Hi! This Merthur Chrismas fanfic is my present for all of you and then I have one Destiel Christmas fanfic too! I wish you a Merry Christmas and even though Arthur died exactly three years ago, this fanfic is happy and Merthur and full of snow, so I hope you'll enjoy reading it! :)

Warning: As always, I'm not native speaker and I'm 17.

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

SNOWY PUNISHMENT
By Mischel

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The state of Arthur's chambers was... well, horrific. And who's fault was it? Of course Merlin's, but he wasn't really the one who started all this mess. Actually, it all started that morning, when he didn't wake up in time and the crown prince of Camelot had to wake up all by himself, and thanks to his lazy servant... he woke up late.

Arthur cursed under his breath and disentangled himself from the red blankets. He ended up on the floor, half naked and angry because Merlin wasn't there to wake him up. And when he stood up and looked out of the window, he found out he was late for the council meeting his father wanted him to be at.

He closed his eyes and counted to ten to calm himself down, but it didn't help. The door didn't open, his breakfast didn't magically appear on his table and the time didn't stop. He rolled his eyes and quickly went to one of his his closets. When Merlin, the useless buffoon, was able to find his clothes in there, so could he. He was the prince after all, and he could take care of himself perfectly.

He opened the closet and paled. There were tunics and trousers, but no socks and jackets and no belt and everything else he needed. He couldn't just go into the throne room in his favorite plain red tunic and trousers, he needed some more formal clothes.

And so the search began and the mess around just sort of... happened.

xoXOXox

An hour later, Merlin woke up. Yes, it was really late and yes, he realized that the minute he woke up. He threw his blanket over his head and left it on the bed, while he quickly changed into his usual clothes – aka red neckerchief and blue tunic – and ran out of his little room.

Then he found Gaius who was still asleep, so he woke him up too, and without his breakfast, just like the prince, ran out of Gaius' quarters and across the courtyard into Arthur's chambers. When he opened the door (without knocking), he immediately stopped and his eyes widened.

The room was a mess. Several tunics were lying on the bed and on the floor, Arthur's trousers that he usually wears were under the table, three pairs of socks were on the floor and on the table and chairs and all the closets were wide open.

"What the..." Merlin slowly went to one of the closets, careful not to step on any kind of clothing on the floor, and looked inside. He had no idea how Arthur managed to do that, but it was half empty. He had no idea where the other half of his clothes were, but he had a feeling he really didn't want to look under the bed and behind the changing screen.

"Merlin." The prince said and Merlin spun around, his eyes even wider. "Where the hell were you? I was late for the council meeting and my father wasn't very happy about it, not to mention I haven't eaten yet and look at all this mess around!" Arthur said and dramatically started pointing at all the pieces of clothing everywhere around the chambers. Then he folded his arms on his chest and raised his eyebrows.

"Wha- what the hell happened?" Merlin stuttered and turned around to look at the bed and then the closets. "The closets, your clothes... socks!"

"What do you think happened? You happened, you idiot!" Arthur yelled. "I had to take care of the clothes myself and-" his stomach growled and Arthur groaned. "First of all, bring me my breakfast or lunch or whatever is in the kitchen, then I'll decide what to do about you."

When Merlin just stood there, staring at the mess, Arthur rolled his eyes. "Now, Merlin!" And with that Merlin quickly ran out of Arthur's chambers, down to the royal kitchen.

xoXOXox

Merlin returned with a tray full of food (Arthur wasn't the only one who yelled at Merlin today, Mary the cook wasn't happy that he was late again either). And the mess was still there and pissed Arthur was there too. Merlin sighed and put the tray on the table. Then he took the socks that were next to the tray on the table and went to one of the closets to put them in there.

When he turned around, Arthur was already sitting by the table, eating. Merlin frowned slightly when he heard the disapproving sound his stomach made and then went back to Arthur.

"First of all, you'll have to get rid of everything on the floor and put it back where it belongs," Arthur said and took another spoon of soup. Merlin stared at the food and swallowed. "Then you'll do the laundry and muck out the stables, and once that is done, you'll prepare the horses and my crossbow. We're going to go hunting."

Merlin closed his eyes and sighed. "I hate hunting," he said.

"I know, that's another part of your punishment." Arthur answered and was it a smile at the corner of his mouth?

"But just look out of the window, Arthur!" Merlin whined and went closer to the window. "Look, it's cold and snow everywhere, we're gonna freeze to death there."

"Then take some warmer clothes, don't tell me it was only ever summer in Ealdor, you have to have some winter clothes." Arthur pointed out, not even looking at Merlin, and he was right. Of course Merlin had warmer clothes (if you consider three tunics as one warm tunic), but... he didn't want to go hunting in such a horrible weather, not to mention the animals would be hard to find.

"Yes, I do, but-"

"No buts, Merlin, we're going hunting and that's it." Arthur finished and took a bite of the chicken drumstick he had on the plate. Merlin's stomach growled again and Merlin looked at it. He sighed and went back to the mess Arthur made, and started picking up the tunics from the floor.

"Merlin," Arthur called him and Merlin sighed again as he stood up and went to the royal prat.

"Yes, my lord?" He sighed and Arthur looked at him somehow... softly.

"Sit down and eat, I can't let you starve, who'd muck out the stables then." He said and Merlin opened his mouth.

"What? You seriously-"

"Shut up and eat or I'll change my mind and the hunting will take twice that long." Arthur said and Merlin smirked slightly, finally sitting at the table in front of Arthur and taking one chicken drumstick that Arthur offered to him. Arthur may be a prat and he may pretend he doesn't care, but when it comes to Merlin... sometimes he even cares a little too much.

xoXOXox

Three hours later, and Merlin was already preparing the horses. Arthur knew how much he hated hunting and combined with the winter weather out there, it felt like a nightmare. Merlin had to take three tunics and longer neckerchief and even a little bit warmer jacket (okay, he had just one jacket, but with a little help of his magic, he made it thicker) and he was ready to go. Unfortunately.

A few seconds later, Arthur appeared. He had his winter clothes on and on top he wore his chain mail that Merlin had to polish yesterday. Of course Merlin was also the one who had to find all of that clothes and help Arthur put it on because obviously the prince couldn't do it by himself.

"Here's your horse." Merlin mumbled and handed Arthur the reins. Arthur smiled and took them and then mounted his horse. Merlin did the same and followed Arthur out of the courtyard, into the white forest.

The farther they rode, the whiter their surroundings seemed to be. The branches were covered in snow and the ground was covered in snow, even Merlin was covered in snow because it started snowing and Arthur refused to come back until they hunted down what he was hunting. He didn't even tell Merlin what animal he wanted to hunt!

When it was taking longer than Merlin was able to take, he called Arthur and stopped his horse. "Arthur, this is ridiculous, look around!" He yelled, but Arthur ignored him and continued. "It's too cold, I can't even feel my fingers anymore!" Okay, that was a lie, but it was worth a shot, wasn't it? Arthur didn't stop though and so Merlin groaned as loud as he could and galloped after the disappearing prince.

When he caught up, Arthur was just leaving the forest and entering a large meadow. It stopped snowing a few minutes ago and now Merlin couldn't stop staring at the beauty in front of him. The whole meadow was white and the clouds disappeared, leaving only the sun in the blue sky that was shining down on the snow, making it sparkle with all the colors of rainbow. The snow on the branches was sparkling, the icicles in the trees were as if shining on their own, almost completely transparent.

Merlin inhaled through his nose the clear and cold air and a smile appeared on his lips.

But then something else appeared on his lips out of nowhere – a snowball. "Wha-" Merlin spat the snow out of his mouth and frowned when he felt it in his nose. Then he heard someone's laughter and turned his head to see a very happy prince in front of him.

"What are you waiting for, Merlin?" He called and held another snowball in his hand. He had already dismounted his horse and left it by the trees and now it was only Merlin who was still sitting on the horse. He was vulnerable in this position and he had no snow for snowballs from up there and he seriously wanted to throw something at Arthur's face.

"Arthur," he started carefully, "don't you dare thro-" but it was too late. Another snowball hit his face and for the first time that day Merlin laughed. He quickly dismounted his horse and left it next to Arthur's. He ran after the prince to make him pay for what he did, but he was too slow and Arthur was already throwing another snowball that hit Merlin's shoulder.

"You're too slow! Don't be such a girl, Merlin and throw already!" Arthur yelled and laughed. Merlin laughed too and took a handful of snow and made a beautiful snowball. When he looked around though, Arthur wasn't there.

"Arthur?" He called, when he was hit by another snowball, this time to his back. He quickly turned around and threw his prepared snowball, hitting Arthur's face just like he wanted since this morning. Then he quickly turned around and ran as fast as he could, bending down to get more snow again.

And then he threw it at the prince, but he missed. Arthur didn't miss though and hit Merlin's stomach. "You throw like a girl, Merlin!" He laughed.

"Yeah? I'm pretty sure lady Morgana would have already beaten you!" Merlin yelled back and threw another snowball. He hit Arthur's chest and laughed when Arthur almost fell over. The prince quickly pulled himself together though and threw a snowball at Merlin. Then he didn't even care to make another snowball and just threw at him the snow he had in his hands and because Merlin was pretty close, he managed to throw it right in his face.

Merlin started spitting the cold snow out of his mouth, when another snowball hit him. He was losing this fight and he definitely didn't want to let that happen. He closed his eyes (because they were full of snow anyway) and used his hands to take the freshly fallen snow from the ground and throw it at Arthur. He didn't see the result, but he felt another, bigger snowball hit his chest and he fell down to the cold ground.

He rubbed his eyes so he could see at least a bit and then he felt a heavy weight on him. He looked up and saw Arthur, who was pinning him down to the ground. "I won." He laughed.

"Depends on what we were fighti-" Merlin smirked, but Arthur's lips on his own stopped him. At first he was a bit surprised, but it wasn't like it was unwanted, so he smiled and melted into the kiss, just like the snow under his head.

He felt Arthur smile into the kiss and he had to admit that the cold lips against his own felt amazing and a little bit warm. He closed his eyes and carefully used his magic without any words, to create a snowball and then he threw it in Arthur's face once he thought the kiss was about to end.

"Wha- how-" Arthur stuttered with the snow in his mouth instead of Merlin's lips, but when he got rid of the snow and looked up, Merlin was already running away, laughing.

"What are you waiting for!" He yelled at Arthur. "Stand up and fight for another kiss, you clotpole!" He laughed again and made a snowball. When he saw Arthur's smile on his face and the sparkles in his bright blue eyes, he smiled and thought that maybe, maybe this hunting trip wasn't that bad after all.

*The End*

Merry Christmas! I hope you liked the story and that it made you happy!