A month had passed by since the first round table meeting, and a few more had come after, Arthur was happy with his kingdom, and maybe his marriage too, for all Merlin could tell. He tried to spend as little time with Arthur as possible, and when he did, Arthur at least respected him enough to not touch him, nor talk about it. Merlin was thankful for that. He just wanted things to go back to normal, and perhaps having a baby around would be nice, Merlin always liked kids, as long as he didn't have to change it...

He shook his head, with a small smile, just thinking about a baby with soft, rich skin like Gwen and bright blue eyes, just like her daddy. It made his heart feel a little warmer, as he picked up Arthur's clothes, and headed down to have them washed. He left them there, to have another servant wash them, and he would come back later to get them. In the meantime, he went to help Gaius. Who, sent him out to look for some plant that would help...stimulate something in Gwen, Merlin stopped paying attention once Gaius started making very odd hand gestures. On his way out of town, Gwaine, who was supposed to be patrolling the lower town, caught up with him.

"Where you off to, sir?" Gwaine asked, and Merlin rolled his eyes, continuing on. Gwaine followed. "I will have to look at your credentials if you would like to press on."

"That just sounds wrong..." Merlin said, and Gwaine laughed, and followed him all the way out into the forest. "You're like a dog," Merlin offered, as he began to look for the plant. "You follow people around, begging."

"I am here to be your knight in shinning armor, protect you from evil moss and..." Gwaine trailed off, plucking at leaves on a low hanging branch. "Nasty ogre men."

"Oh...my hero," Merlin retorted, bending down and pulling dried up herbs from the earth. "Honestly, I can take better care of myself than you could."

"I am a rough and wild man, I-"

"You...are talking complete shite, as usual" Merlin looked up, and pocketed the herbs, looking for more now. "Why can't you just be normal?" he asked. "Say; 'Good morning, Merlin, can I come with you, because I am bored and lonely?' I would give you more attention that way."

"I like your attention..." Gwaine smiled, charmingly, not that that charm ever worked on Merlin, or at least not anymore. "Maybe I will next time...though, it's so boring, being normal. How do you mange it?"

"I make do," Merlin shrugged, with a small smile. "Instead of getting my attention, you could be doing your job."

"Eh," Gwaine breathed. "Camelot is as safe as saying Leon will ever part with his curls, nothing doing there."

Merlin laughed. "I'm glad you're so confident."

They returned to Camelot as dusk set in, and Gwaine finally returned to his actual duties, and Merlin returned to Gaius, and held up his hand when Gaius tried to explain what these herbs would help, exactly.

"And will create a better, more enjoyable-"

"Please, no...just don't," Merlin shook his head, and headed toward the door again. He went to get The King and Queen's dinner and headed up to their chambers. They were both sitting at the table, already waiting, when Merlin walked in. He placed their plates on the table in front fo them and grabbed the wine.

"Where have you been?" Arthur asked, as he began eating. Merlin poured him a cup of wine.

"I was in the woods, being irritated by Gwaine," he said, even though he probably shouldn't give away that Gwaine hadn't been doing his job. "He thought he needed to protect me from moss. Apparently it was very evil."

Gwen laughed. "He's so odd, though... very sweet." Arthur didn't say anything, and just continued eating, therefore, Gwen continued talking. "Did Gaius say when he would have my tonic ready? We...I need it for the night."

Merlin just simply refused to think about why. "He said he would bring it up within the hour."

"Oh, good," Gwen stopped eating, suddenly, and stood up. "I better get ready for bed."

Merlin looked down at the floor, and ran an uncomfortable hand in his hair. The urge to leave was strong, almost too strong, but he had to stay, to take away the food tray. He tapped his fingers on his sides, nervously.

"Why the hell were you with Gwaine?" Arthur suddenly asked, and Merlin was rather taken aback by that, and he just looked up, confused. "What the hell does evil moss look like?"

Merlin shrugged. "He was just kidding."

Arthur didn't look pleased with that answer, and he too pushed his food away. "I think that will be all." Merlin nodded and gathered the plates.

"I'll wait to...um..." he mumbled with the things in his hands, and his words. "To bring your clothes in the morning."

"Oh yes," Gwen came out from behind the blind and smiled at him, brightly. "That is a perfectly fine idea."

"Right..." Merlin nodded, and headed out of the door. He didn't even want to respond to the 'goodnight' Gwen threw his way, as he struggled to shut the door on his way out. He dropped off the dishes and headed back to Gaius' chambers, only to find them empty, the man must be delivering the...whatever it was, to The King and Queen right now and as much as Merlin wanted to be alright with this, the idea of it just made his stomach turn, he hated it...every single second of it. He couldn't just sit around there, and wait for him to come back, because as soon as Gaius was back...Merlin knew what they were doing.

"Why..?" he muttered to himself, feeling the tears well in his eyes. Why couldn't he just be alright with this? Why couldn't he just ignore it like he had been doing? He was doing so well. Things were becoming tolerable again. But no, here he was in tears, just because The King was taking The Queen to bed. He couldn't just sit there, he shook his head and jumped up, needing to do something, to stop thinking about this. He fled the room.

He wound up in the washroom, where Arthur's clean clothes hung to dry. Well, they were completely dry now...and since Merlin had nothing better to do, he began to fold them. An hour went by and Merlin was nearly done, mind completely blank, he focused, slowly, on the task. Normally he could have this done in under twenty minutes. He supposed Arthur would just have to deal with extremely folded clothes. He heard someone come in behind him and he sighed, who could possibly be needing to wash at an hour like this? Merlin looked over his shoulder and jumped, seeing Arthur there.

"What are you-"

But he didn't have time to answer, because suddenly Arthur was walking toward him and shoving him over, into the pile of clothes, and landing on top of him. "I need you," he muttered, face pushing against Merlin's neck. Merlin just stayed there, right like that, and didn't move. "I can't stand this..."

"I don't understand.." Merlin answered, slowly, after a long moment. "Shouldn't you be impregnating your wife right now?"

"I hate it," Arthur whined, like a little boy and Merlin, reluctantly, reached up and petted his hair. "I'm tired of the constant sex, and her complaining, that I don't do it right, there is only one way to do it...!"

"Not exactly," Merlin spoke, without really thinking. "There are actually several..."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Arthur pulled back and looked into Merlin's face. Merlin shrugged.

"Different positions, movements..."

"Shut the hell up?!" Merlin couldn't help but laugh a that. "It's not funny. I...I obviously don't know how to pleasure her properly, and she says that's why she isn't getting pregnant, because of me."

"Just because it doesn't feel good really doesn't make a difference with the baby making bit, as long as you..." Merlin muttered, suddenly realizing what they were saying, and his face turned red. "How about other partners, before Gwen? What did they say?"

"What do you mean before Gwen?" Arthur barked, looking more and more irritated as the moments ticked on. "She is my wife."

"I know, but the woman you took to your bed before you married her?"

"There was none..." Arthur's face began to turn red, much like Merlin's felt. Merlin, well...apart from feeing all sorts of embarrassed to be having this conversation, on piles of Arthur's clothes, in the night, well, he was also completely shocked.

"There wasn't anyone?" he asked, probably a little too loudly, if he didn't want any other visitors. "You were a virgin?"

"Yes," Arthur barked, in reply, again. "I was taught to give myself to my queen, and only my queen."

"Well, I guess we know why Uther told you that, now..." Merlin said. "But you actually listened?"

"Why is that so wrong?" Arthur asked, in a bark. Merlin shook his head. "So, I take it you are not then?"

Merlin laughed at that. Again, probably too loudly. "Oh, hell no..."

Arthur frowned. "Who have you slept with?"

"Loads of people," Merlin shrugged, and the frown on Arthur's lips only grew. "Well...not loads, but a few."

"Men?"

Merlin nodded, "Mostly."

"Who?"

"Erm...I don't want to say," Merlin muttered, and obviously that was the wrong answer, because Arthur looked furious, suddenly. "Alright...alright...Gwaine."

"Gwaine?!" Arthur yelled, being load now, too, so Merlin didn't feel so bad. Well, at least not about they part, anyway. "When? Today...?"

"No...no," Merlin laughed at that. He and Gwaine had been together today, but they never did anything romantic, not anymore. "A few times..."

"More than once?" Arthur was completely outraged at this point and was struggling to get up. But Merlin didn't want that, not like this, and pulled him back down. "How many times?"

"Three or four," Merlin said, down playing it just a tiny bit. It had been more, but it hadn't meant much to either of them. "I get lonely, too, sometimes, Arthur."

"Was it after you and I-" Arthur began, but then stopped. "When was the last time?"

"Before we kissed, the first time," Merlin answered, and this time, truthfully. "I haven't been able to think of anyone else since."

"I wanted you to be mine..." Arthur muttered, looking away from Merlin, at the floor. He looked so very sad. "I suppose I was too late."

"Much, really, I wasn't even a virgin when I got here..."

Merlin really wasn't helping himself at all, because Arthur growled and went silent, shoving his face back into Merlin's neck. And he knew he shouldn't feel bad for having these experiences, but the way Arthur was acting...he couldn't help but to feel bad. He wished he could have been Arthur's, too.

(A/N: Arthur is a difficult character to write, or even understand at times, he was written poorly, but portrayed lovely by Bradley, he's very loveable even though his storyline was stupid. He is very needy and bossy and, oh...the list goes on. And sometimes I feel I write stories that bring out the worst in him, yet I enjoy that. Like this, wanting Merlin to save himself (in a sense) even though Arthur has no intentions of sleeping with him, (right now,) is not the best look, and I hope it comes across as me trying to stay true to their characters, rather than well...ooc-ness for the sake of another character. I feel like this is how Arthur would act, he would be irrationally upset and probably want to kill Gwaine. It's just the way he is, and Arthur by far is my favorite Character in the series. I just like to play with his personality, I don't want to make anyone dislike him more or less because of my story. I'm not sure where this came from...I just had a like moment when I proof read the end of this chapter, like wow...Arthur, you're a dick. And maybe he is. But no one is perfect.)