You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home (Merlin)

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin just shook his head in amusement at the reference - although he was marginally proud of himself for actually catching it, a lot of the time he found himself just nodding and smiling along whenever Arthur said something a little bit odd. He usually managed to tell when the prince was referencing something, because his tone changed and he always looked just a little bit pleased with himself, but it was probably only about half the time he actually had the faintest clue what was being referenced, if that.

"She probably goes slowly because she knows as well as I do that you like to complain, and we don't like to rob you of that enjoyment," he teased, grinning at the prince. It wasn't actually that far from the truth... well, he didn't actually think Arthur liked to complain, but he knew he didn't like his orders to be blindly followed without any sort of talking back (his knights didn't count, on a battlefield he needed his orders followed, but that was a different thing entirely).

[Arthur]

He really couldn’t argue with that, he did so very much enjoy complaining. It was an Albion thing, the people just liked to complain about something, especially if they were in another country. He remembered travelling to the south once with his knights and despite the glorious sunshine they still had something to complain about…mostly the terribly hot weather. So yes, maybe he did like to complain…just a bit. “Well that’s very thoughtful of you, I’m so pleased,” he said sarcastically….even if he was.

Sookie returned with the ball, dropping it at Arthur’s feet and waited for him to throw it again, which he did, this time into the pond down the bottom. “Ah…” he said as she tore off down the garden to retrieve it, “umm…Sookie may need a bath after we’re down here.”

Arthur turned round to look at Merlin and said, “Think you can give me a hand?”

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin just laughed at his sarcastic response, having expected something much like that because, well, as he said - Arthur liked to complain, of course he wasn't going to admit that he liked to complain because that wouldn't be complaining.

The laughter continued when Sookie went splashing into the pond - though of course it faded as soon as Arthur asked if he'd help, because of course Merlin couldn't really say no to him... well, he could, but he usually wasn't serious about it, and it didn't often last long.
"Let me guess, bathing Sookie involves getting absolutely soaked?" he raised a questioning eyebrow - just because he knew he'd cave eventually didn't mean he had to do it right away.

[Arthur]

Arthur grinned and nodded.

“Sookie appears to have an aversion to bath water,” he said with a serious expression, “not any other kind of water, just bath water for some reason. She never wants to stay in the bath, it’s her favourite game. Let’s see how many times I can jump out before Arthur gets in as well.”

Placing a hand on Merlin’s shoulder he smirked and said, “But with you there to help then there is a possibility that I will for once remain a little bit dry.”

Sookie returned with the ball, soaking, and dropped it at Arthur’s feet. Pulling a face he reached down and picked it up, quickly throwing it so he didn’t need to hold it for that long. “Remind me to get someone to clean that pond,” he said as Sookie once more chased after the ball.

“So how have you been?”

[Merlin Emrys]

"Why am I not surprised?" Merlin asked with a chuckle, although he couldn't help but wonder how his presence was supposed to keep Arthur dry, instead it was more likely to just get both of them soaked - unless the prince intended to hide behind him, which of course was fairly likely.

At the mention of the pond needing cleaning, he wandered a little closer to it to take a look "you're right," he agreed "it's looking distinctly grubby, I hadn't noticed that or I would have cleaned it already."
It wasn't a natural water feature, hence the ability to clean it, although it was still a rather large one. Turning his back on it, Merlin raised an amused eyebrow.

"How long have you been back and you only just asked that?" he teased "I've been fine, spent a lot of time in the library while you were away."

[Arthur]

“Why am I not surprised,” he said rolling his eyes as he followed Merlin towards the pond, “do you actually go to any part of the academy that’s not the library? Do you know that there are other forms of entertainment other than books and studying? For example there is this thing called Cinema. It shows movie. You should go some time.”
 
The teasing became less teasing towards then end and more…suggestion? Deciding to just throw his lot in he continued, “we should go to the cinema. There’s a movie out this weekend you might like, about a girl that has to fight for her district with a boy that makes bread…it’s really good, I swear. But…we should go. Together. You and me.”
 
Sookie returned with the ball and this time decided that it was Merlin’s turn, dropping it in front of him.

[Merlin Emrys]

"I go to lots of other parts, like... the classrooms." Merlin pointed out, although he was grinning slightly, making a joke at his own expense.
When Arthur invited him to go to the cinema, there was something about it, and the awkwardness, that made Merlin realise this might not just be an ordinary trip between friends, and that got him a little flustered.

To hide his red face, he ducked down to reach for Sookie's ball.
"Ok, I do know what a cinema is you know, but... that sounds like fun." he told the ground.

Sookie apparently decided she didn't want Merlin to pick it up and grabbed it before he could, though she still stood there expectantly. Merlin knew this game, she wanted him to throw the ball but she didn't want to let go of it, so he had to grab it himself. A little tug of war followed, until Sookie abruptly let go of the ball, unbalancing Merlin.

He fell backwards into the pond with an almighty splash, and then Sookie added insult to injury by bounding in after him and snatching the fallen ball out of the water, tail wagging all the time.

[Arthur]

“Great,” said Arthur genuinely relieved that the other boy had said yes, and that it sounded like fun.

He really shouldn’t have expected any other answer, considering the confessions that they had made in the past, there really probably wasn’t going to be any other answer. But this was where it started to worry him, what if Merlin didn’t like the cinema? What if he didn’t want to do any of the things that Arthur suggested? What if he discovered Arthur was actually a little too boring? Or too much of a Prat? Or just not any of the things he expected him to be? And then…there was the other stuff…the stuff that…well…what if he wasn’t any good?… That was the worrying part. So despite all the confessions of love…yes….Arthur was still worried.

“And, if you like, we could go for something to-” he started to say when Sookie who had been playing her favourite game of ‘no throw it but let me hold on to it’ managed to make Merlin tumble in to the pond.

He did what any normal person would do when the object of their affections had fallen into a pond.

He burst out laughing.

What made it even funnier was when Sookie neatly retrieved the ball. Almost doubled over with the hilarity he eventually managed to squeeze out an, “Are you ok?” between breathes and fresh bursts of laughter.

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin managed to get himself into a sitting position, spluttering slightly, and pushed the soggy hair out of his eyes in order to give Arthur an unimpressed glare.

Trying to get up only resulted in him slipping over again on the algae-covered sides of the pond, so he held a hand out to the prince.
"Stop laughing and help me up, prat." he scolded - although he had to admit that if it had been Arthur that had fallen in, he probably would have been laughing just as hard... actually...

Grinning evilly, he murmured a few words and twisted his hand just so, intending to magically trip Arthur up and dump him in the pond as well.

[Arthur]

It was probably because he fell a second time that Arthur was nearly rolling around the ground killing himself laughing. It was just so…Merlin. It was what he did, made a complete and utter a*** of himself, which was funny because as it turned out he was actually a little bit intelligent. Who knew? And Arthur supposed the magic should help. Shouldn’t a person who did magic, and did magic as well as Merlin did magic, be able to keep themselves balanced? Really, for someone who was supposed to become this all powerful wizard he sure was clumsy.

Arthur had no intention of helping him out either. He wasn’t a complete idiot, he knew what happened when someone held their hand out and you were supposed to help him. Of course, he had completely forgotten about the fact that Merlin didn’t need to be beside him to pull that trick and found himself tumbling forwards in to the pond.

The whole situation became significantly less amusing.

Trying to find the floor of the pond he stood up, wiping the hair and water out of his face so he could turn and glare at the other boy who looked far too pleased with himself. “You know, the jokes on you,” he said and smirked a little, “you’re the one that’s going to have to wash this.”

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin was very pleased with himself, in fact he was laughing his head off, particularly when Arthur wiped his soggy hair from his eyes. Even the prince's words didn't diminish his amusement, and he waved a hand dismissively.

"I would have had to wash it eventually anyway, it's no more effort to wash it when it's already soaking," ah the beauty of modern appliances. He managed to get himself to his feet and grin at Arthur.

"Come on, let's get all three of us clean. Now that I'm wet-through anyway, I don't mind having to give sookie a bath," he was beaming, despite being soaking wet and sporting leaves in his hair, because the whole situation was actually rather hilarious now that he wasn't the only one in it.

[Arthur]

Arthur waded towards Merlin with the completely innocent intention of dunking his head back under the pond water for his smart mouthed reply. However he thought about it and decided that Merlin would probably be expecting it and that was just no fun, it was better to catch him off guard. He settled for skimming his hand across the top of the pond splashing him with the water.
 
“Yes, that’s probably a good idea,” said Arthur watching as Sookie kept circling around the pond and looked like she was gearing up to jumping in again.
 
Turning back to face Merlin he noticed the leaves in his hair and laughing began to pick them out, “I didn’t think it was possible but you’ve actually managed to make yourself look even more ridiculous.”

[Merlin Emrys]

"You look ridiculous," Merlin shot back oh-so-wittily, unable to keep a slightly fond smile from his face. He reached up to brush a leaf or two from Arthur's hair, pushing it back from the prince's forehead almost lovingly. He liked Arthur's hair, it wasn't his favourite thing about the other man, probably not even his second, but it was still quite high on the list.

He was forgetting himself, thinking more about the fact that he loved Arthur and that Arthur loved him, not that they hadn't really spoken about it or decided to do anything, so when Sookie made another dive, gleefully paddling past the back of his legs, Merlin just allowed himself to be nudged forward, stepping closer to Arthur, so close he could practically feel the prince's breath against his own lips.

[Arthur]

It was strange, this closeness. To feel comfortable enough to be this close to Merlin, to feel so at ease with him picking the leaves out of his hair in what could only be described as a fond manner. Merlin had dressed and undressed him so many times that it hadn't bothered him before, it hadn't even registered with him just how close they had been in those situations, it had just been expected. But this was different, very different. It wasn't like Merlin was undressing or dressing him now, which could have been a lot more awkward, he was just picking the leaves out of his hair...running his fingers through his hair...

Of course Sookie had to go and make everything so much better by knocking Merlin even closer to Arthur so that really, he had no choice but to accept what was going to happen.

Without giving Merlin, or himself, a chance to think about it, he reached forwards and pulled Merlin closer to him, wrapping his arms around him and closing the last bit of space between them.

Closing his eyes, he leaned forward and kissed him.

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin was so caught in the moment that it was almost like his brain had stopped working (for once), so perhaps even if Arthur had hesitated any longer he still wouldn't have had a chance to really process that closeness.

When the kiss came, it was like time stopped as well. It was... perfection. Even dripping wet, up to their knees in a pond with weeds in their hair, Sookie still swimming circles around them, Merlin couldn't have imagined a better first kiss. They'd kissed before, of course, under the influence of far too many spells to count, but somehow this was better - maybe it was because he knew this was real, this was true, this was love.

Of their own accord, Merlin's arms wrapped around Arthur's waist, pulling himself closer as he just melted into that kiss. Everything would probably go to hell in a handbasket as soon as they broke apart, but for now the world was nothing but utter bliss.