Wrap Your Arms Around Me (merdred)

18. Giving

A/N: I drew some Merdred fanart for this chapter! I am not an experienced artist, fair warning. But I'd love some tips for the future! Anyway, enjoy.

Comments and votes are much appreciated! Love you :) (Sorry for the typos in the name. I just fixed them!)

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        MERLIN WAS IN ONE OF THE MOST BORING meetings of his life... but it was vital, so he stayed in his seat despite wanting to flee.

Over the years and since Uther's death, Arthur had slowly allowed him to have more involvement in the meetings. He used to just stand around looking pretty, listening to the boring men drone on and on about raising taxes or whatever the hell their pompous arses wanted next. He was simply there to wait on their every need; to fill the council members' glasses or fetch them something from the kitchens. But as time went one, he got closer and closer to the table until he found his own seat alongside his fellow knights and council members. Most people would say it wasn't a servant's place, but he and Arthur just ignored them. But this was hard to do when certain members were making rude jabs at him, thinking they were sly when they were really just getting on everyone's nerves. Still, Merlin held his place at the table, even if he was silent most of the time.

This meeting was important, more so than normal, because they were discussing Morgana's recent attack. It was a nice change of pace from Sir Guiburt's usual endless rant about taxing the poor. But still, Merlin found himself zoning out more than he was paying attention.

"We need to be ahead of her. She can't continue to surprise us. The problem is finding her," Arthur continued from his place at the head of the table. "When we were little, Morgana used to run so fast, she'd lose track of us and end up in the middle of the forest. Deep within nature was always where she found peace. It seems like a likely place she'd be; far enough away from Camelot but not yet in another kingdom's territory."

There was a murmur of agreement, then Mordred nodded his head and spoke. "I would say the same, Sire. But Morgana is a powerful woman that most fear. It seems likely that she would form allies, like the Saxons. Maybe she's closer to a village in her control than we think," Mordred suggested in a confident voice. It was like he had a natural gift for speaking in the council, even though he hadn't had much experience.

"Yes, I'll keep that in mind. She knows better than to lie too low where it starts to become suspicious. I'll send a patrol out to scout the areas she might be hiding. Now, onto other matters. Sir Wyman, you had something you'd like to discuss?"

Great, here we go again. Merlin wondered why the king still had such pretentious members on the council, views similar to Uther's. If his father was long gone, surely he could've dismissed some of them. He was tired of listening to these men complain about their problems as if their issues were important. He readjusted in his seat, preparing for an extra-long day.

Then suddenly, he heard a burst of laughter in his mind. 'If I have to listen to Wyman yell about his problems for any longer, there will no longer be any more council members to have meetings with!'

Merlin's lips curled into a smile at this. 'Trust me, you'll never get used to it. Just feel lucky you've only had to attend a few of these.'

Mordred gave him a warm smile back, but a few moments later, it turned into a mischievous smirk. 'I would much rather be pressing you up against a wall and kissing senseless right now,' Mordred said in his husky voice.

Merlin looked up at him with a blush on his cheeks, their eyes locking together. His hitch in his breathing was the only sound that left his lips... or mind? He looked away quickly instead of giving him an answer.