The air was quite thick, and the tension even thicker between the two young lords. The red-headed man was glaring up at his much larger student, sighing in exasperation as he simply didn’t understand what he was being taught.
“Arthur, seriously? How hard can this be, hm? We’ve tried this time and time again, and yet you can’t seem to get it right!” He waved his hand dismissively and turned away from the blond man, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he shook his head gently. He absolutely hated this job. Was his freedom truly worth this? Royal advisor? Grand! Chief of magic? Wonderful! The young king’s teacher? Godawful! Shit-smelling, eye-watering, soul-devouring, painful and tragic!
Arthur had a dismissive look on his face. His teacher was dramatic, awfully dramatic and talkative in the worst way possible. No matter how charismatic he seemed, spending hours each day with him slowly sanded away the polite and yet glib exterior, to reveal a much more sassy, sarcastic, whining, peacock-like attitude of a pompous man who’d been complimenting far too much for his own good.
Arthur didn’t see himself as any angel of any kind. Perfect? Bah, quite the opposite! He was blunt and he didn’t care, he was simply tired of Merlin misleading people with his flirty wiles and snide grin. Arthur clasped Merlin’s shoulder with a hand, and the hand enveloped it whole. Merlin wasn’t small, as far as women go at least, but Arthur was huge.
He had trained for battle: he had also trained for leading a battalion. But he had never learned magic. He had always been told that he would have mages, witches, monsters at his beck and call. Gods who would drool at his feet: who would obey him without so much of a question nor misplaced gaze. If he said jump they would do nothing but jump as high as they could bring themself to. And yet now, he was being taught magic by a very disobedient servant he had recently freed from prison. Such a philanthropic act, to be dismissed so simply by this criminal?
He would hardly complain, he knew what he did was born from self-interest. Not Merlin’s “well-being.” And certainly not as a favour for a friend. Hence why he saw himself as philanthropic and not altruistic. He was no goody-goody saint. He freed Merlin to get an edge on his opponents, not because he saw the man was wrongfully convicted, nor worthy of his pity or empathy. Their relationship was strictly transactional;Yet he could do naught to quell his traces of emotion towards him.
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