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Arthur has never really enjoyed his birthday.
First, he had to live with the knowledge that it was also the day his mother died, therefore his father was even more difficult than usual.
Then his father was attacked on his birthday, even if he died a few days later.
So Arthur has come to expect bad things.
That's why he's had a little too much wine the night before.
But Merlin has too, so at least he's won't be alone with the inevitable headache.
It had started with dinner in his chambers, while he ate, Merlin was in the chair polishing armour, and had told him to serve himself.
So Arthur blamed his drunkenness on him, since he'd been left unsupervised.
By the time Merlin realized, Arthur was already tipsy.
Merlin tried to take the wine away, but Arthur convinced him to have some too.
One thing led to another, and now they've decided to lounge on the floor in front of the fireplace, taking turns drinking straight from the bottle as they lean against each other.
"I'm not superstitious, you know." Arthur says, or tries to anyway, he's slurring his words quite a bit by now.
But Merlin understands him, so it's okay.
"But my birthday is bad luck!"
"Why?" Merlin asks, clearly not able to remember why he'd say that.
"People I care about die!" Arthur says, then that thought triggers another through his hazy mind.
"Merlin! I care about you! Don't die today!" Arthur says, grabbing Merlin's arm and making him spill some wine.
"I won't! I can't. You care about me?"
"Of course I care about you! You're my favorite!"
"You're my favorite too!" Arthur isn't sure why the wine decided to jump around at the smile Merlin sends him, but it's not too unpleasant.
Since Arthur isn't sober enough to think better of it, he accepts the drunken Merlin flying at him for a hug.
"Since you promise not to die, anything bad you want to tell me? So my birthday is bad again and we can get drunk again next year?"
"I've done lots of bad things. Which do you want to hear?"
"The baddest."
"But then you won't get drunk with me again next year, you'll have me sent away!"
"No I won't! I need you too much to send you away!"
"Promise?"
Arthur nods as he takes another swig.
"I have magic." Merlin whispers.
Arthur spits out the wine he'd just got.
"Told you it was bad."
"Since when?!"
"Since always."
"Why haven't you told me?!"
"You never asked to know a bad thing before."
"That's true. But you could've just said!"
"But I didn't want to be sent away!"
"I told you, I couldn't do that!"
"So you don't mind?"
"Show me something." Arthur says after shaking his head.
Merlin makes some wine float out of the bottle, then drinks it from the air.
"I wanna try!"
That's how the rest of that bottle goes.
Arthur yawns, which makes Merlin yawn, which makes Arthur pull them both to their feet.
"C'mon." He mutters, not letting go of Merlin as he stumbles to his bed.
"You want me to get your bedclothes?" Merlin asks, looking warily at the wardrobe.
"No way, you're too clumsy! If you tried to go too far, you'd fall and probably die, since it's my birthday."
"Then what?"
"We need to sleep. We're both tired."
"Ok. Goodnight." Merlin says as he turns, but Arthur still doesn't let go.
"You won't make it up the stairs! You sleep in here. So you don't die."
"Good point."
So they both climb into the bed, or they try to.
They just end up falling all over each other.
"This is fine." They say in unison, which to their intoxicated brains is hilarious.
They barely move their arms, just enough to hold each other.
"Do you want to know a bad secret of mine?" Arthur asks.
"Bet yours isn't as bad as mine." Merlin says, proud to have won something.
"It might be. Because I'm not upset about your secret, but you might get upset by mine."
"Don't think so."
"I'm in love with someone."
"I take it back, I might be upset by that."
"Why?"
"Because I'm in love with someone."
"Oh. Who?"
"Who are you in love with?"
"You."
"Oh, then I'm not upset anymore."
"Why? Who are you in love with?"
"You."
"Oh. That's great!"
They try to kiss, but it doesn't really work, as they're too uncoordinated to get their lips in the same place, so they settle for just kissing whatever place they can find.
Soon they both fall asleep while pressing a kiss to the other.
~
Arthur wakes up with a splitting headache, and the immediate knowledge that he's not alone in bed.
He's almost afraid to open his eyes as bits and pieces of the night before float through his mind.
He had immediately known who's arms he was in, as nobody else could possibly be holding him so gently.
There had only been a few times he'd allowed himself to hug Merlin, when his father had died and Merlin had sat waiting for him all night, he'd hugged him once they got to the privacy of his chambers, and to his relief, Merlin hadn't made a comment, just immediately brought his arms up and held him tight, but just as gentle as he is now.
Then there was the time Merlin had been taken by bandits and crawled out of a bog, which Arthur had then gotten all over himself.
But neither of those times had been an wonderful as this, waking up with his arms around Merlin, and Merlin's around him.
He doesn't want to ruin this, would rather selfishly wait until Merlin awoke and enjoy what little time he has like this.
Until a certain piece of information comes back to him.
He bolts upright, waking Merlin who seems very confused.
They start talking at the same time, asking what they think are the most important questions.
"Why am I in your bed?!"/"You have magic?!"
"What?!"/"That's not as important!
"How do you know about that?!"
"You told me!"
"When?!"
"Last night!"
"Ugh, this is why I don't drink! I start to reveal things I shouldn't!"
"But you're always in the tavern?"
"I've never been to the tavern for drinks! Except like, once! With you!"
"Then where do you keep going?!"
"To save your royal arse with my magic!"
"Why?! I have knights for that!"
"Yeah, and no offense to them, but they suck at it!"
"You have magic."
"Yes."
"And you use it to save my life?"
"Yes."
"Because you're in love with me?"
"Yes. Wait, what?!"
"Yeah, you told me that too. I think that's why we're in bed together. Also because I was scared you'd fall and die."
Merlin buries his face in his hands, saying lots of things Arthur doubts Hunith would approve of.
"Why don't I remember this?"
"If you never go to the tavern and don't get as drunk as Gwaine every night, like I thought, then you probably can't hold your liquor very well. It may come back, it may not."
"So you're a drunkard too? While I'm off nearly dying and you think I'm at the tavern, you're the one who's actually drinking?"
"You nearly what?!"
"Don't you remember that time you asked where I was, I said I was dying, and you thought I was joking? Yeah, no. I got stung by a serket."
"You WHAT?!"
"Ack, keep it down! My head is hurting way too much for this conversation."
"Can't you magic it better?"
"Well I didn't want to do that right in front of you and freak you out."
"If you do it for me too, I definitely won't care."
Merlin says a quick spell, Arthur gets entranced by the way his eyes change color, then they both sigh in relief as the headaches melts away.
"Ok, back to the serket. How are you alive?! Those things are fatal!"
"Why did it sound like you're complaining?!"
"I'm not! I'm just in shock!"
"You're not going to banish me, right? Because I really don't feel like packing up everything I own today."
"I won't if you always do that headache thing."
"Oh, hey! I remember something! You can't banish me, you promised you wouldn't!"
"I was drunk, Merlin."
"I was drunk when I said I have magic, yet you believed that? Wow, Arthur. I thought kings were supposed to keep their word."
"I wouldn't banish you, and you know it."
"How would I know that?"
"If I wanted you gone, do you think I'd still be sitting in my bed with you?"
"Fair enough."
"How many times have you nearly died?"
"A lot."
"More than me?"
"Probably."
"Yikes."
"And that's just the times you know about nearly dying."
"There's more?!"
"Tons."
"We are going to have a long conversation about this later."
"Ok, but I might not remember everything. Nearly dying does things to your memory."
"Don't I know it."
"Wait a minute! I remembered something! You're in love with me too?!"
"Once again, why do you think you're still in my bed?"
"We should've gotten drunk a long time ago. This thing is great."
"Now you know why I never want to get up."
"Yeah, I'm not leaving either."
"Good. I'm still tired." Arthur says, flopping back onto the pillows, pulling Merlin with him.
"Me too. Who knew it's exhausting revealing your biggest secrets?"
"How powerful are you?"
"Dunno." Mein mumbles, already falling back to sleep.
"Can you make the sun take a little longer?"
"That makes nature angry."
"You've tried?"
Merlin nods against his chest.
Arthur sighs, and does as the night before, presses a kiss to anything close enough.
~
Eventually they're awake and sober enough to actually use their lips.
And then they have to talk for a while, but they quickly decide that they can talk anywhere, anytime, but the kissing can't be seen just yet.
They want to get back in sync first, then they can yell at Council members.
Maybe Arthur will start to like his birthdays more, if they all involve waking up with Merlin from now on.
(They do)