Disclaimer

: I do not own Merlin or the song Love Like Winter by AFI

I finally solved the issue with boring disclaimers (well the boring side for me) I copied and pasted this from chap 1 :P

Anyway just wanna thank my 2 reviewers! Make it regular please! I cry happy tears when I see a review alert. Thanks for all the subscribers and faves too but reviewers are my number one, except for Peter, my cactus who I've had for about 4 years and decided to name on a whim a few hours ago :D

PP: Actually his name is Chiaki from GWLTT

She always does that, she nicknamed Quasimodo to Quazzi! NOoOoOoOoOoo... His name is gorgeous so don't change it.

Anyway: To asldjf, Please tell me what is confusing you so that I can try and help! I've been feeling a little (alot) bad about that :( Anyway. Look, it's a day early because the last one was a day late(I wrote most of it (over 2 pages=80%ish) today!

Chapter 4

Merlin collapsed onto his bed, he was sure there was going to be no seductress hunting tonight, he was just too tired.

It was early afternoon and Merlin hadn't sat down once, barring when Arthur had caused him to fall straight onto his tail bone during an impromptu 'training session'. He had been kept busy all day, Merlin thought Arthur was trying to make sure he couldn't escape and go after his marker, he seemed pretty serious if the red mark still on Merlin's cheek was anything to go by.

He had been slapped back to attention every time he had been anything but eagerly attentive during his detailed briefing, haha brief.

Merlin sighed, he had been up all night with the blond beauty, the memories of this encounter were vague but for the emotions and spikes of pleasure which could have been illusion.

Might have been illusion.

The thought was lost when he once again began to ponder on the crystal clear memories of the dream.

-oOo-

Arthur ran up the stairs, Merlin was only meant to be fetching a neckerchief for that absurdly long neck of his covered in those horrid marks that Arthur hadn't made.

He dashed past Gaius and abruptly stopped in the doorway of the tower room. Merlin lay on top of the crumpled sheets of his bed; one hand lay on his neck, each finger resting on a separate bruise. The other was on part of the expanse of bare flesh where his tunic had ridden up, or been pushed out of the way. The fingers of his right hand were stroking the still vivid red marks, gently up and down.

"Ngh... Nim..."

Merlin's face was flushed and his mouth was open. His breath came in little gasps until Arthur firmly clasped his hand over it.

Merlin's face reddened further and the colour began to spread down towards his neck and collar bones.

"Sire-"

"Gaius," Arthur nodded politely towards the guardian of the man he was suffocating. "Ahh." he said, releasing his hold when he turned back and noticed the bulging eyes of his manservant.

They really were very blue.

"You're awake now," Arthur stated, wiping his hand on Merlin's tunic because said male had spluttered all over it. "Come on, we're going hunting, remember your neckerchief, in fact, bring a spare."

The royal prince left the room.

"Gaius, what just happened?" This response came 3 minutes after the blonde's departure. Not because of a dumbfounded hesitation, no, Merlin had simply spent that long panting and stocking up on oxygen enough to speak.

"Perhaps you had better ask him yourself," Gaius scrutinised his ward with disapproval on his face.

Yes, finally! An ally who has witnessed the pratishness of this so called King to be. I hope two sides of the same coin means opposites because I really hope I'm not such a prat, or so lacking in intelligence.

"Oh, Merlin, whilst you make your way down there, at least try not to doom yourself to certain death."

He dropped his eyes to Merlin's still-exposed midriff and then fixed his gaze on his face; his eyes seemed to reflect the silvery starry dragon in their depths.

Okay...maybe not an ally; at least not to me anyway.

Merlin pouted and walked through the door, he felt something hit his back as he descended the stairs and looked back in shock.

Gaius just looked down and then walked past the troublesome man. Sheepishly Merlin picked up the two neckerchiefs from the floor where Gaius had thrown them (via his back) and proceeded to walk the rest of the way out of the Physician's quarters. The black haired servant was quite determined to maintain his pout until the stables where he was sure he would meet and successfully guilt trip a mean Arthur.

Instead he shrieked (considerably higher than many little girls) as he was caught in the eye line of said prince right outside the door.

-oOo-

Merlin had remained quiet whilst walking down all the stairs, making his way to the stables and preparing the horses. Arthur was growing impatient; he wondered vaguely why his was wasting such a rare moment as Merlin's silence in frustration and worry instead of peace or possibly joy.

Merlin didn't talk until they were (along with 5 knights) well into the forest, then he said quietly (though he wanted to scream) "What was that for!"

Arthur briefly contemplated the lack of a question mark then, though he knew what Merlin was inquired into, proceeded to ask "What?" or rather "What was what for, you idiot?"

Merlin growled but didn't say anything, it was time to dismount and one of the knights was looking at him oddly. Merlin squinted, he didn't look familiar.

He nudged the back in front of him. Arthur didn't turn.

*poke poke*

Merlin's eyebrows drew together and he frowned.

*pat pat*

Merlin's hand rose for another touch on his master's back, he slowed, apprehensively remembering the knights tailing-

"OOW! You worthless oaf!" Came a manly cry which was definitely not Merlin.

"Didn't you even think that I was ignoring you because we are hunting prey that is scared away by noise and talking both ofwhich you are well known for?" Arthur hissed under his breath at Merlin despite the fact that his earlier exclamation had definitely cleared the area.

"And then, as if the poking and patting wasn't enough, you decide to fall on me! What better way to just grab my wholehearted attention! Well? Out with it, what did you want to say?"

Arthur's face was bright red and his voice dangerously lowered; not his usual style but his hunter's skills betrayed him at the best of times.

Merlin just shook his head. He had slowly crawled off his landing cushion and was still knelt on the floor not making eye contact with the angered man. Arthur stood over him in the ultimate authority and power.

This position could very well be used for other things, too.

Merlin tried not to blush, he hadn't been able to suppress that thought, along with many others, and now they were all running like a frenzied crowd round his mind where before you would have seen a gentle stroll with gentlemen and ladies complete with pink parasols, prams and all.

The wizard put his hands on the damp ground in front of him and pushed to stand up, he paused still crouching and absentmindedly took stock of the knights filing past him. The ground was damp? But there was also the crunch of dry leaves, not to mention the dead branch complete with leaves still glowing orange with autumn. This wasn't right.

Merlin turned his hands over and gasped out loud, beneath the sprinkling of dust and dry earth, a small dead flower head, an ant, a fly and some unidentifiable (and probably unsavoury) substance, red was smeared in contrast to the slightly roughened but pale flawless skin.

It was a bright living liquid red.

"Arthur...-"

"Merlin, hurry up!"

You don't understand how much I want a review! Just one, even a flame. It shows people are actually gettin a reaction from reading this. Even if you say 'I wasted precious seconds reading your crappy first paragraph I will probably still say "YES! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" (at least until I read the actual review). All you who read this who have written before (that's everyone who's been in formal education) knows how much feedback is absolutely necessary. Anyway, thanks for reading c ya nxt week (unless I do another oneshot a bit sooner).

Goodnight! (Not really, it's only 6 o' clock, however, I did pull a all-nighter so *yawn* maybe I will be going. In an hour or so after waiting for my first story-related alerts to arrive in my inbox.)