A/N: I wrote this ficlet for Trufflehead a while back. I just found it again and wanted to publish it, since I haven't been on in a bit. Please enjoy!

"Arthur?"

Arthur gave a start and snapped his head to face the visitor. Merlin held up his hands, showing himself to be no threat. Arthur sighed and turned back to the view of the night's stars. "Good evening, Merlin," he said, leaning back on his hands.

Merlin sat next to his king and crossed his legs, his knees and elbows lining up so that he was propped forward for attentive viewing. Crickets weaved staccato melodies in the patches of grass below the hill on which they sat. A breeze filtered through the grass and within his hair.

After a few moments, Merlin turned back to his friend. "A king should be well rested."

Arthur puffed a short laugh. "Yes, he should. But it seems Fate does not will it to be done." Merlin hummed in recognition of Arthur's troubles.

After a few moments of cricket-drowned silence, Merlin spoke again. "I'd like to propose something, if I may."

Arthur's head lolled to look at Merlin. "What's that?"

"I heard that, if you close your eyes for three seconds, the stars become even brighter than before." Arthur gave a throaty chuckle, but slid his eyes shut.

"One," Merlin hummed, trying to sum up the strength. "Two," he said, also closing his eyes and thinking of the mystic words. "Three."

Arthur opened his eyes to the heavens, and couldn't believe he sat under the same sky as before. He couldn't move his eye a hairsbreadth without catching sight of another smattering of the universe's infinite pricks of light. Streaks of shooting stars cut across the constellations for mere seconds, but reappeared again and again in every corner of the sky. Nebulas, the colors of which Arthur had never witnessed, flourished almost by the moment. Arthur's mouth twitched up in happiness, but fell open from shock.

Merlin was too distracted by Arthur to notice the stars.