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It'd been a hell of a long day, Merlin had been showing Arthur around where they'd decided to venture out to, and they hadn't stopped walking all day. Which leads to Merlin all but dragging Arthur into the closest hotel and practically falling into the nearest chair. Leaving Arthur to get a room for them, after a quiet quip of '"lazy ass" that has Merlin gaping at him even after he's walked away snickering to himself.
He quickly found himself at a desk, this was as close to a tavern as Arthur could think of, which made him smile slightly "king or two queens?" The man he'd only just noticed asks, not seeming that fussed on what the answer was going to be though, Arthur stared at him for several seconds, why the hell would he need a room for two queens? He takes a quick look around, searching for a reason the man had asked such a bizarre question, before turning back "king of course!" He responds with a bright smile, thinking that this man must have heard of him even after so long.
He receives a key to his and Merlin's room and quietly thanks the man, before going to drag a now half asleep Merlin out of his chair. It took awhile to get to their room, but he eventually got the door unlocked and practically pushed merlin inside, making the man go flying and causing Arthur to laugh as he followed him in. He's not expecting Merlin to start cursing in such a way that Arthur could feel himself starting to blush slightly "what did you ask for?!" He all but yells, making Arthur take a look around for the first time in order to identify what Merlin was being so girlish about.
Only to find that there was only one bed in the room and two of them, ah that's what. He stares at the bed for a few seconds before saying "the guy asked king or two queens, so I said king!" Getting more and more confused by the second, whilst Merlin looked like he was going through every stage of grief at once, before sighing quietly and accepting his fate "king bed or two queen beds, clotpole" he grumbled as he layed down, too tired to deal with any of this situation.
Arthur continued to grow confused until he said "we have to share?" Which seemed to wake Merlin up almost completely, "well I'm not sleeping on the floor" he says as he picks his head up enough to make eye contact with his friend, who was just now starting to move towards the bed, though he looked more and more wary of it with every passing second, making Merlin roll his eyes as there was more than enough room for the two of them, and it wasn't like they hadn't shared a bed back in Camelot.
Merlin puts his head back down "just like camping right?" Arthur asks quietly, though whether it's towards Merlin or him just reassuring himself neither man knew "exactly, we are huddling together for warmth" Merlin agrees so that Arthur gets in the damn bed and he can sleep. It takes longer than he'd like, but eventually Arthur gets in and then grumbled "you're on the wrong side" ah yes, Arthur always sleeps on the left, how could Merlin possibly have forgotten such important information? He makes a show of having to move, but soon settled back down and quickly falls asleep to the sound of Arthur's quiet breathing.
When he wakes the next morning, it's because he's far warmer than usual and something is crushing him into the mattress, for several seconds he freezes before memories from the day before slowly return to him. He and Arthur exploring the city they were in, the hotel, the room they were currently in, the bed they ended up having to share. Slowly his eyes opened and found that he was still on his side of the bed, but Arthur wasn't on the left side anymore, hell he wasn't even on the damn bed! He was practically on top of Merlin, his head on Merlin's chest and the rest of him either on top or curled around him like a damn koala.
For a few minutes he took in the sight of his best friend so close to him and smiled softly, he had never seen Arthur so at peace before, hell he'd never seen him fully asleep like this even back in camelot! He felt the moment Arthur began to wake up and quickly shut his eyes and slowed his breathing down, so that the man didn't realize he too was awake and make things awkward. Merlin knew the exact moment Arthur opened his eyes ,because he reacted the same as merlin had, yet he didn't pull away nor did he make any noise to show he was uncomfortable with what was happening.
In fact Arthur put his head back on Merlin's chest and sighed softly, it was as if he was enjoying being this close to Merlin as he himself was. For several minutes Arthur remained where he was, before sitting up and gently moving some hair that had fallen into Merlin's face during the night. Merlin slowly opened his eyes, so slowly that Arthur didn't notice and kept the soft smile on his face until Merlin made a show of waking up.
It wasn't long before they were up and about, getting breakfast and planning what to do that day, yet both of them couldn't help but think that they were definitely going to spend the night like that again for the next few days, though it was an unspoken agreement more than anything and both had secret smiles about it for the rest of the day.