It just made no sense. During his walk to get water, he tried to revisit the last night when Lancelot explained why he was leaving. Lancelot was never very good at hiding his emotions. And something was clearly going on between Lancelot and Arthur, there was an anger there now and an unspoken agreement.
He stared into the water bucket and the blue of the water reminded him of Arthur’s eyes.

His mind stopped as did his feet; so suddenly he jerked and dropped the bucket of water he was carrying. Merlin had seen the threat in his Arthur’s eyes, he gasped with realization. Arthur had looked at Lancelot with jealousy!

He shook his head thinking he was imagining things and looked to his now wet clothes. Now he’d have to change clothes and Arthur was already going to have his head for being late. But Gaius insisted he do his chores first. The King found it funny, so Arthur simply had sneered in anger at Merlin.

It had been the anger that had gotten him to thinking. Where had the anger come from? Arthur was not normally angry, just simply a prat; a royal one at that. But the anger didn’t make any sense. He hadn’t done anything really wrong, unless you counted not doing the chores earlier – but still.

Arthur had been acting off since Lancelot had left; even the knights in the lists had mentioned it both before and after their last tourney. And hadn’t Arthur questioned his fast friendship with Lancelot? Could he have been jealous of their friendship?

He shook his head again. Nope that wasn’t it. Being jealous of a friendship doesn’t make someone angry, or did it? He shook his head from his musings and dashed off to change clothes.

From the shadows, Arthur Pendragon took a bite of apple and watched his manservant. His eyes traced the wet cloth as it hung on him and took a more fearsome bite. Anger surged through him at Lancelot’s parting words in private, “He’ll never have you.” Lancelot had been a thorn in his side ever since he’d laid eyes on Merlin. But what Lancelot didn’t understand was that the young manservant was his.


“You’re late,” Arthur noted. His feet were up on his table, the chair he was in, tilted back and another apple was in his hand. Merlin stopped in his tracks, his arms filled with newly polished armor.


“Sorry!” Merlin hurried in and started to put Arthur’s armor away. Arthur watched Merlin bend over repeatedly to pick up pieces. He did so love this time of day. Merlin had the tightest ass and he simply wanted to sink his manhood right between those glorious mounds and –

“Arthur, are you listening? I –“ Merlin froze as he took in the predatory look in the young prince’s eyes. “Arthur?”


The prince rose gracefully to his feet and sauntered over to where Merlin stood rigidly. “Do you like apples?”


Merlin blinked, confused by the change in subject. “Uh, yes.”


At this Arthur smiled and Merlin felt the world shift beneath him. Never had Arthur smiled at him in such a manner as to make his knees feel weak. He raised the apple between them and pushed it into Merlin’s mouth so he’d take a bite. When the apple was pulled away, rivulets of juice ran down Merlin’s face. Arthur looked deep into Merlin’s eyes and then leaned over. His tongue lapped up the juices from the skin of his servant. Beneath him Merlin moved, he quivered and shook, staring unbelievably Arthur’s eyes. “You missed some,” Arthur softly commented. He bent over again and kissed the side of Merlin’s neck. Merlin moaned. Arthur took that as a ‘yes’ and continued to lave the tantalizing neck before him.


A knock at the door, caused Arthur to pull away before looking at who had interrupted him with anger in his eyes. Gauis bowed before him, “Forgive me Arthur, but your father seeks your opinion.”


Arthur turned back to Merlin and gave him a blinding smile. “I’ll see you later.” He strode away in that commanding manner that never failed to impress Merlin. Now he couldn’t help but notice the cocky sway of his hips. His mind wandered back to the size of the codpiece Arthur had made and Merlin felt an idiotic grin break out over his face. Arthur had been jealous and wanted him!


Gaius rolled his eyes. “I fail to see what you’re so happy about. He looked like he had plans for you later. You’ll undoubtedly have a great deal of work to do.”


Merlin laughed. “He’s not so bad.” He went around Gauis to return to his previous work, whistling as he did.


Gauis frowned and shook his head before departing with a muttered, “The young today.”