The King and His Sorcerer

Part XVI: Words

“We need to talk, Arthur,” Merlin said. He’d finally decided to put his metaphorical foot down and clear everything between them.

Arthur curled his lip. “Talking involves words, Merlin. Just words.”

Merlin looked at his king, face deadpan. “I do not care that talking is ‘just words’. We are talking, my lord, and that is final.”

He started to walk off into the garden, not checking to see if Arthur was following him, even though he was hoping the king would. When he heard boots crunching the gravel behind him, he couldn’t help the smile that formed on his lips. Perhaps I should be forceful more often. When they reached a bench hidden by many branches of an old tree, Merlin sat. Arthur looked sceptical, but followed suit. The two of them sat in silence for many minutes.

Arthur cleared his throat. “I thought you wanted to talk, Merlin.”

“I do. I want to talk about what happened last week.”

“You mean … on the round table?”

Merlin’s cheeks heated at those words. They made it sound like much more than a simple kiss had taken place.

“Yes.”

“Well, what is it? Contrary to what you might think, Merlin, being king of Camelot does require a lot of my time.”

Merlin looked at Arthur and shook his head. He was still such a child at times.

“I want you to tell me what it meant to you. Because I know what it meant to me. And I want to make sure we … are on the same page.”

Arthur looked away from Merlin, and started tugging at his gloves, refusing to look his servant in the eye.

“Well, in simple terms, it was a kind of token of my affection.”

“Kind of?”

“No. It was a token of my affection.”

“Affection?”

“My lord, Merlin, are you going to make me spell it out for you? I kissed you because I care for you. Are you happy now? Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“Actually, it is,” Merlin replied, quite stunned at what Arthur had said to him.

“Oh,” Arthur responded, taken aback.

“Well, uhm. It was the same for me, if you were wondering. I care for you, Arthur, much more than I should. Much more than I am allowed. And now I fear that my pain will only increase because I have had one taste of you and I thought, perhaps, that it might last me forever, but it won’t. I know it won’t, because I – I – I love you.”

Arthur blinked several times at Merlin’s admission. And then he made a sound in the back of his throat, and grabbed Merlin, bringing his servant closer to him. Before Merlin could speak, Arthur was kissing him. Again. Arthur is kissing me for a second time. Arthur parted Merlin’s lips, deepening the kiss. Merlin felt as if his heart would burst. He had feared rejection from Arthur for so long. It barely even mattered that Arthur had not said the words back to him. As the king had determined, they were only words, after all.