Where Reason Fades

Chapter 5

Merlin woke up in the early hours of the morning, the moon still shined in the sky. He was more refreshed than he had been in a long while and he stretches on his sofa. Sighing a little, he pulled himself from where he was nestled and began to sneak out to start his work for the day.

Arthur, in his room off of Merlin's office, was woken up by a soft clattering just moments later. It seemed even when Merlin was trying to be mysterious and stealthy, he was still uselessly clumsy. Arthur heaved a gentle sigh and dug himself out of bed. He was sure Merlin was off to get himself in trouble, if his limited experience of the youthful charity worker was anything to go by.

Arthur followed Merlin silently in the milky moonlight through the camp to the water stores that had gone down even in the short time Arthur had been at the camp. He furrowed his brow a little, confused at why Merlin would be headed there at this time in the night. He stood outside as Merlin went in, unsure how to act, and having had no plan other than to follow the other man. Just moments later, however, Merlin left the stores, and headed off into the camp, glancing in the window as he went by, thy prince now noticed these were ful to the brim with crysstaline clear water. He gasped, causing Merlin to turn around in front of him.

"Do you make a habit of folowing people?" He asked with a raised eye that would have rivalled Gaius.

"No. I'm doing something else than you." Arthur blushed brilliantly in the dark, skin illuminating red in the moonlight, embarrassed at being caught again.

"Okay, what are you doing?" asked Merlin challingeingly

"...Going for a walk. At night. A night walk." Said Arthur: unconvincingly. His tone imperious.

"Well. I'm also going for a walk!" Merlin replied too quickly for it to be the truth, the prince failed to notice.

"We can both walk!!! There is enough night fo both of us to walk in!" he said with an eye roll, as though it were the most obvious thing in the nebula.

"...Fine. We should walk together though. For protection." Merlin answered, thinking of the legends of sand beasts that he had not quite outgrown.

The pair walked together in a silence that grew more awkward as it lengthened. Finally, Merlin, always chatty by his nature, could stand it now longer.

"...So you're very tanned." He said, not looking at Arthur but instead speaking the words into the air.

"You noticed that?" asked Arthur, surprosed. Almost everyone on this planet had a tan of some form, except the man who stood next to him, whose milky skin Arthur had not let himself think of too long.

"Yes I did. I notice things." Replied Merling. About you, very specifically Merlin brain supplied unhelpfully.

The pair lapsed into silence again. This was even more awkward that the last one. Merlin's thoughts ran to how the man at his side probably got the tan at some luxury villa at the heart of Albian, running servants ragged while he basked in the golden sun and his own glory, gilded by the light that highlights the curves of his shoulders and the planes of his torso. Merlin shook his head to shake the image out of his mind; now was not the time to become a gibbering fanboy.

"I was working with the Intergalactic Royal Animal Protection Society over the summer. The horse bit. They rescue horses from illegal racing rings and give them a good retiemenet. I love animals, especially horsed, I grew up riding them. And animal loves me." He gushed suddenly, a passion for horses burned in his eyes and a bright grin on his face that couldn't be faked. Merlin struggled to not find it adorable, especially as Arthur's face lit up with a boyish smile as he talked about his youth.