Only half a year! I was threatening for a year, so I think I did pretty good! (Or not, but don't spoil my fun...) Now I feel like I should say something, but I don't know what. Okay... Well I can surely say that the next chapter will come someday! Slowly maybe, but still surely. I want to finish this so I can move on with my life x) It feels rather uncomfortable having these unfinished stories hanging here on my credit. Just... let's move on.

"I have an excuse as to why this is short! The first chapter that was in Merlin's point of view has almost the same word count as this one. I wanted them to... counter each other, or something like that. Which means that the next one will be slightly longer. Yay!"

Quite honestly, the situation was getting too ridiculous, far too out of hand and far, far too normal. It didn't really make any sense how things had come to this. Arthur knew that if he had just been a nice little drunk and gone straight to bed on the night of the feast, none of this would have happened. But he didn't necessarily think it was his fault. No, actually, he thought Merlin was as much to blame. He could have just left the matter there, not bring it up again and not continue bringing up, every single day afterwards. Yes, it was ridiculous and out of hand, but oddly, those were not the things that worried the prince. It was the fact that it was becoming normal by now. They had both gotten used to it, which in itself wasn't normal.

Arthur had thought that they would be done after Merlin had kissed him. But no, on that very same day, he kissed him again, just before he went to sleep. And the day after that. And after that. Arthur hadn't been able to figure out what he should do about it before it became the week after that. He knew that Merlin kissed him again just to get Arthur to protest it, so the prince would have to admit that the one kiss he had given his servant was romantic, not something you should do between friends or good acquaintances. And he wasn't going to admit to that. First of all, it isn't essential what the kiss was like physically. What are essential though, are the thoughts behind the kiss. And he wasn't going through any romantic thoughts when he first kissed Merlin. Actually, he wasn't thinking at all.

He hadn't lied when he had said he didn't remember the kiss. No, he had been drunk and he was a very friendly drunk. Hadn't Merlin met any drunken people before? Drunken people did stupid things! Arthur had done a stupid thing! And he hadn't been lying when he had said that he had done those things before. Now that he was thinking about it harder, he probably should have told Merlin that. But he had been too shocked. Too confused. The only thing his mind had been able to come up with was to go for the easiest way out. Which was to not mention the whole matter to Merlin. He was hoping the servant would give up trying or simply forget he was supposed to be torturing the prince. Well that didn't work out as planned. To be quite exact, the conclusion was the complete opposite of what was supposed to happen. Merlin was very persistent. And Arthur, well, Arthur forgot what he had been doing.

When it first happened, Arthur had been late for training. His men were waiting for him outside, but he still had to dress. He was rushing Merlin, who was doing the best he could, though Arthur would never tell him he knew that. And when he was all dressed and ready to go, Merlin suddenly kissed him goodbye. As mentioned, he was in a hurry. He didn't have another choice! Okay, so maybe he had choices, but the one he came up with was the easiest. Well, not the easiest and certainly not one of the smartest, but it was the only one he had been able to come up with in such a hurry. He had kissed Merlin back. To make the kiss shorter, of course, there was no other reason. His men were waiting outside and he had to go.

The kiss had been shorter. At least Arthur thought so. So he figured he should continue doing that afterwards too. They say, "pick your battles" and "if you can't beat them, join them". Arthur did both and he thought he was being very clever. Eventually, Merlin had to forget. Maybe after Arthur for a long hunting trip or something else like that, he wouldn't remember anymore. Or maybe it would start to freak Merlin out, with the way everything was going. Yes, Arthur had been so certain one of those would be the case. But hunting trips had come and went, and Merlin still remembered to kiss him every time he left the room. He didn't forget, it actually seemed like he was remembering to kiss him more and more as time went on, and he certainly didn't seem freaked out at all. If he was freaked out, he was very good at hiding it and should consider theater.

"Merlin?"

Things hadn't gone at all like Arthur had planned. And he wasn't completely sure where things would go from here. He didn't suppose a simple conversation would get him out anymore? Probably not. His little servant had collected even more material to blackmail him since the night of their first kiss. Merlin turned to look at him, blinking his eyes like he was confused. Well, more like surprised, Arthur guessed, since they had had a pretty comfortable silence before he had broken it. Merlin let out a noise on acknowledgement. The prince let the servant wait for a while before answering. Arthur was forming a marvelously constructed sentence inside his head. Oh yes, just perfect.

"Why are you in my bed?"

It was simple, but it should also get the message through quite well. If it didn't, Arthur would smack Merlin around the head until it did. Luckily, he didn't need to go that far. And innocent smile started forming on Merlin lips. As if Uther wouldn't slaughter him the second he found out about the sinful acts he had been committing with his son. Now that Arthur thought about it, Merlin had been pretty brave to come into his bed like that. He should be given a medal really, considering how impulsive Urther could be.

"For the same reason I've been here for the past two weeks."

Merlin's voice made Arthur jump and he was ripped away from his thoughts. He had already managed to forget that he had asked a question in the first place. Two weeks already? Arthur really needed to become faster at bringing things up sooner on the table. Honestly though, he had noticed on the first week already. After three nights of continuously seeing his servant in his bed, he realized that he might not be going crazy after all and having dirty dreams about Merlin, for Christ's sake, but that the other was truly, physically in his bed. That had been very interesting to discover. Not that he paid much attention to it. He had more important things to worry about other than clingy servants. Now he began thinking that maybe, just maybe it would have been a good thing to do after all. It was harder to take away than to never have given it. Poor Merlin.

But he had no other choice. People were getting suspicious of how quickly Merlin could get into his room, even before sunrise. Had Gaius somehow missed that his only pupil frequently wandered off in the evenings and returned late in the morning? If Arthur ever was going to have children, he would never let Gaius look after them. Though, with the way the things were going right now, it seemed like he was never going to have children. He would probably end up marrying Merlin just to avoid talking about the God forsaken kiss. Arthur groaned and pulled the covers over his head. He distinctly heard Merlin asking him if he was alright. No, he wasn't alright. It was about time he started facing the facts. He had to talk about the kiss, sooner or later. And it would be better if sooner, because things would go worse with the way they were going now. He sighed and pulled the covers off. Merlin was eyeing him worriedly, lying on his side and leaning on his elbow. Arthur sighed again. Merlin raised an eyebrow.

"Merlin… We have to talk", the eyebrow rose higher, "About the… About the night I was drunk and may have allured you into ungodly activities with me."

Merlin blinked and gave Arthur an incredulous look. Arthur didn't think he really deserved that. If you asked him, his statement made no less than sense. But by the look on the other's face, it seemed like he didn't, and Arthur didn't understand why not. He had been drunk, it apparently had been his fault and they had been doing forbidden activities. He waited for the other to explain himself.

"You do know we only kissed?"

Arthur isn't completely sure what he should make out of that sentence. First of all, Merlin was totally ignoring the essential. In fact, he was actually avoiding the subject, which was Arthur's job really. When the prince had finally been ready to talk about it, Merlin was the one who blew it up. Arthur felt some satisfaction at that: he was not the only one who was making mistakes now. Well, Arthur certainly wasn't going to try to talk about the kiss anymore. He didn't even want to talk about whatever Merlin was talking about now, because it confused him almost as much as the fact that Merlin had suddenly brought up a random topic to talk about. So, he decided to go at it from another direction.

"Look, you cannot sleep here anymore. This bed is reserved for me and me only. There should not be anyone else in it, ever", he had to consider that for a second, "Except maybe someday a pretty princess. But that's irrelevant right now."

The servant hummed pleasantly in agreement, which sounded fairly dangerous in Arthur's opinion. For a reason he couldn't point out for the moment, but he had a feeling he would find out soon enough. Merlin dragged himself closer to Arthur a soft smile playing on his lips. A predator grin, Arthur decided. Though Merlin always smiled like that, he just seemed more threatening right now. His eyes nearly popped out from their sockets when he felt a warm touch on the cold skin of his biceps. A silent noise in the back of his head was berating him about lying on his back, in such a vulnerable position, but his mind was mainly focusing on the fact that his servant had now began to caress his arm in a rather… strange manner. Which felt quite weird. What the heck was happening now?

"Well then… what will the princess do in this bed when she gets here?"

Arthur's thoughts were disorganized enough for him not to be able to form coherent sentences in his head. What was the princess going to do? In the bed. The princess must do something in the bed. The princess would lie down and close his eyes and then something would happen, which would make the princess black out. What was the princess doing? The princess, the princess. What princess? No, that wasn't essential. Where the princess came from wasn't essential. But the princess would most definitely…

"Sleep", Arthur breathed out and his eyes widened slightly for the effort, "She would fall asleep. And then… and then. We would sleep together. And we would make love."

He wasn't even sure himself why it had been so hard to get such a simple thing out. But his voice had been completely stable and he hadn't paused much, so he didn't think Merlin would notice that anything was weird. Merlin chuckled, dark and low, and Arthur came to the conclusion that he was still somehow, mentally hunting the prince. That was until Merlin made a move to crawl on top of him, and he became certain that it was more of a physical hunt. Merlin hummed again, almost purred, and Arthur was screaming "what the hell" inside his own head. Outside his head, he had absolutely frozen. Merlin somehow managed to slide on top of him, in a way that was so smooth, he didn't know it was possible for the servant, and leaned down so his lips could reach the other's ear. And then he whispered something quite new to the prince, something that rather effectively shut down all the screaming inside Arthur.

"Then there's nothing the princess could do and I couldn't. I can sleep and I believe I can make love too."

Merlin slowly shifted off the other and Arthur was left staring back at him in a daze, which was nothing new, really. Merlin probably enjoyed the rest of the night, because Arthur had finally been silenced. Little did he know that, after the initial surprise, Arthur's inner voice didn't shut up for a moment and Arthur's silence was actually a reaction to the things that that little voice was suggesting.