Summary: Merlin, once more, couldn't sleep.
Merlin wanders around the castle, surprised where he ends up, but overall pleased with the result.
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Merlin, once more, couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t that he was being called on by the Great Dragon, or any other magical being for that matter, or that he had to keep scurrying around to finish some chores, he had somehow managed to finish all of the tedious tasks Prince Arthur had given him exceptionally early. Merlin knew that he was tired, he just couldn't sleep. Simple as that.
Merlin thought about getting a sleeping draught from Gaius, but he wasn’t sure if there were any in store. He got up from his bed, anyway. The sheets were tangled from him tossing and turning so much to try and find a comfortable enough position to lull himself to sleep.
With bleary eyes, Merlin quietly crept into the main room, careful not to wake Gaius. He looked through a few cupboards, ultimately surprised that he hadn’t dropped anything, until he got to the last cupboard. He had found a sleeping drought, but in classic Merlin fashion, he accidentally knocked it to the floor with a crash made louder by the surrounding silence. He cringed and immediately dropped to the ground to hide himself and clean the mess, and looked over to see Gaius had only barely stirred.
He let out a breath he had been holding and finished cleaning the mess with a quick flash of his eyes and wave of his hand. Merlin decided he’ll gather extra herbs to make up for the wasted drought when he had the free time. For now, Merlin had to figure out a way to get to sleep.
Merlin was fairly certain a spell wouldn’t work, and he wasn’t going to brew anything now, he was already on thin enough ice trying not to wake Gaius. Maybe he could go for a walk. It would be easy enough to avoid the guards at this point, and he could go out and gather those herbs now.
Except, when Merlin walked out of the physician’s tower, he realised he had forgotten both his coat and his herb bag. For some inane reason, instead of simply going back, Merlin just sighed and kept walking through the castle. In his sleeping clothes.
No real destination in mind, Merlin walked around and evaded guards with ease. Really, Uther prided himself on having the best security in all of Albion, but if some klutz of a manservant could get past the guards so easily, he should probably think about getting better security measures.
After maybe an hour or so of aimless wandering, Merlin somehow found himself outside the doors to Arthur’s chambers. He had no clue how he got here, or why. He knew he was doing his best to avoid going down to the dungeons, because he really didn’t want to talk to the Dragon. That would make him even less tired.
But here he was, now, in the empty corridor standing in front of Arthur’s closed doors. Wait, there was no one else around but him. Where were the guards? Surely there were supposed to be guards outside his doors, so where did they go?
Then he heard a sound coming from within the room.
Thinking the worst, Merlin quickly opened the door as quietly as he could, only to find Arthur standing by his wardrobe. They stared at each other for a second, Merlin quickly looked around the rest of the room for any sign of invaders before looking back at the very much awake and alive prince.
The moonlight made his bed-mussed hair look silver, and soft shadows defined his shape. He was only wearing a pair of loose hanging sleeping trousers. Merlin tried not to think too much about that, despite the flush on his cheeks.
“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.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
An hour later, neither Arthur or Merlin could sleep, still.
With a resigned sigh from either side of the wall separating the main chamber from the antechamber, both Merlin and Arthur slowly sat up and slid out of bed. They both shuffled over to the closed door separating them. They reached to open the door at almost the same time, only for Arthur to open it before Merlin.
They once more stared at each other for a minute, before smiles broke out on each of their faces. Merlin couldn’t help but giggle as Arthur shook his head.
“Couldn’t sleep, I’m guessing?” Arthur said quietly. Merlin just laughed a bit harder.
The laughter was contagious, and soon Arthur was joining him with low chuckling. “Come on, you useless sod. I’m guessing Gaius doesn’t have any sleeping droughts?”
Merlin shook his head as he calmed down his giggles. He blamed the lack of sleep.
Arthur stepped aside to let Merlin walk into the main chamber, and they walked over to the empty hearth. Merlin quickly built the fire, not bothering to hide the magic he used to start the fire. Arthur knew about him, and thank the gods he hadn’t tried to kill him or get rid of him.
They sat down next to each other and stared at the fire. “Maybe if we drink something,” Merlin suggested, eyeing the cupboard he knew Arthur kept his wine.
Arthur just laughed before getting up and grabbing two goblets and a decanter of his favorite wine. Merlin’s smile grew as he was handed a goblet and it was filled halfway with the dark red drink.
They drank the wine, letting the slightly fruity drink warm them up next to the fire. If they could sleep, it would have been a very cosy moment, curled up on soft furs and cushions by the fire, drinking wine and sharing each other's company.
The silence wasn’t tense or anything. It was a comfortable, companionable one, filled with the crackling of the fire and the occasional swishing of more wine being poured into goblets. Merlin was comfortable.
He took the moment of silence to admire Arthur, who was staring into the fire. The soft glow of the fire clashed with the silver moonlight, making one side of Arthur’s face look warm and golden, and the other silver and cold. Shadows were cast across the prince’s face by the light, sharpening his features. His cheeks were flushed a soft pink from the wine. Merlin found he couldn’t look away, even when Arthur returned his gaze.
They continued to say nothing as Merlin blushed, from the wine or from the held gaze, Arthur wasn’t sure. The prince took in how the fire made Merlin’s normally blue eyes almost glow gold, like how they did when he used magic. His eyes flicked down to his manservant’s wine stained lips, and he found himself licking his own, sure they were just as colored. He heard Merlin’s breath catch, and was sure he wouldn’t have caught the sound if they weren’t so close. Neither of them had even realized they had gotten so close.
“Arthur,” Merlin said, just barely breathing the single word.
Arthur looked back up at Merlin’s eyes. His pupils were so large, the prince could barely see the blue around them. They stayed like that for only a moment more.
“Are you tired yet?” Arthur asked, just as quietly. Merlin blinked twice, like he needed a moment to decipher what the words meant, before minutely shaking his head.
The prince just nodded before turning back to the fire. His hand carefully snaked around the servant’s waist, and he pulled Merlin closer. Arthur ignored his quiet gasp, drinking the rest of his wine.
It didn’t take long for Merlin to relax against his prince, laying his head against Arthur’s shoulder. The prince’s grip only tightened around him.
They finished their wine and stayed there, sitting in front of the dying fire, curled up on soft furs. They fell asleep just as the moon began to make way for the growing dawn.
Arthur had nothing to do in the morning, and if he wasn’t awake, then Merlin had a similar lack of responsibilities to tend to. So they slept in until midday, curled up around each other with an empty bottle of wine and a hearth filled with ash and dying coals.
By samm_jpg on ao3