A/N : Title is from the Tomorrow Series by John Marsden; "This was ours and this we would defend"
This may turn into a collection of pieces that troublesome plot bunny won't leave alone, so feedback would be appreciated.
Their breathing, matched heartbeat for heartbeat, rushed over the silken curtains enclosing the four-poster bed. Their world, shut off in silk and the rush of ragged gasps over glistening, sweating skin, where nobody else could intrude. Where nobody else dared to venture.
His fingernails scraped the edges of his wounds from the day's trials and he hissed. His lover did not apologise out loud; instead he dragged his lips along his throat and gasped, raw and inviting, as they rose together, one animal, one beast of pleasure, to strike out for the stars. When the other man's fingers caught his blonde hair and tangled just a little too tightly, the shocks of heat across his scalp filled his throat as a throaty moan escaped.
The blonde pushed him back, tasting his lover's rushed shudders on his lips as he ran his fingers across the black hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. Bowing his head like a pious man at prayers, he bestowed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. Merlin of Ealdor exhaled exaltedly at the touch of Arthur, Crown Prince of Camelot. It was almost a sigh as he let his fingertips take their fill of hot skin and hard muscle.
"Mer-lin" he hissed heatedly as he reached forward. Merlin's lips, swollen from his bruising kisses, pressed fervently to his throat. His voice rumbled through his mouth.
"Arthur"
Angled across him, with his black hair stark against the white pillows, Arthur caught his breath and swallowed at the beauty before. Beautiful was not a word he ever imagined using in regards to a man, especially a man with miles of boyishly long limbs and sparkling blue eyes. Drawing his bottom lip between his teeth, Merlin pressed his hand to Arthur's chest, where his heart boomed against his ribcage.
"Mine" he whispered.
Arthur covered his hand with his own and half-smiled in the semi-darkness. Silver moonlight bathed his naked shoulders, reflecting starlight and night, and coated his light eyes and hair in a swathe of grey shadow.
"Yours" he agreed, his voice hoarse with emotion and exertion. Merlin smiled triumphantly and ran his fingers over his back, across his ribs where the bruises dappled like dancing shadows, and caught his face. He kissed him; a long, slow, sweet, messy embrace that ignited flames across his belly and the very depths of their souls.
"Show me again" Arthur whispered as he lay beside him, Merlin's head cushioned on his shield arm, a pale hand resting on Arthur's hip. Merlin smiled and pulled him closer with that hand, dragging his fingertips down Arthur's stomach, across his abdomen, until it lay between them.
" Forbearnan" he whispered huskily and their faces were bathed in the warmth of red-orange light of the little ball of fire in his hand. Arthur wasn't watching; he was looking at Merlin's face as the golden glow swirled like water, filling them like a flood, then flashed; igniting them.
"Beautiful" he whispered, and the other man blushed when he saw he wasn't looking at his hand. Carefully, as though he was glass, Merlin brushed the pad of his finger across the bridge of Arthur's Grecian nose, traced his lashes and cheekbones.
"The only man I know who blushes when he's laying naked in bed" Arthur told him softly, a smile on his face that nobody else ever saw. Merlin smiled and pressed his forehead to his.
"I'd better be" he teased lightly. Arthur kissed his nose, smirking. His eyelids were growing heavy. Merlin watched him begin to drift into the soft creamy realms of sleep and kissed both his eyes softly before untangling himself from the sheets. Arthur caught his wrist.
"Mer-rin?-" he muttered, his voice drowsy.
"-Stay?" his almost childlike plea broke Merlin's heart. He took Arthur's hand and kissed his fingertips in a way so gentle and sweet it was as if there were no scars or calluses from his sword and mace and shield and leather reins. Arthur forced his eyes open to see Merlin looking at him, torn.
"I sleep better when you're here" he muttered, embarrassed at this confession. Wrapped in shadows and secrets, the words tasted like freedom. One side of Merlin's mouth jerked.
"I sleep better when I'm here too" he admitted with a half-sigh. He was sitting on the edge of the bed with Arthur's hand in both of his. Arthur tugged his hand gently.
"Then stay" he pouted.
Merlin shook his head, smiling. He'd never admit it, but Arthur Pendragon's pout was one of his most endearing features.
"Arthur, you know I can't" he said instead.
"You have to be here in the morning anyway-" Arthur pushed himself up without releasing Merlin's hand and used their conjoined arms to lasso his lover's shoulders and pull him back against him. He kissed Merlin's temple.
"-You may as well wake up with me"
"And when somebody gets suspicious that I'm wearing the same clothes two days in a row?" he asked, laughing under his breath in that way of his, that way so uniquely Merlin it took Arthur's breath away.
"Oh, don't think so highly of yourself. You're a servant, nobody's going to notice"
Merlin wriggled until he was facing Arthur again. He studied his face, bathed in a slant of moonlight and shadowed by the gauzy bed coverings.
"Tell me something..."
"Oh dear" Arthur muttered jokingly. Merlin glared at him. The Crowned Prince of Camelot chuckled.
"Go on"
"Am I just a servant to you?" Merlin asked it slowly, surely. Arthur sat up quickly, a frown creasing his features.
"Dear God, Merlin, you're not serious?"
The smaller man swallowed and rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling. Arthur, unable to find the words, stared at him. Neither of them could break the silence as it slammed over them like stone. Arthur pressed his face into his hands, sitting with one leg drawn up and the other draped off the bed. His toes brushed the cold stone floor below. Dragging his fingers down his face, Arthur looked again at his lover. His manservant. His brother-in-arms. His protector and guardian. Advisor. Friend too, damn him to Hell!
Lacing his digits together, he looked away and rested his linked hands against his heated lips, where he could still taste Merlin on his tongue.
Finally, Merlin shifted and made as if to leave. Arthur sprang across the bed and pinned him to the sheets; his body lay diagonal to Merlin, one hand fisted near his head and the other splayed on his waist, holding him. He glared fiercely into Merlin's cerulean orbs until he was sure the sorcerer wouldn't try to leave. Then he lifted his hand from his hip and pressed it, fingers splayed, to his chest. Beneath the calluses and scars of a man who was a soldier and a knight before he was a prince, Merlin's heart thumped, as steady as war drums.
Lightly now, as if tracing a path on ancient parchment, Arthur dragged his fingers across Merlin's chest and down his arm. There, across his wiry bicep, was a scar, faded now with time. Merlin shivered when Arthur pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the spot, shifting so he now lay almost entirely across him.
"Your first battle wound. Brought the roof down in that cavern. Saved my life" he muttered against the salty, sweet skin that held him captive better than any iron manacles.
His fingertips danced again.
"Wyvern. Bandit. Hag. Nimnueh. Warlock. Witch. Mercenary-" Arthur counted them off, each of these stories he'd dragged from an unwilling Merlin's lips. All the times his unassuming idiot had saved his life, all the notches that Camelot owed the man that it never saw. Finishing his list, Arthur looked Merlin seriously in the eyes.
"By way of blood, there are the lives of thousands of your people on my hands...there's...the blood of somebody you loved...on my hands-" Freya's story had been one hard told and even harder heard. Merlin looked as if he were about to protest when Arthur put two fingers to his lips and shook his head.
"-Yet you stopped me killing my father, who you hate. You have said things to me, to protect me, that must have killed you. You have put your life on the line more times than I will ever know of. If it were ever possible for somebody to be further from a servant to me, you'd be it"
Merlin's mouth stretched in that way that made gooseflesh ripple across Arthur's skin.
"Thank-you" he whispered.
Arthur kissed him, hard, raw, feelingly.
"I love you, you idiot" he said when they emerged, gasping.
"Dear God, yes" Merlin hissed and pulled Arthur close. Moments later they were blazing with fire, burning like nothing either of them had ever known. For a long moment, they stared at each other.
"Say it again...?" he whispered. Arthur leaned closer, as if sharing a secret.
"I love you"
Merlin grinned broadly.