Merthur One-shots

Blanket Hogger

Summary: Arthur loves Merlin, but his warlock can be such a blanket hogger. Pure fluff and sleepy cuddles.

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It was winter in Camelot.

The king's chambers were quiet, only the sounds of the fire crackling gently in the fireplace complimented the peace of an early dawn. Sadly, even the warmth from the flames could not completely abate the winter chill in the air, no matter the amount of logs that had been deposited into the hearth. 

The cold in the air was enough to wake the king, an infamously heavy sleeper, with half of his body shivering and the other half supporting a warm bundled-up weight.

Arthur yawned and, after blinking a couple of times to chase away the sleep from his eyes, his gaze flickered down to the bundle currently resting on his chest, whose soft raven hair was the only thing visible about him as the rest of his body was hidden by a thick blanket. Their supposedly shared blanket.

The blanket was large enough to envelop both of them, made with wonderful embroideries - their wedding gift from Queen Annis who had commissioned the finest seamstress from her realm - and yet, it somehow  ended up wrapping around Merlin completely like a snug glove while the remainder was spread behind the sleeping warlock, leaving Arthur with nothing at all.

He could've sworn they went to sleep with an equal share of the blanket.

.

Sadly for Arthur, this was a regular occurance. 

As much as the king loved his warlock, Merlin was a total blanket hogger when he was sleeping.

It was a habit he'd soon found out when he first invited  - or more like, ordered - the younger man, who was then still his manservant, to lay on the king's bed after a particularly gruelling and exhausting night. That was only a couple of weeks after Arthur found out about Merlin's magic, and the manservant looked almost dead on his feet, visibly tired and spent due to causes beyond his usual manservant duties - and after the magic revelation Arthur finally knew why.

Their relationship had been on the fritz since Merlin's secret was revealed, but at that night, the young king put his foot down and ordered the tired and exasperatingly-stubborn warlock to rest or else.

And that was how they ended up sleeping on the same bed for the first time, then Arthur woke up the next morning to find all of his covers hogged by the young man sleeping very peacefully next to him.

..

Groaning, the king slowly pulled down the heavy bundle to reveal his beloved's calm resting face. Merlin was often restless, running around the kingdom and trying to fight off threats behind Arthur's back - a habit that Arthur was still trying to change, but progress was slow. Thus, it was a rare occasion whenever Arthur saw Merlin completely at peace. His resolve to retrieve the blanket almost broke right then.

Nevertheless, Arthur was a knight, and he soldiered on, trying on a more discreet tactic. Unable to stop himself from looking down at Merlin with fondness, Arthur tried to wiggle out his portion of the blanket under Merlin's body. Very gently, of course.

Then Merlin frowned in his sleep and Arthur froze.

"...mmmh, 'thur?"