It was only 6am. 6am. Merlin hadn't seen this time of day in weeks. Let alone on a Sunday. A fucking Sunday- the day in which Merlin spends entirely under his quilt, inhaling the smell of his pillow, and ignoring his flatmate as he got on with a normal day.

Yet though his eyes were blurred with sleep, that's the time his digital clock read on his bedside table.

6 am.

Saturday.

He rolled over onto his back, swatting away the arm that was shaking his shoulder.

"Piss off." He snuggled deep into his pillow, and pulled his quilt up to his chin, smiling at its warmth.

"You're such a spoilsport, Merlin." Merlin opened one eye to see a smiling Arthur Pendragon standing by his bed, arms folded.

"It's 6 o'clock, Arthur. You are a spoil sport." Merlin gripped his quilt and rolled onto his side, his back facing Arthur. "You are spoiling my sleep." Merlin rubbed his face into the pillow and felt his quilt pull away from him, exposing his body to the cold air. "Jesus!" Merlin pulled his body into a ball, suddenly feeling very relieved that he wore pyjamas to bed last night. He lifted his head and saw Arthur standing at the foot of his band, casually folding his quilt up in his hands and throwing it onto his own bed.

"It's snowing!" Arthur laughed. Merlin grabbed his pillow and put it over his own face, covering his ears. He never knew that Arthur was such a child until he had decided to share rooms with him when they both moved away to Albion University. He did know, however, that Arthur was not a morning person, but the event of snow seemed to make an exception. Merlin threw his feet over the side of the bed and stretched his arms above his head, cracking his shoulders and back. "Yes!" Arthur shouted triumphantly. He ran to the other end of the room and pulled open Merlin's clothes drawers. He pulled out at least four different tops, a jumper, a pair of trackie bottoms, and two pairs of thick socks.

He turned, going to throw them on Merlin's bed to find Merlin had just moved beds, and was now curled under Arthur's quilt.

"Merlin!" He whined, trying to pull the quilt off of Merlin's body, but Merlin held on tight and snuggled into Arthur's mattress more and more. Arthur snickered silently at the circumstances - I never thought I'd be trying to pull Merlin out of my bed, If only he felt the need to be there willingly all the time. "Merlin! Everyone's meeting outside for a massive snowball fight, come on, It'll be fun!" Arthur dropped the quilt, and smiled bashfully at Merlin who was curled up in a ball with only one tired eye open.

"It's 6am." Merlin repeated. "The snow will be there in a few hours…"

"What if it's not?" Arthur almost stomped his foot, and Merlin watched as the blonde man – boy – reminded him of his six year old nephew and laughed.

"Then we'll just have to wait until next year won't we!"

Arthur frowned, his bottom lip almost trembling as he pressed his hands together and dropped to his knees. "Please?"

"I'm not stopping you going!"

Arthur sighed, "Won't be the same without you."

Merlin just rolled his eyes.

Half an hour later and Merlin was dragging his feet behind him as he walked out of the warmth of his and Arthur's block of flats and out into the main courtyard. He pulled his hat closer around his face as the wind painfully whipped around his ears. He looked up at the scene in front of him. The sun was hardly out, a few rays were shining onto the settled snow making the courtyard seem as though it was shimmering in the early hours. Snow was no longer still falling from the sky, but it felt as though it should be as Merlin was sure that if he was to cry right now, his tears would freeze to his face.

"So who's coming?" He mumbled grumpily, receiving a very disappointed look from Arthur.

Arthur shrugged, "Leon, Percival and Gwaine definitely are. Guinevere said she's up for it too, so she'll probably drag Morgana out of bed."

"Doubt it." Merlin huffed. "Morgana loves mornings just about as much as I do."

"Ah! But I managed to drag you!" Arthur clapped his hand on Merlin's shoulder.

"S'pose." Truth was, Merlin just couldn't say no when Arthur was giving him the puppy eyes.

"Ah, there they are!" Merlin looked up and saw five figures walking towards them. From what Merlin could manage to see, the three boys looked just as excited as Arthur did, and even Gwen was smiling. Morgana, however, looked just as miserable as Merlin felt. Merlin watched as Gwaine bent down to tie his shoe lace, and could just make out a cheeky grin. "Suppose we'll have teams?"

"Arthur, I think they've already made their alliance…" Gwen also bent down, however not as subtly. Merlin grabbed Arthur by the shoulder and pulled him sideways, hiding then both behind a bush. He peeked over the bush just to see Gwaine and Gwen attacking each other with balls of snow they had not-so-subtly rolled.

Morgana was feeling from the scene, screaming almost happily, whilst Leon and Percival joined Gwaine in soaking Gwen with snow.

Arthur rolled several balls of snow, passing several to Merlin, smiling cheekily to him before leaping from behind the bush and attacking Percival and Leon. Merlin sighed, a slight smile on his face before he joined him flatmate.

The fighting seemed to go on for hours. Merlin could hardly feel his fingers yet he still managed to curl them round the nice and pelt them at any moving figure he could see.

"I give up!" Merlin turned to see Gwaine fall on his back and into the snow, and begin moving his arms and legs to make a snow angel.

"Me too!"

"And me!"

"Ahh, fuck it!"

Merlin looked and saw everyone else falling onto their backs and just enjoying the moments of being numb and no longer feeling the cold. He laughed at the scene, his friends falling into the snow, their rosy red cheeks and what looked like the snow was sparkling in their eyes.

He smiled, and turned his back on the scene for just a moment, looking back at his warm flat and felt glad that Arthur had woken I'm this morning.

"I don't give up!" He heard Arthur's voice from behind him and he turned around to see Arthur literally flying towards him. Arthur landed on Merlin, pushing them back into the snow, Arthur's body flat on top of Merlin's, and his hand full of snow was rubbing in Merlin's face. Merlin squirmed under Arthur's weight but every time he moved Arthur seemed to lean into him more and more, with snow slipping into every open piece of clothing.

"Arthur….I…..Arthur….!" Merlin spluttered as snow fell into his mouth.

"Say you surrender!" Arthur shuffled up, leaning on his knees and straddling Merlin's waist. He grabbed another handful of snow and pressed it into Merlin's face, smiling at the sight of Merlin wriggling beneath him. It was a sight he thought he'd never see.

"I surrender!" Merlin giggled, "I…I surrender, Arthur!"

Arthur laughed, wiping the snow off Merlin's cheeks with his two forefingers. He wiped slowly, feeling Merlin's lashes blinking on the tip of his fingers and watched as his red blushing skin appeared under his touch. He touched his nose with his finger time and Merlin smiled shyly.

His eyes were looking up at Arthur as Arthur realised that he was still straddling Merlin's waist. He swung one leg off and lay on his back next to Merlin.

"Cold?" He asked, turning his head towards the dark haired boy.

"Yeah." He sighed, and Arthur watched his breath.

"Let's go get warm."

Merlin sat on the edge of Arthur's bed with his quilt wrapped around his cold, wet body. The boys both stripped to just their t-shirt and trackies once they got back to the room and Arthur had slipped into their en suite bathroom to run a bath.

Arthur came through to their room and sat next to Merlin, patting his knee and then rubbing a hand in his hair. Merlin tried to resist from leaning into Arthur's touch.

"Merlin, bath's ready." Arthur smiled, keeping his hand gently resting on Merlin's shoulder.

"You go get it," He mumbled.

"Nah, you can." Arthur shrugged when Merlin didn't move. "This was fun, right?"

Merlin nodded, "Yeah." His teeth were still chattering, and he turned to Arthur and both boys laughed.

"Sorry." Arthur mumbled.

"What for?" Merlin asked, one eyebrow still raised and Arthur become conscious that his hand was still on Merlin's shoulder. He rubbed it tentatively, his fingers slowly moving towards the nape of Merlin's neck, his tips tickling Merlin's hair.

"Getting you up at 6am." Arthur shuffled closer to Merlin slightly, turning to face him. "Just wanted you to be there." He smiled.

"Arthur, I…" Merlin turned as well, his knees knocking with Arthurs.

"No, wait. I gotta get this out now or I'm never going to…"

"What...?"

"Shut up, merlin. Let me talk." Merlin's small smile was apology enough; "I just seem to have more fun when you're there, and you smiling just makes me feel better about myself even if it wasn't me who made you smile, and seeing you in the snow today and looking so cold, yet wrapped up in a million layers made me want to reach out and hold you to keep you warm and…and I don't know what that means but…"

"Me too." Merlin interrupted, putting his hand softly on Arthurs leg.

"What?"

"I thought you'd never say anything, I thought you were strai-…." Arthur raised an eyebrow at Merlin, "Well, I just thought that I wasn't your type."

"And me straddling you in the snow today didn't give that away?" Arthur blushed at the suggestiveness of his words.

"Suppose not." Merlin shrugged and looked up at Arthur. He watched as Arthur's eyes flickered down towards his lips and his tongue flicked out instinctively.

Arthur bent his head and leaned forward slowly.

"You want this?" Arthur whispered, his eyelids flickering, not sure to keep his eyes open to watch the moment or close them.

Merlin nodded. "Yeah." He breathed, and Arthur felt the warmth on his face.

"We've been friends for so long…" Arthur shook his head in thought, "Why now?"

"Why wait any longer?" Merlin responded as he moved that final inch and pressed his lips to Arthur's in one swift movement. He felt Arthur tense under his lips and pressed slightly harder and smiled into the kiss as Arthur relaxed.

He felt Arthur's grip on the nape of his neck strength and his fingers tangled themselves in their hair. Merlin's fingertips stroked Arthur's knee gently as Arthur pulled away, leaning his forehead on Merlins.

"Wow." Arthur murmured.

"Yeah." Merlin agreed and he leant into Arthur's touch as he stroked the back of his neck.

"You're so cold." Arthur murmured, worryingly, his eyes glazing over Merlin's pale skin and blue chapped lips. He leant in for another kiss, pecking his lips gently, then moving to his nose, and each of his cheekbones, and then to his dimples as Merlin smiled under the touch. "Go and get in the bath," Arthur smiled, still not moving his hand from Merlin's neck.

"You're cold too." Merlin smirked, one eyebrow raised, as he looked Arthur in the eye, which was twinkling under his gaze.

"Maybe I should join you?" Merlin felt Arthur's fingers grip his neck a bit tighter.

"The bath is big enough for two." Merlin leant in and kissed Arthur passionately, and for the second time that Sunday Merlin was glad that Arthur had woken him up so early this morning.