A/N: Ok guys I would usually consider it uncool to hold chapters hostage for reviews, but it is really freaking sad to post something and get zero feedback, so I will not be posting a new one until I get at least something.

It is really not that difficult to leave a word saying what you thought after reading the chapter. This one of my big problems with this site – it's a bilateral relationship, the author shares their stuff and the reader contributes by reviewing. I never leave a story I just read without leaving at least some feedback. It's longer if I liked the stuff and something short if I thought it was just ok, but I would never just not say anything.

I apologize if it sounds like I'm ranting – that's probably coz I am ranting.

Chapter 2

The next day Arthur gave his knights a day off, they certainly deserved the rest. He didn't get the same luxury of course, he had to spend the whole day catching up on all the kingdom business he missed in the past week and a half. His father was very proud and devoted about 3 seconds to expressing his pride at his son's valiant defeat of the beast, before moving on to fill his head with boring and arguably completely useless information. Ever since Uther had had a close run in with death, he decided it was time to really start preparing Arthur for kinghood, it was exhausting.

Merlin was not sympathetic either; he was always making jokes and keeping him on his toes. Arthur liked that he felt comfortable enough around his master to joke around; it was almost as if there were no class boundaries between them. But sometimes he just wished he could be vulnerable every once in a while, he wished there was someone with whom he could just relax and not pretend like this whole future king thing wasn't sucking the life out of him.


The day after the debriefing, things were to go back to normal. Arthur let Merlin drag him out of bed in the morning, and dress him for the training session. He sparred with is knights. Percival entertained them all with an impression of the annoying old innkeeper. He spared till noon, then had lunch with everyone. Merlin brought over some cheese and meat from the kitchen and they all joked around. Elyan made a lewd joke and Arthur watched the way Merlin's cheeks flushed red, he felt a flush of affection for his young and innocent servant.

In the afternoon the knights kept on with the training, while Arthur was back in the castle dealing with boring crown business. As he was sitting across from one of his father's advisers listening to the most unexciting report on earth, he got distracted and observed the sun slowly dip into the horizon. As the sky darkened, Arthur thought with impatience of the time when this old bore would finish droning on so he could head to the tavern and have some drinks with his friends.

"Arthur!" His father's voice pulled him from him daze, he must have called him and he didn't notice. He apologized and the told the advisor what a great report he had delivered and the moment he walked out of the door he was more than ready to leave. His father was still talking, but Arthur could only think of draining that first pint of ale to wash out the feeling of staleness this afternoon gave him.

He was strolling into the pub not ten minutes later. The knights let out a greeting roar when he entered, they'd started drinking a bit earlier. Merlin put a pint of his favourite pale ale in front on him. "Bottoms up, your highness!" Elyan called out, and the rest of the nights started chanting "Up, up, up" in response. Merlin gave him one of his wide happy smiles. Arthur raised the glass subtly, making eye contact with Merlin and then downed the pint. As he finished everyone screamed again. The evening had begun.

About an hour and four more pints later Arthur was feeling somewhat tipsy. He had just come back from relieving himself and was leaning heavily against the wall and observing his knights absently. Percival was flirting shamelessly with the bar wench. Leon and Elyan seemed to be having a heated discussion, although it appeared as though they were angry at something together rather than angry at each other. And Gwaine, well Gwaine seemed to sitting awfully close to Merlin and Marlin was laughing in a way that made Arthur want to hit Gwaine till his teeth fell out. Gwaine's hand was on Merlin's side, and he was leaning in close to whisper something in his ear. Merlin smiled coyly, and licked his lips. And then they both laughed again; Arthur was clutching his glass so hard his knuckles were turning white. What was this clown doing flirting with his servant!? With his Merlin? They were definitely flirting, there was no doubt about that. They were sitting so close their thighs were touching, with Gwaine's hand around his waist and on his side, and Merlin was definitely enjoying the attention. Was there something between them? How had Arthur not noticed before? They seemed friendly, but Gwaine was definitely into women, he was always going on about his conquests, wasn't he?

Arthur couldn't bear to look at them cuddled up like a couple of love birds any more, he needed to do something. His judgement was a bit clouded, granted, but he had to do something!

He strolled onto them purposefully, albeit a little unsteadily, and the both jumped when he walked into their table with a bang.

"Arthur, are you ok, buddy?" Gwaine asked with an easy smile playing on his face. They only slightly leaned away from each other. Arthur could have ripped the smug bastards face off. That would probably been excessive, but so satisfying.

"Merlin, we got to go home!" He exclaimed slurring his words only a little, and Merlin jumped up immediately and took his side so he wouldn't topple over.

"See you later, Gwaine!" He exclaimed easily as he started leading Arthur away.

"Be careful not to drop princess Arthuria!" He laughed; Merlin smiled back and Gwaine winked at him just before Merlin turned Arthur around and started moving them towards the door through the field of drunken patrons.


It took them a while to reach the door of Arthur's chambers. They didn't say a word to each other. Arthur was reeling, he really wanted to confront Merlin about openly flirting with his knight but at the same time, he didn't feel like he had a right. In other circumstances he would have tried to make a joke out of it to attempt to find out if there was anything going on between them but he knew that if he tried it would come out angry, because he was angry, damn it!

As they got to the room Merlin pushed him through the door and dropped him on the bed, and squatted in front of him to remove his boots.

"There you go, Arthur, have some sleep now, you'll feel better in the morning" He said as he threw the boots aside and put his hand on Arthur's chest to push him into the bed.

But suddenly Arthur grabbed his head and pulled him towards himself and crushed their mouths together. There was fleeting thought that this was maybe a bad idea, but Arthur pushed that away, and instead deepened the kiss his tongue seeking access to Merlin's mouth. After a second of hesitation Merlin relented and let him in. Arthur kissed him hard and long, and it was not enough. He felt so turned on, his dick was turning hard.

Briskly he pulled Merlin atop of himself and then rolled them over so he would be on top.

"Merlin" he moaned as soon as their mouths separated. Merlin put his hands on his shoulders and just stared at him a little shocked. Arthur looked at him for a second and then dived in to kiss him again. He started rubbing his thighs against Merlin's trying to get some friction for his aching erection. He separated for a minute to pull Merlin's tunic off. Merlin helped him take his one off in turn. Arthur started kissing his way down his chest, hungry for his servant's body. He got to the nipple and sucked on it with ardour. He heard Merlin's breath catch and he gasped. Arthur moved to the other nipple and licked it and sucked. His hand dropped to rub Merlin's crotch. He could feel that the servant was already semi hard under the material.

He continued his way down his body and left sloppy kissed on his chest and stomach. When he reached the dark trail of hair running away into the rim of the pants he quickly pulled Merlin's trousers off, he pulled them all the way and discarded them at the side of the bed. Merlin was breathing heavily and didn't seem to know where to put his hands, he caressed Arthur's hair lightly as Arthur got back to him, and licked and kissed his thigh right next to his hard cock. Arthur didn't have the patience for any more foreplay and he just popped Merlin's dick into his mouth. Merlin let out a moan. Arthur started licking along the shaft and suckling on the head, the salty taste of pre-come filling his taste buds. Merlin's hands were gingerly holding his hair. He started to involuntarily move his hips to match Arthur's mouth moving around his cock.

Suddenly, Arthur pulled off and turned Merlin around with his strong hands, when Merlin was lying on his stomach, he guided him forward a little so that his ass would be sticking up in the air, he also spread his knees. Arthur took a second to rub his cock through the fabric, the need was driving him insane. He then leaned over and spit over Merlin's hole, he also sucked on his middle finger briefly before starting to push it into Merlin's ass. Merlin tensed but Arthur kept pushing until half of his finger was in, it was so tight. He gave Merlin a second to adjust before moving his finder out a little, spitting again and staring to push his index finger in along with the middle one. Merlin was trying to keep his breathing steady and Arthur worked the two fingers in, moving them in and out for a little while.

Finally, he could wait no longer. He released his cock from the constraints of his pants and lubing it lightly with some more spit started pushing into Merlin's ass. Merlin clenched his teeth, but the thought better of it and just breathed in trying to relax. Arthur had been waiting for this moment for so long, but now that he was here, he couldn't wait any longer, he started to push in and out roughly, his dick begging for the blessed friction. The tight, hot passage around his cock felt amazing and he couldn't last long. He changed his angle a little and pushed against Merlin's prostate; the servant whimpered underneath him at the feeling. Arthur continued to thrust into him hitting that spot every time, loving the way Merlin sounded as his dick touched that magic spot deep inside him.

Before long he couldn't go on any more, suddenly Merlin tensed all around him and came with a grunt, his seed spilling all over Arthur's clean sheets. Arthur came straight after and collapsed atop his lover, spent but happy. After a minute, he rolled off, so as to not suffocate Merlin.

Then suddenly, a second later, Merlin was sitting up and getting ready to go. Arthur looked at him confused.

He stood up clumsily and stood in front of the bed covering his dick awkwardly with his hands.

"Do you need anything else?" He asked quietly. Arthur felt as if someone just dropped him into a tank of freezing cold water. Do you need anything else? Like to do you need a glass of water, or a pair of sleep pants, or maybe you'd like a warm place to put your dick?

What had he done?

Did Merlin only sleep with him because he thought he had to?

Merlin was still standing by the bed, looking small. Arthur was in complete shock. He shook his head and kept shaking as his thoughts raced back over the events of the past hour. He barely registered the door click as it closed.

Had he just forced the love of his life to have sex with him?