Hello, everyone! As the summary states, this will be a collection of modern day AU one-shots focusing on kid!Merlin, kid!Arthur, teen!Merlin and teen!Arthur...because I just love writing that sort of mushy stuff. I fell in love with writing kid!Merlin and kid!Arthur, so...here goes nothing!

Keep in mind that I may have purposefully written some grammar mistakes in kid!Arthur and kid!Merlin's words because every single kid had a few grammatical mistakes in their speech, even a young prince, I suppose. XD

Enjoy!

"Merlin, come on!" Five years old Arthur Pendragon yelled gleefully over his shoulder. "You're so slow!"

The young prince ducked in between several branches of trees and kicked up some extra dust for good measure. He had dirt on his pants and his shoes were a mess, but he didn't mind too much. Arthur was free, free, free and for once, he could run away from his tutors and lessons.

He wasn't alone, either.

"Arthur!" A dark-haired boy burst out of the bushes from behind, panting for breath. "I—told you—to wait up!"

Arthur grinned and plopped down on the dirt. The trees created a nice shade over the two boys and he waited for his friend to regain his breath.

"That was fun!" Arthur said cheerfully as the other boy sat down beside him. "Do you wanna try again, Merlin?"

"No." Merlin gasped. He groaned and flattened himself on his back.

"Oh, come on!" Arthur whined, jumping to his feet. "I promise I'll slow down!"

Merlin closed his eyes. "You said that last time," he grumbled indignantly. "And the time before that, and the time before that, and the time before that—"

He was cut off by a loud sigh from Arthur.

"Please?" The young prince begged, kneeling beside Merlin. "Please, please, please, please, please?"

Merlin cracked open one eye and Arthur gave him a hopeful smile.

"Fine." The boy groaned, sitting up. "But this is gonna be the last time, right?"

"Right!" Arthur smiled, standing up.

Merlin rose to his feet reluctantly, obviously still suspicious of Arthur's potential actions.

Arthur grinned. He wouldn't lie to Merlin this time—he kept his promises.

Sort of.

Besides, Merlin was his only friend. Not that Arthur minded that much. Merlin wasn't a prince, and Arthur didn't think his father liked that fact too much, but he didn't care.

"Ready?" Arthur asked cheerfully.

"No." Merlin replied flatly.

"Okay! Let's go!" Arthur yelled, already beginning to run forward.

"Arthur!" Merlin cried out in protest and hurried to the prince.

For some time, the two raced each other around the trees. Arthur kept his word—whenever Merlin slowed down, he would, too. Whenever Merlin was beginning to speed up, Arthur made sure that he would run at least a bit faster than him.

"See? It's not that bad to run!" Arthur laughed.

"I guess so," Merlin's voice shook slightly with each and every stride they took.

Arthur grinned and yelled, "There's a hill up ahead! I'm gonna run for it!"

"No, Arthur—"

It was too late. The young prince had taken liberty of the slope and was already running down. For the first few seconds, Arthur let out a cry of pure gladness—he was going so fast!

However, when Arthur tried to slow himself halfway down the hill, he couldn't stop. He felt fear slowly trickle into his heart. He was going too fast.

Uh-oh.

"Arthur!"

The prince heard Merlin yelling from the top of the hill and quickly turned his head to risk a glance and—

There was a sudden red light that took over Arthur's field of vision and he felt pain everywhere. He couldn't move. He couldn't think. He couldn't even see.

"Arthur!"

There was a quick, painful skidding sound and the sound of frantic footsteps told Arthur that Merlin was by his side.

"Arthur, can you hear me? Are you okay?" Merlin asked, fear evident in his voice.

"No," the prince whimpered.

"Open your eyes." Merlin instructed.

So that was why he couldn't see.

Arthur's eyes fluttered open and he saw Merlin's worried face held close to his own.

"Merlin, help." He said, his voice tight with pain. "It hurts."

"What hurts?" Merlin asked, already looking up and down the prince's body carefully. (Or at least, as careful as a five years old boy can possibly be.)

"Everything." Arthur bit his lip.

Merlin stared at Arthur with wide eyes and finally said, "Your knee is bleeding."

"It hurts."

"And so is your arm."

"That hurts, too."

Merlin looked around, as though searching for someone nearby. Once realizing that the two boys were all alone, Merlin sighed and grabbed Arthur's hand.

"Come on." He said and he gently pulled the prince to his feet.

Arthur winced and whimpered a bit more as the two trudged up the hill.

"I'm gonna die," Arthur mumbled dramatically, thinking about the bloody movies that he had seen his father watching. "I'm gonna die, aren't I, Merlin?"

Merlin didn't reply.

Arthur wasn't quite sure if his friend wasn't replying because he was struggling for breath, or if he simply knew that Arthur was correct.

"I'm gonna die." The five years old prince said decidedly.

"If you do, I'll never run with you again." Merlin finally replied.

Arthur stared at his friend. "What?" He asked, horrified.

"You heard me." Merlin answered. "If you die, I won't ever run with you again."

Arthur paused. "I better not die, then."

xXx

After some Band-Aids and a long lecture from his father and a movie with Merlin, Arthur was feeling much better.

The two boys were now sitting in Arthur's bedroom, playing with action figures and creating loud noises in the process.

"You're not dead." Merlin said matter-of-factly as Arthur's action figure saved Merlin's action figure from a horrific fall off the bed.

"Nope!" Arthur replied, scooping up the toy and handing it back to his friend.

"Good." Merlin said and rolled on his back, looking up at the ceiling. "You're not gonna almost-die again, right?"

"Nope!" Arthur said, sitting up.

A smile spread across Merlin's face. "Okay," he said cheerfully and the two went back to playing with their action figures.

A/N: Reviews make the world go 'round! Feedback and constructive criticism is welcome, but flames will not be tolerated. Burn your own marshmallows, please!

Oh, and another thing-I know that it was a bit dramatic for Arthur and Merlin to think that Arthur was 'dying', but hey, all five years old boys and girls have those dramatic moments. (I had several of those moments myself. When I was in first grade, I drew a picture of myself in a coffin. Man, I was a creepy kid. XD I scared the living crap out of my teacher.)

Next chapter: Eight years old Arthur Pendragon doesn't know how to survive the common cold without Merlin.