Author's Note: Wrote this for a prompt exchange over at LJ. Special thanks to my awesome betas!

-x-

It hadn't been love at first sight, Arthur was certain of that much at least. There had been no choir of angels, no pink clouds, no golden sparkles, no sudden revelation. Just a growing sense of something. It had taken Arthur months to piece it together.

It finally occurred to him one afternoon as he looked down into the courtyard from his window, tapping his fingers idly on the glass panes. He was going to be late for combat practice, but a certain idiot servant had taken away his armour to polish it and hadn't returned yet.

Arthur was about to go down to Gaius's rooms himself to see what had become of his armour when he finally saw Merlin hurrying across the courtyard with a large bundle in his arms.

"At long last!" Arthur muttered, only to splutter indignantly as Merlin stopped to greet Gwen who was walking down the castle's steps at that moment.

Arthur had to watch with mounting annoyance as Merlin (displaying his usual complete disregard for punctuality) launched into telling Gwen some kind of story. He was gesticulating as much as he could without dropping his burden, and Gwen started laughing.

Arthur noticed with growing discomfort that he wasn't just angry because of his servant's incompetence. (Sadly, by now he was used to it.) In truth he wished he could skip training altogether and join Gwen and Merlin in the courtyard. They seemed to be having fun together. Without him.

And that, Arthur thought, was a very stupid idea. Why should he care about two servants chatting together? It was none of his business.

Besides, whatever romantic feelings he might have had towards Guinevere had been truncated months ago when she'd made it clear that she was in love with another man. He hadn't been jealous of Lancelot at that time, so why should he be jealous of Merlin now?

Just then Merlin looked up and caught Arthur's eye. With a start he waved goodbye to Gwen and rushed up the stairs and into the castle, disappearing from sight.

Arthur turned towards the door expectantly. "At long last," he repeated, and then it all made sense.

Except that it didn't make any sense because it wasn't been Merlin he was jealous of, it was Gwen. He was jealous of Gwen because she was talking with Merlin.

Merlin, who never bowed and always talked back and was the worst servant Arthur had ever seen. Merlin, who lied a lot but never about important things, and didn't like to follow orders but trusted Arthur blindly. Merlin, who'd gone from being a figure in the background to never leaving Arthur's thoughts at all.

Who was he trying to fool? He was in love with Merlin.

Arthur was still trying to come to grips with this new and terrifying idea when his door flew open and Merlin barged in, muttering something about armours and stains, and Arthur decided that it'd be a good idea to order him to muck the stables.

At least, Arthur reasoned, this would give him time to assess the situation so he could organize his thoughts before making a fool of himself in front of his servant. Or his love interest. Or whatever Merlin was at the moment. Arthur definitely needed more time to think about it.

Merlin grimaced. "Can't you just put me in the stocks?" he suggested. "At least I wouldn't go home smelling of horse dung again."

"If you don't go now," Arthur replied, "I'll have you muck the stables and then throw you in the stocks."

Merlin walked away grumbling, leaving Arthur to put on the armour on his own. As he joined his knights for his (very, very late) practice, he reflected that there were probably better ways to start a courtship than this.

Picking up his sword, Arthur thought the problem was that he had no idea of how a courtship was supposed to go.

From his few and unsuccessful attempts he seemed to recall that flowers featured prominently, but somehow getting Merlin a bunch of daisies or lilies or whatever didn't sound like a good plan. Merlin would probably laugh at it, and if there's something Arthur didn't want, it was making a fool of himself. He was already doing a good job of that without pansies entering the picture.

Usually in such a situation Arthur would have asked for Merlin's help, or rather ordered him to do something about it, but he couldn't very well do that now. And there was nobody else Arthur could turn to for advice.

Going to Morgana, who was the closest that Arthur had to a sibling, was out of question. Arthur doubted that her black heart had ever been capable of loving someone, and even if she could give Arthur some advice she'd tease him about it for the rest of eternity.

Gwen would surely be nicer about it, but there was something awkward in asking her for advice about courting Merlin after having asked Merlin for advice about courting Gwen. (Arthur blamed this on Merlin. He'd never had problems ordering servants around before Merlin had come along and demanded that he treated them as people, and now things were unnecessarily complicated.)

The list of people that Arthur could trust with his secret was dismally short. Lancelot was off in some faraway kingdom. Gaius was too close to Merlin and might let something slip.

His knights were loyal to Camelot but he couldn't imagine that they'd be any better with romance than himself. Besides, he could never be sure which ones were true friends and which ones were just trying to curry his favours.

Leon, who was his current duelling partner, was quiet and sensible and not prone to chatter. Arthur was just thinking that maybe he could tell him about Merlin when the man lunged forward and caught him open, landing a heavy blow on Arthur's shoulder. Arthur lost his footing and fell backwards ungraciously in a crash of armour.

The other men in the training yard stopped to check if he was injured but Arthur waved them back to their sparring. His cheeks were burning with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry about that, sire," Leon told him apologetically, offering him his hand. Arthur took it gratefully and pushed himself back to his feet, then tried to brush the dust off his breeches nonchalantly as if being knocked off his feet during practice was a common occurrence.

Which it was, to be sure, but usually Arthur was the one who sent other knights flying. How long had it been since the last time he'd made such a blunder?

Leon seemed to be thinking among the same lines. "I thought you'd parry that," he said. "Are you all right?"

Arthur nodded quickly. "I'm fine," he replied. "Just... I'm fine."

That was a blatant lie, since he could already feel a huge bruise spreading through his upper arm and shoulder, but he couldn't tell Leon the truth now. Admitting that he'd been distracted by his love troubles would sound too much like an excuse, and a lame one at that.

Arthur gritted his teeth and tried not to think about Merlin at all. He just barely managed to avoid being caught off guard again that afternoon, but left the training yard feeling thoroughly beaten.

By the time he got back to his rooms, Arthur's shoulder was throbbing painfully and he felt the beginning of a headache. He wanted nothing better than to curl up in bed and go to sleep, but he also wanted to see Merlin since he'd barely had a chance to talk with him since that morning.

In the end Merlin won over sleep and Arthur threw himself on a chair and waited for Merlin to show up with his dinner.

He was gracious enough not to make any snide remarks even though Merlin arrived late, carrying a dish of chicken that had by now gone cold. He didn't say anything when Merlin made an unnecessary amount of noise setting it on the table, and refrained to mention the faint smell of horse manure that still clung to Merlin.

He was acting like a perfect gentleman. Arthur thought that, all in all, the evening was going well.

"Have I got something on my face?" Merlin asked suddenly, rubbing his cheek with his sleeve.

"What?" Arthur said, snapping out of his daydream. "No, you don't. Why?"

Merlin frowned and craned his head, trying to look into Arthur's mirror. "You've been staring at me all the time," he said.

"No, I haven't," Arthur replied quickly, then realized that it was probably a lie and hastened to change the subject. "How was your day?"

"Oh, it was great, sire," Merlin said with a grin. "It's good fun, mucking the stables."

Arthur's smile froze on his face and he privately cursed himself for being a fool. Wrong thing to say, but he couldn't think clearly now. His headache was getting worse, he was tired from training and Merlin was being the biggest distraction just by standing in front of Arthur's table.

"Yes, well, you were late," Arthur said defensively, fidgeting with his potatoes.

"I was polishing your armour!" Merlin complained. "I did it as quickly as I could but there were all those stains from when you fought that green slimy creature and they were a real pain to remove..."

Merlin, Arthur thought, looked really adorable as he said that. As if he'd been the victim of some tyrannical prince, which was ridiculous since Arthur was always fair. And did he just think that Merlin was adorable? He really needed some sleep.

He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand, then noticed that Merlin had concluded his tirade and was looking at him expectantly. Arthur hadn't been listening, had there been a question?

For lack of anything better to say, Arthur smiled and said, "I saw you talking with Guinevere in the courtyard."

Then his brain caught up with his mouth and he wished he could take his words back. No need to bring that up, except that he just had.

He'd never mentioned Gwen to Merlin after their falling out. He hadn't even told him that there'd been a falling out, but he assumed Merlin had found out from Gwen. Merlin was very careful never to talk about Gwen in front of Arthur and Arthur was grateful for that since it would have been embarrassing to discuss how she dumped him.

Now Merlin looked sheepish. "I was just telling her about this troupe that arrived in Camelot for the festival," he said. "They've got jugglers and fools and acrobats, and they're going to do a big show on Midsummer's night..."

Arthur noticed the not-so-subtle attempt at changing the subject, but there was something else. He frowned.

"So that's where you went this morning," he said, pointing an accusatory fork. "I looked everywhere for you and you were slacking off with a circus?"

"No," Merlin said quickly, looking like a very bad liar. Arthur stared at him. "Yes," Merlin admitted, bowing his head. "Er. I'm going to spend the rest of my life in the stables, aren't I?"

Arthur was tempted to say yes, but for the sake of their (currently non-existent) relationship he just laughed and shook his head.

"You're not mad at me?" Merlin asked.

"Why should I be?" Arthur replied. "Maybe you found your true calling. You should join the circus, you're good at making a spectacle of yourself."

Which wasn't really a romantic thing to say, but it was all Merlin's fault for being an idiot.

-x-

"What's that smell?" Gaius asked, looking up from the books he was reading.

Merlin sighed and closed the door behind him. "I think it's me," he said. "Arthur had me muck his stables again."

"What did you do this time?" Gaius asked, sounding torn between sympathy and amusement.

"I was just a few minutes late," Merlin said defensively. He walked up to the basin and splashed some water on his face. "But Arthur was being insufferable today, even more so than usual."

He pushed a strand of wet hair away from his eyes, then frowned and turned to Gaius. "And he asked me about Gwen."

"Gwen?" Gaius repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"I thought he'd given up on her months ago," Merlin said. "But maybe he's still in love with her. I felt as if there was something Arthur wasn't telling me."

Gaius gave him a stern look. "Merlin," he said quietly. "If the prince doesn't want to say anything, it's not your place to pry..."

"But it is my business if Arthur is in a foul mood because the girl he loves doesn't love him back," Merlin said. "I'm the one he likes to bully around as a stress relief."

"Then I suggest you call it an early night," Gaius said. "Get some sleep. Arthur will be less likely to punish you for lateness if for once you arrive in time next morning."

"Not you too!" Merlin exclaimed. "It's bad enough to have Arthur treating me as if I'm Camelot's worst manservant. I'm not that useless."

Gaius pretended to think about it. "Well, you did oversleep today, and the day before..."

Merlin laughed. "That's true," he admitted. "But I'm sure I'm at least second-worst. There had to be someone worse than me."

Gaius smiled at him. "I'll make sure you wake up earlier tomorrow morning."

"Thanks Gaius. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Gaius said. He turned back to his book.

Merlin closed his bedroom's door and tossed himself on the bed. He was asleep within a minute.