As Arthur changed, Merlin poured a cup of water from the jug on the tray, drank a little for himself quickly, then topped it up, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Merlin," Arthur stepped out from behind the screen fully dressed, "What is it that's planned for today?"
"Erm, sword practise. With the rest of the knights."
"Then why haven't you brought me my other clothes? You know, the ones for sword practise. " Merlin stared, dumbstruck at the clothes Arthur was wearing before replying, slowly,
"Because you've…got a meeting with…some people first. They're coming in from the settlement on the outskirts of Camelot to discuss some arrangements with the King. He said he wants you there." He held his breath, hoping it was today that that was happening.
"That's tomorrow, Merlin, you clot pole! Go and fetch me the right clothes!" He glared at the food on the tray. Merlin turned to leave when Arthur stopped him.
"Merlin?"
"Yes?"
"What is this?" He pointed to a brown lump on a plate.
"That? That's something known as bread, sire." Arthur rolled his eyes.
"Yes, I know what it is, Merlin, but why have you brought me it?"
"It's for your breakfast…why, what's wrong?"
"It's brown. And has those weird seed things on top." He poked said 'weird seed things'.
"What's so bad about that?"
"Merlin, I don't like this bread, that's what's so bad about it." Merlin sighed.
"I bet you wouldn't be complaining if Gwen brought you that bread." Arthur stared for a second, opened his mouth to reply, gawped, looking very much like a goldfish, emitted what seemed to be a quiet squeak and shut it again. Merlin raised an eyebrow and smirked, in which time, Arthur had just about composed himself enough to reply coherently.
"That's irrelevant, Merlin, because Gwen-" he paused, just for a second when he said her name. Less. But Merlin saw it. He saw Arthur's eyes light up slightly, his lips curve at the edges slightly, his chest rise slightly. Only slightly, but he saw, saw just what utter adoration one could have for another, and it made him feel sure that he should do whatever was in his power to help them to be together without the fear of being banished or frowned upon.
"-Gwen doesn't being me my breakfast, you do, Merlin. And you've brought me the one type of bread in this whole kingdom I don't like."
A second of silence.
"Finished?" Merlin fought the urge to smile, his head tilting slightly. Arthur looked at him for a moment, his jaw clicking side to side.
"Yes."
"Then just eat your breakfast you grumpy pra-" Arthur shot him a glance that stopped him short.
"I mean you…er… great prince!" finished Merlin.
"That's more like it." Replied Arthur. He sat down to eat and Merlin swore he heard him chuckle under his breath. He smiled and picked up the pieces of broken vase that he needed to mend.
"Leave that," Arthur looked up, a strange, slightly amused look in his eye, "I never liked it anyway." The two men grinned at each other then Merlin turned to leave to get Arthur some bread that he liked and the correct clothes.
A/N: Hey, sorry for not writing anything in a while, but I just haven't had the time to type any of it up what with school work and the like! I'm working on a few things at the moment, and I'm hoping to get at least one of them up within a month. Anyway, this was my first go at the Merlin fandom and I hope you liked it! Feel free to leave a review with your thoughts :)