ONLY FOR YOU // Merlin/Merthur Oneshots

a brush with death

"We still need to some up with something," Arthur retorted, ignoring the condescending look. "I'd like to not die today, thank you kindly."

"Me neither. You're not the only one with responsibilities, Arthur," Merlin huffed, shaking his head again and beginning to pace once more. He wrung his hands, picking at his nails as he paced, falling into thought.

Hearts meeting one another. How were they supposed to do that? Have an in-depth conversation with each other... About what? They had nothing in common. Well, almost nothing in common. After all, they were of different ranks.

Merlin hardly heard Arthur stand up and call his name. He kept his eyes on the ground-- Supposedly on the ground, but if you looked closely, his eyes were glazed over, focused on nothing.

Arthur frowned at his manservant, calling his name again, yet not receiving an answer. He narrowed his eyes at the other man.

"Merlin, you idiot. We have to work together to come up with something. We should probably talk with each other, or something," Arthur said, stepping in Merlin's way.

"Talk about what, Arthur? There isn't much we have in common," Merlin said, staring at Arthur.

"... I don't know. Just-- Stop pacing, okay? It's making me anxious." Arthur crossed his arms, still frowning at Merlin. "We have to think of something."

"You keep saying that, but you haven't come up with anything," Merlin replied.

"We still have to work together," Arthur said, walking over to the window. As he thought, the flames were much higher than before. That wasn't good at all.

"Well, there isn't much to say. I spend most of my day around you, and when I'm not, I'm running errands for Gaius," Merlin said, which was a half-truth. He wasn't exactly going to tell Arthur he was usually studying magic.

"And when you're not lurking around me, I'm in council meetings, or out training," Arthur said, glancing over at Merlin. "... You're right. We're hardly apart from each other-- So she couldn't have meant getting to know each other."

Merlin winced. It's actually completely possible that she could have meant that. Arthur didn't really know him. Still, he said nothing about it.

However, Arthur noticed the wince. "Merlin? If you're thinking about something, speak your mind," he said, squinting at his manservant.

"I-- Well, seeing as we really don't spend any time apart from each other--" A bit of an exaggeration really-- "then what else can we do?"

Arthur was quiet, still staring out the window. He looked down at the flames, which slowly crept higher in their silence that stretched much longer than he wanted it to. Eventually the king turned to face Merlin, who was now crouched on the ground, the heels of his hands pressed into his eyes.

"... Merlin, are you all right?"

His manservant looked up with a small smile on his face. "Yeah, I'm fine. We'll get out of here, right?"

"Of course."

<<+>>

Yet again, Sir Leon found himself seated at the round table with the rest of the knights, eyes closed and hands rubbing his face.

"So we've managed to lose the King of Camelot again," the knight said slowly, controlling his temper. It was hard however, because Arthur had been with a group of his finest knights, although not his most trusted, as Leon wanted to speak to them about Arthur's birthday. How foolish was he.

"... Sir, you mustn't blame them. It was a very powerful sorceress that attacked the patrol," Sir Lancelot murmured, frowning across the table at Leon.