Happy Merlin Holidays, rotrude! [1/2]

[merlin-hols.livejournal.com]

Title: No Need for Mistletoe
Recipient: rotrude
Author: corilannam
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Arthur/Merlin, Gwaine/Elena
Word Count: 12,255
Warnings: None
Summary: It's three days before Christmas. Merlin, surgeon at Camelot Hospital, is about to have his first date with Arthur, solicitor for Albion Healthcare. What could go wrong?
Author's Notes: Happy Merlin Holidays, rotrude! I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this (and maybe a bit more). My thanks to my wonderful friends and beta readers R, J, and B (any remaining mistakes are completely their fault, of course). And thank you to our fabulous merlin_holidays mods and helpers who make this such an awesome fest! <3
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to Shine and BBC. I make no profit from this endeavor.



Dr. Merlin Emrys flew down the corridor, disappeared into his office, and re-emerged a moment later disguised as a gigantic Christmas wreath.

Gwaine stopped in his tracks, sensible nursing shoes squeaking on the linoleum as he flattened himself against the wall. A whiff of evergreen warned of his near miss.

"That's a good bit of holiday spirit there, Doc," he called after the wreath as it careened into a wall, righted itself, and rushed on.

"Dad's first Christmas not in a war zone," Merlin's voice called back from within the wreath. "Just a few more days, and everything has to be perfect."

Gwaine watched the wreath disappear around the corner. He shrugged and shook his head before checking his clipboard to remind himself of his next task. Merlin was odd. Cute as hell, but odd.

---

"No, Merlin, the bow is still totally off centre. Here, let me help."

"No, Elena, don't help, it's--oh, God, it's down, it's down."

"Well, I must say, it's always impressive to see a meeting of the Clumsy and Clueless Committee in progress."

Merlin turned, trampling a few more sprigs off the wreath in his joy at hearing Arthur's voice. "We always appreciate the condescension of a visit from our royalty on high. What brings the high and mighty Albion Healthcare solicitor to our humble hospital?"

He knew why Arthur was there, of course. Obviously Arthur couldn't wait until tonight to see him, and that was fine with Merlin since he felt the same way. They had spent months finding excuses to see each other at work, phoning, emailing, longer and longer conversations before finally acknowledging that this was meant to be romance. His first date jitters were pure anticipation.

But Arthur didn't return Merlin's grin. His eyes flicked to the plate next to the door, which read ‘Dr. Balinor Emrys, Consultant, General Surgery' beneath a new dusting of pine residue. "Is the elder Dr. Emrys in?"

"No. He's consulting over at Mercia this morning," Merlin answered slowly, trying to figure out what Arthur would want with Merlin's father. "He'll be back after lunch."

"Ask him to come see me as soon as he gets in, would you?"

"Why?" Merlin blurted, concern overcoming professionalism. Arthur's office was in Albion Healthcare headquarters. It was only a couple blocks away, but for all normal business, a phone call or email usually sufficed.

Arthur just raised his eyebrows, nodded to Elena, and turned to go.

Merlin hesitated, but couldn't resist calling after him. "Still on for six tonight?"

Arthur turned back, a smile brightening his face. "Of course." Then the smile dimmed and his face tightened again. "Just...have him come see me, all right?"

"Sure." Merlin watched him go, unable to enjoy the sight of Arthur from the rear as much as he normally did. He'd loved Arthur's arse even back when he'd thought Arthur himself was an arse.

He had Elena prop the wreath on a supply cart and settled himself into the patients' chair in Balinor's surgery to wait for his father to come explain what the hell was going on.

---

"This is a load of codswallop, and you know it, Arthur."

Arthur looked up from his coffee at the same moment Merlin threw a massive file folder onto the café table. The impact made his cup rattle around the saucer and sent a splash of dark roast across Arthur's white dress shirt. "I can't talk about it with you, and you know it, Merlin."

"Okay, maybe." Merlin plunked himself down across from Arthur. "But I can talk about it to you, can't I?"

"At least until I can think of a way to stop you. Codswallop, Merlin? Is that the medical term?" Arthur tried not to sigh or show more irritation than he could help.

After a long and cautious flirtation, this was not how Arthur had envisioned starting his first date with Merlin. He'd been careful to change into a (once) clean shirt, attractively open at the throat, his tie peeking, casually rakish, out of his pants pocket.

Merlin was still in his scrubs from his morning operation, with a few streaks of paper dust and toner to show how he had spent his afternoon. With a deep pang, Arthur mentally canceled the booking he'd made weeks ago at Etxarte in the hopes of coaxing Merlin somewhere with more romantic potential than their favorite corner coffee shop.

"It's an extremely medical term," Merlin retorted and flipped open the file. "In fact, medicine, as in Mr. Carleon's case, is filled with highly medical terms that I wouldn't expect you to understand. But don't worry!"

"Because you're going to explain them to me," Arthur finished for him with a smile that only partially masked his sudden bitterness. He'd known, he'd known when he got the call about Balinor that it would spell doom for their date. At least Merlin didn't seem angry at him personally. Yet.

"In excruciating detail," Merlin agreed with that mad scientist grin that had made Arthur steer clear of him for the first couple of weeks Merlin worked at Camelot Hospital--until he'd noticed Merlin's other, sweeter smiles and started inching closer.

"Let me go get you a coffee." Arthur stood up, eager to do just one thing that resembled a date.

Merlin ignored him and pushed aside Arthur's own coffee in favor of a stack of papers he pulled out of the file. "Mr. Carleon was a high-risk case. Complications were nearly inevitable. He's going to be fine. Here, I took the liberty of having Elena write it all out in layman's terms that even you should be able to understand."

That was actually quite helpful, but Arthur glared at Merlin nonetheless. "Merlin, I really can't--"

"Let's start with when he was diagnosed over at Mercia Mount. I told Gwen to request the records from them officially, but I can save you some time. Here, look at these MRI reports."

Arthur did his best to tune Merlin out without being obvious about it. It wasn't like Arthur could blame him for his impassioned defense of his father. Merlin's ferocious loyalty to those he loved was one of the things that had inspired Arthur's admiration in return.

He did feel horrible for Balinor Emrys. The man had left a lucrative practice to serve his country honorably for over twenty years as an army surgeon. He had missed most of his son's life, and then had come home hollow eyed and aimless.

Merlin had dropped his own skyrocketing surgical career to set up a private practice with his father, doing procedures that shouldn't have been a challenge to either of them at the quiet Camelot Hospital.

And that was when Arthur had begun finding walking to be very beneficial to his health, at least the distance between his office at Albion HQ and Camelot, often on the flimsiest of pretences. He'd haunted the coffee pot at the nurses' station nearest the surgeries of the Doctors Emrys until just this Monday when he'd finally resigned himself to his fate and asked Merlin out for a proper coffee.

He looked at his solitary cup, just out of reach beyond the ever-multiplying papers, and sighed.

"Who've you talked to at the hospital?" Merlin was asking when Arthur tuned back in to the monologue.

"Merlin, you have to stay out of this. I know you want--"

"I know at least three consultants who can give testimony--"

"Seriously, Merlin, don't make me have to sack you, too." He regretted the words as soon as they were out, and even more so when Merlin's mouth gaped in shock.

"Sack? I thought you were defending him."

Damn. Apparently there was one little detail Balinor hadn't shared with his son. Arthur winced at the professional misconduct of his own slip, and he knew Merlin would not let him leave until he'd broken the rest of the news. Well, Merlin would have to know sooner or later.

"We're settling the case out of court," he said as gently as he could. "But my--the CEO of Albion Healthcare has asked your father to move his practice out of Camelot Hospital."

Merlin's mouth opened and closed before his jaw set and he pointed a finger at Arthur. "Codswallop," he said. "Codswallop and malarkey, and you and your father know it."

"Obviously this won't affect you in the least."

"Are you kidding me?"

He winced again at Merlin's outrage. "I didn't mean--I mean you are still a valued consultant in Albion Healthcare."

Slowly, Merlin gathered up all the papers and films and stuffed them back into the file. Without another word he stood and left the cafe, leaving Arthur to stare at a cold cup of coffee.

---

Gwaine stood outside the surgery of Doc Emrys the Younger and tapped the end of his biro rapidly against his clipboard.

"Go on," Elena said from the desk at the nurses' station. "God knows it's probably your fault anyway."

"I can see why you might think that," Gwaine allowed. "But I promise, I didn't have anything to do with it."

"All I know is that ever since Merlin Emrys started working here, Arthur Pendragon's been lurking around my coffee pot and staring at everything like some kind of soul-sucking ghoul."

"He's a lawyer, what do you expect?"

"And it's got twice as bad since you snogged Merlin at the Christmas party."

Gwaine shrugged modestly. "Can't be held accountable for mistletoe."

"Well, go find out what Doc's done to cock it up this time." Elena waved a pencil at him, which flew out of her hand and bounced off an empty gurney and into a bin with a dramatic clang.

It would have been more impressive if she'd done it on purpose, but Gwaine threw her a salute anyway and headed into the lion's den.

The lion was sitting at Balinor's desk going through files, as he had been since before Gwaine came on shift. Balinor himself had been conspicuously absent, allegedly consulting again over at Mercia Mount, but Gwaine would not blame him if he'd found a way to stretch those appointments into the afternoon. Merlin had arrived in a strop and it clearly had to do with the elder Emrys.

Gwaine tapped lightly on the office door before slumping against the door frame. "Morning, Doc."

Merlin looked up, blinked twice, and then dropped his attention back to the paperwork as if a millstone around his neck were dragging him back down. "Hi, Gwaine."

"How was the big date last night?"

Merlin looked up again, fleetingly. "What date?"

Gwaine nodded thoughtfully. "Funny thing, that's exactly what Pendragon said when I ran into him on the way in this morning."

"Oh, shit." This time Merlin's head jerked up and stayed up and he began to turn an unflattering shade of red. Then he buried his face in his hands, elbows denting a file folder. "Oh, bloody buggering hell."

Gwaine nodded again and straightened up. "Yeah, a bit of that. Glad we had this chat, Doc."

He turned around and left before Merlin could look up again. His work was done.

---

Merlin hunched over the desk, one hand over his burning face and the other clutching at his hair. He'd been so used to telling Arthur all his problems and so overwrought about this sorry excuse for a malpractice suit that he had completely forgotten they were meant to be having an actual date, finally seeing if their workplace friendship would kindle into romance.

He'd wanted Arthur for so long and got so close to him. It had been easy to forget he didn't already have him. And now Arthur was probably furious.

When he looked up again, Gwaine had somehow transformed into his father, looking bemused as Merlin jumped in a start, even though he'd been waiting for Balinor for hours.

"I suppose I must be losing my faculties after all," his father observed, setting his knapsack on the patient chair. "I would have sworn that this was my office, and yet clearly I was wrong."

"You're not losing anything," Merlin retorted, but then slumped again. "But I think I just lost my boyfriend."

"Relationships must work faster than they did when I courted your mother." His father came around behind the desk, gripped the back of the desk chair, and Merlin felt himself rolling backwards. "I thought the whole point of all that skulking and stalking was that Arthur wasn't your boyfriend yet."

"I think he sort of was already, in my head." Merlin was swiveled, and then yelped as he was unceremoniously tipped onto the floor.

"Unless you've been keeping another secret boyfriend." His father stepped over Merlin's sprawled limbs and reclaimed his chair. "In which case, I suppose I can't really blame him for breaking up with you when you start seeing someone else."

Merlin glowered over his shoulder as he picked himself up from the floor. "Thanks for the support. Is that the thanks I get for all the hours I've been spending figuring out how to save your job?"

His father looked startled and seemed to notice the spread of files over his desk for the first time. "Is that what this is all about? Merlin, there's nothing you can do. Don't blame Arthur for something neither of you can control."

"I don't blame him." Learning to separate the actions of one Pendragon from the other had been one of his earliest lessons in his relationship with Arthur. "But I completely ruined our date last night. I can't imagine he's going to want another one."

"Oh, I don't know about that." His father chuckled as he began stacking Merlin's work into neat piles without looking at any of it. "You danced around each other for the better part of a year. Somehow I don't think he'll give up that easily."

"We danced around each other because he thought I was an idiot." Merlin rescued a few important test results from one of the stacks. "I think I just proved the point last night."

"Do you know how many dates I ruined for your mother before we finally had one go right? Seven." His father's grin faded into something more haunted. "And then I ruined much more than that."

"Dad--"

"I know you don't like to talk about it, but I've made a lot of mistakes." He looked over at the picture of Merlin and his mother that sat on his desk. "I'm extraordinarily lucky that your mother loved me enough to forgive me every time."

"Yeah, but that's Mum. Arthur is not Mum. And we only had the one date, so it's not like he loves me."

"Doesn't he?" His father's grin returned; it was the same grin Gwaine had worn when he'd snogged Merlin at the party and pretended he didn't see the look on Arthur's face.

"Look out for the--never mind," his father said as Merlin sank down into the chair and onto the briefcase his father had left there.

He noticed it, but was too busy thinking of Arthur's face when he had asked Merlin if he wanted to go for coffee. Not their usual casual meetings over the coffee pot or semi-spontaneous walks around the city, but a specific time to have coffee with the intention of seeing where else it might lead.

Arthur had had his face set in his usual expression of casual confidence, but the twitch in his jaw and the widening of his eyes gave away his nervous hope to anyone who could read him. Merlin had been able to read him since the very beginning.

And when Merlin had said yes before Arthur could even finish the invitation, Arthur's face lit up with unguarded joy. "Yes, okay, yes," they'd repeated back and forth a few times, grinning like idiots.

Merlin jumped to his feet, fumbling with the briefcase as it tried to come with him. "I'm going to see Arthur."

"Yes, that was the point I was making," his father replied absently as he flipped open a chart.

Merlin strode out, pivoted, and leaned back in the doorway. "And when I get back, don't worry, you and I are going to talk, young man."

His father waved him off with a tired, but amused sigh, and Merlin took off at top speed for Albion Healthcare Headquarters.

---

"Will, I'm going upstairs," Arthur called to their junior solicitor, meaning upstairs to the domain of his father and client. Arthur wanted to get this task over with, so had only stopped by his office to drop off his coat and pick up the papers he had to deliver.

"Better you than me," someone who was definitely not Will replied behind him.

Arthur missed the hook and sent his coat crumpling to the floor as he turned to see Merlin leaning in his doorway in scrubs and a bashful smile.

"Weren't you cold without a coat?" he said, feeling his own stupidity once again as the words came out of his mouth. "It's December, Merlin."

"Not really. I was running pretty fast." Merlin shrugged, though he was eyeing the heap of coat on the floor with a certain avarice. "I'm glad I caught you before you went up to see your father. I really wanted to talk to you."

Something cool closed around Arthur's heart. "I meant it, Merlin, I really can't discuss your father's case with you. And I'm only handling the legal side; you know I have no say in personnel issues."

"It's nothing to do with my father," Merlin said, so firmly Arthur was taken aback. "It's to do with us. I wanted to say I'm really, really sorry about last night."

"Oh. Well. Quite all right." Arthur cleared his throat and tried to analyze exactly what Merlin meant by 'sorry.'

"No, not all right. I really wanted to be with you, and then I really wasn't with you at all and fucked everything up."

'Wanted.' Indisputably past tense, but was that past tense full stop or past tense with a conditional loophole into the present and future tense?

"It's your dad, Merlin," he said carefully. "Of course I understand. It was just bad timing."

Though it sounded overly gruff to his own ears, something about it made Merlin brighten up. He took a couple of steps into the office until he was less than an arm's length from Arthur.

"Then let's find better timing," he said. "How about tonight? It's Friday; what better timing could there be?"

Arthur schooled his face into faux consideration. "I was going to start dating someone else immediately, but I suppose I can adjust my schedule," he said, but then couldn't resist adding, "As long as you can guarantee it'll be worth the risk."

Merlin's eyes narrowed in delightful annoyance, but his lips curled with a sensuality that riveted Arthur's gaze. "Oh, I'm worth it," he said.

Then he leaned in and brushed his lips over Arthur's. The touch was fleeting, but the sensation curled down through Arthur and made him shiver.

"So you are," he murmured, and they were both smiling when Merlin darted in and kissed him again, an exhilarating peck followed by another. Arthur wanted more kisses, but when he found his hands reaching to pull Merlin closer, he forced himself to step back. "Coffee again?"

"Maybe we should try moving past coffee." Merlin gave him a rueful grin. "Do you know St. Geoffrey's over on Monmouth Terrace?"

"Of course. It's not far from my flat."

"There's a Christmas market there now," Merlin said with that gormless, dimwitted, hopeful look that made Arthur weak in his tummy in a way he hoped Merlin never realized. "'Tis the season and all that?"

"I have a few more presents to buy," Arthur lied. "Why not?"

"Fantastic. Meet me at the end of my shift?"

"Yeah." Arthur looked at him for a moment, imagining him in Christmas candlelight. Then he raised his hand to Merlin's cheek, leant in, and kissed the corner of his mouth. "Now don't you have someone you should be cutting into?"

"Yeah." Merlin grinned wider as he backed away towards the door.

Arthur turned back to his desk so he wouldn't watch Merlin leave like a lovesick idiot. He took a deep breath and rubbed at his lips. They still tingled, just a little bit.

Then he pulled himself together and resumed his day. The papers about Balinor were there waiting; his mood sobered, and he looked over his shoulder to be sure Merlin had gone before he picked them up.

"Will, I'm going upstairs," he called again as he headed for the lift.

"Like I give a shit?" Will shouted back.

Arthur rolled his eyes as the lift doors closed.

"Ah, Arthur, good morning," his father greeted when he walked into the office of the President and CEO. "I take it you have everything in order?"

Arthur handed him the papers. "Yes, sir."

"And he still intends to go quietly?"

Arthur hesitated over his answer, but he had seen Balinor Emrys's eyes and he did not think even Merlin would change his resolve. "Yes."

"Pity," his father murmured, which seemed odd to Arthur as he watched Uther thumb through the paperwork. "But you've provided me with what I need should he rethink his cooperation. Thank you, Arthur."

For the first time his father's thanks, something Arthur normally coveted, made him feel a little queasy. Distracted by the feeling, he almost missed another oddity.

Rather than filing the papers in the main cabinets behind him or leaving them in the outbox for his secretary to take to the human resources department, Uther pulled out a small key and opened his lower right-hand desk drawer where he kept his personal files. He pulled out a very thick file, much bigger than was warranted for an employee of less than two years.

He slid the new legal documents into the file with an air of satisfaction before replacing it in the desk and relocking the drawer. Before Arthur could find the words to ask why his father had a file on Balinor Emrys amongst his personal files, Uther turned back to his work. "That's all, Arthur, thank you."

Arthur hesitated, but in the end he turned and left without saying anything more. There was certainly a perfectly normal explanation for the file, which his father would not appreciate having to explain to him.

And Arthur had better things to think about, like the work he had to get done so he could leave in time to change before his second first date with Merlin.

---

Gwaine was walking Mr. Fisher back from physical therapy when Balinor Emrys stuck his head out into the corridor.

"Gwaine, could you do me a favor?"

He stopped and planted Mr. Fisher's IV so that Mr. Fisher had to stop with him. Their most ancient patient waited placidly while Gwaine faced Balinor with his most helpful smile. "Don't worry, Doc. I already made sure your son left for his date in an outfit that will ensure his chastity remains intact."

Balinor stared at him for a long moment. "Right. Well, never mind, then. Happy Christmas, Gwaine, Mr. Fisher."

Mr. Fisher lifted one clenched, shaking fist. "I lost my fork," he quavered. "Somebody's been stealing my fork again."

Gwaine patted his patient on the shoulder and resumed their inching march down the corridor. "Don't you worry, Mr. Fisher. I bet your fork will be waiting right next to your bed when we get back to your room."

There would be, because Gwaine kept an entire drawer full of utensils in preparation for Mr. Fisher's frequent stays. Mr. Fisher was very attached to his forks, and God only knew where they always went.

---

Merlin was waiting for Arthur at the gates of the church. This time he was at least wearing a jacket, although it hung open to reveal a truly atrocious Christmas jumper beneath. Arthur loved it.

"Hullo!" Merlin greeted him with a wave that got caught in the long red and green scarf draped haphazardly around his neck and shoulders.

"You look like Father Christmas hurled all over you," Arthur said with delight.

"No, just Elena and Gwaine trying to sabotage my date." Merlin got the scarf under control just as Arthur reached out to help. "I don't think they like you."

"Good thing I don't care." Arthur had almost punched Gwaine in the nose right there at the Christmas party, and Arthur loved Christmas parties. It had been just as well that Arthur had started drinking well before Gwaine had touched Merlin's arm and nudged him toward the mistletoe.

Their hands met in the tangle of soft wool and Arthur let his fingers linger for a few moments too long until he straightened the entire arrangement with a few brusque tugs. "There, now you're almost presentable."

"More presentable than you for a Christmas market," Merlin teased, although Arthur noted with pleasure that Merlin's gaze lingered for a moment on Arthur's well-fitting trousers.

They entered the churchyard and wandered amongst the stalls of crafts and food vendors. Arthur didn't need to buy anything, but he had always had a secret fondness for Christmas baubles, like the ones that had once belonged to his mother that his uncles had stealthily given him as a child.

He had told Merlin that story last Christmas, right before Gwaine had stolen Merlin away. From the eager looks Merlin kept stealing, he had remembered. The thought left Arthur warm and tingly down through his chest and stomach.

"I need nuts," Merlin suddenly declared and darted down a side aisle without waiting for Arthur's opinion. He would have huffed a bit at that, but it gave him the chance to buy a handful of chintzy handmade reindeer that Merlin had been looking at for his mother.

And the nuts were warm and sweet from Merlin's hand.

They grazed the food carts for their supper, buying each other things on sticks they couldn't pronounce and laughing. Arthur watched Merlin's lips as they pulled a chunk of sweet pepper from a skewer. When Merlin swallowed, Arthur brushed the skewer aside to give Merlin a kiss instead.

For a long time now, he had just wanted to have Merlin completely to himself. Just for a little while, an evening without work or family or friends, just to see what it would be like. It was intoxicating, and kissing him simply couldn't be helped.

They exchanged several sweet, gentle kisses, barely parting their lips. A few bystanders looked over at them, but they were still within the range of social acceptability. When Arthur's tongue flicked against Merlin's lower lip, Merlin breathed out slowly and stepped back. "Didn't you say we're not far from yours?"

"Ten minutes walk, if that." Arthur licked his lips and watched Merlin watch the motion.

"Aren't you going to invite me back for coffee?" Merlin was making some kind of complicated facial twitch obviously meant to convey a subtle message, and it made Arthur want to throw back his head with joyful laughter.

"I thought you wanted to move past coffee," he said with an obtuseness that was a flirtation in itself.

Merlin pressed his lips together and glanced upwards once as though praying for patience. "If you invite me for coffee, I am quite, quite sure that we could move past it. That is, in fact, the entire purpose of inviting me for coffee. Which you are inexplicably failing to do."

"Merlin, you utter weirdo," Arthur said solemnly. "Would you like to come back to mine for a coffee?"

"How lovely of you to ask." Merlin slipped his fingers gently around Arthur's--then gripped his hand tightly and towed him through the strolling shoppers to the gate.

Arthur refused to let go of his hand as they walked, reveling in the looks they drew. He didn't care whether they were scornful, admiring, or neutral, as long as they confirmed that this beautiful man in those terrible clothes was with Arthur.

He only let go when he had to open his front door. On the walk, he had entertained the notion of brewing an actual pot of coffee when they got home, making a show of it just to see what Merlin would do.

But Merlin found him before he could take a step toward the kitchen, and Merlin's mouth was warm and wet. After that he could only take a step at a time, and that was towards the sofa, where after a few stumbles they sank down into each other's arms to kiss properly at last.

Arthur pressed into Merlin's mouth with a glad sigh. His tongue pushed against Merlin's. Merlin pushed back; the sensation went through the back of his throat, into the stretch of his jaw.

Their coats lay abandoned in twin heaps by the front door; Arthur only dimly remembered peeling them off. Now only Merlin's jumper bunched under Arthur's hand as he learned the length of Merlin's body. It made Merlin feel rough and bulky. It made Arthur want to squeeze him and strip him.

He settled for bunching the hem into his hand and pulling it up, slowly and fitfully as Merlin distracted him with kisses. While he tugged at Merlin's lush bottom lip, his hands found the soft skin at Merlin's waist. Merlin made a soft sound in the back of his throat and pressed a wet kiss to the corner of Arthur's mouth.

Merlin was also undoing the buttons of Arthur's shirt, although Arthur didn't notice until Merlin's thumbs brushed his nipples. Then Merlin shifted to kiss the hollow of Arthur's throat, forcing Arthur to tip his head back.

He left his hands splayed across Merlin's ribcage, feeling him breathe there as much as in the warm gusts across Arthur's skin. Arthur closed his eyes and held on as Merlin kissed his throat and the tender place under his jaw.

Finally Merlin drew his head up and nuzzled against his ear. "I think this is a much better first date, don't you?"

Arthur couldn't repress his snort of laughter, though he tried to disguise it with more kisses. "Our first date, is it?"

"I thought you were giving me a do-over."

"If you like." Arthur resumed his warm exploration of Merlin's sides and back. "It's just a shame I never put out until the third date."

Merlin pulled back to stare at him. "Wait. You're kidding, right?"

Arthur was kidding, and already significantly aroused. But he looked at Merlin with a sober gaze. "Merlin, I would never want you to think that I was a slag."

Merlin stared at him another moment before returning a solemn nod. "Of course. So this is the end of the second date."

"Wait, end?" Arthur's grin of triumph died into a confused frown.

He started to protest that he'd only been teasing, but Merlin was already untangling himself and standing up. Arthur stared up at him, trying to remember if Merlin had mentioned having an early morning. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, so he supposed Merlin might--

"Yes, we have to end this date so that we can schedule our next date."

"Schedule for when?" Arthur tried to play it cool, which was difficult while trying to position himself to preserve his dignity--though Merlin seemed as affected as Arthur was.

Merlin looked at his watch. "I was thinking perhaps a minute, minute and a half from now," he said, and Arthur slowly grinned.

He stood up, enjoying the feeling of his half-hard cock shifting in his pants. "That works for my schedule. Shall I walk you to the door?"

"Such a gentleman," Merlin murmured, not taking his gaze from the bulge of Arthur's erection even when Arthur put a hand to the small of his back to usher him towards the door.

He would have liked to show Merlin what a gentleman could do with such a bulge, but he was enjoying the game like he always did with Merlin.

"Thank you for a lovely evening." Arthur opened the door to let Merlin out.

"I had a great time." Merlin slipped past him and turned to face him from the other side of the threshold.

"I can tell," Arthur said and nodded with studied politeness at Merlin's groin, which was demonstrating how much Merlin enjoyed being contrary.

Merlin nodded back in courteous acknowledgment. "See you next time?"

"I'll look forward to it." Arthur leaned forward to give Merlin a slow, sweet, good-night kiss--and then slammed the door in his face before Merlin could open his eyes.

He took a step back to wait, satisfied with his own performance. He palmed his cock through his trousers, thinking of all the ways he wanted to connect it to Merlin's body. From the first time they'd met, he'd been thinking about this, and now it was mere moments away.

Just as soon as Merlin knocked on the door.

Arthur waited. A minute and a half, Merlin had said, and the seconds ticked by--and then kept ticking. After three minutes, Arthur pulled his hand from between his legs, feeling awkward.

Had he misunderstood the game? Was Merlin waiting for him to do something? Was Merlin even still outside?

He wasn't going to open the door to check. He was not.

Another minute passed. His body had cooled, and he was trying to decide whether to feel worried, angry, or dejected. He had believed that Merlin wasn't angry with him over the issue between their fathers, but maybe--

As avidly as he'd been waiting for it, the quick, almost breathless knock on the door jolted Arthur with surprise. He took a deep breath and forced himself to count to twenty before opening the door.

Merlin was standing on the other side of it, exactly as he had been, except that he now had a bottle of wine in his hand. He held it up with a grin. "Sorry if I'm a bit late. I stopped along the way to pick this up."

Which meant that he had raced downstairs to the off-license and probably grabbed the first bottle he saw and flung a twenty-pound note at the clerk without waiting for change. It would have been a lot of change, as it looked to be an exceedingly cheap vintage. Arthur looked at it and would not have traded it for an entire magnum of Dom Pérignon.

Part 2