"Good morning Arthur! Time to get up!"
Arthur had absolutely no desire to get out of his nest of warm blankets, so he groaned and flipped onto his stomach, trying to ignore Merlin's attempts to get him out of bed.
"Arthur come on! You meet with the nights today. You remember right? A hunting trip with elyan, Percival, gwaine, Leon, Lancelot and the two of us."
Arthur remembered, he just didn't really want to go. After all, a week of sleeping on a padded roll in the woods isn't exactly fun. But he had a promise to uphold to his nights, and they were going hunting.
Slowly, Arthur unfolded himself out of his bed and padded over to where Merlin was laying out the clothes he was going to wear-heavy undercoat, chainmail, and his sword.
As Merlin is putting on his chainmail and doing the leather straps to his extra armor he got to appreciate his view and Merlin's close proximity. His cheekbones, my god, you could cut your finger if you rubbed them the wrong way. Long pale fingers that would be great during- oh, why was he thinking about this? It was Merlin, his manservant – not a princess. He wasn't supposed to feel this way about his manservant, none the less a man. But who could not be infatuated with a creature as beautiful as Merlin?
Merlin had finished, and was now looking at Arthur with his ocean blue eyes. He was close, almost close enough to just tilt his head forwards a little bit and brush his lips –no. he has to stop. But those eyes, why had he never seen the flecks of gold before? Without realizing, he is leaning forwards a little bit, and once he realizes he's doing it he jerks back. A glance at Merlin's face told him he was relieved, or was it disappointment? No – he shook the thought from his head.
"Come on Merlin. You were in such a rush to get me out of bed and now you're just standing there. Get the horses ready and I'll be down in a few moments."
"Yes sire." There was emphasis on the sire, like he was upset. His suspicions were confirmed when he heard "prat" mumbled just loud enough for him to hear when Merlin was walking away.
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The ride out to the first clearing the hunting party was stopping at was excruciating for Arthur. Having to ride slightly behind Merlin, seeing his hips sway like that on the horse, it was a good thing he was wearing his thicker breeches and riding a horse so no one else could Arthur Jr. standing at attention.
When they finally reached the clearing they would make camp at, Arthur excused himself to take care of little Arthur's needs. Luckily no one argued or made a move to question him, so he walked away and figured he would go and take a quick swim in the lake that was a short hike from camp. Little did he know, Merlin had also had that brilliant idea.
Sure, the knights had teased him for "going after" Arthur, making his ears go red. He went anyway, because who wouldn't want to go swimming after a long horse ride in the middle of summer time.
Before he stripped to get into the water, he did a sweep of the forest using his magic- he couldn't have anyone walking up to the lake and seeing his wings. No one was in the near vicinity, or at least no one he could see, so he slipped of his tunic and neckerchief leaving only the bandages on his thin torso. He had let his guard down, so when a rabbit came sprinting through the bush, he knew he was in trouble. Sure enough, here comes Lancelot running after the thing with a crossbow.
The rabbit escaped into the brush and Lancelot uttered a curse. He turned to go back to camp, but was shocked when he saw Merlin standing on the shore of the lake with a bandage wrapped around most of his torso. Merlin was petrified with fear, so he didn't move at all while lance slowly walked towards him, making sure that this was the Merlin he had just been laughing and joking with back on the trail.
"Merlin? What happened? Are you okay?"
Merlin remained silent. As Lancelot moved closer, reaching out a hand to look at the bandages, Merlin flinched away.
"I know it must hurt, but it looks like these have been here for a while and you need to change the bandages. Surely you know this. Hasn't Gaius taught you?"
"I know I'm supposed to change bandages! Sorry I yelled, but it's not an injury."
Lancelot looked very confused, "well what do you mean not an injury? You have bandages on, what else could they be for?"
Merlin's voice was no more than a mumble "to keep things in place."
Lancelot could tell Merlin was scared for his life, so he placed a firm hand on Merlin's shoulder, "Merlin, I could never be angry at you and I will never ever hurt you in any way. You understand? I will protect you."
"Thanks." –Sniff- "I guess I can show you then."
"What are you going to show me Merlin? It can't be to major"
"Well…"
Merlin mutters some words that Lancelot can't hear and right before his eyes, a large koi made of lake water is swimming circles around his head. He is speechless. How could
Merlin, of all people, be a sorcerer?
"Well, you certainly know how to surprise a guy."
Laughter ensued, but then a very serious expression crossed Merlin's features.
"Lance, there's something else…."
"The bandages?"
"Yeah, could you help me undo them please?"
"Of course"
After lance untied the knot, merlin shooed his hands away and unraveled the bandages. As soon as the last of the bandages were off of his torso, he muttered a small incantation, and giant wings sprouted from his shoulders. Lancelot paled. This was the boy the fairy tale told about. Pale skin, eyes that were the deepest blue but shone gold, and the magnificent wings. Raven black with gold laced throught. All lance could think to do was to hug him, and so he did.
As lance pulled back, a thousand questions raced through his mind.
"can you fly?" was the first thing that came from his mouth. He was ashamed. It felt like asking a knight if he could ride a horse.
"yeah, I can fly. Can't carry anything though, Found that out the hard way."
"merlin, you are amazing. Amazing"
"thanks. And can you not tell Arthur? The other nights are fine, but I'd like to tell Arthur myself."
"of course merlin, you just shared the biggest secret anyone could have with me. I swear to not tell Arthur unless your life depends upon it. Deal?"
"deal."
"need help with the bandages?"
"if you don't mind yeah, thanks."
Lancelot slowly wrapped up the wings, now that they were smaller and could fit against merlin's back thanks to a spell. Just as he was knotting the gauze under merlin's left arm,
Arthur chose to walk out from the bushes.
"merlin what happened?" there was genuine concern in his voice
"I'll just head back and join the other knights then. Merlin. Sire."
The last thing merlin needed was to be alone with Arthur right now.
"merlin. I asked what happened."
"nothing happened sire."
"nonsense. You don't just wear layers of gauze in the summer for nothing merlin, now what happened?"
Arthur moved towards him. Knowing what was coming, he was again shaking with fear. Arthur was getting suspicious about why he was shaking.
"merlin, I'm gonna take these bandages off of you so I can see what's wrong."
"Arthur no! you can't"
"why not?"
Merlin didn't have an answer, so he slumped a little and gave up. When Arthur undid the knot, merlin yet again shooed hands away so he could unwrap them himself. He figured if Arthur was going to see them, he would see the whole thing. So out loud, in front of the king, he said a spell ti unravel the bandages and one immediately after to bring his wings to normal size. He hung his head in defeat and let the king look at him with what he thought would be disgust. It wasn't. in fact, it was pity that Arthur had splayed across his face, but it quickly switched to anger.
Arthur was advancing to merlin, and merlin was backing up. Every step was matched until merlin's back hit a tree and his wings were forced out next to him, their gold shimmering in the setting sun. Arthur had one hand on merlin's chest, holding him to the tree. The other reached towards a wing that merlin tried to pull away.
"tssk tssk. You are always so disobedient merlin. And you know what, I think that's why I love you so much. You are the boy from the ledgends, aren't you?"
"y-yes sire." merlin was still trying to recover from the 'that's why i love you' thing
"I knew it. That will make this, all the better."
And with that, Arthur crashed his mouth onto merlin's, and what did merlin do? Started flailing. But after a few seconds, he gave in to arthur's tongue licking the seem of his lips, and parted them-inviting Arthur's tongue in. a fierce battle for dominance ensued, but of course Arthur won. once both merlin and Arthur were out of breath, they stood breating eachother's air with their foreheads touching until a startled "what the hell" broke the silence
To their surprise, there was the rest of the hunting party, with crossbows, chasing after an increasingly far away deer. Well, merlin's secret wings weren't so secret anymore.