The morning air was crisp with the scent of fall, the air sparkling with dew as Merlin opened his eyes. The chirp of birds welcomed him as he sat up and stretched, looking out of his window into the still dark sky. 'Another day in paradise..' he thought, chuckling to himself at his irony. His life wasn't bad; he had Gaius and Arthur, Gwen, the knights. All of his beloved friends who he would happily give his life to protect. But lately, he had noticed that something in his life seemed lacking. He couldn't put his finger on it, and whenever the thought came up, he just shrugged and pushed it to the back of his mind. No use worrying about something if you couldn't even tell what it was he was worrying about in the first place.
He slipped his clothes onto his lean frame and slid through the door, closing it gently as he still heard Gaius' gentle snores coming from his workbench. 'Looks like he fell asleep working again', Merlin thought to himself. Shaking his head with a small, caring smile he covered the older man with the blanket that lay on his cot. No response besides a small sigh and Merlin patted the old man's back lightly before leaving his home.
The halls were always eerily quiet this early in the morning. You had the stray servant who was washing the floors, or doing laundry, starting their workday before the hubbub of the castle got in everyone's way, but otherwise it was silent. His footfalls echoed softly through the empty hall as he made his way down to the kitchen's, which was usually the loudest area in the castle. Besides the training ground where Arthur and the knight's trained on a daily basis, of course.
Slipping through the door, one of his friends in the kitchen already had Arthur's food ready and plated, looking like it had just gotten finished. He sighed softly, a smile playing about his lips as he picked up the tray, gave a quick nod to the kitchen staff and gently nudged his way back through the door.
Arthur's breakfast consisted of some fresh bread, olive oil with some herbs to dip it in, some eggs, and five pieces of some delicious smelling bacon and sausage. Looking either way as he walked, he decided that his prat of a prince didn't need ALL of this protein. In fact, it even looked like he had started gaining weight! Merlin nodded at his logic and snuck a piece of bacon off the plate, then a piece of sausage. You know, to keep everything nice and even.
Merlin licked his lips, gathering the left over grease from his little snack, as he entered the prince's room by slowly opening the door. He always kind of felt like a thief when sneaking into Arthur's bedroom, making sure he wasn't heard until he was ready to wake the prince up from his royal beauty sleep, though being the klutz he was, it was generally a practice that went unnoticed. Sitting the food down on the table, he began to slowly arrange the food, knowing the prince would want to eat as soon as he woke up. Arthur tended to be grumpy if he didn't get his food immediately after waking.
Once he was satisfied with the arrangement, Merlin went over to the curtains and noticed the sky had started to lighten quite a bit, the night quickly being swallowed by the coming day. The chill air from the window reminded him that he had forgotten to kindle the nearly-dead fire in the fireplace. He quickly set about making the room warm and comfortable and by the time he was done, the sun had finally peaked over the far mountains. 'Time to wake the prat up, I guess,'
Merlin walked over to the window and threw open the heavy shades, allowing the bright sun to penetrate into the dark room. A grunt from the bed told him that Arthur didn't particularly like the brightness. Too bad. Walking over to the bed, he looked down at his prince. Arthur's blond hair was in disarray, a small bit of drool dripping down his cheek as he turned himself away from Merlin. He couldn't say why, but he enjoyed taking a few minutes to just look at the prince while he was asleep. Merlin guessed it was just because he actually looked kind of like a nice guy, not yelling at him, calling him an idiot and ordering him to clean the entire kingdom.
He slowly started to shake the prince, his cool hand on the broad shoulder.
"Sire, it's time to get up."
"Oomnnwey, merrrinn...", the prince grumbled.
"Sorry, I'm not going away. Time to get up!" Merlin said cheerfully, tugging the covers down a bit. With a shiver the prince slowly lifted his head, his deep blue eyes puffy with sleep.
"Could you find a different way of waking me up without trying to make me freeze to death?" the prince asked, shivvering softly as he stretched his thick arms before him. He absolutely hated the cold when he was just waking up. It was rude, unfomfortable, and had no respect for his princely status. It chilled him just like it chilled his idiot of a manservant. Being prince, one would think that the cold would show deference to him like every other person. But no, it bit into his skin, making him shivver until the blessed fire in the hearth warmed the room.
"I don't think so, Sire. I think the cold is -just- what you need in the morning!" Merlin grinned.
"Well, if you think that, then you will have no problem making sure the entire outside of the stables are cleaned properly. As well as the inside. And the horses. And the stalls." Arthur huffed, sending a small glare at the dumbfounded Merlin.
"But that's-"
"Exactly what you deserve for being an idiot so early in the morning. Now get my clothes together for the day. I have a new training regimen that I want to try with the knights, so make sure it's something warm." Arthur huffed, standing as he slid out from under his sheets. Merlin couldn't help but glance and the well-built body of his prince, admiring the way the muscle shone in the morning light. He could see the curves of each abdominal muscle, gently sloping to meet the next one and down until...
Wait, why was he staring at Arthur?! Merlin knew he liked men but he never really saw Arthur as a man, he was always the princely prat. So, why... He shook his head and shrugged it off. 'It's just because I haven't released a lot of the built up tension lately. Maybe I aught to go out. Maybe go to the tavern? I haven't been there in a while and I could use a good drink.' A loud cough brought his attention back. Arthur had moved from the bed to the table, already halfway through his plate.
"Are you going to stand there all day staring at the wall or are you going to get my clothes together, Merlin?" the prince asked, a small smile tilting the corners of this mouth. He always did enjoy it when Merlin spaced out, his forehead creasing ever so slightly as whatever he was thinking about bounced around in his skull. The fondness he found that he had for the other guy man had formed over the months they had been together, fighting, saving lives, defeating evil monsters that threatened Camelot. Though, it was usually himself and the knights doing most of the work. Merlin tended to just get in the way and get injured. Arthur shook his head, laughing softly. Maybe he should try training Merlin a little better with the sword. That way he could at least help out a little when the fighting broke out!
"S-Sorry, Arthur..." Merlin said softly, not really noticing that he had said the prince's name instead of 'Sire' like he usually addressed him by when in the castle. He gathered the other man's clothes, set them out on the bed and continued to do cleaning and straightening up until Arthur was ready to get dressed.
"I'm going to need a nice hot bath once I'm done today. Could you make sure to have that ready for me as well?" Arthur asked, being a little more gentle. Merlin seemed to be a little out of it today. Maybe it was because of the massive amount of chores he had given him earlier? Ah well, it was his own fault for being so idiotic.
Once Arthur finished his food, he had Merlin dress him and he headed out to the practice field. He had a strange feeling in his gut, a kind of foreboding but he couldn't understand why. It almost felt like leaving Merlin was a bad idea. He rolled his eyes and kept on his way. There was nothing that could hurt Merlin in the castle, especially with all of the guards about!
Arthur arrived down at the field, his mind still somewhat distracted with this feeling of his. And try as he might, he couldn't let the feeling go. He decided to focus on his work, waving at his nights to come to him, making sure everyone could hear him when he noticed someone was missing.
"Where's Percival?" Arthur asked, turning his head to search for the muscled knight. He was one of their strongest knights and he needed to be at training!
"His shoulder is still messed up from yesterday, so Gaius had him take the day off to rest." Gwaine replied, pushing his hair out of his face. "You hit him pretty hard yesterday, don't you remember?"
Ah. Yes. Percival had seemed like he wasn't taking the training seriously enough, which had angered Arthur. Percival had seemed almost blank, like his mind was elsewhere and he only gave the training half, if that, of his attention. When his knight's didn't take training seriously, it ended badly for everyone. And the longer the training continued, the more angry he became. After several attempts to talk with Percival about the seriousness of training, while the other man just stared off into space, the prince was done. The last fight was between himself and Percival and the prince aimed to make sure the Percival wouldn't forget to take this training seriously again. After several minutes of Arthur testing Percival's reaction, trying to get him to do more than just wave his sword halfheartedly,Arthur's anger took hold. He had let his anger go through with the last swing of his blade, which had been deflected by Percival's sword but only barely. By doing so, it had landed right on his pauldron, denting it with the force behind the blow. Percival had grunted and continued fighting, but the damage had been done. Arthur had dislocated Percival's shoulder with the force of his strike. Once he noticed that Percival wouldn't stop due to his injury, very noticeable since his arm just dangled at an odd angle by his side, Arthur called the training to an end and sent the knights away.
"Well, that's what he gets for not taking the training seriously enough! We train to fight enemies bigger than us, weaker than us, with more or less numbers. We train for every possibility we can think of, and even then, we are sometimes unprepared. I want to make sure everyone here understands why we train!" Arthur said, his voice raising. "I don't want to lose one of my knight's again because he didn't take his training seriously enough. I'll allow him off for today, but tomorrow he -will- be here and will train like the rest of us."
His knight's nodded in agreement, understanding where Arthur was coming from. They had lost knights before because of stupid mistakes that could have been prevented through constant training and drilling. Once he had their agreement, their day of training began.
