Chapter Text
Another four summers had passed, and they were back in the clearing. Arthur laid on his back, with legs hitched on the log as he stared into the great blue sky, and Merlin, sat cross-legged beside him, munching on the berries they had foraged before getting settled.
Arthur was humming a tune, one that Merlin didn't recognize.
"Where's that from?" He asked.
"Gods Merlin, don't talk with your mouth full."
Arthur said with a slight shove at Merlin's knee
"Sorry" said Merlin, wiping the juice from his lips.
"...It's a song my mother used to sing, when she was alive...atleast that's what the maids said."
"Oh" Merlin stilled, "I'm sorry"
"Don't be, it's a pretty song."
They went back into a comfortable quiet as Arthur sang the rest of the song.
"Prince of a nation and a good singer to boot." Merlin shook his head and shot Arthur a smile.
"Sometimes, I rather be a farmer" Arthur mused.
"Really?"
"Yea, running off to the country-side, a nice cottage, a small field, a few friends...you."
"I'm in your farming fantasy?"
"Someone has to pick the crops."
"Clotpole!" Merlin said, returning the light shove from earlier.
Arthur scoffed at that before sitting up properly alongside Merlin.
"I don't want a future without you."
Merlin creased his eyebrows at that, searching Arthur's face for where this conversation was going.
"Remember when I asked you to my investiture? After the dance, well, you remember Lady Morgana?" And Merlin smiled because who could forget Morgana?
"Well...she asked if you were a...favourite of mine."
At that Merlin looked at Arthur as if he'd grown two heads.
"A...favourite?"
And for the first time in a long time, Arthur looked shy.
"It's...when royals fancy someone a little too much...the person they fancy is considered a favourite of that royal."
It was Merlin's turn to turn red.
"You, fancy me?" Merlin said, incredulously.
"Sometimes, I wonder if it's that, im an incredible actor, or that you're incredibly dense." Arthur said to the sky, before looking down to the dirt, "Merlin since the day I fell into this clearing. I've wanted you by my side." Arthur's eyes trailed the ground, then the berry bag in Merlins hands, before making direct eye contact.
"You showed me what magic truly is, you shattered this image I had and in its place was you, with your smile, and your eyes. I love you Merlin, not in spite of your magic." Arthur brought his hands to Merlin's. "Who you are is magic."
"And if you grow to hate me?" Merlin asked, hushed raspy voice betraying the fear under the words.
"We're two sides of the same coin, I could never hate you."
Merlin's blue eyes flitted over Arthurs face, taking everything in, before landing on his lips.
Before Merlin took a small breath, and landed his lips, on Arthurs.
A thousand years could have passed in that clearing, and maybe it did. Soft touches, soft grass, and the solidifying of a love 2 decades in the making. By the end of it all, the two men were left breathless.
As the leaves fell and changed colour, like stain glass from far off lands Merlin said, "For what it's worth Arthur, You're my favourite too."