Disclaimer: I certainly don't own BBC's Merlin, but I think it would be quite a lark to work on that show. And hey, between Wales and France, how can you go wrong?

Author's Note: I said I'd get to this eventually. It's just been a lot closer to later rather than sooner.

Merlin can't really say that his favourite thing is to trail after Arthur when he goes hunting. Merlin does not hunt. There's really no way around that problem either, they've both learned, but Arthur insists he go. And so Merlin does as his sire commands, and grumbles about it as quietly as possible.

He's pretty sure Arthur does it just to vex him, and because he knows Merlin can't say no. But he also hopes that, at least a little bit, Arthur just likes the company of someone who is not one of his soldiers. Still, you wouldn't know it, with the looks Arthur throws him every time he steps on a twig or talks at anything above the barest whisper.

Arthur didn't talk to him at all for three days after he scared the last stag off. Merlin didn't think that was very fair, a fact he adamantly told Gaius, Gwen and anyone else who would listen, except Arthur. There were always stags, and it wasn't like they were going to starve if they didn't bring one back any particular day, and it hadn't really been his fault.

Well, actually, it had, and Arthur had been suitably annoyed with him in front of the other men. That he had continued to be annoyed even in private was what had irked Merlin most of all. Three days over a stag? Gwen had laughed at him. Gaius had shaken his head. Morgana, who always seemed to know exactly what was happening with everyone in the castle, had just smiled in sympathy whenever she saw him.

And Arthur had glowered. He was good at that; glowering. Merlin is pretty sure he's inherited that trait from Uther, who can glower better than anyone Merlin has ever met.

When Arthur next orders Merlin along on a hunt, he doesn't bother to remind him to talk quietly or watch where he walks. He simply glares thoroughly towards his errand boy with a look that says 'screw this one up and you will never be coming along again' and also 'don't embarrass me again or you will regret it' at the same time. Merlin knows Arthur well enough to read his looks for what they are.

Merlin is extra careful and the men return to Camelot that night with a stag and an unexpected boar. Arthur doesn't say anything to Merlin about it, but he returns to treating him like he always does, with a mixture of annoyance, thinly-veiled patience, and humour. It's not much, but it seems to be their usual relationship, and Merlin has to say it rather works, in some strange way.