Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin.
"Centipede"
Merlin sneezed.
"MERLIN!"
"Sorry Sire," Merlin said wiping his nose with a swipe, looking sheepish. "I can't help it."
Arthur rolled his eyes and searched for the deer. As expected it was spooked by the noise and was long gone. Arthur smacked the back of Merlin's head after lowering the crossbow in frustration. "You really are a total buffoon! Aren't you, Merlin?!" Arthur shouted. "Ow. You didn't have to hit me, you clotpole! Now if you were listening, I said I was sorry!" Merlin replied rolling his eyes as Arthur looked away frustrated. "Whatever. Let's go look for that deer or a rabbit or something. That is…if you don't scare it away again. Merlin."
They walked through the forest, Arthur being silent, and Merlin being inconveniently loud.
Branches crunched and snapped, as Merlin stumbled after Arthur. After several long painful minutes of this, Arthur finally snapped. "Are you trying to irritate me today? You're so loud, it's no wonder we haven't caught anything." "Apologies, Sire. There were ants." "Ants," Arthur repeated dryly. Merlin nodded. "Large red ones trying to crawl up, had to shake them off."
"I don't see any ants, Merlin," Arthur said giving Merlin a stern look. "Of course you don't. I shook them off." "Good," Arthur replied with false pleasantry. "Then perhaps you could be a bit quieter," Arthur said through gritted teeth. "I can in fact I'll start right now," Merlin said louder. "God help me," Arthur muttered with a sigh as they continued the hunt. After an hour or so they finally find a rabbit.
Unaware, Arthur raised his crossbow aiming at the unsuspecting creature. As he was about to let his arrow fly, a quiet gasp made him pause.
"Merlin," Arthur whispered warningly, not losing his concentration. As the rabbit looked around on high alert, Arthur once again prepared himself to let the arrow fly when Merlin abruptly fell onto him, knocking him over. The arrow missed and the little animal scurried away. Arthur pushed Merlin off, furious, while Merlin looked at him like a started deer. "I didn't mean -," Merlin began. "You knocked me over, and let the rabbit escape! What happened this time? More ants crawling up your trousers? Did they sting you so bad that you tripped over in fright?" Arthur said mockingly. "As a matter of fact, it was a very large centipede. Not ants. I tried to knock it away but then it landed on my shirt and there was a log and-," Merlin stopped. "What?" Arthur turned to the direction his manservant was looking at to find a winged horse. Arthur stared in awe and began to laugh. "You actually did a good job for once Merlin," Arthur said smacking his manservant by the shoulders. "Arthur…," Merlin said warningly. "What?" "THERE'S A CENTIPEDE IN YOUR SHIRT!" Merlin shouted. "Where?" Arthur twirled in surprise before freezing and smacking his manservant's head yet again. Just as he suspected as he turned to look for the Pegasus, it was long gone. "Merlin!"
Footsteps were heard.
"Arthur…," Merlin said warningly. "You really have no idea how-." Merlin took Arthur's arm and dragged him away from where the Pegasus had been and knocked him into a bush. "Bandits!" Merlin hissed. The bandits that had appeared seemed to not have heard them, as Arthur and Merlin snuck away.
As they headed away silently, Arthur noticed it was just that. Silent.
Realization hit him like a wave.
He looked at Merlin accusingly. That sneaky little-
"You did that on purpose didn't you!" Arthur gave Merlin a shove on his shoulders. "What?" he replied confused. "You! That was your plan all along! You hate hunting! You scared all the game away with your 'accidents'! You couldn't see 'cute innocent fluffy animals' die!" Arthur said as he did a poor imitation of Merlin's voice. 'Don't kill the cute fluffy animals Arthur. They are innocent creature that did nothing to deserve to die.' "I do not sound like that!" Merlin replied indignantly. "Seems you've fooled us all Merlin. I wonder what other tricks you've got up your sleeve." "I have no idea what you mean," Merlin replied innocently. "You know exactly what I mean! You sneaky little-..." Arthur felt something crawl up his neck. "Arthur! The centipede!" "What?!"
A/N
Was there ever an actual centipede or did it only appear at the end? Did Merlin plan everything? Did Merlin put the centipede there? Was it really all a coincidence? Who knows :P
I hope you guys enjoyed this one-shot for Merlin. I may write more for this fandom so keep an eye out for that if you're interested. Reviews are nice, and they might motivate me to write more, so if you please do. This was random, meant only to be 300 words, turned out more. I hope you guys enjoyed ^^