Sassy Old King Consort

Chapter 1: Merlin Needs A Day Off.

If Merlin had to sit through one more council meeting or stare down one more obnoxious, rude, or condescending Lord, he may explode. He was truely getting sick of the whole "be polite or you risk a war" part of being married to Arthur. Their relations with neighbouring kingdoms were already strenuous enough thanks to royal idiots who didn't like Arthur's choice of marriage. Of course some completely accepted it, even encouraging it, Queen Annis being notably among that crowd. The Queen even went out of her way to give Merlin some tips on how to deal with the life as a King's Consort. Although she referred to him as a Queen, so his exact title was slightly uncertain.

"Merlin are you even listening to me?" Gaius' grumpy voice snapped Merlin out of his thoughts and back to the present where he had not in fact been listening.

"Yes, yes, I, You were just saying..." Merlin trailed off, unable to work out the conversation based on the ingredients on the table in front of Gaius.

"Have you slept recently?"

"Of course I've slept! I'll admit, it's been less than I'd like, but I've slept! You have to understand how much of a pain rewriting the old magic laws is! And then I was done and I can't help myself, magic is legal these days, I finally get to use it on frivolous things, so yeah maybe I had some fun, but I still went to sleep!"

"How many hours?" Gaius asked, his eyebrow raised in that iconically Gaius way.

"What?"

"How many hours did you sleep last night?"

"Three..."

"MERLIN!"

"I know, I know, I'll sleep tonight, I promise, I've just got to work on this spell to help out this boy who if u don't help will probably end up breaking a rib with how much he's binding. Once I do that I'll get to sleep."

"Alright," Gaius agreed with a sigh, ushering Merlin away to get on with his work.

Merlin wandered through the corridors towards the room Arthur had gifted him full of magic books, but he only got a few steps from Gaius' room when he was stopped by one of the newer knights, Sir Caradoc, who awkwardly asked for advice on asking out one of the other knights.

"Who are you looking to ask out?" Merlin asked, always happy to set up his knights. They deserved to be happy.

"Gwaine?" The man admitted, his voice almost a whisper.

"Ah, well Gwaine is dating Percival, but I do believe they are both open to dating multiple people. Most people would guess that the way to Gwaine's heart is alcohol, and while that will work it depends what you want, are you looking for a fling or a more long term relationship?"

"Uhm, I'm not sure..."

"Well, alcohol will do the trick for a fling, but if you really want a good shot with him, you have to become his friend first."

"Thank you Your Highness, Thank you so much!"

"Just Merlin is fine, and you're welcome, if you need someone to introduce you to then just come find me, yeah?"

"Thank you my Lo- Merlin."

"Is that all for now?" Merlin asked, giving the knight a reassuring smile, and when the man nodded, Merlin bid him farewell and headed on his way, only to be stopped at the next turn by Gwen.

"Merlin! Hi, I needed to catch you, I know you're king now, but would you be able to spare an hour to help me out? I'm trying to organise Elyan's birthday party tonight, but I realised I just don't have the time to do it all myself, would you be able to help?" Gwen asked, her words tumbling from her lips as she fixed up the clean laundry she had in her basket.