Can't rain all the time

Title: A Very Good Dream
Author: elfflame
Claim: Merlin Emrys
Other characters/pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 274
A/N: The first thing to come to mind, since I doubt the term was well-known by these characters in this time-period. :)


“You had a dream about dessert-eating rodents?”

Merlin shook his head. If he’d not had the dream, he wouldn’t have understood the word, either. “No, not rodents. They’re…” He searched for a good word. “Bandits. On the sea.”

Arthur frowned. “You mean…Vikings?”

“No. Not that, either.” Merlin paused. “Well…maybe a bit like that…but they plunder other ships, rather than landing to plunder.”

“Oooh kay… And what were these ‘Pie-rats’ of yours doing in this dream?”

Merlin shifted uncomfortably, feeling his ears grow warm. “Er…Well…I was…being sent somewhere…”

“You were one?”

Merlin shook his head. “No. I was…a clerk, or…something…”

“Oh.” Arthur looked almost disappointed by that, but then he brightened. “So you were on a ship that was attacked?”

“Yeah. There was…a big battle, and I ended up locked up in the Pirate captain’s cabin.” He remembered the impending sense of doom, that he was about to be skewered by the worst of the lot. And then the door had opened.

“Yeah?” Arthur said, looking interested. “And then?”

Merlin swallowed thickly. “Then…you came in.”

Arthur grinned. “Me? As a Viking?”

“Not a Viking. A pirate. A pirate captain.” And as gorgeous as Arthur always looked, he had looked doubly so in his deep maroon velvet frock coat and feathered hat.

Arthur smirked. “Was I, now?” He moved closed. “And…did I take what I wanted?”

Merlin felt his face flame, a rare thing in itself, even when Arthur came on this strong, which he desperately adored. “Yeah,” he breathed. “Repeatedly.”

“Good,” Arthur purred, pulling him close and kissing him. “I’d hate to not live up to your dreams.”

Merlin sighed, grinning goofily. “Not possible, Arthur.”