Hi everyone! AN at the bottom- cyber hugs to anyone who finds typos for me to fix- I'm always looking to improve, editing included

Note- Rated T for mentions of drinking/drunkeness

God bless & happy reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin

- ~ o ~ -

Arthur was stressed. Which is why, Gwaine thought, it is my duty as a friend and loyal knight to make sure Arthur gets to relax from time to time. And where else would Gwaine go for such a thing, than to a tavern.

It was some drinks later, a great many some drinks later, that Gwaine remembered another duty; that to his situation as a man with very little means on him. Which is why, when Merlin came in to the tavern looking for his wayward master, that Gwaine hurridly greeted Merlin, and supplied "Princess is over at that table finishing up a tankard; doesn't hold his drink nearly as well as you'd expect for someone who's drinking wine at feasts all the time. Anyways, he's buying, I'm leaving. Bye, Merlin!" And he—not looking or sounding nearly as drunk as he should've for the amount of alcohol he consumed—scurried from the building.

Merlin just rolled his eyes, left the money with the barmaid, and gave Arthur a gentle (or perhaps not-so-gentle) shove out the door.

…

"You're lucky, Merlin," Arthur (rather sloppily) tried to express as he fumbled down the street. "Hardly a care in the world..." Before the second statement was through, Merlin was pulling one of Arthur's arms around his shoulders to keep him standing. "A nice, simple life…" Arthur slurred.

Heh. Sure, my life is completely simple, Arthur. He thought sarcastically. Then another thought came to him. He won't remember this in the morning anyways… I might as well vent while I have the chance.

"You know, you're not a very observant clotpole, are you? I mean, really, you think my life is so simple?" Merlin sighed a little. "My life has grown so complicated and… and difficult since coming to Camelot, sometimes I think that one of these days my head's just going to explode. BAM!" He paused to snicker a little here at the prince's jump, "And that would be the end of me."

"Polishing my armor getting too complicated for you now, Merlin?" Arthur slurred drowsily as they rounded a corner. Oh yes, he was definitely going to forget this conversation tomorrow. If he even recalled it by the time they made it back to the castle.

"Honestly, though," Merlin continued, ignoring Arthur almost completely now, "I work my tail off. Not just keeping you all tidy and your chambers clean, but having to keep you alive. I should get a raise!" He thought for a moment he could glean a promise of that off of Arthur now, but aside from the fact that the prince was hardly forming coherent thoughts, the extra work Arthur would lay on him if he tried to hold him to it just wasn't going to be worth it. So he continued.

"Even if not a raise, some recognition would be nice. I mean, people hardly even recall that I got my job saving your life from that witch, and I didn't get anything but a few days off during that incident with Bayard- and I was unconscious or bed-ridden for most of that! And those are just the times people actually know about! Even you don't realize how many times I've had to save your ungrateful arse. Bandits, sorcerers, assassins, bandits, fake knights, slave drivers… bandits! Really, Arthur, what is the point of sending out all those patrols if the bandits clearly just hide and wait for us to go out on a hunt, or a mission?" Looking at the man next to him, Merlin could tell that Arthur was essentially sleep-walking by this point, leaning largely on Merlin, and not actually seeing anything in particular, for having his eyes open. (It was really quite amazing that he was still on his feet- and a good thing too, because Merlin was not about to carry an overweight royal all the way back to the castle and up all those stairs to the royal wing. Nope. If Arthur passed out, he was going to be either sleeping in the street or passed over to a guard… neither options that would've boded well for Merlin the next morning- the man's hangover would give rise enough to a bad temper without adding a situation like that to the mix.)

Remember now the more fiscally-based train of thought that began this last rant, Merlin went on.

"You would think that I'd get some sort of reward for each time I save your life. Not a servitude of washing your disgusting socks-that was the lamest 'reward' I've ever heard of, by the way-no, I'm thinking more like gold. Even if it was in silver pennies, I'd be fine. Do you know how rich I'd be if I got a few for each time I've had to save you? I'd be pretty well off, I can tell you that.

"And you don't even realize what I'm implying, do you, you intoxicated prat?"

Arthur mumbled a bit in response… the only recognizable word was "idiot", but Merlin didn't even need to understand the phrase to know that would be in it somewhere. No, Arthur's brain was definitely shut down for the night… Which, of course, would make it no different than any other time of the day, if you asked Merlin.

By this time they'd made it to the castle, which, unlike the rest of the city, did have some stray (alert) people still roaming around it, with guards and overworked servants and what-have-yous; and so Merlin thought it best to terminate the current, very much one-sided, conversation. So, he just quietly ranted on about how much of a prat Arthur could be sometimes, like when he put Merlin in situations where he had to sneak a drunken prince back into a guarded castle with as few witnesses as possible… No, Uther wouldn't be in a good mood tomorrow, either, if he learnt of his son's escapade tonight.

They finally reached the prince's royal chambers, the prince almost assuredly sleep-walking now, perhaps, perhaps not with the help of a bit of magic on Merlin's part. Merlin himself just dropped the prince on the bed with a "There you go, you lazy prat," and a rather spectacular yawn of his own, and headed back to Gaius's. (Not without a little kindness on his part in magicking Arthur's boots off and covers up as he left the room.)

…

The following morning Merlin took some extra pleasure in loudly waking the prince up… and was almost immediately and fully forgiven when the said prince was given a hangover cure from Gaius and a brief explanation from Merlin mentioning how he got back to his rooms last night, and undiscovered by any guards or knights that might report his rather un-princely behavior to Uther.

The day progressed quickly after that for the warlock and prince, filled with duties on both parts to keep their minds working- and a short couple of queries from the former satisfied his thoughts that the prince had no recollection of the previous evening beyond Gwaine convincing him to get his fifth tankard… he didn't even want to think about what would've happened to Gwaine had the prince not made it back undiscovered… from Uther or Arthur.

But, however, the slight relief that came from those carefully answered queries was unfounded; for while Arthur might've been (read: definitely was) far too drunk to comprehend the significance of what Merlin said when he said it, Arthur had (almost) no trouble deciphering it from what he recalled of the conversation, which was quite honestly, most of it.

And so Merlin had no reason to understand the slightly questioning look Arthur bore on his face for the next few days, and brushed it off easily enough. But Arthur didn't forget, and he vowed that one day he would figure out just what Merlin did for him.

…

And Merlin got his silver pennies.

(And in case you ever doubted, reader, there were indeed, a lot.)

- ~ o ~ -

I hope you all enjoyed this little one-shot. It was just another plot-bunny that decided to inhabit my brain (and eventually my computer) this evening. Reviews are always welcome, and if you're wondering, I will try to add another chapter to my story, "Another Day" at some point, my plate is just really full at the moment. Feel free to pester me about it if you get impatient—it'll probably work.

Please check out my profile if you like Merlin, Avatar, Pocahontas, Once Upon A Time, The Goose Girl, or Book of a Thousand Days (both by Shannon Hale) for prompts and full plot outlines ready to be adopted I'm generally an ideas person- so feel free to call on that if you ever need inspiration, motivation, or a sounding board and I'd be happy to help

Happy reading

God bless *heart*

READ THIS UPDATE IF NOTHING ELSE HERE -v

Thanks to a suggestion from the lovely Moonlite Streak, an idea has developed in my perhaps more-than-slightly chaotic mind for a multi-chapter sequel-of-sorts, showing in each chapter a how Arthur (and others) learned about one or two of Merlin's escapades ("How Merlin Earned the Silver Pennies") eventually leading to the full reveal. So, keep an eye out!

Like I said, my schedule is a bit packed at the moment, but this gives me plenty of time to gather some ideas from you lovely readers as to which stories you want to hear, if there are any that should be revealed together, circumstances of how they'll be revealed, and mostly, WHICH ONE would you like to hear FIRST? Let me know! :D