A/N- Wow! I wrote this in one sit in, hope it's up to par. And 11 reviews! Past 10!

When Arthur woke up the next morning, he was a bit confused at first. Why had his bed become so hard? And had the servant that had attended him last night let the fire go out? Maybe he could talk to Father about that… Oh right, his father. That he had run away from. And now he was staying at Merlin's house.

He rolled over and opened his eyes a fraction, to see if the boy was still sleeping to his left. He was surprised to find that the bed was empty, as was Hunith's bed. He sat up and sleepily rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Good morning," Hunith said, from somewhere to his right. She was in the kitchen, stirring something in a pot. When Arthur just continued to stare, he was still a bit tired, she said, "Merlin already had his breakfast, he went out to help some of the farmers until you woke up. Would you like some breakfast?" She smiled pleasantly at Arthur.

He nodded his head and slowly made his way toward the table they had eaten at last night. Hunith grabbed him a bowl, and then spooned some of the contents into it. It made a sloshing sound as the food hit the bowl, making Arthur rather hesitant about what his breakfast would be. As the bowl was set before him, he saw it was some sort of porridge. Arthur looked at it in silent contemplation for a few moments thinking about how odd of a texture it would be on his tongue, before the growling noise in his stomach took over and he grabbed the spoon Hunith handed him and started spooning it into his mouth.

The texture of it was even odder than he had imagined it. But he didn't want to be rude; this woman had given him a roof and bed, so he swallowed down most of it before declaring he was full. Hunith gave him a look, before taking his bowl away. He felt guilty for a few more moments before his pride told him to dismiss it.

He changed into the borrowed clothes he had received yesterday, and ventured outside. He hadn't gotten a clear view of the village when he had come through with Merlin yesterday. It was small, and had only a few fields surrounding it. He wondered how far away from Camelot he was, and if his father had given up the search for him yet.

Not long after he had started walking away from Hunith's house, he heard someone shout his name. "Arthur!" Even though he had only known him for a day, he recognized the voice almost immediately. He heard his non-stopping prattle for long enough. He turned back to see Merlin running towards him.

Arthur let out a bark of laughter as Merlin nearly fell face down on the ground, having not seen a rock that had been sticking slightly out of the dirt that was road. Merlin recovered his balance and, with a slightly red face, walked briskly the rest of the way towards Arthur.

"Isn't it a little early to be tripping over your own two feet, Merlin?"

"Isn't it a little late to be just waking up?" was Merlin's retort.

"Whatever. I'll get up when I want to, I'm the-"Arthur stopped short. That had always been his excuse at home, that he was the prince and could do whatever he wanted. He realized that that just wouldn't cut it here.

"You're the what?" Merlin asked confused.

"I'm, I'm the boss of myself and can do as I please."

"Alright. Well, I was just wondering if you wanted to come with me to the woods.'

"The woods? What's there?"

"Not much, that's just where lot's of the other children like to hang out sometimes."

"Other children? Will I have to meet some of them?"

"No, probably not. They don't really like to hang out with me much." Merlin turned his head down sheepishly, looking everywhere but at Arthur.

"Why not?" Sure, Merlin was a little clumsy and didn't know when to just shut up, but he found it hard to believe that no one would hang out with him.

"I don't know. We don't get along, I guess. We're just… different."

"Don't you have anyone to hang out with?" Without really realizing it, they had both started walking towards the woods, Merlin leading the way.

"I do. His name is Will. But he's gone away for the week. But next week he'll come back, and then the three of us can hang out together! I think the two of you would get along."

"Maybe we will. But why Will?"

"He just, seems to understand me, you know? He's one of the only children here who just accepts me for me." Arthur did know. Being royalty had its downsides too. He hardly had any friends, and even if he did, most of them just wanted to use him to further their own gain, or their parents. But he would never tell Merlin this. Not just because he couldn't explain the whole prince thing, but also because he wasn't could with talking about feeling and things.

Just then they came to the woods and Merlin paused before they walked all the way into the trees.

"There's a really good climbing tree past that clearing through there. See?" Merlin pointed through the trees. There was a path beaten down from people and horses passing through and Arthur could see a clearing.

"I see it." Just then, inspiration came to Arthur. "Merlin," the boy turned to him," do you want to race to the clearing?"

Merlin contemplated for a few moments and looked Arthur up and down as if sizing him up. Finally he seemed to come to a decision. "Sure."

The boys shook hands then took up positions at the beginning of the path.

"On the count of three," Arthur started. "One, two… three!" He bellowed, and both boys took off.

Arthur easily took the lead and he took pleasure in the feeling of pumping his legs. All his years of trainings kept him from running out of breath or losing his balance. He enjoyed the familiar feeling of working out his muscles, of his feet pounding the ground. It reminded him of home; it was something he knew how to do. That is, until he tripped and fell. One moment he had been running, the clearing almost in reach, and then the ground started racing towards him until his hands caught him and stopped his fall. He looked back at the root that had tripped him, not believing that he hadn't seen it there before.

Suddenly, Merlin passed him, with an odd look on his face. It was a mixture of guilt and amusement, but mostly amusement. Arthur got up and tried to cover all his lost ground, but there was no way he could catch up with Merlin.

"Not fair!" He shouted as he finally made it to the clearing where Merlin was already waiting. Merlin smirked in triumph.

"What? You're saying that if I had tripped you wouldn't have kept on running?" However, Merlin was feeling slightly guilty. He watched as Arthur debated on how to answer his last question.

"Yes, I probably would have, but that is beside the point!"

"How is that beside the point?"

"It just is!" Arthur shouted. Merlin could tell Arthur did not like to lose, and suddenly second guessed his decision. When he had seen that Arthur was going to beat him, he had rashly decided to use magic and had made a tree root come farther out of the ground. He felt a slight satisfaction at seeing Arthur's face as he passed him, but still had a slight feeling of guilt in the pit of his stomach. He was quickly brought out of his reverie when he saw Arthur barreling towards him, obviously angry at being beaten.

Merlin did the only logical thing. He ran. He ran towards the climbing tree he had mentioned earlier and started to climb it.

"Look Arthur, can't we talk about this?"

"Talk about it? What are you, a girl?"

Merlin kept climbing and soon Arthur was following him upwards and gaining ground quickly. Merlin paused to catch his breath on a rather large branch, unaware Arthur was right behind him. The next thing Merlin knew his head was in a headlock and his hair was being roughly ruffled.

"Oww! Arthur, get off!"

"Not until you say I'm faster than you!'

"But I won the- owww!" The ruffling had gotten noticeably rougher. "Fine, fine. You're faster than me, now get off!"

"There, now was that so hard?"

Merlin gave Arthur a glare, and the glower looked so out of place on his face, with his big ears and neckerchief that Arthur laughed out loud. And once he started, he couldn't seem to stop. All the stress of the past few days seem to come off with his laughter.

Merlin, who looked confused at first, eventually joined in the laughter.

And so, if someone had walked past they wouldn't have known they were seeing the Once and Future King with his future advisor, the most powerful warlock ever. They would have just seen two boys, laughing for no apparent reason, enjoying each other's company.

So, did you enjoy it? And should we see Uther's point of view next chapter? I'm still on the fence. See you Thursday!

-princessmelia