Our Biggest Mistakes | ✔

❝A King and his Manservant.❞

"Get up you ol' chap, lunch is prepared for you down at the dining chambers." Merlin shakes Arthur's limp body, hearing his king's snores finally subside as the blond lands back into consciousness after the ravenette's millionth attempt.

Merlin tilts his head, his ocean eyes studying Arthur's icy blues when they're plucked open. "You feeling better?" He asks, standing straight once again. Arthur grumbles and turns to lay on his back, patting his chest with light fingertips. "Indeed." He says slowly, sleep still stuck to his everything.

"Uh-huh," Merlin says slowly, uncertainty present, "last time you said that you were in bed for nearly a week."

"Shut up, Merlin."

"Yes, Sire."

Merlin does as he's told, but the silence barely lasts two minutes before he pipes up again and asks, "Need me to escort you to the dining room? M'Lady is waiting for you and you seem so sluggish you can come off as drunk."

Arthur finally gets out of bed, eye-to-eye with Merlin as he stands. "What did I just say?"

Merlin rolls his eyes and purses his lips.

Satisfied, Arthur stretches and pops the bubbles in his spine before following Merlin down to the awaiting feast and his Queen.

Minutes of banter and insults are exchanged before Arthur and Merlin arrive to the chambers, nearly shoving each other into the walls like aggressive five-year-olds that don't yet know their manners. Gwen looks up at the two men from her plate of food and smiles at the good vibes they had brought in with them. She wonders if Arthur and she give off those same vibes to others, happy and positive about their relationship and the world ahead. She wouldn't know, though. She hasn't felt much of that even since the day they were married.

"Come sit you two." She ushers the men over. Merlin and Arthur stop their shoving and huffed laughter to look at their Queen, Merlin's hand on Arthur's shoulder, ready to push him and vice versa.

"Both of us?" Merlin says.

"Merlin?" Arthur says.

"Yes, yes. Come." Gwen smiles softly, gesturing a maid over with her finger. The maid places a plate in front of the thrown in the center of the table and one before the chair across from Gwen. Merlin sits across, Arthur in the throne.

"So," Gwen says as she finishes swallowing a piece of steak, "what were you guys doing before you came here? I could hear your laughter from miles away, and I think the other kingdoms did as well."

Arthur rolls his eyes which makes Gwen and Merlin laugh. "Arthur was being a grumpy two-year-old because I woke him up."--Arthur raises his hand to protest, but the ravenette cuts him off before that's possible--"I said he needs to stop complaining like a carrot-head--"

"Which I don't even know what that means," Arthur says.

"--or I'll kick his arse, and he wanted to test that theory by shoving me. Pretty much, I ran from him after the first push and he chased me. The reason we were late is because I was running down random corridors, not even thinking of the way to the dining chambers. This prat kept chase for a while surprisingly. Eventually, though, I got tired, he caught me, and then we started shoving each other all the way here. The end."

Arthur nods in confirmation.

Gwen had been giggling in between Merlin's story-telling, especially laughing when Merlin called Arthur a 'carrot-head' (whatever that is). "Well, no wonder you two were breathless and sweaty when you badgered in here."

Both men nod in unison.

It goes silent, and the trio continues to eat their perfectly good meals. Merlin chows down like a dog, appreciative that Gwen urged him to sit down and eat with her and her king. Arthur would sometimes comment on how Merlin is probably going feral, and Merlin would snatch a slice of his steak to prove that point exactly.

Gwen finishes her meal with a gulp of wine. She had listened to the banter between the two men this whole time, not wanting to interrupt the joy they dispersed when together. But suddenly, she blurts, "A King and his Manservant, friends for nearly a decade. Who would've thought?"

King and Manservant smile at Queen, but then Manservant raises an eyebrow and says, "I'm not his."

I doubt that, Queen thinks, taking another sip of her wine to cover the cracks in her fake smile.