500 Days of Freya (Merlin)

Secret Date

Chapter 5

Warning/s: Slight nudity and making out (not graphic in any way).

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin. If I did, would I be on my laptop writing Freylin fanfics?

A/N: So this is a prompt from bubbles002: "merlin is going to meet freya secretly for a secret date and arthur follows him and ruins it"

Thanks for all your prompts so far, guys. I appreciate it, I really do. Keep it up, yeah, so I don't have to have another rant at you lovely people?

Merlin looked up, licking his lips nervously, from where he was scrubbing the floor. "Arthur," he said hesitantly.

Arthur looked up from his papers, looking mildly irritated at the distraction. "Yes, Merlin?" He pinched the bridge of his nose, as was one of his idiosyncrasies when stressed.

"I was wondering whether I could have the evening off?" Merlin crossed his fingers underneath the rag he was used, and attempted to look as demure as possible.

Arthur eyed him suspiciously. "Why?"

Merlin cursed inside his head, and stuttered out, "I have...to...help...G...Gaius." Yes, that would do. "Yes. Gaius."

Arthur stared at him for a while longer with arched eyebrows. "Alright," he said finally, nodding slowly. "As long as you get all your chores done before then." He resumed reading through his documents.

Merlin began scouring the floor once again, relieved and pleasantly taken aback to have gotten off so lightly.

Little did he know that Arthur wasn't reading through his papers. Instead, he was plotting.

Merlin walked out of his chambers approximately three-quarters of an hour after he had left Arthur's chambers. He was wearing a different shirt, Arthur noticed. And a different neckerchief. It looked nice. Not that Arthur was taking any notice of him.

As Merlin strode down the corridor, Arthur slipped out of a nearby alcove and stalked after him, taking care to stay secluded in the shadows cast by the flickering torches. He was holding something in his hand, Arthur's keen eyes picked out, and when Merlin passed through a beam of light streaming in via a clear, latticed window, Arthur saw it was a single red rose.

Arthur tracked his manservant out of the castle and trod carefully through the cobblestones of the court-square, ensuring that his heavy, leather boots did not catch or make a noise. It earned him some strange glances from the guards on duty, but they let it slide, and Arthur found that he could ignore it.

Merlin had acted particularly oddly earlier that day, weirder than usual, and Arthur was determined to find out why. It obviously wasn't Gaius; why was Merlin wandering into the lower town with a red rose?

Well, the answer to that was pretty clear – he was obviously seeing someone who he was romantically involved with.

But who was she?

Or was it a man?

Arthur resolved then and there to accept Merlin whoever he was seeing. He would support him, he would still love him the same – well, not love him, because he was platonically fond of Merlin, but they weren't friends, so obviously he didn't love him – anyway, he would get involved with this and raise awareness for the minority of the population that Merlin was in –

By the time Arthur snapped back to reality, he had convinced himself that Merlin was seeing a man, definitely, it was in no way a girl; and that Merlin was nowhere to be seen. Glancing around hurriedly, he noticed a figure knocking on a door of a small, but rather charming little house made of wood.