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It's been a few months already since Merlin became a knight. Yet, today is the first time he's attending a huge banquet not as a servant, but as a knight – and on top of that, it's not even a usual kind of banquet. No, it's the celebration of Lancelot's and Gwen's marriage.
Merlin still can't believe they actually got married. It feels like it's gone so fast. But then again, since Gwen got kidnapped by Morgana, Lancelot and Gwen have been spending even more time together than before, and their relationship has grown so much, so it's probably not really a surprise that they got married now.
It's a completely different experience to witness a banquet as a knight than as a servant. As always there's lots of food and drinks, live music and even dancing, but this time he actually gets to enjoy the food and drinks instead of having to serve them to Arthur.
Merlin glances at Arthur, who's sitting in the same seat as usual. He's talking to a lord, whose daughter is hovering a few feet behind the man. That occurrence has been happening all evening already – it's like every lord in the room is trying to get Arthur to dance with their daughter, probably trying to get a marriage proposal out of it, and Merlin doesn't really know if he should be jealous or if he should find it kind of humorous since he is the one getting the King ready for bed, getting into the King's bed (even though it's not for sleeping...they'll have to be married for that to happen).
Merlin sighs and looks back down at his plate of food in front of him, suddenly having lost his appetite. He moves his food around with his fork while his mind starts overthinking: the plan is for them to get married someday – that's one of the reasons (the main reason) Arthur made him a knight, and also one of the reasons (the main reason) Merlin accepted the knighthood – but it's been months now and Arthur hasn't talked about a potential courtship for a while now...he's just been taking Merlin into his bed, which Merlin thoroughly enjoys – thoroughly – but what if that's it? What if Arthur's changed his mind? What if he's only good enough to get off with? What if Arthur doesn't want to marry him anymore, that he's changed his mind about courting Merlin?
"Sir Merlin," a low voice behind him interrupts his thoughts. Merlin looks over his shoulder to see Arthur standing behind him, one arm behind his back, the other outstretched towards him, his hand facing palm up. "May I have this dance?"
Merlin looks from Arthur's face to his hand, to the expectant people around him.
"Uh…" Merlin stammers, looking around once again to confirm that Arthur is indeed talking to him. "Me?"
"Yes, you," Arthur snickers, though his gaze is serious and Merlin can see the worry on his face as well. "I'm asking you to dance with me."
"Are you sure?" Merlin whispers as he leans a bit towards Arthur.
"Yes. I am sure, you idiot," Arthur hisses. "Now take my hand and dance with me."
Merlin glances at where Gwen is seated – it's still her wedding after all, and Merlin accepting Arthur's request to dance will mean all attention will go to the King, because he finally picked someone to dance with, someone he has enough interest in to do so, letting everyone know he found someone he’d like to court and eventually marry, and, well, Merlin doesn't want to take away from the attention directed at Gwen as the gorgeous bride – but when he sees her, she's practically bouncing on her chair, looking expectantly and excitedly towards Merlin. When their eyes meet, Gwen nods fervently – is she saying Merlin should accept Arthur's request to dance?
"Yes, I asked her first if she's okay with me asking you to dance. She is more than okay with it, by the way," Arthur's low voice sounds behind him again. "And I am tired of these lords trying to get me to dance with their daughters, so please just dance with me."
"But...if I dance with you, doesn't that convey you want to court me?"
Arthur takes a deep breath, still standing slightly bowed with one arm on his back and the other held out to Merlin, and when he finally speaks, he sounds impatient and a bit annoyed. "Yes, it does. Now, may I have this dance, Sir Merlin, or shall I dance with one of the lords' daughters after all?"
"You still want to court me," Merlin breathes out, feeling overwhelming relief, and also a bit of guilt that he doubted Arthur's intentions for a moment.
"Yes, I do, Merlin. Do you still want me to?” Arthur frowns slightly.
Merlin grabs Arthur’s hand and stands up quickly – too quickly, because he feels a bit light-headed for a moment.
“You’re an idiot,” Arthur chuckles as he steadies Merlin. There was a time where Merlin would have insulted Arthur right back, but he’s learned to hear the word ‘idiot’ as a term of endearment now. So, instead Merlin says, “As are you,” right back.
“And, yet, you’re dancing with me.” Arthur walks proudly towards the middle of the dance floor, holding Merlin’s hand, ignoring the eyes of every single guest on them.
“Well, you asked me, though,” Merlin mutters, nervously glancing around, getting more and more nervous the more sets of eyes he notices on the two of them. “Everyone is staring,” Merlin hisses, right as Arthur stops walking and turns towards him. He takes Merlin’s free hand and lays it on top of his shoulder, before placing his own free hand on Merlin’s waist.
“Of course they are. The King just picked out someone to dance with, and it is not one of the noble daughters, it is one of his knights. They would’ve stared anyway, but this is a bit more peculiar than the King choosing a noblewoman, isn’t it? So, yes, everyone is staring and they’re all probably very confused and disappointed I didn’t choose one of their daughters to dance with.”
Merlin wants to say something about whether or not Arthur should really be doing this then, that maybe this isn’t a good idea after all, because maybe the lords will lose faith in their king, and all that because Arthur decided to court a knight – a man – instead of one of the noble’s daughters, but before he can say anything, Arthur starts moving, so the next words out of Merlin’s mouth are, “I don’t know how to dance.”
“Just follow my lead,” Arthur says, and, as Merlin automatically looks down to watch their feet, Arthur continues, “Look at me. Not at your feet.”
“What? But? How can I follow your lead if I can’t look at our feet?”
“Just look at me.” Arthur pulls him a little closer so Merlin can’t properly look at their feet anymore anyway, and he pretty much has no choice but to look up at Arthur’s face. His breath falters a little as he looks into the bright blue eyes looking at him with mirth, and love, and relief – Arthur is relieved Merlin accepted his request to dance.
“Were you worried I wasn’t going to dance with you?” Merlin teases, but it comes out only as half-heartedly teasing, because even though he wanted to make a joke about it, he also feels a little guilty about making Arthur think he’d say no.
“Well...you definitely took your time to answer.”
“I was confused, wasn’t I? I mean...you ask me to dance at Gwen’s wedding. You’re the centre of attention now–”
“So are you,” Arthur interrupts him.
“What?”
“You are also the centre of attention now.”
Merlin grumbles, because it’s true and he doesn’t want to think about it. Arthur must’ve noticed how he feels about that, because he adds, “Better get used to it, because you’ll be King Consort before long.”
Merlin’s eyes grow wide and he stumbles over his own feet – Arthur chuckles as he keeps him upright. When Merlin is back to following Arthur’s lead, he tries to ignore the amused expression on Arthur’s face. “What I was saying is that you took all the attention away from Gwen and Lancelot at their wedding.”
“I asked them first. They were okay with it. I promise.”
“You promise...” Merlin mutters.
Arthur leans forward until his mouth is close to Merlin’s ear. “I apologise for starting our courtship this abruptly without talking it through with you first. I promise I’ll make it up to you later.”
Merlin has to bite his lip to not let out a startled groan at Arthurs suggestive tone of voice.
When Arthur leans away again, Merlin sees the smug smile around his lips. He narrows his eyes at Arthur, but doesn’t say anything back, because he’s not going to say no to a tumble between the sheets with Arthur.
"Fine," Merlin grumbles, reluctantly giving in, ignoring the satisfied look on Arthur’s face.
They dance until the song is over, but before they part, Arthur leans in and says with a low voice, "I told you that you could be mine soon. We're almost there." He grins at Merlin, his eyes crinkling, looking incredibly happy right now, and even though Merlin does not particularly like being the centre of attention, and being the one to receive congratulations for being chosen by the King – and all this happening on Gwen's wedding to boot! – he lets it all happen, because he just doesn’t want to make Arthur’s happiness disappear. Besides, apparently they’re officially courting now, which means that soon, he’ll actually be able to stay the night in Arthur’s chambers, instead of helping him get ready for bed before leaving for his own bedroom behind Gaius’ chambers. No more sneaking around.
Merlin only stops staring at Arthur happily accepting congratulations – though by the looks on the lords’ faces, they’re not altogether honest congratulations – when Gwen’s voice pipes up beside him. “I knew it!” she squeals.
Merlin turns his head to see a brightly smiling Gwen almost hop up and down with excitement.
“Knew what?”
Gwen punches him in the arm. “I knew you and Arthur would get together. I can’t believe you kept it a secret from me!”
Merlin awkwardly scratches his head. They kept it secret from everyone. Well, Gaius knew because they first kissed in Gaius’ chambers and they both kind of forgot he was there… And then Gwaine caught them talking in Merlin’s tent during Merlin’s first jousting tournament. They’d been more careful after that, so as far as Merlin knows, no one else knew...until now. Now everyone knows.
“I’m sorry this happened at your wedding, though.”
“Are you kidding me?” Gwen punches his arm again, causing Merlin to look offended at her. “This made the day just all the more special! Also–” she changes her tone of voice to a conspiratorial one. “–it was actually really funny to have Arthur ask us permission to ask you to dance. And to basically announce your courtship! Courtship!” she then squeals again, giggling happily as she pulls Merlin into a hug.
Merlin looks at Arthur over Gwen's shoulder. He's still beaming from happiness.
All right, Merlin thinks. It's fine that you did it here and now, you prat.
And when Arthur's gaze meets his, Merlin can't help but smile back, because they won't have to keep their relationship secret anymore, they won't have to step apart anymore as soon as they think someone might see them. Now, they are allowed to show their affection to each other in public, they are allowed to show how much they care about each other.
They are allowed to be together.
Finally.