A/N: Thank you so much to the people who reviewed the last chapter! :)
"What is this supposed to be?" Arthur stared down at his bowl in horror.
"It's called ice cream," said Merlin, glancing up from his own bowl.
"So, what do I do with it?"
"You eat it," said Merlin simply. "It's very nice."
"But look at it!" Arthur spluttered. "It's all brown and…disgusting!"
"It's chocolate flavoured," said Merlin patiently. "You get lots of different types of ice cream, you see."
Arthur groaned. "Why has the world changed so much? Why is the food all horrible now?"
"You haven't tried it yet!" Merlin protested. "Come on, have a spoonful. You'll like it Arthur, I promise."
Arthur picked up his spoon and prodded the ice cream gingerly, shuddering. "Merlin, it's revolting, look at it!"
"It isn't-"
"What does it taste like?"
"Well," said Merlin, struggling to find the right words to use to describe it without putting Arthur off even more, "it's…cold. And it tastes of chocolate, which you like, so don't try and pretend otherwise!"
"I don't like it," Arthur declared. "Remove it from my presence at once, Merlin!"
"I'm not a servant anymore," Merlin reminded him. "And you're not the King." Arthur was gradually coming to terms with the fact that he was now no better than anyone else, and the fact that Merlin was no longer his servant, but he would occasionally forget, which was understandable, considering the fact that he was used to telling everyone what to do and having them do it from the moment he could walk.
Arthur sighed. "Fine, I'll try a little bit of it, if I have to. If you're not going to take it through to the kitchen, I'm not going to."
"I'll leave you in peace to eat it," said Merlin, rolling his eyes and standing up, carrying his bowl through to the kitchen. As he washed his bowl, he heard several loud exclamations of disgust coming from the dining room, but ignored them, well aware that Arthur liked to make a fuss about things.
He returned a few minutes later, and found Arthur sitting with an empty bowl. "You finished it!" Merlin said in delight.
"I didn't really like it, but I thought I might as well finish it," said Arthur, shrugging. "After all, you'd worked so hard to prepare it for me, and I owe a lot to you so it would be ungrateful to throw it away, although I ended up having to put the last bit in the bin, because it was making me feel sick."
"Right," said Merlin, choosing not to mention that the bin was in the kitchen, where he had been ever since he left Arthur so would have seen him put his ice cream in the bin, or the fact that all he had done to prepare it was scrape some ice cream out of a container. However, he remained quiet, and smiled at his friend, picking up the bowl and heading into the kitchen.
"Merlin?" said Arthur, following him. "Did you say that you can get…other flavours of ice cream as well as chocolate?"
Merlin nodded. "Do you want to try some?" he asked casually, a smile curling at the corners of his lips. He was glad he wasn't facing Arthur, and purposely kept his back to him.
"Just in case I like them more than the chocolate one," said Arthur quickly. "You never know. I don't think I will, though."
"No," said Merlin. "I'm sure you mean that."
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this! :)