Something Old, Something New

27

Merlin tried to move around quietly in the morning, though he wasn't particularly worried about it. He had always had to practically drag Arthur out of bed, and while the couch may not have been quite like the king's bed in Camelot, it wasn't bad. Merlin would have given his bed to Arthur in a heartbeat, and probably would for the next night, but part of him thought it was just the lesson that Arthur might need to teach him that things were not the same as they had been.

Despite the habits of Arthur's past life, Merlin had been in the kitchen barely five minutes, just starting the coffee maker, when Arthur had crept into the room. Crept, because Merlin had no idea he was there until he spoke. 

"Why are you awake at this hour?" Merlin gasped and spilled coffee grounds all over the counter. 

"My gods Arthur," Merlin said in exasperation, before beginning to carefully brush the grounds off the counter and into his hand.

"Sorry," Arthur said, and Merlin rolled his eyes hearing just how much Arthur didn't mean it at all. Merlin tried to funnel the grounds from his hand into the filter, but most of the bits that didn't stick to his hand, ended up back on the counter. Merlin was about to just brush the excess into the sink and add some more from the bag, when Arthur spoke.

"Why don't you just use magic?" Merlin blinked at the counter, and then turned to Arthur, who was leaning against the kitchen island behind him. Merlin half regretted turning around, half thought it was the best idea he had ever had in his life.

Arthur's dirty blond hair was sticking up on one side, and he had a crease from the pillow on that side of his face as well. He was wearing the grey sweatpants and large t-shirt that they had bought the day before.

Merlin had seen him before in the early hours of the morning. Many times. But this was different somehow. Having Arthur here, in Merlin's flat, in modern clothes, looking so...cozy. Merlin wanted to hug him, or kiss him, tell him how happy he was that he was there, tell him how much he loved him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"What?"

"The look you just gave me."

"What look? There was no look."

"There was a look!"

Merlin shrugged and turned around again. "I think you might be imagining things. I suppose you're entitled to a bit of crazy, coming back from the dead and all."

"I am not crazy!"

"Of course sire."

"Merlin!"

"I don't know why I didn't use magic." That might have been the clumsiest subject change of Merlin's entire life, and that was saying something given some of the shit he'd pulled back in Camelot. Hopefully Arthur would just think it was Merlin being Merlin and trying to annoy him. It wasn't that much of a stretch.

"I guess I'm just not used to it anymore. I'm generally around people, and...I don't know. The menial tasks can be nice to do by hand sometimes. I used to clean your armor by hand a lot of the time." Merlin brushed the grounds into the sink, washing them down the drain, knowing Iris would cringe at him doing that, and then pushing her far out of his mind.

"That would explain how inconsistent you were."

"Excuse me?" Merlin scoffed, pouring a smaller spoonful of grounds into the filter, and then grabbing the measuring cup he kept to the side for water.

"Sometimes you would have an insane amount of work done in a short time, and other times you could barely wash my clothes in time for the banquets." Merlin poured water into the coffee maker and then started it, turning back around to face Arthur with an eyebrow raised.