Arthur

9:30 Draw Merlin a bath

10:00 Ready Merlin for bed

Merlin

10:00 Finish paperwork from the day

Merlin stared at Arthur expectantly.

"What?"

"You're supposed to prepare me a bath." Merlin said, rolling his eyes.

"I have no idea how to do that. Harold isn't here to tell me what to do, so I guess you're just out of luck."

Merlin rolled his eyes again. "It's really not that hard, Arthur. The tub is in the anteroom, all you have to do is fill it with hot water and add some of the scented oils and soaps."

"The anteroom! Merlin, the tub doesn't belong there."

"Does it matter? It's not as if it's in your way since you clearly haven't noticed it in the years I've been storing it there instead of down the hall. Besides, it means you don't have to move it as far."

Arthur grumbled. "It means you're too lazy to put it where it belongs." He opened the anteroom, which he hadn't been in in months and sure enough, the tub was tucked into the corner with the soaps and two buckets stacked next to it. Arthur lifted it up and waddled his way back into the main room. He dropped the tub with a loud clunk and went back to the anteroom to retrieve the buckets.

"Great, now all you have to do is fill it." Merlin said cheerily.

Arthur stared at the tub in horror, coming to a realization. It would take a significant number of buckets of water to fill the entire tub. He would have to go back and forth to the well pump many times to get the tub filled.

The thought made him want to give up; the only thought keeping him from throwing the buckets at the wall was that he couldn't let Merlin win. He would be victorious in this challenge, as in every other challenge he had been in. Merlin would not beat him. He was the king and no man could best him.

Arthur groaned and exited the room, headed down to the well pump and mentally preparing himself for the task ahead. Back and forth. Back and forth. He sped down to the pump and slowed considerably on the return trips. He was certainly getting better at not spilling the water; he had even started filling the buckets slightly more and managed to keep all the water from splashing out.

After five trips and ten buckets of water, the tub looked full enough for a bath. Arthur slumped against the chair at the table. His arms were exhausted. He was used to training with the knight and the soreness that came with it, but the strain of the buckets on his back and shoulders was a new and very unpleasant experience.

Merlin annoyingly interrupted his thoughts with the reminder to heat the water. Arthur began to transfer some of the water to the large pot over the fireplace. It would be a while before he had enough water boiling to make the entire tub warm.

Before any of the water could heat up, he first had to manage to light the fire. He grabbed the flint and stone kept in the room and crouched by the fireplace, knocking the two together to make sparks. Every time the sparks landed on the tinder they fizzled out almost immediately. Arthur growled in frustration, shifting positions so that he was now sitting on the floor and no longer straining his knees.

"The tinder isn't even wet." Arthur complained, knowing Merlin was writing and not paying attention to his endeavors. There was no reason that the logs in the hearth should not have caught by now but they stayed unlit. Arthur made a frustrated noise and stood up, practically slamming the flint and stone on the table. He turned towards his desk to see Merlin was pretending to be engrossed in a report and was biting back a smile at his struggles. "Do you have something to say, Merlin?"

"Not at all." Merlin snorted with laughter despite his words.

Arthur walked over and snatched a blank piece of parchment from the desk, running the end over a candle before carrying it to the fireplace and dropping it directly in the center so that the fire had no choice but to light the logs.

He let out a breath when everything went smoothly. He didn't want to spend anymore time trying to get a stupid fire going. He waited impatiently by the fire, pacing back and forth as the water heated.

Without anything to do as he paced, Arthur watched Merlin. He looked so at ease in Arthur's chair and the rightful king realized that the image didn't bother him in the slightest. It wasn't the first time Merlin had sat there and reviewed reports for Arthur, offering his advice, whether Arthur had asked for it or not. The longer the day went on, the more comfortable Arthur got with seeing Merlin in a position of power.

An excruciatingly long time later, Arthur had boiled enough water that the bath was decently hot. And he had only burned himself once. Unbeknownst to him, Merlin had whispered a spell to speed up the process slightly. It only seemed fair since Merlin used magic to heat the water almost every time he filled the tub for Arthur. And Merlin thought it'd be wonderful to have a truly hot bath instead of a mostly warm one when Arthur eventually ran out of patience waiting for the water to boil.

Arthur quickly dumped in some of the scented oil, having no idea how much an appropriate amount was, and told Merlin it was ready.

Merlin stood and moved over to the tub and shot Arthur a look he couldn't decipher.

"What?" Arthur asked; he knew he wasn't forgetting anything, there was a towel in the wardrobe and he had put the soap within reach of the tub.

Merlin frowned, annoyed. "I know you don't have any shame, but some of us are used to a certain level of privacy." Merlin made a little spinning gesture with his hand and Arthur rolled his eyes dramatically before complying and turning his back so Merlin could strip.

Merlin sank down into the warm tub slowly, savoring the feeling. He closed his eyes and leaned back his head. He knew Arthur was still standing with his back turned, so he broke the silence to let the other man know he could turn around. "Will you wash my hair?"

"No." Arthur's refusal was immediate and firm.

Merlin frowned, turning pleading eyes to his friend. "I do it for you all the time. Indulge me just this once while I have the chance."

Arthur paused again in refusal before huffing and giving in. "Fine." Merlin was right, he did wash Arthur's hair for him all the time, and it was another thing he wouldn't admit aloud, but it was delightful to have someone massage his scalp after a long day.

Arthur watched as Merlin relaxed under his touch and closed his eyes. Arthur gently lathered and then washed out the soap and briefly got lost in the action. He didn't realize until he had finished that Merlin had fallen asleep. The man always looked so innocent and peaceful when he was asleep.

As his friend slept, Arthur frowned at a small mark on his shoulder, running his own fingers over it lightly. The scar was from their fight in the markets the second time they met. Arthur felt a little worm of guilt at the memory; he hadn't meant for Merlin to get hurt and the scar wasn't even a result of his mace, but of Merlin cutting his shoulder during one of his falls. He may not have directly caused the mark, but it was his fault Merlin had it, even if the man had forgiven him long ago.

Had Merlin been awake he would have been exceedingly glad that the water was slightly opaque due to the excessive amount of scented oils Arthur had added. The water hid his other scars, some of which were much harder to explain than the one on his shoulder.

Arthur stood, deciding to give Merlin a little bit of time to sleep since he had already started the reports and had the time to sit in the tub for a while.

The king picked up Merlin's clothes, which had been left on the ground. Suddenly Arthur knew how Merlin's room always seemed to be a mess; the man just left things wherever he pleased. Arthur dropped the clothing in the now empty laundry basket and opened the wardrobe to pull out Merlin's nightclothes and the towel.

He then snuck a peek at the report on his desk. Merlin was almost done writing it and Arthur read it in shock. It was detailed and well written, much more so than he had expected, even more than his own reports were. He looked up to watch his sleeping friend for a moment, deciding it was time to wake him.

An evil grin crossed his face as he had an idea. Arthur leaned over Merlin, pinching his nose so he wouldn't breathe in any water, and then quickly pushed his head under the surface. Merlin's arms flailed wildly, grasping for the sides of the tub as he sputtered.

"Oh good, you're awake." Arthur commented dryly.

"What was that for?!" Merlin yelled.

Arthur shrugged. "You fell asleep."

If looks could kill, Arthur would be dead multiple times over as Merlin's eyes pierced him with a glare. Arthur smirked and held out the towel, waiting for Merlin to snatch it out of his hand before he turned his back again so Merlin could have some privacy.

Merlin stepped behind the changing screen and Arthur passed him his own nightclothes, taken from Merlin's room in preparation for this. As Merlin stepped back out and headed for the desk, he waved Arthur off. "Go get some food before you starve to death, I'm fine here. I'll head back to my own room once I've finished with these reports."

Arthur nodded, not wasting time making a snide remark only because he was very hungry.

Arthur walked slowly to the kitchens, he was finally done with all of his chores for the day and he relished in the fact that he could slow down. It felt like he had spent the whole day in overdrive, trying to get everything done at the right time, in the right amount of time. It wasn't what he had expected when he had excepted Merlin's challenge, but he certainly felt for the servants now. He had of course known they worked hard and kept the castle running, but he never expected the sheer amount of physical work they put in almost every day.

As he approached the kitchens he could hear servants still moving about to try and clean up after the end of the feast. He didn't want to interrupt their work, but the hunger he felt won out.

"Can I—" He began to ask Mary.

Mary cut him off. "Perfect, Arthur, I need buckets of water from the well. We have hundreds of dishes to do and no water at the moment to wash them."

Arthur's face fell. He was still bound by the rules to help. "Yeah, yeah of course." He mumbled.

Mary shoved two buckets into his hands and turned away, presumably off to organize the rest of the cleaning.

As Arthur reluctantly went to travel to the well again, he was stopped by Mary reappearing in front of him. "Here. You'll waste away like your servant if you always choose work over eating." She didn't stop long enough to tell him more, but he had automatically shifted the two empty buckets into one hand as a vaguely warm roll was pressed into his other.

Arthur smiled. At least he knew someone was keeping Merlin from wasting away to nothing. A growl from his stomach reminded him where he was and he returned to his task, lazily chewing the roll as he walked.

It was nine buckets of water later that he was finally able to break away and sneak back to his room. He didn't stop for anything as he dropped himself onto his bed and fell asleep, fully clothed. He didn't notice the still full bath shoved into the corner of the room. It had never occurred to him that it needed to be emptied.

Next chapter is the last one!