"Remember, Merlin, there's no shortage of people who want your job."

Merlin adjusted his hold on Arthur's favorite red shirt. "No one would be able to do it as well as I do. How many more times do we have to prove that?" he asked, raising a brow.

A normal day in the chambers of the great once and future king. The curtains had been thrown open about a half hour before, accompanied by Merlin's uniform, "Rise and shine!", letting the summer sun filter in through the window. Merlin stood patiently in front of his prince and best friend. Arthur rolled his eyes and put his arms through the shirt, straightening it out once it was on him.

"George is a fantastic servant, Merlin," he argued, placing his hands on his hips.

"Well, yes, but he's not me," Merlin replied, raising a brow.

Arthur sighed and rolled his eyes. "I guess not."

Merlin picked up another shirt, smiling smugly as he folded it tightly. The smirk didn't pass from Arthur's notice, and, naturally, it instantly became his immediate goal to wipe it from his servant's face.

"No one can be as annoying as you are, Merlin," he said.

He walked past Merlin's right hand, casually poking him in the side.

The prince had expected Merlin to simply be annoyed and snap back with another witty remark, or spin around and whack his back with the shirt. He expected something, no, anything but Merlin to leap a clear six feet away from him, holding up the shirt as if it were some sort of shield.

Arthur raised a blond brow at him. "Merlin...?"

The shirt slowly lowered to reveal his servant's blushing face. "Yes, Sire?"

"Are you..." he snickered a little bit. "Are you ticklish?"

"No!" Merlin had answered too quickly, and his eyes told Arthur that he recognized the mistake immediately.

Arthur approached him, and Merlin raised the shirt instinctively. Unfortunately, Merlin raised it too high, leaving his side vulnerable to attack. Arthur shook his head. He thought that after years of serving the best knight in Camelot, Merlin would have learned something.

Oh, well. His loss.

Arthur seized Merlin's side in his grasp and squeezed, causing Merlin's muscles to tense and and a high peal of laughter escape from his lips. The shirt fell to the ground as Merlin stepped away, his expression dropping like a boulder as he held up his hands towards Arthur defensively, his stone expression sending out a warning.

Arthur looked like a child being presented with a mountain of sweets.

"Arthur," Merlin said, his voice low. "I know what you're thinking..."

Arthur's grin just widened as he approached Merlin like a hunter after its prey.

"Arthur, Arthur don't—"

Arthur leapt forwards, and Merlin ran as fast as he could from Arthur's room, avoiding Arthur's hands by a centimeter and slamming the door behind him as an extra caution. A grunt of pain from the prince shot to Merlin's ears, slightly muffled from the thick door. He knew that that obstacle wouldn't delay Arthur long, so he sprinted down the hallway with as much speed as his legs would allow, running into a fellow servant and dumping their load.

"Sorry!" Merlin shouted behind himself in response to the servant's sounds of protest. "Matter of dignity coming through!"

"Merlin!"

Hearing Arthur's voice echo on the walls around him urged Merlin to keep his legs pumping fast. Servants and advisors who had been in the castle long enough to recognize when the prince and his servant were at it again knew to get out of the way and pressed themselves against the walls as Merlin blew by. They remained in their position, knowing that Arthur would soon come after. Once he did, they unflattened themselves and continued with the routine of a normal day, as if just a light breeze had passed.

Merlin dashed around a corner, weaving in and out of the slow trickle of servants and knights down the hallway. He shouted a series of rapid "Excuse me"s, "Sorry"s, and "Coming through"s, turning another corner as he heard Arthur's feet thundering behind him.

He passed by two guards, one of which he could not side-step in time, resulting in their chests crashing together rather painfully. Merlin spun over his right shoulder, taking a moment to place a hand on the guard's arm, assessing him.

"You must be new," Merlin concluded breathlessly, clapping his shoulder once before resuming his sprint down the hall before the guard had time to respond, calling over his shoulder, "You'll learn soon enough!"

As he leapt to his left and flew down that hallway, Gwaine and Percival's conversation paused in mid-sentence. Their expressions were those of amusement, ill-suppressed snickers bursting from them. Gwaine held up his right hand, his fingers ticking down as he said "Three... Two... One..."

Arthur tore out from around the corner, skidding for a moment before blowing past his knights. He could hear Gwaine's voice behind him shouting, "My bet's on Arthur!" Which was quickly followed by Percival's "May God have mercy on your soul, Merlin!"

Merlin's legs burned with the effort, and he could almost feel Arthur approaching behind him. If he was going to somehow escape from Arthur, he had to do so now. His mind began to think of all the places he'd hidden during past races for his life, all of which seemed to be inconveniently located on the other end of the castle. Merlin heard Arthur directly behind him, and he could feel the prince's fingers snag on the hem of his jacket. Merlin desperately turned another tight corner—

Almost running right into Uther.

"Sire," Merlin said breathlessly, bowing his head and looking sideways up at Arthur, who had screeched to a halt beside him.

"Father!" Arthur said at the same time as Merlin, not quite as out of breath.

Uther looked between the two with and sighed. "Boys."

Merlin would have laughed if he wasn't so out of breath. Uther spent a moment in silent observance, accepting the kind of relationship Arthur had adopted with his servant. He couldn't be resentful of it; after all, it was him who promoted Merlin to be Arthur's constant companion.

Uther let out another hefty sigh and nodded. "Carry on."

He walked around the two boys, and Merlin felt Arthur's hand drift up to his side.

"Nope!" Merlin shouted, bounding down the hall again and bursting out into the training grounds.

"Merlin!" Arthur called, finally catching up.

The ground seemed to come up and meet Merlin's body as Arthur tackled him. Merlin shouted Arthur's name in protest, struggling to try to escape. Arthur soon overcame Merlin's weak attempts, flipping him over and pinning him down.

"Arthur!"

The prince payed no attention to Merlin's protests, sitting on top of him and squeezing Merlin's side and stomach mercilessly. Merlin's high-pitch laugher echoed around the training grounds. Gwaine and Percival had gathered the rest of the knights, and they all grouped together on the grounds, holding their hands over their mouths, but that did nothing to muffle the sound of their hearty laughter.

"A-A-Arthur! Stop!" Merlin gasped, trying to push Arthur's hands away.

Arthur grinned down at him.

"No, it's too much fun..."

Just before Merlin thought he'd pass out from lack of oxygen, Arthur's weight was removed from his chest, and the young warlock was capable of breathing once more. Phantoms of Arthur's strong hands on Merlin's stomach and sides left behind a dull ache. When Merlin's breathing pace returned to normal and his heart no longer was attempting to break free from his chest, he heard Leon's voice ringing out across the grounds in a volume that made Merlin want to cover his ears.

"What do you think you're doing?" Leon yelled, the color of his face growing progressively red. His face was dangerously close to Arthur's, a fierceness in his eye that Merlin had never seen before. His eyes flitted to Merlin's and he could see the knight's muscles in his jaw clench before he glared back to Arthur. "I understand that he is your servant, that you may think yourself above him, that he is yours to command and do with whatever you wish, that you are king and he your subject, but you have no right," he jabbed Arthur's chest with the last two words, "no right to hurt and abuse him."

The grounds fell silent. All the knights, including Arthur, and Merlin wore the same startled expression. Arthur's face then morphed into that of a repenting and guilty child, his hands joining in front of his person. Then his expression matched Leon's, anger clouding his eyes. The flash of Arthur's teeth filled Merlin's vision as the king retaliated.

"You know I would never do anything to hurt him!" his voice didn't quite match his expression, sounding more hurt and offended than anything.

"Well, then, what are you doing?" Leon asked, crossing his arms and raising his brows.

Arthur opened his mouth to shout exactly what he had been doing when he realized how ridiculous and childish it would sound. It had made perfect, mature sense to him when he had been doing it, most likely because the action didn't seem as infantile as the word. It made him feel like a little boy, like when he had reached up to try to test out his father's crown, but it had actually slipped over his head to hang around his neck.

He hated that sensation.

"I wasn't hurting him," he grumbled. He looked back behind him to where Merlin was still sitting. "Was I, Mer—?"

He paused, his eyes widening. It wasn't until then that Merlin realized there were tears wetting his cheeks. Whether it was from laughing so painfully while Arthur was tickling him, from the way that Arthur had told Leon he would never hurt him, or a combination of both, he wasn't sure. Point was, there were tears, and the sorrow that outlined Arthur's eyes was too much for Merlin to bear.

"D-Did I... Are you okay?" his voice was soft and broken.

Merlin nodded quickly, wiping his face. "I'm fine, Arthur."

Leon stepped in front of Arthur, an authoritative look on his face, his voice stern but tender. "Merlin. What did Arthur do."

Merlin's eyes darted to Arthur's.

"The truth, Merlin." Leon said evenly.

Arthur spoke up. "I was..."

A moment passed where Merlin and Arthur looked each other in they eye, and after a twitch of Merlin's lips and a crinkle of Arthur's eye, they both burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?"

Merlin stood, standing beside Arthur and grinning as they told the tale. The further they progressed the more realization dawned on Leon's face, until they finished and the red in Leon's face grew, now from embarrassment.

"Please," Leon said. "Forgive me, sire."

"No need for apologies," Arthur said kindly, slinging an arm tightly about Merlin's shoulders. "It comforts me to know that I'm not the only one constantly worried about this sack of bones here," he gave Merlin's shoulders a squeeze. "If I ever do hurt Merlin, Leon, I'm counting on you to punch me as hard as you can in the face."

With that, he smiled cheerily and Leon, nodded to the other knights in acknowledgement, and held Merlin tighter to him as he walked back into the castle.

Stay tuned for chapter 2!

Hope you enjoyed! Reviews are lovely.