"Merlin?"

"Yes?" Merlin replied with a yawn. Arthur was staring open-mouthed at the laptop he had balanced on his lap, and didn't even raise his eyes to look at Merlin. He sighed heavily.

"Merlin, it has come to my attention that people have been writing extremely inappropriate stories involving us." Arthur's voice was grave, and Merlin groaned. He had known that Arthur would discover 'Merthur' eventually, and had been dreading the day ever since he had shown Arthur what a laptop was.

"Yes, I'm afraid so," was all he was able to say in reply.

Arthur sighed again. "Don't worry, Merlin. I understand."

"What?" said Merlin in surprise. He had expected Arthur to be disgusted and indignant, but he was actually looking quite calm.

"I realise that you are very miserable that we are not together, and have had to turn to writing-" Arthur narrowed his eyes at the screen. "Fan-fiction. And you couldn't bear the thought that your love for me would never be returned, and decided to draw those, quite frankly, disgusting pictures off us and-"

"Arthur!" said Merlin weakly. "It's not me who writes all these stories about us - I try and avoid them as much as possible!"

"Oh." Arthur looked rather surprised. "Well, whoever it is, I hope they stop doing it, and soon. I mean, listen to this! "The great Arthur Pendragon stared into the depths of Merlin's beautiful eyes and slowly leaned forward, his-"

Merlin clapped his hands over his ears. "I'm not listening, Arthur!" He shook his head. "I can't believe you want to read that stuff, anyway."

Arthur beamed at him. "Can I get an account on this fanfiction, Merlin?"

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "Why, exactly?"

"I wanted to write a story of my own!" said Arthur brightly.

Merlin narrowed his eyes. "If it's about us, forget it. Anyway Arthur, I thought you'd be a bit more-"

Arthur spluttered, interrupting him. "Merlin! Look at this!"

"I don't think I want to," said Merlin with a sigh.

"It says we do what?!" Arthur exploded. "That's...that's creepy! Disgusting! Also, what's this 'slash' that everyone keeps going on about?"

Merlin groaned. "It's when you put two men together in a-"

"M-preg," said Arthur slowly, peering at the screen. "What is-"

"I think we'll leave that!" said Merlin loudly. He walked over to Arthur and grabbed the laptop from him, instantly regretting it when his eyes landed on the words, "Merlin pulled Arthur in for another deep kiss, and ran his hands through the king's soft blond hair..."

Merlin resisted the urge to bang his head against the laptop. "I really hope you weren't just reading this, Arthur."

Arthur didn't answer him; his thoughts seemed elsewhere. "Merlin," he said eventually, "what does 'smut' mean?"

Merlin shook his head quickly. "You don't need to know that." He turned the laptop off before Arthur could look at it again and walked into his office to store his laptop away.

Arthur followed him. "Merlin, why do some people write stories about lemons?"

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "Lemons?"

"Some people say that their stories contain lemons." Arthur frowned. "Why would someone write a story about a lemon?"

"Arthur, please try and forget everything you've just read," said Merlin firmly. "Please. For me. For a friend."

"We're not just friends!" said Arthur brightly. "According to the internet, we're-"

Merlin ran out of the room, his hands over his ears for the second time that day. "I don't want to know!" he bellowed.

A/N: Hehe, I couldn't resist! I don't really mind Merthur, but I wanted to write something about Arthur discovering it (although he didn't turn out as traumatised here as I'd initially thought he would.) Anyway, thank you for reading!