Don't kiss a boy whose eyes are green,
He kisses you once, but finds another queen.
Don't kiss a boy whose eyes are brown,
He kisses you once, but leaves the town.
Don't kiss a boy whose eyes are black,
He kiss you once, but never come back.
Just kiss a boy whose eyes are blue,
He kisses you much, and will always love you
Arthur turned his blue eyes against him when he entered the prince's room.
"Merlin, finally, I've been waiting for you in ages!"
Arthur showed in another piece of bread in his mouth.
"I'm sorry, I had to help Gaius with… something…" he mumbled, a bit nervous. The helping-Gaius-thing was sort of… not true. But that wasn't why he was nervous. He was nervous – and late – because he had finely decided to tell both his huge secrets to Arthur. He had argued with himself for half an eternity (therefore the lateness) before he had finely decided to break them both at the same time.
"Well, anyhow, I don't care… My shoes are dirty, and I have to wear them tonight at some stupid diner my dad-…"
"I've got to tell you something, sir",
Arthur tossed the piece of bread he held in his hand aside and stood up.
"Merlin, I have waited for you in years and you want to tell me something?" the threatening tone in Arthur's voice was not to be mistaken on.
He didn't care. The Prince could do less to him then he wanted to know. Physically, in any case.
"Yes",
"Yes sir",
"Yes, sir",
"Well, then you just have to wait until my shoes are clean, and they are not going to clean themselves",
Arthur had no idea how close it was for that to happen.
"But-"
"Merlin, I can't believe how thick you are, but I'm going to explain this to you one last time. I am the prince here, not you. I am the prince, and you are just-…"
"A Magician."
Arthur's eyebrows rose slightly as he rolled his eyes.
"I was going to say servant, but…"
What?! He had prepared himself for anger and… and… anything! But not ignorance!
"No, no! I am a magician!"
"I see…"
To his embarrassment he could hear the amusement in Arthur's voice.
"But it's true, I swear!"
Why couldn't Arthur just believe him? He had prepared for this for months, and now Arthur didn't believe him, that was just his luck…
"Just clean my boots, Merlin, you can continue your dreaming when you're done",
The Prince turned his back to him and picked up his red jacket from a chair.
"Even if you where a wizard, Merlin, your magic would probably be so weak that you wouldn't even be able to tie your own shoelaces with it. Move…"
"Hey! That isn't tr-… are you going somewhere?"
Arthur had just shoved him aside, because he didn't move when told so.
"Yes, " Arthur turned his head so their eyes met, "apart from you I don't need someone's permission to leave, but if you really want to know, I'm going for a hunt",
He felt the moment slipping through his fingers.
"Wait!" he burst in sheer panic.
"What?"
Arthur's eyes were impatient.
"Why don't you believe me?"
Arthur moaned, frustrated.
"Because you are saying that you practice magic, that you are a wizard, Merlin, you get killed for that in my land, not even you are stupid enough to confess such a thing! It would get you killed in seconds!"
Arthur's eyes snapped at the right.
"Besides that, my boots still isn't clean", Pendragon finished plainly and put his hand on the handle.
"Okay, okay!"
He flung his hand out towards the boots, which immediately began to clean themselves.
"Can we please talk now…?" he pleaded desperately. He still had one more confession to make.
"… Sir…" he added.
Arthur stood dumbfounded and stared at the boots that happily had started splashing water all over the place in the cleaning process.
Then he turned around and stared at him with eyes wide as saucers.
He met the blue orbs with a felling of relief. A bit mixed with nervousness.
As in slow-motion, he saw how Arthur began to draw in air for a scream, a scream for the guards to get him.
Before he knew what was happening, he felt a rush of magic flowing trough his body, and toward Arthurs.
Then Arthur screamed. But no sound came from his lips. The prince's last hope hade failed.
He felt the tears streaming to his eyes, but he held them back.
"You tried to kill me…" he whispered softly, his voice leaving him. He felt the Goosebumps spreading over his arms as he realized how close it actually had been.
Arthur's eyes were wide in panic as the prince, over and over again, tried his voice.
Merlin sunk to the floor.
"Arthur… you tried to kill me…"
Arthur obviously wasn't happy with just trying, because just seconds later he picked up his sword and held it pointing at him.
Somehow, the painful sorrow was replaced by anger. He stood up, and walked towards Arthur, until the point of the sword touched his chest.
He lifted the spell that kept the prince from speaking.
"So you want to kill me, Sir, just call the guards and everyone'll know",
Arthur just looked at him.
Then he finally let the sword drop to his side.
"Why are you doing this, Merlin, why are you telling me this?" the Prince asked.
"Because I want you to know", he answered truthfully.
"Why!? Everything was better when I didn't know!"
He barely heard the THUD when the shoes dropped to the ground when the last bit of his concentration disappeared from the task of cleaning them.
"No, it wasn't! When I had to protect you, which was as good as impossible as it were, I had to hide from you!"
His outburst seemed to confuse the Prince.
"You had to protect me?From what?" Arthur asked doubtful.
"Everything! That stupid girl you fell in love with! And knight Valiant's enchanted shield! Want more examples?"
"The girl I-… Sophia?"
"Yes, or witch if you prefer that…" he muttered bitterly. He couldn't help but feel a bit jealous.
"Wait, you saved me from… you don't want to kill me?"
"What!?" he asked, and couldn't stop a short laughter. "Why on earth would I want that?"
"Don't wizards usually want to kill people?" Arthur asked.
"No!"
Arthur went silent. Even if it made him a bit nervous, it was at least better then when he had called the guards.
"Are you… a good magician? A powerful one?" Arthur suddenly asked. The question surprised him.
"Why do you want to know that?"
"Because if you aren't, I'll have to find a new wizard to be my servant",
Was Arthur… joking? He laughed nervously.
"Er… Gaius says that I'm good… I was born with it, and that isn't supposed to happen very often… but yeah, I'm kind of powerful, I guess…" he answered.
"Sir", he added quickly.
"Show me something", Arthur ordered.
"What?"
"Show me something, Merlin. You aren't deaf just because you're a wizard, aren't you?" Arthur mocked in a sarcastic tone.
"No, but…" he lost his words in the confusion. What was this? Arthur didn't want to kill him?
"Okay then… what do you want to see?" he asked finally.
"Change the color on my bed sheets", the prince said after a moment of thinking.
He couldn't help but smile. The task was done in the blink of an eye, literally.
"That wasn't very hard…"
Arthur turned his head towards the bed.
"It's green!" the Prince burst, surprised. And it was. The magnificent, preciously red bed now had green bed sheets.
He changed them back.
The prince turned at him, obviously amused, and clearlytrying to hide it, but failing miserably.
"Can you make things fly?" Arthur asked.
"I can make you fly", he said. It filled his stomach with butterflies to see the otherwise calm prince this… happy. The knowledge that he was the one who made Arthur happy wasn't unpleasant either.
He held his hand out and pointed at his prince and whispered three words so low that his master couldn't hear them.
Arthur's feet lifted from the floor.
"Merlin... Merlin, what are you doing?" the smile fell from the Prince's face and was replaced with a tiny bit of fear.
He began to laugh.
"Merlin, this is not funny! Put me down, put me down! It's an order!" panic now entered Arthur's voice.
"Sir, you're like two feet from the ground, you probably wouldn't even twist your ankle if you fell!"
His words did nothing to the fear in Arthurs face.
"Don't you trust me, Sir?" he asked teasingly.
"No! Not when you lifting me straight up in the air with that stupid magic of yours!"
"I'll catch you if you fall", he promised.
He turned his hand, and the prince suddenly hung upside-down.
"Merlin! I'm going to kill you for this!"
Even if the threat really should have been a lot more alarming now when Arthur knew his secret, he didn't really took it all that seriously.
Arthur's shirt suddenly fell over his head.
His heart skipped a beat at the sight of Arthur's bare chest. A both familiar and alarming feeling.
He carefully sat the prince down at the floor, the smile on his face long gone.
"I'm going to give you to the guards if you ever do that again, Merlin!" Arthur panted, still lying on the floor.
"I need to tell you something more…" he said carefully.
Arthur bent his head backwards to look at him.
"What? Are you going to tell me that you can breathe fire and create rain too?" Arthur asked sarcastically.
"No…"
"Then what?" Arthur didn't seem to trust his own legs quite yet, because his knuckles went white as he gripped the chair next to him for support to stand up.
"I want to tell you…" he took a beep breath. "I want to tell you…"
"Just spit it out, for God's sake, Merlin, and today if you please!" Arthur said impatiently.
He inhaled, and let out the air in a heavy sight.
"I'm in love with you…" he confessed lowly. Arthur just stared at him, the seconds passed like hours.
"You're… You're… you're what…?"
"I'm in love with you…" he repeated, even more nervous because of the stunned look in Arthurs face.
"Love as in… love?"
"Are there any other?" he asked.
"You're lying… right?"
He couldn't hold another sight back.
"Arthur, I thought you'd know better by now…" he mumbled.
"Merlin, you can't possibly blame me for not believe you!"
The Prince looked confused behind the anger.
"Why not? Have I ever lied to you before?" he asked and took a step forward. Arthur immediately backed off a few steps. He couldn't blame him; after all, Arthur still hadn't practically any knowledge about magic. But he couldn't say it didn't hurt.
"Yes! You didn't tell me that you're a magician! That's a huge lie Merlin!"
"I told you now, didn't I? Your dad kills people for magic, of course I didn't tell you right away!" he said, desperate for Arthur to understand.
"My dad! I am not my dad!" Arthur said furiously.
"You where going to call the guards when I told you! Imagine how it would have been if I'd told you any sooner!"
The helplessness had brought the tears back.
"Arthur, just listen… for a moment… I understand if you don't want me as your servant anymore, but I felt like I had to tell you… sorry",
"Sorry? For what?" Arthur asked, clearly confused.
"I don't know, I just needed to say it…"
He turned to leave, but Arthur gripped his arm and spun him around.
"Where do you thinking you're going?"Arthur asked.
"Away…" he said.
"Merlin, I can't believe that you haven't got this yet… I tell you what to do, and you do as I tell you to, not anything else. Understood?"
He nodded.
"Have I told you to leave?"
"No…"
"Then why are you leaving?" Arthur demanded.
He didn't answer.
Why was Arthur doing this? Had he decided that he wanted to kill him himself? Did he just want to mock him?
The Prince walked to the window, turned his eyes from him and fixed them on the palace grounds below instead.
He watched with a disturbing feeling in the pit of his stomach how Arthur's hands turned to fists as they rested at the windowsill.
"What about Gwen?"
His eyes snapped up to Arthurs face.
"What has Gwen to do with anything of this?" he asked, confused. Arthur still wouldn't look at him, but looked through the window instead.
"Don't you like her?"
And Arthur called him stupid!
"I just said that I like you, why would I like her!?" he asked disbelievingly. Arthur didn't answer. The prince finally tore his eyes from the palace grounds, and walked towards him until he stood face to face with the other man.
"I want you to continue you work as may servant, but if you accept this offer I want you to obey my orders, do you understand this, Merlin?" Arthur said in a formal tone.
He was stunned for a moment.
"I'd be happy to be your servant. Until the day I die", he answered finally.
"Then you promise to do as I tell you? I certainly never had a more disobeying servant, ever", Arthur said with a bit of glittering in his eyes.
"I promise", he said, and couldn't help but smile.
"Good",
Arthur turned his back to him.
"Then kiss me",
Everything seemed to stop. His brain, his heart, the time, everything.
How… how could this be possible? Was he dreaming?
"What…? Are you sure…?" he asked, his head filled of doubts.
Arthur turned around and faced him again.
"I'm waiting, Merlin…" was all that the Prince said.
He swallowed hard, and laid a shaking hand on Arthur's shoulder.
Pendragon raised an eyebrow.
He quickly pressed his lips against Arthur's. It was enough to make his head spin of joy.
"Merlin…" Arthur began, "that was the lamest kiss I've ever heard of…" a smile spread over the Prince's lips as he spoke.
He smiled back and moved his hand from Arthur's shoulder to his neck. He leaned forward to whisper in the prince's ear.
"I'll just have to do it again then, sir…" he teased.
"Yes, you must…" Arthur answered with a smile.
"And stop calling me that",
"What?" he mumbled against Arthurs lips.
"Sir, we'll have to come up with something else to replace it…"
The only thing that kept him form shagging Arthur into the closest wall was the total loss of brain activity from his side.
"Darling…?" he suggested barely half-serious.
"Forget it… I hate nicknames…" Arthur said.
He suddenly felt a cold hand at the end of his spine, under his shirt.
"Let's not talk for a while, shall we?"
It sounded perfect to him – it would have been a bit hard to talk with Arthur's tongue down his throat…