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Arthur thought he was floating the first time he and Merlin had kissed.
He had never been good at understanding emotions—he had spent most of his life bottling them up—so he wasn’t sure how to explain the various feelings… he was, well, feeling.
All that he knew at that moment, as Merlin deepened the kiss and he moved closer to him, was that he had never felt this way before.
And that he never wanted the feeling to stop.
There was a part of him that thought the feeling would eventually subside, that it would get old after a while. He thought that the magic would eventually dim, and that the spark that seemed so special to him and Merlin would finally flame out.
But with every day they spent together, with every cuddle and early morning kisses, the fluttery feeling in his stomach, the sense of endlessly floating above the rest of the world, only grew until just being around him made him feel like he was drifting above ground, like he was amongst the stars and Merlin was the sun.
And it was the exact same feeling he had on their wedding day, of blissful joy when their lips met, tears wetting their cheeks as they had finally, finally gotten married and had officially become husbands.
Husbands.
Just the word made him shiver with delight, a feeling he would never tire of.
A feeling he never thought he could get rid of even if he tried scrubbing it off seeing as it was still there, even when the sun slowly vanished behind mountains and trees and he was tucked under the covers with Merlin by his side.
His husband, laying beside him.
He thought he might cry, he was so bloody happy and he absolutely had no idea what to do with this energy. It felt like he was going to burst at the seams and he couldn’t help but grin as he looked up at the ceiling imagining the stars and how he could touch one of them with how weightless he felt.
Out of everything in his life, he could never have imagined this.
“What are you smiling about?” Merlin tiredly asked. Arthur hadn’t noticed he had rolled over on his side to look at him until he turned away from the ceiling.
“Hm? Oh, nothing,” Arthur said, shutting his eyes closed.
“Yes, because you’re just a naturally smiley, happy person,” Merlin snarkily responded. Even when he was tired, he never failed to have a witty comment.
Arthur simply grumbled to himself before replying with a very original, “Shut up.”
There was a slight pause in the air before he was sighing to himself, rolling onto his side to look at Merlin. “I was thinking about… how this was the first night that we’ve spent together as a married couple.” Just the words sent another wave of flutters in his stomach. “It was just… nice.”
“Nice, huh?” he teased.
“Fuck off.”
Merlin chuckled and it made his heart sing, warmth spreading all around him. He didn’t really know how such a simple sound—it was more of a low, tired rumble—could make him feel so much, but he had since gotten used to it, even loved the feeling. It seemed as though it was an addiction, like he was drunk on it, and he never wanted to let it go.
“I feel the same,” Merlin softly spoke, his eyes fluttering closed. “It feels like something out of a dream, something I never would've expected. It’s the happiest I've ever been.”
Arthur brushed his fingers against Merlin’s cheeks before leaning in and kissing him softly. Once again, he felt like he was floating, as though he was walking on air, as though nothing could hurt him in this moment, nothing could take this away from him.
“I love you,” he whispered softly, pushing back a yawn.
“I love you too.”
Merlin moved to snuggle against the blankets, clearly ready to sleep, but Arthur stopped him. When Merlin sent him a confused look, he blushed slightly.
“This is our first night as a married couple, and so… I just wanted to spend the last few moments before we sleep just to… remember this,” Arthur explained, feeling a little dumb for having the idea in the first place.
But Merlin just smiled, before nodding. “Okay.”
And so they watched one another in the last few moments before they went to sleep, holding each other and just… existing with one another.
Arthur traced along Merlin’s face—from his forehead to his blue eyes to his cheekbones and then his mouth, memorizing the feeling of his embrace, of the way his rough calloused hands felt against soft skin.
He was floating, floating, floating once more—feeling a powerful, indescribable feeling of love, one that he had thought he could never have.
And with the time on the clock hitting twelve in the morning and the two slowly drifting off to sleep, that feeling never went away.
He didn’t think it would ever go away and gods, was he happy about that.