Spring in his step

[archaeologist-d.livejournal.com]

Author: archaeologist_d
Title: Spring in his step
Rating: G
Pairing/s: Merlin/Arthur
Character/s: Merlin, Arthur
Summary: Merlin isn’t always known for being that careful with spells. Point being….
Warnings: none
Word Count: 956
Camelot_drabble Prompt: pt 419:bingo-round 2- spring
Author's Notes: I needed a cracky story.
Disclaimer: Merlin characters are the property of Shine and BBC. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
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Merlin knew he was in trouble when Arthur bellowed out his name. It wasn’t that Arthur was bellowing or that it was that unusual. Merlin had gotten used to his name echoing down the hallways.

But he’d just finished a spell on a subject that Arthur had groused about for hours. Not that Arthur knew about the spell, although he did know about Merlin’s magic and groused about that for hours, too.

But Arthur was tired of winter and wanted spring to come as early as possible and he demanded that Merlin do something about it since he was supposed to be the most powerful wizard ever and that should count for something, right?

Rather than listening to the arse drone on and on about it – and Merlin was pretty tired of winter, too, he found a spell on spring and well, Merlin wasn’t known for reading too carefully into things.

Theoretically, he might have completely gotten it wrong. Theoretically.

So when Arthur came bouncing in, Merlin didn’t stop laughing for quite some time. Arthur was already turning red, well redder than usual when bellowing at Merlin. Then Arthur bounced over to Merlin and shoved his feet in Merlin’s face.
They looked like feet, they smelled like feet, they even felt like feet although Merlin wasn’t that happy to have to touch them. But whenever Arthur took a step, he bounced at least several inches off the ground. Like he had springs for feet.
Unfortunately, Merlin, up to that point, hadn’t stood or walked or anything. And then he did. Bounced over to the table, bounced to the spell book cabinet, bounced and knocked over that weird rabbit mask that Gaius refused to chuck.
So it wasn’t just Arthur.

Carefully, Merlin tiptoed, trying not to bounce, over to the window and looked out. Yeah, it was everyone.

The children were having a fine time jumping away from squawking parents, the knights looked askance and were mostly sitting on the ground, except for Gwaine who was trying to see how high he could get, the git. It only seemed to affect people though. Arthur’s dogs were just sniffing around, then raced away, chasing a cat that had the misfortune of showing up. But they weren’t bouncing.

Turning back to see Arthur there, arms folded, glaring as he’d never glared before, Merlin said, “It’s not my fault.”

Oh, that look on Arthur’s face. “And whose fault is it, Merlin? An evil sorcerer perhaps, a jokester who wants to embarrass the King of Camelot, or an idiot who can’t read instructions?”  

“Can I go for the last one?” Merlin said, the squeak in his voice unavoidable. “I’ll fix it. I’m sure there’s a counter spell somewhere. Is it only feet or does your whole body get all springy?”

“Merlin!” Oh, dear, Arthur was bellowing again.

“Is that a yes?” Merlin said. He was a bit worried about that. But when he carefully sat down and moved on his bum, there was no bounce in it.

So it was just feet. What a relief.

“Okay, here’s what we’ll do.” Merlin gulped a little. He wasn’t sure Arthur would go for it. “Make a royal decree that we have to use our bums to move around.”

Arthur looked like he was about to explode.

Merlin cleared his throat, “Well, I’m sure we could crawl, too. That should work.” Arthur’s eyes were bugging out at this point. Merlin gulped again. “Umm, in the meantime, I’ll work night and day to solve this. Sire.”

Arthur bellowed again, then hopped out of the room, calling Merlin every insult in the book and a few new ones.

Time to get to work.

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By the weekend, everyone had learned to bounce properly, well except Gwaine who was still hoping to bounce all the way up to the roof. In a way, it was freeing. People could reach the top cabinets, although they did have to watch their heads. Kids went to bed a lot earlier since they sprung themselves into exhaustion. Knights learned new tricks, and even Gwaine when he wasn’t trying to reach new heights, was kicking the other knights’ arses in training.

Arthur was still not happy, though. He didn’t want Camelot to be known as that weird springy kingdom. He wanted respect, not laughter.

But and that was a bit but, Arthur wasn’t above enjoying himself.

Before the spell was reversed, Merlin hadn’t caught Arthur bouncing on his bed, but it was pretty clear that he’d been doing gymnastics on the bedposts, rearranging the curtains, and then flying up to the ceiling. The shields were off the wall and the moose-head looked very much worse for wear. The place was a shambles. And Arthur looked guilty.
Merlin bounced in, took one look at the mess, and bounced out again.

So it was a surprise when Merlin finally figured out what he’d done wrong and reversed the spell, that people started to complain about all the things they’d been able to do that were now not possible.

Well, at least Gwaine didn’t die. Just a barely broken leg and he’d been immensely pleased that he’d made it to the roof before the spell was reversed.

But there was no pleasing some people, other than Gwaine.

Even Arthur was not pleased. Especially Arthur who groused about the bed curtains needing to be rehung and his moose-head back on the wall. As if it was Merlin’s fault Arthur’s room was a mess.

Merlin ignored him, of course, and eventually everything went back to normal.

Merlin vowed that he’d read through a spell next time all the way through and all the foot notes just in case.

Most importantly, there was no more talk of spring.