HEY RYAN, HEY RYAN, IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAYYYYY! HAVE SOME FLUFFY FIC!
Merlin/Arthur (and Gwen/Morgana)
Future!Fic, AU where Morgana never left/ isn’t all smirky and evil.
*****
“Did you hear that new ballad the minstrel from Camlann sang at the feast tonight? It was quite… graphic.”
Merlin directed his question at his pacing king, almost unable to speak from laughing so hard. He had been laughing since he heard the ballad in question. Arthur, on the other hand, did not find the song so funny.
“It was dirty and you know it. Definitely not worthy of a king. I don’t want that minstrel singing in Camelot any more. See to it, Merlin.”
Merlin stared at Arthur, trying to see through the king’s weary and angry exterior in order to try and find out what was wrong.
“First of all, my liege, I’m no longer your manservant, so you can’t order me to throw out innocent minstrels on a whim. Secondly, the song was bawdy, yes, but I distinctly remember you laughing heartily at ballads like that when they were sung about Uther when we were younger. What’s the difference, Arthur?”
Arthur flopped down face first on the large bed and grumbled something into the sheets.
Merlin, smirking, snuck up behind his king, and, without warning, jumped on his back and started tickling him on the very sensitive skin of his ribs.
Arthur squealed like a little girl, and writhed and twisted, trying to get away from Merlin, without much success.
“Stop it! Stop it right now Merlin! I command you, as your King and lord!”
Merlin kept going.
“Yah, right. Nice try, my king. I didn’t even listen to that crap when I was still your manservant, and I’m not gonna start now.”
After he had successfully caused Arthur to flip over underneath him, he stopped and said,
“Now, are you going to say what you said again, or do I have to go back to the tickling? Because you now I can make it feel like I have a hundred hands, only this time it won’t feel as nice as last night.”
Arthur gulped, his mind flicking back to the night before, remembering the overwhelming feeling of Merlin’s hands all over him, touching him in places it was completely impossible to reach. Arthur thanked whatever gods were listening for the thousandth time that Merlin was all his, and that he was able to be on the receiving end of Merlin’s magic when it was used for something other than warfare.
In a low voice, Arthur repeated what he had grumbled into his blankets.
“I don’t like that they’re singing about you.”
Merlin leaned back and shifted so he was sitting cross-legged on the bed, facing Arthur instead of straddling him. He thought about what the other man had said for a moment before answering.
“But Arthur, why wouldn’t they sing about me? I’m always with you. Everyone knows why, and I don’t really care.”
Arthur looked Merlin in the eye, and the emotions in his gaze startled Merlin.
“But they seem to think you’re just some type of sex servant. Everyone knows I’m technically married to Gwen, but they don’t know that she loved Morgana. And they just think I fool around with you. Well, the knights and everyone close to us don’t, because they know about everything; the magic, our true relationship, all of this messed up stuff. But the common people think I’m some sort of unfaithful bastard who gets his rocks off buggering his former manservant every night and ignoring his poor Queen. I hate it.”
He was out of breath from his rant, and Merlin was slightly shocked at the passion behind Arthur’s response. He pulled his king, and the love of his life, into his arms and held him for what felt like ages. After some time he whispered in Arthur’s ear,
“You know we can’t reveal the magic just yet. We’re still dealing with Cenred and Bayard’s alliance, and we need to keep the magic secret until they are dealt with and Mercia and Escetia are under our control. My magic is your secret weapon, and until we’ve dealt with Cenred and Bayard once and for all, I’m perfectly content to be your—what was it— oh, yeah, ‘sex servant’.”
Merlin smiled as he said this all, and his comforting grasp and words calmed Arthur better than any potion or draught could. Soon, Arthur spoke, in a much calmer tone.
“You know, if you’re supposed to be my sex servant, you’re not doing a very good job of it. I’m being deprived.”
Merlin pushed his king down onto the bed once more, and said,
“No, what you’re being is whiny.”
“Oi, you can’t call your king whiny! That’s some sort of treason!”
Merlin smirked.
“Not treason if the king is a prat.”
“Well, if I’m a prat, then you’re a clotpole!”
Merlin straddled his king and leaned down until their noses were almost touching.
“Didn’t we establish all this on the day we met?”
Arthur smiled, and grabbed Merlin by the back of the neck, and pulled his lover down for a kiss. He let Merlin relax into the kiss before taking advantage of it and flipped Merlin onto his back, reversing their positions.
“Not fair!” Merlin protested, even though his heart wasn’t really in it.
Arthur silenced him with a kiss. They went on kissing and exploring the bodies they knew so well for a few moments before they were interrupted by a loud exclamation from the forgotten open doorway.
“Hey! There are children running about you two! No need to give them a show!”
Arthur sighed, and looked around to see the interrupter leaning against the doorway with a smirk on her face and a small boy holding onto her skirts.
He looked back at Merlin and rolled his eyes. Merlin held his hands up in defeat and said, with a smile,
“Hey, she’s your wife, you deal with her and the brats.”
“Brats! They’re your kids too, Mr. Magic Man!” came the indignant response from the doorway.
Merlin smiled and pushed Arthur off him, and leapt off the bed to go and hug his adopted son. Even though the children might biologically be Gwen and Arthur’s, he and Morgana still shared in parenting duties, and the kids called both men Father and both women Mother in private.
Gwen grinned at her gangly friend has he tripped over a stray boot on his way to hug the boy by her side, and said,
“Bal wanted to say goodnight.”
Merlin felt the swell of happiness that he always felt when he heard Bal’s name. When Arthur told him that he and Gwen were naming their first son Balinor after Merlin’s father, he had actually burst into tears. Things like that was the reason he loved Arthur with all of his heart.
He hugged the boy, and kissed him on his head of curly brown hair before saying,
“Goodnight, Bal, remember to find Morgana and give her a kiss too, or she’ll be cross.”
The boy grinned up at him, and Merlin was struck by how much the boy reminded him of Arthur. He might have Gwen’s hair, skin tone, and eyes, but the grin and jawline were all Arthur, and that made Merlin love him even more, if that was possible.
“G’night, Dad. Momma already took me ta’ see Mum! Mummy gave me candy.”
Bal showed him his sticky hands, and Merlin smiled back at the boy. Arthur came up behind him, and said, in his best Uther-impersonation,
“Now, Balinor, it is not the duty of a Prince of Camelot to eat sweets and lounge about all day. Can you tell me what the duty of a Prince of Camelot is?”
Bal looks a little frightened, as he always did when his Father spoke in what he called the “Scary King Voice”.
“Um, protect tha’ kingdom an’ save tha’ people?”
At his son’s questioning tone and terrified little face Arthur’s resolve broke and he dropped to his knees and said,
“That’s for when you get older. Right now your duty is to hug your father.”
Bal threw himself into his father’s arms and let Arthur’s large frame wrap completely around his little 6 year-old one.
Merlin smiled at Gwen, and the two of them looked down at the beautiful man between them, and his little son.
END