Tenth installment! Whoop! I apologise for the short-ness today - what with the ice and snow and everything, things have been pretty mad. (:

I do not own anything to do with the Merlin series, as it still belongs to the BBC. (:

Enjoy!

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, far too much food.

*****

"You know, cookies really aren't that hard to make, Arthur, my love." Hunith gently pointed out, as she briskly stirred a bowl of cookie mix. She slapped the back of his hand with the wooden spoon as he attempted to stick his finger into the bowl and steal some. "You'll get salmonella!" She scolded. Arthur frowned, but proceeded to lick the mix off his hand. She tutted, but said nothing else.

After spending several hours attempting to make something that at least resembled a cookie, Merlin had given up completely and called his mother to ask for some advice. Instead of telling him over the phone, she had insisted that she came over and made them something decent, rather than have them make themselves ill with their own failed attempts. They had both very quickly accepted the offer.

"Here, you stir it." Hunith handed a very reluctant Arthur the spoon, and gestured for him to begin. "Stop being so gentle," She encouraged. "Brisk. Brisk!"

"I'm being brisk!"

"Be brisker, then!"

Merlin stood in the doorway, smiling as Hunith huffed and took the spoon back off Arthur. "We'll be here all day at this rate!"

"Having problems, Arthur?" Merlin couldn't help but laugh at Arthur's frustrated expression.

"No! Why am I doing all the work, while you're just stood there?" Arthur looked to Hunith for back-up. She nodded, thrusting the spoon back at Arthur before placing her hands on her hips.

"I was working!"

"Well, you've finished now." Hunith turned to her son. "Come do the washing up for me." She waved her hand in the direction of the sink, and the large mountain of bowls and spoons that had built up over the afternoon.

"But Mum- "Merlin began, but he was quickly silence when Hunith glared at him. "Why can't I do the stirring, and Arthur do the washing up? I wasn't even here."

"Stop complaining, Merlin." At his hurt expression, Hunith's stance softened. "If you do the washing up for me, you can ice the cookies. Okay?" She smiled as Merlin's face brightened. Arthur, however, was not pleased with this decision.

"Why does he get to ice the cookies?"

Hunith rolled her eyes. "Honestly, boys, how old are you? Five?" Arthur scowled at her, abandoning the spoon in the bowl. He ignored it as it started to slip away from the edge and into the mix. "How about you can each ice half of them?"

"Fine."

*****

25 minutes later, both Merlin and Arthur were stooped in front of the oven, waiting for the timer to go off and allow them to retrieve the cookies. Hunith shook her head at them, smiling faintly, as she mixed up a bowl of icing. She watched them both tense up as the timer flicked to "30 seconds", silently waiting, until the timer binged loudly, and they both burst into action. As Merlin wrenched open the oven door so quickly he almost tore it off its hinges, Arthur thrust a gloved hand into the oven, quickly pulled the tray of cookies out, and then shook them on to the cooling rack.

Grinning, they both turned to Hunith. "Now what?"

"Now, you come and ice these cookies." She pulled a box of cookie decorations from her bag of supplies, and handed them to Arthur. "I'll be in the living room if you need me, okay?"

As soon as she left the kitchen, they both leapt at the box, fighting for the red and green decorations. Merlin held up the red decorations in triumph, as Arthur held up the green. Merlin looked at the red in dismay. "Swap?" He pleaded, offering his decorations to Arthur. Arthur nodded, but as Merlin reached for the green, Arthur snatched the red off him, and held them both out of reach.

"Arthur! That is so not fair!"

Arthur merely poked his tongue out at him and began to ice his star-shaped cookie. Merlin huffed, and turned to the remaining decorations. He glared at the yellow and blue sprinkles, but with little choice, he pulled them out and set to working out what he would do.

*****

After Merlin finally managed to wrestle at least the green decorations of Arthur (he had been strangely protective of the red), he began to decorate his final gingerbread man. He'd been very careful with them – giving them all unique faces and lovingly applied buttons and icing gloves. Just as he was about to add the buttons, he remembered about the batch of cookies they had removed from the oven not ten minutes before.

He turned away from his beloved gingerbread man for a moment to check that the cookies had cooled enough to be decorated. As soon as his attention was elsewhere, Arthur shimmied around the counter, and finished the decorating for him.

*****

"Now, try not to each too much unhealthy food over the holidays, won't you, boys?"

"We'll give it a go, Mum." Hunith hugged her son goodbye, as Arthur appeared on the doorstep after taking her bags to her car. It would seem the snow had picked up again as Arthur's black jacket was littered with white flakes.

"I'll see you in the New Year, okay?" They both nodded, and stood in the doorway to wave her off. As soon as she had driven out of sight, Merlin turned to Arthur.

"Right. Fancy a cookie?" With that said, Merlin sped off to put the kettle on and fetch himself a gingerbread man. Humming softly to himself, he opened the tub, expecting to find himself a nice, appealing cookie. What he wasn't expecting was to find one of his beloved gingerbread grinning up at him, face obscured with a blotchy moustache and overly large glasses.

"Arthur!"