Hey there!

Here's your last chapter of the introductory upload! If that (-) made you sad, just review a chapter, or a general reply saying how much you enjoyed/hated any/all of them, or a quick word just so I can acknowledge the existence of readers :D

Enjoy! ^.^

'On the outside I'm sure you're faking, forget the first time, the first impression'

Mucking out the stables was one of Merlin's least favourite chores, mostly because he wasn't completely sure it was his job to do it. There were plenty of stable boys milling about the place at various times of day; couldn't one of them do it? As the Crown Prince's manservant, Merlin was just not confident that he should be subjected to this disgusting task. Though, being loyal and true to his duties, if he was asked, he would do it. So he turned his mind to happier things.

He was not surprised in the slightest when his thoughts turned to Arthur for far from the first time today. The Prince made him happier than anyone, anything else and, in the fantasies in his mind at least, no one could take that away from him. Though he remembered the first time he had met Arthur, torturing a servant with knife-throwing in the courtyard. He remembered the words Arthur had said, hurtful, arrogant, cocky. Merlin had hated him in that moment, hated his triumphant smirk, his up-himself attitude, but now that Merlin had seen underneath the bravado, the façade, he understood that all of Arthur's actions on that day had been a ploy to hide his attraction from everyone, Merlin included.

The Arthur that day, much like the Arthur that flirted with noblewomen and believed completely in his father's rulings, was a fake. And Merlin was so glad. He didn't think he would have survived if he'd have fallen in love with such a clotpole if that had been Arthur's true nature. And what's more, he knew that Arthur felt incredibly guilty about treating him like that, so Merlin mostly forgot, at least when Arthur asked, about that first time they met, the first impression he got, to stop the Prince beating himself up as much as he did about it.

Okay guys, you know what to do now! *pleads for reviews* :D