FIC: The Honeycomb (Arthur/Merlin) PG

[marguerite_26]

Title: The Honeycomb
Author: marguerite_26
Rating: PG
Pairing(s): Merlin/Arthur
Summary: The stocks would be occupied for the next eternity just as soon as Arthur laid eyes on his godforsaken manservant.
Warnings: none
Word Count: 700
Author's Notes: Happy Birthday to my dear friend stellamoon. No matter how close we've become in the last couple years, I will never stop fangirling you, darling. Stella's prompt for this was 'candy.'
Thank you to ella_bane for the super quick beta and to melusinahp for helping tighten this thing up.



The Honeycomb

Merlin was the worst manservant in the history of the history of manservants. Arthur spun around a corner. He was momentarily winded as his chest flattened an unwary squire. Pausing only to shout, "Watch where you're going," he strode on, more determined than ever. Arthur was momentarily tempted to send the lad to the stocks. It might soothe his harried nerves a touch, but he remembered that the stocks would be occupied for the next eternity just as soon as he laid eyes on his godforsaken manservant.

Three hours later, his brow soaked with sweat from the dozens of steps he'd ascended and descended, the plethora of corridors and alcoves he'd searched, he finally found Merlin.

Merlin sat, oblivious to his pending doom, in the shade afforded by a small copse of trees behind the castle. He turned his face towards the breeze with a slow smile. Arthur's heart pounded beneath his damp tunic, his throat dry, the litany of insults he'd had at the ready vanishing from his mind. Stocks, he reminded himself. Merlin had done… something. What the transgression had been was wiped clear of his memory as the wind picked up and the creases around Merlin's eye deepened with his smile. No man had a right to look so utterly content.

Arthur froze, unable to break the enchantment of the moment.

Merlin's hand rose to his lips and his teeth nipped at the golden honeycomb he held in his fingers. The honey dripped free, sliding down to his open mouth, drizzling his lips and chin. He laughed, that familiar self-deprecating chuckle, his Adam's apple bobbing free of his ridiculous neckerchief. He wiped his thumb the length of his chin and slipped it between his lips, suckling. The wet, dirty noise carried the distance between them.

Arthur felt his own tongue slide across his own dry, honeyless lips. He must have made a noise then, a whimper of disappointment or groan of longing, because Merlin turned to him, eyes wide.

"Arthur!"

Merlin should have looked guilty, both for the first thing, the one that had Arthur storming through the castle like a boar tearing through the underbrush, or at least for the other, despoiling a honeycomb in broad daylight for all to see. But instead of begging for forgiveness, head bowed in shame, Merlin smiled at Arthur, seemingly pleased to have been found. He licked his fingers, eyes twinkling with pleasure.

"I found an abandoned hive! It’s been years since I've had honeycomb." He held out a morsel to Arthur. And suddenly Arthur sympathised with Adam, and the temptation that had been impossible to resist.

Arthur watched the honey drip from Merlin's outstretched fingers to the grass. He closed his eyes and swallowed hard. Then, without a conscious thought to move, he closed the distance, and Merlin's long fingers were in his mouth, sweet and sticky with honey. The unique texture of the wax aroused his tongue, firm but yielding.

"Good, yeah?" Merlin rasped, his voice thicker than it had been moments before.

Arthur whimpered. Duty and station were forgotten, his head swimming in the almost sickly sweet smell of the slivers of honeycomb gathered in a pile atop Merlin's spread neckerchief. His eyes flickered over Merlin's face, so familiar and yet foreign in a way Arthur didn't think he'd ever understand. A dribble of honey remained on Merlin's bottom lip and Arthur didn't think; he leaned forward and swiped his tongue along the mess, licking and nipping, devouring the decadent taste of Merlin and honey.

Merlin deserved an eternity in the stocks for enchanting the crown prince, but that could wait until tomorrow.

~fin

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