Merlin was worried, worried the following morning that Arthur would remember what happened and be angry about it, or shout at him, or even blame him for it. But it didn't appear that he did, or if he did remember he was pretending that he didn't, because the next morning when Merlin found Arthur hunched over the side of his bed complaining of a stomachache and a headache, he looked at Merlin perfectly normally, even though Merlin blushed like a fool and he even called Merlin as such, when he accidently spilled the tonic Gaius had sent with Merlin, all over Arthur's bed clothes. So this, just like the kiss in the woods, was swept right under the rug. This one though, was a little harder for Merlin to forget. He did his best though, he did have many other things to be worried about. Like Morgana's cruel smirks when she thought no one was looking. Maybe she smirked, but Merlin rolled his eyes every single time, why was everyone in Camelot so blinded and stupid? The adventuring didn't stop either, even once Morgana was returned home, Arthur was always tasked with going to find, steal or re-steal something from somewhere. Merlin thought he liked it, too. He liked the simple-ness of going out on a horse for an adventure and not having to worry about one day running a kingdom. The only problem is, is more than half of these adventure lead to their almost untimely demise. Like right now, they were tied back to back in a cell in the dark, while some crime-lord drafted a ransom letter to Uther. It was completely outrageous, of course. because, one; Merlin could easily break out right now if he could use magic and two; Arthur was very capable of breaking out of cells, as well, he did it all the time. Uther would probably laugh at the letter, if it ever got to him.
"Any ideas?" Merlin asked, after a few moments of quietness. Arthur took a pause before answering, and Merlin could feel him shrug against his back.
"Loads," he said, almost in a joking way. "But none that you'll like."
"Try me...?"
No matter how dangerous, no matter what Arthur suggested anymore, to get them out of these situations, Merlin always agreed. It was just easier that way, because Arthur was going to do what he wanted anyway, so Merlin had long since learned to play along. "Well," he said, after yet another pause, this one was to hear if someone was coming. They were not. "Can you get your hands free?"
Merlin wiggled his wrists around in the bind they were in for a moment of two, and then with the aid of magic to stretch the rope a little bit, not that he would tell Arthur that of course, he pulled his right hand from the rope, and then his left, reaching back and showing Arthur. "Did it."
"Untie me!"
"What if I don't want to?" prompted Merlin and Arthur nudged him in the spine with his shoulder blade. "Fine..."
Ten minutes later they were both sprinting through the halls of the abandoned castle these bandit's had claimed. They were trying to find a way out, and sure maybe out the windows could work like Arthur had suggested, but they were on the third floor and that seemed a little dangerous and stupid to Merlin. They had finally found stairs when suddenly from around the corner of this long hall there could be voices heard. There was a small alcove right before the stairs that Arthur shoved Merlin into, before he could react himself to the voices coming ever closer. It was dark in there and it curved slightly to the left. Merlin could only imagine the old king's children playing hiding games in here all those years ago, when this castle was actually in use. It was very tight in there, probably better suited for a child, because Merlin was pressed into the stone wall and Arthur only squeezed between him and the other wall barely. Merlin could feel Arthur's warm, heavy breathing in his right ear as they waited for the men to pass. They were only right outside the cove, everything around them grew quiet as they waited for them to pass, even Arthur's breathing seemed to stop. Seconds ticked by and then they could hear one of the Bandit's, maybe the leader, yell, "Keep moving!"
They could hear the heavy foot steps and the clanking and tinkling of the men walking away, down the hall Merlin and Arthur had just been running in. Arthur let out a breath he had been holding and shifted slightly so that now he was facing Merlin more, Merlin could feel his breath on his face as he whispered, "Just wait..." Merlin hadn't made any moves yet, but he strained to listen, to make sure the coast was clear. He felt nerves bubbling in his stomach. It was so dark in the alcove that Merlin could only just make out Arthur's figure in front of him, but saw nothing else. There was another sound of foot steps, coming quickly in their direction and they sounded quick, as if the person might be running. Arthur slammed Merlin against the wall then, as if he wasn't already against it, or as if Merlin might try to leave. He wasn't that stupid. His hands were on Merlin's waist and his body now pressed even more against Merlin's. It was getting hard to breathe in this small space. "Sh..."
The foot steps stopped suddenly and Merlin gulped, gripping on to Arthur's forearms, just because that happened to be where his hands were. They waited again, not moving, not breathing, nothing, as if they were not even there, so still. Moments felt like lifetimes, Merlin was starting to think they would be stuck here forever like this. Years later their bones would be found entangled with each others and no one would know which bones belonged to who, and somehow that seemed rather fitting. The soft pittering of feet started again and a woman's voice filled the hall and the alcove, she was calling for a man, maybe one of these bandits were her husband, or whatever. But whatever it was, she didn't sound too dangerous. Her steps slowly faded away and Arthur, yet again, let out a breath, this one right into Merlin's face. He was just glad he had only had berries for lunch.
Merlin let go of Arthur's arms and Arthur removed his hands from Merlin's middle. And Merlin had thought Arthur had moved back some, allowing Merlin to get off the wall, it wasn't as if it were very comfortable, so that would only be polite, but this was Arthur after all. Merlin pushed himself off the wall then, and instead of getting to stand up like a normal, living person, he surged head first right into Arthur. Their chests slammed together, Arthur's eyebrows were in Merlin's eyes, they bumped noses and the worst part of it all is Merlin's mouth sort of ended up becoming attached to Arthur's top lip in the struggle. Merlin expected to be hit or yelled at, but instead Arthur just sort of made a "Umph" noise and titled his head to the left, moving his mouth so it was then evenly lined up to Merlin's. And then...they were kissing again.
Are you kidding me? Merlin couldn't help but think, and it wasn't that he didn't like kissing Arthur, because he did, but was this just going to be a thing that happened now? He was able to ignore it the first time, barely got over it the second and now it felt like some kind of Destiny-talking, Dragon moron was testing his patience. What did Arthur think was happening? Did he think Merlin was trying to kiss him and missed? Did he just want to try and find any reason to put his lips on Merlin again? Merlin was confused, annoyed and his nose hurt a little now. But still, he kissed Arthur back with just as much urgency as Arthur kissed him. After maybe a whole minute and a half of this nonsense, Arthur pulled away to breath and Merlin didn't make any moves.
"Merlin..." he said, and the way he said it made shivers run down Merlin's spine, he had never said his name like that before. It wasn't aggressive or angry, or joking, or even normal. It was almost like desperate and wanting, and then Merlin's stomach flipped at the idea that Arthur could want him, or maybe he just wanted to finally address why this continued to happen, and why it shouldn't be, then Merlin's stomach turned for a whole other reason. He didn't want to face why it kept happening, and what Arthur thought of it, or if he wanted it to stop or not. However, Arthur didn't say anything, not for a bit, and then he finally said, "...we should run."
And Merlin agreed, they should probably run.
(A/N: I am sorry I took so long to actually update again, Christmas and a lot of other stuff made it hard. But I hope you enjoyed it!)