Twelve Parcels in Silk
Present the Fourth: Swords, Magic and a Bit of Love
When Merlin and Arthur woke up that day after Arthur's coronation anniversary, they both realised that they were in Arthur's bed. Together. However their clothes were still on and Arthur felt a surge of disappointment before he calmly stated, "I've given you your present, you have yet to give me mine."
Merlin looked at him like he was out of his mind and he said slower this time, "My coronation anniversary present."
"Ergh, can't it wait 'til later."
He pulled the covers over his head and disappeared under it, moaning about annoying kings and their love for presents (Arthur really wanted him to be moaning about something else but he strategically kept his mouth shut).
"No it cannot because it is already late and I want it before breakfast."
Merlin's head popped up and he glared at his king.
"What are you? Five?"
"Nope but if you don't get it in my hands in the next five minutes then you can spend the whole of today mucking out every stable in this castle."
He received another glared and then he watched Merlin stumble out his door, heading towards Gaius's chambers. Figures that the idiot left his present in his rooms when he should have brought it with him the day before.
To tell the truth Arthur really just needed some time to himself while he tried to sort through everything that Merlin had told him last night. He had to admit that he manservant wasn't exactly useless (that isn't to say that he wasn't an idiot) and that perhaps he may even be a bit powerful. Alright. A lot powerful.
To learn that he had the most powerful warlock as his best friend when his kingdom still hated magic was a bit, overwhelming. He had known about Merlin's magic, yes, but he never knew the true extent of his powers or how much he had done to save Camelot and him.
He woke from his musings when Merlin came tumbling in through the door, nearly dropping the large bundle of red in his hands. Arthur stared at him unimpressed and then squinted at the red object in his manservant's arms (wait, is that silk?).
"Merlin," he dragged out, "is that red silk I see in your hands?" He raised a mocking eyebrow and Merlin scowled at him.
"Well I didn't want to waste the beautiful red silk you gave me with my boots now did I sire?"
The 'sire' was said in a way that sounded like 'annoying, pompous prat' and Merlin raised a mocking eyebrow back at his king. He grinned at the astonished look on Arthur's face and hummed in reply when Arthur said, "You gave me my gift wrapped in silk that I had given you?"
Arthur stared at him in disbelief and Merlin kept on grinning. Then he stopped and demanded, "Well, are you going to open it?"
The King of Camelot looked a bit uncertain as he reached for the red parcel. Just before he was about to touch it he retreated his hand, glaring at his manservant suspiciously.
"You didn't put frogs or spiders or something evil in there did you?"
"Arthur," Merlin drew out, "Why oh why would I put frogs in your present? And I wouldn't put spiders in there, everyone knows how you fear them. I wouldn't want you to die of a heart attack from the scare now wou-"
A pillow smashed into his face and Arthur screamed out, "I AM NOT SCARED OF SPIDERS!"
Merlin gave him an indulging looked and mutter, "Uh huh, whatever you say sire."
Arthur grabbed his present roughly and near ripped the ribbon around the silk to pieces in his haste to unwrapped his present. He stared at the object in his hand and said slowly, "Merlin… you gave me a scabbard…"
"Yes, for your sword."
"For Excalibur. I wasn't going to tell you what with you not knowing of the magic and all but the sheath is meant to protect you from any physical weapon while you're wearing it."
Arthur looked at him as if he was stupid and he said indignantly, "It's true, it really does protect you from any physical weapon!"
"Oh and I suppose we have imaginary weapons too that could kill us too!"
"What I meant is that it won't protect against magic!"
Arthur had his mouth open, about to shout something or rather back when he realised that the argument had gone off in the wrong direction.
"This isn't what I wanted to say in the first place, I was going to ask you how in the world you were going to explain that no weapon can touch me when I'm wearing the scabbard you got me."
Arthur raised a questioning eyebrow (he felt a bit like Gaius when he did this) at Merlin and waited for an answer. No doubt the warlock (a true idiot) had never thought of this little problem before he had given it to him.
Merlin thought of what to say before giving up and saying sharply, "Well do you want it or not?"
He had been exhausted after his talk all night with Arthur and he would never be so snappy to Arthur (even though Arthur was always snappish to him) but he was losing his patience and he just wanted to go back to sleep.
Arthur sighed and said, "I love it, thank you Merlin."
His smile was bright and happy and Merlin grinned back, relieved that Arthur had liked his present. Then he promptly fell onto his royal pratness's bed and went back to sleep. Arthur made an exasperated noise but let his manservant sleep, he looked truly adorable when sleeping and Arthur stood at the end of the bed and admired the view for a few minutes before getting a passing servant in the hallway to get him his breakfast.
(Merlin dreamt of bunnies and deer and a future that was blurry but cheerful)