Merthur One-shots

Insomnia

“Merlin?” Arthur said, finally breaking the silence.

“Er,” Merlin scrambled for a better excuse for his presence than ‘I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to come to your room, can I sleep here?’. “There’s - There’s no guards outside. I, uh, thought there might be someone in here.”

That was still the truth, but it didn’t explain why he was walking around in the middle of the night.

“What do you mean there’s no guards? And why were you up here anyway?” Arthur dropped the shirt he was holding and walked over to where Merlin still stood in the doorway. He looked past Merlin to find the empty corridor.

“Did you see if they left? If the guards are slacking off, I’ll have to report this to my father in the morning.” Arthur said, thankfully not making Merlin answer his previous questions.

“No, I didn’t see any leaving, just the other normal rounds.” Merlin answered.

“OK. So, why are you here? You don’t need anything, do you? Did Gaius lock you out?”

Merlin just nodded along, hoping that was a good enough excuse.

Arthur looked at his manservant and rolled his eyes. “Fine, come in. You can sleep in the antechamber. Do you know how late it is? You couldn’t have come here earlier?”

Merlin walked into the chamber, letting Arthur close the door behind him, before turning to the prince with a confused look.

“But, you were already awake when I got here?”

Arthur looked away before looking back at Merlin.

“Yes, well, I couldn’t sleep. I figured I could go for a walk or a ride.” Merlin smiled at the coincidence.

“Really? I couldn’t sleep either. That’s why I’m here, I thought I could walk around and get tired, and I ended up here.”

Arthur suppressed the urge to roll his eyes again. “Yes, I’m sure sleeping on the cold stone floor must have been very hard.” He walked over to his bed, apparently ready to try sleeping once more. “Technically, you’re supposed to sleep in the antechamber anyway. You are my manservant, it’s what the room is for.”

“Does Gwen sleep in Morgana’s antechamber?”

“Well, not every night. But she still does on most nights.”

Merlin nodded skeptically. “Right. Well I don’t feel the need to be on your beck and call 24/7, seeing as I’d surely never get any sleep.”

Arthur raised a brow, “And yet you still couldn’t sleep in your normal rooms.”

Merlin just rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t help the small smile making its way across his lips. He was very glad Arthur wasn’t mad at him for disturbing his sleep, because gods forbid anyone disturb the prince’s much needed beauty sleep.

“Goodnight, Merlin.”

“Goodnight, Arthur.”

With that, Arthur climbed into his bed, and Merlin entered the antechamber.