The young warlock hated Mondays, he buried his head into his pillow as the weak morning sunlight streaked through his solitary elongated window. He pulled the thin blanket over his head to try and stay asleep but Gaius quickly foiled that plan by bursting into his room, saying something about princes and knights.

Merlin groaned, and buried deeper into his small bed. "Merlin, Arthur won't be happy if you're late again."

"Fine," the warlock dragged himself out of bed and dressed quickly into his day clothes. Grabbing breakfast he trotted down the corridors of the castle and into Arthur's room, to find the young prince waiting, arms crossed.

"Where the hell have you been?" he asked, not pleased in the slightest.

"Sleeping?" Merlin replied, hoping his slightly clueless charm would let him get away with it.

"Don't try the puppy dog eyes with me," Arthur snapped. "I'm not Gwen."

"Could have gotten me fooled," he grinned.

Arthur gave him the look. "Come on, I have to train some of my knights. Hurry up!"

Merlin groaned. He was going to be used as a life-sized punching bag again. Fantastic. Arthur made his way to the door, muttering something about Merlin not being able to shut it, lock it, or knock. Merlin thought that he had made a lucky escape and would conveniently forget to bring (well Merlin to bring) his equipment, but as normal poor Merlin was wrong.

Arthur turned, and Merlin cursed under his breath. "Oh and Merlin I do need my equipment."

888

"Merlin!"

Merlin leapt to his feet and trotted over to Arthur, who was sanding over one of his knights.

"We've finished!"

"Yeah, and it's got nothing to do with the knights loosing purposely," Merlin smirked as Arthur glowered at him.

SPLAT

Merlin looked around through the sticky mess of the ex-tomato that was slivering down one side of his face. Gwen was walking away innocently, hands behind her back, whistling, though it was a little to innocent.

"Hey!" he yelled with vigour. "I'm only going to be hit by rotten fruit in the stocks!"

The young woman broke into a run, ignoring his remark, and her laughter could be heard in the wind as her dark hair streaked behind her. Taking his chance to escape Merlin chased after her.

"Oi Merlin!" Arthur cried, hating being outwitted by his manservant. "You get back here otherwise you will be in the stocks!" Growling slightly the furious prince charged after him, leaving the slightly confused knight sprawled on the floor.

Arthur easily gained ground on the manservant, and he suddenly realised that they were heading into the woods. He heard Merlin shout Gwenavuer's name, suddenly more shouts joined in, which sounded like greetings. What the hell was going on here?

"Hey Gwen!" there was a yell; hiding behind a tree Arthur could swear it was one of the guards from his troop. "DUCK!" Luckily the girl had quick reflexes as a hail lode of fruit and vegetables cascaded into the clearing, all managing to hit the unsuspecting Merlin, who cried out in disbelief.

"That wasn't fair Horace!" he exclaimed. "I haven't got any supplies yet!" Arthur blinked, sure enough; there was one of the top guards – Horace Kimptin, standing grinning in an old red tunic, holding a empty old barrel.

"C'mon then squirt!" reacting to the pet name Merlin grabbed the nearest bucket, and unleashed a full attack, Gwen joining him. Suddenly another woman joined them, she had long dark hair, pale skin – and looked somewhat like Morgana… Arthur paused. Wait! It was!

"C'mon Gwen! Lets pulverise these guys!" she picked up another bucket of slop and continued the onslaught.

"Yes m'lady," the servant girl replied.

Morgana laughed. "Drop the formalities for now Gwen! Have some fun!"

Arthur suddenly realised that most of the servants in the castle where playing, and he was in a war zone. The was a battle cry, and (what looked like the kitchen staff) charged down the other side of the clearing, yelling, what sounded like. "Eat this!"

His thoughts where interrupted though as something smacked into the back of his head, it was wet and cold, and he let out a involuntary shiver as it slipped down his back.

"Ha!" he heard an excited voice. "Got you Con-" it stopped as he turned around, to see a boy (a couple of years under him), go startlingly white. "Sorry Sire!" he stuttered. "I thought that you were-"

Arthur put up a hand and was about to tell the youngster to grow up and be a man, before he was pummelled with something else. Whipping his head round he saw Morgana standing there, a grin on her face.

"Live a little Arthur!" she then tipped the remaining slop over the prince's head, before dashing off. "Arthur's here!" she yelled, gathering troops around her. "Get him!"

A panicked look crossed the prince's face, and he felt a tug on his arm, the eighteen year old looking at him. "Need any ammo, sire?"

Arthur nodded a grin spreading his face. "Excellent idea! Wanna teach Morgana a lesson?" the other man nodded, sticking his hand into the bucket Arthur pulled out his weapon. "Oh and for today – just for today – it's Arthur."

The younger man nodded and grinned. "Jerry sire, meh friends call me Jer."

"Right then Jer, lets teach them how to really throw a food fight!" he charged down the hill, searching for Morgana, but finding Merlin in the mass instead. Meh, so it was a substitute – it was good enough. Grinning to himself he yanked the warlocks collor open and stuffed the decaying food down it. Merlin shrieked in surprise and jumped about a foot in the air.

This day was getting better and better.

Merlin collapsed against a tree trunk, trying to pull the dead vegetables and other things out of his hair. It was going to be a pain to wash out, but at least it had been fun. What he couldn't believe was that Arthur had actually joined in, and that the other servants around the castle did to that food fight was going to go down in history. Making himself more comfortable he leaned back against the old oak, watching the elongated shadows form through the forest as the sunset. The golden rays sliding past the trunks, turning the old autumn leaves into a sea of gold. He heard russling behind him, and turned, to see Gwen shuffling through the leaves towards his tree.

"And just when I was enjoying the quiet!" he laughed, making her jump.

"Oh, Merlin, I didn't realise that you where here!" she responding quickly. "I'll go if you want me to!" she was just about to turn but Merlin stopped her.

"No Gwen! I was joking, it's always nice to spend the quiet with another person,"

"I guess you're right," she replied, sliding down next to him, and smoothing out her skirts. "Wow, even with all of last years compost strewn about, it still looks beautiful," she whispered.

"Yeah," Merlin replied, though not looking at the sheen of gold in front of them. Gwen covered a rather large yawn, her eyelids fluttering closed. "Tired?" Merlin smiled.

"No, not really, just relaxed," for some reason, it felt nice to have her snuggled up next to him.

"It was great fun today," she smiled.

"We should definitely do it again," he felt her nodding against him, and realised in her relaxed state she had slid down onto his chest, but he really didn't feel like moving her at all.

"Yes, we should," she stifled another yawn, and Merlin watched as her eyelids fluttered closed, Merlin thought of telling her to move, but with her dark exotic skin, bathed in the late setting sun, he really didn't want to.

"Gwen?" he asked a while later, as soft snores floated up to his ears, he looked down and grinned, to see the blacksmiths daughter snuggled into his chest, putting his arm around her he pulled her towards him, and looked up at the first stars blinking out into the night.

Maybe Mondays weren't that bad after all.

And there it is! Please review and half the credit is split with HawkSlayer.

I promise a update every day, and the final one being Saturday morning.

I know I shouldn't start another fanfiction, but hay, this one came to me when my sister told me that it was a week before Merlin started again, and I needed to write something! This style of almost countdown, was given to me when I've been reading a brilliant fanfiction called 12 Day's of Bonesness, leading down to the premiere of Season 5 of Bones! All the good seasons are coming out again this Autumn!

So let me know what you think, and yes, that little green button there loves being tickled.

Thanks, (my hand is starting to hurt!)

LostLyra.