Sleeves

Chapter 2

'RISE AND SHINE!' shouted Merlin cheerily whilst yanking open Arthur's curtains.

'Urrrrrghhhh,' Arthur moaned sleepily, covering his face with a pillow, 'go away Merlin!'

'Arthur,' Merlin said, in a warning tone, 'we don't have time for this. Not today. You need to get you royal backside out of that bed!'

'All I want is a lie-in. I mean I'm King of bloody Camelot, surely I can have a lie-in.'

'Nope! Because the "King of bloody Camelot" has to be in his bloody throne room in half an hour to approve routes for the patrols'

'Surely I can miss that just this once,' Arthur whined.

'Ordinarily maybe, but seeing as you missed it last week and the week before that too, you really should be there. Come on, up you get.'

'No,' the king said rather stubbornly.

'Right that's it! I've had enough of this.' 

Merlin walked over to the bed from the table he'd been setting for the King's breakfast and pulled the blankets off the King and on to the floor. Despite Arthur's protests, Merlin proceeded to then pick up every single one of Arthur's pillows up one by one and chuck them across the room (hitting Arthur in the face with them first, obviously).

'Merlin! I am the King! You can't treat me like th...'

But before he could finish his sentence, he felt Merlin's arms wrap around his shoulders and pull him off the bed on to the cold stone floor. Arthur thought that Merlin's arms felt peculiarly bony, but before he had time to think about that in any detail, Gwaine burst into the room, closely followed by Percival and Leon. All of them were holding apple pies and were out of breath. Clearly they'd sprinted from the kitchens. Outside the doors, all five men could hear the angry shouts of the cook. Whilst that scenario was funny enough, once the three knights had paused long enough to take in their surroundings, they realised that they were in the King's chambers and that the king's soft furnishings were strewn across the room and the king was...on the floor?

'What the fu..' Gwaine started before Percival punched him in the ribs, 'ouch Percy!' 

Arthur, realising that he and Merlin were no longer alone, stood up rather quickly and looked rather sheepish. Merlin, who had nipped out quickly after dragging Arthur out of bed to fetch the bucket of water he'd left outside, surveyed the scene with his signature lopsided grin. No one noticed that his eyes weren't smiling quite as brightly as his face was.

'Do I dare ask what's going on here?' questioned Leon.

'I could ask you the same question,' said Arthur, trying to regain his dignity as best he could.

'The cook has made a new batch of apple pies' said Gwaine at the exact same moment as Merlin said,

'Oh this is just Arthur's everyday morning routine.'

'Merlin,' Athur hissed, 'not every morning.'

'Of course, sire. You're right. Yesterday I dragged you out the other side of bed!'

Gwaine and Percival burst out laughing at this but were silenced by a stony glare from Leon. 

'Right well,' said Arthur, 'hadn't you lot best be on your way?'

'Oh...umm...yeah...right...ok...' the three knights hurried to the door, all smirking. Once they'd left, Merlin broke the silence with,

'Well that was fun, wasn't it?' in a slightly teasing manner.

'Merlin?'

'Yes Arthur?'

'Am I doing anything this afternoon?'

'Nope. After the patrol meeting and a quick training session, you're free for the weekend.'

'Excellent. We shall go for a hunt.'

'Actually, I was going to have the afternoon off. You know, catch up on...'

'Merlin. We are going on a hunt! Start prepping!'

'Prat.'

'Idiot.'

'Clotpole.'

'MERLIN!!!'

Merlin turned around just in time to see one goblet hit him square in the face and another in Arthur's hand. He grinned and sprinted out of the King's chambers.'