I've seen others do stories like these, so I thought I would try it too. May not be the best, because I have no idea where I'm going with these.

It was rumored that it was going to be a cold winter. People all around had began to prepare. Gaining all the wood was the job the men and boys seemed to take willingly, while knitting and crocheting was left to the females. The majority of People had already gotten enough food to last them two winters, just in case.

For Giaus and Merlin the food and the wood was taken care of by the castle due to Gaius' position. That left clothing and blankets to Merlin.

Ealdor had extremely cold winters, so his mother had taught him how to make warm blankets, shirts and coats. In fact Merlin had become quite good at it. Something that was quite peculiar about Merlin's work was that it was could keep you warm even in the coldest temperatures of Ealdor.

Merlin had overheard a few females claiming that they would not have enough blankets for their entire families, and of course Merlin being the kind hearted person he was, he began making more blankets and gave them away. Not wanting to be teased for doing a girl's job, he would leave them at peoples door steps at night.

Soon women started talking about the kind hearted blanket maker, and how 'she' was super talented in making blankets.

This became a yearly thing.

Ladies would stay up late to see if they could catch a glimpse at the kind hearted blanket maker, some even left traps, or notes that invited 'her' in. 'She' was never caught of course. Sometimes if they stayed up late enough they'd see a raven haired boy walking around with a large bag though.

Soon Arthur wanted to know who this blanket maker was to thank them. He made plans, traps, and many other strategies to find out who 'she' was. None of those ever worked either. It was like someone kept on warning her. Unknowingly, Arthur was the one warning 'her'. Considering Merlin was at every single meeting, it was not a surprise when 'she' could not be found.

Merlin had often times been there for the plans too. With large bags, or disappearing a few times. No one paid attention of course, because 'this is Merlin we're talking about, he does weird stuff all the time!'

Clanging noises would often happen, and while the knights were distracted the blanket maker would strike. Sometimes a blanket would fall from a roof top to the door, and sometimes 'she' would leave a smoke bomb that  made them fall asleep, and when they awoke there would be a blanket on the door step of a house.

Arthur was extremely curious how the blanket maker managed to evade them so many times, but after a while he realized that they would not catch them anytime soon with the same strategies.

So the council got together again, and they only had a few people there. No servants were allowed. They sat and came to a much easier solution that they should have came to in the start. Asking the man who sold wool, and Yarn who bought so many products from him.

Arthur brought him into the castle one day, his name was Antony.

Merlin looked extremely horrified when that happened. Arthur just assumed that he knew him and was worried for Antony.

After a brief meeting Arthur finally knew who was the blanket maker. There was no way that Arthur was going to thank him, Arthur was too embarrassed that he had managed to evade him and his knights multiple times! Although Arthur might just give him a raise though.

..........................
(Arthur's gay and likes Merlin)

There was a masquerade ball coming up. Arthur and Merlin had been extremely busy preparing for it.

This was going to be held in the town square of Camelot. Now there were streamers strung up, chairs on the sidelines, ornamental candles all around, food tables had been put on one side, while the orchestra was to be on the other side. Everyone was invited. The only thing you needed to get in? A mask.

Uther had organized most of it and Arthur had stepped in where ever he could.

"Rise and shine princess! You have training with the knights, and then you have to prepare for the masquerade," Merlin gleefully shouted as he opened the curtains.

Arthur did not want to wake up like usual. So Merlin dragged him out of bed as he'd done many times before.

"When will you stop doing that Merlin?" Asked a grumpy Prince.

"When you can get your own two feet out of bed." Came the reply from inside the closet. (Yes that was a pun.)

When he was almost ready, Merlin made a request. "Could I have the afternoon off to go to the masquerade tonight?"

Arthur was frazzled for a moment about why Merlin would want to go, but he didn't want Merlin to embarrass himself, "if you've finished-"

"Your armour is polished, the stables have been mucked out, I've polished your boots, I sharpened your sword, cleaned your clothing, and many more. All that's left is to clean your room. May I please go Arthur?" Merlin interrupted Arthur to rant about the things he'd done.

"I guess so, but I need you at training, and after that you can clean my room. Then you can leave." Arthur muttered. He couldn't really stop him, without giving an unreasonable, and rude response.

So instead Arthur wondered the majority of the day why he would want to go. Later he watched sadly as Merlin left. Usually Merlin was at his side amusing him by saying amusingly rude things about people's outfits, or dancing.

When the time came, Arthur was at the Masquerade. He was sitting at his Father's side as people started coming in. Watching people dance was amusing as always, seeing all the handmade masks was nice, but Arthur kept an eye out for a certain servant.

Soon someome came in that caught all the ladies attention. A man wearing a fitting royal blue shirt that showed some of his abs and had shiny black dress pants came in. His mask covered most of his face except his eyes and below his nose. It was the same blue as his shirt with gold lining. When you came closer to him, you could see the fancy golden details of his shirt.

All the ladies swooned at him, and one almost immediately asked him to dance. A nodd came, which you could easily see thrilled her. Arthur was jealous he couldn't dance with him.

The strange man danced with such grace, it looked like he and the giggling girl were floating.

The man's dark locks reminded Arthur of Merlin's and he started to look around for him, but he was no where to be found.

"Arthur!" Uther called. "I want you to find out if that strange man in blue is a threat. Just look for weapons, and anything strange. If you don't see anything, then I want you to follow him where ever he goes after this."

Nodding, Arthur went off and started watching The strange man dancing, and multiple girls swooning over him. and for good reason too, thought Arthur. Not once did the man go for food or drinks, he only stopped to switch partners every so often.

Soon people began to file out. Most seemed exhausted, but not the man in blue. He seemed to be extremely fit.

Although, he too left nearing sunrise. The man was still dancing and laughing. Take off your mask! I want to know who you are!  Arthur thought to himself.

Finally the man took off his mask, but Arthur couldn't see who it was, because he was slightly too far behind him to see the strange man's face. Then he turned towards the Gaius' chambers. Maybe the man was dehydrated from dancing?

Arthur then took a short cut, and found a spot to hide. He watched, and caught sight of that royal blue. Arthur  watched as the man came around the corner, still dancing and singing the melody of the last song was... Merlin?

How had Arthur not recognized him? He saw him multiple times each day!
Merlin has abs?

That was when Arthur tripped over a pot. He fell face forward in front of Merlin. Who quickly rushed to help him.

"Sir, are you alright?" Merlin asked him.

Luckily Arthur was still wearing his Red Dragon mask so Merlin didn't recognize him as he nodded.

"You're bleeding, I'm bringing you to Gaius." Merlin told more then asked as he picked Arthur up, and started dragging him to the court Physicians chambers.

Arthur tried to pull back as they went up the stairs to their destination, but he found that Merlin was stronger then he expected.

Now he was sat in front of Gaius who was demanding him to take off his mask. Which Arthur was refusing.

"You have a large gash going down your face, and I'm going to need to clean, and them stitch it. For that I need you to take off your mask." Gaius explained.

Unfortunately for Arthur, Gaius had only been distracting him so Merlin could take it off. Merlin did so, but not very gently.

"OW!" Arthur had screamed out.

"Arthur?" Gaius questioned.

"Yes, now bloody clean it before I smack Merlin for that!" Arthur threatened. Now as Gaius was disinfecting his cut, he was thinking about Merlin, who had gone to bed. Now one thing was repeating in Arthur's head. Merlin can dance...

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