Merlin/Arthur Hurt/comfort Hunt gone bad was requested by my friend Kerstin. I kinda cheated but this is close at least? ^^; I'm more of a Merlin/Gwaine fan usually but I am a little proud of this one actually.

When Merlin comes running into Arthurs chambers that night he expects to see the prince half dead or attacked by a monster or at least bleeding from something. The summoning he had received had sounded urgent enough for it to be somewhere along those lines. He hadn't expected Arthur to be sitting propped up against the headboard of his bed, with his blanket just below his chin, staring intently into the dark corner on the other side of the room like he was expecting something to jump out of there and attack at any minute.

"..Arthur?" The prince stiffened but only glanced at Merlin before going back to his staring. When he finally answers his voice is strained and aloof, as if he is surprised that Merlin is even there.

"..You, eh, summoned me?" Merlin says, throwing worried glances at the corner and the prince. Arthur shakes his head and blinks, almost as if getting out of some kind of trance, before acknowledging Merlin's presence again.

"Yes, um, get me some water will you?"

"..You called me up here in the middle of the night, saying it was urgent, and you want me to get you some water?"

"Well I was very thirsty!" Arthur snaps back, sounding a little more like himself this time.

"But your water is right over there!" Merlin says incredulously, pointing at the jar of water on the windowsill by the bed.

"So?" Arthur answers, the stubborn bastard. As always, Merlin sees no other option than to follow his masters orders, no matter how illogical. As he pours the water, Arthur goes back to staring at the corner.

"..Did you see it?" He suddenly says, causing Merlin to almost spill the water. He is half expecting a scolding when he turns to look at Arthur, but the prince isn't even looking at him.

"..see what?"

"Today, in the woods when we were hunting that- what was it called again"

"The Kelpie? Um yes I saw it..?"

"Not the Kelpie stupid we all saw that. The other thing. It was like- Like some kind of shadow. Over by the old caves."

Merlin searches his mind but finds nothing but memories of the Kelpie, a water beast in the shape of a horse, and how it had tried to drown both him and Gwaine and damn near succeeded. He finishes pouring the water, that he has almost forgotten, and hands it to Arthur.

"No, sorry. Perhaps it was just a, you know, Shadow?" Arthur grabs the glass and shoots a venomous look in Merlin's direction, before returning to his staring game with the corner. Merlin decides to leave the prince to his eccentrics and walks over to blow out the candle.

"Leave it"

"But I was just going to-"

"Just leave. The candle. Alone." Arthur said between his teeth, before wrapping the blanket even tighter around him.

"You're not afraid of the dark are you?" Merlin laughs, giving up on finding logic in the Prince's behavior. The reaction is an instant flinch followed by a glimpse of a guilty look before it is covered up with a scowl and a pillow thrown in Merlin's general direction.

"All right all right I'll leave it!" He says and backs away from the candle with his hands in the air, still laughing. Arthur doesn't say anything, and Merlin takes it as a cue to leave.

"Well you've got your water so I'm just going to-"He mumbles while walking towards the door. Just as he grabs the handle, however, Arthur makes a sound.

"..Arthur?"

"I swear I just saw it move" Arthur mumbles in response. Realizing that he is talking about the shadow, Merlin finds that he can no longer joke at his friend's expense. With all the dangerous monsters and evil curses hanging around, nobody can really blame Arthur for having become a little paranoid. Not that he'd ever admit to being scared, of course. With a sigh Merlin walks back into the room and pulls up a chair next to the bed.

"What are you doing?"

"Well I figured since it seems you cannot sleep I could always bore you with some of my usual nonsense."

"That tends to make me very sleepy, yes."

"And besides, you might need some more water."

"Haha how good of you, Merlin. Don't think this means you'll get the day off tomorrow though! I have laundry that needs to be cleaned in the morning"

"What? Come on, I'm losing sleep over this!" Merlin whined, but there was a smile not far off.

They manage to keep the conversation going for a few more hours, even though the subjects are getting worse and worse. They have managed to turn the conversation from the hardships of getting stains out of Silk ("You sure know how to bore me Merlin")on to how they could fool sir Leon to once again wear a dress ("for some noble cause, of course") before landing in a very strange conversation about shield emblems and what they really meant. ("I swear some of these are just all the bits of animals that the knight likes stuck into one body and made to look noble.") Somewhere around the fourth toll of the bell, however, Arthur finally falls asleep.
Merlin has somehow ended up sitting beside him on the bed, with his back against the propped up pillows. The late hour has made his head a little light, and his thoughts are slow.
Just a few more seconds, he thinks, and then I'll go home to my own bed. He leans back and stares at the peaceful sleeping face of Arthur, wondering if he'll ever be allowed this close again. Just one more minute...

When he wakes up everything is warm. Warm and safe. It's been a long time since he has felt this comfortable, and he decides to enjoy it a little longer. There is a bell tolling somewhere outside of his comfortable place, telling him that it's still early. He'll have to get up to do the laundry soon but it can wait a little longer. He burrows his head deeper into the pillow, trying to block out the sunlight from the window. Any minute now, Gaius will start moving around downstairs and then he'll have to get up but for now he's going to make the most of it. His blanket seems to have disappeared during the night, and he lazily reaches out for it but finds that he has too many pillows. Still a bit dazed, he wonders why some of the pillows feel warmer than the others. Then one of them moves and he has to open his eyes because he knows a thing or two about pillows and they are certainly not supposed to move.

At first everything is a bit fuzzy and all he can see is something beige that is right in front of his face, blocking out some of a room that is most certainly not his own. He blinks again and the world becomes clear enough for him to realize that the beige thing is actually a neck. Arthurs Neck. Arthur's neck inches away from Merlin's face. The next shocking revelation is that the rest of Arthur is pretty much just as close. One of his arms is resting on Merlin's shoulder, and his chin is resting against Merlin's forehead. His legs are out of the way however, and Merlin is thankful, because wouldn't that have been awkward.

Merlin knows he should move, but doesn't. He knows very well that if Arthur wakes up now this is going to be weird. Too weird, he knows, for Arthur to cope with. He is a brilliant man; Merlin will never say anything against that. But some things are just too much for him to deal with, and this would definitely be one of them. But Merlin stays still, just a little longer. He knows that if anyone walks in right now there will be terrible consequences. Because nobody could ever accuse Uther of being a tolerant man. But Merlin stays where he is, for just one more moment. Because somewhere inside the darkest parts of his mind, Merlin knows that he is fine with this. And that he really doesn't want to leave. Then the bell outside the window chimes again, and the last moment is gone.

He carefully moves Arthurs arm from his shoulder and placing it by his side, before carefully moving out of the warmth. He slides down from the bed, picks up the dirty laundry hung over the chair before carefully slipping out of the door. He carries on with his usual chores, and though he knows that the night before is something that he and Arthur will never speak of again, there is a warmth inside his bones that won't go away for a long, long time.

Arthur woke up an hour later, not really remembering much of the night before. He does however wonder about the strange feeling of something missing, like he's lost something important during his sleep. Something important, something…warm.