Disclaimer: I so don't own Merlin. Or, like, anything else, really.

Experience (Or Lack Thereof)

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Shoving Arthur against his chamber door wasn't... unpleasant, exactly. Losing himself as he pressed harsh, hurried kisses to Arthur's neck, along his jawline—it was all as far from unpleasant as it got, to be perfectly honest. And the was Arthur was moaning Merlin's name over and over again, inhaling sharply and groaning in a way that made Merlin more urgent in the way he kissed a trail to Arthur's ear and nibbled at his earlobe.

"Wanted to do this for so long." Merlin whispered harshly. "You have no idea." He added, kissing down Arthur's jawline to the corner of his mouth. He paused, however, difficult though it might have been, when Arthur grew silent and still.

Worried he'd done something wrong, Merlin pulled back, forehead creased in concern as one of his hands came up to cup Arthur's cheek.

"What's wrong?" He murmured.

Arthur licked his lips and shook his head. "I just... I've never done anything like this before..." he admitted, averting his eyes.

"You've never kissed anyone before?" Merlin asked, a grin tugging at the corners of his lips with the tease.

"Don't be ridiculous, Merlin, of course I've kissed someone before—I mean, obviously." He scoffed, meeting Merlin's eyes with the usual amount of confidence before something changed in them and he sighed.

"I just... I've never kissed—or done anything else with—a man before." He admitted.

Merlin nodded, he should have expected as much. Arthur grew up a prince, after all, he probably never had the same sort of freedoms Merlin had to explore how he felt about people regardless of their gender. He was probably just beginning to sort things out; he was sifting through the same thoughts and emotions that Merlin had gone through years ago...

And Merlin was sure... well, that none of it was exactly easy for him.

"We don't have to do anything you don't want to." Merlin assured him gently, his hand slipping slowly off of Arthur's cheek. He'd waited this long, after all, he was sure he could wait however much longer he needed to before Arthur was ready.

With one final, comforting, reassuring smile, Merlin turned away from Arthur, more than willing to let it all drop until Arthur was ready to go any further. While he was there, he figured he might as well get a few chores done whilel—

"That's not what I meant, you idiot." Arthur said, grabbing Merlin's hand and tugging him back around to face him.

"Then what—"

"You have more experience with this sort of thing, yeah?" Arthur asked slowly, his cheeks painting themselves a fine pink color as he quirked a meaningful eyebrow at Merlin.

Merlin's smile widened, full of mischief now as Arthur's meaning sank in.

"Yeah." He mumbled, backing Arthur against the door once again. "Yeah." He repeated, forehead coming to rest against Arthur's. "Yeah."

"Are you going to kiss me or just keep saying yeah?" Arthur teased.

"Yeah." Merlin mumbled with a soft grin, leaning down slowly to finally kiss him.

Arthur's eyes slipped shut just the second before Merlin's did, and Merlin didn't care how agonizingly slow and awkward it was at first, because within a moment, it was just... perfect. Everything Merlin had ever imagined it would be as Arthur seemed to throw himself just as into it as Merlin, lighting some far-off fire within Merlin that almost made him forget to breathe for a moment, the burning of his lungs hard to differentiate from the heat in his groins and the fluttering in his stomach.

"How was that?" Merlin murmured breathlessly when he pulled back.

Arthur didn't answer. Instead, he gave Merlin a small smile of his own and leaned back in to kiss him. Merlin wasn't entirely sure how they'd actually gotten to this point—his mind was a little preoccupied, and, admittedly, a bit fuzzy at the moment—but, he couldn't say he had any sort of problem with it. Not when Merlin had so much to teach and Arthur seemed to be a more than willing student.

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