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Arthur’s perfectly peaceful morning was ruined by an overly cheerful, “Rise and shiiine!”
He groaned into his pillow. “Must you be so loud in the morning, Merlin?”
Wait a minute, “...Merlin?”
Merlin turned to look at him, his face unimpressed. “Yes, that is my name, sire. Congratulations on recognizing me. It’s only been ten years.”
Arthur scowled, “I meant, what are you doing here?”
Merlin looked at him like he was being particularly slow. “I’m bringing you breakfast. Like I said, it’s only been ten years.”
“...You do realize you’re not my manservant anymore, don’t you? I’m pretty sure I… yeah no I definitely promoted you to Court Sorcerer yesterday. There was a feast and everything.”
Merlin smiled blindingly. “As if I could forget. The dessert was great, by the way, thanks again for that. And now I’m never mucking out the stables ever again, or being a moving target for your training,” he paused, looking thoughtful. “In fact, I could teach some servants to do those things with magic. That way no one has to do them by hand.”
Arthur frowned. If Merlin remembered, then... “Why are you bringing me breakfast? And what’s that beside the plates?” He squinted at the small, intricately decorated box. He had thought that after learning about Merlin’s magic all those weeks ago, he had finally figured the man out. Clearly, he was wrong.
Merlin brightened as Arthur said the last part. “Oh yeah, I put the necklace for Gwen in it! Honestly, Arthur, you commission a necklace but don’t think of where to put it. And as for breakfast, as much as I admire George, truly, I can’t expect him to properly check your food for poison. And, he wouldn’t know to bring Gwen’s favorite dessert today.”
Arthur just stared at Merlin, taking in his words and wondering not for the first time how he got lucky enough to have him for a friend.
Merlin continued, “Also, I’m still going to come to any tournaments or stupid hunting trips. Though I highly recommend you stop going on those.”
Arthur chose to ignore that last part in favour of going in for a hug, and really, Arthur thought, it was very long overdue.
“Thank you, Merlin, for being a truer friend than I have ever been. Than anyone has ever been.”
Merlin looked surprised, but also very pleased and maybe a little teary eyed.
Just then he heard delighted clapping, and Merlin grinned as he looked behind Arthur and said, “Hey Gwen! Happy proposal anniversary to you and Arthur!”
She thanked him with a hug and turned to Arthur. “Congratulations on finally complimenting him to his face,” she laughed.
Merlin raised a delighted eyebrow, “Has he been complimenting me behind my back?”
Gwen, because she was a traitor, enthusiastically nodded and whispered something in Merlin’s ear, making his grin widen.
“You promised not to tell!” Arthur’s tone would probably have sounded more indignant if his heart wasn’t swelling at the sight, because it had been so long since he saw Merlin smile without any worry, let alone laugh. And almost just as long since he and Guinevere would stop fretting over him, neither taking enough time to relax since the battle.
Gwen was about to respond when she saw the breakfast spread with her favorite berry pie and squealed, “Oh, Merlin, thank you! You remembered my favourite flavour. I have something for you too, here—” she started rummaging through a pocket in her dress as Arthur tried not to be offended that she hadn’t even asked whether Arthur had thought of the pie. She just assumed it was Merlin! Okay, so it was Merlin, but still. He huffed.
Gwen found what she was looking for, which seemed to be a small, beautifully adorned vial filled with wispy red-gold threads. She handed it to Merlin, while handing Arthur a wrapped present that he hadn’t noticed before.
It was a winter cloak, rich red contrasting with the gold of the pendragon crest, somehow incredibly light and warm to the touch at the same time.
Gwen smiled, “I stitched the cloak myself, and I asked Merlin to add an enchantment to keep it warm.”
“And—” Merlin piped up, “It can ward off arrows and steel and most other weapons!”
“It’s beautiful,” he breathed.
He handed the box with the necklace to Gwen, who gasped and hugged them both. “Oh, Arthur, the necklace is so pretty! And Merlin, the box was a beautiful choice. I’ll treasure this always.”
(Arthur was left again to wonder just how Guinevere somehow knew which things were from him and which were from Merlin).
When he looked closer at what Merlin had received, he recognized the vial's contents as saffron. Arthur furrowed his brows. He hadn’t tasted anything with saffron for ages; it was incredibly expensive, and rarer still. Not to mention he was fairly certain that Merlin didn’t even know how to cook with saffron.
At his look of confusion, Gwen laughed. “It’s for Merlin to use in any potions! I mean, he’s free to use it for whatever he wants of course, but he mentioned it was helpful to boost the potency of some rare healing potions when he was showing me his spellbooks. So I thought I’d get some for him.”
Merlin looked so touched that Arthur was sure he and Guinevere were going to hug again, and while he loved them both, they had already hugged about five times this morning and the breakfast would get cold at this rate. So he broke the sixth hug with a loud, “I’m hungry, let’s eat. Merlin, I’m calling George to bring in a third plate for you.”
Guinevere rolled her eyes. “Do we really need George for this?” She raised her eyebrows at Merlin, who grinned.
Arthur watched in awe as Merlin’s eyes flashed gold (because he didn’t think the sight would ever get less striking), and another plate appeared on the table.
Gwen clapped and Merlin beamed and Arthur decided he couldn’t really be blamed when he hugged them again.
**
:)