Author's Note: Hello! I have brought you another ficlet! Yay! I hope you like it! By the way, feel free to take any of these and expand upon them on your own, if you want. I'm perfectly okay with you guys doing that!

Summary: Merlin and Arthur go on a hunting trip and some good stuff happens

Genre: Romance, Comedy, Friendship

Ships: Merthur

Setting: Canon era (finally), somewhere in season 2, no specific point. Before the last episode, though. Oh, and we're pretending none of the stuff between Arthur and Gwen happened.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Enjoy!

Morgana stood at her window, watching Arthur and Merlin leave the castle together, bantering back and forth. They are walking oddly close to each other, she thought. I wonder what's going on. She shook her head and chuckled a bit. It's probably just Arthur being Arthur. After all, the only time I've seen him act like himself is with Merlin.

Merlin smiled happily, practically skipping through the grass. He and Arthur were going hunting together, and Merlin was very excited. He'd hardly seen Arthur the past few days due to a debate with the council. Uther had some idea that everyone disagreed with, as usual, and Arthur had to back him up even if he didn't agree.

Merlin glanced over at Arthur, who seemed content. As they entered the forest, he looked around at all of the life there, and Merlin swore he saw a bit of a smile on the prince's face.

Merlin turned away from Arthur and his eyes focused on a hill. Not just any hill, though. This was a beautiful hill, with perfectly green grass and a nice little flat top to sit on. He really wanted to go sit on it, but he was a bit unsure about asking Arthur. He had no idea how the prince would respond! After all. they were supposed to be hunting. It's not like a great view would feed the kingdom.

Merlin sighed out loud and shook his head. This movement caught Arthur's attention. "What is it?" he asked.

Merlin sighed again, solemnly responding, "It's nothing."

Arthur didn't fall for that, and he stopped walking. "Merlin," he began, turning to face the other man. "What is it?"

Merlin hesitated, but decided to speak. "Do you see that hill over there?" He pointed, and Arthur nodded. "Could we go sit on it?"

Arthur scoffed. "Why? It's just a hill, and we have hunting to do!"

"I know, but it probably has a great view of the kingdom, and..." He trailed off, as he couldn't think of another reason to go to the hill. "I just really want to!"

Arthur sighed, and Merlin thought he'd say no. "Okay, fine, we can go sit on the hill. Happy?" Merlin was very excited, and he nodded vigorously. Then he started running in the direction of the hill, and Arthur just stood there and laughed. Once Merlin had gotten about 20 feet away, Arthur realized that he wasn't coming back, and starting running after him, armor clanging.

Arthur was nearly out of breath after running for so long, but Merlin had started to climb the hill at a very fast speed, so he had no choice but to follow. Every step made his armor feel heavier and heavier, until he could barely take another step. Luckily, by the time it reached that point, he had made it to the top of the hill.

Merlin was sitting beside him, and Arthur turned to look at his servant. His blue eyes were wide open, filled with an awed look. Arthur followed his gaze out to the horizon.

Well, he was certainly right about the view, Arthur thought. He put his crossbow down next to him. The sun was sitting just above the horizon, getting ready to set. From the top of that hill, Arthur could see his entire kingdom. The castle was off to the right, up on its little hill. To the left were all of the villages that were close enough to see. Arthur had to admit, it was a beautiful view. He put his hands behind his head and leaned back to stare at the sky. He'd nearly forgotten Merlin was there! That is, until he felt hands pushing on his side and heard a stifled giggle.

Arthur tried to steady himself, but to no avail. He started spinning, slowly at first, then rapidly as the incline steepened. "Merliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!" Arthur screamed as he rolled down the hill with absolutely no control over his body. The hill just kept going, and every time he flipped onto his right shoulder, his armor got shoved into it. It got worse and worse every rotation, since he now had a bruise forming.

When he finally reached the bottom, Arthur breathed a sigh of relief. It was then that he decided to open his eyes, only to see Merlin rolling down the hill, headed straight for him. "Merlin! Stop! You're going to-"

Arthur was cut off mid-sentence as Merlin tumbled into him. They both went rolling a little more, then settled on a flat section. Arthur was directly on top of Merlin. For a minute, They just stared awkwardly at each other. Then, Arthur decided to go for the evil glare, and Merlin couldn't help it. It started out as a chuckle, but quickly grew into an unrestrained laugh that he couldn't stop.

Arthur rolled his eyes, and Merlin kept laughing. Arthur sighed, and Merlin kept laughing. Arthur even poked him a bit, but Merlin kept laughing.

Then Arthur craned his neck down and turned his head slightly to the side, meeting Merlin's lips with his. Merlin stopped laughing. He pulled away, scurrying further into the grass and out from underneath Arthur.

As Arthur realized what he'd done, he fell to lay on the grass, and he couldn't meet Merlin's eyes. Why did I think that was a good idea? It was a horrible one! Usually my instincts guide me in the right direction, he thought.

However, Arthur was snapped out of his thoughts by the feeling of Merlin's lips on his. He eagerly sat up, and didn't let Merlin's lips leave his. He put his hand on the back of Merlin's neck to caress him, and the other on his waist. Merlin leaned into it, his arms wrapping around Arthur's sturdy build and armor. They were both pulling each other closer, but it was Arthur who finally broke them apart.

Merlin looked back at him, confused, and Arthur smiled. "We should be heading back soon, Merlin. The sun is setting, and people will wonder where we've been."

Nodding, Merlin said, "Okay. Um... so... what are we...?" He didn't know how to put it.

Arthur smiled fondly at his servant and said, "Don't worry. We'll definitely be doing that again."

One week later, Morgana looked out the window another evening and saw Arthur and Merlin walking out to the forest again. Arthur was carrying his crossbow, so she assumed they were hunting again. However, something about the crossbow didn't look right. Upon a little more examination, she noticed that he didn't have any bolts!

Morgana chuckled to herself, shaking her head. Those boys, she thought. Always up to something. They're walking even closer together than last week!

The king's ward turned away from the window to put a dress away, but turned back a minute later. She could see Merlin and Arthur walking in the direction of the forest, but they were out of the view of most of the castle. Not her window, though.

It appeared that the pair didn't know this, however, as they seemed to be holding hands! Morgana's eyebrows shot straight up, and she made a startled sound. Gwen appeared behind her.

"Milady? Is there something wrong?" Gwen followed Morgana's gaze toward Merlin and Arthur, and smiled. "I always knew it."

Thus began the weekly tradition of the "hunting trip".