Merlin woke up several hours later, headache still very much present, but the brick in his stomach had mostly vanished now. He had gotten rid of most of it in the bin over the course of the night. He had woken up facing the wall, rather than the rest of the room, his hand out reached toward the floor, just in case he had to make another grab for the bin. He also noticed an arm around his waist and a strong presence behind him. He rolled over and faced Arthur, who lay sleeping, snoring slightly, with his mouth hung open. Merlin wasn't sure exactly how it happened, or when...if it was last night or sometime before that and he only just realized it now, but he had come to a realization, that he was totally and completely in love with Arthur. How could someone go from just thinking they liked someone to thinking they were in love with them so fast? Merlin wasn't sure, and maybe he was just being a stupid teenager, how was he supposed to know what being in love felt like? But even if it wasn't love, that's what it felt like at the moment...
There was suddenly a knock on the door and Arthur jerked awake, Merlin quickly shut his eyes, not to be caught staring, as Arthur staggered out of the bed. He must be tired, he hadn't barely gotten any sleep, having been up with Merlin for most of the night. He walked over to the door and pulled it open.
"Hello...sir," said a man at the door. "There is a girl down in the lobby who claims she stays in this room?"
"Uh...yeah, that's my sister," said Arthur.
"Can you come and get her, please?" the man asked. "She is scaring the guests..."
"Sure, uh...let me get changed." The man left and Arthur shut the door, by the time he walked back into the main part of the room, Merlin had re-opened his eyes. He noticed Merlin was awake and smiled at him, as he went over to his bag and pulled out a blue shirt, changing into it from the red one he had on. "How do you feel?" Merlin shrugged. "Good enough to walk around?"
"Mmm...maybe," said Merlin. He would force himself anyway, because he still wanted to see things, there was a lot more holiday to be had.
"I'm going down to get Morgana before she gets us thrown out of the hotel, get ready while I'm gone."
Merlin did so, he got a shower real quick and got dressed, which took about twenty minutes, but it was still another twenty minutes before Arthur and Morgana had returned. When they did get back they were arguing again. Merlin chose to ignore that, and let them. They got a Uber to a market, where instead of a proper breakfast, or more like lunch, as it was nearly noon by the time they left the hotel, they got sweets. The market they went to was huge, it had all kinds of meats and pastries and fruits and vegetables. Tables full of handmaid trinkets and gadgets.
"Do you think dad would like this?" Arthur showed Merlin a hand carved, wooden wine opener and Merlin shrugged. He wasn't sure. Arthur put it back and they continued down the long isles of tables of things for sale. "WHOA!" he then said, suddenly, grabbing Merlin by the hand and dragging him to the other side of the room, where a few extra tables were. "Look at this," he held up a cherry wood, carved dragon. "That's sexy as shit..."
Merlin laughed. "Uther would like that...I'm sure."
"Yeah," Arthur looked up and smiled at Merlin. "Don't reckon I can get it on the plane though."
"You can just leave me and he'll take my seat," said Merlin, as they started walking back the other way now. "I'll just go live with Pablo..."
"Fuck you..." Arthur paused again, at a table and picked up a straw hat and put it on Merlin's head. "There, that's what I picture when you talk about taking care of your goats and chickens."
"That's Farmerist..."
Arthur laughed, as Merlin took the hat off and put it back down on the table. They carried on walking. At some point, a long while ago, they had lost Morgana, but neither of them mentioned it. They entered the room with all the food in it again. This place had so many rooms of different things to buy, and they had only looked at less than half of it, but all the food smelled so good, it was hard not to go back. They had hot foods, cold foods, of course dessert, and all around there were tables to sit and eat at. Merlin found it kind of hard to stop looking at all the cakes, he had already eaten, but...
"Get something, if you want it," said Arthur, from behind him. "Stop standing their drooling like a prat."
So, Merlin did, he got the biggest piece of cake the very nice, Spanish lady had, and walked over to a small table by a window to eat it. Arthur followed behind, not having gotten anything himself, but it was probably best not to lose another member of the party. They sat and while Merlin ate, slowly, savoring every bite, he looked out of the window, at the sunny day. When he looked back Arthur was watching him.
"What?" he asked. Arthur shrugged.
"You could share, you know..."
"You didn't ask me..."
"I didn't think I had to, sharing is caring, Merlin."
An hour or so later, after spending more money on different types of dessert, Morgana finally found them, carrying her own bag of things she bought. She told them she wanted to go see a Gothic Church one of the people selling stuff had told her about, and a few other places nearby.
"When I get married...I want to get married in a Gothic Church," said Morgana, as they walked down the cobblestone street.
"I thought You didn't believe in marriage?" offered Arthur, with a raised eyebrow. Morgana glared at him.
"I don't...but if I did, I would get married there."
It was quite a beautiful church, not scary Gothic at all, more like old Gothic, with dark stone, stain glass windows, and large statues, which...alright, were a little spooky, but also kind of cool looking. They grabbed dinner at the restaurant inside the hotel and then headed up for the room, they were leaving the next morning, so they had to get a good night sleep. Anything would be better than the sleep Merlin had had the night before. He hadn't felt sick at all, even after eating so many sweets, and his headache was long gone, he hadn't even noticed when it had actually disappeared. Morgana insisted, that since the boys had the bed the night before, due to Merlin's hangover or not, she would get it tonight, and they would have to figure out which one of them would sleep on the floor and the other on the sofa. Arthur, nor Merlin, wanted to argue with her, so they agreed, and Merlin insisted on taking the floor, because he was so tired anyway, it really didn't matter where he slept.
Arthur had even helped him set up a little nest of blankets on the floor, in front of the sofa, and before long all the lights were out, and Arthur lay on the sofa above him and Merlin lay on the floor. He had been so tired before, exhausted in fact, but now that the time had come to sleep...he didn't feel tired anymore.
It wasn't that he was uncomfortable, he liked his little bed of blankets, it was more his brain wouldn't shut off. He just kept thinking...thinking about Arthur, and maybe he shouldn't, but he was only just right there...in reaching distance if Merlin really wanted to, and he just kept thinking...once they went back home, Arthur had only a few days left until he went back to Uni and it would be another few months before Merlin saw him again, and he didn't want him to go, he liked when he was there. He didn't feel like this visit he got very much time with him, even though they had literally just spent the last twenty four hours in each others presence, it didn't feel like enough. Merlin had been avoiding him for so long before the trip, and now he had wished he hadn't done that...
"Merlin...?" said a voice, in a whisper, and it startled Merlin out of his thoughts, had he been thinking out loud? He swallowed hard and didn't say anything. "Merlin, are you awake?"
"Um...no?" he offered back. There was a hand reaching out in front of him, he could just barely see it in the dark, and then said hand slapped him right in the face. " Ouch!"
"I can't sleep on this damn thing!" said Arthur. "My lags are too long, let's switch."
"No way," said Merlin, from the floor. "I'm happy here, thanks."
"Merlin, you're shorter than me!"
"Not really anymore!" retorted Merlin back, eyes narrowing into the darkness, even though he knew Arthur couldn't see it.
"Fine...then move over, Mate, because I'm comin' down!" Merlin moved over a few inches in his bed of blankets, but not far enough, because when Arthur rolled onto the floor, he fell right onto Merlin's arm and crushed it. But he did not move, or make to let Merlin get his arm back. "Ahh...much better."
"You're fat arse is crushing me..." complained Merlin, in a loud whisper, because he didn't want to wake up Morgana. "You're on my arm...!"
"Oh, is that what that is?" retorted Arthur, yet...still, did not move. "I thought you were just happy to see me..."
"What does that even mean?!"
"You are too young to understand, Young Padawan," said Arthur, but moved, finally, a little, so Merlin could pull back his arm, he did so, but did not move over anymore. If he did, he would be off his blanket nest, and he'd rather not be on the cold floor. "You are much too young to learn about the sex..."
"About the what?" said Merlin, he rolled over, very close to Arthur, indeed, whose eyes he couldn't see, but he could make out his face. "I've literally listened to you go on about all your whores."
"Whores?" said Arthur, Merlin felt his ribs being poked and pushed Arthur's hand away, but he just came back and poked him harder. "I do not have whores...that would be my father."
"Well...the Arthur doesn't fall far from the giant Uther tree, I assume."
"Whoa, there...boy, I'm going to mess you up, if you don't stop talking like that," warned Arthur, and Merlin wasn't entirely sure if he was kidding or not, he supposed he had been a little rude, but then again Arthur did roll on him, insult him and over all be a prat, so Merlin figured he had a right to do as he pleased.
"Go 'head, I dare you..."
So, Arthur dared, he rolled right on top of Merlin, crushing him, as he was much heavier. He pinned Merlin's arms above his head with his hands and his legs down with his knees. He leaned down, and his face came within less than an inch from Merlin's ear. "You know I love a challenge, Merlin," he whispered, and the air in Merlin's lungs suddenly hitched and got stuck there, he couldn't breathe for a full two seconds. Merlin wasn't sure what to do, or say...or how to react to this, but knew without doubt, he didn't want it to end there, he wanted to see where it would go, or what it was even...because he really didn't know.
"Yeah?" he retorted, literally breathlessly. "What are you going to do to me...?"
"Hmm...child, you should be more careful with your words," he said, a little louder than a whisper now, but still very closely to Merlin's ear. "Before they're taken out of context..."
"What if I don't want to be careful...?"
There was a long pause there, where Arthur was just kind of there and so was he, and everything was frozen, and it couldn't have been more than a few seconds, but it felt like much longer, and then...there was a loud voice yelling from behind them. "CAN YOU TWO SHUT THE FUCK UP? I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!"
And instantly, like a switch of a light on and off, Arthur rolled off of him, and said nothing else, though, still stayed on the floor next to him. Merlin was left even less tired than before and wondering...what exactly that was, what did that mean? Arthur didn't obviously feel the same way about him, as Merlin did, so...clearly he had other intent, but it just felt like...at least for a moment, like something was happening there. Merlin supposed, after a long time of just laying there awake, he would never know for sure...
(A/N: I know I haven't been updating this story as much, no real reason for that, I've just been focused on another story I'm working on. So, where I would post this story two times a week, it will probably be only one time a week, for awhile. I hope that is okay!)